Some Late Night Thoughts on Lemonis

[Todd4State]

I like this hire. And if Cohen hadn't run his mouth everyone else would too. I would like Cohen to own up to it rather than get the MSU spin of "well CWS experience meant assistants too". It would actually build some trust between MSU and the fans. I bet Cohen learned a valuable lesson from all of this.

Lemonis will be an improvement over Henderson. In game management sounds like it may be a concern. We'll have to see- I don't know how knowledgeable Indiana fans are about the game. But it sounds like he is a great recruiter- Henderson only landed one pitcher in our last class. Brad Bohannon was a major force behind Kentucky's recruiting- not Henderson. We need to be all hands on deck with our recruiting and we can't afford to be average in recruiting if we want a title. Gautreau is good as a recruiter. As others have said we need an elite pitching coach. If the NCAA adds another assistant we need someone with major scouting ties.

Our new coaches are going to inherit a team that is Omaha ready. And Lemonis is going to have a lot more resources than he had at Indiana. We have a new stadium that will be complete and hopefully we won't have anymore weird coaching situations. And despite all the weirdness we've been to Omaha, won the SEC, and been to three SR's in a row. Let's see what we can do with a normal situation. I think Lemonis will provide is with that stability and I don't think Henderson would have provided that for us based on his burned out comments from a couple of years ago. This will not be a rebuild. This will be show up day one and let's try to win now from day one.

I think Lemonis and Gautreau will be a good duo as far as hitting goes. Pitching has to get better. One guy with an ERA under 3 in two years and finsihing the regular season 11th in the SEC in pitching isn't going to cut it. It's very critical that we improve and add velocity and command with our pitchers. We can't rely on a couple of consistent pitchers and our offense to bail us out 20 times a year. One thing that impressed me about Lemonis was Indiana's defensive rankings. We need to improve there as well. We weren't bad but there is plenty of room for improvement. Our catchers were just embarrassing on defense. I'm surprised more teams didn't steal on us to be honest. Even my old ass would look like Rickey Henderson when our catcher is air mailing it to Jake every time someone steals. Much less the first round pick leadoff guy from Oregon State. Lemonis has an assistant at Indiana that sounds like he is pretty good with catchers. Hopefully he comes along. We also need to improve our baserunning as well a little bit. I thought we got better as the season went along there though. I like his offensive philosophy- pressure and power on offense. This year if we are being honest with ourselves we were a good hitting team with average to below average pitching and defense. If we improve from average to good we might take that final step next year especially if our hitters continue to improve as well. And if we hire Kyle Bunn as the pitching coach I'm good with that although if it's someone else reputable I'm good with that too.

One thing no one is talking about with this is Northern coaches have a good track record in the SEC. Paul Manieri and Dave Van Horn both came from teams in Big 10 territory and have both at least made it to the CWS finals- Van Horn may win it all this year but we'll see. I think with what we have at MSU Lemonis will have similar success. Both coaches ended up at schools with similar histories and resources as MSU as well.

Let's get behind Lemonis and go kick some ass.

And thanks Gary Henderson for keeping us afloat and having a memorable season. Good luck in your next endeavor. Hopefully that's in the MSU AD with a cushy job that pays well if you don't want to coach anymore.

[Pit Bull]

Only comment I can make on this hire.....is I will just show up next year to the ballpark and support the Diamond Dogs like I always have. Of course, next year, I get to pick out my seat first. Today was the first day I have ever heard of the name "Lemonis". A typical Cohen hire I suppose as no one or very few had heard of the name "Moorhead" either. And we still don't know what kind of coach Moorhead will be. He hasn't coached a single game at MSU yet. Signs are positive so far, but we really just don't know. So, I can only hope that IB saw something in the Lemonis interview that he saw in Moorhead's interview. One thing is for sure, Cohen likes curve balls! For all the great pundits, coach wannabes, and prognosticators on these here boards....Strike Three!

[MarketingBully]

Only comment I can make on this hire.....is I will just show up next year to the ballpark and support the Diamond Dogs like I always have. Of course, next year, I get to pick out my seat first. Today was the first day I have ever heard of the name "Lemonis". A typical Cohen hire I suppose as no one or very few had heard of the name "Moorhead" either. And we still don't know what kind of coach Moorhead will be. He hasn't coached a single game at MSU yet. Signs are positive so far, but we really just don't know. So, I can only hope that IB saw something in the Lemonis interview that he saw in Moorhead's interview. One thing is for sure, Cohen likes curve balls! For all the great pundits, coach wannabes, and prognosticators on these here boards....Strike Three!

