Stats through 12 games and a trip South

Without looking at the game logs I think Shane Harris has pitched much better recently in his last couple of outings. His ERA had been over 14 before that.

Schultz and Smith (from my recollection) have consistently given up quite a few runs in all their starts and are around an 8 to 11 ERA which needs to improve if they are to be our top two starting pitchers. Jakob Meyer probably needs to improve a little bit as well as the season goes on as I think he is supposed to be our closer and his ERA is in the 6’s.

Most of the rest of the staff has done pretty good (off the top of my head) especially the younger guys. There are a couple of guys who have pitched like a couple of innings with high ERAs but that is an extremely small sample size. But overall the rest of the staff has not been too bad.

I haven’t heard anything on Chance Hug but thought that he was day to day but could be wrong on that.

Harris is inconsistent and has been his entire time. His first two games were brutal but he did real well against Vandy. I think UE pitching depth is pretty good but the problem is, if a starter is doing well, you let him pitch. He only gets one start a week. If he's not doing well, you risk burning up the bullpen just to win 1 game. I think the staff makes a judgment -- it's better to use inconsistent pitching in the non-con games in the South and get them ramped up for the conference. These pitchers are not pros. The hitting is way ahead of the pitching -- and the offensive stats across the country are proving that. A lot of double-digit scores. 

Miss. State has struggled this year despite their recent 5-game win streak. Those wins were against extremely mediocre teams. That aside, the SEC is a hotbed for talent and everybody has depth. SEC experts put the Bulldogs as 12th out of 14 in the non-con schedule.

Here are MSU's stats (PDF file)

static.hailstate.com/custompages/stats/bb/2024/24_Overall_MSU.pdf

The frailty of the human pitching arm. Smith obviously isn't the ace this year that he was, so there's hope he will re-emerge. Schultz will always be a high-walk guy. But he gives them innings. Deverman has emerged and he's a bright light. Reed -- rough patches ahead? Hansmann is a nice pitcher. There are some other intriguing options. Face it, D-1 pitching is hard to find and harder to keep. There are summer leagues for older players, but not much for high school guys coming into programs. They just have to pitch and hope they are getting better. College hitters show no mercy. It's too soon to see who has the horses in the Valley, but we obviously know the Aces can score runs.