Hey Coaches...

[I seen it dawg]

You assholes need to stop being the cutest staff in America and just play the damn game. Why does every other pitch have to be some outsmart moment vs the game. While we are at it why don't we have a coach call the damn pitches instead of our Juco catcher and how about putting a coach at first instead of a player.

This bullshit cuteness isn't working so why don't you ****ers reign in all the mid count pitching changes and other random bullshit you think is so smart and get back to a little traditional baseball. Which seems to work for every other ****ing program in America but we seem to be to good for. Get your ****ing shit together and earn your damn money. We may not have the most talent in the world but let's see what the **** they can do without all y'all's bullshit.

[War Machine Dawg]

You assholes need to stop being the cutest staff in America and just play the damn game. Why does every other pitch have to be some outsmart moment vs the game. While we are at it why don't we have a coach call the damn pitches instead of our Juco catcher and how about putting a coach at first instead of a player.

This bullshit cuteness isn't working so why don't you ****ers reign in all the mid count pitching changes and other random bullshit you think is so smart and get back to a little traditional baseball. Which seems to work for every other ****ing program in America but we seem to be to good for. Get your ****ing shit together and earn your damn money. We may not have the most talent in the world but let's see what the **** they can do without all y'all's bullshit.

http://i.imgur.com/xHFRtju.gif

[RougeDawg]

Wait, weren't you one of the main ones in here a few weeks back, who was thrusting to ban some posters for bashing Cohen and our shit performances?

To some of us, this is no surprise. Nice to see people finally coming around to what some of us have known a few years. Welcome aboard.

[Coursesuper]

Spot on.

[I seen it dawg]

Wait, weren't you one of the main ones in here a few weeks back, who was thrusting to ban some posters for bashing Cohen and our shit performances?

To some of us, this is no surprise. Nice to see people finally coming around to what some of us have known a few years. Welcome aboard.

No. I only threaten to ban total ****ing morons that act like total ****ing morons.

[I seen it dawg]

And apparently no one got banned....so there's that....

[Rayburn8]

You assholes need to stop being the cutest staff in America and just play the damn game. Why does every other pitch have to be some outsmart moment vs the game. While we are at it why don't we have a coach call the damn pitches instead of our Juco catcher and how about putting a coach at first instead of a player.

This bullshit cuteness isn't working so why don't you ****ers reign in all the mid count pitching changes and other random bullshit you think is so smart and get back to a little traditional baseball. Which seems to work for every other ****ing program in America but we seem to be to good for. Get your ****ing shit together and earn your damn money. We may not have the most talent in the world but let's see what the **** they can do without all y'all's bullshit.

Damn......remind me not to piss you off.

[Bully13]

something's just not adding up with Bulldog Baseball right now. the players we have were highly recruited. Cohen brought our program out of the polk (dark ages) of recruiting.

we brought in the players yet a swac team comes in and pulls out a win not giving up a XBH. didn't cohen also lose to jackson state a few years back too?

how can this be acceptable? I do believe Cohen loves MSU. he wants us to succeed. but none of this shit makes sense.

having an AD who would prefer riding the good ship lollypop doesn't help either. a good AD lets a head coach know when things are not acceptable. I don't think we have an AD that does.

Bulldog Baseball deserves better than this and an explanation is needed. with this AD, I don't anticipate one.

[War Machine Dawg]

And while we're at it, Cohen needs to go back to being the Intense Bastard. No more facial hair, no more long hair, no more bullshit in the dugout. Back to old school until this team grows a pair or the ****ers quit. Either way, we'll be better off. We've become more about having a good time and clowning than we have winning. We need a serious attitude adjustment, starting at the top.

And I couldn't agree more about Cohen micro-managing and trying to prove how smart he is all the time. There's a reason everyone else plays traditional baseball. Until he's actually hosted more than one regional and gets us a Super as a national seed, he isn't smarter than any other baseball coach. It's odd how differently he coaches now versus how he coached at UK and Northwestern State. Some of his whining about the Dude's size reminds me a little too much of Polk saying the home crowd puts too much pressure on our players.

[Bully13]

yep, time to quit making excuses. sounds like a NFL coach making excuses after losing to a college team. I'm tired of losing to samford and ULL in post season too. tired of losing to swac teams and other non conference teams with losing records at home and losing to SEC teams that don't give a shit about baseball.. the sad thing is, these non conference teams, swac teams and other who don't give a shit, seem to give a lot more of a shit than our HC does.

[War Machine Dawg]

yep, time to quit making excuses. sounds like a NFL coach making excuses after losing to a college team. I'm tired of losing to samford and ULL in post season too. tired of losing to swac teams and other non conference teams with losing records at home and losing to SEC teams that don't give a shit about baseball.. the sad thing is, these non conference teams, swac teams and other who don't give a shit, seem to give a lot more of a shit than our HC does.

