Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey, welcome in. We'll talk Razorback baseball today after their loss to Auburn over the weekend. We'll also look ahead to their game against Little Rock. Want to tell you the podcast brought to you by H and R Tire and auto. They're a third generation family owned business serving northwest Arkansas since 1976. Just like great baseball programs, H and R is built on consistency, trust and doing things the right way. No shortcuts and no gimmicks at H and R Tire and Auto. We're also brought to you by Eglins Best. When it comes to your game day, you want the best in your lineup. That includes your eggs. And Eglin's Best delivers more of the nutrition you need, but six times more vitamin D and 25% less saturated fat than ordinary eggs. You can score now with Eglin's Best. Better taste, better nutrition, better eggs. For more information, visit eglundsbest.com and we're brought to you by Southern Loft. They believe your home should reflect your unique personality. That's why they offer a variety of stylish furniture pieces that are perfect for any taste. Whether you're looking for a new sofa for the living room, a sleek dining table for your kitchen, they've got just what you need. When you're looking for that piece of furniture that reflects you, visit Southern Lo, 3155 North College Avenue in Fayetteville or call 479-856-6100. Arkansas 1 and 3 Last week they lose to Missouri State on Tuesday night. Lose the opener at Auburn. Really disappointing game, I think for Arkansas the way they played in that opener. They win game two. They gave them a, or they gave themselves a chance, Bubba, to win their series against Auburn in the series finale. And I mean, I think with, you know, how poorly it felt like they had kind of, or maybe not importantly, just how inconsistently they had played to that point.
That's all you could ask, is to give yourself a chance to win that series and get out of there and kind of have that on your resume, so to speak. And you heard Dave Van Horn say it after the game on Saturday.
Just kind of a disappointing effort by the team. It just wasn't real competitive with Auburn.
[00:01:50] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it was a combination of that. And then look at the pitcher we face, the two pitchers we face and we face their. They're two conference starters. I was a little worried after Alvarez on Thursday and he pitched so well because I knew the other, I knew what was left. And they're all Pretty good pitchers. I thought, I thought the Sanders guy, the lefty was nasty. I thought, I thought he just kept us off balance. He's got kind of a weird delivery, kind of. It's almost like he like pushes it from down here, tough to pick up the ball. And I just don't think we ever saw the ball well off against him. Really just. Yeah, I thought he had our number.
[00:02:30] Speaker A: We talked about it Thursday, that it felt like Thursday's game was almost a must win game because of the way that Auburn had lined up its pitching staff. And boy, you don't get a good outing from Gabe Gackle and looks like he's going to go to the bullpen now. And it wasn't even that it was a bad outing. It was a lot better than what he had done against Florida. He had him competitive in the game into the fifth and then things just unraveled. Auburn, they get hot. They kind of, you know, hit Cole Gibler around a little bit. And I think that that was kind of the disappointing thing. I mean, you're talking about the lowest scoring team in the SEC having a seven run inning against you that just, you know, I mean with the way Arkansas has been struggling offensively, you can't allow them to have that type of offensive success and win.
[00:03:12] Speaker B: Yeah, and it's a combination of, of pitching, but it's also like there's little plays that we're not making and they're not easy plays, they're hard plays. You look at, you look at the ball in right field, Stewart, tough play. You know, you got to catch that ball. You know, it's a tough play though. The ball in left. Any other ballpark, the ball that Turner jumped up, any other ballpark, that's probably an out, maybe ball marker if wind's blowing right to left. But you know, there was a play in front of the plate where Helford came out and threw to first.
Rudenbach kind of got tied up a little bit on a play, didn't, didn't catch the ball. It wasn't a perfect throw, but a ball you should made. There was a blooper in front of Stewart in right field. I thought he could have come in and caught it. Don't know if he didn't see it. Well, there were a couple of those
[00:04:04] Speaker A: on the last day.
[00:04:04] Speaker B: Yeah, there really were. I'm talking about the weekend as a whole and when you have a pitching staff that's struggling a little bit, man, you got to make those plays. And then there was a blooper out into Right center where Sousa goes back. News coming in.
It looked like Souza was calling the ball. So new can't, you know, kind of stayed back. But news got to come in and catch that you're a center fielder, you got to call your guy off. So there were a lot of plays like that. Now with that being said, we did make some good plays, but you know, you always, obviously you focus on the plays that you didn't make. When you have a pitch of staff that's struggling, you really need your defense to step up. And none of those were errors. I don't think any of them were errors.
Maybe the throw, I think they gave Helfrich an error on the throw, on the low throw to Rutenbar, but man, it's, those are plays you gotta make when you got a staff that struggle a little bit.
[00:04:56] Speaker A: I still continue to be a little surprised that they, that they're doing the defensive alignment the way they are. I just feel like when you're struggling to score runs that I'm surprised they don't put a different defensive lineman out there with Pompey because I still think Pompey is maybe behind Nolan Sousa. Just, you know, if you're talking about footwork defensively in the infield, I think he's the best they have.
[00:05:18] Speaker B: He is. But I think, I think Dave's frustrated with some of the at bats from Pompey and it's, it's one thing to, to go up there and, and make an outer strike out, but I think they're looking at some of his at bats is like they're, they're non competitive at bats. It looks like there's just like, you know, he's missing pitches bad, he's not making adjustments and.
But then you also look at the flip side of that. You're like, wow, when he hits it, he hits it really hard, you know. But I agree on the defensive side. I mean, obviously we're better with Pompey at, at third and Robinette at first. There's no doubt.
And people don't realize how important first base is. And Rudinpower is not doing a bad job for a guy that's never played first base. He's doing a good job. But you know, there was, there was a high throw that he came off the bag on and you know, once again, Robinette six, three long arms catches that Rudin Bar had to come off the bag. You know, there's just. And, and those runs always seem to score and that's, that's the crazy thing about the game.
