Chris Lemonis Thoughts

[Todd4State]

Having seen how things have played out here is what I think essentially happened with Lemonis.

We got him from Indiana which has ZERO expectations in baseball. He has a winning season there he's great. No one is paying attention. Make a regional and the 100 fans that do care are ecstatic. When does basketball season start? Also, he had Kyle Bunn has his pitching coach so he didn't have Foxhall there.

He gets the MSU job. And really you can't ask for a better situation. Veteran team coming off of an Omaha appearance with a couple of wins in the CWS with several future first round picks on the roster in addition to guys like Mangum, TA, MacNamee. In other words- screwing it up would be impressive. So, the team wins and keeps on rolling. But the "bad" thing about that is I think it may have lulled Lemonis into a false sense of security. I don't think he realized the level of detail that fans demand at MSU and things that were happening at times were overlooked because TA would win the game in the 9th or Landon Sims would come in for a struggling pitcher and put the fire out and then strike out the side in the 9th.

Then the MSU icons left for the pros and Foxhall fell off of a cliff at the same time. Lemonis got on the hot seat, but I think he has gradually learned about what the expectations that fans have here are. The first big move he made was firing Foxhall midseason and then getting Parker. He also corrected the defense and while yes, the improved pitching is part of that a lot of it is a new emphasis on that. But we now see issues with baserunning and our hitting approach for most of the year has been poor until the past three weeks.

Now that he is almost definitely coming back for 2025 I'm going to be curious to see if Lemonis will take the lessons that he has learned the past few years and become an even better coach.

[StateDawg44]

Having seen how things have played out here is what I think essentially happened with Lemonis.

We got him from Indiana which has ZERO expectations in baseball. He has a winning season there he's great. No one is paying attention. Make a regional and the 100 fans that do care are ecstatic. When does basketball season start? Also, he had Kyle Bunn has his pitching coach so he didn't have Foxhall there.

He gets the MSU job. And really you can't ask for a better situation. Veteran team coming off of an Omaha appearance with a couple of wins in the CWS with several future first round picks on the roster in addition to guys like Mangum, TA, MacNamee. In other words- screwing it up would be impressive. So, the team wins and keeps on rolling. But the "bad" thing about that is I think it may have lulled Lemonis into a false sense of security. I don't think he realized the level of detail that fans demand at MSU and things that were happening at times were overlooked because TA would win the game in the 9th or Landon Sims would come in for a struggling pitcher and put the fire out and then strike out the side in the 9th.

Then the MSU icons left for the pros and Foxhall fell off of a cliff at the same time. Lemonis got on the hot seat, but I think he has gradually learned about what the expectations that fans have here are. The first big move he made was firing Foxhall midseason and then getting Parker. He also corrected the defense and while yes, the improved pitching is part of that a lot of it is a new emphasis on that. But we now see issues with baserunning and our hitting approach for most of the year has been poor until the past three weeks.

Now that he is almost definitely coming back for 2025 I'm going to be curious to see if Lemonis will take the lessons that he has learned the past few years and become an even better coach.

Sounds like an unqualified coach that we are paying to learn as he goes (still) instead of an elite coach that could?ve possibly kept the train rolling at a high level instead of derailing it for two years.

Yeah he won a championship but I probably could?ve coached that team to a natty.

[Leeshouldveflanked]

I kinda got the impression no Elite coach wanted to work for Cohen is why we have Lemonis.

[Santiago]

Having seen how things have played out here is what I think essentially happened with Lemonis.

We got him from Indiana which has ZERO expectations in baseball. He has a winning season there he's great. No one is paying attention. Make a regional and the 100 fans that do care are ecstatic. When does basketball season start? Also, he had Kyle Bunn has his pitching coach so he didn't have Foxhall there.

He gets the MSU job. And really you can't ask for a better situation. Veteran team coming off of an Omaha appearance with a couple of wins in the CWS with several future first round picks on the roster in addition to guys like Mangum, TA, MacNamee. In other words- screwing it up would be impressive. So, the team wins and keeps on rolling. But the "bad" thing about that is I think it may have lulled Lemonis into a false sense of security. I don't think he realized the level of detail that fans demand at MSU and things that were happening at times were overlooked because TA would win the game in the 9th or Landon Sims would come in for a struggling pitcher and put the fire out and then strike out the side in the 9th.

