Baseball Mailbag: Are soft-tossing lefties Ole Miss' kryptonite?

Ole Miss hosts UAB this weekend to finish off the pre-SEC series portion of the schedule. The Rebels (9-3) head to Louisville for a two-game swing during spring break and then entertain Alabama to start league play.

Friday's game against the Blazers is now at 3 p.m., as it was moved up because of inclement weather. Let's get to the questions.

The three situations aren't very similar other than they were expected to be key cogs on the Ole Miss pitching staff this season. Greer Holston is the most confusing one, as he's lost fastball velocity and isn't performing well enough to get into a game despite not being injured. I don't have answers on this one, but it seems to be mental as much as anything. I wonder if a redshirt is in order. The only answer is to keep trying to help him and hope it incrementally improves back to what was considered normal.

Jordan Fowler, to me, lacks confidence. He had a tough summer and a tough fall and hasn't handled adversity well so far this spring. Tuesday against Little Rock was better, but he still hit multiple batters and had an inning blow up on him. Low-leverage situations seem to be a good idea for him currently, as he can just pitch and see what shakes out.

Parker Caracci's fastball velocity is fine, and he's never had the most command in the world. I don't see any major issues with him to this point other than some rust and minor inconsistencies with his delivery. The biggest question with Caracci is if he'll remain the closer. There's a role for him, but if it's not the current one, Ole Miss doesn't need to put too many games at risk while making that decision.

It's a credit to Connor Green, Austin Miller and others that the bullpen is in decent shape despite what I just wrote.

It does seem like the same type of pitcher routinely holds Ole Miss down relative to its overall statistics. The soft-tosser, specifically from the left side, has had a lot of relative success against the Rebels over the years.

I don't know the answer, but my theories are 1. Ole Miss is always an aggressive lineup, so the thumber who can effectively nibble and pitch backwards gets a lot of mileage out of pop ups and roll-over ground balls. 2. Ole Miss doesn't often have that type of pitcher on the roster so they don't see it as often as they do the hard-throwing right-handers.

It's also become a very obvious thing when it occurs, so it's magnified. Ole Miss went 13-4 against lefties last season, so the Rebels clearly hit them as often as they don't. But between the East Carolina starter and a few instances last season, it is a noticeable deal when facing the pitchers who can't seem to break glass with the fastball.

While still a somewhat small sample size, Ole Miss' performance against left-handers in general is troublesome this year. The Rebels have a team slash line of .259/.333/.331 against lefties in 2019. That's not going to cut it.

I don't know any details to Bryce Blaum's departure, however I feel a little vindicated regrading my early opinions of him. As a freshman, he went 3-for-9 and reached base on 7-of-13 plate appearances during his only year with Ole Miss. I'd convinced myself he was a multi-year starter at second base.

Blaum is now at Texas A&M, leading the Aggies with a .321 batting average and .933 OPS. He's also stolen five bases. Ole Miss' second base spot is in capable hands with Anthony Servideo and Jacob Adams, but no doubt Blaum could help the Rebels somewhere. I'll be curious to see what his numbers look like as the sample size grows.

Grae Kessinger has started slowly this season, hitting .224 with only two extra base hits in 49 at-bats. His K/BB rate is right at 1/1 and he's only struck out eight times, so there's probably some lack of luck involved. I don't see anything alarming with his approach, and this isn't going to be an offense that waits out pitch counts simply to take first pitches.

In saying all that, I would move Kessinger to fifth or sixth to take some pressure off and free him up to try to drive the baseball with runners on base. He's not a major base-stealer, so it wouldn't jam him up in the lineup, and it would allow a different look with Anthony Servideo or someone at the top of the order.

Kessinger is going to hit, and offense hasn't been the Rebels' problem, but I do think there's a perk to letting him be a bat in the middle of the lineup. I'd also move Thomas Dillard to the two-hole. Fun fact: Dillard has hit in the second spot once in his career -- 122 starts.

I think concern is warranted, but it's not panic time. I feel like I've written this every week so far. Will Ethridge has given every positive sign -- other than the blister -- so there should be optimism with that role. And it's necessary because the SEC West is littered with talented Friday arms, especially on the teams that aren't projected to compete for the division title Texas A&M and Auburn can certainly bite you in the weekend openers, increasing the importance of the Saturday and Sunday starters.

That's where this needs to be watched moving forward. After Doug Nikhazy's solid start against East Carolina on Wednesday, it's a safe assumption that Zack Phillips needs to have a good outing against UAB for his spot to not be in jeopardy. And it may be anyway. Nikhazy just missed a weekend role following the preseason, and he's acclimated himself well in game action.

Phillips had his best outing of the season last week versus Long Beach State, but it still needs to be cleaner. His best stats last week were the five innings he pitched and that he only gave up one extra base hit after allowing six in his first seven innings of his season. Gunnar Hoglund was also at his best so far against the Dirtbags. He lasted five innings and gave up one run on six hits. He's struck out seven to only one walk on the year and looked much more comfortable in his last outing.

Hoglund is showing some progression, and I think his spot is safe for a bit as long as he does that. It might be a different story if Houston Roth were completely healthy and pushing, but for now, Hoglund needs to build on last week. He's still learning how to pitch at this level, but the secondary offerings were sharper, and he should develop more feel for how to locate the fastball in specific counts.

Starting pitching has been the worst part of the Ole Miss team through a dozen games, and concern is warranted, though it's too early to freak out. I expect some shuffling and some improvement by the time the meat of the schedule gets here.

Thomas Dillard has been better than expected behind the plate, and barring some freak injury on a foul tip or something, I don't think one game a week affects his offensive performance. Bianco isn't one to just throw a catcher out there, and I don't know how ready Knox Loposer is for the assignment. Either option is fine, as the only thing Ole Miss can't do is wear out Cooper Johnson without giving him a break. Johnson has been elite defensively and has to stay somewhat fresh. Dillard has proven to be a more than capable fill-in.

Once SEC play begins, it may be time to curtail Dillard's catching and try someone else for a game simply to make him as ready as possible for his at-bats. A major key moving forward is Dillard improving his SEC OPS of less than .900 from 2018. But some spot work doesn't seem like a big deal.

A lot of doubles and fly outs would be home runs, and the home runs would be goofy long. This is better baseball, but there was a fun element to slow pitch softball breaking out on the baseball diamond. With the old drop-5 bats, batting practice would be a must-see event for Dillard and Chase Cockrell and others.