Post by chinmusic on Mar 31, 2018 23:19:53 GMT -8
You don't want to be an alarmist nine games into the PAC-12 schedule, but clearly something is amiss with our pitching staff. Some issues were to be expected initially as we established the starting rotation and more or less differentiated the front line arms from those in the bullpen. The undercurrents were there at times in the Cal and UW series but the 3 game set in SLC has intensified the problems and will cause Yeskie to take a hard look at his group and do some re-evaluation in the coming week.
Last season's difficulties have reappeared for BF. He's been shelled hard, challenged to complete a 5 inning start and unable to consistently retire a hitter when he needs to. In 41 innings pitched, he has allowed 20 runs (19 earned), on 39 hits, 7 walks and 19 K's. His ERA is currently 4.17. That probably exceeds Yeskie's threshold for the 3-man rotation and would slot him in the mid-week role.
LH's performance has been solid, not vintage Luke but certainly acceptable. Our two touted young prospects have showed brilliance in spots but both can currently be labeled "inconsistent". Our coaches know they both have an elite set of tools but getting a consistent inning to inning performance has been difficult to come by. Hard work and more experience may resolve some of that, meanwhile we continue to bite our fingernails on every pitch they make.
Donovan has been kind of a mystery. He red-shirted last year and didn't do badly at all in his Surprise outing. Same with Burns who had some location issues in Surprise but looked promising. He may be red-shirting which would explain his disappearance.
Unless there is some quick fix, we may be playing a game of hoping to get 4-5 innings out of our starter and then play the final 4-5 innings with our bullpen. Verburg would help that situation if we continue using the four relievers we are presently dependent on. Brittain and Tweedt can be used in some situations but Sam isn't yet back to his best form and MB lacks movement on his upper 80's fastball and has no effective secondary pitch.
Last season's difficulties have reappeared for BF. He's been shelled hard, challenged to complete a 5 inning start and unable to consistently retire a hitter when he needs to. In 41 innings pitched, he has allowed 20 runs (19 earned), on 39 hits, 7 walks and 19 K's. His ERA is currently 4.17. That probably exceeds Yeskie's threshold for the 3-man rotation and would slot him in the mid-week role.
LH's performance has been solid, not vintage Luke but certainly acceptable. Our two touted young prospects have showed brilliance in spots but both can currently be labeled "inconsistent". Our coaches know they both have an elite set of tools but getting a consistent inning to inning performance has been difficult to come by. Hard work and more experience may resolve some of that, meanwhile we continue to bite our fingernails on every pitch they make.
Donovan has been kind of a mystery. He red-shirted last year and didn't do badly at all in his Surprise outing. Same with Burns who had some location issues in Surprise but looked promising. He may be red-shirting which would explain his disappearance.
Unless there is some quick fix, we may be playing a game of hoping to get 4-5 innings out of our starter and then play the final 4-5 innings with our bullpen. Verburg would help that situation if we continue using the four relievers we are presently dependent on. Brittain and Tweedt can be used in some situations but Sam isn't yet back to his best form and MB lacks movement on his upper 80's fastball and has no effective secondary pitch.
