Weather for Iowa at NW baseball
- Thread starter oldxbbc
- Start date
You are probably correct as beating NW will cause our RPI to drop. It would help seeding for Big tournament though.I won't be mad with a rainout or two....
True, although even with a sweep most likely locked into #3 seed unless Maryland and/or Indiana drops 2/3 this weekend too.
Enjoying an Ol’ Fashioned on the deck on a beautiful Spring evening. Just finished listening to Heller’s interview with Leistikow. I was really surprised to hear him say that the Tuesday start to the tournament places the pitching in a tough spot … and that he’d rather play the first game on Wednesday morning.
I would’ve thought that having Fri, Sat, Sun, Mon would be sufficient rest at this point of the year for Morgan but … apparently it has Heller a bit concerned.
Interesting.
I would’ve thought that having Fri, Sat, Sun, Mon would be sufficient rest at this point of the year for Morgan but … apparently it has Heller a bit concerned.
Interesting.
6 and 1/2 dozen another? Either pitch Tuesday and hopefully win and get Wed off or wait until Wed to play but face possible run of daily games....baseball and especially pitchers are creatures of habit. #HellerBall.
Heller made an interesting point about the new format - starting on Tuesday. He essentially concluded that Illinois was in a great spot. He thinks that they will make the tournament and, because they are done with regular season, they can rest their starting pitching and set themselves up quite nicely for whatever draw they might get. In contrast, the top 3 teams in the B1G are fighting for a regular season title and the bottom three teams are fighting to get into the tournament. Those 6 teams will be "all in" with their pitching.
He indicated that it might be hard to go more than 50-55 pitches with a starter on Tuesday and that it may closely resemble a mid-week game.
Pure speculation on my part here: If (and I stress IF because Heller lauded Northwestern's ability to score runs, noting that they've put double digits on the scoreboard with some frequency ) Iowa jumps out to a big lead on Thursday or Friday, I would not be shocked if Heller pulled Morgan or Langenberg early to keep their pitch count down and to have them as "fresh" as possible for the tournament.
I think that it was you who pointed out that the regular season champion has the choice of playing on Tuesday night or Wednesday morning in their first tournament game. Heller didn't come out and flatly say that the regular season champ would pick the Wednesday morning game but he certainly raised that as a viable strategic option.
I'll be frank . . . I never looked at it from the angle Heller posited. Not only would the regular season champ have an extra day of rest for its top pitcher, it could force seeds 2-7 to select a starting pitcher on short rest.
The podcast isn't particularly long (about 45 minutes). He starts it by talking about Iowa football and Heller comes on about 15 minutes or so into the podcast. If memory serves, you have to be a subscriber via the Des Moines Register or Hawk Central. If you are, it is worth a listen. Pretty frank comments about adopting the Ferentz "next man in" mentality in light of the player absences. Heller really likes the depth of the offense and believes that it can still be productive (although he concedes that losing Anthony is like the Yankees losing Judge or the Angels losing Trout). Interesting discussion comparing past pitching staffs with this current pitching staff.
Def checking out that pod on the noon walk! Would be awesome to get those players back for the BTT/Regionals! Actually this is a free pod and you can find it via Chad's Twitter or Hawk Central (or heck, here's a link, enjoy!) Conversely, some of the story content is behind a paywall for subscribers only but the pods are all free on Spotify, Twitter, YouTube etc as far as I know.
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