Indiana is throwing right-hander Braydon Tucker today. The 6-foot-4 sophomore is 2-0 with a 0.82 ERA. He only has four strikeouts and one walk in 11 innings. He threw six innings and gave up one run in a win at LSU opening weekend. Sienna got three hits and no runs on him in five innings last week. He's also gotten 19 runs of support these two weeks combined.
Tucker was a sparsely used bullpen arm last year so I don't have a ton to go on. I watched some video from his start against LSU. He's 88-92 and the fastball is good. There's life, the two-seamer really moves and it presents as a typical SEC right-hander. Nothing oh my God elite, but it's good. He threw nothing but fastballs in the first inning against LSU. He started mixing in a slider after that but it's more of an offering in the zone instead of some swing-and-miss pitch early. It does change speeds effectively though. He flashes a changeup to lefties and it's fine. I am noticing that the breaking ball picks up more depth as his outing goes on. It looks so much better in the fifth than it did in the second inning. He kept his velocity around 90 in the later innings. Ole Miss needs to hit him early. There’s the danger of beating balls in the ground and swinging over sliders the second time through if Ole Miss presses. There’s no reason to swing defensively. Drive the fastball.
In short: It's similar to what you'll see on Sundays in the SEC. Look fastball, hit the fastball, you'll get enough of them. LSU wouldn't lay off of it up in the zone and they kept trying to pull breaking balls. He doesn't hang the breaking ball often. And he starts hitters with it more the second time through. It shouldn't be a double digit strikeout day for Ole Miss, as has been common lately, but we'll see how the Rebels handle it. It's the best fastball of the starters the Rebels have seen this weekend. It's a good warmup for league play, but he's not as good as UL Sunday starter Luke Smith.
EDIT: I'm still watching for some reason, and that fastball flattens out when it falls to 88-89 as he gets tired. It doesn't pick up sink. It flattens.
Tucker was a sparsely used bullpen arm last year so I don't have a ton to go on. I watched some video from his start against LSU. He's 88-92 and the fastball is good. There's life, the two-seamer really moves and it presents as a typical SEC right-hander. Nothing oh my God elite, but it's good. He threw nothing but fastballs in the first inning against LSU. He started mixing in a slider after that but it's more of an offering in the zone instead of some swing-and-miss pitch early. It does change speeds effectively though. He flashes a changeup to lefties and it's fine. I am noticing that the breaking ball picks up more depth as his outing goes on. It looks so much better in the fifth than it did in the second inning. He kept his velocity around 90 in the later innings. Ole Miss needs to hit him early. There’s the danger of beating balls in the ground and swinging over sliders the second time through if Ole Miss presses. There’s no reason to swing defensively. Drive the fastball.
In short: It's similar to what you'll see on Sundays in the SEC. Look fastball, hit the fastball, you'll get enough of them. LSU wouldn't lay off of it up in the zone and they kept trying to pull breaking balls. He doesn't hang the breaking ball often. And he starts hitters with it more the second time through. It shouldn't be a double digit strikeout day for Ole Miss, as has been common lately, but we'll see how the Rebels handle it. It's the best fastball of the starters the Rebels have seen this weekend. It's a good warmup for league play, but he's not as good as UL Sunday starter Luke Smith.
EDIT: I'm still watching for some reason, and that fastball flattens out when it falls to 88-89 as he gets tired. It doesn't pick up sink. It flattens.
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