re: CPM's Achilles' heel - leaving pitchers in too long

You are spot on. Let CPM experiment early in the season to see what he has. That's all it is.

R-E-L-A-X

Glad you have collegiate pitching experience. So tell me why CPM & Coach Dunn are major successes at the collegiate level & no one knows who you are? I stand by my dumb example. Obviously a mistake, right? As for what you said, there was no happy medium reference. You said it was not hard to figure out.

I'm glad too.

I'll do my best to explain my point again. Paul does not like warming pitchers until he is sure he will use them. That's not an insult or a guess. It's just how he runs it. Some coaches do.

The other extreme is coaches who like to get guys warm as soon as they see trouble. This can lead to pitchers throwing multiple days every weekend sometimes without ever seeing game time.

Now, let me preface this next part by saying what I've been saying since last night. I do not care that this took place in February. No one should. My worry is what happens come SEC play and beyond when (and it has happened multiple times in the past) things start to snowball on a pitcher and no one is close to ready. That's the gripe many people have and I think it's fair. Do you?

And my suggestion is a simple one and it's how most coaches handle it. When a pitcher reaches a point when he usually starts to fatigue, or it's a late inning and you're up by a run or two and the first batter gets on, etc. a coach can send a pitcher or even two down to start stretching and just lightly throwing. If the pitcher in the game gets an out and eventually makes it out of the inning, no harm. But if another runner reaches, the bullpen can get fired up right then and instead of being 2 or 3 batters too late into a rally, you're just 1.

That's the idea. It's not mine. I don't own it. But it's how most coaches handle things. That makes it pretty obvious. And I'm also being very general giving you a basic example which does not apply right now with PM going with specific pitchers in a specific order at a predetermined time. Again, I only hope it's not something we do come SEC play.

This is a place for discussion. PM and Dunn will always have more experience and better resumes. But using that as an argument to silence any disagreement, especially those that have some merit, is pathetic.

looks like we've got a few more guys to work with - peterson, bush, beck, reese