Locked On Razorbacks - Daily Podcast On Arkansas Razorbacks Football & Basketball

EXPERT Analysis: Razorback Pitching's Hidden Strength This Season

Aloy, Reese Robinette, Zane Becker, and Ben Bybe. The host provides an in-depth analysis of the Arkansas pitching staff, categorizing potential starters, bullpen options, and multi-inning relievers. Discover how the Razorbacks' roster depth is shaping up, with promising talent emerging across various positions. Observations from fall practice reveal improvements in base running and defensive play, setting the stage for an exciting season.

Don't miss this chance to hear about the Arkansas Razorbacks' baseball strategies and standout players. Tune in for exclusive insights and expert analysis!

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Duration:: 32m
Broadcast on:: 23 Sep 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

[MUSIC PLAYING] It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Five-hour energy shots give you the feeling of alertness and energy you need to get in the zone and get things done. With zero sugar, a convenient portable size, and coming in several flavors like watermelon, tropical burst, or my personal favorite grape, it's exactly what you need to get through the day. Head to five-hourenergy.com, the set of our five-hourenergy.com, and use our code locked on CFB to receive 20% off your order. This offer is only valid until September 30th on one order and cannot be used with other promotions. The code is not good on subscription orders. Go to five-hourenergy.com today. Well, another week of scrimmages are in the books for the Arkansas Razorback baseball team. We got three of them this weekend, so there's plenty to get into, plenty to talk about. We're going to recap each of those scrimmages here on the locked on Razorback's podcast today. And then at the end of the show, we will be taking a closer look at this Razorback pitching staff and assessing where some roles go, where some guys might shake out, and just an overall feel for the group, all that and more on today's locked on Razorback's podcast. You are locked on Razorback. Your daily podcast on the Arkansas Razorback, part of the locked on podcast network, your team, every day. Well, the fall season is just kind of starting to fly by, folks. We were now three weeks in, and this week, like I said, we had three scrimmages Friday, Saturday, Sunday, which just felt to me like a legitimate SEC weekend of baseball. So it was really good to see a lot to observe. They went, I believe, seven innings in each of those scrimmages. So 21 innings, and like I said, three weeks into fall ball. So now I feel like we have at least a legitimate sample size, nothing crazy, nothing you're going to like live and die by. But, you know, we've got stats from some of these scrimmages, and some guys are starting to emerge. And so I feel like at this point, we've seen enough to start to have some early takes on some of these guys. And so I do want to start, before I get into the scrimmage run downs, I do want to say that nothing this past weekend, there were no big picture takeaways, especially from the position player standpoint, to where I'm like, "Oh, I got to come here and tell you guys about this." You know, a lot of guys did a lot of good things. I mean, there are three games, 21 scrimmages, a ton of ad bets. So just about everybody had their fair share of ups and downs throughout the weekend. But if you feel like I'm not covering certain players or just not talking about certain guys enough, I'm open to hear that. So leave a comment, reach out to me on Twitter, reach out to me on Discord, wherever the case may be. If you want to hear more about certain guys, I'm perfectly fine to do that. I know on a couple weeks ago, we kind of did a tentative lineup projection and sort of where things stand at each position. So if you missed that, make sure you check that out here on the lockdown Razorbacks channel, whether you're listening on podcast, YouTube, whatever. So we talked a little bit more about the position players last week, but I feel like a lot of people were talking or asking about pitching. So we're going to get into a little bit more of the pitching hierarchy, so to speak on later in today's show. But I did just want to touch on these first three scrimmages here and give a quick little general rundown of each. So I take stats at all these games. I'm usually kind of doing a little bit of a play-by-play myself. And one thing I really just don't do is keep score. Like I could not tell you the score to any of these three scrimmages to which I literally wrote down play-by-play. And I realized this when I sent my play-by-play to Andrew Hutchinson, a fellow friend of mine who's also on the beat, also loves baseball, also likes to keep up with this stuff. And he was like, oh, well, do you have any like RBI or like runs and all that? I'm like, no, I don't have any of that. And I just write down what happens in the airbags. Because like, I think I'm-- I think you guys would agree that like, you don't care if the red team beat the gray team or if the gray team did this or whatever, the score doesn't really matter. It's about the individuals, what they do, and just sort of the developments you see as you're getting closer and closer to the season. And we're still a good bit of ways away. But still a lot of action going on with the