[00:06:17] Speaker A: I don't think it scored in that instance. I don't think they scored. But I know what you're saying. Yeah, it's like, yeah, like you don't want to give a team an extra out.
[00:06:24] Speaker B: Yeah. If nothing else, it's extra pitches for your pitcher.
[00:06:28] Speaker A: Is Pompey or his head bats worse than Kuhio Aloy? Because it feels like that's kind of the.
Like that's the. They're trying to figure out who to play. Is it Pompey or do you play Alloy? Because when one comes out, the other typically goes in the lineup. And then you work your defense around to, you know, based on who you have in the lineup.
[00:06:46] Speaker B: You know, this weekend it looked like Aloy had better. He had better takes on like sliders down.
It looked like to me, he had better at bats now. He didn't get a lot of hits. Didn't you know, he bases loaded. There was one at bat where he popped up the center. Looked like a good swing.
20 pitch. I mean, you want to do to hammer that pitch. Just people look at it and they're like, oh, he popped it up. And this is what's crazy about hitting this side note. A guy can foul one straight back.
Let's say he fouls that 20 pitch straight back. Everyone's like, oh, he's right on it. But if he pops up the shallow center, oh, he's dropping his back shoulder, he's looping, he's underneath the ball. That's actually a better swing than the foul tip straight back. You think that fly ball to center, you take an eighth of an inch on the baseball and that's a home run to center, you know, so you got to kind of look at it like that.
But I did think, I thought he laid off some pitches. I guess the long winded answer is I feel like Lloyd did a better job this weekend of working the count. He didn't chase as many sliders out of the zone.
I know he had a 3:2.
Sanders struck him out on a 3:2, backdoor slider. 50, 50 pitch. He got the call on it. I thought that was a really. Just a nasty pitch.
So I don't know this team, they're
[00:08:08] Speaker A: kind of in the Lions den right now because, you know, you lose to Florida, you lose to Auburn. And I don't think either of those teams are as good as the two that they're about to play, Alabama and Georgia. And it's so weird to say that because we're not talking about football. We're Talking about baseball and Alabama. Baseball looks really good this year, and that's where they go this weekend. And then Georgia comes in here. I mean, Georgia went to Mississippi State and beat him three times in Starkville.
[00:08:31] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:08:31] Speaker A: And I've been saying all year that I thought Texas, Mississippi State, and maybe Georgia were the best teams in the sec.
Now I think you're talking it's either Texas or Georgia based on what you saw on the field in Starkville. So it doesn't get any easier. You got Little Rock coming in tomorrow night, and you know they're going to be fired up to come up and play. And that looks like that's a good team that Chris Curry's got. Again, how do you fight through this? Whenever, like, like, like you can see maybe, and I don't know that we're seeing this right now, but let's say in the next two weeks, maybe you can see improvement in the team. Like certain things are starting to work better together, and it may not equal a whole lot more wins than what they've had the last two weeks. Again, based on the competition they're going against. How do you stay locked in and motivated and, you know, I guess positive for. For lack of a better term, because you got to be positive as a player and as a coach.
And yet, you know, the win or the losses might be piling up.
[00:09:27] Speaker B: I think it comes back to dvh. Your team takes on a reflection of your. Your head coach. You know, we can go back to the Paul Minari press conference after we spanked them, you know, you know, he was defeated. I mean, he looked like a head coach that was beat.
You won't see that. You won't see that out of dvh.
We're a reflection of him. So I think his tough, gritty mindset is, you know, rubs off on our players. So I don't think our players are going to do it. I think. I think they're. I don't think they're going to, like, let go of the rope. I think they're going to keep battling and Dave will make a couple change changes, move stuff around. You know, Matt, there's.
You've got good teams. They find a way to win. They scratch out a win. You got bad teams find a way to lose.
We're like, in the middle. We're a talented team that's close to being that team that finds a way to win. I still believe that. And I think it's just a few things here. You think about, you know, a couple of plays that we didn't make. That led to maybe a big inning or maybe not a big inning, just a run or two, maybe just one run. You know, you make that play and then that doesn't happen. It puts the pitcher in a better situation. So I just feel like that we're, we're close.
I think that the talent is there. It's just getting everyone in the right spot in the right role, and maybe making a change in the starting rotation is something that can kind of rally the team.
[00:10:57] Speaker A: I think with the way they're struggling offensively, a big inning right now feels like a two, three run inning. That feels like a huge inning. They're playing Florida. I was talking to somebody on that Sunday and they were down by, I can't remember, was it three or four runs. I said, that feels like an eight run deficit with the way they're hitting the ball right now. Now they came back and actually gave themselves a chance to, you know, catch Florida at the end of that. But in that. And I feel like that puts a lot of stress on your pitchers when they feel like, hey, you got to be. Not necessarily perfect, but you got to be pretty close to it because the, you know, the runs are just really hard to come by.
[00:11:33] Speaker B: Yeah, I think you're right. And I think guys are trying to make a perfect pitch. When you try to make a perfect pitch, you either walk a guy or leave it over the middle. There's like no in between.
And I think you see that starting to happen right here. And you know, I thought Gackel, I thought on Thursday, I thought he battled. I thought he, I thought he really battled. But, man, 88 pitches. What was 88 pitches through four innings?
[00:11:59] Speaker A: Four plus. Yeah, he faced three batters in the, four in the fifth.
[00:12:02] Speaker B: So I mean, you know, he, he's trying.
He's trying. And maybe we make a player to a defense that, that comes. Maybe he ends up giving you six innings, who knows? But yeah, I think it's. I think he's probably going to end up in the bullpen. I would assume that's kind of what you read between the lines.
[00:12:19] Speaker A: That would be my guess. Yeah.
And you feel, you feel for him because he just, he's not getting run support.
