If I was a meddling baseball GM

[Todd4State]

I would tell Cohen this- I realize after this turd burger that we need to fix two things: The lineup and rotation. I don't normally fly off the handle- but sometimes drastic changes need to be made. I think this is one of those times.

The next thing I would tell him is to get over the classifications by the players name. Sometimes freshmen should play if they are better. The way I look at it right now, if they struggle it's a learning experience. And there's ZERO difference right now between Garner striking out and Wes Rea striking out as far as I am concerned.

Let's talk pitching staff.

Friday- Ross. He's earned it. And if we really believe that he screws up everyone's timing at the plate, let's maximize that opportunity. Throwing him here also opens the possibility that he could throw an inning on Sunday if needed.

Saturday- Fitts/Lindgren. I think Lindgren is better. But I also think that Fitts has pitched well in his own right. I'm OK with the piggy back thing especially since it's not broke. Regardless, I want Lindgren out there a minimum of three innings, and likely 4-6.

Sunday- Woodruff. The bright spot of the weekend. I'd still be cautious with him and only expect five for now. I think there is a good chance he continues to improve over the course of the season.

Bullpen- Holder is solid, Ben Bracewell is a fifth year senior and has pitched in some big games before, Myles Gentry is a submarine guy that can give us a different look. If Preston Brown is healthy, I would try to use him on Sunday in relief of Woodruff. We're going to need someone to eat innings as Woodruff progresses. I would also start using Dakota Hudson out of the bullpen for pretty much one inning at a time. He throws 98 which gives us another type of arm. He has had some control issues which is why I would only use him for one inning- and have a short leash on him. But when a pitcher knows that he is going one inning, it changes his mindset- and in Hudson's case that's going to be pretty much drop the payload.

The lineup. We might be getting into dead horse territory here. Well, maybe a few differences. I guess the good news is with several of these guys being freshmen, the future is bright.

C- Gavin Collins. He's pretty much superior to Zach Randolph in every phase of the game. He's also hitting .389 in SEC play with a 1.000 fielding percentage.

1B- Daniel Garner. Wes Rea needs to start being the captain, and he needs to start adjusting at the plate. Period. At this point, I expect him to be back next year unless he just quits the team or something. 0 for the weekend from your captain is unacceptable. Garner in the meantime is hitting .294 on the year with some clutch hits. And most everything he has hit is smoked. He would be a defensive downgrade, but first base isn't a premium defensive position. If Garner is incredibly bad, we could use Rea as a defensive replacement. We could also start Detz at first and then DH Garner as well if Garner is Dick Stuart bad.

2B- Brett Pirtle. Has a 41 game on base streak. He's hitting .306 on the season, and .302 in SEC play with an even better K/BB ratio in SEC play than OOC. Plays very good defense. Thank you for being a bright spot Brett Pirtle.

3B- Reid Humphreys. Detz may be a better hitter at this point. That's certainly debatable. Britton is a better defender but I honestly don't even know why he bothers to bring a bat when he goes up to hit. He's hitting .087 in SEC play, and his OBP is only .250 in SEC play. Meanwhile, Reid Humphreys is HITTING .250 on the year and is third on the team on home runs with uno. His OBP on the year is .333 compared to Britton's .352. So, not too much difference there.

SS- Seth Heck. He's our best SS, and he has to play. He's hitting .232 on the year and .184 in SEC play, but we don't have anyone better and he has stabilized the defense. No way should be hitting fifth or leading off though.

LF- Derrick Armstrong. Vickerson took some heat this weekend and in his defense he has been hitting a little bit better. Defensively though- piss poor this weekend. Armstrong is hitting .333 in SEC play and is tied for the team lead with a .319 batting average. Vickerson despite his streak is hitting .227. He also has 15 K's to 14 BB's which is not good for a lead off hitter. Add in the fact that Armstrong has more stolen bases.

CF- C.T. Bradford. He just has to stay healthy. He hit well this weekend, and he should improve our OF defense. He is tied with Armstrong as far as hitting goes on the year at .319, and he's hitting a solid .278 in SEC play. He has taken some heat over the course of his career, but no doubt he is one of our three best options at this point in the outfield.

RF- Demarcus Henderson. He's only hitting .232 in SEC play, but he is fairly clutch at times. He has speed and he typically plays good defense. He's tied for the team lead at 9 SB and he's hitting .310 on the year.

DH- Alex Detz. He's hitting a solid .286 in SEC play despite his .222 overall batting average and he's second on the team with 2 home runs. He has four stolen bases.

So now, the batting order. Bear in mind when I am making this one out, I'm trying to make a statement to some of our players. Specifically Wes Rea. Once some of those freshmen get some at bats, I would adjust accordingly.

