Coming off a disheartening loss to Alabama in the finale of last week’s trip to Florida, the Buckeyes seek to regroup in Texas with the same issues to resolve.
Arlington, TX – Before anyone jumps to the worst-case scenario, the Buckeyes’ 1-5 record leaves a lot of room. No one’s back’s to the wall at this point…..
And in Arlington, Texas this weekend for a three-game series with Auburn (today), Oregon State (Saturday), and Baylor on Sunday. And yes, it doesn’t get any easier.
So let’s rationalize.
The Buckeyes could easily be 4-2, or maybe even 5-1, but they’re not. And we know why.
Not to belabor the point but the numbers don’t lie.
The composite ERA of the pitching staff is 8.83.
The Sheward-Fulks agency, in Jackson, Ohio, proudly supports the Buckeyes.
The composite ERA of about half of the staff is somewhere around 15.00.
The most egregious stat in pitching, outside of ERA, is ball/strike ratio. And in 53 innings pitched in six games they’ve walked 39 while striking out 44.
And these numbers don’t lie, either.
In six games the offense has scored 50 runs, an average about 8 per game. More than you need to win.
If there was a stat for hard contact you could credit that, too. They’ve hit a bunch of balls hard that haven’t fallen in for hits. But that’s baseball – why the other team wears gloves.
This team has been aggressive on the bases, stolen 13 bases in 16 attempts. If you project that out over 56 games they’ll set new records.
And defensively, they’ve committed 10 errors in those six games. Not bad, but not setting the woods on fire, either. And the timing of those errors have been unfortunate in some cases.
So it’s very evident…that this team is going to score enough runs to win games, and enough games, if they pitch.
If they pitch….!
And here’s the best case scenario.
If you’re pitcher, and you want to pitch college baseball…it’s right there for you. Step up and take a spot…make it yours. Yes, there’s been a little bit of rain, metaphorically, but sometimes you have to play in those conditions. But there’s no shortage of opportunity.
And, there’s no shortage of people who throw the ball with average college velocity and pitch selection. I see plenty of 90 miles per hour, more than enough to get hitters out at any level of baseball.
But the trick is…how to pitch. Not throw, but pitch. And if I was a pitcher on this staff with a healthy arm and heart-felt desire to be a leader on a Division I baseball team, I’d find a way to throw something besides the fastball for strikes on demand – when the situation says, do it and be successful.
Publisher Sonny Fulks writes OHSAA sports and the Buckeyes for Press Pros Magazine.
And again, is this staff ready to do that? Well, that’s a personal matter. If you’re healthy, and you’ve done it before, simply trust your experience, and build. It’s the same game. And if I were pitcher I’d be overjoyed to be a member of this pitching staff. Because the opportunities are like a vending machine. You put something in and you get something out. Others do it, so why not you?
I wrote about this a month ago…that I firmly believe baseball is a contagious sport.
Let one guy in the batting order start to hit and soon the others follow. And I’ve always found that the same works for pitching. It’s a matter of confidence, and when you see it happen for someone else you begin to believe that it can happen for you. Former Mets’ pitcher, and father of Tim, was famous for say, “You gotta’ believe!”
The question becomes, then, who’s first? We’d all like to see…this weekend in Arlington.
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