tau06 said:
Alex Gee said:
Couldn't agree more. On paper in the preseason, it was hard to see a world where State would lose a game with the lead or within a run in the 6th. I've always thought in the ACC that run total per game needs to be around 6-8.
I mean we were/are still (I guess) looking at Fritton - Shaffner - Dudan on Friday. Andrews - Consiglio - Smith on Saturday. Marohn - Shaffner - Dudan - Smith (anyone really) on Sunday. That should dominate teams almost every weekend.
Instead the bullpen hierarchy has become Shaffner - Nance -----------------> Dudan and hang on for your life. The best bullpen in the country preseason to this is a wild changeup.
As Ethan mentioned in the pod with James Dudan is coming on. Been way better the last 6 appearances. I'm with him on this one. Smith seems like he's getting closer as well.
Ethan and I heavily disagree here. I don't think he's been good in any appearances this year against teams of consequence. Conference WHIP is 2.40 with a walk rate of 33%. I don't particularly want to go back and count but I'd be willing to bet that he's thrown 2x more balls than strikes.
Am I glad that he looked decent against Campbell, Wright State, and Davidson? Yeah of course - those teams are all under .500 though and outside of Wright State (maybe) will not sniff the tournament. Then there's the VT debacle and Pitt where he literally couldn't throw a strike. The eye test is not there, and the stuff is not competitive against decent offenses.
I'm the biggest optimist you'll meet when it comes to State baseball, and I'm just not seeing it right now on multiple fronts. I hope like hell I'm wrong and even more so hope we see Derrick Smith in some real work this weekend.
