You don't need a play-by-play or recap of me after that. Vanderbilt won both games with 8-7 scores after Ole Miss had late leads in each game. To point of being one strike away and one ground ball away in the first game of the day.
The Rebels now have lost two straight series to Mississippi State and are 8-7 in the SEC at the halfway point. The cushion and SEC breathing room are gone with six straight league games at Swayze to start the second half against Georgia and LSU.
Let me start with this and get it out of the way: the offense had a great weekend and deserved a better fate. Ole Miss scored seven runs twice in seven inning games and lost both of them. That's unacceptable. The offense was advantageous, used a lot of different parts and battled back after the pitching staff kept surrendering leads. A+ for that entire group on the weekend and we'll discuss it in more written detail during the week. That Nick Fortes steal attempt made little to not sense in the final inning but otherwise great weekend at the plate and for the most part on the bases. Need more awareness on the hidden ball thing.
OK, with that out of the way, Ole Miss has a bullpen problem. The Rebels were excellent in that area the first few weeks of the season, as the bullpen helped engineer a lot of comeback wins. On paper they were and supposed to still be deep and talented and all that. But that's not reality right now.
Since the Arkansas series finale Ole Miss can't hold leads late in games and has lost confidence in those situations. The counted-on relievers are struggling, and there's certainly a loss of energy and overall success. Mike Bianco gave the following quote after the games today.
"Something happened to us, happened to us about a week ago. Can't shutdown leads and not just one-run leads. Multiple run leads and we’re not pitching with confidence at the end of games or playing defense with confidence."
That's a telling quote from a head coach who typically talks positive and doesn't reveal a lot of issues with his words. Let's look at the recent work by certain relievers.
Dallas Woolfolk: Woolfolk has given up at least one hit in all but two of his appearances this season and concentrating on the established timeframe he's gotten three total outs over three outings including two appearances of not recording an out. A home run and a double where the two batters faced today, and he took the loss in the first game. The velocity remains down, and from my semi-trained eye he seems to be overthrowing and has definitely lost command and, I'm sure, confidence. He looks lost out there right now. In the final game against Arkansas he faced two batters and gave up a hit by pitch and a hit. That's two of three outings with each batter faced getting on base and no outs recorded. He doesn't even profile as the same pitcher who was an All-American last year.
Parker Caracci: For a pitcher who wasn't on the active roster for two straight seasons I can't imagine where the Rebels would be without him. He was simply tremendous going into last weekend, and even in the final against Mississippi State he did reasonably well considering he was asked to get a nine-out save. He ended up getting 12 outs and allowing two hits and a run with three strikeouts and a walk. Eventually high-leverage, close situations get you, and that's all I'm chalking that up to considering his workload.
Today he gave up three hits and two runs in 1.2 innings. To his credit he threw a ground ball to end the first game with a win, but Jacob Adams couldn't make the tough play, allowing the infield single to continue the game. But I think it's evident Parker needs a certain amount of rest because his velocity falls and while his slower fastball still has some movement it's definitely hittable. My pressbox view is he needs to trust his offspeed pitch more. Caracci has a great mentality for pressure situations, but he's always given up hits, so you have to pick your spots. He's given up multiple hits in eight of his last 10 appearances.
Will Stokes: The former closer didn't pitch this weekend, so it's questionable as to his role moving forward, however he's mentioned because he was always included when talking about the past track records that are the cornerstones of the Ole Miss bullpen. Over the past three appearances, Stokes has given up eight hits and seven runs while getting only four outs. He had a nice stretch of three outings around the start of SEC play, but his ERA has ballooned to 8.25, and he's getting a lot of the plate with his pitches.
Will Ethridge: Ethridge is Ole Miss' best reliever, but there's fairly clear evidence that he doesn't possess the rubber arm of some others when it comes to pitching multiple times in a weekend. And I don't mean injury or anything like that. He just isn't as sharp or at least doesn't get the same results the second time out.
In first appearances the last four weekends: 10 innings, 9 hits, 1 run, 13 strikeouts, 0 walks
In second appearances the last four weekends: 4.2 innings, 7 hits, 7 runs, 6 strikeouts, 1 walk
If those are factual evidence, then Ole Miss has to pick its best spot of the weekend -- whether that's starting or relief -- or at least avoid the meaningless innings. Ole Miss was up 6-2 in the 6th when he came in Friday night. Considering the rest of the bullpen, I get why you'd lock a win down, but if there was another arm for that job you could get better high-leverage innings elsewhere.
Greer Holston: Holston was knocked around in mop-up innings against Mississippi State and he gave up a bloop single and a walk in four batters faced today. I still think he's a reliable option. He entered this weekend with a 6-1 K-BB ratio and his stuff is good enough to get outs. I don't have concern here.
I don't know what the answer is, but it's currently not working from an overall bullpen standpoint, though it's admittedly a small sample size. College baseball is small sample sizes and games can get away from you quickly. Ole Miss has blown four straight innings with a save possible and another blown penultimate inning lead. That's unacceptable and whether it's new roles or new options the offense can't overcome this level of doubt in the late innings.
It's not panic time. The rough outings have only been a week, but as I showed above, there were some signs that this was possible. Tweaks or changes are necessary to keep things moving forward in a positive way.
We'll hit some other things soon. Ryan Olenek is just fantastic offensively, and Tyler Keenan is as good as any freshman in this conference when combining offense and defense. There are a positives. But the big negative will continue to hamper the Rebels unless there's a multi-layered fix.
