Some posters seem pretty insistent that Sully was actually told that Lausch jumped him.
Sullivan to Iowa
- Thread starter Baz=Heisman
- Start date
I don’t know. What we can be fairly certain of is that Braun did not tell Sully in some form that he was guaranteed to start.
It's another Kyle McCord thing. The difference is, McCord was already competing with two 4 stars on the roster and a new 5 star recruit incoming. Then Day threw a grenade in the water after McCord left, and added two other transfers.
Like Sullivan, McCord transferred to a lesser program.
If Braun had told Sully that he was looking in the Portal but that Sully would have a chance to compete for the top spot with whoever is brought in, I'm not sure that by itself would be enough to drive Sully off.
Gonna say something here that will turn out to probably be controversial.
The ABSOLUTE BEST $HIT I've EVER seen in my life, was from the 2016 version of Jake Arrieta and I've been around longer than almost everybody on this board either playing the game, or now, watching the game.
His ball didn't break until it was about 2 to 3 feet from the hitter. It's easy to hit a breaking ball that breaks 30 feet from the plate. It's impossible to hit a ball that breaks 2 to 3 feet from the plate. Don't believe me? Try it. On his best day, I can say (as a hitter) that he was totally un-hitable. That year I saw many pitches that hit the dirt two feet in front of the plate and the batter was taking a hack at it. Even opposing players were laughing in the dugout at what he was serving. He had stuff I had never seen before, had never seen since, and after 2016, he never had it again. I do not know what physical differences happened that year to him, but for ONE YEAR, he was the greatest pitcher I have ever seen.
There are dozens of guys that were faster, dozens who had more consistent and better location, dozens who could work the zone better, but that year, nobody had what Arrieta had - a pitch that was insanely and totally un-hittable!
Iowa fans are afraid Cade may be china doll fragile. If he's healthy he's a solid QB; never really showed anything before he was injured, but everyone knows about the trainwreck that was the Brian Ferentz offense. Decent at Michigan, but how could you not be with that kind of surrounding cast. Don't get me wrong, we're happy to have McNamara....really a charismatic leader....we're just not sure how long he'll last. Sullivan will be at least the 2nd best QB in the room, and with Tim Lester's new offense, who knows?
He competed until he lost the competition. Then he didn’t want to compete. Got it.
As a junk ball pitcher, I was always impressed w Mark Buerhle. I could relate. I never topped out over 75 on my best and strongest day. But I could make the ball dance and hit spots. Buerhle’s ‘change up’ with no fastball was a thing of beauty. Also loved the fast style (another ‘gimmick of mine’). He was fun to watch - no time to Play with the phone. He pitched like a machine gun, blink and Sox were up to bat.
Keith Foulke was another of the no fastball but you can’t touch my ‘change up’
That late movement is the secret to poorly hit balls. With a decent D, no strikeouts = low pitch count. And from what I saw, their secret was grip and release, not wrist and twist - so less strain. I blew out my shoulder senior year and elbow was probably not far behind spinning the ball.
Did you ever think he might be doctoring the ball? (not being sarcastic, just asking if you thought that might be the case)
Most of the extreme (short-term) outliers in baseball are due to some form of cheating. I guess that sounds pretty cynical. Astros start hitting pitches like they know what's coming... because they literally knew what pitch was coming. Individual players have huge years because they start using PED's. Pitchers have huge years because they are doctoring the ball. Its a long list. And it financially harms the guys who are legitimate.
It often comes right before the cheater signs a big contract. Then he stops doing whatever he was doing. That was probably more the case with PEDs because players knew the enormous benefits and the physical damage, so they juiced, got paid and stopped juicing. Except for the monster egos, like Barry Bonds.
I'm just generalizing. I don't know Jake Arrieta's specific situation. I know he did charity work and people seemed to like him.
But Dwight Gooden might want a word.
It's the only reasonable thing they COULD tell him. They wouldn't lie and say he had the job, and they wouldn't say f*** off.
I like Sully, but if McNamara is healthy, Sullivan is going to sit a lot.
There were also some natural ways to create adhesives. I followed as it was the opposite of my generation when slick was king. The secret to some great movement on a split finger fastball, knuckle curve, no seam fastball was sliding the ball from the hand without friction velocity loss.
My generation was lost to muscling up and spinning it harder. Adhesive is key. And talcum powder is a nice additive, also tobacco juice, obviously pine tar and such were the poor man approaches - along with some sweat. As life got lazy and rules loosely enforced, the commercial crap took over.
