Keep Calm and Throw Strikes

Well we can start freaking out now and give up on the season because we lost 2/3 in Mobile. Or we can put things in perspective and have an open mind about the rest of the games to be played.

So far Arkansas has done exactly what we surmised. They have hit better (.371) than any other team in the SEC, and are the only team in the conference to register at least 10 hits and to score at least 5 runs in all of their games.

The Hogs have the fourth most homeruns (8) in the league and, with the exception of a four-error inning, they have played great defense.

The struggles have come in the pitching department and especially detrimental in the bullpen. In 53 innings the Hogs have 61 strikeouts, a good number. They also have given up 50 hits and 30 free passes which is cause for concern. Walks and hits per inning (WHIP) is a statistic next to ERA in importance as you can probably tell when thinking about it. 1.00 and lower are considered elite WHIP numbers. I can do simple math and Arkansas' is 1.51.

This past weekend relief pitchers allowed four-run and nine-run innings. While it’s understandable for Freshmen such as Kyle Pate and Jonah Patten to struggle early, Senior returning closer Jacob Stone had an inexplicable outing-to-forget against Maryland. He will have show grit and bounce back if this team is going to have much success going forward.

UCF proved to be the best team of the weekend, finishing undefeated. Arkansas can chalk that loss up to just getting beat. The loss to Maryland was much harder to swallow. With a 6-1 lead after 5 spectacular innings from Freshman Keaton McKinney in his first start, the Hogs went on to give up 12 runs (only 6 earned) on 5 errors.

But Arkansas has not done very well in these types of early away series in which they play a different team each game. Last year they struggled in Berkley, CA, and two years ago in Surprise, AZ they came up completely empty in 4 games. And these games in Mobile were played against much better all around talent.

Especially with a young pitching staff, it is much more important to take the good away from them and learn from the bad than it is to win all of them. Sure, it would boost RPI and maybe even get us into more rankings if we win at least one more of those games. But with a progressive attitude, I choose to look forward to the upcoming games against other top quality opponents and take advantage of opportunities they still have.

Dave Van Horn is letting a lot of people pitch in these first 6 games. In doing so he is getting an idea of whom he can count on and pass on in situations. Let’s also keep in mind the best returning pitcher (Trey Killian) is still at least a couple weeks away from contributing much.

I have been pleasantly surprised with infielder turned pitcher Josh Alberius’ stuff, and Jackson Lowery has logged 5 scoreless innings so far after struggling through last season. With depth being an issue, it will be nice to get more quality innings from these two, as well as improvements from Patten and James Teague.

Offensively, Carson Shaddy has gone above and beyond what anyone may have expected. Van Horn sang his praises all winter, but seeing is believing in the baseball world and Shaddy is not disappointing. Bobby Wernes is also a pleasant surprise. After finishing the season among the worst averages last season, he is leading the team with a .474 average and .565 on base percentage.

With essentially everyone hitting through the first two weeks, the only two with slow starts are Andrew Benintendi and Luke Bonfield. These are the two highest touted hitters Arkansas has received the last two years, so I am not terribly worried about slow starts in these cases.

With winter weather hitting Fayetteville already this week, the Hogs are no doubt taking advantage of their indoor facility. But it would be nice to get out in it these next two days for some work as this weekends’ series with Cal is going to be played through some cold and potentially rainy weather.

Be patient, keep watching and keep reading. The Diamond Hogs have been in this situation before and came out of it better and finished the season much stronger.