1. Armstrong
2. Pirtle
3. Humphreys
4. Garner
5. Collins
6. Detz
7. Henderson
8. Heck
9. CT

[shoeless joe]

Normally I agree with your assessments Todd but not so much this one. Here's why: Friday we got shut down by maybe the best pitcher in college. No shame there. We only gave up 3 runs...again not bad. Now to Saturday, we had opportunities to score but didn't capitalize. If Ross makes that one play we win and even tho we got punked on Sunday a 1-2 weekend sits a whole lot better than 0-3.

I do agree that a few adjustments should be made but jumping ship on a few guys isn't the answer. LSU got swept last week. Did they completely over haul things? I really don't know the answer so if someone could say so i'd be interested.

[SignalToNoise]

Good post, Todd.

Seems like Henderson has been getting some flack lately, but I actually like having him in the lineup.

[Irondawg]

1. Armstrong
2. Detz
3. Pirtle
4. Garner
5. Collins
6. Henderson
7. Rea
8. CT
9. Heck

I give Rea another week. I'd also have the defensive lineup in for Ross putting in Britton at 3B and I'd fine a way to start getting Humphries one start a weekend as well. Might be worth giving him some practice time in RF so if he starts to hit and CT stays hurt he would be at least an option there.

[smootness]

I agree that we need to see more of Collins and Humphreys. There's absolutely no reason not to play Collins, and they give us the type of bats that could make our lineup more dangerous and productive. They also could crash and burn as freshmen, but we might as well give it a shot. If either or both started coming on strong by the end of the year, it would make us a much more dangerous team come postseason play.

Same goes for Garner.

[Five-tool Poster]

I would tell Cohen this- I realize after this turd burger that we need to fix two things: The lineup and rotation. I don't normally fly off the handle- but sometimes drastic changes need to be made. I think this is one of those times.

The next thing I would tell him is to get over the classifications by the players name. Sometimes freshmen should play if they are better. The way I look at it right now, if they struggle it's a learning experience. And there's ZERO difference right now between Garner striking out and Wes Rea striking out as far as I am concerned.

Let's talk pitching staff.

Friday- Ross. He's earned it. And if we really believe that he screws up everyone's timing at the plate, let's maximize that opportunity. Throwing him here also opens the possibility that he could throw an inning on Sunday if needed.

Saturday- Fitts/Lindgren. I think Lindgren is better. But I also think that Fitts has pitched well in his own right. I'm OK with the piggy back thing especially since it's not broke. Regardless, I want Lindgren out there a minimum of three innings, and likely 4-6.

Sunday- Woodruff. The bright spot of the weekend. I'd still be cautious with him and only expect five for now. I think there is a good chance he continues to improve over the course of the season.

Bullpen- Holder is solid, Ben Bracewell is a fifth year senior and has pitched in some big games before, Myles Gentry is a submarine guy that can give us a different look. If Preston Brown is healthy, I would try to use him on Sunday in relief of Woodruff. We're going to need someone to eat innings as Woodruff progresses. I would also start using Dakota Hudson out of the bullpen for pretty much one inning at a time. He throws 98 which gives us another type of arm. He has had some control issues which is why I would only use him for one inning- and have a short leash on him. But when a pitcher knows that he is going one inning, it changes his mindset- and in Hudson's case that's going to be pretty much drop the payload.

The lineup. We might be getting into dead horse territory here. Well, maybe a few differences. I guess the good news is with several of these guys being freshmen, the future is bright.

C- Gavin Collins. He's pretty much superior to Zach Randolph in every phase of the game. He's also hitting .389 in SEC play with a 1.000 fielding percentage.

1B- Daniel Garner. Wes Rea needs to start being the captain, and he needs to start adjusting at the plate. Period. At this point, I expect him to be back next year unless he just quits the team or something. 0 for the weekend from your captain is unacceptable. Garner in the meantime is hitting .294 on the year with some clutch hits. And most everything he has hit is smoked. He would be a defensive downgrade, but first base isn't a premium defensive position. If Garner is incredibly bad, we could use Rea as a defensive replacement. We could also start Detz at first and then DH Garner as well if Garner is Dick Stuart bad.

2B- Brett Pirtle. Has a 41 game on base streak. He's hitting .306 on the season, and .302 in SEC play with an even better K/BB ratio in SEC play than OOC. Plays very good defense. Thank you for being a bright spot Brett Pirtle.

3B- Reid Humphreys. Detz may be a better hitter at this point. That's certainly debatable. Britton is a better defender but I honestly don't even know why he bothers to bring a bat when he goes up to hit. He's hitting .087 in SEC play, and his OBP is only .250 in SEC play. Meanwhile, Reid Humphreys is HITTING .250 on the year and is third on the team on home runs with uno. His OBP on the year is .333 compared to Britton's .352. So, not too much difference there.

