Not really. It just seems that way. Suppose he pulls Nate after 6 and Dirks comes in and gives up 3 walks and a hit letting SC back in the game? Would you say he shouldn't have pulled Nate so early? Hindsight, my friend, is always 20/20.
Decisions early on in a season like this really can't be questioned...There is no bad decision, so to speak... If you leave a guy in too long, you can view it as finding out just what a guy has when he's down, and whether he can "weather a storm". If you pull a guy early, you never get to see how he-in the words of Coach Saban-deals with adversity. Knowing how a guy like Mestepey, Dirks, etc., can come back from a shaky situation or a so-so performance becomes of paramount importance later on in the season. The lessons and mental notes Smoke is making about who shows up and who doesn't...Whose clutch, and whose not much...They are invaluable coaching tools that play out over the course of the season, and pay their biggest dividends on the biggest stages under the brightest of lights... We're well on our way to our five zillionth straight home regional, and right now, an inside track for a Top 8 seed. There's much baseball to be played, indeed, but we're at a great point, and we're learning more and more about this team... You can tell we've got the Smoke system down pat now, though... The last two years, we suffered early season stinkers...Now, we're suffering late inning meltdowns, pitching letdowns, but only every now and then... Welcome to the Machine...& it ain't just Smoke and Mirrors, either!
Anytime you go to the #3 teams house and 2 of your best pitchers have poor performances and you still take 2 of 3 the coach did more good than bad. Plus your #1 reliever injured his hand in game 1. Like you said it is much easier to pick the best times to make a pitching change after the game is over much harder to do it in the game trying to win the series at their house. :geaux: :lsug:
The Tigers look really good. The USC pitchers are very good, throw hard and have good control, hiiting the corners with most of their strikes. And we hit the heck out of the ball, I mean blistered it. We almost had several homeruns that may have gone out if the wind wasn't blowing in part of the time and we hit several laser line drives. This would appear to me to be the best hitting team LSU has had in a few years from top to bottom. And it always helps much more than normal when you have a catcher that can flat out crush the ball in just about every at bat. And most of the Tigers had very good at bats in this series even in game 2. I don't think Nate pitched poor today except for his control, which he has been having some trouble with. His last ininng he looked like he had a guy stuck out on a called strike 3 but the ump ruled other wise and Nate appeared to let it get to him. I think he will get much better as the season goes along. LM just may have to go to the midweek game and maybe even throw a similated game so he can get into a grove and get his control back, a change up pitcher really needs pin point accuracy and he is leaving too many pitches up in the zone even when he is ahead in the count.
I always thought Skip left pitchers in a little too long but I guess it worked out OK most of the time.
Just a thought, I personally think Layne is fine where he is but that is because I always trust a great coach to make good decisions at any time. Sometimes they work out, sometimes they don't. If he moves Layne then I think that is what is best for the team. But either way I think by the end of the season we have at least 4 legit weekend starters for NCAA tourny. That bodes well for us and it doesn't hurt to find out if they can come in relief situations and do their job. That way we have more than just one relief guy who can dominate a game. I think even with the struggles we have had of late with our pitching, this is the best thing for us in the long run cause as long as everyone is improving, we are sitting pretty for the NCAA's and Omaha cause we wont have to make someone start on 2 or 3 days rest. I like the position we are in.
Since I can't start a thread, I'll post this here: http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/college/top25.html Stanford hasn't played a game in 2 weeks but they are holding on to the top spot like the pope. If you don't play you can't lose. Texas took 2 of 3 at unranked Oklahoma to hold on to #2 while the Tigers leapfrogged South Carolina for the 3rd spot.
Yeah I seen that Sabanfan, I think that is really unbelievable. We beat USC at their place 2 out of 3 and they only drop 1 and we only move up 1. UNBELIEVABLE
