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Pitt

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earsky

Four-Star Poster
Jan 12, 2010
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Pitt stands at 3-5 in the league,having won the shortened series against Clemson after dropping 3 at NC and 2 of 3 to Va Tech.
This looks like just the type of series to continue the momentum before the midweek at uk before coming home next weekend against NC.
 
Pitt took two games out of two at Lipscomb, 16-0 and 6-5.

There are no easy series in ACC baseball!
 
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This is the Kuehner from 2 weeks ago. Couldn't get the off speed stuff over.
 
Totally ridiculous. Two wild pitches, two runs. I'm just not sold on Kuehner being the #1 starter. Both Poland and Phillips are much better pitchers.
 
TheRealVille said:
Totally ridiculous. Two wild pitches, two runs. I'm just not sold on Kuehner being the #1 starter. Both Poland and Phillips are much better pitchers.
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He's just too erratic with his breaking balls. Not a good sign going forward.
That called third strike on Usher was horrible.
 
McDonnell needs to move Beard up in the order. He's too good a hitter to be batting 7th. Just put him behind Knap and move everyone else down one slot. Besides, Metzinger is a perfect 3 hole hitter.
 
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Apparently, the Cards were still asleep when the game started today. McDonnell looks pissed.
 
3 walks, 3 wild pitches, a HBP and 5 runs in less than 2 innings and Keuhner was left in the game. I guess Coach McDonnell is giving the first game away.
 
Instead of being pissed, Dan and Roger need to quit sitting back and allowing the pitcher to fail miserably in gaining control of his pitches. You could watch a lot of D1 college baseball and never see a weekend starter like perform this poorly. Walks, wild pitches, behind count and hit batters …… it was evident in the 1st inning that he was not ready to pitch today.

2-0 was forgivable, but the 5-0 hole is all on Dan and Roger.
 
Yeah,and the hole that was dug got too deep even for this offense that continuously puts pressure on the other team.
Got to be concerned a little about Kuehner going forward. This one almost mirrored the start 2 weeks ago.
 
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So….anyone who has read my baseball posts over the last 7-8 years…knows my only complaint is they leave pitchers in too long. For too often guys are not ready in the pen so they can’t even make a switch if they wanted to.
 
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Bardman said:
So….anyone who has read my baseball posts over the last 7-8 years…knows my only complaint is they leave pitchers in too long. For too often guys are not ready in the pen so they can’t even make a switch if they wanted to.
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it’s happened with Seed against Lipscomb and now Kuehner in the past two weeks. when these guys are walking 4 or 5 in their first 2 to 3 innings it’s clear they don’t have their stuff. I also believe that Kuehner should be the Sunday guy. I’m definitely more confident when Poland or Phillips are on the mound
 
Louisville1stCards4ever said:
Kuehner in the past two weeks
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I think he actually pitched pretty good last week,but the week before yeah.
It's a bit of a conundrum and I agree maybe Sunday instead.
I think if they do what's best for the team,maybe even midweek. Hell,I can remember years when the starting weekend rotation wasn't nailed down until May.
 
earsky said:
I think he actually pitched pretty good last week,but the week before yeah.
It's a bit of a conundrum and I agree maybe Sunday instead.
I think if they do what's best for the team,maybe even midweek. Hell,I can remember years when the starting weekend rotation wasn't nailed down until May.
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yeah he was fine against BC I was saying that it’s happened twice in the past two weeks to us. how I worded it was confusing
 
Louisville1stCards4ever said:
yeah he was fine against BC I was saying that it’s happened twice in the past two weeks to us. how I worded it was confusing
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No and I got your point. If it had been twice in a row the decisions going forward would probably be easier. The problem for Williams and Mac is they don't know what they're getting start to start with Kuehner at this point.
It's a bigger conundrum than the bullpen issues imo.
 
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earsky said:
No and I got your point. If it had been twice in a row the decisions going forward would probably be easier. The problem for Williams and Mac is they don't know what they're getting start to start with Kuehner at this point.
It's a bigger conundrum than the bullpen issues imo.
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he’s definitely best suited for Sundays right now
 
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I agree with McDonnell leaving his starters in too long but yesterday he had to consider the double header. Removing the starter in the 2nd inning of game 1 isn't ideal.
 
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TheRealVille said:
I agree with McDonnell leaving his starters in too long but yesterday he had to consider the double header. Removing the starter in the 2nd inning of game 1 isn't ideal.
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Yeah,it was a bad scenario for sure,plus we have a game in 2 days to consider.
 
