Thursday, April 29, 2010

College Baseball: An analysis of a potential Sunday starter

If you're Texas State head coach Ty Harrington, who would you pitch Sunday afternoon against Texas-San Antonio? Here are a few choices with a few of their statistics from Southland Conference outings:

Option A: 3-2 with a 7.34 ERA. Twenty-two walks in 34 1/3 IP.
Option B: 0-3 with a 14.54 ERA. Eight walks in 8 2/3 IP.
Option C: 1-0 with a 0.00 ERA. Seven strikeouts in 5 2/3 IP.

Many of you would select Option C, correct? There's a catch with that choice though. Option C hasn't started a game in Southland Conference play and would be pitching on short rest.

Last week, Harrington chose to start B and bring A out of the bullpen, but it didn't work in his favor. Both had poor outings, forcing Harrington to go back to the drawing board.

All signs point towards C starting Sunday, but when the Bobcats travel to Rice next Tuesday, it leaves them with even another dilemma: If you can't trust A or B in a conference start, why trot them out in an important game with RPI implications?

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