SS- Seth Heck. He's our best SS, and he has to play. He's hitting .232 on the year and .184 in SEC play, but we don't have anyone better and he has stabilized the defense. No way should be hitting fifth or leading off though.

LF- Derrick Armstrong. Vickerson took some heat this weekend and in his defense he has been hitting a little bit better. Defensively though- piss poor this weekend. Armstrong is hitting .333 in SEC play and is tied for the team lead with a .319 batting average. Vickerson despite his streak is hitting .227. He also has 15 K's to 14 BB's which is not good for a lead off hitter. Add in the fact that Armstrong has more stolen bases.

CF- C.T. Bradford. He just has to stay healthy. He hit well this weekend, and he should improve our OF defense. He is tied with Armstrong as far as hitting goes on the year at .319, and he's hitting a solid .278 in SEC play. He has taken some heat over the course of his career, but no doubt he is one of our three best options at this point in the outfield.

RF- Demarcus Henderson. He's only hitting .232 in SEC play, but he is fairly clutch at times. He has speed and he typically plays good defense. He's tied for the team lead at 9 SB and he's hitting .310 on the year.

DH- Alex Detz. He's hitting a solid .286 in SEC play despite his .222 overall batting average and he's second on the team with 2 home runs. He has four stolen bases.

So now, the batting order. Bear in mind when I am making this one out, I'm trying to make a statement to some of our players. Specifically Wes Rea. Once some of those freshmen get some at bats, I would adjust accordingly.

1. Armstrong
2. Pirtle
3. Humphreys
4. Garner
5. Collins
6. Detz
7. Henderson
8. Heck
9. CT

1. Fitts should be pulled out of the rotation before Brown does.
2. Are you really prepared to see Daniel Garner at 1B? He does need to hit though I agree.

[Jacksondevildog]

Collins should hit nearly every game. I'm sure that he's pleased with him knowing that he's a way better hitter than a Juco redshirt catcher that is playing every game. He also controls the running game better. Randolph throws one over the second baseman's head in between innings around 4 to 5 times per game. I'm sure that other teams have taken note.

[messageboardsuperhero]

I am totally mesmerized by the regression of Wes Rea. Coming into the year, I really thought he had it all figured out after the way he exploded in the postseason against some really good pitching. Some people say that he was lazy this offseason, but I don't buy that- to me, he looks better physically than he has in his entire career. It just seems like he is not making any adjustments and generally has zero approach at the plate. Were we all crazy for thinking he could hit 12 home runs this year and be a cornerstone for us offensively? Hopefully he can get it together at some point.

It just seems like everyone in the lineup has been slumping at the same time. My biggest complaint is that seemingly no one looks like they progressed at all this offseason outside of CT- but he can't stay healthy. The good news is that if Woodruff is really back, that's a big plus for our pitching staff. I'll wait to anoint him until we see him make a couple good starts, but he has looked very promising lately.

I'm not quite in freak out mode yet- but our offense (particularly our approach) is incredibly frustrating right now. They need to quit taking fastballs early in counts and be more aggressive. I swear, we take more fastballs and swing at more curveballs than any team I've ever seen. Would you rather try to hit a Nola fastball right down the middle in 0-1, or try to hit his off speed stuff in 0-2? I get that we wanted to push his pitch count, but at some point you have to try and hit the guy- I really thought our approach against Nola was pathetic and passive. We'd gotten to that guy before by being aggressive and challenging him, but that is absolutely not the approach we had this weekend.

[State82]

I do agree that a few adjustments should be made but jumping ship on a few guys isn't the answer. LSU got swept last week. Did they completely over haul things? I really don't know the answer so if someone could say so i'd be interested.

Yeah, I can see this viewpoint, too. That being said, Cohen has got to get some guys' attention some how, some way. But I'm at a loss as to how. There are legitimate concerns with this club well over half way through the season. They have certainly fooled me because I was confident they would have progressed offensively as the season went forward but they are simply not. No idea.

[Todd4State]

Normally I agree with your assessments Todd but not so much this one. Here's why: Friday we got shut down by maybe the best pitcher in college. No shame there. We only gave up 3 runs...again not bad. Now to Saturday, we had opportunities to score but didn't capitalize. If Ross makes that one play we win and even tho we got punked on Sunday a 1-2 weekend sits a whole lot better than 0-3.

I do agree that a few adjustments should be made but jumping ship on a few guys isn't the answer. LSU got swept last week. Did they completely over haul things? I really don't know the answer so if someone could say so i'd be interested.

