A little of both. Aut has slight tenderitis in his arm, but has been kept out more so to keep him rested and fresh down the stretch because he has the luxury to do that IMO. In the past when we didn't have as much depth and as much room for error Robe probably would have pitched someone a little dinged up, but I have no inside knowledge of this and am only making assumptions. I'm sure Dad04 has a little more knowledge in this area.
And this is what listening to the coaches shows & such they have been able to do with the big bats. Guys keeping their pitch counts low, & others getting to rest longer periods of time will pay big dividends in May & June. We just left a lot of guys on in clutch situations Tuesday Vs. Wednesday. And it sounded like McNeese played great in the field or else Cajuns would have hung twenty on them. In a case of it's baseball UNO just came in & played their best baseball, weather conditions, umping, untimely outs all worked together for an unexpected loss.
On a similar note relating back to Don Allen's take on too many strike outs. It would have been easy to make hay with that comment both Tuesday & Wednesday. As strikeouts aided in the loss Tuesday, they were actually used to move runners around the bases & get runs in on Wednesday. It's just a matter of how you are taking advantage of each pitch that differentiates whether strikeouts are a bad or good thing for a team like this.
Strikeout killed us in the UNO game. Both UNO pitchers history were good for strike out ratios, but when you got ducks on the pond you got to get the ball into play.
UNO only scored 92 runs in their first 27 games, 3.4 runs per game, before Tuesday night. I'll go out on a limb and opine we scored enough (7) to beat UNO. Our lack of pitching was the reason we lost.
I am HOPEFUL Austin will return soon, but I don't have anymore info than anyone. Austin reportedly has shoulder tendinitis. I will go out on another limb and opine that if he was ready to pitch he would be pitching, no doubt. The college baseball season is only 3.5 months. Healthy players play. Hurt players sit. Holding players out for precautionary measures is coach speak for he can't pitch yet, without possibly getting hurt again before the end of the season. He will probably need to build up his arm strength and get re-stretched out to 80-100 pitches again over a couple of weeks when he does return, hopefully next week.
Milhorn is coming back from an oblique stain and missed four starts, I think. His three innings pitched in Lake Chuck are very encouraging. Based on my experience, pitchers only miss starts because they can't pitch 3, 4, 5 innings effectively.
They weren't resting, milhorn pullled an oblique, Austin's elbow was sore...you give guys a night off to rest, not a couple weeks. I understand they were being safe and very cautious bc of our depth. Robe saying they wanted to give them rest, means they didn't want the injury to get worse.
When you look at the lineup and break down each player, the largest percentage of SO to walks offenders are Harrison and Strentz. They are by far the two most frequent contributors to the number of SO in the lineup. Looking even closer, Harrison still has an OB% .392 and is hitting .365. Strentz on the other hand has an OB% of .302 and a batting average of .248, neither is good. Combined, they have accounted for 62 SO in the batting order. I can live with Harrison's SO numbers because he is so productive and delivers power in the lineup. Strentz needs improvement. But looking at the SO numbers, the blanket statement that UL strikes out a lot as a team is not correct.
We have 221 strike outs. The team average for strikeouts in the Sunbelt is 228 strikeouts. Compared to the conference we strike out about the average amount, or a little less. Saying we strike out a lot without comparing to something is simply not accurate or clear in meaning.
With that said, power hitters generally strike out a lot. Reggie Jackson averaged about one K per game...for 20 years.
He called it golf elbow, no structural damage just sore but could linger if not rested.
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