13.7 S/o per 9 for Mr Hurd

quote:

---

He won't escape the rant narrative all year. He will have to go 8 complete, allowing no runs and less than 3 walks to keep people quiet.

---

For some of these morons that won’t matter either.

Basing this on his past not one outing

quote:

---

He won't escape the rant narrative all year.

---

What narrative, exactly? Or which one that's not currently deserved? In his last outing in the spring scrimmages, he went 3.1 innings, gave up 7 hits, 4 walks, and hit 3 batters. That's 14 baserunners to 10 outs. He also had a wild pitch and gave up 6 earned. Not great. But it was just 1 scrimmage, no big deal, shite happens. Except he had another spring outing or 2 and finished with 6.1 innings pitched giving up 11 hits, 6 walks, 3 HBP for a whopping FIP of 3.16 and an ERA of 9.95, both of which were next to last on the entire staff. 19th. Of the 20 pitchers who threw at least 4 innings.

Still, shite happens, and it's a small sample size. Then came his outing Friday. 2.2 innings pitched, giving up 5 hits, a walk, and 4 ER. He did strike out 4 guys, but that kinda underscores some of his issues. Because it's not just that he had a bad outing as much as how it unfolded:

1st inning:
--strikes out lead off guy swinging
--2-hole hitter singles on an 0-2 count
--runner gets caught stealing
--next guy strikes out swinging to end the inning

2nd inning:
--1st guy grounds out to 1st
--2nd guy Ks looking on 3 straight pitches
--next guy grounds out to 3rd on the 1st pitch for the 3rd out and quick inning. Hurd is rolling at this point

3rd inning:
--1st guy grounds out
--2nd guy strikes out on full count for 2 quick out. Our is really rolling at this point
--next guy walks on a 3-2 count (Hurd got pissed at the ump, kinda pouted, and would eventually unravel); still, no big deal, Hurd's still in control
--then he balks the runner to 2nd and that's when the wheels start coming off
--next guy singles and scores the runner from 2nd
--then he steals 2nd
--next guy drives him home with a single
--next guy doubles him home
--next guy singles him home and that's the end of Thatcher's day

He was cursing with a 3-0 lead and dealing with 2 outs in the 3rd, nobody on base, and a 3-2 count on their 7 hole hitter. 4 batters later, he's out of the game and we're down 4-3. Of course, it's a long season and that's just 1 outing. And he's capable of dominating great teams in huge moments as he showed us in Omaha. But you're lying to yourself if you're not concerned that Hurd has shown a tendency to let little things bother him and have a great start turn into a bad one in record time. But I'm pulling for him as hard as anybody to figure out a way to harness that emotion and be able to channel it positively. Cause when he's at his best, he's one of the best pitchers in college baseball and we need him to be that.

Good breakdown. We all know it is early. Weather could have factored in. Chilly and wet affects pitchers differently.

I like Hurd on Friday and Holman on Sat. Hurd may be less consistent than Holman, but let it play out. We have so many good options at middle relief for the games that Hurd doesn't last as long. Holman is a proven 6/7 innings every time he goes out. The guy was legit at Bama.

quote:

---

Basing this on his past not one outing

---

Which is why it doesn't make sense

Seems like we have at least one of these types of pitchers in the weekend rotation all the time. As in pitcher that can go from great to complete shite show in the blink of an eye if one thing doesn’t go right.