On the Mound

Saturday 2:00pm CT on SECN+

Vanderbilt #22 So. RHP Jack “Leits Out” Leiter (7-2, 2.10 ERA)

Vanderbilt #88 Fr. RHP Patrick “Life of” Reilly (3-1. 4.24 ERA)

vs. Gumps #25 Jr. RHP Dylan “Hot Fire“ Smith (1-5, 3.20 ERA)

On Leiter being scratched today:

If you’ll remember, I dealt with this as a possibility in this week’s mail bag:

Question from Mauberly:

Is it too early to analyze what (if anything) is ailing Leiter’s recent outings? Mechanics? My understanding is he has a pretty strong mental game

I would not say it’s too early. From my vantage point, he’s missing his spots more than he did in the beginning of the year (when he quite literally never missed a spot), which is resulting in SEC power hitters taking his mistakes out of the yard. My worry is that last year’s shortened season has messed with a lot of young pitchers, as they just haven’t thrown this many innings in their career.

You see this with prospects in the minors, as teams try to increase their inning workload every year, but gradually, so they’re finally able to handle the rigors of a 162 game regular season.

Jack’s mind game is top notch. His arm may need to work through this, though. My guess is he’s just got a bit of arm tiredness, not unlike Kumar had a few weeks back. I trust Brownie to monitor this. In fact, if I were Brownie, I would at least consider sitting Jack one start, or at the very least, putting him on a 75 pitch count against Bama this weekend. Of course, our bullpen is not exactly fully stocked right now, so it’s a devil’s bargain either way.

The Lineup

See you in the comments.