Maybe the Scouting Report on Oklahoma Pitcher Cord Rager Is a Little Off?

OMAHA, NE — There seems to be some high level disagreement about the best pitcher at this year’s College World Series.

On one hand, two opposing coaches say Cord Rager, the Sooners’ stud left hander, isn’t quite as electric when he’s pitching “out of the stretch” — that is, with runners on base — as he is out of the standard windup.

Logic would agree that Rager might not be as comfortable with runners on base. That’s an obvious and ancient tenet of baseball.

But OU coach Skip Johnson and even Rager himself don’t see it like that.

“I would disagree with that,” Rager told Sooners On SI in Saturday night’s postgame press conference following the Sooners’ 9-3 takedown of North Carolina in the opening game of the championship series. “I feel like I'm actually better out of the stretch than the wind-up because it's just more simple for me and there's less moving parts.”

Rager found himself with runners on base every batter of the first inning after leadoff man Jake Schaffner opened with a single.

And Rager didn’t seem nearly as effective as he was a week ago in the CWS opener against Alabama — a 9-0 victory — as he allowed the Tar Heels three runs on four straight hits (two doubles) and a walk.

”It was definitely not my best day on the mound,” Rager said. “I didn't have my best stuff.”

Once the first inning ended, however, Rager settled in quickly. He retired the leadoff man in each of the next four innings, only yielded one more hit and retired 10 of the last 13 batters he faced as the Sooners closed within one win of the third national championship in program history.

“Stretch is probably better for him,” Johnson said. “Like he said, it makes him more simpler. Actually makes him more athletic, which is really good.”

Rager was a machine of efficiency last week against Alabama, needing just 88 pitches to finish seven innings, scattered just three hits, didn’t allow a single run and didn’t issue a walk. Rager retired the leadoff hitter in six of his seven innings, and only one Crimson Tide baserunner even reached scoring position. Rager’s final inning, he struck out the side in the seventh.

After that game, Alabama coach Rob Vaughn said he had hoped to see Rager more out of the stretch.

“I thought, if we could get Cord out of the stretch — the stuff was good all day, but felt like … his stuff wasn't quite as dangerous out of the stretch.”

When I asked North Carolina coach Scott Forbes about that assessment following Saturday’s game, he said that’s the scouting report on Rager.

“I mean, you want to try to get a pitcher uncomfortable as much as you can,” Forbes said. “And when you have to move a guy from the wind-up to the stretch, that means you're applying pressure, and you have runners on base.

“So obviously that was one of our big goals, to find a way. But that's most all pitchers. We challenge our pitchers to be just as good out of the stretch as you are the wind-up because you usually have to make your most meaningful pitches out of the stretch.

“But for sure, that's what we're trying to do, scratch and claw. And we couldn't get that lead-off hitter on a ton. And, again, they did. So that's when you can apply that pressure.”

Johnson and Forbes are longtime friends and were fierce but friendly competitors as assistant coaches, and Johnson agreed with part of Forbes’ assessment.

“Anytime you get anybody out of the stretch, they're going to feel uncomfortable. Why is that? Because there's men on base,” Johnson said.

“If you can find a guy that can pitch with men on, you better sign him, because he's going to be really good.

“I think the biggest thing for me is Cord, what he did today, was show you what his true grit is as a pitcher and his level of care for his teammates.”

Rager, still technically a freshman even though the second semester ended more than a month ago (he’s academically a sophomore now), is now 2-0 at the College World Series with just three runs allowed over 12 innings, with 13 strikeouts, two walks and three hit batters.

“You know, after the first inning, I stopped playing for myself,” Rager said Saturday night. “I just started playing for the guys around me, for the team. And I really had to try to really be a pitcher today because I didn't have my best stuff.

“For me, giving five innings to the team was awesome. I wish I could have stayed out there longer. I mean, I just wanted to throw my arm off for the team. Like, that's all I wanted to do. And having those four zeros after the first was awesome.”

Add us as a preferred source on Google