UNC Series

[bensaysitathome]

That ending was why I wanted Maxwell in. There is nothing to save your closer for on a Sunday.

Didn't Zack pitch like 3 innings on Friday?

 

[GTNavyNuke]

Didn't Zack pitch like 3 innings on Friday?

Like 3.0 and 76 pitches. Too many pitches to bring him (or anyone) back in, especially someone who throws that many pitches so hard. We need him healthy since he is currently our best closer.

If we can't put it away with a 5 run lead in the 9th, then we have bigger problems.

 

[FredJacket]

If I’m not mistaken, today’s win — and the deciding 2 out of 3 series win — means that our team now has the tiebreaker over UNC in seedings for the ACC Baseball Tournament at the end of the regular season.

You're correct... if it's a 2-way tie with UNC. HUGE win in that regard.

A 3 (or more) way tie with GT & UNC involved could get wonkie.

 

[MWBATL]

All I know is that since the VT series, which to me was our high point of the season thus far, we have won a total of 9 games, and in 7 of those we scored in double digits. We have also lost one game where we scored double digits. So, we are 2-10 when we do NOT score double digits, and 7-1 when we do.

Having said that, I am encouraged by Grissom's last two starts. He has battled hard, got out of plenty of tough spots on a day when his defense really let him down. If we play good D behind him he pitches much deeper into thee game. In the second inning, for example, the error should have ended the inning, but instead he wound up pitching to three more batters in high stress. If Grissom continues to pitch this way, we at least have a shot at the Sunday games each weekend. I also am in favor of continuing to try to get our frosh pitchers experience and up to speed (they have been a Saturday staple now recently). McGuire and Finateri can help us later this year if we can get them to improve. And I do think Chance will snap out of his funk. BUT, other than Maxwell, our bullpen is...exciting in the wrong way.

 

[THWG]

All I know is that since the VT series, which to me was our high point of the season thus far, we have won a total of 9 games, and in 7 of those we scored in double digits. We have also lost one game where we scored double digits. So, we are 2-10 when we do NOT score double digits, and 7-1 when we do.

Having said that, I am encouraged by Grissom's last two starts. He has battled hard, got out of plenty of tough spots on a day when his defense really let him down. If we play good D behind him he pitches much deeper into thee game. In the second inning, for example, the error should have ended the inning, but instead he wound up pitching to three more batters in high stress. If Grissom continues to pitch this way, we at least have a shot at the Sunday games each weekend. I also am in favor of continuing to try to get our frosh pitchers experience and up to speed (they have been a Saturday staple now recently). McGuire and Finateri can help us later this year if we can get them to improve. And I do think Chance will snap out of his funk. BUT, other than Maxwell, our bullpen is...exciting in the wrong way.

I do like what Brown has done recently out of the pen. It seems like his mechanic tweak has worked.

 

[FredJacket]

All I know is that since the VT series, which to me was our high point of the season thus far, we have won a total of 9 games, and in 7 of those we scored in double digits. We have also lost one game where we scored double digits. So, we are 2-10 when we do NOT score double digits, and 7-1 when we do.

Having said that, I am encouraged by Grissom's last two starts. He has battled hard, got out of plenty of tough spots on a day when his defense really let him down. If we play good D behind him he pitches much deeper into thee game. In the second inning, for example, the error should have ended the inning, but instead he wound up pitching to three more batters in high stress. If Grissom continues to pitch this way, we at least have a shot at the Sunday games each weekend. I also am in favor of continuing to try to get our frosh pitchers experience and up to speed (they have been a Saturday staple now recently). McGuire and Finateri can help us later this year if we can get them to improve. And I do think Chance will snap out of his funk. BUT, other than Maxwell, our bullpen is...exciting in the wrong way.

Perhaps cherry picking here... but with Simpson in lineup, 7-2 in ACC. Out of lineup, 2-7.

 

[randerto]

All I know is that since the VT series, which to me was our high point of the season thus far, we have won a total of 9 games, and in 7 of those we scored in double digits. We have also lost one game where we scored double digits. So, we are 2-10 when we do NOT score double digits, and 7-1 when we do.

Having said that, I am encouraged by Grissom's last two starts. He has battled hard, got out of plenty of tough spots on a day when his defense really let him down. If we play good D behind him he pitches much deeper into thee game. In the second inning, for example, the error should have ended the inning, but instead he wound up pitching to three more batters in high stress. If Grissom continues to pitch this way, we at least have a shot at the Sunday games each weekend. I also am in favor of continuing to try to get our frosh pitchers experience and up to speed (they have been a Saturday staple now recently). McGuire and Finateri can help us later this year if we can get them to improve. And I do think Chance will snap out of his funk. BUT, other than Maxwell, our bullpen is...exciting in the wrong way.

Great to see the W today. Was just commenting to a friend before today's game that we really need to score double digits this season to feel like we have a good chance of winning. Lotta pressure on our offense every game. Sad but true... Would be curious how our team ERA compares to previous staff's at this point in the season - as it feels worse. And agree our hope lies with our Freshmen pitchers like McGuire and Finateri improving as the season progresses. Challenge is Freshman pitchers often get tired arms toward the end of their first college season.

 

[78pike]

In the glass half full version of our pitching, it seems to me we have greatly cut down on the walks for the most part. Walks and HPB's anger me more than base hits. If we throw the ball over the plate (other than the hanging breaking ball) and the batter is able to rake it for a hit then hats off to him. But giving bases away is infuriating.

 

[GTRambler]

I agree with randerto. It’s going to be a challenge to prevent overuse of freshmen pitchers like McGuire and Finateri down the stretch toward the end of the season, so that their arms do not get weaker by then.

