Possibility that Ginn starts Friday

[MSUDC11]

This rumor seems to be coming from a comment Lemonis made on Matt Wyatt’s radio show. He said that his teams usually start their ace on Friday but thankfully we have two numbers ones in Small and Ginn. Read between the lines and it could mean that Ginn starts tomorrow.

Thoughts on this? May not have been my first choice but I could at least make sense of it. Saves the more experienced Plumlee for Game 3 instead of banking on a freshman in either a championship game or elimination game. Also, Ginn and Plumlee have been pretty equal for the last month or so.

 

[8dog]

My thought is its terrifying to think that if we had a weaker number 2 he would start small against a swac opponent

But i guess we wont host much with a weaker two

Ginn is the right move

 

[Cat Duck]

I like the idea of it. Gets Ginn some NCAA experience and confidence against a team who really should not beat him. If we get up early, maybe we can pull him and have him for an inning or two in a Monday game if necessary.

 

[RPOdawg]

Love it. Gives Ginn 8 days to rest for the super regionals. Plumlee sunday night in the championship game is fine with me. We honestly should sweep this regional and I expect us too

 

[MSUDC11]

We started our ace on Friday in both 2013 and 2016. Granted, Central Arkansas and SEMO were both strong 4 seeds that probably should’ve been 3 seeds, and Southern is likely not the same caliber team. We usually get one of the better 4 seeds when we host, this year is a little different.

 

[8dog]

Right. There are 4 seeds you start your ace against. Additionally in 2016 we had so many good starters it really didnt matter

 

[Drebin]

If I am considering Ginn, I would prepare two starters and see how we start the game.

I'd hate to start Ginn in that game and then be up 10-0 after three innings.

Now it may be worth considering if the plan is to pull Ginn early and use him in long relief later in the regional, but I don't know if he is capable of doing that, and I don't know that it's especially smart considering we will need him on full rest in the supers.

The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of starting Brandon and having your top three options available to you with a win already under your belt.

 

[MSU Fan.sixpack]

Start Ginn

I have confidence in Plumlee going Sunday.

Some have suggested starting a mid-week guy on Friday. That would be a huge mistake IMO.

 

[Drebin]

I have confidence in Plumlee going Sunday.

Some have suggested starting a mid-week guy on Friday. That would be a huge mistake IMO.

Why is it a mistake in your opinion? If we can't beat Southern in a regional with Brandon starting then we shouldn't be playing.

I have confidence in Plumlee too. But when we get to Omaha we will need more arms. It's a great opportunity to get others into the flow of the postseason.

 

[Requiem For A Dawg]

Some have suggested starting a mid-week guy on Friday. That would be a huge mistake IMO.

Why? You don’t think Smith can beat Southern?

 

[johnson86-1]

If I am considering Ginn, I would prepare two starters and see how we start the game.

I'd hate to start Ginn in that game and then be up 10-0 after three innings.

Now it may be worth considering if the plan is to pull Ginn early and use him in long relief later in the regional, but I don't know if he is capable of doing that, and I don't know that it's especially smart considering we will need him on full rest in the supers.

The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of starting Brandon and having your top three options available to you with a win already under your belt.

If you do that and then sweep, how many days will it be between starts for Plumlee if we play a game 3 in the super?

 

[SyonaraStanz]

Start Smith tomorrow. Then Small. Then Ginn. If Ginn gets into trouble, pull him and roll with Plumlee. If Ginn does well, you still give Plumlee some innings to get some work.

 

[Arthur2478]

I'd start Plumlee Friday over JT, just for the scenario we could end up playing an elimination game on Monday. If JT throws 5 or 6 innings Friday, then he's done for the Regional. Plumlee recovers a little better. If he throws 5 or 6 innings on Friday, then you could probably get a couple innings out of him on Monday if you needed him. If you wait and start Plumlee on Sunday, then he's unavailable for Monday. I just think throwing Plumlee on Friday leaves you with the most options for a potential Monday game.

 

[CadaverDawg]

I prefer us go Plumlee in Game 1, then Small, then Ginn. But I can see where that may give Lemonis pause, because it would put the Championship games in the hands of two freshmen in Ginn and possibly Smith if a second game becomes necessary. That being said, I can live with Ginn pitching game 1, but I still prefer Plumlee. We will have to have Ginn win us big games to win it all, so we should feel confident in him throwing a Regional final....but if the coaches feel his confidence is shaken, an outing vs Southern could help that. There really is no right or wrong here....we should win this Regional with any combo of our 4 starters.

