And how good are the Hogs. We seemed a bit lackluster over the last couple weeks. Really did well in this series.
What can we take away from it?
It’s looking like a good season is on the horizon…
The expectation is that State would hit better than it pitched. They have some injuries in the bullpen. But they have four or five guys who can really hit. Mangum and Rooker are among the league’s best hitters. There are some holes in the bottom of the lineup, as with most teams.
I think the starters on Friday and Saturday night are both very good, especially the Friday night guy Pilkington. But, I bet State finishes in the bottom half of the league standings. They are dangerous at the plate. Anytime they get a good pitching performance, you don’t want to be going down to the end with a shaky bullpen and face those guys.
The big takeaway on the weekend for me was the way Cannon Chadwick pitched to close both the Friday and Saturday games. He is the closer. He has two breakers, an over-hand curve and a change-up. He won’t throw many fast balls. He’s perfect as a closer. He’s going to pour those breakers into the zone for strike after strike and not too many are going to hit them solidly. Chadwick was a guy who was expected to do big things last year, but was hurt. The Hogs really missed him. So you lose Campbell and McKinney, but you get Chadwick back.