HenryJames was able to dictate this post on my voice mail just before getting dragged off to cell block C for his nightly prison bitch session. If you only knew the sacrifices he makes to keep you informed. He's hoping for early parole in time for Omaha.
-V.
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Augie Garrido announced yesterday that Taylor Jungmann will get the opening day start on Friday. That was to be expected. He also announced that Brandon Workman and Austin Dicharry will be the other two weekend starters. The Dicharry news was unexpected. Chance Ruffin is the closer, and it looks like Cole Green is a middle reliever and midweek starter. Two out of last season’s three starters are now relievers.
And I’m fine with that.
We headed into the CWS last year with six pitchers on which we could depend only to find out when we got there that we could only depend on four of them. And that’s why we lost. But Augie is no idiot no matter what Huckleberry says. (How many national titles have you won, Huckleberry? Stomp!)
Augie says that no starter will be asked to pitch more than five or six innings during the early part of the season. The focus will be on building depth by having the bullpen pitch 2-3 innings per game before giving way to Ruffin in the ninth.
Good plan, imo. We’ll have to see if Dicharry can become a reliable starter, whether or not Green can become an effective reliever and see who steps up in the bullpen. But I hesitate to call those things problems because we’re freaking loaded.