 

[Cap'n Geech]

As long as we beat Southern and have Small available Saturday, I'm fine with how we get there.

 

[maroonmania]

While I'm ok with Ginn, Plumlee makes a lot more sense. What did Plumlee pitch in the SEC tourney like 2 innings? So now we are going to lay him off until at least Sunday? That is a lot of time without much meaningful pitching. From what I see Ginn is suffering some arm fatigue from the long season where he has pitched more innings than he has in his life. If there is anyone I would want to give another day or two of rest it would be Ginn.

 

[8dog]

Its not as much a risk of losing as it is increasing the risk you have to eat into your bullpen

 

[MSU Fan.sixpack]

Too risky. Starting off with two wins gives you a huge advantage in a regional. Don't get too cute in the first two games. You're also setting yoursefl up to throw a lot of arms on Friday if things don't work out.

 

[DoggieDaddy13]

We got pitching. Good pitching: starters, mid-relief, and closers. More than a few are way better than good.

If we don't hit the damn ball any better than we've been hitting the last couple of weeks, it ain't gonna matter.

 

[Drebin]

Too risky. Starting off with two wins gives you a huge advantage in a regional. Don't get too cute in the first two games. You're also setting yoursefl up to throw a lot of arms on Friday if things don't work out.

You really think Southern is going to light us up and make us blow through our pen?

 

[MSU Fan.sixpack]

Ok, tell me this... how long would you expect Smith to last?

 

[Drebin]

Is this a trick question?

It's not unreasonable for him to go 5/6 innings against a team like Southern. If things go as expected, you've got enough of a lead that you don't need to burn through your top end arms in the pen, either.

The guy just held LSU's offense down for five innings last week. He will be fine.

 

[thekimmer]

This rumor seems to be coming from a comment Lemonis made on Matt Wyatt’s radio show. He said that his teams usually start their ace on Friday but thankfully we have two numbers ones in Small and Ginn. Read between the lines and it could mean that Ginn starts tomorrow.

Thoughts on this? May not have been my first choice but I could at least make sense of it. Saves the more experienced Plumlee for Game 3 instead of banking on a freshman in either a championship game or elimination game. Also, Ginn and Plumlee have been pretty equal for the last month or so.

I would do this in a heartbeat. Ginn has an elite arm but it is attached to a body with a true freshman head. Like many young players he has shown a tendency to get rattled under pressure. This is his first NCAA tournament. His initial post season action started out very well but quickly went south in a big way after a couple of errors were made behind him.

I think we need to ease him into this and I think the opportunity to do that is against Southern on Friday than against Miami in a championship game on Sunday.

 

[MSU Fan.sixpack]

He pitched 4 1/3 against LSU and one other outing he pitched 4. All other outings were 1-2 innings. Maybe not unreasonable to think he'd go 5-6, but there's no record of him doing that this year.

I'm sorry, I just don't think you pitch your 4/5 guy in the opening game of a regional.

 

[Drebin]

He pitched 4 1/3 against LSU and one other outing he pitched 4. All other outings were 1-2 innings. Maybe not unreasonable to think he'd go 5-6, but there's no record of him doing that this year.

I'm sorry, I just don't think you pitch your 4/5 guy in the opening game of a regional.

I'm not advocating necessarily for him over Plumlee. I just think he's a good option to eat innings and keep the other team off the scoreboard while we can hopefully build an early lead against an overmatched team and preserve our top end arms for the tougher teams in the bracket.

I don't see why it's even a debate to be honest. It just seems stupid to me to pitch one of your top two arms against Southern.

 

[deadheaddawg]

This rumor seems to be coming from a comment Lemonis made on Matt Wyatt’s radio show. He said that his teams usually start their ace on Friday but thankfully we have two numbers ones in Small and Ginn. Read between the lines and it could mean that Ginn starts tomorrow.
.

I listened to the show and if I remember it correctly he said that's what they did at Louisville when he was there....maybe I heard it wrong, but I dont remember him saying his actual teams (Indiana) did this. I guess it would be easy enough for someone to double check.

