Pitching struggles are real and I don't foresee a lot of improvement, pitching doesn't exactly work like that. Either you have stuff to get outs or you don't, not something you can really develop in real time during the season.
I think if they can keep the score in the 7-8 run range, our offense will have a shot to keep us games.
bullcrap. pitchers who want to improve are constantly tweaking their delivery, their grips, watching film, working on location, the order of their pitches, listening to coaches.
Northern teams are at a huge disadvantage in the early season, going straight from the gym to take on teams that have already been outdoors for a month. Pitching can absolutely improve. that's not a guarantee it will improve, but it's goofy to say it can't.
My take is that I don't foresee a lot of improvement, your response is reading like I said they are going to get worse. I'm certain the team ERA of 9+ will start to come down because the one thing we know about baseball is that you can always expect stats to revert back to the mean. Giving up 10+ runs/game is becoming a trend though.
Our staff has only given up 38 walks on the year compared to 51 issued by our opponents. We have 59 strikeouts compared to 83 by our opponents. That tells me that we are throwing the ball over the plate, which would suggest we are mechanically sound but lack velo/movement/command.
The '23 Cats have a huge advantage over the Cats of the 90's. Walter Fieldhouse provides ample room to create game like situations including live at bats when the weather is less than ideal. I'm sure they were also able to get outside and scrimmage multiple times in Feb.
Generally I'd agree that Southern teams are at an advantage early in the year, however, its not as big of a gap as you'd think. Maybe if you are talking the Michigan schools but Athens is pretty mild.