Phillip Irwin started for the Texas Rangers last night, getting the loss after allowing three runs in four-plus innings. It was his second career start, as he had a spot start for the Pirates while he was with that organization. As I said on the podcast, he's one of the ones I've continued to follow closely and cheer for.
He's moved through the Minor Leagues and now gotten up with two separate teams. It was one of the best success stories of the Mike Bianco era. A Tommy John survivor, Irwin had a 3.07 ERA as a freshman in 2007 during limited work. There were expectations going into his sophomore year, and he never got going, putting up a 5.40 ERA in 33.1 innings.
After an unsuccessful midweek start that season, Irwin walked over to me and laughed but was clearly frustrated. "Man, I don't know, I throw it right across the plate, and it just gets hit," said Irwin, who was obviously being simpleminded on purpose, as it will always get hit if it's belt high and across the middle.
He struggled to spot the fastball and couldn't find any confidence. Then, somewhat out of nowhere, he was excellent against Bethune-Cookman in the 2008 Coral Gables Regional. That momentum carried over to 2009, when he teamed with Drew Pomeranz to carry Ole Miss to the SEC title. He beat Western Kentucky in the regional. He beat Virginia in the super regional and had almost a four-to-one strikeout-to-walk ratio on the season.
An underrated season on one of Mike's best teams. He's continued to make pitches and find ways through lineups. Hopefully he gets another chance in Texas and sticks for a little while.
While on the topic of former Ole Miss players, congrats to Cody Satterwhite. Injured multiple times and seemingly close to the end, Satterwhite has improved each of the past few seasons and will play in the Double-A Eastern League All-Star Game on July 16. Out of the bullpen, he has a 1.60 ERA and 42 strikeouts in 39.1 innings. Season end ERAs since 2008: 3.92, 3.47, 3.60, 2.78, 1.60 (all-star break).
It's an impressive run, and he's always had that fastball. Could be better things ahead for him.
***** Ole Miss has a pretty decent weekend nonconference baseball schedule for next season. The Rebels will open at home against William & Mary, continue with Wright State, travel to Central Florida and host Stetson the weekend before conference play begins. During spring break, Ole Miss will visit Louisville for a two-game midweek set.
Obviously W&M beat Ole Miss twice in the 2013 Raleigh Regional. The Rebels took a series from Wright State in 2007 in Oxford. The Raiders, who have a wolf for a mascot, or at least did, won on Saturday in a rain-shortened game. The Rebels swept both Central Florida and Stetson this past season.
The Louisville home and home is back on the books, and it starts up there in the midweek. Louisville took two of three in Oxford and the two teams split the two games in Louisville during the first home and home. This one should be more pleasant since the Rebels were in Omaha, and the McDonnell-Bianco argument should settle down. Those matchups were tense and edgy, so I'll be curious to see how that goes, but I expect it to be a fun series in both places.
***** The NCAA has released practice guidelines for football. Note: Guidelines, not rules. The Ivy League and Pac-12 are the only two conference with rules. When asked what teeth the guidelines have, Dr. Brian Hainline said:
"Whereas some people say what teeth does this have, you can say what teeth does anything have?" Hainline said. "If I'm at a school and know the guidelines are the consensus and 10 of the leading medical organizations say we believe this is the right thing to do and I'm not doing that at my local campus, that has the same sort of teeth if I had 1,100 people working for me who are sitting at the 1,100 schools trying to be a watchdog. And even that wouldn't work because how could you watch all the sports at once?"
So, it's a recommendation if you will. The recommendations are the following:
Four live contact practices ("any practice that involves live tackling to the ground or full-speed blocking") per week, with a maximum of 12 in the preseason. A max of three scrimmages during the preseason. On two-a-days, only one practice can have contact.
During the season, postseason and bowl season, no more than two live contact practices per week.
In Spring practice, eight of the 15 may have live contact. Only two a week and not on back-to-back days. Max of three scrimmages.
There are also some medical guidelines including medical doctors and health care providers having clear and transparent authority when caring for injured players. Basically, a guidelines because fifty-three of the 120 training staff members polled by the Chronicle of Higher Education said they felt pressure to return a player to the field faster than was medically needed.
The NCAA wants schools to publish their concussion plans. There's also a push to follow the NFL model for contact which is based on how the players are dressed for practice.
Anyway, not much of this is anything of huge note. Ole Miss does a nice job of controlling practices and already does almost all of this from a practice standpoint. The coaching staff gets that you can't just hang heads everyday for a month.
***** Jeffrey and I made changes to my All-Bianco team on yesterday's podcast. We forgot Alex Yarbrough. We're idiots. You can find my original article here that gives the Bianco group prior to the 2010 season.
Here's what I would have for a first team now:
C - Stuart Turner
1B - Matt Smith
2B - Alex Yarbrough
SS - Zack Cozart
3B - Chris Coghlan
OF - Brian Pettway
OF - Seth Smith
OF - Auston Bousfield
SP - Bobby Wahl
SP - Lance Lynn
SP - Drew Pomeranz
C - Scott Bittle
Utility - Stephen Head
Wahl is in over Holliman, Yarbrough over Osteen, Turner over Gunther.
***** Some links for the week
She's still dying on Facebook (probably more for the younger crowd)
Good roundtable roundup regarding the USA's World Cup
The Detroit water thing is nuts
What to make of Lance Armstrong now?
