Thoughts on MSU Pitching situation

[CadaverDawg]

First of all, I still don't think everyone realizes how great this team has performed considering the loss of Woodruff and E Mitchell this season. What Butch has been able to throw together has been incredible. We have a top 5 ERA staff without two of our best pitchers, and arguable our two most talented pitchers overall potential wise.

If anybody had told me before the season we would not have Woody or Mitchell....and Cox and Fitts would both pitch very very minimal innings this season....I would have predicted about a .500 finish overall and probably 12-18 in the SEC.

We have got 7 guys that we are using in SEC play consistently, and it has shown to be perfectly enough for the most part. We have Pollo, Graveman, and Lindy....and then 2 lefty's in the pen (Ross, Girodo), and 2 rightys in the pen (Bracewell, Holder). And it has worked great. And had we not had an injury to Lindgren and a few shaky starts by he and Pollo, we would have to search for innings to get some of these releivers in the game.

Now, with that being said, it's easy to see that Butch is a master developer. So as long as we have him on the staff, would it not be worthwhile to maybe take a small amount of scholarship money from the yearly pitching budget and invest it into a couple of really big power bats? I'm not saying we need to allow our staff to take a hit, but we clearly have way more pitching than we really have to have. If Woody and Mitchell had provided anything at all this year, we would never even see Pollo, Fitts, Cox, Gentry, etc. in SEC play. So should we learn from that and instead of picking up a few extra "chance" arms every year in recruiting, try to go after a big bat?

I am really happy with where our program is right now, so I'm just thinking of small things that can be done to try and help us take that next step.

Keep in mind, we have achieved a great season to this point, without using the following much at all...

Woodruff
E Mitchell
Fitts
Cox
Gentry
Shelly
P Brown


I know we have, and need, great pitching depth, but do we have too much depth to where we could be potentially hurting our offense by having 6 guys not contributing every year?

[Homedawg]

First of all, I still don't think everyone realizes how great this team has performed considering the loss of Woodruff and E Mitchell this season. What Butch has been able to throw together has been incredible. We have a top 5 ERA staff without two of our best pitchers, and arguable our two most talented pitchers overall potential wise.

If anybody had told me before the season we would not have Woody or Mitchell....and Cox and Fitts would both pitch very very minimal innings this season....I would have predicted about a .500 finish overall and probably 12-18 in the SEC.

We have got 7 guys that we are using in SEC play consistently, and it has shown to be perfectly enough for the most part. We have Pollo, Graveman, and Lindy....and then 2 lefty's in the pen (Ross, Girodo), and 2 rightys in the pen (Bracewell, Holder). And it has worked great. And had we not had an injury to Lindgren and a few shaky starts by he and Pollo, we would have to search for innings to get some of these releivers in the game.

Now, with that being said, it's easy to see that Butch is a master developer. So as long as we have him on the staff, would it not be worthwhile to maybe take a small amount of scholarship money from the yearly pitching budget and invest it into a couple of really big power bats? I'm not saying we need to allow our staff to take a hit, but we clearly have way more pitching than we really have to have. If Woody and Mitchell had provided anything at all this year, we would never even see Pollo, Fitts, Cox, Gentry, etc. in SEC play. So should we learn from that and instead of picking up a few extra "chance" arms every year in recruiting, try to go after a big bat?

I am really happy with where our program is right now, so I'm just thinking of small things that can be done to try and help us take that next step.

Keep in mind, we have achieved a great season to this point, without using the following much at all...

Woodruff
E Mitchell
Fitts
Cox
Gentry
Shelly
P Brown


I know we have, and need, great pitching depth, but do we have too much depth to where we could be potentially hurting our offense by having 6 guys not contributing every year?

I agree w most of your post. One small disagreement is the part about not having E Mitchell and calling him one of our best pitchers. Yes, I agree he does have some of, if not the best stuff on the staff. However, he hasn't been able to locate since he got here. That hasn't changed. He's a jr that has never been able to harness his control. So I can't call that a loss. Woodruff on the other hand I would. He was Good draft pick and on strong last year and was ready for a breakthrough. Him not being 100 hurt and I like you am shocked we have done so well wo him.

[CadaverDawg]

I agree w most of your post. One small disagreement is the part about not having E Mitchell and calling him one of our best pitchers. Yes, I agree he does have some of, if not the best stuff on the staff. However, he hasn't been able to locate since he got here. That hasn't changed. He's a jr that has never been able to harness his control. So I can't call that a loss. Woodruff on the other hand I would. He was Good draft pick and on strong last year and was ready for a breakthrough. Him not being 100 hurt and I like you am shocked we have done so well wo him.

