Pitching

Joe Mayo · Jun 11, 2017

How is it possible to be this bad? I just don't get it. How can you be a pitcher your entire life and can't throw strikes?

8dog · Jun 11, 2017

Because most of these guys werent supposed to even pitch meaningful innings this yr Its simple. We lost by being who we are.

KurtRambis4 · Jun 12, 2017

It's amazing to

me that people don't understand this.

Leeshouldveflanked · Jun 12, 2017

McQuary and Gordon are position players pitching in a Super Regional..... this is what happens when you are 10 players short of a full roster.

msstate7 · Jun 12, 2017

Leeshouldveflanked said:
McQuary and Gordon are position players pitching in a Super Regional..... this is what happens when you are 10 players short of a full roster.

What position does McQ play?

missouridawg · Jun 12, 2017

msstate7 said:
What position does McQ play?

3B. He got a few innings of action there as we transitioned from Alexander being there.

Leeshouldveflanked · Jun 12, 2017

msstate7 said:
What position does McQ play?[/QUOTE
2nd, 3rd and SS....

57stratdawg · Jun 12, 2017

Maybe he has relief pitching in his future, because he's got a lot of arm talent to just overlook.

BiscuitEater · Jun 12, 2017

Joe Mayo said:
How is it possible to be this bad? I just don't get it. How can you be a pitcher your entire life and can't throw strikes?

The 'real' question is .. 'How can an MSU baseball fan be so ignorant?"

•November 6, 2015: Freshman RHP Parker Ford announced he had surgery before his first season.
•April 13, 2016: Tommy John surgery announced for Freshman RHP Noah Hughes
•June 16, 2016: Wes Johnson announced as the new Arkansas Pitching Coach
•June 18, 2016: Gary Henderson announced as the new MSU Pitching Coach
•July 25, 2016: Sophomore LHP Jared Padgett was shutdown in his summer stint and had to have Tommy John surgery.
•July 27, 2016: News got out that Sophomore LHP Ethan Small required Tommy John surgery.
•January 2017: News got out that Sophomore RHP Keegan James required Tommy John surgery.
•February 21: Senior RHP Blake Smith pitched his final game before requiring elbow surgery
•March 9: Sophomore LHP Kale Breaux undergoes Tommy John surgery after just one appearance

Joe Mayo · Jun 12, 2017

Haha if Denver is a position player then he must be awful. We had to move an outfielder to 2nd base when Stovall got hurt and played Luke at 3rd most of the season hitting a solid 150.

I get Cole was thrown into the fire and some of these guys in a regular year wouldn't pitch, but there's no excuse to have walk after walk every outing. I don't even care if they get hit hard but damn be competitive and atleast throw strikes.

Philly Dawg · Jun 12, 2017

Uh, I thought this was obvious, but you can't just throw fast balls across the middle of the plate in college baseball. Fast balls have to be in good locations and you need to throw other pitches for strikes. A lot of players are still developing those abilities even in the minors.

Joe Mayo · Jun 12, 2017

I'm ignorant because I expect our pitchers to throw strikes regularly? I'm not expecting them to be lights out pitchers. I'm very aware of our injuries but that doesn't change the fact that our pitchers for the most part can't consistently throw strikes.

Joe Mayo · Jun 12, 2017

It all comes back to throwing strikes. When you fall behind most every count and get into hitters counts and groove fastballs of course they get smoked.

My point in this thread is the inability to throw strikes. I get these guys aren't all studs and some are young and developing but that doesn't mean you can walk every hitter and it's ok because they're young and weren't suppose to be counted on this year.

dickiedawg · Jun 12, 2017

Based on this it is unlikely that James, Breaux or Smith come back for next year, would that be accurate?

TheStateUofMS · Jun 12, 2017

You must not be watching Cole Gordon pitch. He throws strikes. Serves em up too

Joe Mayo said:
Haha if Denver is a position player then he must be awful. We had to move an outfielder to 2nd base when Stovall got hurt and played Luke at 3rd most of the season hitting a solid 150.

I get Cole was thrown into the fire and some of these guys in a regular year wouldn't pitch, but there's no excuse to have walk after walk every outing. I don't even care if they get hit hard but damn be competitive and atleast throw strikes.

I feel like I could get a hit off Gordon...

Dawg1979 · Jun 12, 2017

apparently you've never played a sport. go back to video games, where you can always throw strikes.

pitching is 90% between the ears. i mean, why can't a kicker make a field goal every time? he's been kicking his whole life.....
why can't Tiger just hit it in the hole every swing? he's been playing golf his whole life.

lets take you as a 19 year old kid, prob still a virgin and put you on the mound in the most intimidating atmosphere in college baseball. see if you don't **** your pants first, then after you do, ask you to throw strikes and not have the one of the best lineups in baseball light you up.

MaroonNation · Jun 12, 2017

So we signed the kid with the Mississippi HS strike-out record to be a 3B?

Joe Mayo · Jun 12, 2017

Haha nice burn. Strike throwing wasn't just this past weekend issue. It's been the whole year.

It's pretty crazy how everyone is getting so touchy because I'm questioning our control issues all year.

We finished last in walks by a long shot. Time after time our guys walked guys and fell behind in counts and now all I hear is excuses as to why they can't throw strikes. I'm not saying why are they not dominating. I just think when your a college pitcher at the D1 level you should have less walks than innings pitch. I guess that's crazy of me to think.

notoriousD_O_G · Jun 12, 2017

Joe Mayo said:
Haha nice burn. Strike throwing wasn't just this past weekend issue. It's been the whole year.