Arkansas baseball team. So scrimmage one, we started out on Friday. It's a little warm. I sat right behind home play with a couple buddies. And we were sweating by the end of it. But Zach Root, the transfer from ECU, the left-handed guy, was wearing number 33, the Hagan Smith comp and all that. He and Gabe Gackle were the starting pitchers in the first scrimmage. They each win about two innings. Believe Root gave up one run. Gackle was really solid. He only had, I believe, one strikeout. And it was a three-pitch strikeout. And he looked good doing it. He threw a lot of strikes. So nothing like-- not like a crazy vintage Gabe Gackle game where he just struck out the side twice or anything like that. But he's now thrown three scoreless innings since his first scrimmage where he gave up the three home runs, which we talked about a good bit. But Zach Root, who I felt kind of struggled last week, looked a lot better this week. Now his velocity was down. I should mention this. I was sitting, again, behind home plate. And there were scouts kind of in that area. And there's always a ton of scouts at these games, which is always cool. Root's Vilo was more in the '89, '91 range consistently, which is substantially lower than where he averaged last year. And he was up as high as '96, coming from the left side last year. So again, it's September. And he was only throwing two innings here. I'm sure he's not max-efforting it out here in the middle of fall practice. Not like he has anything he needs to prove or anything like that. But I did just think that was notable. I didn't get to see Vilo's. And I will say, I shouldn't-- I started by citing Vilo. That's literally like the only Vilo I got a definitive report of this weekend, because they don't have the stadium going on. And I wasn't trying to snuggle up next to the scouts and be looking over their shoulder the whole time. But I did happen to notice in the first inning that he was '89, '90 a lot. And so I just thought that was notable. Thought I'd mention that. But both guys, I thought, threw pretty well. Root gave up his one run of the day, was an RBI single from Kihio Eloy, the little brother of Vihio Eloy, the transfer from BYU. And he had a really big weekend at the plate. He started to hit the ball with some real authority. It honestly took him a couple of weeks to settle in. But you see the size, the strength, the athleticism. He has a lot of power to the opposite field. And now he hit opposite field home run, which we'll touch on later. But his RBI single in the second inning against Root was to the opposite field. It seems like he really can hit the ball with authority the other way, which is always nice to see. After those two pitchers came in, you had Tate Maguire, who is a, I guess, sophomore, because he did pitch an inning or so last year. But a really good summer in the Cape Cod League. I'm very intrigued by him. Tate Maguire looked awesome in this game. Through two innings, struck out four, looked really good. Parker Coyle, a veteran arm that you guys know. He also threw, I believe, an inning and two thirds. They had to bring someone in there, freshman, Luke Williams, to come close it out for him. A couple of other veteran guys threw in this scrimmage. Like Dylan Carter got it, got some work, Will McIntyre. But Tate Maguire from a pitching standpoint, I felt like, was the story of this scrimmage because I felt like he's one of those guys in that middle of the pack where you're like, all right, is he going to take a step forward and be a real dude? Or is he going to really just be a guy who, like last year, just kind of got lost in the shuffle? If you look at his summer stats and what he did this summer, it seems like he's going to be a guy that really pushes for a role. And so far, early in fall, it seems like he's on track to do just that. Through really well, I was really pleased with what I saw from him, through a ton of strikes, got swings and misses, got some people looking on some pitches too. Just really mixed it up well through three pitches for strikes. Really nice to see. And then also in that first scrimmage, you had two home runs, which were both 450 feet plus from Ryder, Helferic and Vahiva, Loy, off of freshman. It's a little bit of bullion going on, but still nice to see. Vahiva, I didn't think his was going to stay fair. He just turned on it so quick and it went right at that foul pole. But his, I believe, was like 452 or something like that. And Helferic, I mean, just couldn't, you could not barrel up a baseball harder than Ryder, Helferic, barreled up that baseball. I believe it was the first pitch of the day thrown by freshmen, right in their tag, Andrews. And I think that might be the second time Helferic has, has homered off Vangers. So Helferic, quick, quick bullion, the young guys, man. You know, we all, we don't need all that. But moving on to scrimmage number two. So in this scrimmage, you had Gage Wood and Landon by Dell. She's is, I believe how we're going with that. I know it's by, it's not B, it's not B Dell. She's, which is what I kept saying in DVH. Like me, doesn't know how to pronounce these names. He says, just call him Landon. So I might just do that, but I'm referring to the Ohio State transfer left-hander Landon by Dell. She's who, by the way, speaking of Vilo was touching 95 last week. And his one ending of work, again, I didn't have the numbers in front of