[Hulk01]

Will Matthiesen starts tonight against Fresno State.

This looks like a promotion for Alex Williams.

A good guess, particularly given that UCLA starts eight right hand hitting batters and lefty Jacob Palisch has struggled some as a starter, is that righty freshman Alex Williams, heretofore Stanford's midweek starter, is taking Jacob Palisch's starting spot.

Williams has allowed only 14 baserunners in 17 innings--just three walks--and has a 1.59 ERA, while Palisch has struggled recently, and may be better suited to left hand relief, particularly on a Stanford team with only one other lefty reliever, Austin Weirmiller.

[Hulk01]

Will Matthiesen starts tonight against Fresno State.

This looks like a promotion for Alex Williams.

A good guess, particularly given that UCLA starts eight right hand hitting batters and lefty Jacob Palisch has struggled some as a starter, is that righty freshman Alex Williams, heretofore Stanford's midweek starter, is taking Jacob Palisch's starting spot.

Williams has allowed only 14 baserunners in 17 innings--just three walks--and has a 1.59 ERA, while Palisch has struggled recently, and may be better suited to left hand relief, particularly on a Stanford team with only one other lefty reliever, Austin Weirmiller.

[BobK]

Willians is now pitching in the 4th

[BobK]

Willians is now pitching in the 4th

[BobK]

Stanford wins 2-0. Next up ucla at Stanford Friday night

[BobK]

Stanford wins 2-0. Next up ucla at Stanford Friday night

[StanfordMatt]

Interesting theory, Hulk. I took Matthiessen’s start simply as a sign that Williams wasn’t ready to go after pitching 4.2 innings in relief on Saturday. As Bob notes though, Williams did still pitch tonight, albeit only 2 innings. I guess we’ll see soon enough.

Personally, despite Palisch’s poor outing against the Cougs, I still feel more comfortable with him on the mound than Miller. I’m willing to concede that my perception may be rooted too heavily by what happened in 2018 over this season’s body of work. Hopefully, we get dominant performances from all of them against the Bruins!

[StanfordMatt]

Interesting theory, Hulk. I took Matthiessen’s start simply as a sign that Williams wasn’t ready to go after pitching 4.2 innings in relief on Saturday. As Bob notes though, Williams did still pitch tonight, albeit only 2 innings. I guess we’ll see soon enough.

Personally, despite Palisch’s poor outing against the Cougs, I still feel more comfortable with him on the mound than Miller. I’m willing to concede that my perception may be rooted too heavily by what happened in 2018 over this season’s body of work. Hopefully, we get dominant performances from all of them against the Bruins!

[Hulk01]

Hulk Theory looking shaky:
Matthiesen got a short stint, Williams got one of about equal length.


Miller is pitching better; opposing batters often are missing badly--lots of swinging strikes
is a good measure of stuff.  (Not control, of course.)
2.56 ERA, 37 K's in 31 innings (v. 16 walks), just six extra base hits.
It appears he's on track.

Stanford leads the nation in fewest runs allowed per game, 2.7.
UCLA second at 2.9.
The pitching: Wow.

[Hulk01]

Hulk Theory looking shaky:
Matthiesen got a short stint, Williams got one of about equal length.


Miller is pitching better; opposing batters often are missing badly--lots of swinging strikes
is a good measure of stuff.  (Not control, of course.)
2.56 ERA, 37 K's in 31 innings (v. 16 walks), just six extra base hits.
It appears he's on track.

Stanford leads the nation in fewest runs allowed per game, 2.7.
UCLA second at 2.9.
The pitching: Wow.

[CTcard]

Miller is pitching better; opposing batters often are missing badly--lots of swinging strikes
is a good measure of stuff.  (Not control, of course.)
2.56 ERA, 37 K's in 31 innings (v. 16 walks), just six extra base hits.
It appears he's on track.

Miller's always had good stuff, just learning to keep it all together. 

He looks quite a bit better this year to me, which I had nominally chalked up to better control. But, while his WHIP is down a bit from last year (1.28 vs 1.37), the walk portion of that is up (0.59 vs 0.48). He's giving up fewer hits and extra base hits.

[CTcard]

Miller is pitching better; opposing batters often are missing badly--lots of swinging strikes
is a good measure of stuff.  (Not control, of course.)
2.56 ERA, 37 K's in 31 innings (v. 16 walks), just six extra base hits.
It appears he's on track.

Miller's always had good stuff, just learning to keep it all together. 

He looks quite a bit better this year to me, which I had nominally chalked up to better control. But, while his WHIP is down a bit from last year (1.28 vs 1.37), the walk portion of that is up (0.59 vs 0.48). He's giving up fewer hits and extra base hits.

[StanfordMatt]

To Miller's credit, his biggest improvement this season seems to be not letting bouts of wildness derail an entire outing. He remains, and I suspect always will be, prone to wildness, but he's rebounded nicely a few times recently to keep the train on the track.

Two weeks ago versus Utah, Miller's wildness came in the second inning. He walked three batters and gave up two singles, but a double play with the bases loaded allowed him to escape with only two runs allowed. In the past, that would've been the end of the day for him, but he responded by putting up 0's in the 3rd and 4th innings and getting the first two outs in the 5th.

On Sunday, the trouble started right out of the gate for Miller. He walked the first Cougar on five pitches and proceeded to drill the next man up right in the helmet on his very next pitch. My first thought was, "Here we go again." Miller didn't escape unscathed but limited the damage to one run. From there, Stanford's offense came to life and Miller's first inning troubles were an afterthought. He ended up going six innings with just the one run allowed and no more walks. Kudos to him.

[StanfordMatt]

To Miller's credit, his biggest improvement this season seems to be not letting bouts of wildness derail an entire outing. He remains, and I suspect always will be, prone to wildness, but he's rebounded nicely a few times recently to keep the train on the track.

Two weeks ago versus Utah, Miller's wildness came in the second inning. He walked three batters and gave up two singles, but a double play with the bases loaded allowed him to escape with only two runs allowed. In the past, that would've been the end of the day for him, but he responded by putting up 0's in the 3rd and 4th innings and getting the first two outs in the 5th.

On Sunday, the trouble started right out of the gate for Miller. He walked the first Cougar on five pitches and proceeded to drill the next man up right in the helmet on his very next pitch. My first thought was, "Here we go again." Miller didn't escape unscathed but limited the damage to one run. From there, Stanford's offense came to life and Miller's first inning troubles were an afterthought. He ended up going six innings with just the one run allowed and no more walks. Kudos to him.