Then the MSU icons left for the pros and Foxhall fell off of a cliff at the same time. Lemonis got on the hot seat, but I think he has gradually learned about what the expectations that fans have here are. The first big move he made was firing Foxhall midseason and then getting Parker. He also corrected the defense and while yes, the improved pitching is part of that a lot of it is a new emphasis on that. But we now see issues with baserunning and our hitting approach for most of the year has been poor until the past three weeks.

Now that he is almost definitely coming back for 2025 I'm going to be curious to see if Lemonis will take the lessons that he has learned the past few years and become an even better coach.

I have not looked up last years errors by position, but would guess it was 3B and 1B having more than normal. Did he improve the defense or just get a 3B and Hines improved?
For 2025 I am concerned if he can replace all we are losing. Hines alone has won us games in the SEC recently. Without his hot streak we are a different team.

[MaroonFlounder]

Next year could be another disaster rebuild with everything we lose. Yes, even with a decent portal haul.

I'm not looking forward to it.

[viverlibre]

Yeah he won a championship but I probably could?ve coached that team to a natty.

Uh, Polk did much less with more.

[maroonmania]

Next year could be another disaster rebuild with everything we lose. Yes, even with a decent portal haul.

I'm not looking forward to it.

Parker has saved Lemonis for this season and shown that he can do more with less on the pitching staff. Other than Cijntje, I don't think we have any high draft prospects on this staff that are actually pitching. Amazing what he has done considering no Dohm and no Loftin. The offense, until recently, actually hasn't been as good as I thought it would be coming into the year. We are very inconsistent and often seem to be into the 6th or 7th inning before the offense does anything especially in midweek games (the Central Ark game was exhibit A). Coming into this season, if you had told me what kind of pitching we were going to get as a team, I would have thought we would have been better than we are because I had a lot of confidence in our offense. Next year is going to be a real test for Lemonis because he has never had to rely on getting multiple impact players out of the portal but he WILL have to rely on that for next year. Our lineup will be mostly gone next year and I'm still not totally sold on Gotro as a top line hitting coach. If we have a top half of the SEC type team next year then I will be pretty impressed and will feel confident in Lemonis going forward but I will want to see it first. This year is a true up cycle year talent wise because we don't always have guys like DJ and Hines in the middle of our lineup. I'm not sure what we will have in the lineup next year.

[Pancho]

I agree, Todd and this improved year has earned him several more years of on the job training. He is a lucky guy.

[StateDawg44]

Uh, Polk did much less with more.

Uh, what does that have to do with anything?

[basedog]

Having seen how things have played out here is what I think essentially happened with Lemonis.

We got him from Indiana which has ZERO expectations in baseball. He has a winning season there he's great. No one is paying attention. Make a regional and the 100 fans that do care are ecstatic. When does basketball season start? Also, he had Kyle Bunn has his pitching coach so he didn't have Foxhall there.

He gets the MSU job. And really you can't ask for a better situation. Veteran team coming off of an Omaha appearance with a couple of wins in the CWS with several future first round picks on the roster in addition to guys like Mangum, TA, MacNamee. In other words- screwing it up would be impressive. So, the team wins and keeps on rolling. But the "bad" thing about that is I think it may have lulled Lemonis into a false sense of security. I don't think he realized the level of detail that fans demand at MSU and things that were happening at times were overlooked because TA would win the game in the 9th or Landon Sims would come in for a struggling pitcher and put the fire out and then strike out the side in the 9th.

Then the MSU icons left for the pros and Foxhall fell off of a cliff at the same time. Lemonis got on the hot seat, but I think he has gradually learned about what the expectations that fans have here are. The first big move he made was firing Foxhall midseason and then getting Parker. He also corrected the defense and while yes, the improved pitching is part of that a lot of it is a new emphasis on that. But we now see issues with baserunning and our hitting approach for most of the year has been poor until the past three weeks.

Now that he is almost definitely coming back for 2025 I'm going to be curious to see if Lemonis will take the lessons that he has learned the past few years and become an even better coach.

You can add disconnect with the players. Work ethics lacking. Good thoughts Todd, it's called plain laziness. But things are getting better and we still need some improvements.

Btw, the weekend series should tell us how we really stack up in the coming weeks. I'm thinking it should be close games, I do think the first two will and the third may be iffy.
Just win!

