Mississippi State Baseball Expectations

[BrunswickDawg]

We must've been separated at birth, we think to much alike. And "just making the tourney" doesn't mean we just settle for that, in baseball, at any level if you make the tournament you have a shot at winning it all(see rangers/diamondbacks in mlb last year). Heck I wished we would go undefeated in baseball every year but that's just not the way it works.

I'm one of those guys that hated losing more than I liked winning. I want to win everything. It took a lot of losing for me to get past that. And, if I couldn't take it, and get back up, and dusty myself off, and go try to win again there is no way in hell I'd be an MSU fan. Baseball is so unique in the way that the Best team doesn't always win. The most Talented team can come in last. It's the most humbling team sport there is. It is ruled by fickle gods that are quick to anger and enjoy torturing us. They take pleasure in seeing things like line drives off Gene Morgan break peoples hearts as much as they love giving us Burke Masters and Elijah Macnamee. And those of us fool enough to enjoy it always come back for more.

[Commercecomet24]

I'm one of those guys that hated losing more than I liked winning. I want to win everything. It took a lot of losing for me to get past that. And, if I couldn't take it, and get back up, and dusty myself off, and go try to win again there is no way in hell I'd be an MSU fan. Baseball is so unique in the way that the Best team doesn't always win. The most Talented team can come in last. It's the most humbling team sport there is. It is ruled by fickle gods that are quick to anger and enjoy torturing us. They take pleasure in seeing things like line drives off Gene Morgan break peoples hearts as much as they love giving us Burke Masters and Elijah Macnamee. And those of us fool enough to enjoy it always come back for more.

Yep 100%! Baseball is just different. Now way the 68th best basketball team wins the ncaa tournament or the 25th best football team wins an nc, but these things happen in baseball constantly, and a lot of folks don't understand it.

In your list of those bummers you can add Lonnie Smitn not scoring from first on the double in game 7 of 91 World Series or Wohlers 2 strike slider to Jim Leyritz in 96 when the Braves were on the verge of going up 3 games to none. Bart Giamatti wrote a poem about baseball and it's the best description I can think of for the game. Those of us who have it in our blood understand the meaning!

[Baseball] breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone.

A. Bartlett Giamatti

[basedog]

Yep 100%! Baseball is just different. Now way the 68th best basketball team wins the ncaa tournament or the 25th best football team wins an nc, but these things happen in baseball constantly, and a lot of folks don't understand it.

In your list of those bummers you can add Lonnie Smitn not scoring from first on the double in game 7 of 91 World Series or Wohlers 2 strike slider to Jim Leyritz in 96 when the Braves were on the verge of going up 3 games to none. Bart Giamatti wrote a poem about baseball and it's the best description I can think of for the game. Those of us who have it in our blood understand the meaning!

[Baseball] breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone.

A. Bartlett Giamatti

24, check your inbox.

[Todd4State]

I'm just going to have to disagree on this completely. Our 2011 team is great example. Good team. Lots of dirtbags. 3 very young future MLB players. Fun as hell to watch. Squeaked into post season with a 14-16 SEC record because of a great May. 2 and Q at the SEC Tournament. Sweep thru Atlanta at the GT Regional and get to within 3 outs of Omaha. Love that team - they were not elite. They are the prime example of a good team getting hot and riding the wave.

That's how it is with baseball sometimes. Very rarely is a team so dominant that they go through the season playing up to elite status.

But if a team is playing well at the end of the season when it counts then the 14-16 SEC record doesn't matter because they won when it mattered the absolute most. And that's what we all expect from our team as MSU fans. That team eventually earned their place among the best teams in college baseball.

My expectations kind of protect against teams that perform well in the regular season only or the postseason only. It all about the sum of the whole.

[Todd4State]

Plus I'll add- it's way too easy to simply make a regional now. There are 64 teams and you basically are a lock if you're in the top 10 of the league. If we go 13-17 and make a regional and then don't make it past the regional that's not a great season IMO.

[Quaoarsking]

The format of the NCAA tournament doesn't really do a good job of determining the best team in country. Every year you have a couple teams in Omaha that's nowhere near the best 8 teams, and a couple teams who clearly are and didn't make it.

I've kicked around a format in my head something like this: 8 regionals of 8 teams, but everyone plays a full round-robin over the course of 2 weekends. So Friday-Saturday-Sunday, a "midweek" game, and another Friday-Saturday-Sunday. The top team in each regional makes it to Omaha, with ties played off on Monday.

You would still see some upsets, but I think this format would do a much better job of getting the best teams into Omaha. Sometimes you see teams make it who aren't that good and didn't even beat anybody good either.

[the_real_MSU_is_us]

Plus I'll add- it's way too easy to simply make a regional now. There are 64 teams and you basically are a lock if you're in the top 10 of the league. If we go 13-17 and make a regional and then don't make it past the regional that's not a great season IMO.

Yeah there's like 30 automatic qualifiers, about 4-5 will be won by teams that would have made it anyway. Basically, be a top 35-40 team and you'll be an at large bid. We are a top 20 program in literally every metric (NIL, history, coaching budget, ect) and are top 10 in several. We should honestly NEVER miss the NCAAT. I'm willing to give a mulligan to an otherwise promising coach and ignore a miss, but it should be rare.