Yea I can agree with you on Mitchell. That's why I threw in the "potential wise" comment, because he will probably be top 10 round draft pick. I was one of the ones that thought Mitchell was going to have a huge season though. He is so damn talented from the neck down, but mentally they never could get him turned around. I would still be in favor of him starting against Oral Roberts, but I have a feeling we will see Fitts followed by Ross Mitchell in that game. I think Evan's career is officially over at MSU.

[maroonmania]

Yea I can agree with you on Mitchell. That's why I threw in the "potential wise" comment, because he will probably be top 10 round draft pick. I was one of the ones that thought Mitchell was going to have a huge season though. He is so damn talented from the neck down, but mentally they never could get him turned around. I would still be in favor of him starting against Oral Roberts, but I have a feeling we will see Fitts followed by Ross Mitchell in that game. I think Evan's career is officially over at MSU.

You are probably correct. There just isn't much call for a pitcher on the college level that can't locate no matter how good his stuff is. Because of the bats being toned down so much its not going to happen that often that other teams score loads of runs on you by getting hit after hit. Today the quickest way for a team to get into trouble is by walking batters, hitting batters and having a defense making errors in the field. When that's happening it doesn't take but ONE big hit behind all of that and you are already down 3 or 4 runs. I really thought with the game he pitched in the GT regional a couple of years ago that he would mature into a great pitcher for us but it just hasn't happened.

[mparkerfd20]

but I have a feeling we will see Fitts followed by Ross Mitchell in that game. I think Evan's career is officially over at MSU.

One can always hope so anyway.

[CadaverDawg]

You are probably correct. There just isn't much call for a pitcher on the college level that can't locate no matter how good his stuff is. Because of the bats being toned down so much its not going to happen that often that other teams score loads of runs on you by getting hit after hit. Today the quickest way for a team to get into trouble is by walking batters, hitting batters and having a defense making errors in the field. When that's happening it doesn't take but ONE big hit behind all of that and you are already down 3 or 4 runs. I really thought with the game he pitched in the GT regional a couple of years ago that he would mature into a great pitcher for us but it just hasn't happened.

Yep.

So what do you guys think about spending a little less scholarship money on pitchers to try and attract a few power guys?

After seeing the stats that Will James provided about the average batting average of teams in the CWS over the past several years...it looks like our pitching staff is on par with a CWS average, but our hitting has a little ways to go.

I don't think we can afford to change our pitcher recruiting drastically, but enough to be able to offer a bigger scholarship to a great hitter would be nice. One thing that may help this, is if we would start taking advantage of those players that can field AND pitch, like Norris and Renfroe. Develop those two guys as relief pitchers or match up guys, and that's 2 pieces of scholarship money that could go towards another solid power hitter potentially. What do you think?

I'm not real knowledgeable about scholarship numbers and all of that stuff...that's why I pose the question to those of you that may know more about it.

[Will James]

With Butch's developmental program I think we can afford to take a few elite pitchers and mine the JUCO for relievers that have proven they can get it done after HS.

We had no business taking Evan. He was a pipe dream, according to his Hailstate Bio his JR and SR years of high school he combined for a record of 3-3 with ERA over 4 both seasons. To be honest he was a wasted roster spot.

The offense has come around this year but let's be honest we will not have Hunter Renfroe every year. We have got to get some power into this lineup in the future or we will be doomed to watching the 2012 version of ourselves. I don't know if it's a scholarship % thing or we just aren't recruiting that type of player.

From someone who has no idea, does the scholarship really affect players college choice all that much. Like if Alabama was offering 60% and MSU 40% would that cause someone to go to Tuskaloosa? Im asking does this problem have more to do with how our schollies are allocated or is it Cohen is signing the wrong types of hitter

[Homedawg]

Yea I can agree with you on Mitchell. That's why I threw in the "potential wise" comment, because he will probably be top 10 round draft pick. I was one of the ones that thought Mitchell was going to have a huge season though. He is so damn talented from the neck down, but mentally they never could get him turned around. I would still be in favor of him starting against Oral Roberts, but I have a feeling we will see Fitts followed by Ross Mitchell in that game. I think Evan's career is officially over at MSU.

I agree. His time here is over.

[ghostofjackie]

Don't they have "ways" to get a lot of these guys academic scholarships? Like even if they might not be the best candidate for one? Not accusing us of cheating in any way, I just always thought it was easier for them to find money than it sounds.

