Who would be your 3 starters this weekend?

[dawgstudent]

MacLeod
Bednar
Fristoe

I don't trust Cerantola.

 

[Drebin]

MacCleod
Bednar
Fristoe

I don't trust Cerantola.

I like your three. At the very least, if Bednar isn't quite ready to throw starter innings, he should be queued for long relief behind Cerantola with a quick hook ready if Cerantola's not throwing strikes.

 

[InTheIttaBenaHotSun]

I like your three. At the very least, if Bednar isn't quite ready to throw starter innings, he should be queued for long relief behind Cerantola with a quick hook ready if Cerantola's not throwing strikes.

This right here ^^

 

[Mjoelner]

I like your three. At the very least, if Bednar isn't quite ready to throw starter innings, he should be queued for long relief behind Cerantola with a quick hook ready if Cerantola's not throwing strikes.

As in warming up in the bullpen before the first pitch is thrown.

 

[Xenomorph]

Tough to argue those 3. At this point I fully expect Cerantola to walk 2 and crack a rib to load the bases.

 

[MSUDC11]

MacLeod, Cerentola, TBA (hear me out)

You start MacLeod on Friday, I think we can all agree that's most likely going to happen. Hopefully he can give you 5 or 6 innings then you hand it off to your big guns in the pen.

Cerentola starts game two and you budget for the rest of the weekend depending on how that goes. If it goes poorly, use Bednar in long relief and start Fristoe on Sunday. If it goes well, save Bednar for a Sunday start. That's how I would play it at least.

My hunch is they go with MacLeod, Bednar, Cerentola in that order, the rotation we expected to see at the beginning of the year. Though they could flip flop what days the last two guys throw on.

 

[ronpolk]

MacLeod
Bednar
Fristoe

I don't trust Cerantola.

I’d start these 3 even if Bednar needs to be on a pitch count for a few weekends. I’d rather risk some of these early games but have him 100% stretched out by the time post season play rolls around.

 

[57stratdawg]

Friday - MacLeod
Saturday - Bednar
Sunday - Cerantola

 

[Seinfeld]

Agreed, and if we’re being honest, any trust that fans want to put in Cerantola is blind hope. His stuff is electric, I get it. But in 3 years, he’s got a 4.5 ERA, and he’s averaging 1 hit AND either a BB or a HBP per inning. He’s never been consistent, and he is always going to follow up a good inning with a rough or at least scary one. That’s not starting material with a pitching staff like this.

I love watching the guy pitch, but we’ve got too much talent on this roster to keep starting him on weekends.

 

[johnson86-1]

Friday - MacLeod
Saturday - Bednar
Sunday - Cerantola

I like moving Cerantola to Sundays. We have enough arms in the bullpen that we can have him on Saturday and it not blow up our Sunday pitching if he has a bad outing, but don't see the benefit of having him on Saturday. Another plus to having him on Sunday is if he does have a bad outing, it's more likely that we will get to see pitching late in the game that will give us a chance to catchup. Going to be several SEC teams like us where it won't matter, but plenty where it might.

 

[patdog]

Your starters are what I'd like to see. MacLed, Bednar and Fristoe. What I think we will see is MacLeod, Cerantola and Fristoe.

 

[thekimmer]

I don't know if starting Cerantola is worth the risk.....

As in warming up in the bullpen before the first pitch is thrown.

That is the question I have had about him this season for a couple of reasons. 1. We have plenty of good arms that have proven to be much more consistent. 2. We don't have the run support especially against just decent pitching. If we didn't have such a deep pitching staff and if we had an offense we could depend on to score us 5-6 runs a game against good pitching it it would be more worth the risk. Another more personal reason is that games are just not as enjoyable playing from behind which unfortunately seems to be the MO of this team.

I do get it though. If we can get Ceratola going it might pay big dividends if when post season comes around we find ourselves in a losers bracket. At the very least I would not pitch him until Sunday where we would be more likely to be able to get some runs back if he suddenly gets wild and surrenders 3 or 4 in the first or second inning.

 

[o_Hot Rock]

and he is always going to follow up a good inning with a rough or at least scary one.

I do not believe this to be the case. He slowed his roll a little bit las weekend and was still hitting 94/95 with nastiness and was hitting his spots much better.

For sure, he still has work to do but improvement have been shown.

 

[thekimmer]

Agreed, and if we’re being honest, any trust that fans want to put in Cerantola is blind hope. His stuff is electric, I get it. But in 3 years, he’s got a 4.5 ERA, and he’s averaging 1 hit AND either a BB or a HBP per inning. He’s never been consistent, and he is always going to follow up a good inning with a rough or at least scary one. That’s not starting material with a pitching staff like this.

I love watching the guy pitch, but we’ve got too much talent on this roster to keep starting him on weekends.

His propensity to hit batters is what makes him so risky. No only can you load the bases in fewer pitches than it takes for one walk it also demonstrates a monumental lack of control.

 

[Seinfeld]

No issue at all if that’s your opinion, but was Saturday really proof of improvement or the outlier?

It was great to see, no doubt, but two things scare me about Cerantola. His lack of control which he has displayed many more times than not throughout his career, and his hanging breaking ball that tends to get knocked out of the park on occasion. With that combo, it’s no wonder as to why a good outing suddenly turns into a bad one following a walk, a hit batter, then a 3-run bomb.

I think Cerantola’s getting a start, so I guess it’s a moot point, but I’ll start to feel infinitely better if we watch him go 5 innings with 1 run and no BBs against SEC competition

 

[messageboardsuperhero]

Friday - MacLeod
Saturday - Bednar
Sunday - Cerantola

The rotation is not an easy question to answer right now, but this is probably the direction I’d go. Keep Macleod where he is. Bednar is probably our best pitcher right now, along with Simms, so he needs a lot of innings.

IMO, you have to give Cerantola another opportunity to get innings this weekend- and the first 3-4 innings on Sunday against an LSU team with not much pitching depth is probably the best time. If he does well, great. If not, bring in Fristoe and the bullpen. Fristoe deserves innings too and will get to pitch this weekend but maybe out of the pen.

 

[maroonmania]

No issue at all if that’s your opinion, but was Saturday really proof of improvement or the outlier?

It was great to see, no doubt, but two things scare me about Cerantola. His lack of control which he has displayed many more times than not throughout his career, and his hanging breaking ball that tends to get knocked out of the park on occasion. With that combo, it’s no wonder as to why a good outing suddenly turns into a bad one following a walk, a hit batter, then a 3-run bomb.

I think Cerantola’s getting a start, so I guess it’s a moot point, but I’ll start to feel infinitely better if we watch him go 5 innings with 1 run and no BBs against SEC competition

I don't see how anything can be taken as proof when the competition is Eastern Michigan. Cerantola is just very easily rattled which is a big problem pitching in Baton Rouge.

 

[AlSwearengen]

Friday-Macleod
Saturday-Bednar
Sunday-Cerantola with an extremely short leash. Have Cerantola fake an injury when given the signal by the staff so Fristoe gets as much time to warm up as he needs.