Before I jump into things I figured I would share a little bit about myself. I'm currently attending UCD as a History major. While I study History in school, my passion from a young age has been Baseball so I'm excited to step in and write about the hometown team. I'm actually one of the few local students that actually sticks around to go to college. I graduated from Davis High class of '04 and then spent sometime at Sac City until starting at UCD this past fall. Also, I post on the board under foolintherain. But enough about me, I wanted to start off my period here at AST with a run down of some of the players on the squad this year, and I figured the starting rotation would be a good place to begin. While Dayne Quist has been extremely impressive thus far this year I figured I'd start with the more interesting player in my mind, Scott Lyman.

The Sophomore RHP/OF has performed extremely well from the plate but has struggled thus far from the mound. Lyman is the only member of the Aggies' weekend starting rotation that is also a normal member of the everyday lineup; David Popkins has appeared in 4 games while also leading the Aggies with a .475 average but he has only appeared in relief. Some people have started to question what can be done to right Lyman's ship as his record stands at 0-2 while his earned run average is at 8.66 though 17.2 innings. While those numbers look really bad, he also has 17 strike outs in that span so on some level there is clearly something going right.

Lyman is just a sophomore but already has an overpowering arsenal of pitches. He has a strong fastball with a nice sink to it, a sharp curve he can break off and he also throws a change up, but not as often as the other two. The problem so far this season has been his lack of command of those pitches.

In his first start of the season against the Utah Utes, Lyman started off well but was removed after only 3 innings when his hamstring acted up. That week was a decent showing of his potential before the injury. The next week against BYU he got hit much harder, while making it through 3.1 innings he gave up nine hits and seven runs that were all earned. While Lyman's day on the mound was not great he did K 6 Cougars so he clearly had some stuff going right that day. His start against the Hornets was another case of taking the good and the bad. In 5.1 innings he gave up 7 hits and 5 earned runs but he did strike out 6 Sac State hitters.

Lyman is a very talented pitcher and has shown that early on this year, but there is pretty clearly something wrong. It might just be that he needs time to work on his command but Rex Peters and the rest of the coaching staff has shown they are willing to try to help Lyman be the best pitcher he can. His start against the San Jose State Spartans marked the first time that Lyman did not take his normal spot in the lineup while he was also pitching.

Not having him hit while he's pitching is just one of many steps that I think the team could take in order to get him back on track. One suggestion from our very own Brett Rodriguez was that Lyman pitch on Friday instead of Sunday. This would give Lyman the best chance at being a successful pitcher but it could hamper his hitting and playing outfield later in the weekend. After pitching on Friday he might not be able to play outfield the next two days, and hurting the chances of success for your best hitter is not a smart idea when the offense is going the way it is early this season. He could potentially play DH after pitching but then one of the Aggies' other best hitters so far this year, David Popkins, would be out of his lineup spot. So pitching on Friday may not be the best option.

All of this could be for nothing; maybe all Lyman needs is time, but doing nothing isn't a very realistic option either. The coaching staff has taken some steps and Lyman will be one of the more interesting situations to keep an eye on as the season progresses. In my opinion one thing is for sure, Scott Lyman has the potential to be an amazing Aggie. On the mound and at the plate he has the tools and the skill set to be an amazing player.

In the coming weeks I'm hoping to bring more in depth looks like this for other players on the roster as well as keeping up with how the team is doing this season in general.