Now. There have been some times where not only is he not getting run support, but he's not pitching well enough that first or second inning. And they're behind the eight ball at that point. But there were some instances on Thursday where they had a chance to, you know, get. Not necessarily get Alvarez out of the game, but to rough him up a little bit and they just let him get off the hook and then it's a 11 game. Auburn gets baserunners. And it really fell apart on Arkansas in the fifth inning. It feels like Hunter Dietz is going to be their new number one starter. And I kept, I've kept saying that like they are just, they've been badly needing and they're desperate for somebody to step up and say, hey, I got you, I can throw. You know, you can't do it every Friday night, but you know, because like even Liam Peterson came here and he only pitched four innings. You're going to have a night where it's not going right for you, but more consistently than not, you need that guy who can go into the sixth, into the seventh inning for you. And it feels like Dietz for the most part has, has been able to do that. And I thought that, you know, just kind of given the timing of everything, of Gackel struggling again in that game one role and the Deets coming out and pitching the way that he did with seven strong innings in game two, it seems like a no brainer that you go to him as your number one starter and you know, let's say they do it because of the way that the Auburn series fell. He gets a full week's rest before game one in Alabama now. We'll see if that's what happens. But that's what I think is probably going to happen.
[00:13:51] Speaker B: Right?
Look, I hate excuses, but if you think about the way like go back to the Florida series, Gako went and ending in a third. So we really, I mean, we leaned on the bullpen hard that series we go to, we go to Missouri State.
I mean, a lot of hits, you know, a lot of guys used and then we have a short week on top of that. I think it was like a perfect storm of things that kind of led up to these last two weekends. I think guys are tired. I mean, maybe they're not. I, I don't know. But we've used a lot of bullpen. These bullpen guys have gotten worked pretty hard, you know, but with that being said, you, we got to be better in the bullpen. I know someone asked Dave a question about a ry needing a variety to step up out of the bullpen. Because if you think about it, look at a lot of the teams we're playing, they can match up. They can go to a righty in a big situation and get a righty out. Maybe it's a guy where righties are hitting 150 against, they can go, go to the pen and get him out. We're kind of lacking that guy right now. Now it could be, you know, you see signs of Cooper Dossett. He's got the stuff to be that dude, you know, mid upper 90s fastball, 90 mile an hour cutter.
He, he mixed in some good sliders. It looks like he went a little bit more to the slider to complement the cutter fastball.
He might be that guy. But we, we're missing something in the bullpen. We need that, that variety to come in. That can get some big outs for us.
[00:15:17] Speaker A: Maybe that's gackle.
[00:15:20] Speaker B: You're absolutely right. Could be Gackle coming in. So that might be a perfect, a perfect mix. And if you're just getting off to a good start on the weekend, I mean, we might end. It might be a situation where you go, deets to Gackel and get the win on Friday night and then you, you know, you kind of piece it together from there.
[00:15:37] Speaker A: Although I thought what McElveen did at the end of game two, that makes you really like, like if deets can get you deep into a game, maybe you need to set up, man, to get to McElveen for a couple of innings. But that looked really, that was as well as. I think we've seen him pitch. And for him to do it, you know, in a tight game on the road, you know, when the Series is kind of not necessarily on the line but in, you know, like, you lose if you don't pitch well. You know, you lose the Series if you don't pitch well. I thought that was a big time performance by him.
[00:16:05] Speaker B: Yeah, I thought he was great.
I thought Hunter was great because the pressure that was on him. We had to have a win right there and then McIlvain came in, a good job and I think Helrick just said, hey, boys, jump on my back, I got you here. Helfrick had a great game, not just behind the plate, but just at the plate.
[00:16:24] Speaker A: He carried the team.
[00:16:25] Speaker B: He really did. I mean, he. And you could see the emotion when he came in the dugout after, after the home run. I mean, you can see how fired up he was and look like he's trying to, like, get the rest of the guys fired up as well.
I thought it was a great performance all the way around. But you're right, McElveen was really good. But what I like, I like, I think about the combination of, like, stuff. So you, you take Hunter Deeds, who's Throwing the ball from, let's say 6, 9, 6, 10, downhill. And then you bring a gackle in behind him, throwing from five, six, flatter.
That's a really big adjustment for, for an offense to make. Going from that dude to that dude where if, if you follow with McElveen, you're. You're similar to Deets. A high release point, kind of downhill.
I don't know. I just. I, you know, I. I see the two complementing each other really well.
[00:17:17] Speaker A: We've seen some Arkansas teams have success where they didn't have a real deep bullpen. You know, like, I mean, think about. I'm thinking like 18, 19, when it felt like there might have been what, four guys out of the bullpen who kind of were in that.
In the circle at the end of the season. But the key is that they had good starting pitching, at least in game one and game two, even like 2018. Isaiah Campbell, he was totally unreliable in game three. You never knew what you were going to get from him. I feel like if they can.
Again, if Deets can give them something consistent, you know, relative to what he gave him the other night. Something like what he gave him the other night.
Gibler, I think he might be your number two starter moving forward. I mean, you heard Van Horn say after the series that they wanted to get a look at him one more time. They're thinking about starting him. Like, if those two could go into the starting rotation. We know both of them have pitched well this year at times, you know, they've been more like. They've been better, more consistent than they haven't been good. Like, if you can get long outings out of those two, I still feel like this could turn somewhat. And they could be a successful team. Bullpen maybe shortens up. You know, some of the guys that you've leaned on to this point in the season, maybe you don't lean on them quite so hard, you know, because you're getting outings and innings out of your first two starters. That's a lot to ask, and I understand that. And trying to make that, you know, trying to make that.
That transition mid season is not ideal.
