Baseball America: Louisville Regional

[baseballguy1588]

Here is a good write-up on the regional this weekend. There will be a lot of good arms throwing this weekend.

Louisville is the favorite and if they bring their A game in all 3 phases they have a good chance of winning the regional.

Finally, all games will be on ESPN3 and Saturday's night game might be broadcast on ESPN2/ESPNU as well as the games on Sunday. It's great to see college baseball to continue to get the exposure it deserves. Playoff baseball is full of emotion and excitement.

Louisville Regional

 

[nccardfan]

Hey Baseballguy,

Thanks for all the info. Was wondering if you knew what the status is of Kidston? Is he done for the year? He could certainly add a lot of depth to our pitching staff.

Thanks!

Go Cards!

 

[sturt]

I don't understand the "The extremely deep bullpen" part of that article. It's extremely shallow actually.

We have 2 middle relief guys. Two. That's deep? Our bullpen is 3 guys when you add Burdi.

And yes, Kidston is out for the season. If he was healthy, I would be EXTREMELY optimistic about our postseason future. It's a horrible loss for the Cards.

 

[baseonballs]

I am sorry to hear that about Kidston. Here was having a really good freshman year.

 

[jmmcgr02]

Originally posted by sturt:
I don't understand the "The extremely deep bullpen" part of that article. It's extremely shallow actually.

We have 2 middle relief guys. Two. That's deep? Our bullpen is 3 guys when you add Burdi.

And yes, Kidston is out for the season. If he was healthy, I would be EXTREMELY optimistic about our postseason future. It's a horrible loss for the Cards.

Losing Kidston hurts, but there are a lot of very good teams that would love to have Burdi, Ege, Funkhouser, McGrath, Sturgeon, and even Filemeno in their bull pen.

Ege had a batting against average of .105. that is insane for a middle reliever in college. McGrath at .196. He had a great year for us. Funkhouser a sub 2 ERA, Filemeno is throwing well now, if you take out his ND outing, his era is down to 4.5 and his batting against average under .200. Sturgeon a 3.4 era with 15 k's in 11 innings. And then you have Burdi.

I am not sure how that isn't a very deep bull pen.

 

[sturt]

Sturgeon and Filomeno rarely ever play. And Funkhouser is a starter. That leaves the 2 guys, Ege and McGrath for middle relief.

 

[nccardfan]

I tend to agree some with sturt on this one. Kime was a middle relief/late inning guy until Kidston went out and we needed a 3rd starter. A guy who may come into play is Ruxer although I don't have a lot of confidence in him because he has had several opportunities to correct himself. At best right now he is a one or two batter specialist and if he walks the 1st guy, you might as well pull him.

Go Cards!

 

[baseballguy1588]

Kime/Funk could come in relief this weekend if needed. Kime pitched in relief in the Big East tournament.

Hopefully tonight we can get 7 out of Chad and then go with Ruxer or McGrath and then have everyone ready to go for Saturday's winner's bracket championship game.

 

[baseonballs]

Baseballguy has given some very useful information in many different ways. Although any coach in the NCAA regional tournament needs to have a strategy for the use of the pitchers, the last post of baseballugy concerns me in a way - somewhat looking beyond game 1. U of L really needs to come out and play their best baseball. There needs to be a sense of urgency, without pressure. I don't think looking beyond the game that is being played, or to the Super Regional, is any benefit to the players. If U of L plays to their full potential, they have a shot to win this regional. Play like they did in the Big East tournament, and their season will be over. I hope this team puts it all together this weekend. GO CARDS!

This post was edited on 5/31 2:24 PM by baseonballs

 

[jmmcgr02]

So the ability of our starters to go deep is now a weakness of our middle relievers?
Funk houser is not a starter. In tourney play, you have 3 starters, the rest of the staff is available at any time, including kime in game 1.
Glad to see more people following the cards, but knocking our staff is asinine.

 

[sturt]

Originally posted by jmmcgr02:
So the ability of our starters to go deep is now a weakness of our middle relievers?
Funkhouser is not a starter. In tourney play, you have 3 starters, the rest of the staff is available at any time, including kime in game 1.
Glad to see more people following the cards, but knocking our staff is asinine.

Who started 3 games ago?

Funk has started in 3 of his last 4 appearances including a 9 inning complete game shutout.

If we were to lose to Miami (which is very possible) and we win the losers' bracket matchup on Sunday (Kime starting) then who do we start the next game vs. Miami?

I wasn't even necessarily referring to tourney play anyway. It was an analysis of the team. Since Kidston went down, Kime took the Sunday role and Funk took the midweek role. That's really what I was referring to in the first place.

 

[jmmcgr02]

Unlike the BE tourney, the regionals are completely different. You do whatever you can to win the game you are in right now. Everyone staff member but Thompson was available for relief last night.
It doesn't matter who our mid week starters were during the year, in the regionals, the only 2 pitchers with defined roles are Green and Thompson. If Thompson struggles early today, you very well may see Kime in long relief.
Your position that our bullpen is not deep going into this regional is just wrong, and you trying to defend it by saying Funk is a starter just shows your lack of understanding of tournament baseball.

 

[sturt]

You're not really good at reading, are you? Didn't answer my questions and you obviously skipped my last paragraph. The last paragraph is pretty key to my argument.


So you're saying every team has only 2 starters and every one else is the bullpen? Wow, never knew that.
This post was edited on 6/1 2:23 PM by sturt

 

[jmmcgr02]

You are the one with reading comprehension issues.
You don't save anyone for a 4th or 5th game. If you get there you have a staff day. Ruxor would likely get the start, but simply Bc he is experienced. But again, you don't think about game 4 when playing games 1-3. Luckily we have a deep bullpen, and if we get a good start out of thompson, we will have Kime ready for Sunday and a rested bullpen.
And this was a preview to the louisville regional. Don't try to act like you were commenting on anything other than this weeks games. You are new to following college baseball, it is ok, but dont be so butt hurt when you get called out for your ignorance on the subject.