Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: You know, there's nothing worse in sports than a tie. And that's what Arkansas had over the weekend, a tie with Stetson in a four game series. The Razorbacks won the first two games, lost the last two, including six to four yesterday. That brings Arkansas's record to 12 and five overall. They'll start SEC play on Friday night here in Fayetteville against Mississippi State. The reason there's nothing worse than a tie, Bubba, is because you can, you can kind of point to whatever you want to point to. Like if you want to say, hey, here's the positives, people kind of have to listen to that. If you want to say, hey, here's the negatives, you kind of have to listen to that too.
I think that's why baseball series are meant to be odd numbered. You know, three games, five games, seven games, something like that, four game series. It can kind of leave you open to different interpretations. We'll talk about everything that happened during the series on the show today.
But just, you know, the way that the series ended with two straight losses, I think it leaves a little bit of a sour taste in everybody's mouth. The fans, the players, coaches, whoever.
When you look back at what happened over these four games against Stetson, I wonder how you analyze and how do you feel about this baseball team, about
[00:01:10] Speaker B: our team or about Stetson, about Arkansas's?
I was getting text after Saturday's game, during Saturday's game where Hunter Dietz was carving them up and people were saying, well, these guys are, they're terrible. These guys are horrible.
And you know, I said, no, they're not. Deets is really good. You could tell they had an experienced lineup. Some of the numbers of the guys, they were a little top loaded with their numbers.
But I thought Stetson was a better team than people thought they were. And I heard Dave say that in his interview.
But as far as our guys, I mean, you know, I'm not.
I think the thing that's frustrating is that little lefty that came in. You know, that's the difference of command versus control right there. I mean, that dude threw the ball right where he wanted it every time. Felt like we didn't make an adjustment with him. Could have done a better job. He stayed basically away.
He came in a couple of times, came in on Reese, hit him in the shoulder, came in on Sousa once and Susa got his hands inside, actually hit it hard.
But Prom pretty much stayed away. I didn't think we made an adjustment.
Still hit 10 balls over 100 miles an hour yesterday. Wind knocked some balls down. Coach. A couple good at bats.
I agree what you said. You can take away a lot of positives or a lot of negatives. I'm going to take the positives out of it and say we're still, we're still getting better and we'll find out, you know, how good we are this weekend. Matt, I mean that's, that's the key is I struggled in non conference and I know other guys have done that, but I struggle in non conference and I want to say I hit over.400 in conference, but I couldn't hit non conference pitching. There was something about it, something we didn't train at a level we didn't train at. And I think that's part of this and I think, I think Carter Rudinbot, I think he said it in the post game. He talked about the speed difference, you know, and he was very polite in the way he said it is. They don't, they don't train for, they don't see that a lot. And I think that's got a lot to do with it. Now with that being said, you still gotta, you, you gotta make an adjustment. But we did hit some balls hard yesterday and we, we made some good plays.
I, I thought, I thought, and this is a long winded answer. I'm sorry.
[00:03:28] Speaker A: No, you're fine.
[00:03:29] Speaker B: I like the bases loaded play. It was a high chopper to Souza and he could have come home and, and it's a split decision, split second decision. Do I go home and get the force, there was one out and get the force out at home, which is the easy play or do I take a chance on turning two?
He stepped up and got the ball, got the big hop and ended up turning 2. 5, 4, 3, double play in the inning. I thought that was a really good play. I mean you take away little things like that and that gets you excited, you know, but we, we did tie.
But it could have been worse. I know lsu, they would, they would have liked to tie over the weekend. So would Florida.
[00:04:13] Speaker A: Yeah, it's like I said, there's. This series is really open for interpretation. I want to tell you real quick, today's baseball 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, doing things the right way. No shortcuts and no gimmicks. At H and R Tire and Auto, you think about how they scheduled this, you know, if this is just a regular three game weekend series. I think people have a different feeling about how everything went down this weekend. It's you win game one, you know, I mean fairly dominant. I know that Van Horn said that he thought that even though it was seven to one, it felt more like seven to six. But you win by six runs. Saturday totally dominated. And we see this a lot of times where you get up on a team two zero and you know, they don't want to get swept and they come out and they play a good game on Sunday and they get out of town at, you know, one and two. Well, let's just schedule the four game series here because you know, it just kind of how it worked out for both teams. They both needed another game and Stetson said they could stay over on Monday.
So a lot of that is just kind of how the scheduling worked. You know, if this is a three game series, Arkansas wins the series. But the way it is, it's a four game series. They don't. Yesterday is a weird game because you play it like a midweek game.
And I think one of the, I don't know if concern is the right word but when you look at Arkansas right now, one of the things that's really inconsistent for them is midweek starting pitching. You had Peyton Lee against Arkansas State. James decremer did not have a good outing against ORU last week and then certainly he didn't have a good outing yesterday.
It was the first time that a Razorback starting pitcher didn't record an out since Connor Noland against Vanderbilt in 2019. So that kind of tells you how rare it is to have the type of outing where, where he just got overwhelmed by Stetson in that lineup.
The yesterday it felt like Stetson, you know, there was the curfew.
It just felt like Stetson wanted that game more at the start. Like they were loud and they came out and they got after decremer and you know, you got Arkansas kind of on its heels a little bit from what had happened the day before. And they responded in the second inning. But that was really about the only, you know, response of the game in terms of really putting together a rally and making Stetson sweat.
[00:06:32] Speaker B: Yeah, and I think anytime you get off to a 40 deficit, you know you, you've got to battle back.
[00:06:39] Speaker A: With no outs.
[00:06:40] Speaker B: Yeah, with no outs. But you know, you got to tip your hat to Stetson. They had a couple of good at bats. The top end of their lineups really they're, they're good.
You look at the home run that Desaro hit, I don't. I can't remember. I want to say it was a 1:1 count, but it was a changeup. De Kramer doubled up on the changeup and the ball he hit out. You hear me talk about staying on the tracks a lot. It was actually a good changeup. It was located down and not on the corner, but it was a way. The guy did a good job of staying on the ball. And you know what I call keeping your nose on the ball and driving it out the right field.