We need a spark on offense. We competed- but we need to do something to get us over the top to get back on track. I think Wes can turn it around, and I think Vickerson can turn it around- but neither are playing all that well right now. Britton hasn't hit and won't ever hit, and then Randolph isn't a SEC player.

[Todd4State]

1. Fitts should be pulled out of the rotation before Brown does.
2. Are you really prepared to see Daniel Garner at 1B? He does need to hit though I agree.

1. We have some good pitching depth. Pitching Brown more means pitching Lindgren less. It's a good problem to have, assuming Brown is healthy.

2. Yes. And like I said, if he is awful, we can put Detz there.

[messageboardsuperhero]

We need a spark on offense. We competed- but we need to do something to get us over the top to get back on track. I think Wes can turn it around, and I think Vickerson can turn it around- but neither are playing all that well right now. Britton hasn't hit and won't ever hit, and then Randolph isn't a SEC player.

I agree that Rea is stinking it up right now, but I don't get the Vickerson animosity from people here (not just you).

Vickerson got four hits, a walk, and scored two of our five runs this weekend- and he's generally had one of the better approaches at the plate all season. He's actually hitting .333 in the last seven games, according to @HailStateBB. Is Vickerson ripping the cover off the ball? No, but he is far from our biggest problem offensively right now.

[Todd4State]

I agree that Rea is stinking it up right now, but I don't get the Vickerson animosity from people here (not just you).

Vickerson got four hits, a walk, and scored two of our five runs this weekend- and he's generally had one of the better approaches at the plate all season. He's actually hitting .333 in the last seven games, according to @HailStateBB. Is Vickerson ripping the cover off the ball? No, but he is far from our biggest problem offensively right now.

He was better. But for me, it's that Armstrong and Henderson seem to have been better overall.

The animosity may be what I call Sam Frost Syndrome. Player A is small. Therefore player A better be Jeffrey Rea or he sucks.

[BulldogBear]

I am totally mesmerized by the regression of Wes Rea. Coming into the year, I really thought he had it all figured out after the way he exploded in the postseason against some really good pitching. Some people say that he was lazy this offseason, but I don't buy that- to me, he looks better physically than he has in his entire career. It just seems like he is not making any adjustments and generally has zero approach at the plate. Were we all crazy for thinking he could hit 12 home runs this year and be a cornerstone for us offensively? Hopefully he can get it together at some point.

It just seems like everyone in the lineup has been slumping at the same time. My biggest complaint is that seemingly no one looks like they progressed at all this offseason outside of CT- but he can't stay healthy. The good news is that if Woodruff is really back, that's a big plus for our pitching staff. I'll wait to anoint him until we see him make a couple good starts, but he has looked very promising lately.

I'm not quite in freak out mode yet- but our offense (particularly our approach) is incredibly frustrating right now. They need to quit taking fastballs early in counts and be more aggressive. I swear, we take more fastballs and swing at more curveballs than any team I've ever seen. Would you rather try to hit a Nola fastball right down the middle in 0-1, or try to hit his off speed stuff in 0-2? I get that we wanted to push his pitch count, but at some point you have to try and hit the guy- I really thought our approach against Nola was pathetic and passive. We'd gotten to that guy before by being aggressive and challenging him, but that is absolutely not the approach we had this weekend.

I'm not as much. More like I got my hopes up some at the end of last year. Please understand this is not considering his defensive contribution. I speak merely of batting and really don't base this on too much scientific info, largely because I only get to watch 5-8 games a year between tv and actually being at one. I often teach kids (try to lol) how to swing properly but I've not analyzed Wes enough to make "scientific" comments. Teaching how to hit well is something I'm decent at doing but don't actually enjoy that much. So, I don't even over-analyze too much when watching. I'm usually just trying to enjoy the game when I watch and take a break from dissecting it. But I had a bad gut feeling several times, particularly the long 1 for a million of whatever it was he had. That's HARD to do. Even against SEC pitching at age 40 I'd even bet on myself to do at least slightly better. So, IDK if he's trying too hard or if it's in his head or what. I'll try to pay more attention but I'm sure he's probably been well coached already so I'm not sure I'll come up with any flaws in his swing.

[maroonmania]

1. We have some good pitching depth. Pitching Brown more means pitching Lindgren less. It's a good problem to have, assuming Brown is healthy.

2. Yes. And like I said, if he is awful, we can put Detz there.

Brown has a shoulder issue and it doesn't sound good. I would say there is probably more likelihood that he doesn't pitch again this season than there is that he pitches this upcoming weekend.

[messageboardsuperhero]

Brown has a shoulder issue and it doesn't sound good. I would say there is probably more likelihood that he doesn't pitch again this season than there is that he pitches this upcoming weekend.

It doesn't sound good to me either.

We've had some really shitty luck with pitching injuries this year.