I'll go back to my initial comment....Blood was a huge loss...He used many pitchers..got them experience.. Feehan and Oberg have been great..but they are using them when they should be resting them..example WVU ..8-1 put Oberg in? That will all catch up over time....Over the weekend both pitched all 3 games..sore arms and all..then when it's time to go to the pen for someone else your pulling kids in that have been sitting for a week or two.....what kind of message are you sending to those pitchers?? As noted ..We need to win the Big East to move on...That will require the whole pitching staff to step up when they are called upon...which means get them their work/experience so we have a chance...Just my 2 cents.
We have our big 3 relievers - Jolin, Feehan and Oberg - and are working Cross into the mix it seems. This isn't the MLB with a 162 game season and 6 games a week. This team will play roughly 50 games and 3-5 games per week. 4 solid relievers is enough to take the majority of the big innings out of the bullpen. Hurvul picks up a lot of innings as well.
Furthermore, once Ward works out his issues, one of Tabakman, Dettman or Fischer will probably move to the bullpen to be the long man. The rotation will be Ward, Marzi and one of those 3 on the weekend with Butler and one of the remaining two pitching during the week. The bullpen will be plenty deep at that point.
That's just how I see it working out in the long run this year. I think it'll work out. Having said that, I think Blood was a great pitching coach (results speak for themselves) and a great recruiter (from what we read and hear) and the program would be better off with him than without him. But I think that the way things are shaking out with this staff is pretty similar (in terms of usage) to how it would have been with Blood on the staff.
I think the biggest issue with this team - and I doubt anyone would argue with this - is obviously the fielding. Way too many errors and poor decisions in the field. That will also hurt the staff, both mentally and obviously in terms of how many pitches they throw and outs they need to get.