But the Kramer looked different to me yesterday. His changeup. He was showing his changeup so you could see it.
I don't know if he's doing something different on it, but he just looked a little bit different. But to your point about Stetson, yeah, they came out with some energy and we showed energy at times. And I like the way we battle back. Anytime you give yourself a chance at the end of the game, I'm happy. And I kept saying, I said, in the sixth inning, the seventh inning, the eighth inning, and even the ninth inning, I'm like, look, I feel good about this. We're going to get a guy on base, we're going to, going to get another guy on get base, we're going to hit a three run homer and we're going to win it. And even that last inning, you know, when Aloy came up to the plate, I'm like, kuyo's going to go deep right here. And then the inning before, you know, I'm like, susan's going to go deep here. And you just. I just felt good. I felt really good about the lineup. And even when Pompy came up and Pompy had already seen the lefty, I'm like, he's, he's going to get him one right here. The guy made good pitches to him. I feel bad for Pompey right now. It's a bad place to be. I mean, he's. You just mentally, you just feel for him because, I mean, you realize how hard the game of baseball is when you watch him at the plate.
[00:08:29] Speaker A: Right now, I can't remember if I think it was his second at bat. The umpire yesterday was given a low strike and he gave a pitcher a strike that was not only low, but it was off the plate against Pompey. And it's like, oh, boy, he's going to have to expand his strike zone now. And that's not what you want from him because that's been the pitch that he's really been having so much trouble with.
And, you know, lo and behold, it turns into a really bad game for him. Four strikeouts and, you know, just it's.
Shortstop is such a hard thing to figure out, I think, with this team right now. And I asked Van Horn about it after the game yesterday, and you could kind of hear, I think, the frustration in his voice. He said, can Rutenbauer play short? That'd be awesome, wouldn't it?
But, you know, I mean, you got Brumbaugh with the errors. Brumbaugh, he's not making good contact either. He's making more contact than Pompey is, but he's also grounded into a lot of double plays.
You know, his batting average is about 32 points lower than Pompey's. Shortstop is the biggest question mark on this team right now. I don't know what they do about shortstop.
Pompey plays pretty good defense there.
It's a premium defensive position.
I guess right now you just kind of have to live with the, you know, the offensive struggles that those two guys are having at that position, because I don't know who else you put at shortstop.
[00:09:51] Speaker B: Well, Souza's arm right now is not ready to play short.
Once Souza's arm's ready to play short, you could shuffle the infield up a little bit and make some stuff work. Right now, I mean, you got two guys to play short, and, you know, you got to go with. I think you go defense first and then just, you know, hopefully. Hopefully they'll pop one every once in a while, get a base hit. I think Dave said something to that effect, but I think you got to go defense first. Hoover's playing the best defense and just hope that they can scratch out a hit. And who knows, maybe when we get into SEC playing, we're seeing 95, 96 consistently.
Maybe, you know, maybe the bats come around a little bit.
[00:10:36] Speaker A: You heard Van Horn say after Sunday's game with Brumbaugh, he committed two throwing errors in that game. He said it's confidence with him right now. He reminds me a little bit of Peyton Stovall his freshman year. Remember, Stovall comes in, everybody says, this is your freshman of the year in the sec. Same thing happened with Brumbaugh. And, you know, I think that these major publications do a disservice to the players and to the teams by saying that this guy's going to be the freshman of the year in a conference when they've never seen him play against that level of baseball. He very well may come in and do well, but, you know, I think that with everything that a freshman has to deal with, being away from home for the first time, you know, kind of managing their life on their own, you know, I mean, you're in the first year of doing that, and then you throw all these added pressures and expectations on top of it. Well, I can see where that can be pretty overwhelming for a guy.
[00:11:30] Speaker B: I mean. Yeah, and then you're playing, you're playing a premier position at that. I mean, playing shortstop, it's different if you're, if you're a right fielder struggling or left fielder or something.
But when you're playing shortstop, I mean, there's so much pressure for the defensive side of it and you don't want to lose, see him lose his confidence. You know, Dave said something about it's lack of confidence.
Baseball's so mental. I mean, you got to believe you're the man.
Even when you're struggling, you've got to believe, hey, this is, this is the at bat. I'm going to get it going right here. You know, you flush the other at bats and you start over. And if, if you make a bad throw, I think that's what, I think that's what Carson started doing. He made that one bad throw and then he starts thinking, okay, the next one. Then he makes another bad throw. And his first two, two bad throws were on really tough plays. One was the deflection off of Souza's glove. He came up, you know, and kind of threw it off balance, got away and bounced into the stands, I think got away from Reese. The other one was a ball he charged in a odd angle throw.
And then from there on, it seems like he's thinking about the throw and you can't think about it. You got to cut it loose.
[00:12:41] Speaker A: There's a picture of Brumball that one of our photographers got. Poor guy. I mean, like, he's walking off the field, I think, after a strikeout or something, and you can just see like the weight of the world on this guy's shoulder, the confidence part of it.
And what you heard Van Horn say, because remember when Vaheva Aloy was here, the comment would always be, he doesn't take his bat out to the field.
[00:13:07] Speaker B: Right.
[00:13:07] Speaker A: But it seems like that is a problem now with, with Brumbaugh.
How hard is it to leave the at bat that you just had, you know, say, in the bottom of the inning when you go out and you play in the field the top of the inning?
[00:13:22] Speaker B: I wish I could say it's easy. It's not, though, because you're taught from a long age, if. From an early age, if you hit, you're going to play. I preach it to my kids all the time. Look, my younger kids coming up the ladder, even my high school kids. Look, if you can hit, that coach is going to find a place to play you. So your whole life you're taught that. And then you look at a guy like Carson.
I mean, he's been a stud since he was 9 years old. He's probably never struggled or. I know he's never struggled like this.