But, like, how much do you think tweaking the starting rotation can help this team? Like, there's more than just starting pitching. That's a problem. But it feels like if you can get that fixed, or at least that corrected to a certain extent, that there might be hope for these last five, six weeks of the regular season.
[00:19:09] Speaker B: No, I think so. I think it'd be huge to do that. Then when you're not, you don't want to feel like you're battling from behind all weekend. Of course, we did get out to a 300, right? Yeah. Oh, it does.
[00:19:19] Speaker A: Because you think about, like, Florida, they were behind the entire series, basically. I think they had one lead, Missouri State. They had the lead some, but Missouri State kept taking it back a lot of times in the bottom half of the inning. And then Auburn in game one, they're playing from behind most of game two, they're playing from behind most of game three, they're playing for. But I mean, it's like this team has played with the lead for a very short amount of time over the last eight or nine games.
[00:19:44] Speaker B: Yeah, I think the exception to that is game three, where we get out to a three nothing lead and then the next inning they answer back with three runs. I think that was disappointing.
But, yeah, it's tough, especially in the sec, if you're trying to constantly climb back into games. It's not easy to do.
[00:20:03] Speaker A: You can even go back further than that. You know, they got the big lead at South Carolina since then, they haven't played with the lead much. South Carolina was up for Most of Game 2. Should have won that game. They were up for all of Game 3. Even UCA on that Tuesday night. UCA was up going into the fifth inning. And then Arkansas broke loose and won that game. It's just they've had to play from behind for so many weeks now.
It's tough watching it. I can only imagine being on the field and being responsible and trying to overcome that.
[00:20:34] Speaker B: Well, think about what was Gackel's best outing?
Wasn't it South Carolina, where we got out to a big lead? Yeah, he pitched really well.
[00:20:42] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:20:42] Speaker B: You know, with that lead.
Gave up a home. Gave up, I think two home runs. But that's just because he was just pitching the contact.
You know, they just jumped out for
[00:20:54] Speaker A: 45 minutes because, yeah, the merry go round kept spinning in the top of that inning.
[00:20:58] Speaker B: Yeah. But the bottom line is, I think we have to be better offensively, too. We're, we're, we're. We're still what I call caught in between. I see us, I see us late on fastballs early on off speed, and I think that's the part that's frustrating is, is I know we've got the guys in the lineup that can do it, but, man, we gotta, we gotta figure out a way to be on time more. I just see us. I just see us.
And, and there's Some guys in the lineup, like, a lot of guys I can look at, like, I can watch certain guys and say, okay, this is his approach. This is what he's trying to do there. We had, we had, we got some guys in the lineup. I can't figure out their approach. I can't tell if they're looking fastball and I don't know or if they're looking off speed. I can't, I can't tell if they're just looking in a zone because they're really, you know, they're swinging it, they're swinging at pitches that if you're looking in a zone, there's different ways to do it. You can, you can, you can hunt a speed, you can hunt a zone, you can hunt a pitch in a zone. There's so many different ways to go about it.
I've tried to figure it out.
[00:22:08] Speaker A: I'll tell you too again that our baseball podcast brought to you by H and R Tire and Auto. They're a local shop that's been family owned for three generations. They built their reputation on taking care of customers the right way. And that kind of longevity doesn't happen by accident at H and R Tire and Auto. So, you know, they're getting good at bats from Rider Helfrich.
You know, for the most part, Carter Rutenbar, I feel like, is really battling and playing well for him. I think Nolan Souza's been, I mean, he's been fine. You look at SEC only stats, he's the best hitter on the team at 333. I feel like they got to have maybe two more to lengthen the lineup. Like, you're never going to have everybody firing on all cylinders. But I think a big key is you need to have like four or five going more often than they're not.
Like, like, who needs to step up, do you think? Or maybe who do you think has the best chance of stepping up and lengthening this lineup? I would think it starts with Cam Kozal, who has not hit very well in SEC play.
[00:23:07] Speaker B: Yeah, I think, I think it's, I think it starts with Cam. He's in the middle of that lineup.
I think we need him to get hot and then we need one of the big bats, whether it be Cahillo, Zach Stewart. I mean, you look at SEC numbers, you know, Zach's, Zach's hitting 140 now. I will say he has lined out multiple times. He's lined out the left center, he's lined out the second, he's lined out the right. He Set some balls hard.
[00:23:33] Speaker A: But he struck out too much, too.
[00:23:34] Speaker B: He has struck out a lot.
And, man, the strikeouts, I mean, we're. I think we're second in the most strikeouts in sec, in conference, only.
We're striking out a lot.
And I think, you know, I think you. We need to figure out a way to cut that down.
And.
And it's. It comes down. Matt. It comes down to approach at the plate. It's all about approach, you know, and having a plan at the plate. And I'm one of those that says if you're not on time for the fastball, you're not ready to hit. Now, with that being said, you gotta. You gotta make an adjustment at some point. If. If a guy's throwing 65, 70% sliders.
Sit on a slider. You sit on a slider and you hammer that thing in the gap, you'll get your fastball next at bat.
One of the first. I. I had a really good hitting coach, Bill Robinson, and wasn't really big into mechanics. It was all about mindset. Being ready to hit his big thing was the best way to hit the curveballs. Don't miss the fastball.
Now. There's times, though, you see some of these dudes, you saw it out of Florida, you saw it out of the.
The guys. Auburn this weekend, they're not giving you a ton of fastballs now. They will. They'll throw a fastball or two. You got to be ready for it. Or you flip that and just say, okay, they're throwing. They're throwing me a lot of sliders. I'm gonna. I'm gonna sit slider and hunt, get a slider up and hammer it.
[00:25:04] Speaker A: I feel like part of this.
If they can get to the. Like that last month and still be somewhat in contention to make the postseason, because that's a big concern right now, making the postseason. You play at Missouri, you get OU in Oklahoma, here at Baum, you go to Kentucky. I feel like those are four weekends where you can win some games. I don't know if they'll win all the series, but I think you can win some games there.
