I went back and looked at Ohio State’s stats from last weekend and was surprised to see the Buckeyes batted .327 (36-for-110) compared to .264 (28-for-106) the first week of the season. The weakest part of the lineup continues to be the No. 2 and No. 3 holes. Tony Kennedy has batted No. 2 five times this season and Cory Rupert has batted there once. The two have combined for a .240 batting average. Kennedy is 5-for-20 there, while Rupert was 1-for-5. The average might be more acceptable lower in the batting order, but not what you want if the lead-off man gets on base. Even worse, the No. 3 hitter is batting just .174. Ryan Dew has batted in the No. 3 hole and is 4-for-23. After six games, it might be worth moving him later in the batting order and giving someone else a shot. That someone might be Ryan Meade, who is batting .320 as a true freshman and lead all starters in the Dominos Pizza Aggie Classic with a .462 (6-for-13) in earning a spot on the all-tournament team.
The biggest difference from week one to week two was on the mound, where the ERA went way up. In Millington in games against Arkansas State, Memphis and Seton Hall, the Buckeyes managed a 1.33 ERA. A week later, against much better competition in College Station, the ERA in the three games against Texas A&M, Louisiana Tech and Arkansas, swelled to 5.76. Dean Wolosiansky (0 ER/5.0 IP/0.00 ERA) did not allow a run in his five innings in a winning start Saturday vs. Louisiana Tech and earned a spot on the all-tournament team. Dan DeLucia (3 ER/3.1 IP/6.23 ERA) and J.B. Shuck (6 ER/5.0 IP/10.80) struggled by comparison in their starts. That is a 6.08 ERA by starting pitching. The bullpen didn’t fare much better, allowing seven earned runs in 11.2 innings for a 5.40 ERA. The entire staff walked 15 (eight by relievers), hit four batters and balked twice. Wolosiansky is 2-0 with a 1.12 ERA in two appearances and one start totaling 8.0 innings. Jake Hale will only help the pitching staff when he returns this weekend in West Palm Beach.
Fielding continues to plague the Buckeyes early this season. The team has committed 14 errors through six games and has a .942 fielding percentage. Ohio State did not have an error against Arkansas, but had errors in the first five games of the season, including three each in four of those contests. The fielding will come, hopefully before the start of conference play in less than a month.
4 comments:
Wow. What an amazing write-up backed with the statistics. I know I have expressed how I feel about our corner OF's and their spots in the line-up at 2, and 3, but this puts the numbers with the argument. I liked and Kennedy started 38 games last year bating 7th. I know typically you want speed at the top, someone to set the table and advance runners, but in key situations this past weekend Kennedy had runners at 1st and 2nd, no outs and did nothing. Put in Hurley who has shown he can hit, does have the speed, i not more than Kennedy, so that won't be lacking.
I felt last year Arp was better for the team than Dew. Now I wouldn't bat Arp 3rd, but I would for the time being give Mike Ryans spot in the OF. DH Dew move him down to 6th to see if its just a slump, or he just can't cut it.
Something needs to be changed though. Can't go anywhere without a 3-hole hitter. He probably went under the radar, but Fryer started all but 1 game batting third last year and every game you knew what to expect when it went Howell-Angle-Fryer.
Shuck is doing his job, but the gap from him to Miller is scary, and a rally killer a lot. Hopefully BT is aware of this and does some tinkering. With PSU and Minny the first two weekends of conference play we need this figured out asap.
Will be nice to see Jake back on the mound. And starting the season as a SP.
Great read Todd.I think BT will find the right lineup, but it takes sometime. Hopefully by the time they start Big Ten play they will find it. I think BT has done a good job of this in the past.We do need to find a good 2 and 3-hole hitter.I think those spots are more important than cleanup hitter.I agree with Rocky, Fryer was a good 3-hole hitter last year. I also liked Angle in the 2 hole last year with Howell leading off.
'08
Arp/Hurley Lf
Shuck Cf
DeLucia 3b
Miller 1b
Meade Dh
Dew Rf
Burkhart c
Kovanda 2b
Engle/Ruppert ss
Just a thought?
Interested to see if Dan pitches this weekend. Maybe a weekend to rest him a little.He has pitched great so far, but i don't want to burn him out before Big Ten season starts.I really believe he is a big key to our success this season. It seems like the past couple of years arm injures have been really bad. Maybe bad luck, i don't know.
On Defense, i think we have to deal with the fact that our OF speed is not like it has been in the past. We have had some great OF's the last couple of years. There is a reason Angle was a 7th round draft pick. Rabin,Howell and Schirtzinger were good in the OF too. Arp, Hurley/Dew and Shuck are not bad, just not great speed or range.
Drew
The defense in the OF doesn't bother me. The defense on the left-side of the IF does bother me. The thing that bothers me the most it its a yearly thing. 08 Rupert/Engle-Miller/DeLucia 07 Kennedy-Zoller/Rupert
06 Bourquin/Stephen. There have been just sub-par defensively play in the infield giving teams extra outs inturn resulting in extra runs. I'm fine with an OF of Kennedy-Shuck-Dew defensively, my main thing with Kennedy and Dew is offensively.
The more I think, isn't Miller and Fryer veyr similiar at the plate? Last year Shuch was 4th in the order. There are options for your 1-2 spot, though I wouldn't have Arp leading off, Hurley no problem, but back to the point we can be fine with a
Hurley/whoever
DeLucia/Arp
Miller
Shuck
top half of the lineup. The only thing I disagree with 33 is stating BT does a good job of getting the right line-up in. The whole Hale-Meister disaters of last year are known, but small changes I was calling for like Zo from SS to DH because he 20 errors were killing us, and moving Jason, who had the most power from 8th up in the line-up, as well as out of SS to DH, he had 20 errors and the teamw as a mere 18-13 with him there. Of course not directly his fault but still.
Back to this year, I think the rotation is set with JB-Dan-Jake-Dean for the weekend. Eric/Josh/Josh mid-week and bullpen and Rory closing. Still think a few other guys will get looks, interesting to see where Wimmers and Strayer are placed.
I agree about the left side of the infield defense.It hurts to give good teams extra outs, they will make you pay. It has been a problem for years now.That is sad to see.
I also agree about the Hale/Meister thing last year.Jake is a starter in my eyes.Rory is ok in the 9th and can get the job done.Rory is not a starter at all.
Zoeller was bad defensively @ SS last year.But we needed his bat. I don't mind having a light hitting SS if he can play some great Defense. Tyler Engle looked good in the fall at SS. Any hitting would be a plus for a true Frosh. I also think Brian Delucia is an upgrade over TK at 3rd.I have not seen TK play much OF so i don't know much about that.I also wounder if Hurley can play CF, i love JB but think he is a corner OF.
I do scratch my head some times at Coach Todd's choices in ball games.Some times it leaving a starter in to long, bad Pinch hitting calls, bunting too much or lineup changes. I do know one thing, i have not won any games at Ohio State. So i guess i can't say too much.
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