IU Baseball Has A Serious Pitching Problem That Needs To Be Fixed But Fans And The Administration Need To Be Careful To Not Overreact
Hoosiers Dominated In Big Ten Opener By Struggling Illinois As Season Starts To Spiral Out Of Control
IU’s home field Bart Kaufman After Indiana’s 2019 Big Ten Championship
Coming off a 43-20 season with a regional final and nearly everyone returning, expectations were high for another spring with a postseason appearance for Indiana baseball. However, after a strong 6-1 start, the 2024 season is headed in a very bad direction.
What seemed like a fluke defeat to a bad Purdue Fort-Wayne team was instead a canary in the coal mine. Since that contest, the team is 5-10 and has given up less than seven runs just once. At this point is not clear who the Cream and Crimson can rely on when pitching. Every person who has taken the bump has been shelled for huge innings. Also, nearly every arm the Hoosiers have brought back has taken a step back from 2023.
IU head coach Mercer said it is frustrating to not know who can be counted on to get big outs at a given time on the mound.
“You’re trying to play the hot hand,” Mercer said. “To get a varied outing is hard from week to week when you don’t know what you are going to get.”
To understand what is going on though let’s first look at how it has gotten to this point. When Mercer took over in 2019, he brought in Justin Parker to be the pitching coach. Parker excelled in his three springs here (one shortened by COVID) with his staff’s ERA under 4.00. However, Parker did so well that he got poached by SEC powerhouse South Carolina for the same position, and is now at Mississippi State under former Hoosier skipper Chris Lemonis.
When this happened, Mercer brought in Dustin Glant who was highly regarded. However, what has transpired is the three worst ERA years since 2010. I am in no way qualified to criticize Glant other than what the numbers say. In 2022 and now in 2024, a strong offense has been singlehandedly tanked with team ERA’s north of seven. 2023 was not great, but the ERA was good enough at around five to not ruin top-flight bats and it resulted in a great season with the aforementioned success described above.
It is unlikely anything will be fixed in the near future and Hoosier fans will need to plan accordingly much like in 2022. However, what happens this summer once the season ends will be fascinating. I am in no position to judge what changes need to be made. However, Mercer is and will need to do so.
Whether Glant can make the adjustments to get his pitchers back on track will need to be evaluated. It is possible Glant is the guy for the job and can fix this. However, If the answer is he cannot, a change will probably need to be made here. IU volleyball coach Steve Aird changed out his assistants in 2022 and it has gotten that program on track. Whether this is necessary here is not something I can say with confidence but Mercer will be the judge of this.
When Mercer was introduced in pregame on Friday there were almost no cheers for him like last season which would logically say fans are not comfortable with where his team is at. However, to make a change after this year would be a complete overreaction. Mercer has coached the Hoosiers to two more NCAA Tournaments (Indiana has been there seven times overall in the last decade) and has had one other solid season. Yes, two others including this one have been a massive struggle but the athletic department and supporters cannot overact.
Before 2008, the Hoosiers were arguably the worst program historically in the Big Ten and would kill for this last 15 years of relative success. Mercer has not done much worse while in charge than the previous headmen Chris Lemonis (3 NCAA appearances in four seasons) and Tracy Smith (3 NCAA Tournaments in six seasons including a College World Series once he got the success going).
Mercer has also shown strength in adjusting when things are not right. As an example of trying to solve something that is not going well, Mercer announced postgame a change he will make going forward to try to prevent the big frames against that have plagued throughout 2024.
“Probably we’ll just have to have two guys up (in the bullpen at once),” he said. “Go to the next guy if it starts to go (badly) and do everything we can to disallow those big innings.”
With an RPI nowhere near at-large territory and a huge issue on the mound, 2024 is not likely to get any better barring something unforeseen. The Hoosiers were defeated 9-1 on Friday and now sit at 11-11 with few answers following a dominating effort by an Illini squad that has had issues at the plate.
However, what adjustments are made in the immediate future and further down the road, will determine the trajectory of this successful team in the last decade-and-a-half.