The Rebels now have lost two straight series to Mississippi State and are 8-7 in the SEC at the halfway point. The cushion and SEC breathing room are gone with six straight league games at Swayze to start the second half against Georgia and LSU.
Let me start with this and get it out of the way: the offense had a great weekend and deserved a better fate. Ole Miss scored seven runs twice in seven inning games and lost both of them. That's unacceptable. The offense was advantageous, used a lot of different parts and battled back after the pitching staff kept surrendering leads. A+ for that entire group on the weekend and we'll discuss it in more written detail during the week. That Nick Fortes steal attempt made little to not sense in the final inning but otherwise great weekend at the plate and for the most part on the bases. Need more awareness on the hidden ball thing.
OK, with that out of the way, Ole Miss has a bullpen problem. The Rebels were excellent in that area the first few weeks of the season, as the bullpen helped engineer a lot of comeback wins. On paper they were and supposed to still be deep and talented and all that. But that's not reality right now.
Since the Arkansas series finale Ole Miss can't hold leads late in games and has lost confidence in those situations. The counted-on relievers are struggling, and there's certainly a loss of energy and overall success. Mike Bianco gave the following quote after the games today.
"Something happened to us, happened to us about a week ago. Can't shutdown leads and not just one-run leads. Multiple run leads and we’re not pitching with confidence at the end of games or playing defense with confidence."
That's a telling quote from a head coach who typically talks positive and doesn't reveal a lot of issues with his words. Let's look at the recent work by certain relievers.
Dallas Woolfolk: Woolfolk has given up at least one hit in all but two of his appearances this season and concentrating on the established timeframe he's gotten three total outs over three outings including two appearances of not recording an out. A home run and a double where the two batters faced today, and he took the loss in the first game. The velocity remains down, and from my semi-trained eye he seems to be overthrowing and has definitely lost command and, I'm sure, confidence. He looks lost out there right now. In the final game against Arkansas he faced two batters and gave up a hit by pitch and a hit. That's two of three outings with each batter faced getting on base and no outs recorded. He doesn't even profile as the same pitcher who was an All-American last year.
Parker Caracci: For a pitcher who wasn't on the active roster for two straight seasons I can't imagine where the Rebels would be without him. He was simply tremendous going into last weekend, and even in the final against Mississippi State he did reasonably well considering he was asked to get a nine-out save. He ended up getting 12 outs and allowing two hits and a run with three strikeouts and a walk. Eventually high-leverage, close situations get you, and that's all I'm chalking that up to considering his workload.
Today he gave up three hits and two runs in 1.2 innings. To his credit he threw a ground ball to end the first game with a win, but Jacob Adams couldn't make the tough play, allowing the infield single to continue the game. But I think it's evident Parker needs a certain amount of rest because his velocity falls and while his slower fastball still has some movement it's definitely hittable. My pressbox view is he needs to trust his offspeed pitch more. Caracci has a great mentality for pressure situations, but he's always given up hits, so you have to pick your spots. He's given up multiple hits in eight of his last 10 appearances.
Will Stokes: The former closer didn't pitch this weekend, so it's questionable as to his role moving forward, however he's mentioned because he was always included when talking about the past track records that are the cornerstones of the Ole Miss bullpen. Over the past three appearances, Stokes has given up eight hits and seven runs while getting only four outs. He had a nice stretch of three outings around the start of SEC play, but his ERA has ballooned to 8.25, and he's getting a lot of the plate with his pitches.
Will Ethridge: Ethridge is Ole Miss' best reliever, but there's fairly clear evidence that he doesn't possess the rubber arm of some others when it comes to pitching multiple times in a weekend. And I don't mean injury or anything like that. He just isn't as sharp or at least doesn't get the same results the second time out.
In first appearances the last four weekends: 10 innings, 9 hits, 1 run, 13 strikeouts, 0 walks
In second appearances the last four weekends: 4.2 innings, 7 hits, 7 runs, 6 strikeouts, 1 walk
If those are factual evidence, then Ole Miss has to pick its best spot of the weekend -- whether that's starting or relief -- or at least avoid the meaningless innings. Ole Miss was up 6-2 in the 6th when he came in Friday night. Considering the rest of the bullpen, I get why you'd lock a win down, but if there was another arm for that job you could get better high-leverage innings elsewhere.
Greer Holston: Holston was knocked around in mop-up innings against Mississippi State and he gave up a bloop single and a walk in four batters faced today. I still think he's a reliable option. He entered this weekend with a 6-1 K-BB ratio and his stuff is good enough to get outs. I don't have concern here.
I don't know what the answer is, but it's currently not working from an overall bullpen standpoint, though it's admittedly a small sample size. College baseball is small sample sizes and games can get away from you quickly. Ole Miss has blown four straight innings with a save possible and another blown penultimate inning lead. That's unacceptable and whether it's new roles or new options the offense can't overcome this level of doubt in the late innings.
It's not panic time. The rough outings have only been a week, but as I showed above, there were some signs that this was possible. Tweaks or changes are necessary to keep things moving forward in a positive way.
We'll hit some other things soon. Ryan Olenek is just fantastic offensively, and Tyler Keenan is as good as any freshman in this conference when combining offense and defense. There are a positives. But the big negative will continue to hamper the Rebels unless there's a multi-layered fix.