You mentioned Stovall. Same with Stovall. Stovall raked his whole life and he came here and he finally was struggling.
And, man, it's hard. And it just shows you how hard the game is. You know, I wish there was a magic potion, you know, get right pill you could take, but it's just. You've got to figure it out mentally. It's you against you. You know, there's a. In the movie Creed, there's a. There's a scene where Sylvester Stallone says that, you know, talking to the guys like it's you against you. And that's how it is, man. When you're playing a game of baseball, it's you against you. When you step up to the plate, it's you against you. You've got to get right. Right here. And same when you go out in the field, you know, you got to be ready for every ball hit to, you know where you're going with it. And when you conquer that, I mean, I. I, believe me, I understand because I was psycho. I. I used to. I used to go home at night and not sleep because I'd think about pitches like, why did I miss that pitch? Why did I take that pitch? How did I roll over that pitch, you know, and. And it beat me up mentally. And then once I conquered this thing, the game slowed down, you know, so. Not that I fully conquered it. I still think I'm battling with it, but. You know what I mean? But it's a tough game. It really is. And when you're a freshman and you just got to build up those scars and deal with it and move on, and eventually it'll get right.
[00:15:17] Speaker A: Hey, when it comes to game day, you want the best in your lineup. That includes your eggs. Eglin's Best delivers more of the nutrition you need with six times more vitamin D and 25% less saturated fat than ordinary, ordinary eggs. Score now with Eglins best. Better taste, better nutrition, better eggs. Eglinsbest.com@stopstop. So you're going to have to ride with one of these two players.
They're struggling offensively.
What do you do with a player who's struggling offensively? You know, I mean, it's like a big black hole in the lineup right now. That nine spot, whether it's Brumball or Pompey. You heard Van Horn say afterward, he said, you know, maybe we start having them bunt, maybe we start having them take pitches. How do you, like, what are the things you can do as an offense to mask someone who's struggling so badly in that position?
[00:16:05] Speaker B: When you're struggling, the best thing you can do is see pitches. The more pitches you see, the better off you are.
And then you got to get more specific in the zone. Like, I watch Pompey, and I'm not being. I'm not criticizing him. I'm just saying I can't tell. Like, a lot of times, I'll use Rootin Ball or bar as an example. Yesterday, I could tell his approach. He stepped up to the plate and he had an idea, and he had approach. I could tell, especially with two strikes, he made a conscious effort to say, I'm going to fight off this pitch inside, but if it's outside, I'm going to stay on it and hit it the other way. He did it in the ninth inning, a great at bat with a.02 pitch away, just right on the black. He just poked at the left.
And once again, I'm not beaten up on Pompey. I don't know his approach. I can't look at his at bat from my vantage point and say, okay, this is. He's trying to drive the ball to right field, or he's looking for a pitch he can drive to left field. I can't tell.
So as a hitter, you gotta. I go off. I go off a strike zone. I've talked to you about it before. I have seven balls. That's your strike zone. Narrow it down. You've got a.
[00:17:15] Speaker A: If.
[00:17:15] Speaker B: If you're looking to pull the ball, hunt 1 through 5, take 6 and 7. If you're looking to go the other way, take 1, 2, and hunt 3 through 7. You got to give the pitcher part of the plate. And when you. When you. Whatever part of the plate you're looking for, you got to own that part of the plate. So if you're looking to drive the ball, center, right, center, own three through seven.
And if you're looking to pull, give the pitcher. But you. You got to give the you got to give something up.
And then when you get right, you know, it's kind of a constant struggle. Then when you get right, everything looks good. So you start to expand the zone again, and you start to. You start to struggle, and you get a zone back in. But it's all about zoning in and shrinking the zone a little bit. And if it's not there, don't swing. You know, if you want to hunt a speed, great. Pick a speed and stay on it. If you want to hunt a zone, pick a zone and stay in it. But you got to do one or the other. You can't. You. You can't try to cover the whole plate every pitch.
[00:18:11] Speaker A: We were talking earlier about, you know, Van Horn. He seemed.
He wasn't in a good mood after the end of the game, but, you know, there are, like, levels of bad moods from a coach, and, you know, sometimes they can come in, they can be real frustrated. It didn't seem like he was, you know, at that highest level of frustration yesterday. And I said I thought it was because, you know, they did compete. They get down four to nothing, but then it's four to three.
They did hit the ball.
They had 12 hits. And, you know, you talked about Kozal earlier. He had three balls, 109 miles an hour that were outs yesterday. I mean, he had the one that could have been a home run if not for the wind. 9th inning has a line out up the middle. You know, if that second baseman's not positioned right where he is, that's a line drive into the outfield. Maybe Ruiz goes first to third. Maybe he stops at second. But you got two on with nobody out. And who knows how that. That ninth inning goes if that happens.
So, you know, it's. There are portions of the lineup. You know, Sousa had a double yesterday, but didn't do a whole lot else.
You had Pompey in the nine hole. Ruiz didn't do a whole lot in the. In the leadoff spot until he got the hit in the ninth inning. You know, but I thought that, you know, there were a lot of decent swings and at bats and what you said, there were 10 balls over 100 miles.
Yeah. So, I mean, you know, there were some good swings, and so I think that they like to compete out of the team. They didn't like the loss.
You know, I still go back to. I think you can get better from losing games, and I don't know what the. I don't know what the right formula is to be good at the end of the season. I don't know if it's starting out 12 and 5 or you know, like the 20.
Well, there have been teams here that have started out, you know, not great, but they like those early struggles. They get better and then, you know, they're kind of battle tested at the end or I don't know if the, you know, the right elixir is starting at like 24 and one like they did last year, whatever the record was. And you're hot and you just keep rolling. I don't know what it is. But I do think that, you know, if you look at this from a glass half full perspective, I do think that there is some benefit to struggling early and having to figure things out. I think that makes you a tougher baseball team. Now can they do it? I don't know.
