Realistic baseball expectations

[HSVDawg]

Anything over .500 is icing on the cake for me. If we make the tourney we need to make AC one of the top 5 salaried coaches in all of college baseball.

[msstate7]

Anything over .500 is icing on the cake for me. If we make the tourney we need to make AC one of the top 5 salaried coaches in all of college baseball.

I think we're better than that. Why so down on this team?

[HSVDawg]

I think we're better than that. Why so down on this team?

As stated previously by others, too many unknowns and too much turnover of both players and coaches. I think we have the talent, but it is young talent and I think the arm injuries are going to force us to put some guys out there who are still a year away (kinda like 2015). Other than Gridley, Mangum, Rooker, and Pilkington, I don't think we know what we are going to get out of anyone in the starting 9 or midweek / weekend rotation. Just too many guys we need to step up that have minimal experience and I think some guys are going to struggle. I do expect us to be much better in 2018 and afterwards though.

[CadaverDawg]

As stated previously by others, too many unknowns and too much turnover of both players and coaches. I think we have the talent, but it is young talent and I think the arm injuries are going to force us to put some guys out there who are still a year away (kinda like 2015). Other than Gridley, Mangum, Rooker, and Pilkington, I don't think we know what we are going to get out of anyone in the starting 9 or midweek / weekend rotation. Just too many guys we need to step up that have minimal experience and I think some guys are going to struggle. I do expect us to be much better in 2018 and afterwards though.

True, BUT the one thing we have an advantage with versus the past...talent. We used to need experience before we could expect much out of guys, but the way Cohen recruited the last few years, that inexperience we have is in the form of some really talented dudes.

Gonna find out a lot about how good a coach AC is right out of the gate. Should be an interesting year. My hope is that we just make the tourney and see what we can do. Would be a good start to Cannizaro's tenure, and give us something to build on. I'm not concerned with record or ranking in year 1....just find a way to make the postseason.

[Todd4State]

As stated previously by others, too many unknowns and too much turnover of both players and coaches. I think we have the talent, but it is young talent and I think the arm injuries are going to force us to put some guys out there who are still a year away (kinda like 2015). Other than Gridley, Mangum, Rooker, and Pilkington, I don't think we know what we are going to get out of anyone in the starting 9 or midweek / weekend rotation. Just too many guys we need to step up that have minimal experience and I think some guys are going to struggle. I do expect us to be much better in 2018 and afterwards though.

Our team is way more talented than the 2015 team. Remember a lot of those guys in 2015 didn't contribute in 2016- Kruger, Lowe, LA, Stovall, and Mangum in the field. We used Hudson and Houston very sparingly in 2015 until the end of the year and that was a mistake. Blake Smith and Rigby weren't on the team then either. Pilkington right now is one of the top rated sophomores in the league and he would have been the ace on our 2015 team at his true freshman level.

The key in the SEC and any other league is pitching. We have a legit ace. And we have two proven legit bullpen guys. Billingsley pitched well at the end of the year and Cyr was solid for a freshman. We just need a couple of guys to step up on the mound and while the injuries will hurt us- we should have enough pitching to make a regional.

[Choctaw Dawg]

Our team is way more talented than the 2015 team. Remember a lot of those guys in 2015 didn't contribute in 2016- Kruger, Lowe, LA, Stovall, and Mangum in the field. We used Hudson and Houston very sparingly in 2015 until the end of the year and that was a mistake. Blake Smith and Rigby weren't on the team then either. Pilkington right now is one of the top rated sophomores in the league and he would have been the ace on our 2015 team at his true freshman level.

The key in the SEC and any other league is pitching. We have a legit ace. And we have two proven legit bullpen guys. Billingsley pitched well at the end of the year and Cyr was solid for a freshman. We just need a couple of guys to step up on the mound and while the injuries will hurt us- we should have enough pitching to make a regional.

Speaking of Billingsley, i have'nt heard much about him this past fall and spring practices. I thought he and Hayden Marze both were done for but they havent made it public yet.

[The Federalist Engineer]

Researching championship squads in recent years, pitching depth only needs to go 6 deep. Some teams have managed 4 and 5 deep, especially in post season. We are talking CWS champs and runners up.

Interestingly our 2013 team is unique among the great squads for number of pitchers contributing significant innings.

Our injuries are truly only devastating as they affect the big 6 horses. Without injuries, our horses were probably going to be: Pilk, Cyr, James, Rigby, Smith, and many possible #6's

So from the expected war horses, we lost 1. From the potential #6, we lost 4. Therefore, we just need 1 major contributor from Ascraft, Self, Ford, and mcQuary to get back to where we were. There are others that we could get a big year from like Mahoney, Price, Barlow, and Barlow. That said, I wish no one was hurt

[HSVDawg]

Our team is way more talented than the 2015 team. Remember a lot of those guys in 2015 didn't contribute in 2016- Kruger, Lowe, LA, Stovall, and Mangum in the field. We used Hudson and Houston very sparingly in 2015 until the end of the year and that was a mistake. Blake Smith and Rigby weren't on the team then either. Pilkington right now is one of the top rated sophomores in the league and he would have been the ace on our 2015 team at his true freshman level.

The key in the SEC and any other league is pitching. We have a legit ace. And we have two proven legit bullpen guys. Billingsley pitched well at the end of the year and Cyr was solid for a freshman. We just need a couple of guys to step up on the mound and while the injuries will hurt us- we should have enough pitching to make a regional.

We'll certainly see. Usually, vast amounts of inexperience combined with a brand new coaching staff are not a recipe for a great season (regardless of talent level). There is always an adjustment period with a new coaching staff for both players and coaches alike, and we have to hope that is minimal. I'm certainly not judging Cannizaro by this year, unless it turns out really well. If we are something like 30-26 and miss the regionals, this board might be flat out unreadable based on some of the predictions on here. That would be a solid year in my book but it looks like the majority would want to fire Cannizaro and start having Cohen pull double duty.

[Red Sox Dawg]

To me it's two problems.

1. Kids are pitching way to much. Perfect example my old boss his son is 16 and he just had tommy John. The kid was playing travel ball year round plus rec ball stage 10-12. The arm has to take a break. I'm amazed at how many coaches and dad's think they know more then James Andrews.

2. The human arm can only throw so hard mechanically before it breaks down. Kids are bigger then ever before and everybody is in love with the radar gun. Also, most throwing programs are now incorporating weighted throws. You are not going to get the increases that Johnson got without hurting a few kids.

I agree. Don't think it's just coincidence that Johnson was here.

[bulldogcountry1]

We may be a young team overall, but we are going in with MUCH more proven everyday experience than last year. Who did we really have? Robson, Gridley, Rooker, and Sexton. Everyone else was either new or just hadn't contributed much. Hudson was anointed the Friday guy and a first rounder, but he had not accomplished what Pilk has coming in this year.

I feel much better about what we have right now than a year ago. Now, last year was special, and everything turned out pretty well. I'm just saying we need to expect to reload and have freshmen and transfers step in and be key contributors every year now.