PITCHING

The bar hasn't moved, the Big 12 seems like pitching across the board is just not very good. Would you say a 5.01 ERA is good or mediocre?

It is probably mediocre but not far from good, relative to what’s out there. I don’t think we will see great pitching again across the country. I’d expect the great pitchers to be spread out over different teams. The top 10 or so will clearly be better than the rest but great rotations with bullpen depth will be hard to come by.

Throughout the country teams are getting lit up. From a numbers perspective Wake looks to be way better than anyone else.

What will be interesting is to see whether NIL impacts high schoolers who start going to college over professional. That would be the hope for pitching.

I don’t think the bar has been moved in fans minds. But maybe it should be.
 
It is probably mediocre but not far from good, relative to what’s out there. I don’t think we will see great pitching again across the country. I’d expect the great pitchers to be spread out over different teams. The top 10 or so will clearly be better than the rest but great rotations with bullpen depth will be hard to come by.

Throughout the country teams are getting lit up. From a numbers perspective Wake looks to be way better than anyone else.

What will be interesting is to see whether NIL impacts high schoolers who start going to college over professional. That would be the hope for pitching.

I don’t think the bar has been moved in fans minds. But maybe it should be.
You may be on to something.

Solutions: raise the mound up half a foot, put the word out to umps to call the really close stuff strikes (err on the side of strikes when it's hard to tell), have minimum outfield dimensions (none of these SEC-style homerun ballparks) and the ultimate solution--wooden bats for college ball!!! :yippee:

If that doesn't work, maybe get rid of the DH. Old-line National League baseball would be the model.
 
Regardless of the statistics, this pitching staff doesn't feel like the best in any conference to me. With the exception of Gordon (and thank God for him) pitchers seemed to be constantly pitching out of jams. It's telling that this deep into the season we don't have an established rotation or go-to closer.
 
Big 12 Conference

We have 2 of the top 5 starters in the league (#1 Gordon 1.84 ERA, and #4 LBJ 3.09 ERA). :bevo::bevo:

We have 3 of the top 5 starters in the league if you count Hurley as a starter (#5 at 3.40 ERA)
. Note, Hurley is an inning or two shy of the minimum innings at this point to be ranked with the starters. :bevo::bevo::bevo:

And Sthele is down at #15 with a 5.32 ERA.
 
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4/24/2023

Burke is leading the team with a 1.77 ERA.
Burke's WHIP is also good at 1.18


FtTGwG3WAAMPSm4
 
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4/24/2023

Lummus leads the team with a 0.85 WHIP, followed by Shaw at 0.99.

Also, batters are only hitting 0.178 against Lummus (0.176 against Shaw).

We should keep seeing more of Lummus on the mound. 10 strikeouts to 3 walks.
 
Here's another interesting stat that won't make the ESPN website.

LBJ has killed 18 gophers in the dirt in front of home plate on the year.

:beertoast:

And he's still the #4 pitcher in the conference!

:cheernana::cheernana::cheernana::cheernana:
 
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I get the feeling that the pitching in the ACC and the SEC might be a tad better, on average, than what we usually see.

And Wake, in effect, has 3 Gordons for their weekend starters.
 
Not only is pitching better in acc and sec the teams are better than the big 12 this year. Big 12 is very mediocre this year in baseball.
 


The pitchers I was counting on being improved haven’t improved enough yet. I still see a lot of upside from these guys but we are running out of time for them to figure it out.
 
Overall, the entire college baseball landscape seems weak. I expect another season where someone like coastal Carolina or another team that isn’t usually in the conversation to win it all this year. (If LSU falters)
 
4/24/2023

Lummus leads the team with a 0.85 WHIP, followed by Shaw at 0.99.

Also, batters are only hitting 0.178 against Lummus (0.176 against Shaw).

We should keep seeing more of Lummus on the mound. 10 strikeouts to 3 walks.
Thought we wrote him off earlier this season?
 


