Since the Clarion-Ledger couldn't get it right

[Todd4State]

How about a little bit better baseball preview/summer update?

C- Gavin Collins. He started out hot, but now is hitting .212 last I saw. But no doubt he will be the catcher. The only spot up for grabs is the back-up spot between Zach Randolph, Cody Walker, and Josh Lovelady.

1B- Wes Rea. He hasn't been hitting very well for his summer team- he's around .150. He will be the front runner for the first base job, but I don't think Cohen will hesitate to bench him again- and may give him a shorter leash next year. I would not be surprised to see a platoon with Luke Reynolds or even Trent Waddell. Dylan Ingram meanwhile has been a very pleasant surprise continuing to hit over .300 for his team, and then Brent Rooker has started to hit better and has gotten his average up to .238. They could play themselves into the mix, but I still think Rea will start.

2B- Seth Heck. I don't know what the hell is wrong with him, but he's hitting .150 for his team. He's better than that.

3B- Matthew Britton. Credit to Coach34 for the hitting .313 since the Ole Miss series stat. He's holding his own in the Cape hitting a fairly respectable .238. He'll benefit from the new baseball as well. Maybe even more than Rea.

SS- John Holland. We need him to be an impact guy on day one. I'm not sure if he can hit as high as Pirtle did, but I do think that .300 with a couple of home runs and 10 SB is very reasonable to expect.

LF- Cody Brown. Vickerson doesn't have very good range- which you need for LF in Dudy-Noble. Cody was hitting .278 and is now down to .200 after going 0-7 for his summer league team.

CF- Well, the Clarion-Ledger actually got this right. IF Robson is healthy, he will start. If not, I think we start Michael Smith from Walters State CC. Either way- we need one of those two to steal 20 bases. Vanderbilt wanted Smith pretty bad from what I understand.

RF- Vickerson. Congratulations on being literally the only starter to actually hit this summer! He is hitting .348 for his team on the heels of a strong finish. I hope he has a similar career arc as his brother. And while he doesn't have his brothers power, I hope he can chip in 20 steals as well.

DH- Humphreys. Despite the blow of losing Garner and his 20 K's and 41 AB's and his .087 AVG in SEC play, we'll just have to hope that the former Mississippi POY and Washington Nationals draft pick can somehow top those numbers.

Wild cards- can Joey Swinarski and/or Brent Rooker steal a spot on the team? Both would add power IF they are ready- without sacrificing speed or defense. So, it's just a question of can they hit or not? I would LOVE for them to take an OF spot.

Rotation:

Trevor Fitts is resting up. I want to see Dakota Hudson (0-1 but with a 1.80 ERA) take a spot as well as Vance Tatum (0-0; 3.60 ERA) take the other. I'd like to see Luke Laster come out of the pen along with Ross. Laster has been solid other than one outing in the Cape (2.45 ERA).

Jacob Billingsley has continued to be filthy in the Cal Ripken League- 9 K's in 7 IP and an ERA of 0.00. Cohen mentioned him as a closer candidate. Myles Gentry is 0-1 in the Cape, but has an ERA of 0.00.

LOTS of wild cards as far as arms next year. Will Paul Young be healthy and if so, what will his role be? Will Daniel Brown, Logan Elliott, and Trent Waddell be a factor for us? What kind of a role will Austin Sexton and Zac Houston have next year?

[Homedawg]

No disagreements on the staff to speak of. brown will be in rf and vickerson in lf. Vick can't play rf due to a mediocre arm . Cody has the arm and the experience w the dnf sun. Others will get shots but brown is a mainstay in rf. First, either rea or hump. Otherwise the inf is probably right.

[messageboardsuperhero]

I agree with pretty much everything you said about the lineup- especially about wanting Swinarski to take an OF spot.

As far as pitching- we NEED Dakota Hudson to be a big-time starting pitcher for us, and Cohen specifically mentioned him needing to do this in his season wrap-up interview. With Lindgren and Holder leaving, it just puts that much more weight on our starter. What I'd like to see:

Friday- Hudson
Saturday- Tatum or Laster
Sunday- Fitts
Midweek- Sexton

Bullpen- Mitchell, Laster/Tatum (whichever isn't starting), Billingsley, Gentry, Houston, Brown, incoming freshmen, etc. The three pitchers coming off Tommy John are all wild cards at this point- but if Paul Young is healthy, he would be a HUGE help.

I didn't really talk about particular incoming player because we haven't seen them yet- but I would like to specifically mention McCord from that incoming freshman group. He's got a good chance to help us next year and will definitely be a weekend starter at some point in his career here.

[messageboardsuperhero]

Also, I'd really like to see us straight steal more often next year. Vandy didn't hit a ton of extra base hits this season- but made up for it by essentially turning those BBs and singles into doubles by stealing second. I really wanted to see more of that this year from us.

[Todd4State]

No disagreements on the staff to speak of. brown will be in rf and vickerson in lf. Vick can't play rf due to a mediocre arm . Cody has the arm and the experience w the dnf sun. Others will get shots but brown is a mainstay in rf. First, either rea or hump. Otherwise the inf is probably right.

I guess I'd rather have the OF ground covered and trade having a weaker arm in RF. Neither one is ideal.