[engie]

With Butch's developmental program I think we can afford to take a few elite pitchers and mine the JUCO for relievers that have proven they can get it done after HS.

We had no business taking Evan. He was a pipe dream, according to his Hailstate Bio his JR and SR years of high school he combined for a record of 3-3 with ERA over 4 both seasons. To be honest he was a wasted roster spot.

The offense has come around this year but let's be honest we will not have Hunter Renfroe every year. We have got to get some power into this lineup in the future or we will be doomed to watching the 2012 version of ourselves. I don't know if it's a scholarship % thing or we just aren't recruiting that type of player.

From someone who has no idea, does the scholarship really affect players college choice all that much. Like if Alabama was offering 60% and MSU 40% would that cause someone to go to Tuskaloosa? Im asking does this problem have more to do with how our schollies are allocated or is it Cohen is signing the wrong types of hitter

Alabama is a bad example because they also don't have the lottery -- and are hamstrung by the same things that we are. It's closer to -- you are a stud from Jackson -- and you had 30% to go to MSU or 70% to go to LSU with OOS tuition waved, what choice are you making? That's what we are actually facing many times for the true blue-chip types of players...

We are already recruiting alot more power hitters -- so that part will be solved soon. May not ever "replace" Renfroe, but we'll have alot more guys that are consistent threats...

[CadaverDawg]

I'm not sure, Ghost. I guess that is my question too. How much of it is a scholarship thing vs a talent evaluation thing? Like Will said, how much of baseball recruiting is based on scholarship amount? Do we have ways around it?

I think it was Todd that posted the other day how we allocate a larger percentage to pitchers, therefore showing that we are committed to building our teams around pitching and defense. I just think if that's the case, we can definitely afford to take a few less pitching chances and spend that allocation otowards offering a great hitter some extra scholarship...especially if we have 6 guys on our bench that are more than capable of pitching for us if we absolutely needed them.

In other words...Could we have used....say...Preston Brown's scholarship money and added it to the typical scholarship offer we would offer a good hitting prospect, to help and persuade the good hitting prospect to come here? Especially since we already had Shelly and Gentry as right handed freshmen. (Again, I don't even know if all of those guys got baseball scholarship money to amount to anything, I'm simply creating an example scenario). Can someone give us an idea of how our baseball roster usually looks scholarship money-wise?

[Homedawg]

With Butch's developmental program I think we can afford to take a few elite pitchers and mine the JUCO for relievers that have proven they can get it done after HS.

We had no business taking Evan. He was a pipe dream, according to his Hailstate Bio his JR and SR years of high school he combined for a record of 3-3 with ERA over 4 both seasons. To be honest he was a wasted roster spot.

The offense has come around this year but let's be honest we will not have Hunter Renfroe every year. We have got to get some power into this lineup in the future or we will be doomed to watching the 2012 version of ourselves. I don't know if it's a scholarship % thing or we just aren't recruiting that type of player.

From someone who has no idea, does the scholarship really affect players college choice all that much. Like if Alabama was offering 60% and MSU 40% would that cause someone to go to Tuskaloosa? Im asking does this problem have more to do with how our schollies are allocated or is it Cohen is signing the wrong types of hitter

We have just chosen to spend our money on pitching and speed than power guys. Plus power guys are quite frankly, tough to come by these days. Our rise back up helps though. Baseball and it's partial scholarships is one reason why it's tough to get back to the top of the league in a hurry. Yes it could've been done. But with the risk of screwin up the future. Cohen has done a great job of getting our numbers(percentage wise) and class balance back in order. Polk left us w guys that couldn't play AND on top to that he had 4 inf in the same class. 4 outfielders in the next. It makes it impossible to recruit when a position is loaded up w guys the same age. Not only do you have to replace them all at once, it's tough selling a kid playing time if you have 4 fr outfielders already there. Jc also takes advantage of every possible legal means of getting extra money for a kid. That's why it's so important to get a good student, if he's from out of state more importantly, so you can get out of state tuition waived. If not, that's an extra junk of scholarship money that has to come from somewhere. I think you'll see us spend more money on power guys in the future. Just remember, you have to have 27 on scholarship and find a guy that wants to play here. The later is getting easier by the day. Sorry for the ramble.

[CadaverDawg]

Alabama is a bad example because they also don't have the lottery -- and are hamstrung by the same things that we are. It's closer to -- you are a stud from Jackson -- and you had 30% to go to MSU or 70% to go to LSU with OOS tuition waved, what choice are you making? That's what we are actually facing many times for the true blue-chip types of players...