And I don't think the pitching in those last four series or anywhere near what the pitching has been to this point. Ole Miss, they can pitch some, but then I feel like it drops off quite a bit to the other teams. But you were talking about strikeouts. I was looking right here. I mean, three of the top six teams in the SEC in strikeouts from a pitching staff are three of the four teams that they played. Now Part of that is they played Arkansas and their stats are feasting on playing the Razorbacks. But you know, Mississippi State, they've done it to more than just Arkansas. Auburn, that's one of the best pitching staffs in the country.
Now on the flip side, you still got Alabama and Georgia. Georgia, they got West Johnson as their pitching coach and I mean, their numbers back it up. They're one of the best pitching staffs in the sec.
They're striking out a lot of batters, so it doesn't get a whole lot easier. Alabama's not as much of a strikeout team. I think they're more of a contact out team than either Auburn was or Georgia is.
But yeah, it's just, I go back to these next two weeks.
You got to figure out how to. Yeah, you know how to get through these.
[00:26:33] Speaker B: I think the key is don't get swept.
[00:26:36] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:26:36] Speaker B: I think to your point, there's wins and when we get later in the season, there's wins there for us.
But the sweep kills you. The, the Florida sweep kills you.
And Georgia is going to be really good. Alabama is going to be good this weekend. We, it'd be huge if we could go take two out of three.
[00:26:55] Speaker A: Well, and it goes back to that RPI conversation that we're having last week. I said last week that if you can go three and three on this Auburn, Alabama road trip, it's going to help the rpi. And I mean, the RPI did come up just by playing Auburn. I mean it's, it was 70, I think when they went into the weekend. It's up to 56 now and that's what's going one and two against Auburn. So it did come up and I think it would come up quite a bit and get you into the 40s and keep you in conversation for.
Definitely keep you in conversation for the postseason. If you could win that series against Alabama.
Winning game two at Auburn, I think was really big in that regard because now you don't have to sweep Alabama to get to that.500 during this two game or two week road swing.
You can go two and one there. It's a tough, it's a tough ask, but. And Alabama's been really good at home. I mean, you think about their last six home games. They swept Florida, they swept Auburn. Those are the last two teams that Arkansas has played and obviously struggled a lot against.
[00:27:54] Speaker B: But it's crazy though. Look at some of the stuff that goes on in sec, like all the sweeps last weekend and you look at this weekend, who would have thought Georgia would go in and sweep Mississippi State.
You know, who would have thought that?
[00:28:07] Speaker A: I thought they'd sweep them, but I, I thought they might win the series.
[00:28:10] Speaker B: Yeah, I never thought they'd sweep them at Mississippi State.
And then you look at Ole Miss winning the series at Florida. I didn't see that happening.
[00:28:18] Speaker A: That's Florida. I mean, like, Florida's the most erratic team.
[00:28:21] Speaker B: It feels like you're right.
[00:28:23] Speaker A: They, they, they, they're up, they're down.
And it does not feel like they play consistently to the level that they're capable.
[00:28:31] Speaker B: But what did Ole Miss score, like five runs in the ninth?
[00:28:34] Speaker A: Yeah, five run, ninth inning to beat them in the finale.
[00:28:37] Speaker B: I know they're back in. I didn't, I didn't look to see. I didn't check box scores. I don't know who was on the bump for Florida, but I didn't see those guys giving up the arms that we saw at Fayetteville and at home. Yeah. Shouldn't give up five runs in the ninth because those, those are some dudes coming out of the bullpen. And, and, and we, and I was talking about strikeouts and you brought up a great point. We have faced some really good pitching, but it's not going to get any easier next two weeks.
[00:29:04] Speaker A: Oh, no. Again, again, Georgia, they're a lot more like. That's Wes Johnson's thing. It's power arms. Right. I mean, that, that's, that's what he brought to Arkansas. Power arms. And I mean, that's kind of, I think Hobbs is just kind of, you know, he took that collection of pitchers that Wes had left him in 2019, and they've just kind of continued to do the same thing in terms of. That's, it feels like that's the kind of picture that Arkansas wants to have. And Georgia's got some really good ones. And I'll tell you this about Georgia, too. I don't know what. And I hate to just use the word nil because it's more than just nil. It's nil, it's rev share, and it's scholarship distribution. Those kind of three things all work together on who you can get.
Man. If you look at what George has been doing in the transfer portal the last couple of years, I think they had the number one class in the portal this last year.
They're, they've got something figured out there.
And it's, it's, you got to get the transfers to play together and like each other. And that's not always easy. You got to Kind of, you know, you got to make sure the egos kind of stay in check.
But they figured it out for the most part. They haven't had the postseason success, but they've had a ton of regular season success at Georgia under Wes Johnson and. And it starts with. With great pitching.
[00:30:21] Speaker B: Now, didn't they bring in, what, 24, 25 guys?
[00:30:24] Speaker A: It was a bunch. Yeah, it was 20 something.
It's a lot. I mean, that's like. That's kind of become their.
Their philosophy is you just go out and you just reload every year in the portal, and you rarely sign any high school guys.
[00:30:35] Speaker B: I think I still love the way Dave does it. I like the way we bring in freshmen. Like, look at some of the freshmen we have this year, not pitching wise. And they like the position.
Oh, we're. We're going to be good. I mean, we're going to be. We're just.
The talents. The talents there.
[00:30:54] Speaker A: I don't know that there's a Rock Cholowski at Arkansas. I really don't think there is one in the freshman class. But I was reading about UCLA, who's won 23 in a row. They're the number one team in the country. Clear that the best. Like, they got their teeth kicked in a couple of years ago because they were relying on all these players who are now, like, a lot of their best players when they were freshmen, and they're having to take their. They're having to take their lumps. And two years later, it's paid off a lot for them. And even last year they were in Omaha and they were a really good team.
