Dear LSU, you can have your SEC Friday Night Ace, we've landed a Big Ten guy with a 5+ ERA. You don't find those guys growing on trees.
Pitching Problem Has Been Solved
- Thread starter columbiadawg2
- Start date
With an ERA like that, he just may be our Friday night guy. If only I were joking…
This reminds me how high everyone was on Will Bednar before the '21 season. We all just knew he would be the one to carry us to the promised land.**
Keep bringing in guys with starting experience, let Parker work. Let's see what happens.
Keep bringing in guys with starting experience, let Parker work. Let's see what happens.
If we land Montgomery, this portal haul is about as good as can be expected. Pretty good as it is. We landed two P5 starting pitchers who, at minimum, provide competition for Loftin and Lo. There's your weekend rotation. Then you have Dohm, Simmons and Auger in the pen. It's rational to expect a jump from Siary, Tapper, Gibbs and Forsythe. You also have Lamb, Holcombe, Hardin, Cheatham, Davis and Williams. Who knows what Parker can do.
We're fine. I expect we will be hosting most likely, even without Montgomery. The negativity around this program is astounding.
Mark my words, this is going to be an incredible year to be a State fan, in the big 3 sports.
We're fine. I expect we will be hosting most likely, even without Montgomery. The negativity around this program is astounding.
Mark my words, this is going to be an incredible year to be a State fan, in the big 3 sports.
No one can see through the current Holman fog, but we do have some potential. I think Holcomb, Dohm, Loftin, and Lo are going to make huge strides just based on my little knowledge of Parker's mindset. Which is basically, don't nibble like little bitches. Just that one thing makes me hopeful.
Some of y'all are just taking it for granted that a lot of pitchers are all going to make huge improvements next spring. A few of them will. A few will make minor improvement. And a few were probably pitching about as well as they can. That's just the way it goes. Expecting everyone to make huge improvements is just not realistic.
He pitched against Ole Miss. 2 IP 8 hits 8 ER 3 Ks 3 BB
His SEC only stat is a 36 ERA. He’ll fit in nicely.
Not only that, but in 2022, without the injuries, or maybe just just two less, we make a regional, and nobody is really complaining. I often compare the 2021-2024 run with 2013-2016. What if we had injuries to say Laster and Bracewell in 2014 (not even Holder and Lindgren), you think that team goes to a regional? I'll even go tick for tack and say Woodruff's lack of production cancels out Sims. Then we know what happened in 2015, we lost a ton of games because we couldn't close them out due to pitching (sound familiar)? Then 2016, after some impact transfers along with some INSIDE PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT at pitchers (Hudson, Houston and Brown), we win the SEC and get tripped up on the way to a likely national title. Damnit Dalbec, although we dang near had game 2 won.
It's eerily familiar. And that 2022 above is with Foxhall. And another thing that is similar? A new pitching coach in 2016.
All this said - I have no idea what 2025 and beyond looks like, it could get ugly. But 2024 is going to be a good year. Bookmark it, doomsayers.
You were wrong back then, and you'll be wrong again.
I'm fairly certain you also didn't see the litany of SEC players that were drafted a few weeks ago either? Of course you didn't, I wouldn't expect you to actually do the research and consider the loss of personnel of our competition, and how that directly factors into things. Oh, let me guess, you're banking on LSU to repeat after losing 6 incredible players, one that was once in a generation?
ETA: I wanted to actually look this up. LSU 6, Vanderbilt 6, Florida 5, Arkansas 4, Alabama 4, Ole Miss 4. Talk about missed opportunities for Vanderbilt, Arkansas, Alabama and Ole Miss. Wins for MSU, Tennessee and Auburn I'd say.
Compare that with 2022 where we lost 7 to the draft. Who couldn't see 2023 coming? 2022 was the true disappointment year, and that is explained by injuries at least.
You doomsayers simply do not have any evidence.
