Brent Rooker

[KB21]

Brent currently has a great chance of becoming the first triple crown winner in NECBL history. He is currently 1st in AVG, 1st in RBI, and 2nd in HR by 1.

[messageboardsuperhero]

And again I'll say.... I'd be shocked if we aren't a much improved team next year.

Pretty much all our pitchers are killing it in the cape.
Jacob Robson has been one of the best position players in the cape cod league, and Reid Humphreys has put up solid power numbers and gotten more experience against top flight pitching in the cape (and remember this is his first ever year of summer ball).
Rooker has been the best position player in the New England league this summer.
Reynolds and Gordon are both all stars in their leagues and raking.
Holland and Smith are both playing well in Cali.
Gridley was playing really well until he had to shut it down.

Mix in some of these elite freshman pitchers to shore up the pen, and I just have a hard time envisioning a scenario where we aren't significantly better.

[ScottH]

I just have a hard time envisioning a scenario where we aren't significantly better.

We have to be. There really is no option.

In this case, significant is the operative word. Like obscenity, everyone will have a hard time defining it but we'll know it if we see it.

Last place SEC finishes use up Omaha Goodwill quickly.

[dickiedawg]

Agreed. Improvement over the 2015 shit show is not optional.

[Todd4State]

Our OOC schedule is going to be a lot tougher next year. Oregon coming to Starkville and we're playing UCLA and USC in Los Angeles and probably Cal Santa Barbara. We're probably going to win about 30 and people will be bitching again. But at least they got the schedule they wanted.

As far as our players this summer- Daniel Brown has a good ERA, but he has walked WAY too many. That scares me a little bit. The other thing that worries me about our pitchers in the Cape is while they have had good summers, a lot of them have had good summers coming out of the bullpen. Which means they may not be all that great as starters. And the one proven starter- Sexton has been mediocre. I'm starting to think that Kale Breaux is going to be our Sunday guy and that the rotation is going to be Sexton, Tatum, and Breaux with Houston, Hudson, and Brown in the bullpen- which might be an upgrade over last year.

We'll have more power between a hopefully healthy Gavin Collins, Nate Lowe who I think takes over at first, Rooker, and Humphreys who has proven me right about not hitting for average. Reid will still hit between 5-10 especially if Cohen does something logical like protect him where he can see fastballs maybe hitting between Collins and Lowe?

Robson and Gridley are going to be good. Luke Reynolds is too good of a hitter to not find a spot for. We'll see if he DH's or plays third. Again, depends on how much his defense has improved. Luke Alexander and John Holland will fight for a MIF spot and I think Barfield competes with Reynolds for third depending on how healthy Barfield is. If Barfield wins third, Reynolds DH's.

Cody Brown and Michael Smith will get a lot of action as well.

[dawgs]

If we only win 30 games next year, then we should get players good enough to win more than 30 games against a decent OOC schedule. Scheduling our way to 40 wins doesn't make us a 40 win caliber team.

[Smitty]

No more excuses, Cohen

[KB21]

Our OOC schedule is going to be a lot tougher next year. Oregon coming to Starkville and we're playing UCLA and USC in Los Angeles and probably Cal Santa Barbara. We're probably going to win about 30 and people will be bitching again. But at least they got the schedule they wanted.

As far as our players this summer- Daniel Brown has a good ERA, but he has walked WAY too many. That scares me a little bit. The other thing that worries me about our pitchers in the Cape is while they have had good summers, a lot of them have had good summers coming out of the bullpen. Which means they may not be all that great as starters. And the one proven starter- Sexton has been mediocre. I'm starting to think that Kale Breaux is going to be our Sunday guy and that the rotation is going to be Sexton, Tatum, and Breaux with Houston, Hudson, and Brown in the bullpen- which might be an upgrade over last year.

We'll have more power between a hopefully healthy Gavin Collins, Nate Lowe who I think takes over at first, Rooker, and Humphreys who has proven me right about not hitting for average. Reid will still hit between 5-10 especially if Cohen does something logical like protect him where he can see fastballs maybe hitting between Collins and Lowe?

Robson and Gridley are going to be good. Luke Reynolds is too good of a hitter to not find a spot for. We'll see if he DH's or plays third. Again, depends on how much his defense has improved. Luke Alexander and John Holland will fight for a MIF spot and I think Barfield competes with Reynolds for third depending on how healthy Barfield is. If Barfield wins third, Reynolds DH's.

