The Unofficial Furman Football Page

Just rolled in from a trip up the Jersey Turnpike to Lakewood NJ, where the Blue Claws hosted the Asheville Tourists. Unfortunately, my timing and the schedule were such that it was not Will Gaddis' turn to pitch. Rather, it was his turn to don his street clothes and sit behind home plate with the JUGS gun, a necessary task which he handled with aplomb.

He had a little bit of a rough start early in the year, but has pitched fairly well of late. He threw 8 strong in his next to last start, but took a small step back on the 8th against the Drive, pitching only 2 and giving up one Earned Run. His ERA is just a nudge over 5, but it was over 6 in late May, so he has picked it up quite a bit.

I spoke with him briefly after the game. He seems to be enjoying himself and carries himself with the right amount of confidence. He says he talks with Ron Smith regularly. He also told me Bret Harker has had a good recruiting year, but no specifics on that front. Still, that is good news.

Wonder why he got pulled in the game against the Drive? The numbers weren't terrible. Looks like he has had a couple of bad starts where he gave up 5, 5 & 8 runs that probably has taken his ERA higher than it should be. Gives up a lot of hits. I never saw him live at Furman ... does he pitch to contact with the hopes of inducing ground balls or pop ups? 12 of 18 starts he's gone at least 5 innings, so still proving somewhat of an innings eater.

http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?si ... 018/MINORS

Didn't ask him about that. It seemed sort of odd to me as well. The only ER he gave up was a dinger in the 1st. Hardly enough to warrant a yank that early.

I went back to the Asheville website and the narrative summary of the game said, "Gaddis did not return to the mound after the 2d inning." That could mean a lot of things, but my guess (and that's all it is) is that he suffered some minor injury. His 4th day of rest would have been yesterday; he's not listed as a starter in the rest of the games in the series, so -speculation alert!- i suspect it may be a muscle ding that's not bad enough to put him on the DL, just miss a start

Also keep in mind that the numbers can be very misleading because pitchers at this level are often times working on certain things (new pitch, new grips, etc) and the outcome doesn't necessarily matter to the organization.