But I think we've seen enough from this offense where. And this is maybe kind of the most puzzling thing for me this year with this team is like they'll show a game or two or three in succession where it's like, okay, they're starting to get. And then it just kind of falls off for a game or two. And it's kind of hard to explain.
Kind of a long winded way to say. I think that, you know, they, there is good that can come out of this. It's just they've got to be able to respond the right way, I think so.
[00:20:54] Speaker B: And talk about the good. There were two games in a row we hit 16 balls over 100 miles an hour. And I said it our podcast. That's incredible. The one game was against old Roberts. I think it was a seven inning game. So we had, we had 39 plate appearances. We had four walks and a hit bat or whatever, so. But we had 32 official plate appearances or bats and 16 balls over 100. That's ridiculous. You know, yesterday, even on a day where, I mean, if you don't, if you're just the average fan, I guess sitting there watching the game, you're like, wow, what's going on? But we hit 10 balls over 100 miles an hour. Kozil's ball to center was 104.
That ball almost always is a home run. Sousa's ball to left center was 98. But at the, the angle it went up, I don't even want to say I hate launch angle. The angle that went up and with the wind that's normally at ball marker that blows into the hog pin. I mean there's so many, you're like so close.
But then you look at other things and I love Ryder Helfrich, but he struck out three times on pitches out of the zone, all away. Now the pitch before the strikeout on two of those, I want to say was a ball off the plate. They called a strike. So the next ball, pitch, they go back out there and he ends up having to swing at it.
Now, not blaming the ump, I'm just saying that's human nature as a hitter. You're like, if he's going to call that, I got to swing at it.
[00:22:18] Speaker A: Yeah, that looked like a getaway day strike zone.
[00:22:21] Speaker B: It really did.
Got. It tended to get wide and when you're facing a guy like ball, that little lefty that can throw the ball wherever he wants, I mean it was incredible how he spotted up. He was 86 to 88, I guess that was, I called it a baby slider on it. Just had a little tiny gut at the end, a little tiny break and in a change up, but he could throw it where he wanted. It was pretty impressive to watch him.
[00:22:49] Speaker A: Well, by the way, ball, he started his career at Alabama, he spent four years at Alabama. So this is not a guy that just comes out of nowhere and it has this great game. I mean, he pitched at Alabama for, I think he redshirted a year, but I mean he pitched for him for three years. And that's the thing that stood out to me about the Stetson team, by the way, like their leadoff guy, he came from Virginia, their two hole guy, he came from Miami.
I think they had a guy in their lineup that came from Florida. So I mean, like these are guys who for whatever reason it didn't work out at like the elite programs, but they're players who certainly had a lot of capability or they wouldn't have gotten a chance to go to those programs in the first place.
[00:23:32] Speaker B: Well, even a guy like Hilton, the big dude, the big right fielder, how
[00:23:36] Speaker A: do people miss on him?
[00:23:37] Speaker B: I don't know. He's a senior right now and I mean, just what is he, six four, six five?
[00:23:43] Speaker A: I think he's six five, two, 25.
[00:23:45] Speaker B: And when he hits the ball in BP hammers it, he just flattens the ball.
Now he's a little bit of a circus in right field. He needs to get better in right field. I think he's a little bit, you know, I call it big league. Itis. I think he's a little lackadaisical out in right field. But I mean the guy off his body alone, someone will take a chance on him. They Won't draft him. They'll probably sign him free agent after the draft just on potential. But you know, and I go back to the, the ball that, that Fisher, the O2 breaking ball.
And, and I, I rarely disagree with a pitch call. But you know, I want to say we went curveball and he looked bad. Change up, down, he looked bad. And then we come back with curveball right there and it was just right over the plate. Now if he buries it, he probably gets the strikeout.
[00:24:31] Speaker A: I think he's supposed to bury it,
[00:24:33] Speaker B: but it just happened to be over the middle of the plate. You know, I feel like right there we got to change, we got to throw fastball up, throw a fastball off, do something to get him off of that change up, curveball speed. And I think we just did him a favor. We just ran into his barrel. But you know, if he buries the curveball, he swings that into the dirt, then we're not having this conversation.
[00:24:53] Speaker A: De La Cruz, their leadoff guy, he's a redshirt junior.
If he plays the rest and he's played really well all year. I think he came in here batting over.350 or 360. I think if he plays like that all year, I don't know he's going to get drafted this year.
But I would have to think that some major programs are going to be after this guy in the transfer portal if he wants to leave Stetson next season. Because I came away really impressed with him with just about every at bat. There was an at bat yesterday, was it against Steele, Eaves or Coyle? It was one of the two where he fouled off six straight pitches, eight pitches during a 10 pitch at bat. And he was all over the pitcher. And it felt like that rider hell for cat bat down in Arlington where the guy from Oklahoma State just couldn't get him off of his pitches. And it was the same thing, you know, with whoever was on the mound for Arkansas at this point. They could not get De La Cruz off. And you talk about seeing pitches, it just feels like the longer those at bats go on, yeah, it's going to end in a hit. It's going to end in a hit or it's going to end in a, a hit batsman or it's going to end in a walk or something like that. And sure enough, he gets a hold of one, he puts out in left field. I just, I could not have been more impressed with him. I think he's a really good baserunner.
I think he's really got good plate discipline.
He looks like an SEC player to me.
[00:26:14] Speaker B: Yeah, the bat you're talking about was off a coil 10 pitch at bat. And if you're, if you can battle 10 pitches against Coil, you're really good because, I mean, he threw him some tough pitches and he was able to foul them off. He's got that cutter. They can cut in, he can backdoor breaking balls. So he threw him multiple pitches and he just kept battling. But you're right, I think the one De La Cruz, his, his weaknesses in the field, I want to say, played third base one game, second a couple games.
I think they're still trying to find a place. He slipped and fell a couple times at second.
You know, I don't know if they have a position for him, but at the plate.
Yeah, yeah, he battles and he's really good when he gets on base.
