Well, we have to start with the obvious… Chase Estep. 6 for 12 (.500) with 5 RBIs, a home run and a couple of doubles. Scored a run in every game and worked his way on base regularly. SEC Player of the Week. I gave Estep a whole lot of grief going into this year because last year he was the prime example of being able to hit against non-SEC pitching. I harped on his poor SEC batting average regularly. This is the very thing that will shut me up because my mouth will be too full of crow. He’s hitting .455 on the year and showing more power as well as the ability to hit the gaps. His approach is much better and I expect that will pay dividends.
I mentioned thinking that the strikeout numbers were low. I suppose they felt that way, but they were not. However, I am not overly concerned about them given that the two games with the highest number were the two games we hit the most and had more at bats. Interestingly, the TCU strikeout pitcher struck us out the least. However, I don’t like seeing that we had 28 strikeouts to just 13 walks.
Depth – This team has a whole lot of depth. Anu gets banged up so they move things around and McCarthy starts on Friday and goes 3 for 4 with a couple RBIs. Harris gets banged up and they plug in Felker for the next two games and he goes a combined 2 for 6. Those are solid numbers from backups.
I don’t care for Ritter leading off. I am not sure who you have leading off, maybe he’s the only one, but he just doesn’t strike me as a leadoff guy even now. He went 3 for 13 (.230) over the weekend and scored a couple of runs. However, he had 0 RBIS and drew 0 walks (albeit he did get hit by a pitch a time or two). Also had 4 strikeouts over the course of the weekend. I think his hitting has improved a good deal, but just don’t think he’s a real great get on base type of guy. Again, not sure who you put there with this team though. I think Harris could be that guy. His OBP is .533.
Plastiak doesn’t always hit, but when he does it is going a long way. He had just 3 hits this weekend and 2 of them were home runs, one for a grand slam. 7 RBIs in those 3 hits.
Pitching other than with Williams is pretty all over the place. Bosma struggled against WMU. It happens, but then he pitches an absolute gem this past weekend. Harney gave up 3 runs in his outing on Friday, but then also turned it around entirely to shut the door on them for several innings to allow our offense to get back. All things considered, a team ERA of 4.75 just isn’t good enough right now considering the competition we’ve faced, and in particular Cotto and Stupp having ERAs of 6.00 and 9.58 respectively are going to keep us from winning games. I don’t know what the staff does there. I don’t know if they decide to make Williams a starter again or if they just keep rolling with this and hope Cotto and Stupp find their grooves. Harney could be another candidate as he did respectably in league play a year ago. Options are there if they decide to use them.
I dunno. Hindsight is 20/20 at this point, but I feel like the staff mismanaged Williams/Harney this weekend. I get it that they are the most reliable, but one of them has to be an actual closer and not just two guys that you use as someone to get you 3 innings each game. If UK has Williams in the 9th inning in game 3, then TCU isn’t putting up a 5 spot and UK might very well have a sweep. Instead, we threw Williams for 2 innings in the early game on Saturday and he had to throw 36 pitches. Now, had he only thrown 1 inning, being the same day, I doubt he goes back out, but in a 4 run game, you might try to squeeze an inning out of Strickland or Guilfoil there and then, if needed, get Williams in the 9th if it gets closer. However, to just use him in game 2 was a touch wasteful to me. Use either Harney as a closer and Williams as a stopper or vice-versa. Don’t use them both as stoppers that go 3+ innings and then you can’t use them again that weekend.
Fogel had a good Saturday. 4-6. I think one of his doubles was kind of wind aided, but it still counted for him. I still don’t know about him in that 4 hole spot. Personally, I think that hurts Plastiak. We saw it this weekend… they IBB Plastiak and loaded the bases and went to Fogel (or Fogler if you will). This with just 1 out in the 7th of game 1 and the game tied at 11. Fogel struck out and then Jump flied out and UK left 3 on. That was a huge moment and we luckily overcame it the next inning, but something like that is how you lose games. If I’m an opposing team, I’d feel pretty comfortable pitching around Plastiak and giving him very little to hit and then getting to Fogel. So, I still think he needs to be moved down and that doing so can maybe even make us more dangerous. I don’t know why you aren’t stacking Plastiak and. I think any team, at this point, would be pooping their pants having to face Estep, Plastiak, and Anu in that order. Then you have Jump and Harris (or if you put Ritter there in the 6) back to back and those guys are just hitters and no one will want to face them either. Then have Rubalcaba and Fogel, both who have power, but can also hit to the gaps. Maybe I’m nitpicking though.
