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What pitch count and usage tells us about the Texas pitching staff

Joe Cookby: Joe Cook04/28/26josephcook89

When I’m watching Astros telecasts, Space City Home Network has a good graphic that shows how much the pitching staff has been used in the previous calendar week or two. The college game is different than the pro game, obviously, with much fewer contests per week. But the pitch count for certain players can tell us some things.

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The SCHN graphic usually doesn’t include starting pitching, but I thought it would be relevant here considering the change-up in schedule following the Texas A&M Sunday game cancelation and the fact that Texas utilizes a number of arms in Tuesday contests.

So let’s look at the pitch count numbers from the past couple of weeks.

Texas A&M – 4/10Texas A&M – 4/11Texas A&M-CC – 4/14Alabama – 4/17Alabama-4/18Alabama – 4/19Vanderbilt – 4/24Vanderbilt – 4/25Vanderbilt – 4/26Total
Ruger Riojas839964246
Dylan Volantis9187178
Luke Harrison4410682232
Sam Cozart39132563140
Haiden Leffew20381371
Brett Crossland276163786
Ethan Walker4915634
Max Grubbs2028141981
Brody Walls57562
Michael Winter162036
Cal Higgins202242
Kade Bing3939
Hudson Hamilton5151
Thomas Burns12644769
Cody Howard44
Jason Flores2424

*** The starting pitching has been efficient and hasn’t been overly taxed. Harrison has the only 100+ pitch outing in this time span. In fact, there have only been five 100+ pitch games in 32 starts this season from Longhorn weekend pitchers and Harrison’s 106-pitch day against Vanderbilt is the most for a member of Max Weiner’s staff this year.

*** The following pitchers have 15 or more appearances this year: Walker, Grubbs, Crossland, and Cozart. Walker is the only lefty from that bunch, and he has just 12.1 IP in what have become specialty appearances. The other three, Grubbs, Crossland, and Cozart, are the go-to arms for Texas in critical moments, with Cozart as the main door-shutter.

*** Three other pitchers join the above group in the 10+ appearance club: Burns, Leffew, and Walls. Leffew has been Texas’ other left-handed option along with Walker, but has posted longer outings. His ERA is an impressive 2.45 and his WHIP is a just-as-impressive 0.89. When it comes to Walls, the freshman has mostly seen his innings come in mid-week or out-of-hand contests. Burns is second on the team in saves with three, half of Cozart’s team-leading six. Burns’ strikeout-to-walk ratio is 2.5-to-1, but his strikeout-to-hits-and-walks ratio is 1-to-1. He’s seen some action in close games, but he’s not exactly in the same circle of trust as Grubbs, Crossland, and Cozart.

*** Texas will try to develop some arms especially in remaining midweek games against Sam Houston (No. 171 in RPI) and UTSA (No. 42 in RPI).

*** But the arms to know are clear at this juncture of the season as the conference tournament approaches, and the evidence is in the usage and number of pitches thrown in recent weeks leading up to the calendar turning from April to May.

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