D1 Preseason Poll

[StarkVegasSteve]

We come in at 18. A little shocked to see us that high. I figured we'd come in at 23 or 24, since they usually reserve 25 for some mid major. SEC has 4 of the top 5 teams and 6 of the top 10. This season we will play: #25 Troy at home on 02/25, #21 Arizona in Houston on 03/01, #17 Oklahoma St in Houston on 03/02, #19 Texas at home 03/14-03/16, @#3 LSU 03/27-03/29, and #10 Florida at home 04/18-04/20.

Honestly, not the worst draw. We miss Tennessee, A&M, Arkansas, UGA, and Vandy.

[Coach34]

The D1 crew spoke highly of us after their visit in the Fall

[BigDawg81]

Hosting a regional is the minimum expectation and that?s a low expectation if we are who we think we are.

[StarkVegasSteve]

The D1 crew spoke highly of us after their visit in the Fall

It's going to come down to pitching. As it always does in this conference. Can you get 6 out of your starters? Can you bridge it? Do you have a closer?

[StarkVegasSteve]

Hosting a regional is the minimum expectation and that?s a low expectation if we are who we think we are.

I think that is probably the minimum expectation. I don't know that Chris can survive not hosting again, if he doesn't go win a road regional. I think that probably buys him another year, but we have to get out of the year to year thing. We have to build and to Lemonis' credit, he has recruited the HS ranks really well and although we've missed on some big portal names, his portal pickups have been really good. I mean Stephen, Yeager, Ledbetter, Hujsak, and Kohler were all big hits out of the portal. I think almost any team in the country would've traded their ace for Khal Stephen last year.

[Coach34]

He hit on the portal again this year with Ace

[StarkVegasSteve]

He hit on the portal again this year with Ace

Oh I agree I think that's a big hit. I think the Sullivan kid is the one no one is talking about from USC-Upstate. I think he is going to be a really good piece for us.

The reason I didn't mention those two is because they haven't played yet. I don't people knew how big of a hit Stephen was going to be as big of a hit as he was last year.

[BrunswickDawg]

I think that is probably the minimum expectation. I don't know that Chris can survive not hosting again, if he doesn't go win a road regional. I think that probably buys him another year, but we have to get out of the year to year thing. We have to build and to Lemonis' credit, he has recruited the HS ranks really well and although we've missed on some big portal names, his portal pickups have been really good. I mean Stephen, Yeager, Ledbetter, Hujsak, and Kohler were all big hits out of the portal. I think almost any team in the country would've traded their ace for Khal Stephen last year.

The thing about not hosting is that the politics of it have gotten pretty tough. Just look at what happened last year. Now, you can argue that we shouldn't have been in that position to begin with, but as tough as the SEC is, there are going to be a lot of SEC schools that make and are 2 seeds. 6 of our last 10 post seasons have seen us as a 2 seed.

[Coach34]

Agree. I dont think you can make hosting a requirement to keep your job. Now- you can make getting into a Super as a requirement. We're not going to fire a coach that didnt host but made it to a Super- that simply is not going to happen

[StarkVegasSteve]

The thing about not hosting is that the politics of it have gotten pretty tough. Just look at what happened last year. Now, you can argue that we shouldn't have been in that position to begin with, but as tough as the SEC is, there are going to be a lot of SEC schools that make and are 2 seeds. 6 of our last 10 post seasons have seen us as a 2 seed.

But the thing is, we had so many chances to take that out of the committee's hands. I mean Air Force Game 2, Austin Peay both games, Georgia Southern, South Al, Florida Game 1 and 3, Central Arkansas, Ole Miss Game 2, UGA Game 2, and Arkansas Game 1 and 3. I know I'm missing a few and yea some of that is "just baseball", but some of it is we didn't come ready to play or we couldn't close a game out.

Like I said, he wins a road regional and he's fine. But he needs to get to the Supers this year. I think that much is certain.

[QuadrupleOption]

But the thing is, we had so many chances to take that out of the committee's hands. I mean Air Force Game 2, Austin Peay both games, Georgia Southern, South Al, Florida Game 1 and 3, Central Arkansas, Ole Miss Game 2, UGA Game 2, and Arkansas Game 1 and 3. I know I'm missing a few and yea some of that is "just baseball", but some of it is we didn't come ready to play or we couldn't close a game out.

Like I said, he wins a road regional and he's fine. But he needs to get to the Supers this year. I think that much is certain.

We had way too many instances last season of our non-starting pitching not being able to hold leads. Two games against Florida come to mind immediately, and I know for sure there were several others. The same thing happened against Virginia in the Regional.

So I think we're close - I guess we'll see how this season shakes out.

[Coach34]

Oh I agree I think that's a big hit. I think the Sullivan kid is the one no one is talking about from USC-Upstate. I think he is going to be a really good piece for us.