We are already recruiting alot more power hitters -- so that part will be solved soon. May not ever "replace" Renfroe, but we'll have alot more guys that are consistent threats...

Thanks Engie. That answers a lot of what my last post was asking. Can you or Todd, or anybody give us an idea of some power guys we're after, and who they draw comparisons to?

[CadaverDawg]

We have just chosen to spend our money on pitching and speed than power guys. Plus power guys are quite frankly, tough to come by these days. Our rise back up helps though. Baseball and it's partial scholarships is one reason why it's tough to get back to the top of the league in a hurry. Yes it could've been done. But with the risk of screwin up the future. Cohen has done a great job of getting our numbers(percentage wise) and class balance back in order. Polk left us w guys that couldn't play AND on top to that he had 4 inf in the same class. 4 outfielders in the next. It makes it impossible to recruit when a position is loaded up w guys the same age. Not only do you have to replace them all at once, it's tough selling a kid playing time if you have 4 fr outfielders already there. Jc also takes advantage of every possible legal means of getting extra money for a kid. That's why it's so important to get a good student, if he's from out of state more importantly, so you can get out of state tuition waived. If not, that's an extra junk of scholarship money that has to come from somewhere. I think you'll see us spend more money on power guys in the future. Just remember, you have to have 27 on scholarship and find a guy that wants to play here. The later is getting easier by the day. Sorry for the ramble.

Good stuff.

[Homedawg]

I'm not sure, Ghost. I guess that is my question too. How much of it is a scholarship thing vs a talent evaluation thing? Like Will said, how much of baseball recruiting is based on scholarship amount? Do we have ways around it?

I think it was Todd that posted the other day how we allocate a larger percentage to pitchers, therefore showing that we are committed to building our teams around pitching and defense. I just think if that's the case, we can definitely afford to take a few less pitching chances and spend that allocation otowards offering a great hitter some extra scholarship...especially if we have 6 guys on our bench that are more than capable of pitching for us if we absolutely needed them.

In other words...Could we have used....say...Preston Brown's scholarship money and added it to the typical scholarship offer we would offer a good hitting prospect, to help and persuade the good hitting prospect to come here? Especially since we already had Shelly and Gentry as right handed freshmen. (Again, I don't even know if all of those guys got baseball scholarship money to amount to anything, I'm simply creating an example scenario). Can someone give us an idea of how our baseball roster usually looks scholarship money-wise?

Preston brown isn't getting any baseball money. If a player gets money it has to be 25% of a scholarship Minimum. So 27 players at 25% is 6.75 of your scholarships. Then you have to figure out what is enough to sign a kid and how best to spend the "left over 5 scholarships". Does 40 % get you a jonathon holder or will it take 60%? It's a tough balancing act. Thats why is was good that we got ole miss to spend money on a kid like Matt Denny. He is a legacy there and was going there. But we forced them to give him aid whereas previously he would have been a steal walkon for the Rebs.

[ghostofjackie]

Then how hard (or illegal) would it be to convince scholarship givers (whoever they are) to give a few extra academic or leadership scholarships to baseball players? Someone in the University has to be tugging on the right sleeves to make this happen. If I'm not mistaken, the University can give academic scholarships out to whomever they see fit to give them to. If I'm in charge of something like that, the baseball players would be a great consideration. With the amount of travel and practice hours these guys put into baseball, the deserve it just as much as someone who decides to spend just as much time studying...... if they keep their grades up at the same time.

[Todd4State]

Here's the thing about elite pitching and pitching in general- we're already NOT giving more money to guys that we think are going to be bullpen guys. The guys that are getting that money are guys that we think are going to be weekend starters in the SEC. You simply have to have that because in the SEC, you are going to face about 4-5 first round pick pitchers that can shut down any offense, and the only way to have a chance to win is to have an equally elite starter that can match the other ace. The guys getting the bigger scholarships are guys like Woodruff and Lindgren. Trust me on this- we DO NOT want to make the mistake of thinking that we can simply get by with cutting corners on pitching in the SEC. Not a good idea.

Basically what you are saying when you are advocating giving less money to pitching is trading 5 SEC losses for maybe a few more home runs.

A big reason why we are OK and getting by is because we have two seniors in Pollorena and Graveman who can get by on their wits and we have a really good bullpen. Lindgren is a legit talent. And look at the guys in the bullpen- Girodo, Sr.; Holder So. elite talent; Ross Mitchell; RS So.; Ben Bracewell RS Jr.- LOTS of experience. All of those guys have been on the team at least three years except for Holder who is an elite talent.

