Jay Johnson always pitches his ace in game 1 of a regional

Don't think anyone that follows college baseball closely expects anyone but Jump. Saves Holman for Game 2 against UNC

Jump isn’t that far behind Holman if he is right now. They are pretty close in my opinion. He can’t go wrong either way.

if there was a bigger gap between jump and holeman o would consider it more but I think he sticks 1-2.
Holeman can be as good as anyone in the country when he’s on so i am not super worried about him.

then if you win game 2 you’re probably not seeing a weekend guy in game 3.

So we get Holman against Wofford?

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Yeah we're not good enough to frick around game 1 of the regional

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this is not the main reason for pitching this way. theoretically, you pitch your #3 guy against the other teams #4/#5 guy in the finals having to beat you twice.

very simple equation really.

Of course he will.

LSU wants to start 2-0. Have UNC burn up their pitching in the loser’s bracket & play it from there.

sooner you pitch him sooner you get him back

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In the 5 years that he made it to the NCAA tournament at Arizona and LSU, he has always pitched his ace in game 1.

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I posted this last year and got blasted for suggesting he may pitch Skenes in game 1. It’s baseball. The entire game is about trends and what coaches and players have done before.

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I'm not scared of being 0-1 unless that means we're 0-1 having burned Jump or Holman. I'm also not scared of being 1-1 if we still have Jump or Holman. I'm scared of being 1-1 having burned Jump and Holman. Now you have to win 3 games...without Jump and Holman.

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This doesn’t make sense. You’re saying that you aren’t scared of going 0-1 with the bullpen, but you are scared of going 1-1 after using Jump and Holman?

If you’re 0-1 after a bullpen game, you aren’t going to hold Jump/Holman back again in the 2 losers’ bracket games. Which means you’ll need to beat UNC twice with a depleted bullpen.. at a pitching disadvantage.

If you’re 1-1 after burning Jump and Holman, you’re going to pitch Ack and the top of the bullpen in game 3 (most likely against Wofford anyway). So you’ll still need to beat UNC twice, still with a depleted bullpen.. at a pitching disadvantage.

The only advantage of losing game 1 over game 2 is that you might get some of those bullpen arms back sooner, but either way you’re playing 2 elimination games against UNC with the bottom of your staff.

There’s no scenario where Holman and Jump both pitch vs. UNC from the losers’ bracket. It only works out that way if you win game 1. (ETA: Unless you double down on the risk and throw a midweek guy out there in an elimination game..)