Charles Fischer Administrator No. 1 Share Posted May 2 Oregon's pitching situation has been pretty surprising this season on the good side, but in particular...on the bad side. We have been happy with the gradual development of RJ Gordon returning from injury, the mental progression of Grayson Grinsell, and the gradual improvement of Kevin Seitter on Sundays. (Fantastic game against the Bastard Beavers) We also have to separate the issues from either injury or simply a bad day. Some days you step on the mound, and the control is not there. Seitter had that against Stanford, and Ian Umlandt had that occur on Tuesday night vs. OSU. Bad days are going to happen to the best of pitchers, and the challenge is when to replace them....since sometimes they pull it together and shine. Coach Waz recruited a ton of pitchers, and we had a ton of pitchers returning, yet for crazy reasons...we are still short good pitchers. Two of our pitchers from last year, Matthew Grabmann, and Turner Spoljaric, have lost the magic of last year and are not the same at all. Jaxon Jordan We have four superb pitchers from last year that have not even played yet, and probably won't in Dylan McShane, Austin Anderson, Isaac Ayon, and Leo Uelmen. If they were available--it would change everything for Oregon. It looks like Michael Freund is returning from injury, and Umlandt will be available for relief on the weekends, now that mid-week games are finished for the season. But we had two pitchers return on Tuesday that create some buzz and excitement for Oregon Baseball fans. Jaxon Jordan was a highly acclaimed recruit from JC (Moorpark College) who had a 3.17 ERA and was a closer who had 11 saves for them. Waz was excited about his work in fall-ball, and mentioned that he could become the Duck closer. But injury stepped in, when he tried to pitch earlier--got shelled. He pitched for an inning Tuesday night, and showed us good fastballs, and a pretty good curve/breaking ball that started at the batter's eye level and dropped to the knees for strikes. He is badly needed, and at 6'5" can really whip it. I suspect we will see a gradual introduction back as he builds up his arm. Brock Moore The bigger excitement was the return of big, 6'6" Brock Moore and his three scoreless innings. He is known for heat, and he was throwing 94-98 mph, but his slider and breaking ball were killing the Beavers. In particular his breaking ball was much faster than a usual one, thus the batter thinks it is a high fastball and lets it go. Then it does a backdoor drop for a strike that leaves the batter just frozen. This is VERY exciting, as this is just what the Ducks need right now in relief! Big series against No. 25 Utah at PK Park starting Friday night. Check it out! Mr. FishDuck Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