I’ve known who Lemonis is for a while. It’s pretty obvious McDonnell gave Lemonis a huge endorsement. This was probably under wraps for a while but it wouldn’t surprise me if his name was brought up several times when Cohen talked to McDonell when McDonnell interviewed with MSU after we beat Oklahoma in the regionals. This is a great hire and I have no doubts he’s going to do well here. This is a much better hire then Henderson would have been and is a great long term hire as well.

[shoeless joe]

I like this hire. And if Cohen hadn't run his mouth everyone else would too. I would like Cohen to own up to it rather than get the MSU spin of "well CWS experience meant assistants too". It would actually build some trust between MSU and the fans. I bet Cohen learned a valuable lesson from all of this.

Lemonis will be an improvement over Henderson. In game management sounds like it may be a concern. We'll have to see- I don't know how knowledgeable Indiana fans are about the game. But it sounds like he is a great recruiter- Henderson only landed one pitcher in our last class. Brad Bohannon was a major force behind Kentucky's recruiting- not Henderson. We need to be all hands on deck with our recruiting and we can't afford to be average in recruiting if we want a title. Gautreau is good as a recruiter. As others have said we need an elite pitching coach. If the NCAA adds another assistant we need someone with major scouting ties.

Our new coaches are going to inherit a team that is Omaha ready. And Lemonis is going to have a lot more resources than he had at Indiana. We have a new stadium that will be complete and hopefully we won't have anymore weird coaching situations. And despite all the weirdness we've been to Omaha, won the SEC, and been to three SR's in a row. Let's see what we can do with a normal situation. I think Lemonis will provide is with that stability and I don't think Henderson would have provided that for us based on his burned out comments from a couple of years ago. This will not be a rebuild. This will be show up day one and let's try to win now from day one.

I think Lemonis and Gautreau will be a good duo as far as hitting goes. Pitching has to get better. One guy with an ERA under 3 in two years and finsihing the regular season 11th in the SEC in pitching isn't going to cut it. It's very critical that we improve and add velocity and command with our pitchers. We can't rely on a couple of consistent pitchers and our offense to bail us out 20 times a year. One thing that impressed me about Lemonis was Indiana's defensive rankings. We need to improve there as well. We weren't bad but there is plenty of room for improvement. Our catchers were just embarrassing on defense. I'm surprised more teams didn't steal on us to be honest. Even my old ass would look like Rickey Henderson when our catcher is air mailing it to Jake every time someone steals. Much less the first round pick leadoff guy from Oregon State. Lemonis has an assistant at Indiana that sounds like he is pretty good with catchers. Hopefully he comes along. We also need to improve our baserunning as well a little bit. I thought we got better as the season went along there though. I like his offensive philosophy- pressure and power on offense. This year if we are being honest with ourselves we were a good hitting team with average to below average pitching and defense. If we improve from average to good we might take that final step next year especially if our hitters continue to improve as well. And if we hire Kyle Bunn as the pitching coach I'm good with that although if it's someone else reputable I'm good with that too.

One thing no one is talking about with this is Northern coaches have a good track record in the SEC. Paul Manieri and Dave Van Horn both came from teams in Big 10 territory and have both at least made it to the CWS finals- Van Horn may win it all this year but we'll see. I think with what we have at MSU Lemonis will have similar success. Both coaches ended up at schools with similar histories and resources as MSU as well.

Let's get behind Lemonis and go kick some ass.

And thanks Gary Henderson for keeping us afloat and having a memorable season. Good luck in your next endeavor. Hopefully that's in the MSU AD with a cushy job that pays well if you don't want to coach anymore.

Still riding the, "Henderson sucks but his sssistants don't" train I see. Some decent other points but we need to let this narrative go.

[WeWonItAll(Most)]

It's going to be fun watching the mental gymnastics here for the next few months. This guy's resume is shockingly similar to Henderson's. But the same people who were ademently against Hendo somehow know this is a great hire.

[Jack Lambert]

Out side some personal issues that probably no one could have seen coming Cann was a pretty good hire so Cohen might have done a good job on this hire.

[shoeless joe]

It's going to be fun watching the mental gymnastics here for the next few months. This guy's resume is shockingly similar to Henderson's. But the same people who were ademently against Hendo somehow know this is a great hire.

And their knock on Hendo was in game management...well guess what some are saying the knock on this guy is?? But so many hitches their wagon to the fact that he sucked as a coach that they're just glad he's gone and they'll do whatever to make it look like this guy is more qualified.

