chase25

As far as the pen, yes, no one has a Tanner Witt curveball that starts at the neck and finishes at the belt. This staff is more slider heavy. Pete, Lucas, Jared, Aaron and even Luke all have + stuff to challenge you in the strike zone. I would even throw Coy Cobb in that group at the moment because I personally don’t think you have to have velocity to challenge hitters. Coy doesn’t have + stuff but can challenge you. Small sample size for sure but Coy can be a key piece for us in the back end. His fast ball drops a lot because of his arm slot which makes it hard to barrel. As I mentioned in a previous post Coy and Marcus need to see more meaningful innings to see if it’s real or just a product of limited work in low leverage situations. Ironically enough, our starting pitching had given up 2 runs heading into the Shriners classic and both were allowed by Tanner Witt (the best stuff on the staff). Pete allowed 3 base runners on Friday in 7 innings and all 3 just happened to be home runs, sometimes it just isn’t meant to be. Not trying to Baghdad Bob anyone but when people say it’s a problem that can’t be fixed in a matter of months when just 3 weeks ago it wasn’t a problem, I call BS. Will it be fixed? We’ll see

Lucas doesn’t have the stuff to challenge hitters? He challenged Tech all day long. Aaron did it all last year, this year he’s simply lost the feel for his fastball trying to better locate his slider in the zone. What is your definition of challenge?

This season pretty much comes down to Pete, Tristan, Lucas, and Aaron. If Luke can continue to be fairly consistent and Coy can progress then great. Guys like Southard, Eckhardt, Cobb, and Olivarez are the only other guys in the pen that should see meaningful innings the rest of the way. Zane, Travis, and Andre should pitch in garbage time. Mississippi State won a title last year off the back of 5 maybe 6 guys (Bednar, Sims, Rowdy, Tanner, and Houston Harding). Could throw in Brad Cumbest is you want as he came on later. They hit .278 as a team and had a staff ERA of 4.04 but when they got to Omaha it didn't make a shit because Will Bednar beat us 2-1 and 3-2... A lot of pressure to put on Pete and Aaron but at the end of the day, if you don't want the pressure, then don't fucking come to the University of Texas. If Pete, Tristan, and Lucas can rise to the occasion and get this offense to Omaha, we can win it.

One thing I've noticed just from the outside is it seems like they tried to get Nixon to better locate his slider in the strike zone rather than just using it as a pitch you throw in the dirt off the fastball. That for whatever reason to me seems as to why he has struggled this year. In an attempt to make him better he ended up losing the feel for his fastball. You'd rather have an elite fastball with a wipeout slider you throw out of the strike zone as opposed to a great slider and a fastball you can't locate and right now he has the latter.

That is unfair to say IMO. Last years team was 17-8 at this same point in the season, difference is last year we started 0-3 and this year we started 11-0. Offense has taken a step forward and pitching has taken a step back. Last year our conference schedule was back loaded, this year it’s front loaded. Outlook on the team really comes down to if you think the issues with the bullpen our fixable. I personally think they are and it starts with Allen and Pierce, specifically with how they are calling the game. The only two guys who were affected in any significant way by Witt going down were Duplantier and Gordon. The whole pitching staff does not go from barely giving up a run per 9 innings to getting shelled because one man goes down for the season Tuesday nights are going to be a struggle because it’s an indicator of depth but the weekend for the most part is on par with most other top teams in the country, Witt just separated us from the rest. Oklahoma series is looking like a fork in the road right now

This is on Pierce and Allen. The whole pitching staff should not go to shit because one guy goes down for the season. Don’t get to watch enough of the games because of work but there is way more to it than every guy on our pitching staff all of a sudden forgot how to pitch

Also the Tech baseball Twitter hasn’t tweeted since the 3rd.. I seeing being a bitch runs deep in their blood

I know, it just felt good to say.

Yeah they are no doubt the #1 team in the country right now. They’ve pretty much pulverized everybody but us

Tim Tadlock would wave the white flag you pussy bitch

I really like Coy and what they’ve done with him. Him and Luke need to be late inning matchup guys

Texas hits so far this series: 48 Tech hits: 21 Baseball is a cruel game

This is a game you leave the starters in and beat the ever living fuck out of them because you know you are the better team and have out played them for the most part in all 3 games

Yeah the pshych professor is grabbing that ball from under his desk after it smashed through his classroom window

That wasn’t on Pierce, Hodo waited for it to fall before he left for 3B. Just unsure hesitation on Hodo’s part

This team rakes.. Good lord

IMO you send him back out there in the 7th until he gives up a base runner.

Not even the blue can help Tech score on Lucas today. We need 7 out of Gordon, if it takes 105 so be it, he will have a nice long 6 days to rest

Lucas getting squeezed, they are getting calls in the LH batters box… What’s new

Might be one of the worst calls I’ve seen this season

With how the backend of the bullpen has looked, this needs to be Lucas’ game until he is looking over at Pierce asking to be pulled

Kudos to Skylar! Hopefully he can keep it going! Outside of Campbell, he was the last guy I would have expected to turn it on

Faltine tried to make a hero play instead of bailing and letting Kennedy make the play

Well that run is on Trey

Come on Lucas, you just K’d somebody with nobody on in the 3rd. Don’t you know you are supposed to celebrate and go ape shit