Kopps pitched 7 and 2/3 innings and got two saves this past weekend. That is the difference in ours and their records right now.
Kopps
- Thread starter Philly Dawg
- Start date
Regular season W/L on the record won't matter come postseason. The number of innings pitched will. While we likely could have won a few more here or there, we're still on track for a national seed without having done so. I'd rather see guys go 7 2/3 to win a regional/super/CWS than at this point in the season.
You rest them at the SEC tournament. This ******** that we're the only team handling pitchers the correct way is wrong. Every team chasing a championship is using their pitching unless they have to sit them. Sims threw 34 pitches. He could've gotten us 2 damn outs. This is May, not March. We saved is arm to use him later. I guess a SEC Championship no longer matters.
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Kopps threw on Friday and Sunday this past weekend. This is not even remotely comparable to what you knot-heads wanted us to do with Sims on back-to-back days.
If our closer can't pitch on back to back days, then other teams simply have a massive advantage over us that could be very costly in a super regional.
Agree.
Sure, an SEC regular season title would be nice to have, but I'd much rather keep our pitchers' arms in optimal working order headed into the post-season.
I want the Natty.
It won’t be a disadvantage. Landon Sims would assuredly pitch on back to back days in a Super Regional if the situation dictates it, unless we really overextended him in the first game (think ~50+ pitches) or if there was some unique medical circumstance beyond just our pitch count & rest best practice. We aren’t sending him out there if he warmed up and something was clearly not right.
We are saving all of our “pushing the limits of Landon Sims” until it matters. So get ready to see much more Sims than you are used to come June.
We are saving all of our “pushing the limits of Landon Sims” until it matters. So get ready to see much more Sims than you are used to come June.
Conference championships are just not that significant in college baseball. Nobody signs with an SEC baseball program to win the SEC championship. They sign with the goal of dog-piling in a Super Regional and boarding a plane to Omaha. That is what’s on everyone of our player’s minds right now. The goal is Omaha. Everything else pales in comparison.
For any that disagree.....as a fan, please describe your emotions when we finished off Arkansas on Saturday night in 2016 to win the SEC in comparison to winning the Nashville and Starkville Super Regionals in 2018 and 2019. They aren’t remotely comparable. Know that for the player’s, that difference gap in excitement was much larger than that of us the fans. It’s 100% all about Omaha.
For any that disagree.....as a fan, please describe your emotions when we finished off Arkansas on Saturday night in 2016 to win the SEC in comparison to winning the Nashville and Starkville Super Regionals in 2018 and 2019. They aren’t remotely comparable. Know that for the player’s, that difference gap in excitement was much larger than that of us the fans. It’s 100% all about Omaha.
An SEC championship is a pretty big freaking deal. And 2016 was especially sweet since it had been 27 years. But an SEC championship wasn't on the line yesterday, and it certainly wasn't a situation to bring in your closer who threw over 30 pitches Saturday. If people want to criticize Lemonis, they should be asking why he brought Sims in to start the 8th with a 3-run lead on Saturday. I would never use him unless the tying run was at least on deck or we don't have another game scheduled the next day.
It has been my observation that as a rule of thumb pitching tends to fade and hitting improve as the season wears on. Look no further than oxford and nashville and you see weekend guys missing starts with arm issues. I can appreciate trying to keep our pitchers as fresh as we can going into the post season. Lemonis said on Sat he thought we might be able to get an inning from Sims if we needed it but obviously he changed his mind. I would like to win an SEC championship as much as anyone, and we still can, but that is still waaaaaay down the list of winning a regional and a super. If we are going to push the envelope I'd rather it be there.
And it would be wrong to criticize Lemonis for that decision. 3 run leads evaporate with 6 outs to go all the time. Lemonis decide right then and there he wanted to play his “I’m sending in Sims and calling ‘game’ “ card. It assured him of winning a road series against a Top 25 team and keeping us easily ahead of the pace for a high national seed. He’s managing our pitching to guarantee us a national seed. That is the sole focus right now. The SEC Championship is just something that will be neat if it happens. But it’s not even remotely on our radar for consideration with still 6 games to go. We could adjust our pitching strategy to chase that and it STILL might not happen because so many teams are in the race.
Asking your closer for 70 pitches over two days back-to-back is not a big ask, especially when he's not going to pitch again for a week. I get not wanting to overwork pitchers, but thinking a closer can't go consecutive days is ridiculous. He's gonna have to do it in the postseason and asking him to do it the first time in that situation isn't fair to him.
Game 1 first pitch vs Missouri was 4 days from when Sims would’ve left the mound on Sunday. There was just no reason to push him in that spot and get him off schedule. Keep him plenty rested and totally on schedule. And save the “push” until June. Pitchers do stuff all the time in June that haven’t done in the regular season. He will be fine. Don’t take risk unless you have to. And we didn’t have to on Sunday.
I’m only guessing here but if we get to a game 3 in a super regional and Sims pitched in game 2 he would absolutely be available for game 3
“Remotely” may be the wrong word. I’m sure we know it’s out there to potentially win. And of course we’d rather win it than not. But it’s clearly not on our radar enough to log more innings from our premium arms right now to chase it. That is crystal clear. We could clearly improve our odds to win it and we are correctly electing not to do so.