I strongly disagree with this. Cohen DEFINITELY gives a shit. In fact, I think an argument could be made that he actually cares a little too much, which is what leads to his micromanaging and over-managing. He needs to be the Intense Bastard during the week at practice, but chill out some during the games. Just turn the guys loose and see what happens instead of trying to be in the middle of everything. If we get beat, fine. But give us a fighting chance, dammit!

[shoeless joe]

I would be fine with him taking a step back and allowing the players he's recruited to just play the game. I am all in favor of the Intense Bastard making a return to form. That SOB took a severely over matched club to the brink of taking down Florida in the supers...that was good coaching.

Some things tho are actually good innovations. I love bringing in a new pitcher mid count for several reasons. A lot of coaches don't do it cuz they wanna give a pitcher a chance to finish what he starts. Obviously our staff has bought into thinking that the sum is better than the parts and it has worked up until this year. This year the bullpen is shit so that will put a damper on a lot of things we do well.
I also like how he doesn't go by a traditional line up with defined roles based on the slot in the order someone is hitting...again this would show thru better if he backed off a hair.

His approach is not a whim or really an "in game" decision making process. This team has the least amount I ability since 2012 and he is managing the same as he did then. This was a pre season decision. He believes it will give us the best chance to win. He may be wrong in that but that's what it is.

[Treemydawg]

I strongly disagree with this. Cohen DEFINITELY gives a shit. In fact, I think an argument could be made that he actually cares a little too much, which is what leads to his micromanaging and over-managing. He needs to be the Intense Bastard during the week at practice, but chill out some during the games. Just turn the guys loose and see what happens instead of trying to be in the middle of everything. If we get beat, fine. But give us a fighting chance, dammit!

I absolutely love this post every point is spot on but, can you honestly see Cohen "chilling out" during the game. Come on man he will micromanage everything down to the last pitch of the game.

[War Machine Dawg]

I absolutely love this post every point is spot on but, can you honestly see Cohen "chilling out" during the game. Come on man he will micromanage everything down to the last pitch of the game.

Personally, I doubt he's capable so long as he's wearing maroon and white. (Or black, cream, pink, or whatever other garbage Adidas tells us we'll wear) He wants to win here so damn badly. But I'd rather have him coaching us than coaching against us winning titles somewhere else. It's one of those conundrums he's going to have to figure out for himself, because he'd be more effective if he could rein it in a little during the games like when he coached at UK and NWSU. And go back to his offensive approach from then, too, instead of all this garbage small ball.

[Treemydawg]

And shoeless joe I was a pitcher first my whole baseball career and a shortstop and third baseman secondly. Bringing another pitcher in mid count would really mess with my confidence. Wether or not I belive that I can strike his ass out my coach coming in and saying ( hey let's take you out and let -------- finish him off) would seriously mess with my mind. Let those boys stay in there and learn something by fighting through innings pitching when they get down.

[RougeDawg]

I strongly disagree with this. Cohen DEFINITELY gives a shit. In fact, I think an argument could be made that he actually cares a little too much, which is what leads to his micromanaging and over-managing. He needs to be the Intense Bastard during the week at practice, but chill out some during the games. Just turn the guys loose and see what happens instead of trying to be in the middle of everything. If we get beat, fine. But give us a fighting chance, dammit!

Cohen giving a shit and being intense is different than Cohen realizing his bullshit offensive approach is and hasn't worked. The CWS run we made was because we got hot at the right time and had some damn good hitters (Renfroe, Frazier, and Pirtle) who improved their swings away from Starkville and were not held back by the "flick or flock" instruction that our staff is apparently teaching. Until we realize we need a hitting coach it won't matter how good our pitching is. You can't continue to rely on winning 1-2 run games and have sustained success.

[Bully13]

we are woefully under performing. nothing more , nothing less. all the why's , excuses, blame gaming, expert advice giving, is getting 17ing old.

have we had a .600 SEC record since his arrival? I dunno. maybe someone can enlighten me. Cohen has a long recorded history at MSU of losing to teams who don't have NEAR the recruiting advantages that he does. yet he goes out and lands these star studded classes and allows lesser team to roll into Dudy Noble and kick our ass.

how much more of this year in and year out bullshit shit should be tolerated?

[bulldogcountry1]

I absolutely love this post every point is spot on but, can you honestly see Cohen "chilling out" during the game. Come on man he will micromanage everything down to the last pitch of the game.