It's pretty crazy how everyone is getting so touchy because I'm questioning our control issues all year.

We finished last in walks by a long shot. Time after time our guys walked guys and fell behind in counts and now all I hear is excuses as to why they can't throw strikes. I'm not saying why are they not dominating. I just think when your a college pitcher at the D1 level you should have less walks than innings pitch. I guess that's crazy of me to think.

Once again WE ARE PITCHING GUYS WHO ARE NOT READY TO BE PITCHERS AT THE D1 LEVEL. They are young and some were not pitching in the fall. Its not some lame sinshine pumping excuse. Its a 17ing fact. Scroll up to BiscuitEaters post. There is a nice long list of pitchers who were unavailible due to injury. These are the guys who we were counting on pitching. Not our opening day first baseman.

engie · Jun 12, 2017

Fahr Butch Thompson?1/?!

Everyone knows the issue with our strike throwing this year. And that it would have been quite different had we not run a staff out there where only ONE significant contributor had ever pitched at this level before...

Cape stats(keep in mind Breaux has been injured basically since he got here):

Barlow, T

12

1

0

15.1

17

19

14

13

7

1

2

0

1

0

8.21

x Breaux, K

5

1

0

9.1

11

5

6

9

0

1

0

4.82

x Padgett, J

5

0

9.2

8

5

1

3

9

0

1

2

0

0.93

x Pilkington, K

7

6

0

39.1

30

6

12

33

2

1

0

3

0

1.37

Rigby, R

11

0

16.2

13

6

4

6

12

1

3

1

0

2.16

x Small, E

7

2

0

20.0

21

7

4

8

11

1

0

1

8

0

1.80

Just to give you an idea of what we lost relative to Barlow and Pilkington. Nevermind that Keegan James was very good in a different league as well.

Spidey.sixpack · Jun 12, 2017

the walks have been an issue for at least the past two seasons. it isn't just an injury thing. we had issues walking teams last year. it's why we had meltdowns last season in the 8th inning.

http://hailstate.com/news/2016/5/1/210925911.aspx
http://hailstate.com/news/2016/3/27/210836907.aspx
http://hailstate.com/news/2016/3/16/210807587.aspx

a quote from cohen does mention maturity. so that does jive with the argument that these guys need some more time.

8dog · Jun 12, 2017

We walked 75% more this year than last in just 4 more games. 357 to 208

Philly Dawg · Jun 12, 2017

Nobody is arguing that walks weren't a huge problem. Everyone would agree with that. What people disagree with is this idea that any pitcher should be able to throw 90% strikes, which is silly.

Joe Mayo · Jun 12, 2017

I understand what we lost and how much better things would be had we not lost so many arms. I get all that but I just have a different view then yall so I guess we're not gonna agree.

I don't question we have put freshman in some tough spots and a few position players but as a whole staff I do expect to challenge the strike zone. Not dominate the other team but just give us a chance with strikes. If your atleast good enough to be recruited to D1 baseball then the expectation should be you can atleast challenge the strike zone whether your a freshman or not.

This has been a whole year thing not just this past weekend.

Spidey.sixpack · Jun 12, 2017

it was definitely uglier this year.

8dog said:
We walked 75% more this year than last in just 4 more games. 357 to 208

philduckworth · Jun 12, 2017

8dog said:
We walked 75% more this year than last in just 4 more games. 357 to 208

Wow

engie · Jun 12, 2017

Half the guys we threw would probably be victims of the process in a normal situation for us -- and you never know whether they could throw strikes or not -- because by the time they are actually throwing notable innings in front of people, they are doing it at Delta St.

The game doesn't work quite how you think it does -- even though throwing strikes is a mental thing for most of those guys. Come in as FR, don't trust your stuff, start aiming instead of throwing, and thinking, and walks become a self-fulfilling prophecy. There is a reason that the guys that make the transition immediately in the SEC are almost always in/from early round discussions.

Bottom line is that we've had mental guys with good stuff that couldn't throw strikes every season since I can remember here. We just didn't see them when the cards were on the table.

People forget that we made the Omaha run with Lindgren on the bench, were terrible with nothing from Dakota Hudson, etc. That was with those guys as SOPHS. This year -- we would have been forced to feed them to the wolves instead of protecting their confidence -- and letting them go to the Cape and become the badasses everyone remembers them as.

Philly Dawg · Jun 12, 2017

How can you say they didn't "give us a chance?" We made a super regional.

pmack65 · Jun 12, 2017

There are lots of circumstances that unfortunately produced poor pitch control. I do agree that control with this group was a major issue. Even our best pitcher or only pitcher pitched from behind most of the time which caused him to have extremely high pitch counts in most of his starts. Obviously you can't just throw a fastball on every first pitch to be ahead in the count so that is one area that will need major improvement and hopefully with a few of the injured returning it will get better. IMO Gordon shouldn't see the mound again nor should Magnum. Mcquarry is another story, he seems to have an extremely live arm so it just may be maturity and work with him. He probably would've been redshirted this year buy injury's prevented that. If Henderson stays and we get some top line pitchers back he'll have a better chance of working with them in the off season.

Pitching

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