Zac Cowan vs. Chase Shores as starter

Would rather Cowan start and Shores go to relief to avoid the catastrophe this past weekend where we were essentially in the position on Sunday that we hardly saw one of Cowan/Evans at all.

Get as many weekend innings as you possibly can out of Anderson, Cowan, Eyanson, Evans

Jay for once responded to a question about the rotation with unsurity. Like all other times he could have said "no change", but he opted to say because Alabama has not announced their rotation he will not announce theirs. Makes me think this could be the week Cowan slides in.

It does no good to save Cowan and Evans for Sunday if Shores is not going to give them a lead
Majority of time Cowan and Evans should pitch on Fri or Sat to win those games
If you can get to Sunday with Cowan and Evans then I would definitely start Cowan over Shores

Here's the thing Shores is plenty talented but it's obvious he lost a step since recovering from TJ. Let him come in relief to fix his stuff and get better at his spots. Cowan while I want him to stay as relief would be able to eat innings well as a starter.

quote:

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Friday Anderson
Saturday Cowan
Sunday Eyanson

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and in a save situation you bring in Evans to shut opponent down otherwise Shores first out the pen and Schmidt when Shores is already spent. That’s how I’d approach it at least.

That’s our 6 best arms. Then you need a few more to step up to rely on for a couple innings between Noot, Rizy, Ware, Benge, Williams and Mayers

I like this move, especially since we seem to have some improvement in our bullpen.

Starters:
Anderson
Eyanson
Cowan

Relievers on the weekend:
Evans (closer)
Shores
Schmidt
Benge
Rizy
Williams
Ware
Primeaux
Noot

I think we've now gotten to the point we can start to trust more than just Cowan and Evans in the bullpen as Schmidt, Benge, Rizy, Williams have all started to really step up recently and even Mayers has gotten you 6 outs with only 1 free pass recently. Ware even looked promising until yesterday where he had a frustrating appearance with 2 walks getting just 1 out.

We've had to wait until we could somewhat effectively replace Cowan in the pen and I think we can now. Shores also would be in the pen and honestly his stuff just plays WAY better out of the pen than it ever did as a starter.

i think there is no denying Cowan is pitching better than shores.

the only question is if we’re better served stacking our 4 best pitchers into the first 2 games of spreading them out across all three.


last weekend I think Cowan should have started saturday. Time to stop babying Shores. if he figures it out in the pen great.

I still like Shores, LSU needs for him to improve so sticking with it is better for this team long term imo

He just gets a quicker hook now imo, especially if Cowan is available.

Bullpen needs to keep improving and then Cowan CAN be used as a starter perhaps in some of these tourney games in May/June when a 4th starter can be valuable. Maybe he even takes the Sunday starter role by the time tourney play comes around.

But for now we need Shores to improve, and we need Cowan to be available to close the door when needed to secure a series win - which could be out of equation if you lose the first two games and hold him to Sunday.

I also think his effectiveness is the change of pace he offers as contrast to guys like Shores and Anderson. I still think if you trot Cowan out there as a starter, he has a greater chance to get figured out the more he sees a lineup, whether that be 3-4 times around. That could obviously make him less effective, whereas he's very effective as a change of pace when he comes in shorter term right now out of the pen.