I’m a bit encouraged, at least, by what seems to me to be the “slow, but baby-step improvements” shown over recent games by Grissom, Brown, Crawford, Medich, and perhaps one or two other pitchers. Just need these guys to keep making these baby-step pitching improvements one game at a time toward the end, when tournament time finally begins. Then hopefully the team will be in better shape.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

I agree with randerto. It’s going to be a challenge to prevent overuse of freshmen pitchers like McGuire and Finateri down the stretch toward the end of the season, so that their arms do not get weaker by then.

I’m a bit encouraged, at least, by what seems to me to be the “slow, but baby-step improvements” shown over recent games by Grissom, Brown, Crawford, Medich, and perhaps one or two other pitchers. Just need these guys to keep making these baby-step pitching improvements one game at a time toward the end, when tournament time finally begins. Then hopefully the team will be in better shape.

I don't think / hope we will overuse pitchers but have them peaking in a month. We have tremendous depth of pitchers (~17). We may get Finley back and haven't heard about the severity of Dalton's injury (if no surgery he may be back too).

Looking at who pitched well this weekend:

• Friday was Maxwell and Dawson doing well. Huff and Medich were hittable.
• Saturday Bartnicki was better going 1.2 with 0 ER and but 1.8 WHHIP. McGuire, Finateri and Cody were all hittable.
• Sunday Grissom did well - gave up 3 ER with in 4.2, but he had errors behind him. Putting the leadoff runner on in second and third due to errors really messes with a pitcher. Dawson and Medich were good. It was Sam Crawford giving up 4 that really made it interesting. Of most concern Sunday was we only had 1 SO.

It comes down to consistency and getting the outs with 2 strikes. I'm hopeful that the tweaks made to our pitchers will help as their reps increase and we will see more consistency. DBo has proven he knows what he is doing as far as developing pitchers; he may need to tweak what he is doing for college ball.

With our high RPI (#7 overall, #14 non-Conf), we're very likely to get to the NCAAs. (Nothing is guaranteed in baseball Charlie Brown.) So it's all about breaking through and winning a regional. We need to know who to go to when the games are even more important. I've got no problem with throwing lots of guys in there to get ready for the postseason. And not overusing our better pitchers so they are fresher in postseason. And throw even more in our 5 remaining non-ACC games.

 

[MWBATL]

We can but hope. In truth, I have NO idea whether our pitching will improve or stay the same or collapse down the stretch. Ii guess it's what makes baseball both interesting and infuriating.

 

[senoiajacket]

It doesn’t “feel” like we are overusing our freshmen to me, and based on innings worked, it doesn’t “seem” like it. Of the three, none have worked more than 25 innings and they’ve all have around 100 ab against them.

 

[eokerholm]

I get the "stress" is higher in college, but these guys were used to pitching longer (IP or 60-110 in HS). (don't get me started on the 110 pitch BS!! )
Even travel ball these guys would go 50-80+.... but I do get the increased "stress" of college ball, runners on base, etc.

They have metrics and optics to see if a guy is starting to fatigue. And when at home Trackman can give you a hint well in advance....

 

[GTJon]

I don't think / hope we will overuse pitchers but have them peaking in a month. We have tremendous depth of pitchers (~17). We may get Finley back and haven't heard about the severity of Dalton's injury (if no surgery he may be back too).

Looking at who pitched well this weekend:

• Friday was Maxwell and Dawson doing well. Huff and Medich were hittable.
• Saturday Bartnicki was better going 1.2 with 0 ER and but 1.8 WHHIP. McGuire, Finateri and Cody were all hittable.
• Sunday Grissom did well - gave up 3 ER with in 4.2, but he had errors behind him. Putting the leadoff runner on in second and third due to errors really messes with a pitcher. Dawson and Medich were good. It was Sam Crawford giving up 4 that really made it interesting. Of most concern Sunday was we only had 1 SO.

It comes down to consistency and getting the outs with 2 strikes. I'm hopeful that the tweaks made to our pitchers will help as their reps increase and we will see more consistency. DBo has proven he knows what he is doing as far as developing pitchers; he may need to tweak what he is doing for college ball.

With our high RPI (#7 overall, #14 non-Conf), we're very likely to get to the NCAAs. (Nothing is guaranteed in baseball Charlie Brown.) So it's all about breaking through and winning a regional. We need to know who to go to when the games are even more important. I've got no problem with throwing lots of guys in there to get ready for the postseason. And not overusing our better pitchers so they are fresher in postseason. And throw even more in our 5 remaining non-ACC games.

We may have numbers of pitchers showing theoretical depth, but we have very little practical depth. With the pitchers that we had used Fri and Sat, I was really struggling to see who was going to come in and pitch if Crawford hadn't been able to go as long as he did on Sunday. Whether it's injuries or production, previous guys we could count on to a degree like Smith, Siegal, Roedig, and Bartnicki have been nowhere to be found over the past few weeks. Maybe there's some hope with Bartnicki after Saturday. No idea who we start against Mercer? Maybe give Bartnicki the midweek try again?

 

[senoiajacket]

Well, if we are gonna start Logan on Saturday’s going forward, maybe Carwile will be our mid-week guy with a limited pitch count to keep him fresh for relief work on the weekend. Follow him up with Roedig, Hill, McNamee, and others as the situation calls for.

Carwile actually leads the staff in WHIP w/ McGuire not far behind (3rd). Not coincidentally, McGuire leads the team in BB9 and Carwile is 5th (3rd if you count only guys w > 20 innings). So that is encouraging.

There are some really bad #s for BB9 as you look further down the list as Grissom, Brown, Bartnicki, and Maxwell are all above 6. Again, it “feels” like Zach’s number should be going down, but when you look at his last 4 appearances, he has walked exactly 6 in 9 innings (so I guess technically his number is going down since it is at 7.9 for the season).