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I'm afraid it's an Auburn thing


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In my days as an Auburn fan, I have seen Pat Sullivan win the Heisman, then follow up by losing the Iron Bowl and Sugar Bowl games. I have seen Bo Jackson win the Heisman, then follow up by losing the Iron Bowl and Cotton Bowl games. I have seen Casey Mize get drafted number ONE, but get knocked out of the game in five of his last six starts. AU did win the natty after Cam won the Heisman, but even then, that championship game was one of his poorer performances.

I was cringing when Casey took the mound yesterday because I pretty much knew what to expect, I had seen this "heights to pits" thing happen before. I really hope I live long enough to see one of our super heroes come through after winning a huge award, but the prospects of that aren't looking good right now. My family has a history of long life so I've got maybe 20 years left. Can someone do it, PLEASE!

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Like Mikey, I was worried about the game yesterday....not because of an AU thang....but because of what I'd seen the last four our five times Mize has pitched. 

Pretty much he starts out looking really good but when the opposition starts their second time through the line-up, thangs change.....and whatever worked the first time does not work the next time the same hitter comes to the plate.   Yesterday was that again.....second time through, the gator bats rang out some hits to go along with CM's inability to control his pitches.    

As we discussed elsewhere, by getting out of that disaster down only a couple runs everyone should have been high fiving and ready to retaliate....instead we went into gorilla mode, with everyone going for dingers....and a pitcher who should have been out of the game by the end of the 5th was able to get out of the inning with only a handful of pitches....and was back to his old self for the rest of the game.  JMO but that was painful to watch...

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39 minutes ago, Mikey said:

In my days as an Auburn fan, I have seen Pat Sullivan win the Heisman, then follow up by losing the Iron Bowl and Sugar Bowl games. I have seen Bo Jackson win the Heisman, then follow up by losing the Iron Bowl and Cotton Bowl games. I have seen Casey Mize get drafted number ONE, but get knocked out of the game in five of his last six starts. AU did win the natty after Cam won the Heisman, but even then, that championship game was one of his poorer performances.

I was cringing when Casey took the mound yesterday because I pretty much knew what to expect, I had seen this "heights to pits" thing happen before. I really hope I live long enough to see one of our super heroes come through after winning a huge award, but the prospects of that aren't looking good right now. My family has a history of long life so I've got maybe 20 years left. Can someone do it, PLEASE!

I think it happens to a lot of award winners.  You are correct though, we have had more than our share of post award poor performances. But in Mize's situation, he hadn't had a really good outing in a while.  Either he has arm fatigue or his mechanics have changed just enough to affect his game.  

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14 minutes ago, Brad_ATX said:

Um, Cam won the Heisman and then delivered a national title. 

Even not playing his best so we have broke the curse I would say. 

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38 minutes ago, Brad_ATX said:

Um, Cam won the Heisman and then delivered a national title. 

Re-read the OP. I covered that.

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1 hour ago, OlderWhiskey said:

Wasn't his game against Army pretty good?

Yes. That why I wrote " ...get knocked out of the game in five of his last six starts."

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And, Mize’s “troubles” have been against some of the best teams in the nation, i.e. Florida twice and Ole Miss to name 3 of those 5 right off the top of my head. Admittedly, he has not been quite as good the past month or so but there are multiple factors to account for that.

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Don’t know what happened to Casey. I think he may have trouble dealing with pressure, which could be a problem with him being number 1. Maybe him calling his own pitches have messed him up against better opponents. 

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Could be Casey’s trouble was he had to pitch against the best team in country and our offense was stalled against another ace. Doesn’t have to be anything more than that. 

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3 hours ago, around4ever said:

I think it happens to a lot of award winners.  You are correct though, we have had more than our share of post award poor performances. But in Mize's situation, he hadn't had a really good outing in a while.  Either he has arm fatigue or his mechanics have changed just enough to affect his game.  

Casey said he's been working on his mechanics.....

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Every other program in the country can say similar things. 

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2 hours ago, NoALtiger said:

Could be Casey’s trouble was he had to pitch against the best team in country and our offense was stalled against another ace. Doesn’t have to be anything more than that. 

His ERA over the last several games has been over 7. That's not a winner at any level of the game. Look, I'm a Casey Mize fan. When he's on, he's as good or better than any we've had at Auburn. This last 1/3 of the season, he has not been on and in fact, hasn't even been the best pitcher on this year's team. It's not disrespecting him to say something's very, very wrong. He's not the pitcher he was back in April and early May. There's no use pulling an ostrich, hiding one's head in the sand and saying there's nothing wrong, because something is definitely wrong.

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29 minutes ago, Mikey said:

His ERA over the last several games has been over 7. That's not a winner at any level of the game. Look, I'm a Casey Mize fan. When he's on, he's as good or better than any we've had at Auburn. This last 1/3 of the season, he has not been on and in fact, hasn't even been the best pitcher on this year's team. It's not disrespecting him to say something's very, very wrong. He's not the pitcher he was back in April and early May. There's no use pulling an ostrich, hiding one's head in the sand and saying there's nothing wrong, because something is definitely wrong.