[BrunswickDawg]

I have not looked up last years errors by position, but would guess it was 3B and 1B having more than normal. Did he improve the defense or just get a 3B and Hines improved?
For 2025 I am concerned if he can replace all we are losing. Hines alone has won us games in the SEC recently. Without his hot streak we are a different team.

Hines didn't play First last year. It was Forsythe (15) and Alford (13) mainly. Highfill also had 19 passed balls- which don't count as errors, but definitely negatively impacted games.
Our worst players have 5 errors each currently (Cupp and Kohler).

[BrunswickDawg]

You can add disconnect with the players. Work ethics lacking. Good thoughts Todd, it's called plain laziness. But things are getting better and we still need some improvements.

Btw, the weekend series should tell us how we really stack up in the coming weeks. I'm thinking it should be close games, I do think the first two will and the third may be iffy.
Just win!

I look at this as being similar to football - if you haven't worked in the SEC you are not prepared for the work and intensity needed to succeed. As dumb as it is - "It just means more" is true.

[viverlibre]

Uh, what does that have to do with anything?

He's making is sound like winning a natty is easy. We've have two head coaches who have a reputation as being great, but neither won a natty (Polk didn't even sniff one), in-spite of having overwhelming support, resources and talent.

[Coursesuper]

You can add disconnect with the players. Work ethics lacking. Good thoughts Todd, it's called plain laziness. But things are getting better and we still need some improvements.

Btw, the weekend series should tell us how we really stack up in the coming weeks. I'm thinking it should be close games, I do think the first two will and the third may be iffy.
Just win!

All this is true. But the constant change we had at the HC position over four years defiantly had a detrimental affect on the program. You have to take that into count as you look at the big picture.

[Santiago]

I kinda got the impression no Elite coach wanted to work for Cohen is why we have Lemonis.

Seeing how fast Schloss has built A&M , and from both recruiting and portal, to win now.
We seem to have to explain Lemonis to ourselves to reason it out. I want the guy to win, but he seems to not be on the level of some others.

I think you are right on Cohen.

[tcdog70]

I still think he needs to move on. Too many half-ass plays. sorry baserunning-bad coaching decisions. we have the worst third base Coach in history. lemonis keeps putting Him out there. Should have had a pitcher ready yesterday but waited till we were deep in the hole. only get 18 outs and we gave 2 away because of poor execution.

[StarkVegasSteve]

Chris is a great guy. I got to know him very well from 2019-2021. I can just tell you, from what I observed, everyone from top down in our program got drunk off the National Championship. Our coaches got lax, didn't seem as focused, Lemonis is having to do media all over, and you could just see it all coming. And I don't think any of it was directly Lemonis' fault. I don't think anyone could have stopped it. As we're seeing with LSU and OM both, the national championship hangover is something fierce. All that trophy does is just paint a target on your back for the next year. You are everyone's Super Bowl from February-May.

[basedog]

All this is true. But the constant change we had at the HC position over four years defiantly had a detrimental affect on the program. You have to take that into count as you look at the big picture.

I don't disagree, but he went to sleep.

[Santiago]

Chris is a great guy. I got to know him very well from 2019-2021. I can just tell you, from what I observed, everyone from top down in our program got drunk off the National Championship. Our coaches got lax, didn't seem as focused, Lemonis is having to do media all over, and you could just see it all coming. And I don't think any of it was directly Lemonis' fault. I don't think anyone could have stopped it. As we're seeing with LSU and OM both, the national championship hangover is something fierce. All that trophy does is just paint a target on your back for the next year. You are everyone's Super Bowl from February-May.

this.
LSU seems to have lost a ton off that championship team, but later in this season are on a win streak.
We had 2 seasons of horrible baseball.
This year, lately things have fallen right for Lemonis, from (2) 7 inning games with Auburn, to beating Bama with almost half their starters missing, or playing out of position. Alot of the recent wins involved Hines. We lose alot after this season.

What are your thoughts on our rebuild for next season?

[Tbonewannabe]

Seeing how fast Schloss has built A&M , and from both recruiting and portal, to win now.
We seem to have to explain Lemonis to ourselves to reason it out. I want the guy to win, but he seems to not be on the level of some others.

I think you are right on Cohen.

I think Schloss wins in 21 and has us a lot better in 22. Not sure what happened but at least we got the Natty. Lemonis can prove something getting to a Super. This is his team now without all the players gifted to him.

I like the guy but I am still not 100% sold on him. He was just good at Indiana, took over a good program and just maintained.