the format is stupid
no college team has the pitching to win 2 games before facing your 3rd opponent's #1 starter
that said, not caring less, sandbagging against injuries, preserving arms, are all admirable but probably not a good idea *this year*
mailing it in thursday won't do us any favors with the conference in year 1 - they would not be happy - that's fuel for aggy "they ruin everything" "disrespecting whorns" blah blah blah
if it's gump the place is going to be packed and partisan - you can't back down from that
if it's creamsicle they are still going to have a huge crowd - nashville to hoover is 3 hours, knox/memphis to hoover is 4 - tanking could lead to a rout
a rout is not the way to go in to the regional
so we have to compete 100% on thursday
re-evaluation for saturday?
possible opponents are:
vandy - need that win according to above posters to ensure we stay #1 (should vandy go on to win the tournament)
thieves - nope, not backing down from that
georgia - nope, not backing down from that
lube - so ky is the only possible thursday opponent (as of this typing) that we could conceivably think about emptying the bench with the starting lineup
if we win on saturday we're going for hardware on sunday