Pitching and Butch
- Thread starter ronpolk
- Start date
We had nothing when Butch took over.
His first year, he had Polk's players. Many of whom were hurt.
His second year- he has a bunch of freshmen and we had to pitch them. That's a recipe for disaster in the SEC. Also had a crappy defense behind them which did not help at all either.
His third year- improvement with a patchwork staff, but at least some roles were starting to be defined.
Year four- second in the SEC with a probable first round pick.
Those first two years, it wouldn't have mattered if Dave Duncan was our pitching coach. You can't make chicken salad from chicken poop.
Now, had we not shown improvement during year three when those freshmen were becoming sophomores- then I would have said that we probably need to look in a different direction.
If we had fired Butch after year two, I really think we would have had a hard time filling the job because I think pitching coach candidates would have to wonder why we would fire a coach given those circumstances in years one and two.
And these coaches all talk to each other- it's a tight knit community.
His first year, he had Polk's players. Many of whom were hurt.
His second year- he has a bunch of freshmen and we had to pitch them. That's a recipe for disaster in the SEC. Also had a crappy defense behind them which did not help at all either.
His third year- improvement with a patchwork staff, but at least some roles were starting to be defined.
Year four- second in the SEC with a probable first round pick.
Those first two years, it wouldn't have mattered if Dave Duncan was our pitching coach. You can't make chicken salad from chicken poop.
Now, had we not shown improvement during year three when those freshmen were becoming sophomores- then I would have said that we probably need to look in a different direction.
If we had fired Butch after year two, I really think we would have had a hard time filling the job because I think pitching coach candidates would have to wonder why we would fire a coach given those circumstances in years one and two.
And these coaches all talk to each other- it's a tight knit community.
From the coaches I know, Butch is the most widely respected guy on the staff. Burroughs has had his name in pretty much every job opening since he got here and people still consider Mingione to be bush league after he got called out by Maineri and acted like a douche. Butch is a good pitching coach.
that around here, you are expected to take a reasonably talented (mid round draft pick) freshman and beat first and second round talent juniors and seniors. There is no excuse for Butch not having these kids pitch like this by his second year. No excuse I tell 'ya.
Cross threw out some question about pitching and Butch went into this long explanation about hs pitchers mainly throw 4seam and overhand curve in high school are very successfull. He said here at miss st we want you to be able to throw your pitches for strike; the problem he said with the overhand curve is most pitchers use it as a k pitch but can't throw it for strikes. This is where the adjustment period comes in they have to get the kids throwing 2seam and sliders because the both break on and east-west plane and it really hard for hitters to tell the difference, which if you get a hitter looking slider and you easily get a fb by him and vise versa ...he went into a lot more detail I just paraphrased it
I think it was mainly a question about fr pitchers being effective; and he said that is what makes stratton look so much different, he said coming in we had no one else; he really had to learn on the mound against great competition if you remember our schedule Strattons fr year. He said that is why he expect this fr crop to be even better cause they have a Stratton to watch every day and see how he is successful, meanwhile our staff is now able to put our fr in winnable moments to build confidence why they are learning new pitches; all the while not throwing them 80+ innings in their fr season.
I think it was mainly a question about fr pitchers being effective; and he said that is what makes stratton look so much different, he said coming in we had no one else; he really had to learn on the mound against great competition if you remember our schedule Strattons fr year. He said that is why he expect this fr crop to be even better cause they have a Stratton to watch every day and see how he is successful, meanwhile our staff is now able to put our fr in winnable moments to build confidence why they are learning new pitches; all the while not throwing them 80+ innings in their fr season.