I've marveled at the performances of Ryan Sublette thus far this year and it got me thinking he may be following the path of what Ty Harpenau did back with the 2018 Texas Tech baseball team. Harpenau started his Tech career as a starter and initally showed a lot of promise but by the time the season ended he had been ordered to the bullpen and ended the season with a lofty 6.85 ERA in 44 innings. His sophomore year wasn't any better with his innings pitched dropping in half to 20 innings with still a lofty ERA of 6.53. The problem was Harpenau would look filthy against one batter and then the next two batters would get on base -- zero consistency. He came close to quitting after his Sophomore year (see article below) but decided to give it another shot and the rest as they say is history. Ty had a terrific year and played an integral part on the Tech 2018 Omaha team and got drafted by the Atlanta Braves in the 16th round.
Ryan Sublette has walked a similar path to that of Harpenau. His freshman year he was thought highly enough of to start 8 games (24.2) innings but he never showed an inkling of consistency to which his lofty 9.49 ERA would attest to. I openly wondered if he was going to follow the fate of his fellow freshman pitchers Richard Gilbert & Nick Candelari in getting cut or transferring. Much to my amazement Sublette made the team and though he showed glimpses of hope he was pretty much an afterthought pitching a grand total of 17 innings. Sublette did happen to pitch in a May 25th game against West Virginia where in 4.1 innings he showed the potential we had all been waiting for. Fast forward to this year and the kid really looks outright nasty. The issue of control which has been a problem since at Tech seems to be moving in the right direction. I couldn't be happier for the kid and hope he's able to keep going what he's started.
Ryan Sublette has walked a similar path to that of Harpenau. His freshman year he was thought highly enough of to start 8 games (24.2) innings but he never showed an inkling of consistency to which his lofty 9.49 ERA would attest to. I openly wondered if he was going to follow the fate of his fellow freshman pitchers Richard Gilbert & Nick Candelari in getting cut or transferring. Much to my amazement Sublette made the team and though he showed glimpses of hope he was pretty much an afterthought pitching a grand total of 17 innings. Sublette did happen to pitch in a May 25th game against West Virginia where in 4.1 innings he showed the potential we had all been waiting for. Fast forward to this year and the kid really looks outright nasty. The issue of control which has been a problem since at Tech seems to be moving in the right direction. I couldn't be happier for the kid and hope he's able to keep going what he's started.
