Michigan State @ Oregon (Spartans win series 3-0)

[UOducksTK1]

Fri, Apr 03 Michigan State Eugene, Ore. 6:00 p.m. Pac-12 Live Stream
Sat, Apr 04 Michigan State Eugene, Ore. 2:00 p.m. Pac-12 Live Stream
Sun, Apr 05 Michigan State Eugene, Ore. 2:00 p.m. Pac-12 Live Stream

[oregontrack]

irvin is going to shift back to friday, peterson will stay on saturdays, and though i didn't see an announcement i would imagine harber will go to sunday.

my thoughts:

pac-12 play has been a total trainwreck, really no way to sugar coat it. at 18-12, we can still right the ship, but it's got to happen now. irvin has got to pitch better and longer. he went 5.2 against asu two weeks ago, which is a step in the right direction, but if he can't get out of the 6th -- which he hasn't yet -- it's really taxing on the bullpen for the remainder of the weekend. we'll see what he does tonight, but we really need him to start going 7. earlier in the year, the benefit of that irvin/harber friday hybrid was that win or lose, the bullpen was pretty much stocked for saturday/sunday. if we're needing four different arms to tag-team a friday game, we're shooting ourselves in the foot the remainder of the weekend. our bullpen is not deep enough or talented enough to handle a heavy load.

i think a true platoon can work if done properly, but we seem to be shuffling certain guys in and out of the line-up just because horton is unhappy with their production. which is fine, i guess, it's a coaching technique, but i don't think "what's going to turn shaun chase around" is inconsistent at-bats. especially when susnara isn't exactly lighting the world on fire as his replacement. i think you have to leave him at catcher and stick him in the 6th hole until he proves he just isn't going to produce. as it stands, even with far fewer at bats than the rest of the mainstays, chase leads the club in HR, is second in slugging, and is in a virtual dead-heat with tolman and eureste for 2nd place in total bases and RBIs (cuddy has a healthy team-lead in both). honestly, it's to the point where 3 strike outs and a home run from chase is better production than 3 strike outs and a single from sunsara, so...? i'm not saying chase has had the kind of senior season we may have been expecting, but we don't have a better option and if you really look at things, he's producing where it matters pretty much on par with the guys everyone is supposedly happy with.

i'd also go back to grebeck in center and in the 2-hole. i've watched heineman misplace too many balls already this year for my liking, i think he's a corner outfielder all the way. grebeck went cold after a hot start, admittedly, but he still gets on base, he's a sacrifice candidate with eureste in front of him and tolman on deck, and he can play defense.

3B eureste
CF grebeck
2B tolman
1B cuddy
RF heineman
C chase/graham
DH goldfarb/graham
LF craig-st.louis
SS karaviotis

get some speed back at the top of the line-up, heineman has been hitting better so may as well throw him into the heart of the line-up, drop chase a bit and let him bat in slightly less pressure-packed situations, and let the bottom of the order have some guys who can get on base. i don't think daniel patzlaff is anybody's answer. goldfarb is very quietly having a very nice season.

[UOducksTK1]

Another brutal series..