Pitching roles coming into focus

[Good2BGold]

It seems like the key pitching roles may be coming into focus, with Fellows, Raby, and Rocker as the weekend starters, Hickman as the midweek starter, and Tyler Brown as the closer. That group looks pretty solid.

[geeznotagain]

I agree. Rocker might have an asterisk by his name, however, as he is still "unproven". I still think he'll come through. Last Sunday, as we know, he gave up some hits and some runs, but only 2 were earned. And I don't think he walked a single batter. That was nice to see. Also:

1. I thought we were going to use Hickman for possible long relief on the weekend. Had we brought in Hickman in game 2, we might have won the series. The gap between Hickman as a mid-week starter and any other potential mid-week starter seems large.
2. We have to find SOMEONE who can pitch decently in middle relief. He doesn't have to be a star, just throw strikes and not lay a humongous egg (we've had enough of those, thank you very much). That is a big question mark now.
3. If we're fortunate enough to have 3 consecutive save situations, I don't know that Brown could handle all 3. A backup closer would be nice.

[Good2BGold]

I agree. Rocker might have an asterisk by his name, however, as he is still "unproven". I still think he'll come through. Last Sunday, as we know, he gave up some hits and some runs, but only 2 were earned. And I don't think he walked a single batter. That was nice to see. Also:

1. I thought we were going to use Hickman for possible long relief on the weekend. Had we brought in Hickman in game 2, we might have won the series. The gap between Hickman as a mid-week starter and any other potential mid-week starter seems large.
2. We have to find SOMEONE who can pitch decently in middle relief. He doesn't have to be a star, just throw strikes and not lay a humongous egg (we've had enough of those, thank you very much). That is a big question mark now.
3. If we're fortunate enough to have 3 consecutive save situations, I don't know that Brown could handle all 3. A backup closer would be nice.

One thing I really liked about Rocker was he was letting his fielders do some of the work, and as a result, he was keeping his pitch count within the range to be able to make it seven or eight innings. I like Hickman as the midweek starter because in the years we have had the best teams, it seems we always had a solid guy as the midweek guy. And I totally agree about the middle relief. Right now, it's kind of scary.

[Commodoredave]

Agree that the starters have sorted themselves out unless, as mentioned, we choose to put Hickman/Rocker in the bullpen and let the other guys figure out who starts midweek. As of now, Corbin is still looking to Fisher and Gillis for a lefty to emerge in mid-relief with Eder at the back end to close as a LHP. King just hasn't had it to this point, which is really surprising. Brown has clearly separated himself as the most reliable RHP out of the pen, and then you have Huff, Smith, and Becker looking for a role. Considering the starters are all righty, we do need these southpaws to give us good innings.

[fldore]

To play devil's advocate, I've always been under the assumption winning a conference weekend series 2-1 while losing the midweek game is much better for you than losing the weekend series 1-2 yet winning the midweek. So while your record is 2-2 in both scenarios, the conference series win is much more important.

If true wouldn't we be better off using Hickman as relief during the weekend while letting the rest of the pen stumble through the midweek game? Had we gone to Hickman on Saturday we probably win. And even with our uneven bullpen depth I'd like to think our offense could carry us to a few midweek wins by simply outscoring our opponent.

[GooseJones15]

Corbs said that Hick wasn't available until Sunday, because he threw 3 inning midweek against Samford. that altered the whole rotation for the past weekend. we had to carry an extra pitcher and cut an infielder. Heard the radio interview, explaining this. # Anchor Down.

[VUDU]

To play devil's advocate, I've always been under the assumption winning a conference weekend series 2-1 while losing the midweek game is much better for you than losing the weekend series 1-2 yet winning the midweek. So while your record is 2-2 in both scenarios, the conference series win is much more important.

If true wouldn't we be better off using Hickman as relief during the weekend while letting the rest of the pen stumble through the midweek game? Had we gone to Hickman on Saturday we probably win. And even with our uneven bullpen depth I'd like to think our offense could carry us to a few midweek wins by simply outscoring our opponent.

This is my thought exactly.

[Good2BGold]

To play devil's advocate, I've always been under the assumption winning a conference weekend series 2-1 while losing the midweek game is much better for you than losing the weekend series 1-2 yet winning the midweek. So while your record is 2-2 in both scenarios, the conference series win is much more important.

If true wouldn't we be better off using Hickman as relief during the weekend while letting the rest of the pen stumble through the midweek game? Had we gone to Hickman on Saturday we probably win. And even with our uneven bullpen depth I'd like to think our offense could carry us to a few midweek wins by simply outscoring our opponent.

I get your logic, but as I noted, when we have had our very best teams, we've had a regular midweek starter, such as when Walker Buehler filled that role. But beyond that, a loss to a midweek team is almost always more damaging to our RPI than a loss to an SEC team in a weekend series. The only real exception to that is our annual game with Louisville.

[geeznotagain]

To play devil's advocate, I've always been under the assumption winning a conference weekend series 2-1 while losing the midweek game is much better for you than losing the weekend series 1-2 yet winning the midweek. So while your record is 2-2 in both scenarios, the conference series win is much more important.

If true wouldn't we be better off using Hickman as relief during the weekend while letting the rest of the pen stumble through the midweek game? Had we gone to Hickman on Saturday we probably win. And even with our uneven bullpen depth I'd like to think our offense could carry us to a few midweek wins by simply outscoring our opponent.

I get your logic, but as I noted, when we have had our very best teams, we've had a regular midweek starter, such as when Walker Buehler filled that role. But beyond that, a loss to a midweek team is almost always more damaging to our RPI than a loss to an SEC team in a weekend series. The only real exception to that is our annual game with Louisville.

True, but with any given pitcher, a loss to a mid-week opponent should be less likely than a loss to an SEC team, with the exception of Louisville. As fldore pointed out, a cobbled together assortment of unproven, less experienced and/or somewhat less talented pitchers probably has a better shot to win a mid-week game, if they're going to pitch at all that week.

[cjdore]

aAAHHHH......You boys are really getting me excited about my trip to UL in May to see that midweek game.

[Good2BGold]

To play devil's advocate, I've always been under the assumption winning a conference weekend series 2-1 while losing the midweek game is much better for you than losing the weekend series 1-2 yet winning the midweek. So while your record is 2-2 in both scenarios, the conference series win is much more important.

If true wouldn't we be better off using Hickman as relief during the weekend while letting the rest of the pen stumble through the midweek game? Had we gone to Hickman on Saturday we probably win. And even with our uneven bullpen depth I'd like to think our offense could carry us to a few midweek wins by simply outscoring our opponent.

I get your logic, but as I noted, when we have had our very best teams, we've had a regular midweek starter, such as when Walker Buehler filled that role. But beyond that, a loss to a midweek team is almost always more damaging to our RPI than a loss to an SEC team in a weekend series. The only real exception to that is our annual game with Louisville.

True, but with any given pitcher, a loss to a mid-week opponent should be less likely than a loss to an SEC team, with the exception of Louisville. As fldore pointed out, a cobbled together assortment of unproven, less experienced and/or somewhat less talented pitchers probably has a better shot to win a mid-week game, if they're going to pitch at all that week.

Like I said, I get the logic, but at the same time, when we've taken that approach in the midweek games in recent seasons, we've lost games we were favored to win, and it hurt us in our tourney seeding. The years we've been a national seed, we've had a regular pitcher who handled the midweek games.