If its just Louisville I wouldn't try to predict based off what teams did when he was an assistant coach

 

[Cat Duck]

I would do this in a heartbeat. Ginn has an elite arm but it is attached to a body with a true freshman head. Like many young players he has shown a tendency to get rattled under pressure. This is his first NCAA tournament. His initial post season action started out very well but quickly went south in a big way after a couple of errors were made behind him.

I think we need to ease him into this and I think the opportunity to do that is against Southern on Friday than against Miami in a championship game on Sunday.

^^ This guy understands

 

[8dog]

They never hosted at indiana so he had to reference louisville. I listened and it seemed very clear thats what he would normally do

 

[philduckworth]

While I'm ok with Ginn, Plumlee makes a lot more sense. What did Plumlee pitch in the SEC tourney like 2 innings? So now we are going to lay him off until at least Sunday? That is a lot of time without much meaningful pitching. From what I see Ginn is suffering some arm fatigue from the long season where he has pitched more innings than he has in his life. If there is anyone I would want to give another day or two of rest it would be Ginn.

Same for me. I'm not outraged about starting Ginn, but I would prefer Plumlee. Starting Small would be the only thing that would be a disaster and even that wouldn't be as bad as Polk's decision starting Maholm.

 

[Drebin]

If you do that and then sweep, how many days will it be between starts for Plumlee if we play a game 3 in the super?

Seems like a great problem to have.

 

[MSUDC11]

We got pitching. Good pitching: starters, mid-relief, and closers. More than a few are way better than good.

If we don't hit the damn ball any better than we've been hitting the last couple of weeks, it ain't gonna matter.

Last couple of weeks is a stretch. We didn’t hit well in a few meaningless games in Hoover, but we scored 81 runs in our last 8 regular season games before that. Even if you take out the 24 run game against SC, that’s still 57 runs in the other 7 games.

 

[Len2003]

I think Ginn is the best bet Friday because he's a bad matchup for Miami against all their lefties. We will likely have to play Miami 2-3 times to get out of this regional, and I'd rather Plumlee pitch against them.

Ginn also needs to cleanse his palate after that LSU debacle. Put him out there against someone he can beat.

 

[Drebin]

Last couple of weeks is a stretch. We didn’t hit well in a few meaningless games in Hoover, but we scored 81 runs in our last 8 regular season games before that. Even if you take out the 24 run game against SC, that’s still 57 runs in the other 7 games.

To be fair, we did show an alarming trend of chasing pitches, and over that stretch the quality of pitching we were facing was higher. And our hyper-aggression at the plate wasn't a new development, either....we've done that all year.

Teams are going make us lay off those pitches. I hope our guys will make the adjustment. If they don't, we could be in for a rude awakening.

 

[Cap'n Geech]

It's Ginn.

 

[Go Budaw]

His teams “usually start their ace on Friday” because he’s never hosted a regional. Perhaps the biggest of all advantages of being the 1-seed is being able to hold your ace for Game 2 about 95% of the time.

 

[blacklistedbully]

^This^

I'd start Smith with a very short leash to begin. If he gets into trouble early, pull him. If we get a huge lead early...pull him and get some other guys some work, again with a short leash.

Frankly, I wouldn't mind seeing Cerantola get in if we can get up a few runs. For real fun, if we get up big, would love to see Jake get to pitch a little again.

 

[maroonmania]

His teams “usually start their ace on Friday” because he’s never hosted a regional. Perhaps the biggest of all advantages of being the 1-seed is being able to hold your ace for Game 2 about 95% of the time.

Well, if I remember the context, he was including his time at Louisville. And Louisville hosted a number of times while Lemonis was an assistant.

 

[Go Budaw]

Why is it a mistake in your opinion? If we can't beat Southern in a regional with Brandon starting then we shouldn't be playing.

This is a little bit of a reach. They have already beaten the midweek guy on a team that beat us 3 times. Should LSU also “not even be playing”, since they have already lost to these guys with their version of Brandon Smith?

 

[Drebin]

This is a little bit of a reach. They have already beaten the midweek guy on a team that beat us 3 times. Should LSU also “not even be playing”, since they have already lost to these guys with their version of Brandon Smith?

The transitive theory doesn't work well in most sports. It is especially unreliable in baseball.

 

[SirBarksalot]

For real fun, if we get up big, would love to see Jake get to pitch a little again.

I see why you’re blacklisted.