Holding out players

[tigerbrotha12 2,362]

Keegan Thompson, Casey Mize, Luke Jarvis, and Daniel Robert. 2 leading pitchers and 2 leading hitters now have been held out of weekend series due to soreness. We got away with it somehow with our all star pitchers down, but yesterday, it was obvious that the offense severely missed D-Rob and Jarvis. I understand wanting to have everyone as healthy as possible for post-season play, but when you're in contention for a division title, man that seems odd to hold your big guns out. I thought we could compile the thoughts about holding these guys out in one thread since I've seen it in a lot of places on here. 

[autigeremt 6,130]

I have no problem with it. I believe Butch s sending a message to recruits and their parents....send your son to Auburn and we will take care of him while he builds his chance to play in the majors. 

[mustache eagle 2,024]

May have thought we could win without those 2 bats.  

If you have mize and Keegan pitching and you put Johnson and holland (who have looked good) ... against the sec last place team ... you'd assume you have pretty good odds.

[Tigerbelle 5,299]

It is short sighted to worry about this one series. Auburn still has a long way to go, and we will need everyone to be healthy through the postseason. 

[jared52 4,354]

6 hours ago, Tigerbelle said:

It is short sighted to worry about this one series. Auburn still has a long way to go, and we will need everyone to be healthy through the postseason. 

I disagree. Getting swept, at home no less, by your rival when they are the worst team in the SEC is about the worst thing that could have happened to kill any momentum AU could have had going into the postseason. its not giving a pitcher one game off and hoping your 4th starter can steal a win, it's a whole weekend where your team that had taken two big steps forward, has now taken two steps back. Losing all 3 to uat, undeniably the worst team in the SEC, is demoralize to the team and fans. AU needed this series badly and they were humiliated instead. I certainly cant speak to whether those two could have played at all, but if so, Butch made a huge mistake not playing them. If they couldn't go, they couldn't go. But AU seemed to need them, or they needed something that was missing this weekend. 

[Mikey 15,806]

It's been stated in several places that holding Roberts and Jarvis out was not an arbitrary coaching decision. Roberts has a bad elbow and Jarvis severe back spasms. The pitchers were held out because of arm pain at the time. Don't you think that if any or all of those guys was good to go they'd have played every possible pitch? Of course they would have.

Jarvis even tried to start one game and couldn't get down to field a grounder because of his back. They weren't held out because the coach thought it was a cool thing to do. If a player can't go because of injury, he can't go.

[jared52 4,354]

8 hours ago, Mikey said:

It's been stated in several places that holding Roberts and Jarvis out was not an arbitrary coaching decision. Roberts has a bad elbow and Jarvis severe back spasms. The pitchers were held out because of arm pain at the time. Don't you think that if any or all of those guys was good to go they'd have played every possible pitch? Of course they would have.

Jarvis even tried to start one game and couldn't get down to field a grounder because of his back. They weren't held out because the coach thought it was a cool thing to do. If a player can't go because of injury, he can't go.

If they were hurt, then absolutely don't play them. But it's really disappointing someone couldn't step up in their place all weekend against the SEC's worst.

 

oh well, onward they go. 

[boomstick 1,315]

9 hours ago, jared52 said:

I disagree. Getting swept, at home no less, by your rival when they are the worst team in the SEC is about the worst thing that could have happened to kill any momentum AU could have had going into the postseason. its not giving a pitcher one game off and hoping your 4th starter can steal a win, it's a whole weekend where your team that had taken two big steps forward, has now taken two steps back. Losing all 3 to uat, undeniably the worst team in the SEC, is demoralize to the team and fans. AU needed this series badly and they were humiliated instead. I certainly cant speak to whether those two could have played at all, but if so, Butch made a huge mistake not playing them. If they couldn't go, they couldn't go. But AU seemed to need them, or they needed something that was missing this weekend. 

But if they turn around and win a series in Baton Rouge, won't that recapture the momentum and have us going in a different direction heading into postseason play? And no one should be humiliated or demoralized after this weekend, fans or players. It just showed this team's weaknesses and gives them an opportunity to fix them. It's certainly not the result anyone wanted for this weekend, but it's not the end of the world for the fans or this team. They still have a lot of baseball in front of them.

[AU64 10,122]

Left 22 men on base yesterday....granted that was for 15 innings but that's a lot of futility from our batters.

[boomstick 1,315]

15 minutes ago, AU64 said:

Left 22 men on base yesterday....granted that was for 15 innings but that's a lot of futility from our batters.

It was something like 42-43 for the three games. That's a lot. 

[jared52 4,354]

40 minutes ago, boomstick said:

But if they turn around and win a series in Baton Rouge, won't that recapture the momentum and have us going in a different direction heading into postseason play? And no one should be humiliated or demoralized after this weekend, fans or players. It just showed this team's weaknesses and gives them an opportunity to fix them. It's certainly not the result anyone wanted for this weekend, but it's not the end of the world for the fans or this team. They still have a lot of baseball in front of them.

It's baseball. Tomorrow. Can be different for sure. Doesn't shake that feeling that uat exposed AU in a big way. 

[AU64 10,122]

17 minutes ago, boomstick said:

It was something like 42-43 for the three games. That's a lot. 

Especially when you lose three games by a total of 4 runs....

[mustache eagle 2,024]

we didnt get swept this weekend because 2 guys were out.  we played bad from the mound, in the field, on the bases and in the batters box.  we werent mentally in it and got beat 3 times by a worse team.  it sucks, but our boys just didnt show up.  hope they get it together before friday.

btw, i assume we go johnny all-staff for the midweek game

[boomstick 1,315]

2 hours ago, jared52 said:

It's baseball. Tomorrow. Can be different for sure. Doesn't shake that feeling that uat exposed AU in a big way. 

Agreed. Hopefully, we take stock of that exposure and work to correct it. And as bad as it feels getting swept now, the timing is a lot better now than in 2-3 weeks. This could be a great wakeup call to this team. Getting two good bats and solid defenders in Jarvis and Robert healthy and back on the field would be a big help. 

[tigerbrotha12 2,362]

I thought for the Bama series, it was odd we kept D-Rob out of the DH spot, though, especially when in his only AB of the weekend, he hit a game-tying RBI Single to send the game into extras.... clutch hit. 

For this past weekend with LSU, I think this was primarily carry over from last weekend. They competed but when your confidence is gone, it's GONE gone, and right now this team's REALLY unconfidwnt in themselves. I think D-Rob is a huge momentum swinger for this team and so is Jarvis. Big, clutch batters that have the ability to hit the long ball- also good 2 strike hitters. In baseball, unlike many other sports, one guy can make a huge difference from a lineup momentum standpoint. One guy moves around a batting order and puts some guys in different situations throughout the game. Somehow, it worked with D-Rob and Jarvis, and it has not worked without both of them. 

Ole Miss is still a pretty big series for us. If we can get back on top of the horse, get to our winning ways, and go into Hoover on a high, I think we've got a shot at going a long ways and getting some mo back. On the other hand, if Ole Miss figures us out, we're going to have a tough time winning a game in hoover, and in the regionals. I hope we get those two guys back, and hope KT, Mize, and Daniel are all three HEALTHY and on top of their game for a series we desperately need 

[ellitor 31,807]

3 hours ago, tigerbrotha12 said:

I thought for the Bama series, it was odd we kept D-Rob out of the DH spot, though, especially when in his only AB of the weekend, he hit a game-tying RBI Single to send the game into extras.... clutch hit. 

D Rob got dinged up just before the Bama series. That's why he didn't play much in that series.