Agree.....not sure why he would be fiddling with mechanics part way through a season unless someone was bothering him....but otherwise, I still think the plan for him to call his own pitches does not help the situation and I'm wondering if he's gotten predictable....especially since once he's been though a batting order once, the bad guys seem able to hit him...and are not as susceptible to that cutter or whatever it is that darts to the outside corner on right handed hitters...and they don't swing at stuff they have no prayer of hitting....unlike some AU batters who never saw an outside -low breaking ball they could resist swinging at. 

Just for fun I would like to see Butch or Smith call a game for him using a nice chart of batter tendencies like most coaches do.   Mize has his #1 draft status and having call his own pitches ...or not.....is not gonna affect his contract. 

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1 hour ago, Mikey said:

His ERA over the last several games has been over 7. That's not a winner at any level of the game. Look, I'm a Casey Mize fan. When he's on, he's as good or better than any we've had at Auburn. This last 1/3 of the season, he has not been on and in fact, hasn't even been the best pitcher on this year's team. It's not disrespecting him to say something's very, very wrong. He's not the pitcher he was back in April and early May. There's no use pulling an ostrich, hiding one's head in the sand and saying there's nothing wrong, because something is definitely wrong.

No doubt he’s struggled past few games, stats back that up. I was referring to this specific game though. The first game after draft day which was the point of your thread. 

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21 hours ago, AU64 said:

Agree.....not sure why he would be fiddling with mechanics part way through a season unless someone was bothering him....but otherwise, I still think the plan for him to call his own pitches does not help the situation and I'm wondering if he's gotten predictable....especially since once he's been though a batting order once, the bad guys seem able to hit him...and are not as susceptible to that cutter or whatever it is that darts to the outside corner on right handed hitters...and they don't swing at stuff they have no prayer of hitting....unlike some AU batters who never saw an outside -low breaking ball they could resist swinging at. 

Just for fun I would like to see Butch or Smith call a game for him using a nice chart of batter tendencies like most coaches do.   Mize has his #1 draft status and having call his own pitches ...or not.....is not gonna affect his contract. 

They were calling the pitches for him on Saturday according to Rod and Andy. They may have done that in the regional also.....IIRC.

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I think it has more to do with unrealistic expectations than it being an Auburn problem. As fans, we want Auburn teams to capitalize on every single opportunity presented when it’s probably more feasible that we actually come through in 10-20% of those chances. And there are times when getting to the doorstep but not getting through the door is the absolute best we had (an example would be the 1997 Football SECCG). I think as fans we get selective memory and always remember the “close but not good enough” scenarios and don’t consider the good times in the same thought process. That’s not a knock on anyone here or any other message board; I think it’s just human nature. 

I know this thread started before yesterday’s game, but I look at tonight like we’re due. We’ve have 3-4 chances recently that haven’t gone our way. Tonight could be the night One works in our favor. 

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On 6/10/2018 at 11:06 AM, NoALtiger said:

Could be Casey’s trouble was he had to pitch against the best team in country and our offense was stalled against another ace. Doesn’t have to be anything more than that. 

He pitched against Florida mid season and went 7 Ip, 4 hits, and 3 ER. He did pretty well with a few mistakes then. His last performance was just him not having it. 

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23 hours ago, Mikey said:

His ERA over the last several games has been over 7. That's not a winner at any level of the game. Look, I'm a Casey Mize fan. When he's on, he's as good or better than any we've had at Auburn. This last 1/3 of the season, he has not been on and in fact, hasn't even been the best pitcher on this year's team. It's not disrespecting him to say something's very, very wrong. He's not the pitcher he was back in April and early May. There's no use pulling an ostrich, hiding one's head in the sand and saying there's nothing wrong, because something is definitely wrong.

I agree with you Mikey. He earned the #1 pick by having the best stuff. I still believe he does. And I believe he will have a great MLB career. But he has appeared to lack confidence when he falls behind in the game/count. He’s got the stuff but he has some work to do. 

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1 hour ago, Tigerbelle said:

They were calling the pitches for him on Saturday according to Rod and Andy. They may have done that in the regional also.....IIRC.

I'm glad to hear that but from watching the game there was not indication that he or Wright were getting the pitches from the bench.    I think it is still permitted for the catcher to wear a receiver and get directions from the manager....but did not notice that either or how it might have been done. 

When pitches are being called from the bench it is usually pretty obvious....but perhaps not in this case. 

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3 minutes ago, AU64 said:

I'm glad to hear that but from watching the game there was not indication that he or Wright were getting the pitches from the bench.    I think it is still permitted for the catcher to wear a receiver and get directions from the manager....but did not notice that either or how it might have been done. 

When pitches are being called from the bench it is usually pretty obvious....but perhaps not in this case. 

Just telling you what they said.....

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