Here are my final thoughts on the season

[Todd4State]

This is the end of the first year of a new era of MSU baseball. Cohen going to Omaha was the high water mark for him and his era and that culminated with us winning the SEC last year. After that, we began a transition period that we are in the midst of with a new stadium being built and basically a new coaching staff. When we first hired Andy Canniazaro I was very skeptical of a few things. He had no experience and I expected a lot of first year coaching mistakes, I wasn't sure how he would mesh with Cohen's staff, and I wasn't sure if Cohen would stay out of the way or how that would play out. I would say that Andy Cannizaro has exceeded my expectations and is only going to get better. I think the coaching mistakes were at a minimum and I was very impressed with how he handled everything this year. The staff got along well enough and I don't remember a point where I thought- gee, why is Cohen in the dugout? In fact I think with a healthy pitching staff, we're probably SEC champs again and in Omaha. I think we have landed one of the elite baseball coaches in the country- and Tulane is probably kicking themselves because I'm pretty sure they just pulled off the biggest mistake in their program's history not hiring Cann.

I do like the fact that Cann was at LSU because he knows how they do things there and also their expectations and how they are built. I think one of the biggest mistakes MSU has made in baseball and why we don't have a NC yet is because we've tried to stay status quo going back to 1990 whereas LSU evolved and progressed. What eventually happened was we actually flamed out around 2008 I think because of that and it forced us into a situation where we ended up with a fractured fan base and a team that was low on SEC talent. Cohen built us back to where we were before aside from the 2015 season which I think was an anomaly more than anything but now I think we are ready to take that next step as a program.

But I think if you look at both MSU and LSU's programs there are to me two main differences. The main one is they are historically able to get as Shotgun put it perfectly yesterday more "will be drafted players" back for their senior years. I'm not talking about Jake Fraley or Alex Lange who I think will go pro. I'm talking about the Kramer Robertson's, Cole Freeman's, and etc. To me, it seems like the reason most of them come back is because they "want to win a championship for LSU". We have to somehow develop that kind of pride in our program to where players in that second tier talent bracket want to come back and want to win a championship for MSU rather than take 200K or whatever it is. Even if it's only two or three guys a year that do that for us- that makes a HUGE difference. Especially if you have a guy like Cody Brown who is a fifth year senior guy to go along with them and then you hopefully have at least 2-3 top 10 draft picks as juniors and the rest of the key guys being "will be drafted players" on the field for us.

I think we're actually pretty close to that. I mean- let's compare this team to Cohen's first team. I think for us it's more about evaluating signability better than anything. I think Cann will do that better than Cohen and Polk II isn't even in the same ballpark. You have to have a guy that can evaluate talent well and also signability. And I think you need a coach that players that want to go to college feel like will help them get to MLB- and I think Cann has that personality. I also think it's very important to have a very good pitching coach for us and historically I think it's been easier for us to find that than a good hitting coach. So, with Andy handling the hitters and someone like Gary Henderson I think we have a pretty good set-up for the future. To figure out the signability aspect you really need someone with scouting ties and connections and I think Cann has that moreso than any other coach we have ever had at MSU. So, as part of this new era of MSU baseball I think we are going to start to see some things that MSU fans aren't used to. And that's more guys coming back for their senior year and also higher end prospects coming to MSU as freshmen. And Cohen actually didn't do that bad of a job of bringing in higher end freshmen- but with Cann it's just going to get even better for us. And I think we're also going to see us recruiting and relying on the JUCO's less. My biggest personal gripe with Cohen was if we did lose a guy like Austin Riley, we would try to replace him with a JUCO. Some of that was because we didn't always evaluate signability that well and that's how we tried to band aid losses. But as we've seen that's feast or famine. We might end up with Lowe and Kruger or you might end up with guys like the 2015 team. And while I think JUCO ball has it's place, in general you're probably better off with mostly your own homegrown recruits than not.

As far as next year- I think three things will really be emphasized in the offseason. Throwing strikes and attacking the strike zone, taking better AB's and taking more pitches, and better baserunning. I think a full year of Cann will help out with that. I'm interested to see how our offseason weight training program changes with him to since he's in better shape than anyone in the program. We might look like a lot more fit next year. And not that we don't look that way now- we just may look like we could win a team bodybuilding contest or something. I think there will be a lot of competition in the fall and I think we'll be a lot deeper next year and I honestly wouldn't be surprised at all if we end up having a similar type of season. I don't know if we will win the SEC although I think we have to talent to do so just because we are going to be on the road so much next year. USM is going to spend all offseason focusing on us and they probably already have pictures of us on bulletin boards as I type this. Texas Tech is a very good program and then the Shrine Classic has some really good teams in it even though it's three mid majors. I'm not sure what the SEC schedule will look like yet either but there's a good chance we'll have to play Florida and Vandy.

And we'll see what the draft does this week. If we lose a bunch of guys or if Gridley doesn't come back I'm not going to hold that against Cann. He didn't put together this class aside from a few players and it will be what it will be. And the guys that come back for their senior years, I think that is kind of evaluated a little bit in the recruiting process in high school as well. I think it takes a certain personality and social situation to do that- or as the Navy SEALS would say, someone that is "uncommon".

