This is a good article from BA on your Hogs, Hawger.
(Razor)Back To The Drawing Board
Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn knows how important this weekend's series against No. 3 Kentucky is for his team. With road series looming over the next two weeks against Mississippi and Florida, the Hogs must take care of business at home to keep pace with Louisiana State in the SEC West race and bolster their regional hosting case.
"We need to find a way to win this thing," Van Horn said of the UK series. "They're extremely tough to beat. They're just so balanced up and down that lineup—there's a lot of .300 hitters, there's some power. We're going to have to score some runs."
Kentucky is hitting .281 with 13 homers in SEC play, while Arkansas is hitting .267 with four homers—but the Wildcats have actually scored just three more runs than the Hogs, who rank third in the conference with 64 runs in 12 league games.
Still, Arkansas fans began gnashing their teeth about the team's offense after the Hogs were swept at LSU two weeks ago. They struck out 40 times while walking just five times in that series and mustered just three runs combined in the last two games of the series. The bottom third of the Arkansas lineup went just 1-for-34 in that series, then went 1-for-11 in last weekend's series opener against Georgia, prompting Van Horn to make some changes.
"I think the thing is a lot of times, older players, even though they're struggling, not getting the job done, they almost sometimes feel like they're entitled," Van Horn said. "If they're not getting it done, we've got to move and get some other guys into the lineup. I'm going to do what I have to do to put a lineup out there that can score some runs."
The next two days against Georgia, Van Horn replaced second baseman Bo Bigham with junior-college transfer Jacob Mahan and inserted him into the No. 2 hole, where he reached safely three times in Saturday's win. The lefthanded-hitting Mahan lacks Bigham's range and arm strength defensively, but he has a knack for making consistent contact against lefthanded pitching as well as righties.
Van Horn plugged freshmen Joe Serrano and Brian Anderson into the No. 7 and No. 9 slots, and they found ways to get on base and move runners along.
"They give you good at-bats," Van Horn said of the freshmen. "Serrano, he's a tough player. He can do some things, he knows the strike zone, makes you pitch to him. He might see four, five, six pitches every at-bat, he can bunt and hit-and-run. Anderson's almost the same type of player, taller, a little better athlete, has some power, but he knows the strike zone. He has an incredible arm, big-time tools—he's going to be a great player. I like playing those guys, I like playing freshmen. They can definitely help you win if you don't have to play them every day."
Of course Oklahoma shut out the visiting Razorbacks on Tuesday night behind eight scoreless innings from Damien Magnifico, who hit 100 mph or higher more than 20 times on the L. Dale Mitchell Park scoreboard radar gun. Bigham went hitless in that game, while Serrano drew a walk as a pinch-hitter.
Arkansas won't see many arms of Magnifico's ilk, but nine weeks into a 14-week regular season, the Razorbacks are still looking for the right combinations. That is true on the mound as well.
Van Horn made a fairly dramatic move last weekend, sliding sophomore righthander Barrett Astin from the closer role into the weekend rotation. Astin (0.84 ERA, six saves, 34 strikeouts and 12 walks in 32 innings) has been fantastic at the back of the bullpen, but the Hogs had lacked consistency in the rotation aside from ace Ryne Stanek (6-1, 1.65), who has settled nicely into the Friday starter role. Randall Fant (1-2, 5.40) averaged fewer than four innings per outing over his six starts, and Nolan Sanburn turned in three lackluster innings in his lone start at LSU.
"Astin really wanted to start," Van Horn said. "I would still love to have Astin come out of that bullpen, but this weekend I'm thinking I'm just going to let him go on Saturday. If we have another guy step forward, we might put him back in the bullpen later. When it comes tournament time for us, that could be the way we go."
Astin's fearless demeanor is a great asset in the back of the bullpen, but right now he fills a greater need in the rotation. Van Horn said his stuff was outstanding for the first two innings last week against Georgia, but his velocity and command started to fade around the fourth or fifth, so the Hogs still need to build up his endurance. His feel for pitching and his quality four-pitch repertoire—an 88-93 mph fastball, a good two-seamer with life, a cutter that is nasty when it's on and a a power slider that is another big weapon when he stays on top of it—should allow him to succeed in either role.
The Hogs feel confident in lefthander Cade Lynch and righty Brandon Moore in middle to long relief roles in the bullpen, and Sanburn's electric stuff gives him tons of upside as the closer. The top prospect in the Northwoods League last year and a second-team preseason All-American this spring, Sanburn sits comfortably in the 94-96 range and tops out at 97-98. When he commands his power curveball, it can be devastating. But Arkansas recruited him as a two-way player, and he's still learning the nuances of pitching.
"He's strong, very competitive, a tremendous arm with tremendous upside," Van Horn said. "But as far as right now, he's still developing big-time. But I see him playing a big role down the stretch for us. It's about location with him, and movement."
Location and movement were never problems in the past for the Hogs' other weekend starter, junior righthander D.J. Baxendale. In fact, Baxendale's calling cards during his hugely successful first two seasons were his command, his fastball life and his mental toughness. But Baxendale wasn't himself in his two starts prior to last week, allowing 13 runs on 17 hits in just 5 1/3 combined innings. After his rough outing in Baton Rouge, pitching coach Dave Jorn sat him down for a long talk.
"I think they butted heads a little bit, then they started really communicating," Van Horn said. "What happens a lot of times is that junior year, you've got everybody in your ear, what you've got to do to go higher in the draft, do this or do that. D.J. hadn't had a lot of that going on, and it confused him. They worked on mechanics Monday, had a good bullpen on Wednesday, and he pitched lights-out (Friday). It was back to slowing things down, don't try to throw the ball 95 mph, just pitch in the upper 80s, low 90s. He spotted it all day and had a good breaking ball. You could see in his face and his demeanor that he was back."
Baxendale turned in eight shutout innings, striking out seven without issuing a walk, in the Hogs' 8-0 win Sunday, and Razorback Nation breathed a collective sigh of relief.
Suddenly, Arkansas' weekend rotation looks imposing again. Its bullpen is deep, and so is its pool of position players—it's just a matter of figuring out how the pieces of the puzzle fit together. Maybe it's taken longer than usual to sort that out, but Arkansas has had only one losing weekend all year; throw out the LSU series and the Hogs are 7-2 in conference play. Overall, Arkansas is 24-8.
Not bad for a team still searching for answers.
"Our mindset is that we're not really where we can be," Van Horn said. "Whether it's two or three guys not playing up to their potential yet, some young guys still gaining experience. The arms are healthy, we don't over-pitch guys, and guys are just begging to get the ball. We feel like we could be a good team in a tournament situation because we have a lot of options. If we could just get better offensively—and we're working hard at it—we think we can make a run."
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