Kirk Saarloos explains TCU pitching plan for rest of Big 12 Tournament
TCU Horned Frogs head coach Kirk Saarloos is currently trying to balance using his pitchers in the Big 12 Tournament with the upcoming NCAA Tournament.
The problem for Saarloos is that, as his team plays an elimination game against Kansas State, it’s unclear how long TCU is going to go in the Big 12 Tournament. On top of that, a trip to the NCAA Tournament isn’t guaranteed. With all that in mind, he explained the team’s pitching plan moving forward in the conference tournament.
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“Well, you don’t want to ever leave bullets down in your bullpen where you’re worried about game four or five,” Kirk Saarloos said. “We’ve kind of been in this mode, to be honest with you, because we haven’t had a second starter take hold of that this year or this back half of the season. So, we’ve kind of played that game pretty much the last two or three weeks of the season where everybody is available Friday night and we’ll figure out who we didn’t use and we’ll use them on Saturday. Then we’ll figure out who bounces back and who we can use again on Sunday.”
For the game against Kansas State, Kirk Saarloos turned to Ben Abeldt, who has been a good reliever this season for TCU but hasn’t been a starting pitcher. That’s part of him mixing and matching options while also trying to make sure to not leave any good arms on the bench.
“So, in this tournament, it’s kind of gonna be the same. We’ve had about six or seven different guys start games but this is Ben Abeldt’s first start of the year. He started a little bit last year and so really at this time of year there’s no rules.”
Kirk Saarloos on balancing Payton Tolle as a two-way player
This season, Payton Tolle has been TCU’s best pitcher. However, he was also supposed to be a power hitter in the middle of the order.
Toward the middle of the season, Kirk Saarloos removed Payton Tolle from the lineup to help him focus on pitching. Now, in the Big 12 Tournament, he’s back in the lineup, which is something that Saarloos knows he needs to balance.
“That’s what we decided in the middle part of the season when he really took off was when he stopped hitting and stopped DHing and focused on pitching. So, I think part of that was really good. Part of that was we lost a guy that was our three-hole hitter at the beginning of the year that we were planning on being a big piece,” Saarloos said.
“So, with this tournament what I told him yesterday was you’re not gonna pitch again this week. We’re gonna get you ready for next week so you can go hit. He’ll strikeout just like most guys who have some juice but hopefully when he gets one it’ll be up in the seats.”