At the end of the day, I think we have a very bright future and I am extremely excited about what we're going to be doing at MSU over the upcoming years. I think we're going to see top 10 recruiting classes, most of those guys coming to school, Governor's Cups, SEC titles, SEC Tournament Titles, Hosting regionals- hopefully USM will come so that we can show them how to actually do it without embarrassing yourself, hosting SR's, becoming a mainstay in Omaha and yes- National Titles.

Here's some food for thought:

Year one records for coaches:

Ron Polk- 28-17 and 11-12 SEC (1976)

Skip Bertman- 32-32 and 12-12 SEC (1983)

Paul Manieri- 29-26-1 and 12-17-1 SEC (2007)

Ray Tanner- 33-24 and 13-17 SEC (1997)

Tim Corbin- 27-18 and 14-16 SEC (2003)

Kevin O'Sullivan- 34-24 and 17-13 SEC and made a Regional (2008)




Andy Cannizaro- 40-27 and 17-13 SEC and made a SR

Looking at that list- I'd say we have a pretty promising head baseball coach.

[fader2103]

If you would have told me that we would win 40 games and make it to a super regional, after losing 8 pitchers to injury. And all the dismissals off the team. I would have called you crazy as hell.

[Tbonewannabe]

So we replaced our LF, 3rd, RF, and catcher from opening weekend and still made a Super. It isn't just our pitching staff that was short on players.

[MetEdDawg]

My hope is that Henderson stays on. We've got a lot of pitching stuff to work through in terms of rehabbing injured guys, developing our young guys that saw action this year, and working on our mental approach on the mound. That to me is the biggest keep for this team.

The other thing, and I'm in complete and total agreement on with you, is a mental focus on consistently getting quality ABs, especially from the bottom of the lineup. Saw a lot of bad mental approaches this year. Late on early count FBs, early on late count FBs. Swinging at 1st pitch off speed off the plate, lot of fundamental things. We've got to put together a more consistent lineup next year. There is no Rooker next year, so to make up for that, his RBI totals are going to have to be distributed through the rest of the lineup. So guys like Poole, Mac, whoever catches, Alexander, and Bragg will have to do better next year.

Additionally, we need Mangum and Gridley to stay badly. Those batting averages will be key in helping us stay very competitive I a transition/unknown year. Need their leadership, their defensive presence, and their batting averages.

[bulldogcountry1]

Cann did an outstanding job this year. We had 50 reasons to give up and pack it in, and it turned out to be one of my favorite bulldog teams in the end. I'm excited to see where this thing goes and want to see where we sit after the MLB signing window.

I agree about getting some juniors back. Grid is the perfect example. He's probably not going to get much money to sign this summer. While he may not have much to gain (financially) by staying, he doesn't have much to lose. I'm sure Cann and some other former players can help paint a picture of the reality of minor league ball. Sounds pretty miserable to me.



My biggest question that I've been curious about for years is what is LSU and other elite teams' recruiting strategy to cover for losing guys to the draft? Cohen always just went out and got the best available JUCO. You always knew when you started seeing new JUCO commits in May that we misjudged someone's signability and they were gone. That can't be the best option. I realize that there aren't many singable guys this time of year, but there has to be a better way.

Do you take your chances by over-signing on the front end? Worst case scenario is that you end up with an excess amount of talent in the fall.

Do you offer 3 or 4 preferred walk-on spots for every HS guy you lose and just hope one of them turns into Kruger or Lowe in the fall?

[raymond21]

Number #1. We must improve our strikes to ball ratio. I have very little faith our returners will be able to improve. Your a strike thrower or your not.

[sleepy dawg]

Number #1. We must improve our strikes to ball ratio. I have very little faith our returners will be able to improve. Your a strike thrower or your not.

Number Number 1 y'all. I'll be sure to take everything say as fact.

[AlSwearengen]

Good post. I think I was a little more excited about the hire than most here. Yeah, he doesn't have a lot of coaching experience, but when the baseball people people throw around descriptions such as "rising star in the coaching profession" and "next great head coach", that carries a lot of weight to me. They know who is who and who can do what.

The thing that has stood out to me is that he is obviously a player coach and that is going to pay dividends big time in recruiting. He gets in on the high fiving and celebrating. Another thing that I have noticed is when the opposing team's coach makes a mound visit, Can calls the base runners and hitters together and you can tell they are very into what he is telling them. They trust him and you can see it.

If Henderson leaves in the next year or so and Can is able to hire lsu's pitching coach away from them, that is going to be very telling.

[bulldogcountry1]

If Henderson leaves in the next year or so and Can is able to hire lsu's pitching coach away from them, that is going to be very telling.

I don't know if this is even realistic, but we can only hope that Pulmonary is worried about it.

[Saltydog]

next year? I know we have a ton of guys hurt but what pitchers do you see back next year?