[00:26:55] Speaker A: When you were talking about ball, I wanted to mention this. Steve Tremper, the Stetson head coach, did you see this quote about what their game plan was? Yesterday he said, quote, we tried to do the same plan as Sunday, which was to keep the ball down and keep it on the corners. Don't nibble too much, but be sure that you're just trying to catch the box. We kept the ball down and they kept the ball in the ballpark. And that goes back to that strike zone. Like when you're trying to attack the corners and you got a big zone, big window you're trying to throw into.
I mean, it was just like the perfect ingredients for them at least yesterday to be able to have some success pitching.
[00:27:31] Speaker B: Yeah, you're right.
If you've got a regular zone and you're not getting that ball a few inches off the plate, maybe it's a different game. But I mean, you know, both teams had the same strike zone. So, you know, it's tough, but it did. That strike zone matched up points perfectly with what that guy was throwing. And to his credit, you know, there was one at bat. I want to say it was Koal. He dotted three balls in a row off of Koal and the, the third one was just off the plate. I mean, and Kozil swung at it, had to chase it, you know, because it was just off the plate. I mean, he just, he just did a good job. He didn't make mistakes. I don't know if he threw a single ball over the middle of the plate.
[00:28:15] Speaker A: It was a good pitching performance by ball. I was impressed by him yesterday. Southern Loft believes your home should reflect your unique personality. That's why they offer a wide 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 loft at 3155 North College Avenue in Fayetteville, or call 479-856-6100.
[00:28:43] Speaker B: Let me say one more thing about.
[00:28:44] Speaker A: Go ahead.
[00:28:46] Speaker B: When I'm facing a soft lefty like that, you want him to. You want to get him out of his comfort zone. Staying away, what you got to do as a hitter. And maybe they did it. Maybe. Maybe they talked about it. I don't. I don't know. I didn't talk to Tom's. But you got to get on top of the plate and make that.
That seven look like a five and dare him to come inside, because, like I said, he came inside twice and he hit. Hit Reese and then left one up to Sousa that he just missed. I think you gotta. You gotta get on top of the plate with a guy like that and challenge him and say, you're. You're gonna have to come into me because if you throw it out there, I'm gonna. I'm gonna smoke it right back up the middle.
[00:29:27] Speaker A: We've gone a long time now in the show without talking about the pitching, the starting pitching that Arkansas had, quote, unquote, on the weekend, you know, especially Friday and Saturday from. From Gackel and Dietz. Fisher didn't have a great outing. He got through some trouble, first and third, the. You know, the first or two of the first three innings.
But I'm gonna start with Gackel.
It was not like this overpowering, dominant Friday start. I don't know that you're gonna get that from him. Like, we're still waiting to see that overpowering start from Gabe Gackel. And. And at some point, maybe you just have to say, hey, what you're going to get from him is like a good outing from him is six innings, six, seven strikeouts, and he leaves the game in a good position for the bullpen. Maybe he's got more in the tank, I don't know. But that was the best start that he's had at Arkansas. It was the most pitches he's ever thrown. It was the longest he's ever gone in a starting outing. What did you think from him?
[00:30:27] Speaker B: I thought he was pretty good.
I like the fact his slider wasn't. He didn't command his slider, but he was able to go more to that slower breaking ball. The curveball around 80 miles an hour is really good.
His change up to lefties is good. His fastball was pretty good. I mean, it's 94, 95, but it plays like perceived velocity. I think it plays up, you know, the way he throws the ball.
He releases it. He's down low, he releases. So it holds his plane. Well, I thought he looked good, you know, and he got out of a couple jams. And I think that I asked him, I interviewed him after the game and asked him something about being able to pitch with, with runners on base. And I think the fact that he's been out of the bullpen, you know, for, for two years, I think that's helped him learn to maneuver traffic a little bit. And he doesn't, doesn't let it phase him.
[00:31:21] Speaker A: Dietz, I mean, this is three weeks in a row, I think, where we come in and say he looked better than he did the week before.
And, you know, he was nine strikeouts in, what was it, four innings, I think in his second start. Then he goes eight strikeouts in seven innings. His third start. And now 12 strikeouts in the start that he had the other day. I think it was seven innings.
What do you say about him? Like, I mean, this is really, really good stuff that you're seeing from Hunter Dietz. I think that if you're looking for a bright spot from the weekend, it's that outing that he had where he had everything working and he didn't really have to throw the fastball a whole lot. He used it to set up his other pitches. But, man, the way he's landing those curveballs and those cutters, it's unbelievable watching this. Tremper, the head coach for Stetson, said this, that he's the best pitcher he's seen in 15 years and called him a first round arm.
[00:32:17] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I believe it.
So you can look at all the analytics and track, man, and say, okay, this is what his pitches are doing, or you can just look at the hitters. The reaction of the hitters are going to tell you how good his stuff was that day. And they were just baffled.
It was almost like they had no chance. There weren't very many quality swings against him.
And I think that's a tribute to Helfrick too. You know, it's. It's almost like when Helferk knew when they're, when they're looking away, he would go cut her in when they're looking in he would go dot the fastball away or go, you know, backdoor breaking ball.
I mean, he just had them totally just, they just didn't. They just knocked competitive at bats and that's. And we already talked about it's a pretty good lineup, especially the top part.
But that just goes to show you how good his stuff was. It's just a reaction of the hitters.
[00:33:12] Speaker A: There's going to be talk if Dietz keeps pitching like this about whether or not you put him on Friday night. I wonder if Arkansas actually has a better setup the way it is right now where you've got Gackle going on Friday and if he's effective, he can keep you in the game against, you know, whoever the other team's guy is. And then you've got Dietz, who's pitching like a Friday night starter in the roll Saturday. It's. I would think it's difficult, I guess. Two thoughts here.
Again, I think Gackel has the capability to pitch with other aces. I don't know that he's going to be as good as every one of them. Probably not. You're not going to, you know, you're not going to have it every, you know, every week. But like, I think that, you know, consistently he's got the ability to stay with the other team's ace. I don't know that another team has a number two that can stay with Hunter Dietz. If he's throwing like he's capable.
