With all of the talk about next year's pitching depth, it made me wonder. Not to flame or bash, but LSU seems to have had some uncanny bad luck with keeping pitchers healthy. It seems like every year, a pitcher (usually a stud or front liner) goes down with arm problems. Could this just be bad luck or is there some mismanagement going on? Sometimes I worry about freshmen (i.e. Meier, Bumstead, Determann) coming in and being overused and burned. I hope that doesn't happen next year. Because it seems we were having the same discussions last year about Mestepay, Wilson and Pettit before Mestepay went down. Hopefully, with the depth that we should have, the guys shouldn't have to throw too many innings. It would be nice to have a bullpen we can rely on. That hasn't happened in years.
Let me give this perspective from experience. I pitched in high school and 2 years in JUCO ball. Not that I was anything special but I was our staff ace my senior year of HS. I threw 93 innings my senior (a school record that stands today 15 yrs later). And another who knows how many in summer ball after my senior year. I never had any arm problems at the time. But, as soon as i got to JUCO I started having problems...nothing that required surgery just therapy. And the therapy worked wonders. At that age your body/arm is extremely resilient. Although no immediate harm is done it can begin to take it's toll unbeknownst to you. So I see it as once these guys get into college the problems start to surface at some point.....frosh, soph, etc. And it's not anything that happened in college. Just my 2 cents. p.s. When I was a frosh in HS I pitched and played 3rd for the JV team. We played like 20 games...I pitched in probably 18 of em. By the end of the season I could not reach 1B from 3B (throwing)......arm was tired...never hurt just tired...probably helped start the problems that came up later.
From my experience I never pitched in Little leage, jr. high or high school, but one time after church on Sunday I got pumped up after watching the Tigers and decided to go and pitch to my nephew. I through my version of curve balls, which didn't curve much. On Monday or Tuesday my arm felt like it would fall off. It wouldn't work. Put me in coach but let me play 2nd base.
Hub's explanation makes a lot of sense. The problem is not restricted to LSU. It may seem that way since we follow them so closely. Skip used to get a lot of criticism for "overusing" his pitchers but I don't think it was valid. A lot of his pitchers are still playing.
It must be great to be an ace pitcher. My Walter Mitty dream is to be an ace pitcher. That's got to be the coolest position to play in all of sports. Sure, Quarterback is cool, but the Ace Pitcher never has to take a sack! Pitching for the LSU Tigers has GOT to be almost like heaven. :lsug: PS Are there any websites that discuss techniques of pitching and baseball strategy?
Re: It must be great to be an ace pitcher. Give up a two run bomb in a one run game, and you'll wish someone would sack you. By the way, some pitchers do have to take sacks (see Cincy's Wilson yesterday). Jean Lafitte, try this site... http://www.abca.org/leftnav/publications/Coaching Digest Pitching Articles.html
Re: It must be great to be an ace pitcher. When I was 15 I played 3rd base on my summer league team. I thought I had a pretty good arm and I would practice pitching against the side of the garage. I finally talked the coach into letting me pitch. The first inning I struck out the side. Man was I pumped up. I was feeling real cocky and I felt like I was on the way to becoming the next Nolan Ryan. The second inning I hit 3 batters and walked 3. I played football in high school but I wasn't the quarterback. During my freshman year in college I played QB for a flag football team. We went undefeated and won the city championship. (mostly because of our great defense) If I had a choice of having a Randy Johnson type year in MLB and winning the World Series or having a Joe Montana type year in the NFL and winning the Superbowl it would be a tough decision but I would have to choose football. A great pitcher is the man every 5th day and a great QB is the man every game on the schedule. I have watched a hell of a lot of football, baseball and basketball games but I don't think I have ever seen anybody who looks like they are having more fun than Brett Fahve does when he is on his game.
Re: It must be great to be an ace pitcher. How bout the #2 instead. When I was a junior in high school I was #2 in our rotation. With our ace on the mound we were arbuably the best team in the state of LA in 1987. We won our district and were a favorite to make it to the finals except for a little road bump we could hit on the way in the form of Tioga High of near Alex. For those that don't know Tioga was the 3A (now 4A) power in baseball in the 80's. they had a guy who was pretty good, named Kevin McGee, not too bad.....pitched for the Giants later, wonder if he is still in the pros today?, any way he was good. During the playoffs we kept having alot of rain between the bi-district, regional, and quarterfinal rounds and our ace was able to throw every game. In the quarter's we beat Belle Chasse in N.O. After we made the long drive back to B.R. we found out we would have to play the Semi's.....the next day....in BR....against Tioga and Mr. McGee. As you've probably surmised by now old Ace couldn't throw the next day b/c of well obvious reasons. So guess what Old #2 got the nod.....yes me Our stadium didn't hold a whole lot of fannies maybe 100. The 24 hours leading up to the game I was a little edgy but once I got the uni on and out to the bullpen it was just like any other day. The whole pre-game was a blur. Did my warm-up pitches, hung out in the bullpen until it was showtime......that's when it hit me. It's time for the game to start and to take the field. I get out to the mound and take my warm up pitches the catcher throws the ball around the horn we have our infield huddle on the mound and it's SHOW TIME. I turn to toe the rubber for the first pitch and I was like HOLY SHIT! As I said, the stadium held 100. Those were full. The standing area all around was full and people were sitting 2/3 deep down the foul lines. One of the coolest feelings I've ever felt (marriage, birth of 2 kids out do it). As for the game. I didn't do bad. We lost 5-4 or 6-5.....can't remember. I was throwing my pills one for one with Mr McGee. We lost the game in the top of the 1st....questionable call on a 3-2 "strike" (as I thought) and pickoff at second.....both were out...IMO....not the umps......next guy hit a 2B and they were up 2-0. It was a called ball 4 and the CS didn't count. Regardless, one of the greatest moments in sports I've had. As a side note, a few years later a friend of mine (teammate) owned a baseball card store and Mr. Mcgee was in their. He told him he had played against him in that game. Mr McGee asked him "Where is that guy who pitched for ya'll pitchin now". Felt good. BTW, I played QB in High School as well......and sucked. IMO, pitcher is harder....in both sports all eyes are on you......but as pitcher......you can see em.
Re: Re: It must be great to be an ace pitcher. Some quarterbacks can see em too. In Joe Montana's first Superbowl the 49ers were down by 4 points with about a minute left on the clock and had the ball at their own 20 yard line. In the huddle before the first play to start the drive Montana looked up before calling the play and pointed to a celebrety in the stands. He told his teamates "Look at that - its John Candy." Montana then proceeded to engineer a classic drive and threw the game winning TD to John Taylor with only seconds left.
