Arkansas pitcher strikes out 17 in 6 innings (Michigan plays them on Sunday)
Dominant outing by the Arkansas pitcher -- 15 K's in the first five innings. Thankfully we won't be facing this pitcher on Sunday.
February 24th, 2024 at 10:02 AM ^
Holy cow! (As Harry would have said)
That's 17 of the 18 outs over 6 innings. And it was against a quality team, #7 ranked Oregon State.
February 24th, 2024 at 10:05 AM ^
Will be very interesting to see where he goes in the draft. He's unhittable at this level.
February 24th, 2024 at 1:12 PM ^
"There are some concerns about his consistency and health (he underwent Tommy John surgery after blowing out his elbow as a sophomore)"
I have no idea where the Tigers' draft choices are, but he'd be worth it regardless.
February 24th, 2024 at 1:58 PM ^
These days already having TJ surgery is basically an advantage.
February 25th, 2024 at 1:47 PM ^
Just ask Skubal who is now touching 100 MPH gas occassionally
February 24th, 2024 at 3:13 PM ^
Everyone has Tommy John eventually. Better to have had it already.
February 24th, 2024 at 10:13 AM ^
Impressive. Not Team 144, but impressive.
February 24th, 2024 at 10:27 AM ^
Throw some ground balls. It's more democratic.
February 24th, 2024 at 10:44 AM ^
Whoa. The kid looks (and obviously throws) like The Big Unit.
February 24th, 2024 at 8:45 PM ^
Best nickname ever
February 24th, 2024 at 11:05 AM ^
Oregon State facing Michigan's pitching today after facing Hagen Smith will feel like moving from the 80 mph pitching machine to the slow pitch softball machine.
February 24th, 2024 at 11:59 AM ^
Baseball pitching is one of the most impressive "regular" sports skills to me, being able to launch at full strength and get it in that tiny strike zone over and over is incredible
February 24th, 2024 at 12:09 PM ^
The key is: do not think. The moment you start doing that, it all turns to scheiss.
And, as Crash (edit/add: Davis) would tell you about thinking, " ... it can only hurt the ballclub".
February 24th, 2024 at 5:17 PM ^
Seemed like Crash was doing all sorts of thinking a few years later when he pitched a perfect game in a Tigers uniform.
February 25th, 2024 at 2:17 PM ^
My dad played for Ray Fisher at M, always quoted Ray as saying “Every time you think you let in two runs” — that was in the late 1940’s.
Like much in baseball, it goes back a ways.
February 24th, 2024 at 12:23 PM ^
Dude clearly doesn't trust his fielders....
/s
February 24th, 2024 at 12:35 PM ^
And of course because pitchers today, even with improved nutrition and training methods, can’t possibly be expected to do what pitchers did for almost the entire history of baseball and throw a complete game, he was pulled after six innings.
February 24th, 2024 at 1:08 PM ^
One of the safest records in all of sports is doing what Mickey Lolich did in the '68 World Series for the Tigers: throw three complete game victories.
February 24th, 2024 at 2:11 PM ^
And downing Bob Gibson in game 7, in the matchup of 2-0 starters. Best World Series of my baseball fandom (1959-1993), no question.
February 24th, 2024 at 2:39 PM ^
Yes, but that display of endurance obviously weakened him significantly, as he was only able to throw 280, 272, 376, 327, 308, 308, 240, and 192 innings in the seasons that followed and was out of baseball at age 38.
February 24th, 2024 at 3:20 PM ^
Gibson did the same thing the year before, giving up a total of three runs in three complete game victories. No, I don’t think we’ll see that again, and not because there won’t be another pitcher who’s capable of doing it. Too bad.
February 24th, 2024 at 3:53 PM ^
Yes, it was unbelievable. I watch all of that series. They even brought TV’s into our middle school classroom so we could watch the games!
February 24th, 2024 at 8:19 PM ^
Completely agree on the Lolich record.
Two others that will never be broken:
- Cy Young's 511 career wins
- Johnny VanderMeer's 2 consecutive no-hitters
February 24th, 2024 at 11:47 PM ^
Ty Cobb’s record of stealing home 54 times is the most unbreakable record in any sport.
February 24th, 2024 at 1:23 PM ^
So you want a college kid coming off Tommy John surgery to pitch a complete game in...February? Yeah, glad you're not coaching my team.
February 24th, 2024 at 2:34 PM ^
He had the surgery after his sophomore year of high school and threw 7 no-hitters during his senior year.
February 24th, 2024 at 8:00 PM ^
There are zero reasons to have any pitcher, regardless of the level, throw complete games in the first month of the season other than some old man's "hrrr, they did it back in my day!" bullshit. Dude, it's FEBRUARY. If he plays summer ball, his season will go through mid-August.
February 24th, 2024 at 9:03 PM ^
Spoken like an individual who knows baseball! Pitch counts matter, especially in February.
February 24th, 2024 at 3:01 PM ^
When my son was 12, he threw 105 pitches in a game. I think that might be a record for 12 year old's.
February 24th, 2024 at 3:40 PM ^
When I was in college, we drank a ton of pitchers and acted like 12 year olds. (Sorry, I may be in the wrong thread)
February 24th, 2024 at 3:46 PM ^
Were you moderately harmful in those days?
February 24th, 2024 at 6:29 PM ^
My 60 year old husband and his friends (from when he was 12) still act like 12 year old's sometimes and it only takes one pitcher.
February 24th, 2024 at 4:16 PM ^
I've seen worse. Though that's not good.
I pulled my son off the mound when as a 10-yo his coach had him start on Sunday after throwing 82 (5 innings, 8 K 3 BB 2R against 11-yos) on Saturday. That led to a week of emails and phone calls with the league president acting as a go-between.
February 24th, 2024 at 6:30 PM ^
That used to happen to my son in high school -- coach would have him pitch in almost every game towards the end of the season. Great boost of confidence but by the playoffs, he was spent. Fortunately no injuries.
February 24th, 2024 at 9:01 PM ^
Wow, the worse I saw was a 12u pitching 110 and the coaches were seriously debating putting him back in for extra innings (7th). The kid pitched 50 the previous day. Overuse at that age, cause problems in the future.
Back in the 80's we didn't care about pitch counts, but kids weren't playing year round either.
February 24th, 2024 at 9:18 PM ^
And probably not throwing as hard or as many different kinds of pitches. My daughter was a softball catcher and before high school, she started having issues in her shoulder, so we took her to an ortho and she had growth plate issues. She had to stop throwing for about 2 months. He said 13 - 15 is when a lot of kids can develop shoulder issues because the growth plate hasn't closed yet.
February 24th, 2024 at 4:12 PM ^
Guess what? Hitters are better today too.