I don't know that that's going to be the case with this freshman class at Arkansas. But it does seem like when you rely on freshmen a lot, it's not a recipe for a lot of success that year, but it can benefit your program a lot down the road. And we've seen that at Arkansas, too, with some classes who, you know, say, like, maybe, you know, 2012 or, gosh, like 2010, you use a lot of freshmen.
Right. You see what I'm saying, though? Like, I know I can find an example here, because I know I've seen some. All the years kind of run together for me, but where you played a lot of freshmen, and then by that third year that they're together, you know, it seems like things can really click for them.
[00:31:56] Speaker B: Yeah, look like 2018, you've got Casey Martin.
[00:32:00] Speaker A: Well, 2016 would actually be. Yeah, there you go. 2016 would be the year because that's the year that you had Blaine Knight as a freshman and Kevin Copps as a freshman and Isaiah Campbell as a freshman. And like, there were a lot of freshmen on that team. Grant Cook was a freshman, and they all kind of grew up together. Jake Reindle. And then by 2018, they were really darn good. I'm glad you said that. I think you were going with a different group of freshmen, but.
Well, the 2016 is a good example for what happened in 18.
[00:32:29] Speaker B: Well, but I watched the UCLA, USC game last night, and I mean, I'm. I mean, I know talent when I see it. To me, that the game is played slower.
That's a different brand of baseball than we're playing in the sec. Now, they got good players, but just overall, you watch the game that the, the, the talent is different in the sec.
Like, dudes are bigger, stronger, faster. Watch guys run down the line yesterday. The speed's not there now. There's some good players. I mean, there's guys on. UCLA is probably, what, four, four or five guys that's going to go high in the draft. But I just don't see it. I just don't see the talent across the board. Across the board. Just watching the game, the, the arms, the hitters, defense, the speed. It's just different in sec.
[00:33:23] Speaker A: Jalowski is really good, though.
[00:33:24] Speaker B: He is good. I watched him have a couple really good at bats last year.
[00:33:27] Speaker A: Does he remind you of behavior?
[00:33:28] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And I listened to the. I listened to the broadcaster and, you know, probably a homer for ucla, but he was complaining that he didn't win the Golden Spikes last year. He said he should have won it, so he said he deserved it last year.
[00:33:43] Speaker A: Last year was a weird year for shortstops because there were like a lot of really good shortstops last year. And it's so funny because Alex Lodis won the Dick Hauser Trophy, which is National Player of the Year given by the Collegiate Baseball Writers. And Behiva wins the Golden Spikes and Rock Cholasky wins the. I think it's the Brooks Wallace Award, which is the best shortstop in the country. So make that make sense. Yeah, but there were, you know, there were a lot of good players at that position.
Bullpen. What do you think's going on with Arkansas's bullpen right now, other than being beleaguered and just being relied on a lot? I mean, it's weird to me because I thought when they went to South Carolina and I even wrote about it before they went there, I looked up the numbers. They had been really Good. Out of the bullpen against Mississippi State.
I thought that was the strength of the team. And now you look at it and you say that is a weakness on the team is when you have to get too deep into the bullpen. A lot of these pitchers who have not been pitching well or had pitched well are not pitching well now. Like Steele Eves, you know, he's, he's really struggled. And Jackson Kercher, you can't quite get a read on what's going on with him. Coyle, I feel like, is pitching pretty consistently. Like you kind of know what you're going to get out of Parker. Coyle. He might give up a home run, but he's probably going to give you, you know, two or three innings of one run baseball, two run baseball, something like that.
But it just doesn't, I don't know, the bullpen, I can't. That's been maybe the one that's been the hardest because I knew they were going to struggle or I think I figured out pretty early in the season it looked like they were going to have some offensive limitations, but the bullpen, I thought that was going to be a strength of the team. And it just, it just has not been.
[00:35:22] Speaker B: Well, it's, I think it goes back to like we talk about hitting is contagious. So pitching. And I think you look at some of the situations these guys are coming in, it's not like they're coming into games with no one on base. It seems like every time we call on Kircher or, you know, even Brissy, it seems like there's always runners all over the base paths. It's like, you know, they can't, they can't come out there and make their own mess. It's like they're coming in and trying to clean up a mess that's already been made. And that's, I think the pressures, they just feel pressure.
I don't know. It's crazy how, you know, you, you see a bullpen that's really pitching well, like they were early in the years, like everything was going their way. You know, know they're making pitches when they need to, defense is making plays, and all of a sudden it's just like, you know, walks and wild pitches. I mean, a ton of wild pitches. I don't, I don't know how many wild pitches we have. If you look at just sec play only, I don't know.
[00:36:19] Speaker A: And hit batsman.
[00:36:20] Speaker B: Well, we have 14 wild pitches and we've hit 11 batters.
[00:36:25] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:36:26] Speaker B: And you, you add that so just, just look at hits. You know, we're basically.
That's roughly 10 hits per game, four to five walks per game.
And then you add in 14 wild pitches and 11 hit batters. You know, you just look at that. That's. That's. You're looking at, you know, 15 baserunners per game. 16 baserunners per game in SEC, man,
[00:36:52] Speaker A: and only fielding 960 or no, Arkansas fielding 984 in SEC play. But, yeah, I mean, that's. The pitching has been rough and you
[00:37:02] Speaker B: talk about the feeling percentage. We're not making errors, but it's those plays that we're almost making that aren't errors, but they're plays that SEC guys should make. And if you ask our players, they'll be like, man, I should have caught that ball or I should have.
I should have made that play.
And that's what I mean, it seems like it's just kind of.
And I hate excuses. It seems like it's just everything that could go wrong is kind of sort of been going wrong.
