No Button: Evan Button dressed for practice for the first time in a long time Wednesday. He was scheduled to take some ground balls, lightly hit balls, and get in some work in a way that would not tax his back. He’s trying to heal a stress fracture in the lower part of of his back
Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco says Button will not dress for this weekend’s Auburn series. Button, a junior and co-captain, was the team’s starting shortstop and was hitting .293 at the time of his injury. He’s appeared in only 13 games.
Guerrero a maybe: While Button won’t dress for the series, outfielder Michael Guerrero has a 50-50 chance to see some action, Bianco says. Guerrero has shown some pop from the right side of the plate and was hitting .303 with nine doubles, four home runs and 30 RBIs at the time of his departure due to a stress fracture in his foot.
Rotation stays the same: Lance Lynn, Drew Pomeranz and Cody Satterwhite will make up the rotation for the Auburn series.
As the Rebels have struggled to win on Sundays in the SEC, Satterwhite has come under fire from many fans, but Bianco remains firmly in his corner.
“I know it’s hard for people to understand, but I think he’s actually pitched better the last two weeks,” Bianco said.
Satterwhite, a preseason All-American, is 3-5 and has gone a month without a win. He’s also had very little run support.
In 11 starts this season, Satterwhite has allowed more than four earned runs in only one outing. He’s also given up 11 home runs and 28 walks in 58 2-3 innings.
– PA
May 7, 2008 at 3:52 pm
If Bianco has faith in Satterwhite, so do I. Cody’s a great pitcher……and maybe he’ll have a great week this time around since he has been under so much criticism and Bianco decided to stick by him. That’s gotta be a confidence booster for a player.
Thanks for the update, PA….
Go Rebs
May 7, 2008 at 4:03 pm
This deal is similar to the Micheal Spurlock thing in football. You’ve got a player with great talent, a coach who has seen it and is determined he can help the player perform.
The Satterwhite situation is different in the sense that Satterwhite has been more productive than Spurlock.
While I think Satterwhite has underachieved for a player of his status, his earned runs allowed have given the Rebels a chance to compete. Most often, they’ve not followed up with necessary run support.
– PA
May 7, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Coach Bianco is the aircraft commander; what crew in which he chooses to run his craft with is not for me to question. I will ride with confidence with them. Ole Miss must put up their best effort. MSU’s present baseball program is in disarray. An opportunity for Ole Miss to take advantage of this in future recruitment, etc. First, Ole Miss must run the final laps of this race in an examplar manner. The finish line Omaha. Go Rebels, its your race to win or lose!!
May 7, 2008 at 9:25 pm
i think that Satterwhite is good enough to stay in the Sunday starter’s role. when he has pitched, he usually only has one or 2 bad innings, and his ERA is higher than it should be because he is not getting any run support, so they tend to go to the bullpen earlier than if he had a comfortable lead. his bad innings are usually at the beginning and then he seems to find a groove after that. hopefully with the hometown crowd behind us we can at least get a series win and hopefully break out the brooms. PA, does it look like we are gonna see Evan Button the rest of the season at all, even if we make it to the postseason?
May 7, 2008 at 9:42 pm
Evan was really excited to get to practice today. If things went well his practice load will increase slightly, and he could get back in the game at Kentucky. Mike said he would not dress out this weekend for Auburn.
– PA
May 8, 2008 at 10:32 am
Satterwhite may have great talent but he ain’t a great pitcher. His ERA is not affected by lack of run support - his lack of mental toughness is obviously affected.
Satterwhite leads the team in bases on balls yet from the offensive side we can’t seem to figure out that walks are a good thing. I simply cannot understand our lack of plate discipline. I don’t have access to the info but I bet if you compared our walks to the opposing team on Sundays you will have your answer to the Sunday problem.