On the 2015 LSU baseball team’s path to the College World Series, then-sophomore reliever Parker Bugg became the Tigers’ go-to hurler out of the bullpen late in games.
But Bugg, who gave up one run and struck out 16 batters over his final 15 relief appearances this season, doesn’t look like the same guy through 23 games into 2016. Of the healthy pitchers on the staff, his 8.59 ERA with eight walks are the highest on the team.
“Parker has been such a valuable pitcher for us for two years,” said LSU coach Paul Mainieri. “Obviously, if you look at his numbers, he’s not performed at the same level.”
Pitching coach Alan Dunn said the difference between Bugg’s performances last year and this year has nothing to do with a regression in velocity or movement, but merely command of his fastball and slider, which is his “put-away pitch.”
“He’s made the good pitch early, and then when it’s put-away time, we haven’t quite to that spot we need to get it in,” Dunn said. “So, usually when you have issues where you’re not being as successful as you want, you can always trace it back to not quite making that put-away pitch when it’s crunch time.”
That was evident at times when Bugg replaced fellow right-handed reliever Doug Norman in Game 1 against Texas A&M. He entered with runners on first and second, and Bugg gave up a single and consecutive walks to plate two runs.
He returned for the eighth and conceded three more singles and another walk before Mainieri pulled him for sophomore righty Austin Bain with a five-run deficit.
Even if Bugg is striving to get ahead in more counts and then locate his put-away pitch, Dunn said fastball command is the first step.
“You’re fastball command is so vitally important to every pitch that you throw,” Dunn said. ““When you have good fastball command, you can make a couple mistakes.”
Risk/reward of sliding head first has Mainieri conflicted
With an audible sigh, Mainieri acknowledged he didn’t have the answer to mitigating the risk of a common move in baseball — a head-first slide.
“I don’t know what the answer is. I’ve seen a lot guys through the years get hurt on those head-first slides, but I’ve also seen a lot guys steals a lot of bases with those head-first slides because of the slide. So, I guess there’s a certain amount of risk that they just are willing to accept.”
Though none left the game, three different LSU players required attention from a trainer after sliding head first into second base against Texas A&M.
Junior center fielder Jake Fraley and junior second baseman Cole Freeman took shots to the shoulder area and head, respectively, but junior shortstop Kramer Robertson received the worst of it.
Robertson dislocated his right pinkie, which needed to be popped back into place at least four times, and said he may wear a protective glove while running bases, similar to the one Fraley wears. Even sophomore catcher Michael Papierski’s thumb injury against Alabama was the result of a head-first slide.
Mainieri said he even specifically told Papierski not to slide head first again, but he did so anyway in first game of the Texas A&M series, which Mainieri believed was done on instincts.
But Robertson, like Mainieri, said sliding head first is a reaction play, not considering injury.
“I guess you can fix that if you go in feet first, but you’re not going to want to get spiked,” Robertson said. “I was trying to get there as quick as I could because it was a hit-and-run. And they just happened to pitch out on it, so I was out by a lot… Either way, I feel comfortable sliding head first or feet first. That was kind of a freak thing. It’s never happen to me before.”
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