[00:34:02] Speaker B: I agree.
I like him where he's at on Saturday.
I agree there's not a lot of Saturday guys.
Mississippi State's got a good lefty. I think we'll see on Saturday. But I don't think he's Hunter Dietz as far as Gackel. I like him on Friday night. I still feel good with the ball in Gackel's hand even when his stuff. If he has a day where there's a pitch not working, he knows how to go to something else and get outs with something else. And I think that's just a special ability.
I still like Gackel a lot.
And then if we can get by, the key is we're going to have to score on Friday night against their Friday night guy. And that's kind of the big, that's the big question mark, Matt.
But I saw our guys hit our pitching in the fall and early spring, so I know we can do it. If we can hit our guys, we can hit anybody. So I'm really looking forward to this weekend just to kind of see I
[00:34:58] Speaker A: think they hit better in the fall, you know, like in the, in the preseason practices in January.
The first week or two, you know, the first week was. Was open, or at least the first practice was open. Then it got cold and nasty and they had to go inside for a long time. But, like, for the first couple of weeks, what you heard was like, hey, it's kind of a good give and take. You know, pitching will have some good days. Hitting will have some good days. But then there were like, two weeks there where it was like, man, the pitching is really holding these guys down.
But they did hit him in the fall. And so it shows you that I think the capability is there.
Like, with a guy like Brumbaugh, I thought he was their second best hitter in the fall. Helfrick was their best. I thought Brumbaugh was probably their second best. I mean, he was putting up decent power numbers. He was getting on base several times.
And then you look at it on the flip side. Zach Stewart did not play well in the fall at all. Well, now he's, you know, I mean, I know it's a lower number of bats for him, but I think he's got their highest batting average right now, and he didn't play the last two days. I think that's, you know, something worth mentioning. Now, Rutenbar did play in his place, and Rutenbar had success.
But, you know, they think they'll get Stewart back in the lineup by Friday. It seems like maybe he's turned the corner a little bit now. Can you get some of those players who were hitting well in the fall to turn the corner and, you know, kind of get back to what, you know, or at least like a version of what, you know, they're capable of being?
[00:36:22] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I think it's going to happen.
I'm glass half full guy, always, I think, you know, I think if. If our pitchers can continue to do what they do, I think we're going to score enough runs to, to win. And that's the, that's kind of the, the unanswered question. How many runs can we score on a Friday, a Saturday and a Sunday? I think, I think the talent. I still look. I still look at the lineup, and I know I said the same thing last last week. I still look at this lineup and I see studs. I see really talented players.
Now.
They've got to figure it out. You know, I compare it to spring training. When I. When I first signed with the Yankees, I went to rookie ball, and every guy I Walked by was a dude. They were all just monsters. They were all 6, 4, 2, 10, 220.
And they were all just dudes.
And you watch them take BP and you're like, oh, my gosh, this is pro ball. I'm in trouble. I'm out there hitting on the field with a guy that's playing pepper with the 400 foot batter's eye off a tee.
And I'm like, this is crazy. But then you watch them and none of them can figure out how to play. You know, it's kind of the moneyball thing. If he's a hitter, if he's a good hitter, then why didn't he hit? You know? So all these guys are talented, super talented. They just have to put it all together. And when we do, or if, hopefully when they do, the talent's there and we're going to score. I think this lineup will start clicking. Hitting's contagious.
[00:37:57] Speaker A: These numbers are going to go down, there's no doubt, because they're going to place better pitching coming up in the sec. But you look at this.
These are their everyday starters. Batting averages right now. 359 by Kozal. 340 by Ruiz. 339 by Kahil. And I want to talk to you about his swing here in just a second. 333 by Mike Anu. He's coming up, I mean, like. Like he's. He's playing, I think, at the level that people thought they'd get. Rider Helfrich. 328. I don't feel like he's hitting anywhere near what he's capable of doing. Robinette's at.310. Then you skip down here. Zach Stewart is at.423, but he hadn't played a whole lot. The problem is the. There's like the Grand Canyon between Reese Robinette at 310. And then you go down here and you've got Nolan Sousa, who's hitting.196, and then Pompey and Brumbaugh, whoever you have in the lineup at shortstop. 188 and 156 between them. I mean, it's like. It's kind of like feast or famine for this lineup. And there's a lot of times where you get the bottom half or the bottom part of the lineup come up to the plate and there's runners on. They had runners on the last two days. They were 1 for 19 with runners in scoring position. It's just. You get there and there's just.
It's just not happening consistently enough.
[00:39:08] Speaker B: But think about it. Where else in baseball do you have a guy like Nolan Souza hit an eight hole.
[00:39:15] Speaker A: So what do you see from Sousa? Because Van Horn says that he thinks that his swing is coming around. I do, but, you know, I mean, the numbers are 196. The strikeouts are lower this year. That's one thing. Now they have come up a little bit.
15 strikeouts in 56 at bats.
Certainly you'd want that to be a little bit lower.
They had the double yesterday. Could have probably had a home run. I think he had two hits and a walk on Saturday.
It's not consistent, it feels like, with him.
The days that it's going well, it's going well, and the days it's not, it seems like it's going, you know, real bad. An O for day. What do you see from him? Because, remember last year, he kind of started out like this, too, and by the time he tore up that shoulder, it felt like he was starting to like, is he a naturally slow starter? What do you see from him?
[00:40:05] Speaker B: He could be. I think he's thinking at the plate. He looks like a guy that's loading to see if he wants to hit versus a guy loading to hit. There's a difference. That's why he's late.
You hate to see a guy like that. Foul off.00. 10, 20 pitches to the left side.
