if I’m jimmy Belanger I would consider moving j Lew to Saturday. He is placed in too tough a predicament trying to balance the bullpen and stick too long with Haake. If haake was throwing in that situation on Sunday he would have been pulled in the 3 rd after the 3 run shot to keep it in striking distance. Instead he had to leave him in to “save the bullpen. I realize this is tough to do after Lewis threw 100 pitches last week. If Im the pitching coach and I see my starter leaving all his pitches belt high he is getting pulled by the 2 nd or 3rd inning bc its gonna be a bad day in the sec.
Moving JLew to Saturday
- Thread starter westharris
- Start date
Any good pitching coach would see the benefit of this move, because you are not taxing your bullpen. You can get 6 good innings out of Lewis on Saturday and finished up with Ramsey and Machemer. Then you will have the whole staf for Sunday which is the opponent's worst starter. I am done with Haake, let' give Harper or even Coleman a chance on Sundays. Our staff is reallly only 10 deep and that spells disaster when it comes to thec SEC tournament or the NCAA regionals.
Agree Gabe ...you just cannot keep running Haake out there...I also do not understand why you take Johnson out of the lineup for a guy who is almost an automatic out every bat. Don't see where his glove is any better than Heyer's was
Not sure who we send out there next Saturday. I think I go with Haake again. Ramsey hasn't necessarily shown the ability to go more than a few innings and neither has Coleman. Harper started against Arkansas and couldn't make it out of the first inning before giving up a whole bunch of runs. That is kind of part of the problem... the bullpen really isn't deep enough where we can trust someone. Maybe Mach could be a starter, but then you're looking at taking down basically the only close down guy you have and making him a starter.
I pitch Lewis on Saturdays. He has earned it. I assume Ming thinks pitching Lewis on Sunday gives UK an advantage because there are probably very few teams that have pitcher of his caliber on Sunday. But also means Saturday gives the other team a huge advantage because Saturday pitching has been an abomination except for Haake against Bama.
Probably a few weeks. Likely out of the pen before he starts again.
At least we have a chance of the bullpen being bolstered with his return. Desperately need someone to at least be a decent Sunday starter.
I'm curious also as to Johnson being out of the lineup. But Arod was on base 6 out of 14 times in the 4 games last week. He's not an automatic out.
I don't agree with kicking Haake to the curb. He was dynamite against Bama and the coaches know he is capable of that each weekend. That being said, Zach has to keep the ball down more consistently. Even 95 MPH FBs get clobbered in this league.
I can see the merits of moving J Lew to Saturdays', or maybe give Schenzer a shot, as he was the main mid-week starter last year.
Schenzer would give the opponent a different look after seeing Hjelle on Friday night, and he did OK in 2 innings on Friday.
Schenzer would give the opponent a different look after seeing Hjelle on Friday night, and he did OK in 2 innings on Friday.
With Collett struggling in SEC play, I'd have to consider plugging Johnson in at DH if he is not going to be playing RF. Seems to have a good approach at the plate.
Or put Johnson in RF and let Heyer DH. I think Johnson is a little better defensively.
Is it me, or is Thompson's injury lingering on longer than we all expected? It seems that when it first came up, many thought it would just be a week or two and now we're looking at our fifth straight SEC weekend without him...
I have wondered the same thing. As long as he comes back healthy it is worth the wait. I don't think we can advance in the post season as far without him. We need our top three starters to go 6-7 innings every start.
You have to keepm Collett in the lineup. You have to get him back in rhythym by keeping him in the lineup. Maybe bat him 8th but he will break out of this funk at sometime. He also draws a lot of walks while he is struggling. We can't compete with the elite pitching staffs that we are going to face in the future, if we continue to put Rodriguez and Dawson back to back in the lineup.
Here is the problem... in SEC play Johnson is hitting just .206. Collett is hitting an abysmal .128 and Rodriguez is hitting a mind blowing .083. None of them have an extra base hit in SEC play. Dawson, on the other hand, is actually doing quite well in SEC play hitting .326. Still, one of those two has to break out. To be fair to Rodriguez, he hasn't had a ton of chances with just 12 at bats. I would think we'd give Shinn more looks.
I might be a little bit crazy on Wednesday against a poor Western Carolina team and put Gei at catcher, Shinn at DH, Rodriguez at 3b, Johnson in right and then Collett at first. Use this as an opportunity to get those guys seeing the ball better. Western Carolina has just one pitcher with an ERA under 4.00. It looks like we'll be facing Blake Therrian who actually has their lowest ERA as a starter at 4.75, and who opponents are hitting .295 against. So, it should be someone that can get our players some confidence and maybe we can take that confidence into Georgia. Get guys like Rodriguez and Collett seeing the ball a bit better and hopefully it wakes them up some for SEC play.
Last edited:
^^^Sounds good to me.^^^
I would not be so eager to pull the plug on T.J.!
Dawson is a keeper!
Dawson's hitting has come around the last couple of games making me a little more comfortable with him(if he'll just stay on his side of the infield
)...ARod vs Johnson is more my concern.It's more like we will not advance...I would still like to see Ramsey given a shot. I love the bulldog no no nonsense approach he takes.
When A Rod starts, we usually win, pure and simple. He came alive at WCU with 4 hits, and his defense at 3rd base is stellar, he just knows how to play the game.
I am now of the mind set to give Hakke one more shot at starting on Saturday, I think he has great potential, just needs to throw more strikes, and keep the ball low. Our bullpen actually consists of 4 pitchers, Ramsey, Schenzer, Coleman, and of course, Mchamer. You might get 2/3 of an inning out of Malley or Hazelwood, but that's about it.
I am now of the mind set to give Hakke one more shot at starting on Saturday, I think he has great potential, just needs to throw more strikes, and keep the ball low. Our bullpen actually consists of 4 pitchers, Ramsey, Schenzer, Coleman, and of course, Mchamer. You might get 2/3 of an inning out of Malley or Hazelwood, but that's about it.
The bullpen being so scarce and untrustworthy is just scary and sad. I know we have a lot of freshmen arms but we've got to have more step up. Ramsey was doing great but he's come back to earth some lately. Schaenzer seems better equipped for very short outings and not for when opposing hitters get a feel for him. Coleman is inconsistent and can be as wild as he is electric. Hazelwood or Marshall stepping up would be huge. Harper will help a lot when the midweek games end.
Similar threads