Deadspin edits Dan Gilbert's letter
This post was edited on 7/9 10:09 AM by Chase Parham
He's moved through the Minor Leagues and now gotten up with two separate teams. It was one of the best success stories of the Mike Bianco era. A Tommy John survivor, Irwin had a 3.07 ERA as a freshman in 2007 during limited work. There were expectations going into his sophomore year, and he never got going, putting up a 5.40 ERA in 33.1 innings.
After an unsuccessful midweek start that season, Irwin walked over to me and laughed but was clearly frustrated. "Man, I don't know, I throw it right across the plate, and it just gets hit," said Irwin, who was obviously being simpleminded on purpose, as it will always get hit if it's belt high and across the middle.
He struggled to spot the fastball and couldn't find any confidence. Then, somewhat out of nowhere, he was excellent against Bethune-Cookman in the 2008 Coral Gables Regional. That momentum carried over to 2009, when he teamed with Drew Pomeranz to carry Ole Miss to the SEC title. He beat Western Kentucky in the regional. He beat Virginia in the super regional and had almost a four-to-one strikeout-to-walk ratio on the season.
An underrated season on one of Mike's best teams. He's continued to make pitches and find ways through lineups. Hopefully he gets another chance in Texas and sticks for a little while.
While on the topic of former Ole Miss players, congrats to Cody Satterwhite. Injured multiple times and seemingly close to the end, Satterwhite has improved each of the past few seasons and will play in the Double-A Eastern League All-Star Game on July 16. Out of the bullpen, he has a 1.60 ERA and 42 strikeouts in 39.1 innings. Season end ERAs since 2008: 3.92, 3.47, 3.60, 2.78, 1.60 (all-star break).
It's an impressive run, and he's always had that fastball. Could be better things ahead for him.
***** Ole Miss has a pretty decent weekend nonconference baseball schedule for next season. The Rebels will open at home against William & Mary, continue with Wright State, travel to Central Florida and host Stetson the weekend before conference play begins. During spring break, Ole Miss will visit Louisville for a two-game midweek set.
Obviously W&M beat Ole Miss twice in the 2013 Raleigh Regional. The Rebels took a series from Wright State in 2007 in Oxford. The Raiders, who have a wolf for a mascot, or at least did, won on Saturday in a rain-shortened game. The Rebels swept both Central Florida and Stetson this past season.
The Louisville home and home is back on the books, and it starts up there in the midweek. Louisville took two of three in Oxford and the two teams split the two games in Louisville during the first home and home. This one should be more pleasant since the Rebels were in Omaha, and the McDonnell-Bianco argument should settle down. Those matchups were tense and edgy, so I'll be curious to see how that goes, but I expect it to be a fun series in both places.
***** The NCAA has released practice guidelines for football. Note: Guidelines, not rules. The Ivy League and Pac-12 are the only two conference with rules. When asked what teeth the guidelines have, Dr. Brian Hainline said:
"Whereas some people say what teeth does this have, you can say what teeth does anything have?" Hainline said. "If I'm at a school and know the guidelines are the consensus and 10 of the leading medical organizations say we believe this is the right thing to do and I'm not doing that at my local campus, that has the same sort of teeth if I had 1,100 people working for me who are sitting at the 1,100 schools trying to be a watchdog. And even that wouldn't work because how could you watch all the sports at once?"
So, it's a recommendation if you will. The recommendations are the following:
Four live contact practices ("any practice that involves live tackling to the ground or full-speed blocking") per week, with a maximum of 12 in the preseason. A max of three scrimmages during the preseason. On two-a-days, only one practice can have contact.
During the season, postseason and bowl season, no more than two live contact practices per week.
In Spring practice, eight of the 15 may have live contact. Only two a week and not on back-to-back days. Max of three scrimmages.
There are also some medical guidelines including medical doctors and health care providers having clear and transparent authority when caring for injured players. Basically, a guidelines because fifty-three of the 120 training staff members polled by the Chronicle of Higher Education said they felt pressure to return a player to the field faster than was medically needed.
The NCAA wants schools to publish their concussion plans. There's also a push to follow the NFL model for contact which is based on how the players are dressed for practice.
Anyway, not much of this is anything of huge note. Ole Miss does a nice job of controlling practices and already does almost all of this from a practice standpoint. The coaching staff gets that you can't just hang heads everyday for a month.
***** Jeffrey and I made changes to my All-Bianco team on yesterday's podcast. We forgot Alex Yarbrough. We're idiots. You can find my original article here that gives the Bianco group prior to the 2010 season.
Here's what I would have for a first team now:
C - Stuart Turner
1B - Matt Smith
2B - Alex Yarbrough
SS - Zack Cozart
3B - Chris Coghlan
OF - Brian Pettway
OF - Seth Smith
OF - Auston Bousfield
SP - Bobby Wahl
SP - Lance Lynn
SP - Drew Pomeranz
C - Scott Bittle
Utility - Stephen Head
Wahl is in over Holliman, Yarbrough over Osteen, Turner over Gunther.
***** Some links for the week
She's still dying on Facebook (probably more for the younger crowd)
Good roundtable roundup regarding the USA's World Cup
The Detroit water thing is nuts
What to make of Lance Armstrong now?
Deadspin edits Dan Gilbert's letter
This post was edited on 7/9 10:09 AM by Chase Parham