These days I spit in my mask before a dive. I tell my clients using the defog juice that they are supporting companies using kids in China to spit in a jug. But I digress…
I really never looked for that, and maybe didn't want to believe that he would, so all I have is my belief that something physically was VERY different about his release that year. And I don't know the physics of whether a foreign substance could have the effect I saw. To be honest, I have never seen another pitcher throw the same late-breaking (and fast) $shit that Arrieta did. It was just so noticeably different, but he only had it for one year. It never came back.
We had something similar (when I played football around 70 years ago). It was called "Stick em". Was green pasty stuff and worked pretty good until you got dirt on your hands. When that happened, it was more like "slip em" and was a real PITA to get it off your hands.
They did, but more “we expect competition between you, Jack, and a transfer TBD, but Jack is QB1 right now.”
In a vacuum, yes.
The confusing part is him choosing Iowa, where he’s almost assuredly behind McNamara this year then in another competition for 2025. I thought he would find a MAC program with a clear path to two years as starter.
Iowa wanted him badly. There is no guarantee McNamara will be fully recovered from his ACL injury by opening day or whether he can last all season. I can see them floating the idea to Sullivan that he has a chance to be QB1. I can see Sully wanting to stay with a P4 school.
Can Sully switch schools again by next spring?
Back in '71 or '72 Steve Carlton got traded to the Phillies for Rick Wise (who was slightly younger and who had just thrown a no-hitter). Carlton had started working out with a martial arts-type trainer, Gus Hoefling(sp?). One of the thinks he did was digging his hands into a 40 gallon garbage can full of rice, forcing them to the bottom of the can. Carlton's slider became other-worldly. His '72 season could easily be the best year a starting pitcher ever had. 27-10 (I know, I know, wins and losses aren't a good measure for a pitcher, but for us old folks...) for a team that won 59 games. Lefty made great big league hitters look silly.
Missing why this comment fits the thread topic but I am too lazy to go back thru the history. Anyway, no one including every single Cardinals fan, thought trading Lefty for Wise was a good idea. I don't recall the reason now but Gussie Busch was angry with Lefty and told Bing Devine to trade him. Wise was a very good pitcher but he wasn't a HOF'er.
My brother was friends with the son of the local Episcopal minister who leaked to them that Carlton was getting married at his church. The two of them then waited outside during the ceremony and ambushed Carlton at the end of the aisle as he was leaving, getting his autograph on a baseball.
A hot stove league question from the ‘70’s was which was the best pitching duo on a team in the ‘60’s:
1) Koufax/Drysdale
2) Gibson/Carlton
3) Lolich/McClain
3) Seaver/Ryan (with Koosman as a backup).
It seems lost in all the angst of the Sully sympathy is the fact that Lausch improved enough to have passed Sully, even if that isn’t such a high bar. I’m extremely happy for Lausch… no more wasted energy on Sully for me.
Great question. Depends on which city you ask that question in, I suppose. I am not enough of a baseball fanatic to know the stats but I think a fair qualifier would be which was the best duo when they were on the same team or alternatively cumulative life time performance. I always thought Koufax was overrated because he pitched in a media hotbed plus his career was relatively short. But when he was good he was very, very good. Ryan wasn't as good - still good - in NYC as his later years in Texas. Same with Carlton between St Louis and Philadelphia. Have to look it up but wasn't Seaver/Ryan's best years in the '70's? Need a real baseball guru here.
Seems like the best rotation would be the better question and I’ll submit about five years of the Braves w Maddux, Glavine, Smoltz and take your pick - Avery, Millwood.
I definitely agree with the rotation. Seemed like twenty years, however.
Most of it had to be scheme, vs great improvement. Lujan abandoned the Geo Halas offense that Jake was running. How much could a guy imorove in a dozen practices (was still behind Sullivan AND Hilinski as of bowl game)
Spring practice is where you show your off-season improvement, not where you start your improvement. Lujan’s offenses have been mobile running QBs, so it favors a Wright or Lausch over Sullivan or Hillinski.
Did you remember Siemian running the option? It was ugly. He had a much better arm but Kain was so much better as a running QB. I expect we will see more run option in the new offense and that requires a Kain, not a Trevor.
Sullivan has way better running skills (not necessarily pocket mobility) than Trevor, and Kain as a true freshman runner was better than lausch (and most others) now.
Trevor and Kain were the extreme. The important point today is Wright and Lausch are more mobile than Sullivan.