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We only had four guys on our whole team with an ERA under 5.00. Nixon was the only guy under 3.00.
So our 4 guys competing for weekend roles
2022 Stats
4.80 ERA and coming off injury
5.21 ERA
8.10 ERA
3.08 ERA and pitched 26 total innings
We shouldn’t be concerned about this?
I'm not. I saw many of the same things happening in 2015, folks were turning on Butch because of the new balls, etc. You don't remember the 8th inning blowup memes? The stats probably aren't as bad because we were still in year one of the transition out of the dad bat/ball era.
Did you think Kruger and Lowe were going to be as impact as they were? I would think Montgomery compares to that, then you have the 3B guy Kohler. And I don't recall but one transfer pitcher, Rigby. Blake Smith too. The rest were internal jumps (Hudson, Brown, Houston). Sexton was decent before but he improved in 2016 too.
We also don't know what we will get from the freshmen who, by all accounts, are pretty solid.
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Of course it's possible we make a 2015 to 2016 level improvement. But you're cherry picking the one big turnaround we've had. A complete list of our seasons after a losing season:
2009 - 25-29
2010 - 23-33
2011 - 34-23 (won GA Tech regional as a #3 seed, lost to Florida in super)
2016 - 44-18-1 (won Starkville regional, lost to Arizona in super)
2023 - 27-26
Another 1st class passenger on the lemon train!! All aboard, whoooop whoop.
It's a very similar trajectory. I explained it all above, and compared 2022 to 2014 and why those were different. Look at the draft picks, no way we should have been bad in 2022 but injuries explain it. 2023 should have been expected.
And we sucked. I'd love to see some sub-5 ERA guys coming in, especially when facing the vaunted Big Ten baseball programs.
Downvote. I'm just here to restore sanity. I don't particularly care for Lemonis, honestly. I actually don't think he will be here 3-4 years from now, whether he's fired or takes another less stressful job (Coastal Carolina).
I'm just talking about 2024 at the moment. Don't care about anything else.
This has been my stance, too. If it bombs, we lose Lemonis and I’d guess the vast majority of this board would be happy.
The raw amount of highly regarded arms we’ve seen come here and tank since 2021 is impossible. So, either our pitching coach was a sham or every single recruiting ranking service whiffed on all of our guys. Both could have happened simultaneously, but the odds would be very low.
It would have been great to have gotten an SEC starter, but he wouldn’t have saved our season and he definitely won’t save the Looters. He’s just a capable arm. I’m with you…. Let’s let the new coach do his thing.
No, for some reason you are talking mainly about 2015 which was 3 head coaches ago, and none of the same players obviously or staff are still here. 2015 has ZERO to do w/ 2024. As for other teams losing all this talent to the draft, we lost our top 2 hitters (not saying a whole lot) but still you act like that everybody else lost the world and will have to replace them w/ true Freshman talent and we are all still here and going to double production next year.
Why would anyone expect Holman to come here ? A program on a downturn when he could go to the defending Champs? We got a few guys to add into the mix. Probly lucky to have gotten them. 2 losing seasons in a row does not make us a desirable destination. I would be surprised if we get Montgomery but we are still in it at least
Did a little looking on this fella...
- No idea what to expect from a Big 10 pitcher. It's a pretty weak league overall and Purdue was not good, but he was their best pitcher as a true sophomore. Even got 3rd team all league. Friday night starter who began the season 7-2 with a 3.9 ERA until this debacle vs Indiana...
- He's got good size at 6'4" 215 and apparently can hit low to mid 90s consistently.
- He's currently playing in Cape Cod on the same team with Hines & Montgomery. That may be the most interesting part of all. Seems to be pitching fine as a key starter there.
- No idea what to expect from a Big 10 pitcher. It's a pretty weak league overall and Purdue was not good, but he was their best pitcher as a true sophomore. Even got 3rd team all league. Friday night starter who began the season 7-2 with a 3.9 ERA until this debacle vs Indiana...
