[Hold My Own]

As most of you know, I was very critical when it came time to pitch counts early on in the year. ie pitching Bach 8 or 9 innings on a cold day & against a non BS team....now we just had a game against VT where there was much debate within the team if Bach should have thrown yesterday or not, he's got a sore tired arm at this point and his fast ball is looking flat with not nearly as much pace......it worries me b/c as I've said all along the end of the schedule and in the BS tourny is when these things start to show face........there's really not much you can do at this point to get him back on track, rest rest rest is whats needed, and something that only took a few days to injure him will now take several weeks to get right

[Chris Lang]

My guess is that Tomlin/Royer didn't want to shut him down for two weeks, so they threw him yesterday with the intention of then resting him until next Friday in Asheville. The dead arm thing can happen with young pitchers, and it doesn't always have to do with pitch counts. Some guys have rubber arms, some don't. I'm not sure if this is the case with Solbach or not, but it seems to be.

Sometimes, 10 days off with some light bullpen throwing in between is all the pitcher needs to get back on track.

That said, they seem to be babying Page back into things. He isn't starting, but when he comes in, he'll throw four or five innings. Maybe it's time to put him back in the rotation. I don't know. I don't profess to be a baseball coach or know all of the intricate details of these young men like the coaching staff does, so we'll see.

[SuperJon]

They told Page they were waiting til the end of the year to put him back in the rotation. So instead he'll just pitch 5-6 innings in relief each weekend.

[- Chris Lang -]

Sorry all, we're having web problems in Richmond again. Here's a notebook that ran in today's paper, with a note on Solbach of interest to baseball fans:

Liberty pitcher Michael Sol-bach and Flames coach Matt Royer want to put all of the “dead arm” talk to rest.
Solbach, the Friday starter in Liberty’s Big South series, and Royer won’t deny the sophomore righthander has struggled of late. In his last four starts, Solbach is 1-3 with a 9.99 ERA, allowing 33 hits and 20 earned runs in 18 innings.
But the struggles have more to do with mechanics than a dead arm.
Solbach’s latest trouble came Wednesday at Virginia Tech when he allowed six hits and six earned runs in 2 2/3 innings. Previously, he allowed six hits and eight runs (four earned) in 2 1/3 innings against Birmingham-Southern.
Royer said he doesn’t believe that a tired arm is Solbach’s biggest problem. He moved through the first two batters against BSC before running into trouble, and his fastball, which touches 92 mph at its best, had plenty of pop.
Velocity isn’t the issue. Loca-tion is, and Solbach has had trouble throwing his changeup and curveball for strikes. He’s left too many fastballs over the heart of the plate and left pitches up in the zone, leading to numer-ous fly balls and base hits.
“Basically, it’s getting ahead of hitters,” Solbach said. “If you can get ahead of hitters and throw strike one, it puts you in a great situation. Lately, I haven’t been doing that. I haven’t been able to get ahead, and I haven’t been getting ground balls.
“I’m a ground-ball pitcher, and I get double plays. I haven’t had a double play turned in a while because I can’t get ground balls.”
Solbach and LU pitching coach Randy Tomlin have pored through numerous videotapes to find small mechanical adjust-ments Solbach needs to make to help him get better location on his pitches. For instance, Sol-bach’s release point on his pitches has been inconsistent, Royer said, leading to a lack of control.
Solbach does have a bit of a sore arm (he took himself out of the Virginia Tech game), which means he’s been shut down for the next week. He won’t pitch today against William & Mary at Worthington Stadium, but he hopes to be on the mound next Friday at UNC Asheville as the Flames (33-14, 11-7 Big South) look to finish the regular season strong.
Royer said Solbach might be held out longer than a week as a precaution.
“I think he’s pretty sore right now,” Royer said. “Certainly, we won’t rush him. We won’t do anything to hurt him. He’ll have to tell us when he’s ready.”
Softball in title hunt
Liberty enters the weekend in control of the race for the con-ference’s regular-season title. If Liberty (38-18, 7-2 Big South) wins its final three games, it will claim the title and the No. 1 seed in the Big South tournament, which begins at Radford next Thursday.
Liberty plays today at Coastal Carolina, which has won eight straight, before ending the regu-lar season at home Monday against Winthrop.
The regular-season champ gets a big advantage in the tour-nament, as it only has to play one game on Thursday. The other six teams play two.
Another tough slate
Liberty’s non-conference women’s basketball schedule for the 2006-07 season is shaping up to be its toughest.
The Flames, who won 25 games with a roster loaded with freshmen and sophomores last season, could face both NCAA title game participants from a year ago.
Liberty will play in a pre-Christmas tournament in Cancun, Mexico, though LU coach Carey Green doesn’t know the Flames will play in the first round.
Duke, which lost to Maryland in the NCAA title game, is one possible opponent, as is Bowling Green, which won 28 games last year and lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
Others in the field are Pitts-burgh, East Carolina, Oral Rob-erts, SMU and Texas-Arlington.
The Flames also will play in a tournament at defending NCAA champion Maryland. Liberty will open against Marist Dec. 29; Maryland will battle UNC Greensboro. The winners will meet in the title game Dec. 30.
Other non-conference games include trips to VCU, James Madison, Binghamton and American.
Green’s biggest problem? The lack of home games. He’s having trouble finding teams interested in coming to Lynchburg. The only confirmed non-league home dates are with Virginia Tech and Longwood.
— Chris Lang

[Chris Lang]

Oops. That was me. How did I get logged out?

[Hold My Own]

velocity not an issue? I was talking to another pitcher and they said he was topping out at 84....yeah that's got pop but that's night and day different then 92, heck 92 is night and day different from 94

I was also told he'll have to be shut down for a while, which I believe Tomlin wanted to do before the VT game (although he didn't want to do it nearly as long as he'll have to do it now) I'm hearing Tourny time if we're lucky....but this is coming from a player and not a coach or trainer so we'll see

[A.G.]

The starters threw a lot of innings early on--especially in light of the bullpen woes. That makes an arm tired.

[Chris Lang]

HMO ... you are correct. Solbach has tightness in his throwing arm below the elbow, so they don't want to take any chances. Same goes with Ryan Page, whose arm continues to bother him.

These guys haven't been extended any more than they were last season, so the tired arm argument is moot.

[A.G.]

I don't know the answer, here, and I'm too lazy to do the research. How did our pitchers fare at the end of the year last season?