me. Didn't have a radar gun near me, didn't have my track man. I'd had set up or anything, but he looked like he's throwing pretty hard. He goes two innings, scoreless, struck out to Gage Wood, gives up a quick run in the first inning and listen to how he gave it up guys. So Logan Maxwell leads off the transfer from TCU and he hits a base hit. And it was kind of down the right field line. He decides to leg it out for a double, which I think is a common thing that I've been seeing in fall practice. And I think that's you're going to see from this Arkansas team a lot. They're improved base running wise, but it's not going to be as much over stealing bases left and right, which they've done a little bit of that in fall ball. But it's really stuff like that. It's getting that extra 90 feet when you have a chance, putting pressure on teams, forcing them to make plays. Logan Maxwell did a really good job of doing that right at the gate, setting the tone, legs it out for a stand up double or a stand up double. I don't know why I said that. But a double to start off the afternoon, which is really cool. And then you had Ryder Hellfrick, Bonham over. And then Susa drives him in with a with a with a RBI ground out. Like that is that's small ball, boys. That's, that's what small ball is. And so it's good to see Arkansas flash a little bit of that. And they're doing it against Gage Wood, who is an experienced high level arm, really good stuff, throws a lot of strikes. And so that's the kind of guys you're going to have to do that against in the SEC. And, you know, that's one run right there. But in the SEC, when you're trying to scratch and claw for every run you get, those are the kinds of things you got to do to kind of manufacture offense. And we know Arkansas is going to hit plenty of home runs. We know they have guys that can do a lot of damage, but seeing them do stuff like that early in a scrimmage is pretty cool. Wasn't a super offensive scrimmage, but I do want to touch on a couple guys that really stood out. Big country, Reese Robin net just continues to do the damn thing. It's an opposite field home run off of another lefty, Jack Smith. And I believe it was in a two strike counts who ball was flying out a little bit. Like it, we got a little bit of help, but it didn't get over by just a few feet. Like it was it was up there in the hog pin and left on left. That's big time stuff from Reese Robinette. He's had a really solid fall after a really, really good off season in the summer playing in the New England league. So good for him, man. Good to see him just continue to be pretty undeniable, man. I feel like he's really worked his way into a legitimate role for this Arkansas offense and this lineup. So that's always good to see in Zane Becker, who I really think is the backup catcher for Arkansas. Now Elliot Peterson did finally catch a game the other day. I got to see him catch a game, the Juco transfer. And so we'll see how he figures into this role. But Zane Becker, I've been really impressed the freshman from what he's been doing behind the plate defensively. I feel like he's really well rounded, really good throwing arm, does a good job of handling the staff. Who knows if they're letting him call pitches? I have no idea. And I don't even know how I'd go about trying to evaluate him on that front. But in terms of a freshman catcher, he looks to be a little bit ahead of schedule. He had two hits, including a home run in Saturday scrimmage. So that was good to see. It seems like he's starting to kind of put it together at the plate, behind the plate, all around, although I do have to mention Zane Becker got yelled at really loudly by Dave Van Horn. Now this might have actually been on Sunday, but I wanted to touch on it now. Again, there's like 50 people here at these scrimmages, not a huge crowd. Literally everyone in Bomb Walker stating me that they could hear as DVH really, really did not like the Zane Becker was getting too big of a lead there at first base. I believe it was J-Woo Cho on the mound, actually. And he tried to pick him off and he didn't pick him off. They called him safe, but he had a really big lead and like almost kind of caught him leaning a little bit and DVH really, really doesn't like that. And it's always funny what warrants a reaction from Van Horn at these scrimmages because like, you know, there's so many plays going on. You could really sit there and yell at everything if you really wanted to. Just because, I mean, there's so much action going on. I mean, 21 innings of baseball this weekend. That was the one play that got like an audible reaction from DVH that everyone could hear the little things matter, man. And I know that stuff like that drives him crazy. But moving on to scrimmage number three, real quick. Cole Gilbert, the freshman left-hander, who's been really lights out of me and struck out six of the seven guys he had faced coming into his third outing of the fall, showed some humanity, goes one and a third. He gives up a couple runs on a couple hits. Cajillo, a Loa, who I mentioned earlier, took him yard, which was a really impressive swing, 400 feet plus to the opposite field. It's really impressive stuff, man. You're starting to see some of the talent that that kid has. And maybe I ruled him out as a piece in the lineup too early. And on the other side, the starting pitcher was Ben Bybe, who was really good. Goes two innings, gives up an infield hit to Ryder Helfer. But he works around and had two strikeouts in the first inning, two strikeouts in the next inning, threw a ton of strikes, worked fast. Really looks like he's continuing to just put everything together. I mean, as a sophomore, I felt like he took a noticeable step forward. And he looks like he's done the same thing as a junior. And I will touch on a little bit of the other notable things from the scrimmage. Number three, but first, we got to take a quick break. Razorback fans, it is sports season, which means there is no shortage of things for you to bet on, whether it's NFL, college football, fights, MLB, still wrap, wrapping up here in the next few weeks. And Fandall is America's number one sports book. 