I really thought Noland had turned the corner and was someone we could count on but after the way he pitched today against a weak hitting Kentucky team I am not sure what we are going to get from him and that’s a scary position to be in but in all honesty he is the only one capable of going 6-7 innings so I’m sure DVH is probably not to happy right now…LSU has some very good LH hitters and can really hurt him if he gets the ball up like he did today…
Totally agree. We really need him to be more consistent. He just didn’t have control of all his pitches today
He’s a freshman who gave up three homers after pitching really well the previous few outings.
I’m not going to over-react on this as some of you did through the first five innings of the first game today.
So true Dudley.
no overeaction to it…its the truth he’s had 2 very good outings and 2 very poor outings in his last 4 outings thats a a50/50 shot on what we can expect out of him that’s a uneasy position to be in as we start to get into the most important part of the season. Love the guy but he has a tendency to give up the HR and when he’s struggling…Hopefully he can correct the problem b/c we really need him down the stretch
I wouldn’t compare Noland’s outing today to the one vs. Vanderbilt. I thought he pitched OK today; not great, but not terrible.
Noland pitches to contact and doesn’t have great velocity, so it’s even more important for him to keep the ball low in the zone. He left the ball up some and Kentucky made him pay. Ryan Shinn, who hit one of the home runs, has 14 this season. Only JJ Bleday has more among SEC players.
One thing I’ve noticed is that Noland seems to pitch better at home. Once he learns how to take that to the road, he’ll be really good.
i have noticed that to Matt and hopefully next week he will get back in form.
Reminds me of another talented freshman coming in here few years ago. But Problems with control and some tendencies to fall apart. Got better his sophomore year but still had some ups & downs.
Boy did Isiah turn into an ace though.
Noland is farther along as a freshman I think. Has pitched very well against some of the best college hitters in the game. He may be a contact pitcher but as we know he can also produce dbl digit K’s in 6-7 innings also.
Don’t panic.
Noland wasn’t sharp and made 3 mistakes in the middle of the plate! Sometimes it takes a few lumps to get your attention. Sometimes you have everything working and other times you don’t. But don’t make mistakes to back to back hitters!
I’m just as worried about the way the hogs took cuts at pitches up and weren’t patient enough to walk. Then we had strike 3 looking several times.
Some of those strike 3 looking were on pitches a foot or so outside. I think we had a bad set of umpires! Good heart got rung up today on a pitch in the opposite batters box!
Flush this game and move on.
Guys we have 2 freshmen in our 2nd and 3rd starter spots. That is generally not what you expect to see from a team that has had the string of success we have had the past few years. Add to that the fact that Noland lost the fall because of football. In a perfect roster world he would be a bullpen guy this year filling a role like Ramage is this year. Those starter spots were slated to be Rutledge and Bonnin. Stuff happens and you adjust.
Honestly, I am somewhat surprised Noland has been as effective as he has been. Connor pitched against their very tough ace so those runs he gave up seemed more difficult to overcome. Had he pitched game 2 and we won 9-4 we would think he managed the game and he did his job. At least we are not where KY is and have to throw our ace in Game 3 at home against a #3 freshman starter to maybe salvage one win in the series. I’m sure strategies like that inspire confidence in your team.
Right now, I would take Connor Noland and staff in a game 3 of a Super Regional and like my chances.
Yes. I think we’re way ahead of what any of us expected for this year. A lot can happen over the next several weeks. We’re certainly no lock for a super, much less the CWS, but this team has a very good chance to do very well. And, who knows, with the right breaks we could win it all this year.
[quote=“PigPapi”]
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Honestly, I am somewhat surprised Noland has been as effective as he has been. Connor pitched against their very tough ace so those runs he gave up seemed more difficult to overcome. Had he pitched game 2 and we won 9-4 we would think he managed the game and he did his job. At least we are not where KY is and have to throw our ace in Game 3 at home against a #3 freshman starter to maybe salvage one win in the series. I’m sure strategies like that inspire confidence in your team.
[/quote]I agree with this.
Also, Kentucky hitting is a bit strange; their home runs are a high percentage of their hits, and even a higher percentage of their extra base hits. And, it’s not like Connor was wild, he just wasn’t locating well in and near the stike zone. And finally, those three bad pitches were just like a single three run homer.
The other team sometimes has good players as well.
Not much credit given to the other teams or future first-round draft picks at times on here
So true Dudley. Especially by a couple posters who frequently let their emotions take over.
True. Even Kentucky has some very good baseball players. I doubt there’s a team in the SEC that wouldn’t be leading all but maybe 2-3 other conferences if they played in them.
I’m confused Dudley…who were the 1st round pics that hit hrs off Connor? That’s why I started this thread.just pointing out that right now we’re not assured of getting a great outing out of him.he pitches better at home so we will find out this weekend against LSU because they have some very good left-handed hitters who are going to be a big challenge to him hopefully he can respond
I’m - very obviously - speaking of Zach Williams.
You know I love and respect you, but you are one of the ones that I am referring that looks for what’s wrong with his players and not what is right with the other team’s.
Probably a coaching thing, hut it seems so evident in your posts.
And if we are going to get into math and odds, isn’t in three good outings out of four or three out of five?
There are a lot of really good SEC baseball players who won’t be first round draft picks. Obviously Conner threw a couple of bad pitches that allowed those HR’s, but even an All-American pitcher is going to throw some pitches that an average SEC starting hitter can knock out of the park. Conner had somewhat of an off day. The UK batters took advantage. I hate it, but don’t think it’s a big deal. At least not in the amount he’s done it so far.
Who is Zach Williams?? I simply tell the truth and most of my frustrations involve doing what I know we can do and have shown we can do but all of a sudden aren’t doing like yesterday we were struggling to hit their pitcher in game 1 and he had an era of around 5 and was shutting us out for five innings despite having the bases loaded no outs and getting no runs out of it .We have faced far far better pitchers here recently and hit them very well so our talent has proven to be far better than him is all I’m saying. That’s just being a fan we can like what we see and we can not like what we see I simply State my opinion.
Not very many teams have consistent, great 3rd starters. Isaiah Campbell was up and down last year and we had a decent year? Will we do that again? Who knows.
But, Noland should have won weekly SEC awards the last 2 weeks and had like 15 consecutive shutout innings. Then he got hit a little yesterday.
I have no idea how the season will turn out. But I’m enjoying the fact that as of right now, in a “reloading” year, we are ahead of last year’s pace and have a really good chance of being a National seed again.