[Todd4State]

Also, I'd really like to see us straight steal more often next year. Vandy didn't hit a ton of extra base hits this season- but made up for it by essentially turning those BBs and singles into doubles by stealing second. I really wanted to see more of that this year from us.

I would like to see more stolen bases as well. Use our speed to create havoc.

[cheewgumm]

Nothing on this potential team excites me. Hopefully it's just my lack of knowledge.

[Dawg61]

Glad to see the bats are heating up**

[Goat Holder]

I think you've got Brown and Vickerson flip-flopped, at least for opening day. And I think Fitts, Laster and P. Brown should be the opening rotation, with Hudson getting a shot if it's a 4 game weekend. Then go from there, whoever is best takes the spots. But you do not demote the incumbents until somebody proves it. Woodruff proves that. Tatum should be a set up guy, along with Gentry and Cox. Billingsley and Shelly are the closers. Who knows about Young, we've never even seen him throw.

Who knows what Swinarski will do. I mean the guy will be like 18.

[BankerDog]

I wouldn't count on Swinarski. He is hitting a great .167, granted it seems as if the stats haven't been updated or the guy isn't playing. I think Ingram or Rooker will hit very well. I do not think Hump will play 3B. He does not have the lateral quickness to play 3rd; he will either play in the OF or play 1B. Heck has been really dissappointing at the plate so far this summer season.

I also think us signing Smith kind of is an indication on what the coaches think about Robson. Out of the two Canadians, I think he will most likely be back. Hann is playing summer ball in Canada but he isn't listed on the players playing summer ball. He left several times throughout the year to go back to Canada.

Rotation wise I think we will be alright with Tatum and Laster. I'd like to see Mitchell back to the pen, but if he starts so be it. I also heard a good thought about Fitts possibly filling in as a closer. He does great one time through the lineup and as a closer you'll only, hopefully, see the lineup once and when his curve is on; he is tough to hit off of.

Todd or MsStatebaseball, I want to ask you guys about Jesse McCord. I know you guys think he will be a pitcher; but the guy did hit .448 with 18 HRs. That was more then Vallot did. Do you guys possibly see him as a INF, too? With those type of numbers it would be crazy not to give it a shot.

[HancockCountyDog]

Nothing on this potential team excites me. Hopefully it's just my lack of knowledge.

I have to agree. I like Collins and Heck, I thought Britton did well at the end of the year and Rea has potential, but the rest are question marks in my opinion.

Luckily, I trust that Cohen will have a great pitching staff, so we won't have to score a ton of runs to be successful.

[MsStateBaseball]

BankerDog, there are some pitchers who can hit out there but when it comes down to your future, it would be pitching for McCord. Think Brandon Woodruff who wasn't a bad hitter either. His hitting ability will come in handy if he makes it to MLB in the National League.

Just remember, in summer ball esp the "lower" leagues, these guys are working on their game, etc, having fun. Remember the term Fall American. Like Summer American. They need repetitions and experience. This is why I love to watch fall ball, very few people are watching and you can see them play. It is our spring training. Lots of people get excited about MLB spring training! I get that way for fall. It's all about adjusting. My son played 9th grade baseball last year against other 9th graders. Now he is going in 10th and is playing against 10, 11 and 12. So he is adjusting and getting better. Dakota Hudson is pitching some in summer, not too much, he will come back in the fall, work on his mechanics, etc. He will make a jump like some others will do and hopefully be really good by Feb 2015.

[K9 Avenger]

Looks like Gene updated Summer League stats this a.m....Britton up to .321...Collins up to .250...Dylan Ingram up to .283 with a homer and 13 rbi...Brent Rooker up to .292 with a homer and 4 rbi while Vickerson is still hot at .357...those would be the highlights

[maroonmania]

BankerDog, there are some pitchers who can hit out there but when it comes down to your future, it would be pitching for McCord. Think Brandon Woodruff who wasn't a bad hitter either. His hitting ability will come in handy if he makes it to MLB in the National League.

Just remember, in summer ball esp the "lower" leagues, these guys are working on their game, etc, having fun. Remember the term Fall American. Like Summer American. They need repetitions and experience. This is why I love to watch fall ball, very few people are watching and you can see them play. It is our spring training. Lots of people get excited about MLB spring training! I get that way for fall. It's all about adjusting. My son played 9th grade baseball last year against other 9th graders. Now he is going in 10th and is playing against 10, 11 and 12. So he is adjusting and getting better. Dakota Hudson is pitching some in summer, not too much, he will come back in the fall, work on his mechanics, etc. He will make a jump like some others will do and hopefully be really good by Feb 2015.

This point is so VERY true. Do not make any evaluations on anyone again until Fall ball where everyone is seeing the same pitching and the pitchers are all facing equal hitting. There is such huge variation in the quality of each of the different Summer leagues in the competition each player is facing plus a lot of guys are tweaking and trying new things. They are not strictly just focused on winning and producing at their highest level. Using Summer league stats to gauge baseball players is even way worse than using Spring football results to evaluate who should start for us in the Fall.

[BankerDog]

Trust me, I go to fall ball. I called some family up and told them Pirtle would be a player before he ever played a game for us. I'm just saying, if our guys are only hitting like they are. It brings about some concern. Regardless of competition; hitters hit see Renfroe and I do not know about the rest of you guys, but we need hitters.