re: So whats up with Cowan

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Cowan's stuff doesnt play against small teams like Nicholls. They are use to seeing this speed pitcher.

Plays up vs the big boys as its a change of pace.

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I'm not sure where you're getting that idea. He dominated against all competition last year until the last month of the regular season, and then he started getting lit up, all against SEC competition, then got hammered in the regional against a 4 seed. He didn't recover until the world series against Arkansas, and will forever be remembered here for that performance. Interestingly, he also threw 3 shutout innings against that same Arkansas team in the regular season, which was his only previous good outing down the stretch, as I remember. Seems like that team either had a big problem with changeups, or seeing the ball out of his hand, or maybe it was just completely random that it played out that way.

In my opinion, he relies too much on his changeup, and his fastball isn't good enough to get people off of it. So if his change isn't well located all the time, he's going to struggle. He really seemed to lose command of that pitch down the stretch last year, and the book probably got out on him, as well, that he was going to rely on that pitch, and that if you laid off, it was usually going to end up out of the zone. I seem to recall that when his struggles started, teams were beginning to lay off more, and he started falling behind in counts, and this may have influenced him to try to land the change higher, which resulted in leaving it up too much and the results that followed were predictable. Right now, it's more of the same, from what I can see.

I think your worry should depend on how you see him. If you think we need him to be a dominant guy kind of like at the beginning of last year where he was shutdown for half the year, you probably should be worried. If you see him as a puzzle piece who will give us long stretch outings at times then he’s not really a worry. He’ll be fine. We were worried at the end of last year as well and he came through

Everyone saying that we need to relax because it’s only game 5 of the season either doesn’t actually watch the games or they’re just clueless. Cowan is not an overpowering pitcher with a great fastball, he also only has 2 pitches - a fastball and a change up - which is a recipe for disaster. Even if he has command and is dialed in with those 2 pitches, he’s still going to get crushed by hitters that are sitting change up. Until he develops a third pitch, he will never be effective at this level.

I’m of the belief that he’s just a puzzle piece and we’ll be fine without him but it’d be nice to see him add another pitch to his arsenal. If I and many others on here realize this then Yeskie has to have realized this as well and they’re working on it

You obviously haven’t watched very much of the games then if you still haven’t seen a dominant outing.

I think Cowan will be fine. He thrives on off speed and inducing contact. Jay also said he pitched that game "in reverse" so the goal was probably that Cowan was only going to go 2 anyways. He is an extremely experienced pitcher and will be fine. Even the best pitchers in MLB get touched up or have bad outings. He will play a huge role in our season. It's game 5...