You know what I mean? It's like that little blooper to write, you know, if it's that much, we're on the barrel, then it goes 10 more feet and Stuart catches it. Or, you know, just. It's just crazy how little things.
It seems like everything's going not our way.
And, you know, but good teams make their own breaks and. And we just need to flip that. And next thing you know, we are getting that break that, you know, I think of the Kihio, you know, one of the three, two pitches on the outside corner to him called a strike. You know, that ball's another inch or it could have gone either way. I think there's just a lot of those things going on right now and hopefully it'll turn.
[00:38:17] Speaker A: I was surprised to see Colin Fisher pitch to start the game on Saturday. And, you know, they. They said why they did it. He was available, he was fresh, he's got starting experience. I think they were hoping that, that, you know, he could go out and kind of recapture, so to speak, what he had done. I thought that you'd start Gibler having him available or at least go to Gibler earlier than. Than the eighth inning. That, that part kind of surprised me, you know, maybe go to Gibler whenever the game was. Was on the line, so to speak, like three to three or four to three, five to three, kind of like kind of regulate that thing and see if you can keep yourself in it.
I say all that to say I Have no clue who they will start Tuesday against Little Rock. I'm, I'm fascinated to see who goes out there and pitches because like Steele, Eve started last week, didn't go well for him.
You know, Peyton Lee's had some Tuesday starts that didn't go well. The Kramers had some Tuesday starts that didn't go well or Wednesday starts. And I'm very interested to see how this is going to go on Tuesday to who they're going to throw against Little Rock.
[00:39:20] Speaker B: Maybe like a Carson Brumball.
[00:39:22] Speaker A: What about maybe Tate McGuire?
We didn't see him against Auburn, I don't think. Or if he pitched. He pitched in the first game. I, I forget if he pitched.
[00:39:31] Speaker B: I don't think.
[00:39:32] Speaker A: I don't remember him.
[00:39:33] Speaker B: I don't think he pitched.
[00:39:34] Speaker A: You know, he's, he started some midweek games in his career too. I wonder if maybe that's, that's where they go. But, you know, as you're trying to like, keep the resume above water, so to speak. Yeah, I mean, you can't afford any more letdowns on, on Tuesdays and there's still some tough midweek games left. I mean, I, Again, I think Little Rock's going to give them a challenge. We know Arkansas always seems to not play well at Dickey Stevens. They go there and they play uapb. And then in two weeks Missouri State comes back here to Fayetteville and there'll be. Obviously ark's will be motivated and wanting to beat them, but I mean, I don't think Missouri State's going to, you know, forget how to hit between now and then.
[00:40:14] Speaker B: Yeah, I think we'll take care of Missouri State. I think when they come to our ballpark, it'll be different.
[00:40:18] Speaker A: I think it'll be interesting to see.
[00:40:20] Speaker B: But to your point about who's going to pitch, it could be Tate. But what did you think about Brumball?
[00:40:26] Speaker A: I wanted to ask you what you thought about Brumbaugh.
[00:40:28] Speaker B: I thought, I thought he threw some really nasty changeups and he just missed with them. I was, I was surprised through a couple good sliders. Fastball was good.
But I think he's a guy that, you know, I knew he was throwing some bullpens.
[00:40:46] Speaker A: I figured this was coming.
[00:40:48] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:40:48] Speaker A: Like, even when players are struggling, you'll still see him playing in like midweek games. And the fact that we hadn't seen him play in the field and hit in so long. Yeah, it made me wonder. It's like, are they potentially seeing if he can come in as As a pitcher and help that side of things.
[00:41:06] Speaker B: Yeah, I knew he was doing, they
[00:41:08] Speaker A: like him as a pitcher.
[00:41:08] Speaker B: Yeah, I knew he was throwing some bullpens. I didn't know if, I didn't say anything because I didn't know if that was supposed to be known or not. So I didn't, I didn't say anything because, I mean I didn't ask Hobbs or, or Dave or anything but I, I knew he was throwing pins, but I think he's got a chance to be really good. But I haven't given up with him, you know, as a shortstop now it's going to happen this year.
[00:41:29] Speaker A: I don't think it's going to happen this year.
[00:41:30] Speaker B: I don't think it's this year. I mean, hopefully he'll stick around and come back next year and, and, and, and be a guy because I still think he's got a ton of talent. But on the mound I, I really did, I thought the combination, he, he's got the stuff now. Can we get that into the, into the zone?
[00:41:47] Speaker A: Well, keep in mind like in, and you can explain this to people better than I can, but they didn't want him pitching this year because they didn't want him.
They basically wanted that freshman year with, again, it's been his freshman year, everything's new. They wanted him to be able to play and hit like play shortstop and hit without having to think about pitching.
And then there's also the physical toll of, you know, you're trying to do all of that. I mean it can be real draining on a player.
[00:42:18] Speaker B: Yeah, especially your arm. I mean if you're, if you're trying to pitch and play shortstop, that's different than that throw from short. You have to throw from so many different arm angles. You have to cut it loose. That ball deep in the hole.
That's a lot of strain on a kid's arm. You see guys come out at third base and pitch and play third base or maybe right field. That's different. But man, you throw so much at shortstop. I think they're worried about his arm.
[00:42:47] Speaker A: I don't think. But I think, I guess where I was going with that, it's the fact that he hasn't pitched yet this year is not necessarily like an indictment on how they feel about him as a pitcher. I think that they've been pretty high on him as a pitcher. And I think the same thing goes for the two way capability, maybe to a lesser extent with Luke Cornelison. I think that there's some thought that he can be a pretty good two way player for them moving forward. I did want to talk about Little Rock for just a couple of minutes before we get out of here, bubba.