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Number three, before we move on, because I really have a lot I want to say about this Arkansas pitching staff. So again, I touched on Ben Bybie. It looked really good. Two innings scoreless, four strikeouts. It seems like he's gotten better and better each outing. And I mentioned Cole Ghibler who gave up the two runs. Not overly concerned about this. This is the first time that we saw him go more than one inning. And the second inning was the one he really struggled in. So maybe that's something that they need to work on. And honestly, it reminds me a little bit of what was happening with Gabe Gackle this time last year, where every time he would go for a second or third inning, it was like, they would always have to be like one out too, too many. And so that's just typical stuff that you see from freshmen. But Rocco Peppy also hit a home run in the scrimmage. He had a home run off of Ross Felder, the Springdale kid right in the picture, who honestly looked pretty good until he gave up the home run. I felt a little bit bad for him. Carson Wiggins got it, got to throw in this one. This is the first time that I got to see him throw live because the one scrimmage I missed was the day of the Oklahoma State football game. And he pitched that day, honestly got touched up a little bit. Gave up three, three hits, two runs. Carson Rowan jumps on the first pitch of the inning, slaps it through the middle for a single, uh, Vahiva Loy's little brother, Kihio Loy again with another opposite field base hit that he hit like 107. I mean, he crushed that ball, just a line drive right out of the infield. And then Wiggins comes back with a strike out against L.A. Peterson. And then Zane Becker, again, the freshman catcher I've been talking about, just rips a line drive that just gets right by the glove of the third baseman. So it was like one of those that like almost wasn't ending, ending, ending double play. Turns out to be a double down the line that drives in a couple runs. And so, you know, not, not, not the greatest about outings from baby Wiggins, but, you know, good experience for him to go see legitimate SEC pitching, learn how to get some of these guys out. I wouldn't worry about him too much, but I thought that was nice to see from some of these guys in Rowan Becker and a Loy who have not been like the top of the lineup stars. You know, it just kind of shows you the depth of this Arkansas roster. And speaking of depth on this Arkansas roster, Justin Thomas, who I saw today, perfect game had him, had him listed as the number nine JUCO transfer in the country with Bernierdale, of course, being number one on that list. Justin Thomas, the Florida Southwest JUCO transfer out fielder, who has really been like the number two center fielder for Arkansas and these scrimmages. And I feel like is, you know, I don't want to say he's like falling behind in that outfield race. But I just feel like there's been so many guys that have really emerged, like Britain Clark, the freshman who, by the way, I didn't have my, I didn't mention him in this rundown, but he had a hit in every single scrimmage. Seems like he's had a hit in every scrimmage. Since we started this whole thing in the fall, he's been kind of undeniable. Justin Thomas hasn't been that, but he did have a home run the other day in scrimmage number three, really good to see from him. And he shows plenty of flashes, man. He's a well-rounded guy, really good athlete, has some legitimate power. And so we'll see if he's able to really make a move. But that's pretty much what happened in the three scrimmages. Nothing like crazy. Like I said, there's no like big picture takeaways I have of like, yo, this guy's got to be in the line up after this weekend. Or this picture is clearly like a star after this weekend, but just really good to again, see this sample size grow against this team. I really just enjoy seeing this team be out there with each other. It seems like they like each other. They like playing together. And it's been pretty well-rounded baseball. A lot of good defensive plays, a lot of good base running. The catcher's, by the way, so like, you know, they're in these scrimmages. They give them the kind of the green light for the base runners to just run whenever. So you get a lot of attempts and you get a lot of stolen bases, but the catchers have really been. Shut it down a little bit here lately, kind of fighting back and throwing out some of these base runners. Ryder Helfer has done a really good job. I feel like he's he he's you want to talk about guys taking that next step. It seems