Prior to the season, the big question was whether our pitching could hold up. After back to back seasons with 5+ ERA’s (5.47 in 2018 and 5.74 in 2019), suggesting that pitching was a problem was vastly understating the issue. Topping that off, arguably our best three pitchers (Roper, Solesky, and Cellucci) went pro.
Well, so far, through a little over a quarter of the regular season, the composite team ERA is 2.47. Who’d a thunk it? But what’s ahead of us is vastly more challenging than what we’ve seen so far this year. Frankly, when our schedule came out I thought it was the weakest I’d seen in years. Guerry later pointed out that most of the teams we had on tap were favorites or near-favorites within their respective conferences. So far, they haven’t shown it. The combined record of our 15 opponents so far is 90-145 (.383). That’s REALLY bad. Our future opponents, for interest, have a winning percentage of .613 almost exactly the reverse, one being .117 below .500 and the other being .113 above .500.
Of interesting is the fact that five newcombers (Olthhoff, Aldrich, Benoit, Jannetta, and Slagel) have pitched 70.8% of our innings thus far with a combined ERA of 1.39. As a group they are allowing 5.46 hits, 2.99 free passes (walks & HBPs), while striking out 11.0 men every 9 innings. By comparison, the other 12 pitchers who have appeared in at least one game have a combined ERA of 4.67 (still a point better than last season’s entire staff), while allowing 8.53 hits, 7.91 free passes, along with 7.31 K’s every 9 innings. The free passes among this group is obviously a concern.
As we go forward we need more than the aforementioned five to contribute. From this weekend, it looks like Gillies, Campbell, and Price are the most likely candidates though I always hold out hope for Pellerin. We could also use another lefty which suggests Holcomb, who had a very good summer but has been terrible in four appearances for the Wave.
Anyway, the two games against Lamar this week will challenge our pitching depth as it leads into the weekend series against Long Beach State. It doesn’t get any easier the following two weeks either with eight straight away games at S, Alabama, a weekend series at Dallas Baptist, an away game with LSU, followed by a weekend at Wichita State. We'll know a lot more after that opening conference series, some 13 games from now (half-way through the regular season).
Roll Wave!!!
Well, so far, through a little over a quarter of the regular season, the composite team ERA is 2.47. Who’d a thunk it? But what’s ahead of us is vastly more challenging than what we’ve seen so far this year. Frankly, when our schedule came out I thought it was the weakest I’d seen in years. Guerry later pointed out that most of the teams we had on tap were favorites or near-favorites within their respective conferences. So far, they haven’t shown it. The combined record of our 15 opponents so far is 90-145 (.383). That’s REALLY bad. Our future opponents, for interest, have a winning percentage of .613 almost exactly the reverse, one being .117 below .500 and the other being .113 above .500.
Of interesting is the fact that five newcombers (Olthhoff, Aldrich, Benoit, Jannetta, and Slagel) have pitched 70.8% of our innings thus far with a combined ERA of 1.39. As a group they are allowing 5.46 hits, 2.99 free passes (walks & HBPs), while striking out 11.0 men every 9 innings. By comparison, the other 12 pitchers who have appeared in at least one game have a combined ERA of 4.67 (still a point better than last season’s entire staff), while allowing 8.53 hits, 7.91 free passes, along with 7.31 K’s every 9 innings. The free passes among this group is obviously a concern.
As we go forward we need more than the aforementioned five to contribute. From this weekend, it looks like Gillies, Campbell, and Price are the most likely candidates though I always hold out hope for Pellerin. We could also use another lefty which suggests Holcomb, who had a very good summer but has been terrible in four appearances for the Wave.
Anyway, the two games against Lamar this week will challenge our pitching depth as it leads into the weekend series against Long Beach State. It doesn’t get any easier the following two weeks either with eight straight away games at S, Alabama, a weekend series at Dallas Baptist, an away game with LSU, followed by a weekend at Wichita State. We'll know a lot more after that opening conference series, some 13 games from now (half-way through the regular season).
Roll Wave!!!
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