First thing, I am glad they decided to start Murphy for the Saturday game. I wish they had done that starting several weeks ago. I’m not too sure that the hangover of the awful starts on the previous 2nd game didn’t hurt us in the 3rd games. Maybe Murphy could have helped win those series? Who knows what it could have done to the opposing teams psyche and confidence if we had won the first two games of the series.
But now, we need to find the third pitcher. DVH keeps talking Campbell up, but I’m not sure how much of that might be just trying to bolster his confidence and hoping that the “good” Campbell reappears. He sure looked great vs. Kentucky. Since I usually expect the worst, I’m not optimistic. I doubt we see McKinney starting again either. He jus hasn’t hasn’t had “it” since the freshman injury.
I think they would prefer Jake Reindl be a middle reliever.
So, is there anybody going to come to the top and take the Sunday starter job? There’s been some really good freshman pitchers we have faced. Do we have one to take over the 3rd spot?
It occurred to me this morning that there have been years at Baum, and GCF before that, that not only would Isaiah Campbell have to start on the weekend, he might have been our Friday night guy by default.
Yesterday was a weird outing. You don’t strike out four out of 12 guys faced if you don’t have any stuff. I’d have to look at the video (which I didn’t record) but his location must have been bad when he wasn’t getting it past them.
But we haven’t had a reliable midweek starter either. Well, scratch that. We had one and then Kacey Murphy moved to the weekend.
They had to move Murphy up on short rest to Saturday the previous weekend at Ole Miss. Remember, that was a Thursday-Saturday series. So you would not have wanted to move him up two days of short rest that weekend. So he was pitching on normal rest this weekend on Saturday. He’ll have to move up a day to pitch Friday this week if he’s going to stay in that second day of the SEC series spot.
I noticed that in his post-game comments, DVH said he was planning to stick with Campbell as one of the starters (he didn’t say which day) this next series with South Carolina. TBH, I was a little surprised. Thought he might hand the ball to Reindl, based on yesterday’s performance. But then, that would cause a shake-up in the bullpen.
Doesn’t sound like Reindl wants to start; he’s more comfortable in middle-long relief. Obviously somebody has to be that third starter, but in this case why mess with a good thing?
I noticed that in his post-game comments, DVH said he was planning to stick with Campbell as one of the starters (he didn’t say which day) this next series with South Carolina. TBH, I was a little surprised. Thought he might hand the ball to Reindl, based on yesterday’s performance. But then, that would cause a shake-up in the bullpen.
[/quote]After listening to Reindl on the post-game show, I get it. He really did not like his start in Memphis. He couldn’t seem to figure out how or when to warmup. He told Phil that he much prefers relieving to starting.
Iwould let Loeske have a chance at it…Campbell has the tools to do it we saw that at Kent but leaves to many balls over the middle of the plate and that ain’t good.
I trust DVH & Wes to know best. If they think Campbell should start either day, I’m fine with it. They know more than we do. (I can’t believe I have to say that, but sometimes I wonder if fans realize just how little they know in comparison to the coaches who not only do this for a living, but have proven to be very good at what they do, & who see these guys daily.) I thought Campbell started well until all of a sudden a chopper that acted like a bunt put a runner on base.
I understand why we’re all concerned about Campbell’s performances. He’s had one awful one & another that almost became awful. But he was great against KY & then developed a sore arm. And let’s not forget that Reindl, while really great yesterday, has struggled quite a bit himself at times. Perhaps it is a matter of coming in as a reliever.
So, yeah, we’ve got to find a third pitcher, but if DVH thinks we have him, I’m good with that. But for our errors we’d be 9-3 or 10-2 in the SEC right now. We’re #5 in the country. (#4 in RPI) Right now I’m pretty happy with Hog baseball.
I trust DVH & Wes to know best. If they think Campbell should start either day, I’m fine with it. They know more than we do. (I can’t believe I have to say that, but sometimes I wonder if fans realize just how little they know in comparison to the coaches who not only do this for a living, but have proven to be very good at what they do, & who see these guys daily.) I thought Campbell started well until all of a sudden a chopper that acted like a bunt put a runner on base.
I understand why we’re all concerned about Campbell’s performances. He’s had one awful one & another that almost became awful. But he was great against KY & then developed a sore arm. And let’s not forget that Reindl, while really great yesterday, has struggled quite a bit himself at times. Perhaps it is a matter of coming in as a reliever.
So, yeah, we’ve got to find a third pitcher, but if DVH thinks we have him, I’m good with that. But for our errors we’d be 9-3 or 10-2 in the SEC right now. We’re #5 in the country. (#4 in RPI) Right now I’m pretty happy with Hog baseball.
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You’re a little behind, Chip. The coaches have us #3 today. D1Baseball also has us #3.
And the official RPI, the NCAA one not the Warren Nolan one, also has us #4.
It occurred to me this morning that there have been years at Baum, and GCF before that, that not only would Isaiah Campbell have to start on the weekend, he might have been our Friday night guy by default.
[/quote]Overall, Campbell’s fast ball was flat. Also, it appeared to me that his fast ball decreased in speed markedly between the first and second innings. His curve ball was uncontrollable. Auburn figured that out between innings 1 and 2. Ignore the curve. Belt the fast ball. It was simple batting practice instruction. Clearly, Campbell is not ready.
I’m so jealous of our pitching staff from a few years ago; if we had three pure starters this would be a championship team.
Then I’ll amend “pretty happy” to “more than pretty happy.” Not sure how to measure my incremental happiness over that jump, but I"m glad we did it. If we got a #3 national seeding come NCAA selection day, I’d be ecstatic–and would expect you to get me better seats than we had in the outfield against MU-State a few years back.