I hope he wins it all and turns us into a powerhouse, but based on what we currently know Henderson may have had a better shot at doing so in the short term

[MSU338]

I was up on the fence on this hire, but after doing a lot of research and thinking about the circumstances Lemonis was working under, this coach has all the tools to have instant success and brings ALOT to the MSU program. I keep seeing people talk about his game management, but I only saw that posted from one guy on Twitter and he seemed to be butt hurt . Everything I read from Indiana fans was positive about Lemonis and EVERYONE was sad to see him go. This is not the ELITE coach that Cohen claimed, but this guy has the tools to be the next biggest "thing" in college baseball. He is an upgrade from our previous two coaches and look what they did with our talent. This guy is gonna bring ELITE talent to our program. Hail State and look forward to nex year!!

[Todd4State]

Still riding the, "Henderson sucks but his sssistants don't" train I see. Some decent other points but we need to let this narrative go.

Cohen agrees with me about Henderson.

[WeWonItAll(Most)]

And their knock on Hendo was in game management...well guess what some are saying the knock on this guy is?? But so many hitches their wagon to the fact that he sucked as a coach that they're just glad he's gone and they'll do whatever to make it look like this guy is more qualified.

I hope he wins it all and turns us into a powerhouse, but based on what we currently know Henderson may have had a better shot at doing so in the short term

Yea, don't get me wrong. I'm not against the guy, and there is certainly potential for him to be a big time coach. I'm just pointing out his similarity to Hendo, yet the dissimilarity in the discussion around him.

[Todd4State]

Yea, don't get me wrong. I'm not against the guy, and there is certainly potential for him to be a big time coach. I'm just pointing out his similarity to Hendo, yet the dissimilarity in the discussion around him.

Lemonis is a much better recruiter, much younger, and will be better for MSU in the long run. Lemonis in four years made three regionals. Henderson made it to two in eight at Kentucky and three in nine if you include this year.

[Jarius]

Lemonis is a much better recruiter, much younger, and will be better for MSU in the long run. Lemonis in four years made three regionals. Henderson made it to two in eight at Kentucky and three in nine if you include this year.

There is no question. He will recruit extremely well here. If he is halfway competent with game management skills and hires a decent pitching coach he will do extremely well.

[Todd4State]

There is no question. He will recruit extremely well here. If he is halfway competent with game management skills and hires a decent pitching coach he will do extremely well.

Exactly. Skip Bertman wasn't as good of an in game manager as Ron Polk. But Bertman was able to get better players in the 1990's. And no one here has even seen Lemonis coach. I would not be shocked if he is better than Henderson in that arena as well.

[Cooterpoot]

Out side some personal issues that probably no one could have seen coming Cann was a pretty good hire so Cohen might have done a good job on this hire.

Many of his issues were known when we hired him. Obviously he got into some other things but some were known. It’s time to let the “Canns was a good hire except for” excuse go. It was a terrible hire.

[Doggie_Style]

Many of his issues were known when we hired him. Obviously he got into some other things but some were known. It?s time to let the ?Canns was a good hire except for? excuse go. It was a terrible hire.

Exactly....and Cohen didn't do the best job communicating with the fanbase during the hiring of Lemonis...I think he made a stellar hire with Moorhead....hopefully Lemonis is the right guy, we'll see

[Bubb Rubb]

Cohen agrees with me about Henderson.

With all due respect, you aren't nearly the authority on this that you think you are.

[Todd4State]

With all due respect, you aren't nearly the authority on this that you think you are.

OK.

At a bare minimum:

1. I didn't think Henderson was the long term answer for us.

2. If Cohen thought Henderson was the best guy for us he would have just promoted him.

Therefore Cohen agrees with me.

[Todd4State]

Exactly....and Cohen didn't do the best job communicating with the fanbase during the hiring of Lemonis...I think he made a stellar hire with Moorhead....hopefully Lemonis is the right guy, we'll see

If anything Cohen probably did too much communicating with the fanbase. I'd definitely like to hear someone in the media ask him about it.

[Turfdawg67]

1) I don't think Lemonis is the best hire.
2) Cohen wanted McDonnell, Schloss & Corbin (possibly Godwin & Thompson)

So obviously Cohen agrees with me.

[Turfdawg67]

Hey, he was the best we could do! Hope he becomes our all-time greatest coach in the long term. In the short term (2019), he better take us to a SR and probably a CWS, with the talent we have and coming in, or he may not be as good as Henderson.