- He's got good size at 6'4" 215 and apparently can hit low to mid 90s consistently.
- He's currently playing in Cape Cod on the same team with Hines & Montgomery. That may be the most interesting part of all. Seems to be pitching fine as a key starter there.
Yet you didn’t mention Siary - the pitcher who has had the best off-season of anyone on the staff
Welcome aboard and glad to have him since he wants to be here.
No idea if this guy is going to work out or not, but people who think a 5.00 ERA is bad these days haven’t been following very much baseball in the past 5 or so years.
In the SEC in 2023, only 4 of 14 teams had a team ERA of under 5 in conference games. Only 12 total pitchers in the entire league with a qualifying number of innings had an ERA under 5 in conference games. Runs are way, way up everywhere. If he can pitch all year in the SEC as a starter with a ERA of 6 or under, he absolutely will help us. And if he matches that ERA of 5 in conference play next year as a starter, he will help us a hell of a lot.
In the SEC in 2023, only 4 of 14 teams had a team ERA of under 5 in conference games. Only 12 total pitchers in the entire league with a qualifying number of innings had an ERA under 5 in conference games. Runs are way, way up everywhere. If he can pitch all year in the SEC as a starter with a ERA of 6 or under, he absolutely will help us. And if he matches that ERA of 5 in conference play next year as a starter, he will help us a hell of a lot.
My bad, he's for sure a candidate. I knew once I threw a few names out there off the top of my head I would forget some guys.
And to clarify for whoever the accuser was above, I'm definitely not a Lemonis apologist. We may have to deal with that next year, but I also don't see any reason to be doomsaying in July. We lost one guy we never had in Holman, and all of a sudden there's a herd of lemmings running for the cliff. Not me - strap it on with guys who want to be here and 17 the rest of 'em, let's go.
Simply managing the staff better during games and cutting back on walks are going to drop our team ERA by 2 With more arms, we won't have to leave guys out there to try to steal outs like we have been the last two years. That's going to make a big difference, and that can be done without expecting everyone to make big jumps.
we have 5 players that didn't play at all last year. Montgomery wants to pitch too. Let's get him and see how things unfold.
And a few will get hurt. We can count on that by now, can’t we? At least a couple, for sure, I hope not though, just beginning to expect it…
I mean this is no way to be disrespectful or as a dig at anyone that has replied. I think I'm so beaten down by the last two years (especially after the incredible run leading up to these past two) that I have no optimism when it comes to our current baseball program and I'm extremely jealous of those that can still see the light. I really hope Parker can fix things, I hope no Forsythe and Alford drastically improves our fielding percentage. I just can't bring myself to have hope until we actually start winning. That said, after our first game we pull a pitcher before extending him and the pen comes in and finishes things up I'll be right back there.
I get that. We all 'abandon all hope' about a particular game or sport or whatever periodically. But I've been around State sports long enough to know our sports live in cycles. We just aren't going to be great at every sport every season. It's a law of the universe. Baseball is currently in a bad lull, but it won't last. Basketball is on a bullet train up, football seems solid, so I'll just focus on enjoying those while I wait.
He also throws strikes. I am much happier with a pitcher that has a 5+ Era that averages less than 4 BB/9 but gives up hits, than a guy that has an opponent BA of .201 and has a 5+ ERA because he’s averaging 8 BB/9. I realize it’s the same result but damn the walls were infuriating last season.
The other interesting stats is he had 76 IP which led the team and was 25 more than anyone on our staff. But he did lead the team in HR’s given up. Seems comparable to Nate Dohm with stamina.
I wonder if some of his ERA could be a function of playing on a team with ****** relief pitching, and thus staying in games longer than he would otherwise.
Of course, that ain't changing here...
Agree, about worn out with BB. We have who we have and all the complaining won't change a thing. In the mean time we have a fresh look FB team and 8 home game and 2 BKB teams that should be fun to watch. I'll save my BB worries for the spring.