If we want to WIN the CWS, we're going to have to have really good starting pitching. Sure, a Kent State, a Stony Brook, heck- a 2007 MSU may get to Omaha with less than good pitching, but none of those teams even came close to winning. And even among the teams that got lucky getting there with less than good pitching- I can show you many, many more that made it with good pitching.

I think that there's a misconception that we are choosing to give a lot more money to pitchers over hitters, or maybe more specifically power hitters- and that is simply not true.

The REAL reason why we haven't gotten a lot of power hitters is:

1. There aren't a whole lot out there to start with. Let's look as SEC home run leader South Carolina as an example. They have 43 as a team. One guy has 12, another 10 and then the next guy has 5. So, you see the drop off. Another example is LSU which has 36- they have one guy with 13 and then the second place guy has 5. Elite power guys are highly sought after and most get gobbled up by MLB.

2. We played in a giant ballpark. Cohen bringing in the fences will help a little bit with this. Players look at stuff like that when they are being recruited. They know if they go somewhere that is going to hurt their stats, it could hurt their draft stock.

3. We were rebuilding. Again, elite power hitters are highly sought after and they have huge offers to go to any program that they want to. Why go to a rebuilding MSU program when you can go to Florida or LSU? Now that we are having success, again this will help.

[Todd4State]

I'm not sure, Ghost. I guess that is my question too. How much of it is a scholarship thing vs a talent evaluation thing? Like Will said, how much of baseball recruiting is based on scholarship amount? Do we have ways around it?

I think it was Todd that posted the other day how we allocate a larger percentage to pitchers, therefore showing that we are committed to building our teams around pitching and defense. I just think if that's the case, we can definitely afford to take a few less pitching chances and spend that allocation otowards offering a great hitter some extra scholarship...especially if we have 6 guys on our bench that are more than capable of pitching for us if we absolutely needed them.

In other words...Could we have used....say...Preston Brown's scholarship money and added it to the typical scholarship offer we would offer a good hitting prospect, to help and persuade the good hitting prospect to come here? Especially since we already had Shelly and Gentry as right handed freshmen. (Again, I don't even know if all of those guys got baseball scholarship money to amount to anything, I'm simply creating an example scenario). Can someone give us an idea of how our baseball roster usually looks scholarship money-wise?

I didn't say that, but I'll respond to it- some years we may choose to spend more on pitching. Back when Cohen first came, we might have because we needed it. We had no pitching at that time. We might have chosen to do so this year because we know we are going to lose Graveman, Pollorena, Girodo, there's still a possibility of losing Bracewell to the real world or in his case injury, Evan Mitchell could go in the draft. Then next year, there is a better than average chance we could lose Woodruff, Lindgren, Holder and maybe even Fitts, and Cox. Would you rather replace those guys with freshmen or sophomores who have been here a year and have some SEC experience?

[Todd4State]

Thanks Engie. That answers a lot of what my last post was asking. Can you or Todd, or anybody give us an idea of some power guys we're after, and who they draw comparisons to?

Brent Rooker last I saw hit four (about 3 weeks ago) and was selected to represent Tennessee in the National Power Showcase. He's 6'5" and he can play any corner position. I don't know who to compare him to, but I could see him hitting 10 home runs by the time he is a junior.

Luke Alexander is a switch hitting shortstop that is a sophomore that I could see hitting between 5-10.

Reid Humphries leads the state of Mississippi in home runs and last I saw he had 11. He can probably hit 10 home runs by the time he is a junior.

Joey Swinarski from Florida was selected to the National Power Showcase as a sophomore in high school. He's a junior in high school. Again, another 10 home run guy.

Austin Riley from DeSoto Central who is a sophomore in high school just about beat Madison Central by himself. He hit 2-3 home runs in that series alone. He might be a dual position guy for us- he is an outstanding pitcher too. He's already 6'2"- 6'3". I can see him being a 10-15 home run guy as well.

ALL of those are committed verbally or if they are a senior, they have signed a LOI. ALL of those are over 6'0" tall. Most are listed at 6'3" and above.

[Will James]

Here's the thing about elite pitching and pitching in general- we're already NOT giving more money to guys that we think are going to be bullpen guys. The guys that are getting that money are guys that we think are going to be weekend starters in the SEC.

If this is true then it's what I am hoping for. I just didn't want to give disproportional dollars to the bullpen at the expense of hitting.

