For pitchers in particular, stats are among the last things that MLB teams look at when doing their evaluations.
They will (and probably already have) broken down of Hartle's pitching data (spin rate, velo, break profile, among other things) to see if and how much he has regressed. If they feel like Hartle's struggles are the result of a combination of bad luck, bad defense and othter factors beyond his control(or if MLB teams think that with a tweak here and there, his prior form will return), Hartle's draft stock won't take a huge hit. OTOH, if the pitching data reveals that he's become just an average college pitcher, Hartle's draft stock will take a hit, but all it takes is one team to think that they have the solution to get Hartle out of his funk for Hartle to go high in the draft.
This WF baseball season has been such a bummer. Yes, the team is talented. Yes, there is still time for WF baseball to play at the predicted level, but there are some really negative foreboding signs about this team. We are now 2.5 months into the season, and we are getting to the point that's it's not just a bad stretch, but this team is just revealing itself as not special:
- Josh Hartle: 8 ACC starts; in only one has Hartle pitched more than 5 innings and given up less than 2 earned runs; WF has only won two of Hartle's 8 ACC starts, and in one of those wins, Hartle gave up 7 earned runs in six innings; in his other win, Hartle didn't make it out of the fifth inning. Right now, when WF does manage to win a Hartle start, it is in spite of him.
- Michael Massey: Massey was a force in 2023. An unreal 76 Ks in 41 innings; 16 scoreless outings; dominated eventual national champ LSU in Omaha; the plan to convert Massey into a starter made sense; he has dominant stuff; it would help Massey's draft stock to prove he can get stretched out, and it would help WF win key weekend baseball games. This just hasn't happened. Even though Massey doesn't pitch in midweek games, he has thrown more than 3 innings in one of his seven ACC starts... WTF?... If Massey can only give WF three innings max in a game, he should return to the role where he dominated last year, as a multiple inning reliever. I know Massey missed time in March, with an injury, but that was six weeks ago. At this point, Massey has started game 3 in the last six ACC series, and he still struggles to get to the 4th inning. It's to the point, where it would seem to make more sense to use Massey to relieve in key spots; at least he could impact two games a week.
- The offense has regressed. When WF swept VT, the WF offense was hitting on all cylinders, and it looked like WF was going to start bludgeoning opponents, but some key guys have been skidding:
- Adam Tellier: last 12 games 12 for 49; 0 HRs
- Jack Winnay: 3 for his last 29; 0 HRs
- Javar Williams 1 for his last 17
- To be fair, it's not just these three, the point is the offense is trending in the wrong direction from multipe angles.
Still hope to see a turn-around, but time is running out, and there is a lot that needs to be fixed.