Look, I AGREE with you that we were right not to use Sims yesterday. But an SEC championship and a CWS appearance isn't an either-or situation. In fact, they usually go hand in hand. You can bet your *** we're going to do our damnedest to win an SEC title. If our team and our coaches don't have that mentality, we're screwed already.
We may just disagree on what “doing our damndest to win an SEC title” means. To me that would mean overusing and extending (but not abusing) our premium arms. And we aren’t doing that at all, in any way, shape or form, as evidenced by Sims only throwing 32 innings thus far this year. He would have more if the SEC title were just THAT important to us.
I don't think we need to even worry about 70. He's never getting to 36 pitches in the bottom of the ninth. The save is blown well before he gets to that number. He probably makes 15-16 pitches, 20 at the most.
I agree with you. I was just using 70 as a double of what he threw this past weekend. It's far more likely that he never exceeds 50-60 pitches, unless he's trying to get multiple two-inning saves.
If using a pitcher is overextending him now, we shouldn't be doing it in the super regional either. I'm saying that three innings isn't, or shouldn't be, overextending him.
I don't think we're going to abuse our premium arms no matter even for a national title. These guys have professional careers ahead of them.
I don't know why you think Sims would have more innings if an SEC title was that important to us. He doesn't have more innings in the race for a national seed either.
I don't know why you think Sims would have more innings if an SEC title was that important to us. He doesn't have more innings in the race for a national seed either.
Well doesn't everyone. But the SEC title (had we won yesterday) would have been much more probable and would be great for this team to possibly achieve. To win the national title in baseball you have to be really, really good, be hot as a firecracker entering post-season and have almost everything go right for you during the post-season. Way more luck in who wins a baseball NC than football or basketball and its not even close. We've been to the CWS 11 times and we've still never gotten to THE game that had we won it we would have been national champions. We did get to the final round once but lost 2 straight. I just hate the fact that it seems we are willing to forego an SEC title over one extra inning pitched for Landon Sims because we are hoping for the Natty and that inning is going to be the difference in us being able to win it. I've seen better MSU teams than this that never sniffed the CWS finals because of one factor or another. Heck, I still treasure the Road Warrior 2004 SEC basketball championship team pretty much on the same level as the Final Four although everyone tells me the only thing that matters in basketball is how you perform in the NCAA tournament. And I still go back to the fact that if you told me that if Sims pitched 2 innings Saturday he would not be available to pitch even one on Sunday then I would have absolutely said we should have tried to get through the 8th with someone else before using him. We had a 3 run lead at that time unlike the 1 run lead yesterday.
I agree. My guess is Sims could have gotten three outs yesterday. But I'm glad our coaches valued June over yesterday. Better to give other guys a chance than risk any wear and tear on our best arm.
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The announcers were speculating on his availability because he had thrown more than 30 pitches the day prior. They didn't have any additional information regarding his health.
Hindsight is 20/20. We went into the 9th with a guy who should have been able to get it done and didn't. We didn't go in with the mindset that we were conceding a win. We still have a fair chance to win the SEC it wasn't as if the SEC title was on the line with that very game. The reality though is that game does not change the fact that we are looking at a top 5 national seed.
That is my takeaway. Either Sims was sore and just unable to pitch on Sunday OR an SEC championship no longer matters to our coaching staff. Its one or the other. All we needed was one inning that was guaranteed to be followed by a MINIMUM of 3 days rest, probably more given Missouri is the upcoming opponent and they are the worst team in the SEC.
Our usage of Sims is pretty consistent with how Lemonis used Cole Gordon in 2019. There were only two weekends in the regular season where we used Cole more than once (Maine and Ole Miss). Then we used him A TON in the postseason. He had a 5 inning stint in the 17 inning LSU game in Hoover and then he pitched in 7 of our 8 games in the Regional, Super, and CWS.
Two different pitchers, I know, and obviously Sims is more talented and dominant than Cole, but both guys essentially had the same role on their respective teams. If the pattern follows, our usage of Sims is about to ramp up significantly.
Two different pitchers, I know, and obviously Sims is more talented and dominant than Cole, but both guys essentially had the same role on their respective teams. If the pattern follows, our usage of Sims is about to ramp up significantly.
No sure about that. Not based on the current philosophy. And since he is probably going to be a high draft pick, there might be an agreement not to pitch him in back to back games where he pitches over 25 pitches in the first one. He did struggle some with location Saturday night and threw more in the 8th than they wanted. So better safe than sorry and holding him out of Sunday’s game. It wasn’t pitching that lost Sunday’s game anyway.
I wouldn’t have pitched sims in back to back
Days if it were me for that outcome. We should not have had to use him Saturday, but you have to go ahead and lock up the series. The other bullpen dudes have to learn to step up and get outs when we need them. They need some experience when it matters. Sims has proven himself, and I wouldn’t risk it in a regular season series.
Save his extra gear for regional and super regional. All it takes is getting tired, overthrowing, and getting hurt.
Days if it were me for that outcome. We should not have had to use him Saturday, but you have to go ahead and lock up the series. The other bullpen dudes have to learn to step up and get outs when we need them. They need some experience when it matters. Sims has proven himself, and I wouldn’t risk it in a regular season series.
Save his extra gear for regional and super regional. All it takes is getting tired, overthrowing, and getting hurt.
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