Man, when you're. You got to be on go get the barrel out there. It doesn't mean you have to pull it, but get the. Get the head of the bat out in those accounts. You know, I've already told you about getting fined for being late. Yeah, and I was joking with Sousa about it. You know, standing around the tunnel there. The. Just joking about. You know, we used to get fined anytime we were late on a pitch, and you learn to be on time, and that's just. That's it. And maybe early on, maybe it's a trigger mechanism. From the time your eyes process the information to your swing starts. There's a little. There's a little delay there with Nolan, and maybe now he's starting to trend in the right way. He hit that 20 pitch was a fastball away, and he hit it 106, 107 left field for a double. I mean, it was a great swing.
I think he's going in the right direction. I really do.
Because, you know, with Nolan, it's pretty good. You can tell his approach. He's trying to stay on the ball. I wish every once in a While he would just cut it loose and hit over the Hunt Center. His last couple of BPs, he's, he has been cutting it loose. His last few swings he's hammered the ball and I think that's good for him. Have that feel good BP at the end and you know, here's three swings, cut it loose. Or here's five swings, cut it loose, let it go. Get the head out there and let it eat.
[00:41:42] Speaker A: Reminder, our baseball podcast sponsored by H and R Tire and Auto. Local shop. They've been family owned for three generations. They built their reputation on taking care of customers the right way. That kind of longevity doesn't happen by accident. H and R Tire and Auto on Suza. You talked about that double play that he turned the 5, 4, 3. Yesterday there was a play, I don't remember if it was Saturday or Sunday, but he's playing third base and they bunt it. He comes up, charges it, makes a good strong throw across and gets the guy at first base. It seems like he's starting to trust his arm a little bit more.
[00:42:13] Speaker B: I think so.
It's, it's incredible how quick he closes on that bunt because they tried to bump multiple times and he's, he's there now. He's playing a little bit shallow probably than most third basins play. But he's so quick and. Yeah, but he charged those and he put a little bit more on the throw. On a lot of throws you see him just getting rid of, it's kind of like the old Ozzie Smith where he just fields it and gets it there just in time. He knows how fast the runner is so he doesn't have to cut it loose.
But once that arm gets healthy, wherever he's playing, he's going to be really good. But the double play really stood out to me because you could have taken the easy out at home, but he didn't. I mean, he stepped up, got the hop and turned two, which was huge.
[00:43:01] Speaker A: His footwork is really good. Van Horn told me in the preseason that in the fall whenever he was hurt and he couldn't throw the ball, but he was still doing defensive work, footwork drills and things like that, that Van Horn would take the younger guys over and say, just watch him, watch how he moves his feet. This is what you've got to do.
And I thought that that kind of showed on that play where he fielded that bunt. I mean, he quick feet up to it.
[00:43:30] Speaker B: Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean, he's kind of a clinic on the right way to do things.
I was taught if your feet quit moving, your glove quit moving. So yeah, starts with the feet.
[00:43:41] Speaker A: Bullpen looks good. I mean, you know, you look at the numbers for this pitching staff and again, if you take away those three and I know you can't, but just imagine if you took away those three midweek starts by Lee against Arkansas State and the last two by decremer, what the pitching numbers would be. But even with those, bubba, the team ERA is a 2, 7 4. That's a great number. Their whip is under one. I think it's 098 or.099. Teams are batting.199 against them. And that's why, you know, Mississippi State's going to be a really interesting series this weekend just to kind of gauge where Arkansas is at because Mississippi State is a really good team this year. They're ranked number three and they ought to be ranked number three. Their only losses are to UCLA and Southern Miss by one run apiece. Those are good teams. Both of them were away from, from, away from Starkville.
I think Arkansas can pitch with anybody. I really do. I think, you know, and I think that on the days where you'll say like Sunday, okay, so it's not going great for Colin Fisher. Well, here comes Cole Gibler out of the bullpen and you're going to be hard pressed to find a better left handed reliever I think right now than, than Cole Gibler.
So they've got some weapons in the bullpen. You saw some of them yesterday. Eaves gave up a couple of hits but then he really settled in and he was rolling for the last three innings that he was on the mound.
I think they can pitch with anybody and so that's why I think they've got a chance still to win a lot of games even with the offense not, you know, performing to the level, certainly not to the level that it did last year. And I think we said this last week you're not going to see them perform at that level because that was just a generational type offense that they had last season. But I think they can pitch with anybody and put themselves in a position to where if you can put together a two or three run inning in the seventh or the eighth inning off somebody's bullpen, you can win a lot of games.
[00:45:32] Speaker B: Yeah, well, you talked about Gibler. What about McElveen? Yeah, he's been incredible. Parker Coyle has been really good.
[00:45:38] Speaker A: I think they got six players, maybe it's five now, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 players who have not given up an Earned run this year. Now, one or two of them, they haven't pitched a whole lot, but Brissy, he's pitched some innings. McIlvaine Steele leaves, has not given up an earned run. Gibler, I think he's only given up one earned run. Fisher, I mean, you know, you don't, you don't throw him out because he had a bad inning the other day.
They got some really good pitchers on this pitching staff and again, I think they're going to be able to compete because of the depth of the bullpen.
[00:46:11] Speaker B: So on Fisher, he didn't have his best stuff, but go back, take away that one pitch and it's still a good outing. Even though he didn't have his best, he really didn't have his change up. I didn't think curveball was good. Curveballs, yeah.
Wasn't locating his fastball like he normally is and he was still almost able to get out of that.
I'll tell you who was really good yesterday. Steele. Eaves. Eaves was throwing 93, 94 at the bottom of the zone. Like almost every pitch he threw was at the bottom of the zone. He was just getting ground ball, ground ball, ground ball, slider was good. He kept every. The key is he kept everything down. In fall or the early spring, he was getting balls up above the belt.
Yeah, it starts to flatten out a little bit as long as he stays down there. He's such a good weapon, however they use him. You know, he could go longer or he could go shorter and come out and close out a game.