like Ryder Helfer is just the well-rounded catcher that we all kind of hoped he would be as a freshman. He appears to be that now. It's been really good to see. So a lot of good positive developments from scrimmage number three. Again, if you feel like I didn't touch on certain guys enough, hit me up. And I'm glad I'm always down to talk about this Arkansas baseball team, but we have time again, time constraints. So I'm not going to give you every single play that happened in all these scrimmages, but I've got nothing, you know, nothing but real positive things to say for the most part about a lot of these guys. And we can power rank them if you want. And again, if you missed my lineup projection on last week's show, go check that out. Because I did kind of break down the hierarchy of sort of where I see things standing at each position. And honestly, my mind hasn't changed a ton after one weekend of scrimmages, but I do want to touch on this pitching staff and a little bit of where I think everything lies. And I put everyone into, I believe it was five specific categories. And so we will hear more about that pitching staff and where things stand after one more quick break. Well, guys, it's sports season, which means it's fandrel season, but that means it's also game time season for you guys that like to go and attend these live sporting events. Or if you like to attend concerts, whatever the case may be, game time ticketing is the number one way to do it. It's the best way to consume live content. And game time picks is their new feature that they have, which makes it really easy to know exactly what you're buying, exactly what you're signing up for. They have the all in pricing. So if you use this feature, it shows the total upfront with no surprise fees at checkout. So if you see $78, that's what they're charging you $78. It's not one of those you click on it and then you find out of the checkout. Oh, it's actually different. And with the game time picks toggle on, you also get your seat views. 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So if you're the family member of a freshman pitcher and you're like, why didn't he get mentioned or whatever? You know, it just is the way it is. I'm not going to go through every player on the roster. But I did want to put these guys into a little bit of a category, just so fans can get an idea of kind of what to expect from some of these guys and who might be the guys that you see really helping Arkansas out in SEC play. If I don't mention someone's name, it's not because they're bad, or it's not because I don't think they can pitch. It's just kind of the way I view things with this Arkansas pitching staff right now. But we're going to start at the top here and we're just going to start starting rotation because that's what everyone wants to know about. There's not a ton of drama here. Like there's not like nine guys you got to sort through for this option. I really think it comes down to five guys. And really it's, I'm throwing Ben Bibi in that five because of how good he's been. I really do think his role is going to end up not being as a starter. I think he's going to be a very important reliever for Arkansas. But I threw him in here just because he's been starting these scrimmages. He started a ton of games in his Arkansas career. And again, if you're just going off of who has looked the best, you could argue Ben Bibi is then the best starting pitcher Arkansas has had in this fall practice. But really I'm thinking it comes down to, like I said, five guys, Gabe Gackle, Zacharut, Landon, Bidel Shees, Badal Shees, whatever the case may be, Landon from Ohio State, Gage Wood, and Ben Bibi. You have three games each conference will be in and most weekends throughout the year. You're going to have to narrow that down to three. Whoever those other two guys are that don't get the starting nod, whether that's wood and biby, whether that's wood and gackle, whether that's biby and gackle, whether that's biby and root or whatever it is, whoever those two guys are that are not in that starting rotation are going to be massive pieces in the Arkansas bullpen. And so when you kind of think about this whole thing of how this is going to shake out, we got to remember that. That you have all these really good starting options that not all of them are going to start. And I've kind of been hammering it all off season and I think Gage Wood is the guy in my brain who I'm like, that should be your like, do everything reliever. And I'm sure he wants to start. And you know, frankly, it'd be hard to deny him. He's made the progression each year throughout his career. He's been one of Arkansas's most effective starters. I'm sure they will give him that chance and it'd be hard to argue against it. But I just think about the way that A&M used Evan Ashenbank, who was left handed a little bit different, but the way that they would use him, he was their reliever, their top reliever. But he threw like 75 innings where he would close games. He would come in for longer relief, mid relief. Just whenever they felt like the game was on the line, they would go to Evan Ashenbank. That's kind of how I view Gage Wood. I feel like he has the right mentality, the right skill set to be used in that kind of a role, where you maybe after your Friday night starters done throw and you use him to close out that game, but he might come back