Baseball thoughts after Bama series

[CadaverDawg]

1. Bama isn't good, but shutting any SEC team down the way our pitchers did deserves huge kudos.

2. We may have found a much better solution to our infield woes, as Gilbert looked pretty damn good at 3B, and Foscue looked so much better and more comfortable than Halter has. I hope Gilbert can continue to produce offensively, bc I believe he's in the lineup to stay at 3B.

3. Welcome back, Tanner! Not only did his bat wake up, but he even had a nice opposite field single today which shows that he isn't just pulling everything. I think this was some of the best news of the weekend.

4. Welcome back, JT! Velocity was great, movement was really good most of his outing, and he threw 50ish pitches without having to work deep into the game. Everything we all hoped for with him.

5. Ethan Small has turned in to a beast. 15 K's in 18 outs recorded? Pure filth.

6. #LetsGetRowdey Rowdey J is almost back to .300 and is using all parts of the field. Excellent to see.

7. Our upcoming schedule is brutal with a trip to #2 in the West, and then a home series against Top 5 UGA. Don't let others' weak schedules discourage you from what happens the next few weeks...bc we are doing all of this against a very tough schedule. Couldn't be better timing to see such consistency from Plumlee the last few weeks. We're going to need more than Small & Ginn in the next several weeks, and I think Plumlee is showing he can help. Encouraging

8. Enjoy every minute of Mangum, guys....they don't make em like that anymore, what a pleasure it has been to watch him play in the maroon and white (and black).

9. Hail Damn State! #FoldTideFold

[BeardoMSU]

Change #3 to: "**** you Jobu, I do this myself"....

[CadaverDawg]

Oops, I didn't see Al's thread or I would have posted this there

[shoeless joe]

Was tanner allen’s Mom a hooters waitress by chance? Cuz he favors chipper and he even hit like him today...

[Hambone]

I’ve been saying all along he looks and hits like Chipper! Great to see someone else notice

[Todd4State]

He's not nearly as tall as Larry. I mean Chipper.

[The Federalist Engineer]

Ethan is throwing too many pitches to get his outs. In Ace vs Ace matchups like the Auburn game, it would have been nice to have him last 2 more innings, that winning and losing in tight matches

He reached 100 pitches in 6 innings in that game

[Cooterpoot]

I didn’t get anything out of beating AL. They’re horrible. Shits about to get real with the schedule. We’ll know exactly what we are in a couple weeks.

[Todd4State]

I didn’t get anything out of beating AL. They’re horrible. Shits about to get real with the schedule. We’ll know exactly what we are in a couple weeks.

They're not great as far the SEC goes. But they're better than you may realize. They've been swept by us and Florida both on the road but won a series against South Carolina and won at least one game against Ole Miss and Arkansas. They also beat Auburn in their version of the Governor's Cup as well.


I'm not arguing that they are a good team by SEC standards because they're not. But they're not a bad enough team that should get their ass kicked in like they did this weekend either.

[MetEdDawg]

We need to come out of this next stretch at .500

That would put us at 16 wins. You take 2 or 3 against South Carolina and you end up with 18-19 conference wins. That's easily a national seed.

RPI is at 10 and our next 4 SEC opponents have an RPI of 6,7,12, and 25. It's a tough stretch for sure. Come out at .500 and I'll be happy. I think our best chance to take two are OM and UGA. Arkansas and TAMU will be tough on the road.

[chef dixon]

I probably feel better about sweeping UGA at home than I do winning the series at Ark or TAMU. Ole Miss on the road is tough too, but they usually tuck their wiener against us

[KB21]

I'm not concerned about pitch counts when you are averaging double digit strike outs per game.

[Scared_Hitless]

What did we all say was the peak this team could hit if Tanner and Rowdy got rolling and we found a 3rd starter. Well I think that has happened, we have 0 easy outs with Halter splitting time now. Foscue is so damn good, I like the switch to him at 2b. Plumlee has really stepped up and his stuff looks nasty, bullpen has a strong 3 or 4 guys now with Keegan giving MRP. We are now the best hitting team in the SEC and also very good pitching. Lets keep rolling get the SEC title and a National Seed it is all within reach right now.

[smootness]

I probably feel better about sweeping UGA at home than I do winning the series at Ark or TAMU. Ole Miss on the road is tough too, but they usually tuck their wiener against us

UGA's pitching is way too good to think there's a decent chance of sweeping them.

[Jack Lambert]

I didn’t get anything out of beating AL. They’re horrible. Shits about to get real with the schedule. We’ll know exactly what we are in a couple weeks.

We don't get any of the other shitty teams in the SEC. Ole Miss got one of the other ones this weekend and lost two.

[R2Dawg]

I didn’t get anything out of beating AL. They’re horrible. Shits about to get real with the schedule. We’ll know exactly what we are in a couple weeks.

If you haven't seen enough in 37 games to know what we are then I'm not sure what else to do. Top 5 baseball team/program and a national seed. We could go 500 on next 4 series and that is still true. Relax and enjoy the ride.

[R2Dawg]

I'm not concerned about pitch counts when you are averaging double digit strike outs per game.

Agree, Small is nasty on the mound. Not sure yet but I kinda like Ginn on Sunday a too if we have the right mix on Sat out of bullpen.

[The Federalist Engineer]

I'm not concerned about pitch counts when you are averaging double digit strike outs per game.

Walk down memory lane:

vs LSU, 5 innings/89 pitches...Small leaves game winning 6-2, we survive 6-5
vs Auburn, 6 innings/99 pitches...Small leaves game winning 4-2, we lose 4-6
vs Florida, 6 innings/99 pitches...Small leaves game winning 3-1, we survive 6-5

It's not Small's fault that we did not score more runs after he left. But you see that deep teams can double down on a Friday night Ace with their best reliever and beat us.

Again, not Small's fault we scored no runs, USM beat us 0-1 on a Friday.

I'm not thinking about beating Alabama this past weekend. I am thinking about game-1 versus a top-10 team in a Super Regional. I would hate to lose Small's services after 6-innings/18-K's/100-pitches only winning 0-1, or tied 0-0 with the other Ace still out there.

[smootness]

We don't get any of the other shitty teams in the SEC. Ole Miss got one of the other ones this weekend and lost two.

We do get South Carolina last series of the season.

[smootness]

I'm not concerned about pitch counts when you are averaging double digit strike outs per game.

It does matter when it takes you out of the game sooner. I'd take fewer K's if it meant you got an extra inning or 2 out of him.