Aces, pitch counts part of strategy
State tournament coaches know the importance of good arms
As it is the second week of state baseball, I am going to touch several bases today, including aces and pitch counts, the La Cueva Bears, and umpiring.
As we segue into Week 2, the pitch count rule that was put into effect for this season should start having a legitimate impact on the playoffs. Especially by Saturday.
Looking back at last weekend, most of the Class 6A teams in the field went with their ace in the opener of those best-of-3 series. Robby Herrera of Albuquerque High was an exception, but that’s only because the Bulldogs — correctly — didn’t want to waste him going against Carlsbad’s Trevor Rogers in Game 1.
The eight teams who are still alive — Valley, Carlsbad, La Cueva, Cleveland, Piedra Vista, Volcano Vista, Centennial and Rio Rancho — all sent their aces to the bump in the first game. So it stands to reason that they’ll all be sent out again Thursday in the quarterfinals.
Valley-Carlsbad — Thursday, 4 p.m. at Isotopes Park — is by far the most fascinating of the four quarters.
Vikings coach Chad Kuhn told me Monday his stud, lefty Daniel Romero-Martinez,
would go Thursday against the Cavemen. Carlsbad coach Cody May didn’t respond to my message asking if Rogers would pitch.
La Cueva looms large over this game. The Bears, if they beat Rio Rancho (7 p.m. Thursday, Isotopes Park) face the Carlsbad-Valley winner in the semifinals on Friday.
So, doesn’t Rogers have to pitch Thursday? Carlsbad, with a super young lineup, can’t risk getting shut down by Romero-Martinez — who, it must be noted, is the only person to beat La Cueva this year — and withhold Rogers for a possible meeting with La Cueva. Can it? Imagine the firestorm in Carlsbad if the Cavemen lose to Valley and a healthy Rogers doesn’t start, or if Carlsbad falls behind early to Valley and brings in Rogers too late. That’s why I believe both Rogers and Romero-Martinez will, and must, start on Thursday.
Now, having said that, aren’t we all just salivating at the possibility of watching Rogers get a crack at that La Cueva lineup? That would be epic. (Ironically enough, if either Valley or Carlsbad has serious state championship aspirations, they almost have to go with their No. 2s on Thursday, saving their ace for La Cueva. But the risk is too great.)
Of course, the Bears themselves aren’t a lock. They likely will face Rio Rancho ace Bodhi Bolen on Thursday, and Bolen is a trusted and reliable big-game pitcher for the Rams. Also, Bolen was not on the mound when La Cueva beat Rio Rancho in the metro final in March. So there’s that.
The bottom line is this: you can’t hold back an ace for a game that you’re not even in yet.
As far as pitch counts, the team with the deepest pitching — that is to say, the team that has the best shot to survive the entire weekend, without having either of their top two guys available in the championship game — is clearly top-ranked La Cueva.
The Bears have four viable starting arms; nobody else can match that. Most of the rest have just two good starting arms. And you better believe depth is vital. Look at what happened to Cleveland on Saturday, when Mayfield roughed up pretty much the entire Storm bullpen once Cleveland exhausted its top two starters. YOU’RE OUT, YOU’RE
SAFE, YOU’RE OUT: Many of you may already have heard about the situation in Taos on Saturday regarding the Sandia Prep baseball team. I will not rehash everything here today. But I did want to make a point.
The New Mexico Activities Association cannot afford to get involved in a judgment call by an official, or a crew. In any sport. It would open a giant Pandora’s Box of misery.
What happened to Prep is the same as a basketball official who misses an obvious foul late in a state tournament game at the Pit, or a back judge in football who misses a clear pass interference call late in the fourth quarter of a tight playoff game.
The NMAA would almost certainly intervene if an official or crew was found to have clearly misinterpreted a rule that had a major impact on the outcome of a game. Judgment calls? The NMAA won’t get involved, nor should it. Has to be that way, for two reasons.
One, and most obviously, to do otherwise would clear a path for any parent or coach with a recording device to send video into the NMAA when a poor call has been made, asking that it be reversed. That isn’t feasible.
Second, it would perhaps seriously strain the NMAA’s relationship with its current officials, who would not be anxious to be chucked under the bus for a missed call. And it would perhaps deter many others from becoming an official, and New Mexico already has a serious shortage.
Sandia Prep looks like it got jobbed, and it stinks for them. They’re not the first, and won’t be the last. But you know what? There were probably a few dozen terrible calls last weekend across the state.
This one just happened to be caught on video.
BEAR HUNTING: One other note about La Cueva. While the Bears are nationally ranked in at least two polls — Baseball America, CBS MaxPreps Xcellent top 50 (up to No. 35 on Monday) — it is both fair and accurate to say they haven’t been overly tested by a difficult schedule.
They didn’t face Cleveland, or Piedra Vista, or Carlsbad, or Centennial, all teams seeded in the top six and all with terrific aces. La Cueva’s district was not overly competitive, and its nondistrict slate was largely soft. This is not a secret.
The Bear lineup, which has mashed all year, averaging 10.7 runs, only faced what I would describe as two strong, alpha, front-line No. 1 starters: Manzano’s Mitchell Parker, who lost to La Cueva 1-0, and Romero-Martinez of Valley, in a game the Vikings won 5-3 on opening day.
But make no mistake: La Cueva is a superior team without an obvious weakness, and a clear favorite this week.