on Sunday and be available for one or two more. He might have the outings where he goes three and a third. He might have outings where he goes one inning. He might have outings where he goes four innings. I feel like he's kind of capable of all that and I feel like he has the right, again, mentality and skill set for that kind of role. And so we can argue all day about who should be the starting rotation, but I think we all agree it comes down to these four or five guys. And maybe you want to throw 100 D to we haven't seen throw yet. Or Tay Maguire, who again was a really good starter in the Cape Cod League, has the stuff, makes the speeds, throws a ton of strikes. I think he actually could be a starter, which is kind of crazy. And so we'll see how they end up using him. But I think we agree it comes from this group. And so you can kind of just argue amongst yourselves among who you think those three other three starters should be. But I think we agree that whoever isn't starting from this group is going to be a massive piece in the bullpen. But if we're talking about back end of the bullpen, like potential closing options, I think you got to start with Christian Fauch, which is tough because we have not seen Christian Fauch throw yet. They shut him down in the off season and they're being like very careful with him. DVH says he's fine though, and so until proven otherwise I have no reason to believe that he's not fine. But I would like to see him throw maybe by the end of fall. So we'll see if they get him out there. But I feel like Christian Fauch has a good chance to be a closer hero. I mean, he had a sub one ERA last year. I know the strikeout numbers weren't that crazy, but I mean, he throws 101 big righty. I don't think I need to do too much explaining there. He's going to be a closing option. I also think the freshman Cole Gibbler, who I said, you know, showed his first little bit of humanity the other day, I think he's going to have a good chance to be a big piece for Arkansas in the back end of that bullpen. I don't think they're going to use him the way they used gackle as kind of the two, three inning into the game reliever that you go multi innings with and use them twice a weekend. Like I don't think they're going to use him as much as they use gackle or even as much as they used tiger a couple of years ago or some of these other freshman arms, like even gauge wood in 2023 that they've used heavily. Hopefully with Gibbler, they don't have to force him in anything like that. He can be just a one, two inning guy, but I think Cole Gibbler is going to have a very good chance to help Arkansas the back end of the bullpen. A couple other guys that I put in here with like a little asterisk connect to their name, because I feel like they also really fit more into other categories, but I put Hunter Deets, who again, closed games for Arkansas last year before he went down with an injury, is clearly has the stuff to be a back end of the bullpen type of guy and I threw Will Mackensire in there because he's closed games before and pretty much every year of his Arkansas career. And he's got the right mentality. He can do that and he's really just the guy you throw in that can clean up a bunch of different messes. And so I threw Will Mackensire into that with an asterisk because I really think he falls into this next category, our third category, which is multi inning options. And these are guys that I feel like you can throw them in at any situation, and they can just eat anything for you. Two, three, four, whatever the case may be, maybe your starter has a bad outing. You need someone to just go in with one out in the fourth inning and eat up a few. These are guys I feel like that fit that category fit that criteria and can be somewhat a long relievers. I've got Parker Coyle, the left handed guy from Springdale. Actually, he's not from Springdale, is he? He from Springdale. You know, it's Cooper Dossett, who's from Springdale, who may or may not be injured. But Parker Coyle is a guy. He's from Edmond, Oklahoma, that's where he's from. But he's been around for a while, got some experience, has kind of fit into this type of role before. He looks like a better version of the guy he was last year, which helped Arkansas in this kind of role. Will Mackensire is, of course, in this role. He's a guy that we've seen him have one inning outings in his career. We've seen him have seven inning outings in his career. We've seen him throw a complete game before. So really, anything between one to nine innings is in play with Will Mackensire. So I think he certainly fits in this criteria. Tate McGuire is another guy that I think fits in this criteria because I said he makes his speeds, throws a ton of different pitches, has been thrown a lot of strikes. I think is a guy you can stretch out a little bit and kind of uses almost like a second starting option, like the backpack with a starter, something like that. And Dylan Carter is another one who in that 2023 season before he went down was on pace to throw like 55, 60 innings. Like they were using them a lot. And again, hopefully they don't have to use him or overuse him like that, I should say. But I think Dylan Carter is a guy that you can count on, ton of experience, throws a lot of strikes can kind of be an inning eater for you. But this next fact, this next next group is the fourth group we have these