Pitching rotation

[bufsa]

Saw this in Baseball America,

" (California): The talk has been about Oklahoma's bats but their starting pitching carried them this weekend. What is your assessment of their pitching and how does it compare?

Aaron Fitt: Michael Rocha is a very solid college ace — not overpowering stuff, but Sunny Golloway told me yesterday he pounds the zone with an 88-90 fastball with tremendous life, and he really locates. Bobby Shore is a similar good college pitcher, with a nice mix and a fastball around 87-91. Burch Smith is the big power arm, with a heater that reaches the mid-90s, and if Oklahoma wins the national title this year, he's going to be a big reason why, I predict. Everybody needs a real overpowering horse in the postseason, and I see Smith as that type of guy, kind of like Sam Dyson was for South Carolina. I think it's a solid staff, but I'm eager to see how it will hold up against better offenses. My gut says it will hold up fine, but I don't think it's an elite staff in the class of the teams around it in the rankings."

This goes along with what I posted earlier about Rocha and Shore being similar. Wouldn't this then make sense to go with Smith in the middle so teams don't see the same type pitcher two days in a row? Is there a real reason to go 1, 2, 3 as teams seem to do?

[jadubya]

Good link. I'll put my money on Coach Bell and how he develops/manages the staff.

Shore and rocha aren't as similar as you may think. Rocha throws a "heavy" ball...lots of sink and ground balls. Shore has more pitches at his disposal to keep hitters off balance. Their fastball radar gun values are the only real similar things in their arsenal IMO.

Hopefully they just keep it rolling.

[Sooner74]

I actually want to see Smith at #2. I actually think he is a better pitcher than Shore, but that is my opinion. I think Smith will show that he needs to be bumped to Saturday and I think he will bring us a couple extra wins because of it.

[rekamrettuB]

This goes along with what I posted earlier about Rocha and Shore being similar. Wouldn't this then make sense to go with Smith in the middle so teams don't see the same type pitcher two days in a row? Is there a real reason to go 1, 2, 3 as teams seem to do?

Matchups and confidence. If you have 3 that are fairly close then I think you do what you suggest...mix it up as much as possible. Shore has the experience and is probably why he gets the tiebreaker. I wouldn't be surprised to see Rocha, Smith, and Shore rotation in conference if Smith maintains through the OOC.

[bufsa]

I like the idea of 90 - 95 - 90 rather that seeing 90 two days in a row. Try to keep the other teams timing off. Now if SG would only listen to us experts we would win the CWS for him