re: I like Pearson leading off against RHers, but am not sure Jay puts him there against LHers

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He doesn’t really have RH options

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Jay? It was an obvious weakness last year, and I thought for sure he’d address it this year. But Travinski didn’t get many pre-conference ABs, and Skenes got none. Seems Frey is really the only one he tried to develop, which is odd, considering last year. I don’t think we’re PH Milazzo for anybody unless it’s to lay down a bunt, and for whatever reason, no matter how well he hit in the fall and the spring, Jay just doesn’t trust Merrifield at all.

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And he didn’t seem to care to play matchup at all last week, even down to last few outs

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You made a thread about it, but I asked in the game thread why in the world weren’t we PHing Travinski for Neal in the 9th. Not that Neal bails out and has bad ABs against lefties, but we needed a 2-run bomb, and even though Neal has some pop, he wasn’t hitting it through the wind to tie it up there. I was really surprised we didn’t see Trav or Frey there. Even if Neal had singled or drawn a walk, it still would have taken a 2-out hit from Kling, who was struggling mightily.

Maybe he was hoping for a walk or that single to left and was gonna PH for Kling, but in that situation, I thought the easy call was to put in one of the big RHers for Neal and hope they ran into one instead of banking on 2-straight guys to do something with 2 outs. Or maybe he just wanted to see how Neal handled that situation, but I wouldn’t have done it. Oh well.

But our 3 LH mainstays in the lineup—Pearson, Morgan, and Neal—all seem to have good approaches against lefties and are willing to stay in there and go the other way and hit them relatively well. There’s nobody in CBB that lets the ball travel and goes the other way better than Crews, and White is right there behind them. The rest of the lineup is fine against lefties too, except maybe for Jones, who I think has done most of his damage against righties. We obviously hit better against RHers, but nobody is gonna run out 10 lefties like A&M seemed to do last weekend.

And we still hit most of them well, it was just Lampkin and their closer we couldn’t do much with. But that was more to do with them being really good than simply coming from the left side.

I’m not saying we won’t lose a close game or 2 against a team that runs out a good lefty to close us out. Or if they get a good Saturday or Sunday start from one. But I think it will be more that they’re good rather than just being left-handed.

Still, I’d get Travinski, Frey, and even Skenes some work in case we need a late-inning bomb against one. I don’t want Skenes DHing because I don’t want him running the bases. That’s much more likely to affect his pitching than taking a freak fastball off his top hand. Let him try to run into one if the situation calls for it. If he walks or gets a hit, just pinch run for him.

I like the balance of 6 RH & 3 LH. I think you can roll that out most nights. Honestly I prefer that to any type of platoon.

But I think it also proves the bench is not exactly what people thought it would be. Especially with Skenes not being available to hit.

I trust Beloso to at the very least put together a decent at bat but my expectations after that are pretty low. Nippolt can prob come in and put the ball in play, lay down a bunt maybe.

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But I think it also proves the bench is not exactly what people thought it would be.

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Eh

Travinski (0 starts) is 3/6
Frey is (1 start) 4/12
Milazzo (3 starts) is 7/22
Beloso (2 starts) is 8/16

Then you have Pearson who has 7 starts and Jobert with 12, not sure which you'd consider the bench of those two. Jobert is still streaky but when hot is as good as anyone. Pearson has now seemed to find his groove finally.

Kling struggled for a few games, but even with a few dreadful games last weekend he's hitting .327.

We have had 14 bats that have been productive this season. That's deeper than probably most teams in the country.

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—why didn’t we pinch hit for Neal Sunday? (Not saying there wasn’t a legit reason, I’d just be interested to hear it)

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My guess is because it was the 7th inning and no outs with the bases loaded. You take Neal out and pinch hit Travinski, then you're taking Travinski out for Milazzo for defense in the bottom half of the inning. Then, Milazzo may be up in the 9th in a do or die moment at the plate. We still had 9 more outs at the plate in Neal's last AB Sunday. I think if there were 2 or even 1 out in that situation, Jay may have handled it differently.

