statistics. How did their statistics change from year to year? HH2000 laid that out. Nothing here is intended to be a knock or a "disservice" to a player. I am certain our pitchers work hard to improve every year. I am sure there are elements that improve. But, as is done with every athlete whose performance can be represented with statistics, that's where results are ultimately judged. HH2000 compared the changes in statistics from 3 players. 1 got noticeably better (and yes SOS could have something to do with it, but in the schedule she had some great performances against some ranked opponents) but hard to argue to all of it. The other 2 didn't. Statistically, Lemley's best year was her first one. Her second was her worst and the pitching coach issues contributed to that. And you could attribute that, in part, to simply having a pitching coach and the NCAA rule enforcement. We also tried to make her a 2-game starter every weekend and she pitched a lot more innings. And didn't have the success there as we did with Rochard. So, because year 2 was her worst, year 3 was much better. But, statistically, year 3 was still not as strong as year 1. And year 4 was slightly worse than year 3 in several aspects. Here are Lemley's stats over the 4 years. Judge for yourself. https://hokiesports.com/sports/softball/roster/player/emm... The point is, you cannot assume Mazz is going to get better just because she is a year older. I can give you countless examples of players who don't get better every year. And yes, that may not all be attributable to coaching. But, it does beg the question in Grein's case. Yes, it is correct, that pitcher's have celings and it could be that EL and EM hit theirs already. We are not assessing whether or not EL is a good pitcher. She was a very good pitcher. So, being drafted is irrelevant. She may well have been drafted in year 1 or year 3 but that wasn't an option in those years. In her freshman year, she made the top 3 among freshman in the entire country. I didn't say Grein was an emotional basket case. You keep generating defenses against things that are not being said. I am not talking about celebrating an on-field success. Good grief. And it's not just what happens during a game on the field. How they react to tough situations, correction, etc. It's extra tough for pitchers, because every time they pitch they know full well that at any time, if things don't go well, they can be taken out of a game. And that decision is out of their hands.