In fact, when we get off of here, I'm calling Chris Curry. I wish I could have called him before we recorded this. But you know, schedules are schedules and you look at them, they're 19 and 13, they're 7 and 2 in their conference. They were picked to finish fourth in the OVC, which they won the OVC tournament last year. They won the regular season two years before that.
They haven't played the big teams in the OVC yet like siu, Edwardsville or Semo or Eastern Illinois. Those are the teams that are kind of projected to be at the top, right with Little Rock. The teams they played are, let's say they played Tennessee Tech who was picked to finish fifth. They played Southern Indiana who was picked to finish seventh, and they played Western Illinois, who was picked to finish last in the ovc. So we'll see what they look like in their conference once they play. You know, kind of the big dog, so to speak.
But I think what you can always expect from them, number one, is motivation. Kind of like when Arkansas State and UCA came here, right. I mean, it's a chance for those guys to play the Razorbacks.
And it seems like Curry can always, more often than not, especially when you play them, like in just one midweek game, they're typically going to have pretty good pitching that's going to be competitive at least late into the game.
[00:44:29] Speaker B: Yeah, they're. You talk about the motivation factor. I mean, they want to come in here and I mean, we're kind of big brother. They want to come in here and beat us and wobbling a little bit. Ye. Yeah, yeah. And, and Curry's going to have them ready. And you know, the thing about Chris Curry, I mean, you, you know what you're going to get out of his team. You know, there he's a, he's, he's a lot like Dave Van Horn. And you know what you're going to get out of his team. He demands certain things.
They're going to do the little things, right?
And you know, I think it's going to be a tough one for us. I mean, and you said you can't afford to, can't afford to lose another midweek game.
So I think, you know, you hate to say it's. What, what's the date? It's April 6th. You hate to say, you know, April 7th is a big A must Win game for us, but it's a game that we really need to win, so. But I think. I think offensively, I think. I think we can talk about pitching. I think we got to go out. We got to have a good plan offensively and get it done offensively.
[00:45:30] Speaker A: You look at Little Rock last week, they played. I was trying to pull up the.
Trying to pull the box over here. They played at Ole Miss, and they lost the game 7 to 4. Remember Arkansas State? They had gone to Ole Miss, I think, the week before they came here, and they'd been pretty competitive with them. Maybe even let them, like, kind of get off the hook.
[00:45:47] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:45:49] Speaker A: And so I don't know, keeping Ole Miss competitive like that on a Tuesday night, I think is a pretty good indication that you're probably going to have your hands full if you're the Razorbacks.
[00:45:57] Speaker B: Yeah, I think so. And I think, you know, we'll see who pitches. I don't. I don't know if Dave will start. Peyton. Peyton Lee again. I think you're right. With Tate McGuire, though. I'd say he's probably. He's probably the guy. Since we didn't see him this weekend, I hope he's okay.
But. But, yeah, I think when it comes down to it, we got to. We got to score more runs, take some pressure off the pitching staff, you know, play good defense, and I think. I think we'll be in good shape. I'm still.
I'm. I'm still a glass half full guy.
And like I said, I think we're a talented team that's, you know, we're not getting the breaks, but we're not making. We're not. We're not making our own breaks.
[00:46:37] Speaker A: I think there's something to be said, too, for the fact that, like, there's kind of nothing left to lose at this point. Like, there's not that pressure of. And maybe they're going to be ranked again this week. I don't know. But, like, there's not that pressure of staying ranked or that pressure of, hey, you got to host a regional or, hey, you know, you got to be in contention for the SEC now. It's just, you got to go out there and you got nothing to lose. And, you know, I don't know, maybe you're able to play a little bit more freely when that's the case.
[00:47:01] Speaker B: Yeah, you. You don't want to get to the point, and this isn't going to happen. I probably shouldn't even say this, but you don't want losing to Become a habit. I mean, losing should hurt and. And a DVH team is never going to let that happen. But, yeah, you just got to go out and start scratching and clawing and figure out a way to get a win.
You know, if it, you know, if you got it, if you got to play a little small ball early in the game or, you know, whatever you got to do. And I think, I think Dave, he's going to figure it out. You're going to see a few more changes, and I think we'll see. We'll see things start to turn around.
[00:47:33] Speaker A: By the way, here's the box score for Ole Miss Little Rock. Last week, Little Rock was up 3 to 1 in the fifth inning, and it was a 5 to 4 game in the eighth. So kind of what I suspected. Little Rock. They're going to push you.
[00:47:45] Speaker B: Who started for Little Rock on the mound?
[00:47:47] Speaker A: You're putting me on the spot.
[00:47:49] Speaker B: Oh, my bad. I thought you had the box score.
[00:47:50] Speaker A: Let's see here. Well, I do. Nick Bronzini was their starter last week. Pitched two and two thirds. Okay, so we'll see if he starts again. Again. I'm kind of. I'm, I'm talking to Chris Curry in seven minutes, so I'll be able to tell you a lot more about Little Rock and maybe about 30. I'll give you a call.
[00:48:07] Speaker B: Well, they're going to do what they, you know, they're going to have. It'll be all hands on deck in their bullpen. And so I just hope our bullpen's rested enough. You know, I think it helps us that we were Thursday, Friday, Saturday, so we've had a couple days of rest. So I think, I think our dude should be ready to go out of the pen.
[00:48:24] Speaker A: We'll see. They got it. They got to play well tomorrow night because again, this RPI is something that you got to keep an eye on the rest of the season. Once again, our baseball podcast brought to you by H and R Tire and Auto. They're proudly family owned since 1976. Trusted across northwest Arkansas, committed to keeping you safe on the road all season long. You learn more or schedule service at H and R tireandauto.
[00:48:45] Speaker B: Com.
[00:48:45] Speaker A: Bub, appreciate you being here. You can read all of our baseball coverage at wholehogsports. Com. We'll see you next time.