pitchers. I have them as X factors, where I'll be honest with you, I don't really know what to do with this group of people, because some of them are coming back from injuries, some of them are young. You just don't really know what you have. But I feel like they're X factors who could really change up all three of those first three groups that I that I listed off there. And I'm looking at Colin Fisher, it was Arkansas's midweek starter who had a really promising start to his freshman season in the left hander. Before he went down with an injury, I feel like he's a guy that could be in that midweek starting role. I mean, we saw him start on a weekend for his first ever appearance for Arkansas. So you know, they like him. Hunter Deets, I feel like also is in this category as the most talented player in Arkansas's recruiting class last year. But we got to see throw a few innings there. He should be backed by Christmas time. And so I'm hoping both of those guys can help Arkansas in some form or fashion. It's just kind of TBD because we haven't seen them throw yet this season to see kind of what role they're going to be able to fill. But they're both really talented arms that I imagine are going to be in there in some form or fashion. It's just a matter of if it's more of a back end, more as a starter, more as a mid reliever, like we'll see. Another guy that I have is a X factor is Carson Wiggins, the true freshman, who again hasn't gone like super well for him in these scrimmages, but it's very early. A ton of talent. And we see it happen every year. These guys that in scrimmages, you know, maybe not look that great. I would even throw Gabe Gackle in that category. And then the lights come on and you're like, Oh yeah, this guy throws 97. Of course he's going to help us. I think Carson Wiggins fits that chronic kind of criteria. I don't want to pencil him in for any specific role. But I think he's definitely got the stuff and the makeup to help Arkansas on the mound. No doubt about that. And Josh Heinemann is the last guy I have in this one because I just don't know what to do with them, man. I mean, he's been around for a few years, but he has not made his actual collegiate debut yet. He's been banged up. He's been hurt. And you know, in his freshman year, was kind of buried, you know, beneath all these talented arms. He's back. He's healthy. He's been throwing pretty well in these scrimmages, throwing a lot of strikes. I like what I've seen from Josh Heinemann. I'm actually a believer that he can really help Arkansas in a real meaningful way this year. But he's another one where coming off an injury, I don't know what that role is going to look like. I would imagine they're not going to want to lean on him for 50, 60 innings in his first year back from injury. But I really think he can help Arkansas and we'll see if it's more of a situational thing. But I think all four of those guys, I think they have the stuff to help Arkansas. I just don't know what real category to put them into. And a couple of them could fit into our next category, which is our final one, our fifth and final one. It's titled left-handed. These guys that I'm about to list off unequivocally, without a doubt, are left-handed. Luke Williams, freshman, thrown a lot. I've been impressed with what I've seen by him. He's actually looked pretty good to me. I feel like he could be useful in situations. Tucker Holland, really big recruit last year, didn't have a great off season before he ended up getting hurt before the season actually started. He's back, real big kid, left-handed, came in for a big situation and got Nolan Sousa out the other day. So that kind of shows you the kind of role they potentially might see him in. Would love to see him take that next step forward as a, I guess, red shirt freshman, because he didn't throw last year. Tucker Holland, left-handed unequivocally. Jackson Farrell, another left-handed freshman, had some nice moments here in the scrimmages, could be in that type of role in the last one. Jack Smith, again, left-handed, which is why I have him in this category, which is titled left-handed. Fastball gets up to 95, 96. He will walk you. He will walk a lot of guys. I feel like he's almost on a Jake Ferdy type of career arc, where it's like you see him as a freshman. You're like, "Oh, he can clearly help. Oh, but he's a little bit too wild right now." And he's a little bit less wild than he was last year. We'll see if he just kind of continues to make that progress and be less and less wild, but he's got the stuffed elf arc. It's all like right now. So I won't be surprised if he does. And guys, that's all I got for you today. I actually went a little bit above my allotted time, but I appreciate you guys for tuning in. I hope you enjoyed that breakdown of the pitching staff. If you have any questions, I'm always here to answer them. So drop a comment, leave a like, subscribe, whatever you got to do, reach out to me on Twitter, and I will be happy to talk Arkansas baseball with you. Can't wait to do it again. I believe I will be back Friday. Curtis and I will be doing a little bit of a split episode, but I hope you enjoyed today's episode of the Lockdown Razorbacks podcast. I am Andrew Ellis, and you have a great day, everyone. A Prime members, you can listen to this Lockdown podcast ad-free on Amazon Music. 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