Do we start Pilk or Small on Saturday night?
- Thread starter Duke Humphrey
- Start date
I'd go pilk on this one. The dynamic is different in the CWS format. He seemed to have found a lot of his mojo in his last start and I think he would be able to give us an inning or two on short rest if we need him in a few days whereas Small would not. Small could then start game 1 if we made it to the champ series.
I would start Pilkington on Saturday. Small on Monday. And assuming we won both, Pilkington on Friday. Then Small and Billingsley in Finals
I don't think there is any "saving" of anyone in the CWS. All the teams there are dangerous or they wouldn't be there. Also, the earlier you pitch Small the quicker you can bring him back for a game later in the tournament.
Don't know that I'm following why Pilk could come back on less rest than Small. Base on how things went between the Regional and Super Regional it looks like Small is actually able to bounce back quicker than Pilk.
My thought on that is not performance so much as Small is coming back from arm surgery and I would think one would hesitate bringing him back on short rest.
Ignoring limitations on Small due to coming off an injury, pitching him Saturday would open up an opportunity to pitch him a few times if you are willing to pitch him on 3 days rest for his third appearance. Under any scenario where we made it to the championship series, we could pitch him Saturday, then Friday (5 days rest), and then the second or third game of the championship (3 or 4 days rest).
I've heard people say you don't need a lot of pitching any more for the CWS, but I didn't really understand it until now. If you win straight through, you could only need two starters, with your ace going Saturday, Friday (5 days rest) and Tuesday (3 days rest) and your second guy going Monday and Monday. If you're willing to pitch your ace and #2 on three days rest one time each, you don't even have to have a 4th starter if you lose one of the first two games and then go three games into the championship.
I've heard people say you don't need a lot of pitching any more for the CWS, but I didn't really understand it until now. If you win straight through, you could only need two starters, with your ace going Saturday, Friday (5 days rest) and Tuesday (3 days rest) and your second guy going Monday and Monday. If you're willing to pitch your ace and #2 on three days rest one time each, you don't even have to have a 4th starter if you lose one of the first two games and then go three games into the championship.
This is true. You never have to play a DH or even on consecutive days until you get to the 'if necessary game' of the finals. If you win rounds one and two in our bracket you get three off days until the finals. Way different than the SECT who tries to cram four games in one day.
Whoever pitches Saturday could potentially pitch three times in Omaha. In 2013 Graveman pitched our first and third game. And if we could have split the first two of the championship series, I think he would have pitched Game 3. So if Small is our best starter, it makes sense to start him first. Also, I don't think we should save a pitcher for our second game based on Washington's seed. They have an ace, and anyone can beat anyone in Omaha.
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I would start Pilk because it's a later, cooler game. Pilk labors out there, and he always looks drenched after 40 pitches. We won't know what time of the day we would play the second game either way, but I'd rather have Small out there than Pilk at 1:00PM on Monday.
True, but Pilk is the one that has seemingly worn down over the season, not Small.
Checked weather for OMAHA. High to be 100 for the day with temp around
97 at 7:00. It is not going to matter if Pilk pitches at 2 or 7 as he will be
drenched after this warmups before 1st inning.
Its going 2b hot as blazes which may help us as we should
be more used to it than Huskies.
The main difference is that the mid-afternoon sun won't be beating down. But as the temperature drops, the humidity goes up, so it'll still be uncomfortably hot. But it's early summer in the midwest.