Tough start in today’s game. Offense is non-existant through three innings.
 
Pitt has 4 seeing eye singles in 3 innings. They couldn't throw the ball any better through the infield. Only one bad pitch by Phillips with the solo homer.

Cards should fare better against this pitcher the second time around the order.
 
Or they may get no hit? There's no rhyme or reason in sports. Cards have hit the ball hard four or five times right at somebody. This pitcher for Pitt doesn't throw hard or have some incredible breaking pitches. He just gets ahead of the count and it's working so far.
 
I hope that the offense hasn't been a bit of Fool's Gold,but I sensed it was a little against the last two starters for Notre Dame. We got to their bullpens on Saturday and Sunday but we're dominated by their starters. In other words,the best 3 pitchers we've faced in league play have shut us down.
The schedule gets tougher and I hope these guys can become more of a disciplined group against the best arms they'll see in the next two months.
 
This is what I was referring to with the lineup with Knap leading off but I was accused of being a Knap hater.

To start, I'm very perplexed with Coach McDonnell's apparent fear of superstition that he hasn't made some changes that after 28 games are self evident. A good manager constantly tinkers with the lineup to get the best results. Why wait until you lose 4 out of 6 or worse?

Everyone will cite Knap's stats but most of that was earlier in the season when opposing teams hadn't game planned for someone they knew as a #9 hitter. Now teams recognize that he's a first pitch hitter and have been using that against him.

His numbers have been going down steadily and he still has some really good pitchers he hasn't faced. My opinion is only Usher and Bianco are lesser hitters.

A couple weeks ago it looked like Usher had figured it out but that's not the case. The guy just strikes out too much. He's just not a very good hitter so he's not the solution for a leadoff hitter.

Right now I would like to see Beard or even Humphrey leading off and Metzinger definitely needs to hit 3rd.

Beard
Humphrey
Metzinger
Rushing
Masterman
Payton
Knap
Bianco
Usher

The middle of the order in Metzinger, Rushing, Masterman and Payton is one of the best in college baseball. Beard and Humphrey setting the table leads to a lot of RBI's.

As for the rotation, I think everyone knows Poland is the #1 starter, the best on the team. Now there is something to having your best starter pitching on Saturdays so I wouldn't mind seeing Phillips the Friday night starter.

I think Keuhner would be a midweek starter if the Cards had another starter like Luke Seed if he can get back to what we saw last season.

There's still half a season to go and some of these things will get sorted out. I could be totally wrong and Knap leads off the rest of the season and he may not falter like I believe he will. Baseball is a game of ups and downs, more than basketball or football. We will see.
 
Everyone goes through slumps at some point. Knap was not going to hit .400 for the season and he wouldn’t be responsible himself if we did lose 4 of 6. He’s not the issue. It’s consistent pitching performances, knowing what you’re going to get from start to start.
 
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I can name a few things I'm a hater of but none are student athletes at the University of Louisville. I do however have lots of criticism for both players and coaches as I do praise. It's the entire point of being a fan(atic)
 
I just wish these games could be played at temperature and weather conditions that were conducive to baseball. Honestly, I am not sure how anyone can grip the baseball when it is this cold and windy. Pitt, Syracuse and ND are more accustomed to this than most.
 
nccardfan said:
Everyone goes through slumps at some point. Knap was not going to hit .400 for the season and he wouldn’t be responsible himself if we did lose 4 of 6. He’s not the issue. It’s consistent pitching performances, knowing what you’re going to get from start to start.
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Yeah,I agree with this for the most part. Like I said earlier though,the pitchers we'll see going forward are gonna get tougher. Besides better starts(and I thought Pitt benefited from some seeing eye singles early) ALL of our hitters need to elevate their approaches as we get into the meat of this schedule.
There's plenty of blame to go around when you're helping a pitcher who's already pitching a great game, by going after so many pitches that are nowhere near the strike zone.
It really cranks up in April and I hope everybody gets cranked up with the schedule.
 
2330859 said:
I just wish these games could be played at temperature and weather conditions that were conducive to baseball. Honestly, I am not sure how anyone can grip the baseball when it is this cold and windy. Pitt, Syracuse and ND are more accustomed to this than most.
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Some will say that we have an advantage because we play on turf. Ball skips rather than bounces on natural grass but as long as both teams are subject to same conditions, no excuses…
 
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