The pitchers I was counting on being improved haven’t improved enough yet. I still see a lot of upside from these guys but we are running out of time for them to figure it out.

This is really interesting--moving Burke to a starting role. His numbers have been very good. He's thrown a lot as a middle reliever. No reason to think he can't go 5 or 6 innings as a starter.
 
Time warp to a super-regional. 3 game series for all the marbles.

Just IMHO. Here's 10 we can rely on (actually 7 + 3 with asterisks). IMPORTANTLY, THIS IS ALL BASED ON ACTUAL PERFORMANCE NUMBERS ON THE MOUND--THIS YEAR. (click the link below for the stats)

Gordon
LBJ
Hurley
Burke
Shaw
Tole
Lummus
Whitehead*
DuPlantier **
Minchey ***

*barely makes the grade; really more of a mid-week starter type.
**only for 1-2 innings at a time; whatever he does, he will give some fans ulcers.
*** still not enough of a sample size to know; but if we need a 10th, it's Minchey.

2 guys with bada$$ stuff (that MLB scouts will take notice of--and get them drafted ahead of a lot of the guys above), but struggling with numbers/performance/stats this year: Morehouse and Sthele.

2023 Baseball Cumulative Statistics - University of Texas Athletics
 
Maybe you did. I've been promoting him since early in the season. He and Minchey are two of the "young guns" that are (mostly) working out this year.
You will most likely never see me write any player off. I will elect to find the good in all.

And I’m not saying you did either.
 
You will most likely never see me write any player off. I will elect to find the good in all.

And I’m not saying you did either.
Indeed.

While Pierce George's numbers in very limited action this year are laughable, the big kid can throw really fast. If he keeps working on his control, he could become a good one. LBJ started out here with control problems. And now, he's a Top 5 starter in the Big 12. If he sticks around another year or two, he could end up one of our greatest pitchers ever (and that's saying a lot).

DuPlantier has pretty good numbers this year. But his issues with (some) fans likely stem from historical moments last year of him giving up grand slams and blowing games that were already won. This goes much deeper, and seems to evoke some sort of Jungian archetype or Lovecraftian abomination deep within in the psyche of Longhorn baseball fans. The guy could be leading the league in WHIP and ERA, but when he takes the mound, there's that feeling of "OH, NO!!!!!! NOT THIS GUY!!!!!!" that arises deep within the guts of some Longhorn fans. Objectively, by the numbers this year, DuPlantier is a pretty good pitcher.
 
Time warp to a super-regional. 3 game series for all the marbles.

Just IMHO. Here's 10 we can rely on (actually 7 + 3 with asterisks). IMPORTANTLY, THIS IS ALL BASED ON ACTUAL PERFORMANCE NUMBERS ON THE MOUND--THIS YEAR. (click the link below for the stats)

Gordon
LBJ
Hurley
Burke
Shaw
Tole
Lummus
Whitehead*
DuPlantier **
Minchey ***

*barely makes the grade; really more of a mid-week starter type.
**only for 1-2 innings at a time; whatever he does, he will give some fans ulcers.
*** still not enough of a sample size to know; but if we need a 10th, it's Minchey.

2 guys with bada$$ stuff (that MLB scouts will take notice of--and get them drafted ahead of a lot of the guys above), but struggling with numbers/performance/stats this year: Morehouse and Sthele.

2023 Baseball Cumulative Statistics - University of Texas Athletics

You said yourself Sthele was 15th in ERA in the conference.

It should be mentioned that he pitched 5 shutout innings in the regional/Supers last year including the start in the final game of the regional. He was not clean versus BU, but he did not allow any hits. He was pulled with no runs scored versus OU. What’s odd to me is that he pitched 40 innings only walking 10 until the last two weeks. He’s only given up 1 hit in his last two starts. Yes, a ton of walks. Why did he go from walking few to walking a lot and vice versa on hits?

Then Morehouse needs to get comfortable again.

