I mentioned in the game thread how impressive it was that 2 of his outings were not on the Alex Box mound, and I meant that literally. But you're right, they were also both the only true road games we've played as well, which brings in a lot of other factors that simply pitching on a foreign mound in a neutral site game do not. He was pitching in front of relatively rowdy crowds whose teams both needed (or will wind up needing) those games way more than LSU.

And he's this sharp after missing his entire SR season, which is crazy. Dude hadn't pitched in a competitive game in a year and a half and goes on the road and just fricking shoves as a true freshman in 2 hostile environments like it's NBD? fricking stud. I may be prisoner-of-the moment-ing here a bit, but I think he winds up having the best career of anybody on the staff and winds up going higher in the draft whenever he leaves than anybody else on staff goes in their respective ones. Like he's the Friday night starter the next 2 years and a top 10 pick.

But where is he best used this year? I'm with you that he's too good to "waste" in the midweek, but he's got to pitch to keep developing, and he's also too good to "waste" on "just" a weekend inning or 2, as important as those may be. It looks like Ack has his spot locked up as the 1st guy out of the pen that Jay trusts in a close game in just about any situation. If that's coming in with runners on in the 5th to get out of a jam and then running back out there in the 6th and 7th for an extended outing or just coming in to close the door for a 1 inning save like he Wednesday.

But does Anderson take Herring's role as the next guy after Ack to be used in a similar way? And maybe bump Herring and Coleman "down" to come in and be more LH/LH specialists to get left-handed hitters out in high leverage situations on Friday and Saturday and maybe go multiple innings Sunday if needed? The "problem" with using Anderson like that, is that it's dependent on how long the starters go. If they all have good outings, you may wind up with weekends where Anderson doesn't have the opportunity to pitch in big spots. And may not have many innings/outs available to get. You don't want to stunt his development, so have to weight what's best for his future with what's best for the team. And not just his "next year" future, but this year's as well. Maybe what's best for him and the team is letting him continue to get weekday starts to be ready for the postseason. Can probably let him throw 80-90 pitches on Tuesday and still be available for an inning or 2 on the weekend.

This post is already too long, but 2 "wild cards" could be Loer and Hurd. How they throw this weekend could be big going into SEC play next weekend.