[00:47:07] Speaker A: It's kind of like the Stetson series in general. You could look at this one of two ways with the Eaves, you know, like Texas Tech. He comes in, I think he hits a guy in the head and then they get a two run hit off of him. And he's not able to nail it down in the ninth inning of that game. But then he comes back out and he's great. In the 10th and the 11th yesterday, kind of a similar deal, he comes in, couldn't put the fire out. They scored a couple of runs off of hits against him. I think one's a routine hit, one's a bunt single, but then again comes back out. Fifth, sixth, seventh innings, it's. And not only was it good, it was quick. And there was that curfew yesterday. It was three o' clock curfew. I just kicked my microphone. But it was a 3 o' clock curfew and at 1:40 you're going into the fifth inning and I'm like, I don't know they're going to make it to the ninth inning at this pace. And then eaves. 10 pitch inning, 8 pitch inning, 8 pitch inning. Stetson, they're kind of doing the same thing to Arkansas on the other side. And it's like four or five innings went by in 40 minutes, and you get to the ninth inning and it's like 2:20. Well, there's plenty of time to finish this game. You know, you might, if they can tie it here, maybe you can even play a 10th inning. I don't know. But I was really impressed with what Eaves did and just the efficiency with which he can do that.
[00:48:21] Speaker B: Yeah, I think he's really good. The key for him is just keep the ball down. I mean, we, we've seen. We've seen how effective that is when we face a sinker, slider guy.
[00:48:29] Speaker A: They're.
[00:48:30] Speaker B: They're hard to hit. They really are. You know, especially we keep that ball down like that. Hitters hit the top of that ball, and it's just a ground ball.
Brissey's another guy.
When I watch Brissy throw, he's what, 94, 95.
I think he's got more in the tank. But the 95 plays faster. Like, it looks faster out of his hand. It's almost like it has a second gear halfway to the plate and just. It just takes off.
Hitters don't see the ball. Well, I thought he. I've been really impressed with him.
[00:49:01] Speaker A: He was up one of the last two days. I can't remember. He didn't make it into the game, but he was up in the bullpen. And, you know, I mean, I think that this tells you what they think about him, is that they were going to bring him in in a, you know, pretty high leverage situation late in the game. I think he can be awfully good. One more thing here before we get out of here. There was a mock draft by Baseball America that came out yesterday. They've got Ryder helfrich as the 18th overall pick by the Reds. They've got Gabe Gackel as the 24th overall by the Mariners. Now, certainly, a lot can change between now and then. I think Hunter Dietz is going to end up maybe on some of these first round projections before this is all over if he keeps pitching the way he's doing.
Kind of reminds me a little bit of Gage Woods. I know it's different because Gage had the shoulder injury last year that kept him out, but it feels like it's Kind of that upward trajectory with him, with Helfrick, I wonder, and you've been through this, you're in your draft year.
Everybody's got these expectations of you. How do you handle that? And do you think that, is that at all? Maybe what we're seeing from him, where the, the numbers just aren't quite.
Again, I think they're going to be better than what they are right now.
[00:50:12] Speaker B: I think they're going to be better. And it's hard not to put pressure on yourself. I mean, you know, there's scouts in the stands, they watch everything you do.
What's impressive with Helfrich is when he makes an out, he doesn't take it behind the plate like a lot of guys.
You know, I played with catchers that, you know, when they're struggling offensively, they're calling a really bad game and giving up a lot of runs. Helferk doesn't let the two interfere, but he's still, you know, he hit a ball hard yesterday up the middle over 100.
I think he just, he got pitched through really, really tough yesterday. Now the day before, you know, I think, I think it was the day before he popped up to shallow right, won it, won it. Bat popped up to third, won it bad. I think Popped up to.
Or popped up to first.
So he was getting under a few balls. So I think he's still kind of fighting his swing.
But he's dangerous at the plate.
[00:51:09] Speaker A: I mean, we talked about, he's. He's been the hardest luck hitter the last couple of days notwithstanding. But, you know, for a lot of this season, it's been a lot of hard hit balls right at people. And you still think that, you know, you keep having those kind of swings.
And he went through this a little bit at the beginning of the season where, yeah, that great game against Oklahoma State and he chased the pitch trying to hit a third home run and it took him out of the strike zone for about a week. Yeah, I think he'll find it again.
[00:51:37] Speaker B: I do too.
[00:51:37] Speaker A: If he can find that again and start having those hard hit balls, it's going to fall for him at some point. I think that again, I think that, I think he's kind of the glue to this. Like, if Helfer gets going, you know, and you see your leader get going, I think that that's got a trickle down effect in the lineup.
[00:51:56] Speaker B: Absolutely. I think him and Kozil, Kozil's been rock solid. He's had great at bats. He's squaring up balls. I mean, he's. He's in a really good place mentally, so whatever that is. He listens to pre game Gregorian chant. We might get the whole team listen to that. Maybe Pompey needs some of that. But, Matt, here's the way I view it. Like, we can take all of this stuff right here and just throw it out. For me, the season starts Friday at 6:00'. Clock. It really does.
Once we get into SEC play, I don't look at any of this. I look at SEC stats only for us and for the teams we're playing.
This is all just spring training almost. I mean, and I hate to. I don't want to downplay it, but I mean, this is a time for Dave and the staff to figure out, okay, this is. This is who we got. This is our dudes, you know, and there's a couple question marks still, but I think it'll work. It'll work itself out once SEC play starts.
[00:52:52] Speaker A: That is a good point. That's a good point about spring training because you get what, like six weeks in Major League Baseball to get ready for the season. I mean, you know, a lot of these teams, they're not even able to get outside before the regular season begins in college and even that way for Arkansas a little bit, I think they had three or four outdoor scrimmages before they were able to get on the field down in Arlington. Bubba, appreciate you being here. Bubba will be back here in studio on Thursday. We'll look ahead to that Mississippi State game. Once again, we want to tell you our baseball podcast brought to you by H and R Tiren Auto. They're proudly family owned since 1976. Trusted across northwest Arkansas, committed to keeping you safe on the road all season long. Learn more or schedule service at H and r Tire and Auto.com. we'll be back with another podcast tomorrow. Hope to see you then or at our website, whole hogsports.com.