I'm looking for 50 HR's between Ace/Hines/Sullivan

[StarkVegasSteve]

I'm looking for 50 HR's between Ace/Hines/Sullivan

What would your breakdown be? Just out of curiosity. I'm guessing you would have Hunter and Sullivan hitting between 17-20/piece and Reese hitting 12-15

[Coach34]

What would your breakdown be? Just out of curiosity. I'm guessing you would have Hunter and Sullivan hitting between 17-20/piece and Reese hitting 12-15

Reese has a year under him now- so I'm figuring around 10. The ball carries well to RF in mid-April/May so some of his line drives should get out
Hines hopefully gets back to his 20-HR level and realizes he can drive the ball out to LCF as well
Sullivan certainly has the power to hit 20- question will be how long his adjustment period takes. He is the wildcard for the season to me. If he gets going- we will certainly be better offensively than in 24. I also think cutting his innings on the mound will help his hitting

[BrunswickDawg]

But the thing is, we had so many chances to take that out of the committee's hands. I mean Air Force Game 2, Austin Peay both games, Georgia Southern, South Al, Florida Game 1 and 3, Central Arkansas, Ole Miss Game 2, UGA Game 2, and Arkansas Game 1 and 3. I know I'm missing a few and yea some of that is "just baseball", but some of it is we didn't come ready to play or we couldn't close a game out.

Like I said, he wins a road regional and he's fine. But he needs to get to the Supers this year. I think that much is certain.

I don't disagree that it was there for the taking. But, for anyone outside of the top 8 seeds, I think it becomes much more about satisfying the politics of the committee then what team has the best resume.

[StarkVegasSteve]

I don't disagree that it was there for the taking. But, for anyone outside of the top 8 seeds, I think it becomes much more about satisfying the politics of the committee then what team has the best resume.

I don't disagree. My point was we left it in the hands of a committee that does play politics. It's like every year we hear how the West Coast has two get two hosting spots....why? Where is that in the handbook? Or that teams like ECU need to get hosts because it's not their fault their SoS is bad.....um yes it is. Go schedule tough OOC. If you're as good as you think you are then you'll win. We let a committee that thinks like that decide the fate of our hosting chances. Yes, anyone with half a brain could tell you we would've drawn more money than 10 of the spots combined and we would've put out an incredible tv product for the sport but we're not dealing with people with even half a brain sometimes.

[MStateDawg]

We had way too many instances last season of our non-starting pitching not being able to hold leads.

Losing Dohm really hurt us. That was 5-7 quality innings that instead had to fall to the bullpen each weekend. If we'd had been able to have a healthy weekend rotation of Dohm, Stephens & Loo then the bullpen would have held up much better.

[No BS Dawg]

Dohm, Stephen, and Loo healthy and playing all year would have likely equated to another trip to Omaha. Those three would have matched anybody in the country. Last year was so close to being another really special type of season.

[Todd4State]

I don't disagree. My point was we left it in the hands of a committee that does play politics. It's like every year we hear how the West Coast has two get two hosting spots....why? Where is that in the handbook? Or that teams like ECU need to get hosts because it's not their fault their SoS is bad.....um yes it is. Go schedule tough OOC. If you're as good as you think you are then you'll win. We let a committee that thinks like that decide the fate of our hosting chances. Yes, anyone with half a brain could tell you we would've drawn more money than 10 of the spots combined and we would've put out an incredible tv product for the sport but we're not dealing with people with even half a brain sometimes.

Our schedule in and of itself wasn't the issue. We lost too many midweek games that had we won we likely would have hosted.

We should have never played that game against Central Arkansas at 11 AM or whatever stupid time we played them because of weather.

[R2Dawg]

Dohm, Stephen, and Loo healthy and playing all year would have likely equated to another trip to Omaha. Those three would have matched anybody in the country. Last year was so close to being another really special type of season.

Agreed. We were so close to making an Omaha run last year and I think would have if we had not got screwed not hosting a regional.

[R2Dawg]

I don't disagree. My point was we left it in the hands of a committee that does play politics. It's like every year we hear how the West Coast has two get two hosting spots....why? Where is that in the handbook? Or that teams like ECU need to get hosts because it's not their fault their SoS is bad.....um yes it is. Go schedule tough OOC. If you're as good as you think you are then you'll win. We let a committee that thinks like that decide the fate of our hosting chances. Yes, anyone with half a brain could tell you we would've drawn more money than 10 of the spots combined and we would've put out an incredible tv product for the sport but we're not dealing with people with even half a brain sometimes.

I agree. We had the resume for a regional last year. Agendas on the committee did us in.

[Todd4State]

I agree. We had the resume for a regional last year. Agendas on the committee did us in.

My experience with following baseball tells me that a lot of times when a team gets screwed over the odds of them hosting tend to increase the next year.

Especially as much as the committee got roasted not just by MSU fans- but by national baseball people.

The silver lining is our team will without question pay a lot more attention to midweek games than last when a lot of the times we looked half assed against them and the coaches decided to try to use them to see if Colby Holcombe happened to figured things out that week which never really happened. That should in theory result in more midweek/OOC wins. And with that combined with a fairly manageable SEC schedule on paper I think the odds of us hosting are probably a little higher than usual.

More or less just have to figure out rotation pieces and get some players healthy.

[Todd4State]

Oh I agree I think that's a big hit. I think the Sullivan kid is the one no one is talking about from USC-Upstate. I think he is going to be a really good piece for us.

The reason I didn't mention those two is because they haven't played yet. I don't people knew how big of a hit Stephen was going to be as big of a hit as he was last year.

He is going to be good. And he will not only help at DH- he can help out as a relief pitcher as well. And if Hunter Hines gets into a slump we can play him or Stallman at first base.

Our fans focus way too much on not getting Paul Skenes and Braden Montgomery to notice that literally every player we have pulled from the portal has been a hit.