[Todd4State]

If this is true then it's what I am hoping for. I just didn't want to give disproportional dollars to the bullpen at the expense of hitting.

Like you said- and actually I have seen Cohen say it as well, and I agree with both of you- you need about seven pitchers to be competitive for a national title. That roughly comes out to 3 starting pitchers, a closer, a set-up guy and a couple of middle relief guys- one of which can be used as a midweek starter. The other middle relief guys are coming from JUCO for the most part- like Ben Hudspeth and Luke Laster who will be here next year.

The guys in college baseball that are going to get the premium scholarships are the three starting pitchers- might be four pitchers because you figure one will be made into a closer in all likelihood, and power hitters. People that are contact, speed guys or blue collar guys like Mitch Slauter are cheaper from a scholarship standpoint because there is more of them and they are not as desirable out of high school to MLB in general.

I think another misconception about Cohen is that he wants an all speed/Cal-State Fullerton team. That's not the case. He does want speed, and he does want his team to be aggressive, but I think he also likes power. See him bringing in the fences. If he wanted all speed, he would have left the fences where they were. Also, power was a big part of Kentucky's offense- sure the park was small- but it wasn't like Cohen didn't like them hitting home runs.

[Will James]

http://www.collegesplits.com/cgi-bin/csLeaders.cgi?conf=SEC&bp=p&stat=FIP&adj=s

Holder and Lindgren are 1-2 in the SEC in FIP. Pollo 6th.

Awesome work Butch.

[Homedawg]

Like you said- and actually I have seen Cohen say it as well, and I agree with both of you- you need about seven pitchers to be competitive for a national title. That roughly comes out to 3 starting pitchers, a closer, a set-up guy and a couple of middle relief guys- one of which can be used as a midweek starter. The other middle relief guys are coming from JUCO for the most part- like Ben Hudspeth and Luke Laster who will be here next year.

The guys in college baseball that are going to get the premium scholarships are the three starting pitchers- might be four pitchers because you figure one will be made into a closer in all likelihood, and power hitters. People that are contact, speed guys or blue collar guys like Mitch Slauter are cheaper from a scholarship standpoint because there is more of them and they are not as desirable out of high school to MLB in general.

I think another misconception about Cohen is that he wants an all speed/Cal-State Fullerton team. That's not the case. He does want speed, and he does want his team to be aggressive, but I think he also likes power. See him bringing in the fences. If he wanted all speed, he would have left the fences where they were. Also, power was a big part of Kentucky's offense- sure the park was small- but it wasn't like Cohen didn't like them hitting home runs.
Bad example, Cohen didn't have much of a choice on the fence. And, last I heard he wants rf moved in bc he thinks it will give us and advantage bc we can pitch to it.

[State82]

Bad example, Cohen didn't have much of a choice on the fence. And, last I heard he wants rf moved in bc he thinks it will give us and advantage bc we can pitch to it.

What do you mean he didn't have much choice on the fence?

[CadaverDawg]

If this is true then it's what I am hoping for. I just didn't want to give disproportional dollars to the bullpen at the expense of hitting.

This.

Todd, thanks for clearing it up. I didn't have a full understanding, so I was more wanting to know how things worked. Not questioning or doubting what we're doing. Obviously things are headed the way we need them to. Glad to see we are getting some good hitters recruited too.

[Todd4State]

What do you mean he didn't have much choice on the fence?

My guess is he's talking about the new football facility construction and whatnot forcing it in. That said, Cohen has been a proponent of moving the fences in.

[dawgoneyall]

We need a state lottery.

[Will James]

We need a state lottery.

Maybe the Supreme Court could strike Title 9 down? Is there any litigation dealing with this? It absolutely ****s with my pursuit of happiness

[Bullmutt]

So, based on the commentary here, it would appear that having two guys like Clark and Palmeiro at the same time is a once-in-a-century phenomenon. Were things generally (schollys, rules, talent pool, etc.) different back then?

[engie]

Were things generally (schollys, rules, talent pool, etc.) different back then?

Yes -- basically to all.

Also, we were the first in the southeast(really the whole country) to give a crap about college baseball -- which gave us a tremendous recruiting advantage until Bertman showed up in Baton Rouge...

[Homedawg]

My guess is he's talking about the new football facility construction and whatnot forcing it in. That said, Cohen has been a proponent of moving the fences in.

Yes I was talking about we had to move it in bc of the road and the football building. And yes, he has been a proponent of moving them in, but he wants in moved in in right. With it not being uniform. To give an advantage to us due to quirkiness.