He can't help it. Lol
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If it had only been one game- it wouldnt have been a big deal. It was the constant giving away of outs in the 1st 3 innings of games.
Also- will never understand why Cody didnt platoon with Humphries last year. Hump couldnt hit good RHP's but we kept running him out there. Hump must have hit .450 vs LHP's last year- but K after K vs RHP's. Cody has been nothing but a .300 hitter for us except last year when he didnt get consistent AB's. A platoon there and it makes us a better team. Plus Hump could have pitched more
Whatever, Cann is a great hire but so was Henderson.
Seems to be a great combo, both are known as good recruiters.
No coach in the history of sports has ever not driven fans of his team insane with particular idiosyncrasies or tendencies that sometimes flew in the face of reason. Not even Saban or John Wooden are immune from that. Fans are never 100% satisfied and that is the nature of the beast. But if Cohen bunting in the 1st inning and not playing a particular player in certain situations last year are the first things on your mind when you reflect on his tenure, then you are a miserable bastard. And quite frankly, I feel sorry for you because you'll never find happiness as an MSU fan.
If you look at the stats we're about on pace to bunt just as much with Cann as we did with Cohen. We bunted 35 times last year and this year we have 28 with two weeks plus at least two weeks of postseason ball to go. The difference is we don't have a poster going full blast about how dumb bunting is every time we bunt in a sad attempt to try to be the best baseball poster on the planet.
Exactly! There's so many different philosophies that can work in
Baseball. Because a person doesn't agree with that particular philosophy doesn't mean it won't be successful. I personally don't like bunting accept in certain situations when it can put the game winning run in scoring position with a weak hitter at the plate. That being said cohen proved you can be extremely successful employing that philosophy. There are just so many different ways to run a successful offense in baseball that's it's crazy for someone to dislike a coach just because you don't agree with it. Well said, Todd.
Exactly. I've seen teams win with a LOT of small ball like the Cardinals in the 80's and I've seen teams win that were three run home run type teams. The common denominator is pitching and defense in both situations. Your offense is dictated by the players you have and their skill sets.
I personally like a good balance of both power and small ball- pretty similar to what we're seeing from Cann. Tony LaRussa did a lot of that when he was with the Cardinals in the late 1990's and early 2000's and also with the A's before that- you would see Fernando Vina bunt or squeeze a run home and then McGwire and or Pujols would then park one into the upper deck. The one thing I didn't like about Cohen was I thought he didn't try to steal bases enough and seemed to default to the bunt. Cann is much better about stealing and using the hit and run more than Cohen- and doing that to me actually makes the bunt aspect more successful. And it seems to me that we're as good or better at bunting for hits and sacrificing under Cann than we were under Cohen.
I remember being at the Governor's Cup this year and I LOVED watching Bianco freak out and throw about 10 pick offs because he was paranoid about us running on them. That's what speed and pressure can do. And while I'm on that game- the KEY moment in that game was when we had Stovall on and then Mangum hits a slow ground ball to third base and his speed caused Bortles to misplay the ball or at least have to field the ball cleanly to record an out. Well, that brought up Mr. Rooker and he hits a bomb on the berm in left center to essentially win the game. That's how I like baseball offense.
I love the running game in baseball. It changes the way defenses do everything. It puts so much pressure on the defense. I even run my slower guys just pick the spots. It makes the other team know every time you have a base runner the potential is there for a steal or hit and run. Changes pitch selection, defensive alignments, everything.
Actually with Cann there they bunted 36 times to our 35 last year. And then his first year they bunted 31 times. We're about on pace with what his offenses have typically done in that arena.
Kentucky leads the conference far and away in bunts with 42 compared to our 28 which ranks fourth in the SEC currently.
And we all know who Kentucky's coach is.