I'm responding to a bunch of people and I don't want to wait one minute in between posts, so I'm going to condense this into one
First of all- THIS is Whitney's career. I highly doubt he will ever set foot on a MLB mound as a pitcher, unless it's to throw out the ceremonial first pitch. He's not going anywhere after MSU. We might as well get out of him what we can. I have a feeling that this is sort of an anamoly because with a normal team with a functional bullpen instead of a dead ball era style four man staff, Cohen is known to have a quick hook.
Secondly- What was Cohen thinking? We're facing the worst team in the SEC and odds are they are going to throw someone that we will hit. I'm sure that UT throwing their Sunday starter didn't really cross Cohen's mind- or really anyone other than Todd Raleigh, the UT coach. We might as well leave in the guy that gives us the best chance to keep us in the game. Hint- that's NOT Jared Wesson or Caleb Reed. He also saved Bowen and Crosswhite for tommorrow and Sunday- Crosswhite pitched five innings on Thurs. and Pace, who has also looked decent- relative to the rest of the bullpen- pitched four. I know Routt typically eats innings, but you can't count on that either. Also, I suspect that Bowen is going to start the Gov. Cup, so we need to save him if we can. Bottom line- you have to do crazy stuff sometimes when you have a staff like ours. Which is incredibly thin.
Next- Most pitches by a college pitcher that I've seen? Officially, Jared Weaver threw 165 in a SR game at Long Beach State. Apparently they didn't scar him enough to keep him from pitching for the Angels. The oft mentioned Lane Mestapay once started game one of a SR, pitched a complete game AND THEN pitched in relief the NEXT TWO games, including something like 4-5 in the Championship Game. The least LSU could do is retire his number, or at least give him a luxury box, or allow him to be entertained by a Golden Girl of his choice after she is proven free of STD's. Actually a combination of all the above would suffice. Saint Ron Polk nearly wore Eric DuBose out many times.
Finally- here's the thing. And I know that as MSU fans we are not used to this, since we have been the paragon of baseball virtue since 1976. John Cohen is doing EVERYTHING that he can do to win. He's doing EVERYTHING that he can to make us better. He's not some madman that wakes up and says- "I'm going to make Tyler Whitney throw 200 pitches and then ream his *** in the dugout." He's actually thinking about ways to beat people rather than worry about how classy the team looks. People are going to have to get used to it. It's called accountability. That means if you don't perform, you're going to get chewed out. That means that you have to have talent to come to MSU to play baseball. Just coming to the camp and having good grades just isn't good enough anymore. That means that we're going to do our best to win, and sometimes that's going to piss the other team off, and they may mean that they say something mean about MSU's team. This is NOT rec. league. Not everyone gets a trophy. There is no trophy for sportsmanship in the SEC. They keep score. And these are not little league kids. These are grown men, and if they are even halfway worth their salt, they'll want to win and get better. And that may mean that they get yelled at if they don't perform. And they need to understand that when the coaches yell at them, it's not a personal attack, it's to simply make them better. And I have yet to see a player complain about getting yelled at.