For these guys, you’ve seen their upside. They need to duplicate those successes.



Indeed.

While Pierce George's numbers in very limited action this year are laughable, the big kid can throw really fast. If he keeps working on his control, he could become a good one. LBJ started out here with control problems. And now, he's a Top 5 starter in the Big 12. If he sticks around another year or two, he could end up one of our greatest pitchers ever (and that's saying a lot).

DuPlantier has pretty good numbers this year. But his issues with (some) fans likely stem from historical moments last year of him giving up grand slams and blowing games that were already won. This goes much deeper, and seems to evoke some sort of Jungian archetype or Lovecraftian abomination deep within in the psyche of Longhorn baseball fans. The guy could be leading the league in WHIP and ERA, but when he takes the mound, there's that feeling of "OH, NO!!!!!! NOT THIS GUY!!!!!!" that arises deep within the guts of some Longhorn fans. Objectively, by the numbers this year, DuPlantier is a pretty good pitcher.
Duplantier is doing fine and has done it before too. Find those situations for success.

That’s a lot of arms that can give you something.
 
You said yourself Sthele was 15th in ERA in the conference.
Well.... He's ranked 15th out of 19 (see the link below). There are only 19 pitchers in the Big 12 who have pitched enough innings to be ranked in the starters group. He has his good days, and he has his bad days. One pattern Sthele follows a lot is to have a crappy 1st or 2nd inning (sometimes very crappy), then settle into a groove and go 4-5 good innings after that, and then have another crappy inning and get pulled. He is a lot more relaxed than last year.

Big 12 Conference
 
Yeah, that’s not good. I was thinking his overall ERA relative to Big 12 teams was pretty well inline. He’s given up too many, but he’s also had a lot of inherited runners score.

If you believe in his stuff, then find him opportunities. He wasn’t great last year right? Yet 5 scoreless in the regional and Super.

That OU dude that held us to one run has 35 walks in 52 innings. Those OU relievers had poor numbers until they played us. We will see how they finish but Skip was rewarded for patience against us.
 
Big 12 Conference

We have 2 of the top 5 starters in the league (#1 Gordon 1.84 ERA, and #4 LBJ 3.09 ERA). :bevo::bevo:

We have 3 of the top 5 starters in the league if you count Hurley as a starter (#5 at 3.40 ERA)
. Note, Hurley is an inning or two shy of the minimum innings at this point to be ranked with the starters. :bevo::bevo::bevo:

And Sthele is down at #15 with a 5.32 ERA.
Gordon is legit but I am shocked to see that lbj is #4 in the league? He just seems to throw to many balls in the dirt and most of our pitchers walk the wrong guys. As the commentators keep saying, when you come in the game your job is to throw strikes.
 
Gordon is legit but I am shocked to see that lbj is #4 in the league? He just seems to throw to many balls in the dirt and most of our pitchers walk the wrong guys. As the commentators keep saying, when you come in the game your job is to throw strikes.
Yeah. It often seems that, with LBJ, each pitch is either a nearly-unhittable strike, or a ball in the dirt in front of home plate. I'm certainly no pitching coach, but it seems that we're looking at a release point issue in his mechanics...., or something....

I hope LBJ sticks around another year or two. He has the raw talent to develop into one of our best ever (and at UT, that saying a lot!).

:ut::ut::ut:
 
Gordon is legit but I am shocked to see that lbj is #4 in the league? He just seems to throw to many balls in the dirt and most of our pitchers walk the wrong guys. As the commentators keep saying, when you come in the game your job is to throw strikes.
Also, this year, the Big 12 isn't exactly loaded with good pitchers.
 
This is a moment I’d like to remind all we are #13 in ERA in the country. As a team. I’d bet if we had William & Mary’s and Penns schedules we might be ahead of them.

Individually, Gordon is #10 so it can’t be all him.
 
Yep. We're the #1 staff in the Big 12. And it's not even close. WV's pretty good on the mound as well.
 

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