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—why haven’t we gotten Travinski more ABs in the pre-conference?

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IMO it may be due to the fact that, over the course of his career, Travinski has struck out a lot and other guys have simply earned more ABs over the course of fall/spring scrimmages. And given how well Jones has done in the DH role, there really isn't anywhere to put Travinski except in pinch hitting duties. Had Milazzo not gotten hurt, Travinski probably barely plays last year either. He's just been too inconsistent over the course of his career. He also hasn't hit lefties well either.

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We have had 14 bats that have been productive this season. That's deeper than probably most teams in the country

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I think Les—like me—is talking more about RH off the bench to take away the lefty-lefty matchup. I like Jobert more than most, but I’m not sure I want him facing a tough lefty with the game on the line. And why hasn’t Travinski gotten more than 6 ABs? Milazzo has certainly improved, but he’s no threat to drive the ball in the gap—or anywhere, really. He’s had some nice swings that found some grass, but he has 3 RBI on 2 suicide squeezes, 1 he beat out for a hit. He also had a weird infield hit to 3B that wasn’t even a slow roller—I still don’t know how he beat that out. Weird play. So he’s gotten 5 legit hits against midweek arms. Much better than I thought him capable of so far, but I don’t think anybody wants him up with the game on the line.

Love Beloso and Jobert against righties if Pearson’s in the lineup. Don’t hate Nippolt against one either. Just would prefer a RH that can do damage against a good lefty pen arm to avoid the lefty-lefty matchup in a high-leverage situation.

And that’s not even considering injuries. Dugas has his eye thing that could rear its ugly head at any time. Same with White. The more your shoulder pops out, the more it pops out. I think he’s got a slightly torn labrum. It shouldn’t bother him too much, but he could easily miss a few more games because of it. Or at least have to DH.

1st world problems, I know. Every team in college baseball would probably take our top 14 like you said. And holy shite, if Pearson has come out of nowhere to hit like he did last year after his dreadful summer, fall, and spring, that extends the lineup so much and will have an exponentially positive effect on it.

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I think he's talking about Neal coming up lefty v lefty in the 9th.

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2 outs, nobody on. We needed baserunners at that point, not Travinski swinging for the fence. I'm not sure you gain a lot, if anything, by pinch hitting for Neal at that point in the game when your RH options are Travinski, Frey, and Merrifield. Neal's OBP is almost .500. I think he trusted Neal to have a better at bat to find a way to get on base than any RH bat on the bench. Frey, for instance, had just gone 0-2 with a strikeout against UNO's lefty earlier in the week. Travinski has done fine this year in his limited ABs but hasn't been all that reliable in a situation like that over the years, and Jay clearly doesn't trust Merrifield.

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Eh

Travinski (0 starts) is 3/6
Frey is (1 start) 4/12
Milazzo (3 starts) is 7/22
Beloso (2 starts) is 8/16

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Milazzo will never pinch hit in a leverage situation

And the lack of at bats by Frey & Travinski say a lot. I know the lineup is strong but if they don’t even want to go to them when the matchup is in their favor, when will they

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That is my bad. I thought there was a runner on and Neal was the tying run

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actually, upon further review, you're right, there was 1 runner on. Jones singled and was on first base. He didn't pinch run for Jones, which I do find strange. Maybe his thoughts were with the wind we dealt with last weekend, looking to tie the game on one swing wasn't the play. After Pearson, the lineup was turning over again, so maybe he thought if Neal could get on base, we put some pressure on A&M to throw strikes to Kling with Morgan/Crews/White coming to bat

Idk, I just didn't have a huge problem with favoring Neal to Travinski in that situation. Travinski was BAD in PH situations last year. In games he came in as a PH, he was 2/10 with 7 Ks and 2 BBs.