Cody Brown and Michael Smith will get a lot of action as well.

Those guys have had some spot starts though. When you combine their season work with their Cape work, they have come close to pitching 60 innings this year. I don't think I want them to get much more than that. Fall ball is around the corner, and these guys need to let their arms rest at some point. I still believe Dakota Hudson will end up being the Friday night guy.

[MsStateBaseball]

All these guys needed was experience and reps. They are good players. We will have the toughest SEC schedule and a pretty darn good non conf one. Playing at Florida and at Vanderbilt, at LSU. Arkansas and TAMU at home, those 5 are tough.

We will have a good team

[CadaverDawg]

Hudson should be a starter this year.

It's time for the 3 guys that were supposed to be our studs this year, to be our studs. Hudson, Sexton, Tatum...close with Houston...fill in with Freshmen like Breaux midweek and out of the pen. Daniel Brown is unreliable, WAY too many walks for summer ball. Shows me he hasn't improved his command from last season. We can't have guys coming out of the pen walking people...play the talented freshmen instead. I'm tired of watching underachieving upperclassmen.

We should have a great hitting nucleus with Collins, Rooker, Humphreys if Cohen will let them hit and not get in their heads. Robson should be a great lead off or 2 hole guy IMO. If Holland keeps playing like he is, we could potentially throw a top 5 of the order like this out there...

Robson
Holland
Collins
Rooker
Humphreys

Then guys like Reynolds, Cody Brown, Gridley, etc after that as a quality bottom half of the order.

Find a way to get Gordon in the lineup with the above, and you've got a stout 9

Give me these 9 somehow...

Robson
Reynolds
Collins
Rooker
Gordon
Humphreys
Holland
Cody Brown
Gridley

[Ralph]

Hopefully he can overcome our over complicated hitting drills next year

[Coach34]

We will certainly be improved- just have to wait and see how much

[RAYn_Man]

Brent Rooker gonna go off next year. Just watch.

[Tbonewannabe]

It would be nice to have the Jucos to compete for playing time rather than requiring them to immediately step in with no fall back.

[MsStateBaseball]

Right now I have the bullpen as:

Houston and Daniel Brown in 7-8th inning. They can go longer if they are on.
Ryan Rigby is the closer.

If Tatum can't be a starter he can join them to make 4 pretty good ones at the end.

Hudson is the Friday night guy, Sexton on Saturday.

This is where the freshman come in, lots of roles for them.

[RAYn_Man]

Right now I have the bullpen as:

Houston and Daniel Brown in 7-8th inning. They can go longer if they are on.
Ryan Rigby is the closer.

If Tatum can't be a starter he can join them to make 4 pretty good ones at the end.

Hudson is the Friday night guy, Sexton on Saturday.

This is where the freshman come in, lots of roles for them.

Are you really projecting a Juco transfer as our closer?

[Homedawg]

Are you really projecting a Juco transfer as our closer?

Yep. It appears he is....he also predicted 45 wins and 50 home runs and we know how that turned out. Take it w a grain of salt.....he's seeking followers.

[MsStateBaseball]

Yes Rigby the closer.

I predicted 35 wins.

I was so giddy the season started so good but the dreaded slump hit us.

Yes always looking for educated followers BTW I'm now on Facebook!

[Homedawg]

Yes Rigby the closer.

I predicted 35 wins.

I was so giddy the season started so good but the dreaded slump hit us.

Yes always looking for educated followers BTW I'm now on Facebook!

Arms Race--Baseball
If you look at the top 5 teams, they have elite starting pitching, end of story. We are getting there each year. Next year we will take a leap. By next year, Paul Young, Dakota Hudson, Vance Tatum (looking good), and Austin Sexton will really be good while the true freshmen get their act together in 2016. If you notice on my blog the commits by year, Butch is going after LHP's years ahead. We are getting pitching and catchers first. Let's hope we have turned the corner and turning into an elite program.

One big reason these baseball writers ignore us is the front line pitching. Nothing really to say while these guys get better. When we have a junior pitcher that is a 1st rounder every year, then we will get some major respect from these national writers.

Of course, winning any way you can this year will go a long way too. No doubt in my mind we can win 45 or more.



Previous post is from you baseball. Somehow, we lost 10 games in your prediction since this post. But ok you didn't predict 45!!! Yea right.

[state66]

Paul Young is still on the team?