Wicklander might have been auditioning for a weekend role today: http://www.wholehogsports.com/news/2019 … first-win/
IMO he has weekend starter stuff just needs to work on his control some but he has all the pitches to be a huge piece of the puzzle in the SEC.
The young man sure can pitch his way out of trouble. When the weather warms up and he starts feeling the ball better I think he will be fine.
I hope he gets the weekend starter spot in a few weeks. Nothing against Campbell, Noland or Scroggins! It’s a good thing to have depth on the mound.
Its really odd that all three walks were given to the lead off batter. If you just look at his stat line and see 5 IP, 1H, 0 R, 3 BB, you would probably never guess that, and its still a great line regardless. I was interested to see how he would hold up through an extended outing, so its good to see him last through 5, and I’m glad they didn’t bring him back for the 6th also. I bet he could have gotten a couple of more outs, but its always good to end an outing with a big 0 on the board, especially coming off a couple of rough outings at USC and a shaking inning against Stony Brook.
Matt, how soon do you think we could see him transitioned into a weekend starting role? By DVH’s comments it sounds like he will continue to start midweek for now. I’d like to see him stay there at least long enough to face Texas and help us get a big W. We’ll need some good pitching to beat Mizz St. and Oral Roberts as well, but I think we might need Wicklander on the weekends by then as we face Ole Miss and Auburn before, then Vandy after. If he starts game 1 against Texas, he could then come out of the pen against Alabama if needed, then hopefully be on schedule for a Sunday start against Ole Miss the next weekend.
I think he looks like one of our 3 or 4 best starting options going forward (Campbell, Noland,Wicklander, Kostyshock/Scroggins) which is good, because we will need an ace to get a W over Texas.
And Texas will need one to beat us. In fact - as of today - statistically, their pitching (ERA) is approximately “better” than ours by almost exactly the same ratio that our offense (batting average, runs per game) is better than theirs; about a 20% differential, respectively. Even-Steven match-up, overall.
Should be a very interesting 2 game series. One thing is for sure; I’ll bet we have Texas’ full attention after the way we slapped them around last year. But here’s the other thing . . . the pressure is on them, not us. Especially at their place.
Haha yes. I think the poor kid that Kjerstad pushed over is gone this year, but I’m sure he still has nightmares about that.
https://twitter.com/ArkansasFight/status/1008512196928684033
I’m not ready to say he is the 3rd starter on the weekends…we could use another big leftie for spot relief, and mid innings.
Two freshmen out of 3 for the SEC games? I’m good with whatever DVH decides…just not convinced he goes that route.
I think next year the Noland and Wicklander will be the Dynamic Duo, 1-2. And not necessarily in alphabetic order 
Wizard the pressure may be on Texas but isn’t it always fun to beat the horns?
This is a non conference series I hope continues for years to come.
DVH has a group of young pitchers and some veterans that have been through the grind of a long season. Campbell
Needs to be the leader and get off to solid starts on Friday’s and let the young starters find their way. I look forward to the first confercne series just to see how the pitching performs.
Between now and then there’s a few more important games to get the bats woke up and humming.
I’d like to see Cronnin get on the mound a couple of times this weekend and get him some work.
I think circumstances will dictate whether he becomes a conference starter. Does a team struggle with left handers or with the pitches he throws? Does Cody Scroggins or Connor Noland have consecutive bad outings? Is there a weekend with a loss or losses late in games that might not have happened if Scroggins were available on the back end, or is there an injury to that makes it worthwhile to move Scroggins back to the bullpen?
Does Wicklander become so good that it no longer makes sense to pitch him in the midweek? That’s what happened with Kacey Murphy a couple of years ago. I think how Wicklander pitches at Texas in a couple of weeks, assuming he is still a midweek starter at the time, will be key to determining his role the rest of the way.