And that's the biggest problem. I posted yesterday about how I have never seen a head coach have a personal conversation with the batter every time we get a runner on. These recent failures will only make him be even more up every batter's ass during every pitch, if that is even possible. I can't imagine anyone being able to perform under these conditions. I'm beyond frustrated, and I don't put in all the hours training like the players do. It's just insane, and I don't how he can expect a full team to keep buying into this.

Cohen needs to hit the reset button and understand that 3 runs won't cut the mustard, but he won't. He's going to ride this strategy no matter what, and he isn't capable of backing off during the games.

[dawgs]

And while we're at it, Cohen needs to go back to being the Intense Bastard. No more facial hair, no more long hair, no more bullshit in the dugout. Back to old school until this team grows a pair or the ****ers quit. Either way, we'll be better off. We've become more about having a good time and clowning than we have winning. We need a serious attitude adjustment, starting at the top.

And I couldn't agree more about Cohen micro-managing and trying to prove how smart he is all the time. There's a reason everyone else plays traditional baseball. Until he's actually hosted more than one regional and gets us a Super as a national seed, he isn't smarter than any other baseball coach. It's odd how differently he coaches now versus how he coached at UK and Northwestern State. Some of his whining about the Dude's size reminds me a little too much of Polk saying the home crowd puts too much pressure on our players.

I was saying this to someone the other day. I know kentucky has a hitter's park and we have a pitcher's park, but we aren't petco here. I think cohen wanted to adjust his style to the stadium, but he's overdone it and swung way too far to the small ball side of things.

[yjnkdawg]

Seems like Cohen's philosophy is the same as putting a muzzle on a dog when you want this dog to protect you from an attacker. So far our bullpen has demonstrated that we can not play small ball and win. When will our coaching staff look at reality and take their heads out of the sand and admit it and move on and let the players swing at the ball. Bunt in certain realistic situations, but especially not when we have a man on second and one of our best hitters at the plate. It just looks like we are playing more tentative and trying to play to keep from losing rather than playing to win.

[BossDawg]

how much more of this year in and year out bullshit shit should be tolerated?

It's MSU we're talking about here. I would suggest getting comfortable because you can almost bet the farm that (good) change will take much longer than it should.

[Bully13]

It's MSU we're talking about here. I would suggest getting comfortable because you can almost bet the farm that (good) change will take much longer than it should.

yep

[chef dixon]

And shoeless joe I was a pitcher first my whole baseball career and a shortstop and third baseman secondly. Bringing another pitcher in mid count would really mess with my confidence. Wether or not I belive that I can strike his ass out my coach coming in and saying ( hey let's take you out and let -------- finish him off) would seriously mess with my mind. Let those boys stay in there and learn something by fighting through innings pitching when they get down.

That was one of the stupidest decisions I've ever seen. I don't know how anyone in their right might, much less an ACTUAL COACH OF THE TEAM, could have thought bringing in Houston with a 3-2 count was a good idea. Houston has been trash and Gentry had just battled his way back and had some momentum. Houston's first pitch, a wild pitch. Runner walks AND the runner advances and the floodgates open. LOL. Does anyone know why we never tried to give Mintz a chance?

[Todd4State]

Seems like Cohen's philosophy is the same as putting a muzzle on a dog when you want this dog to protect you from an attacker. So far our bullpen has demonstrated that we can not play small ball and win. When will our coaching staff look at reality and take their heads out of the sand and admit it and move on and let the players swing at the ball. Bunt in certain realistic situations, but especially not when we have a man on second and one of our best hitters at the plate. It just looks like we are playing more tentative and trying to play to keep from losing rather than playing to win.

The solution to a bad bullpen is not to tell the offense to score more runs. That would be like Dan firing the OC (I know it is him but stay with me here) because Geoff's defense didn't perform in the Egg Bowl because the offense should have scored more to offset the shortcomings of the defense.

The reality is if the bullpen gets fixed, everything else is going to be fine.

If anyone is playing "tentative" on the team it's likely because they know that the pen is going to blow whatever kind of lead is built.

[Todd4State]

That was one of the stupidest decisions I've ever seen. I don't know how anyone in their right might, much less an ACTUAL COACH OF THE TEAM, could have thought bringing in Houston with a 3-2 count was a good idea. Houston has been trash and Gentry had just battled his way back and had some momentum. Houston's first pitch, a wild pitch. Runner walks AND the runner advances and the floodgates open. LOL. Does anyone know why we never tried to give Mintz a chance?

I don't know about Mintz, but the way things are going I'm pretty sure he will get a chance soon. He has been a consistent performer- probably the best out of the pen in that regard.

[Treemydawg]

That was one of the stupidest decisions I've ever seen. I don't know how anyone in their right might, much less an ACTUAL COACH OF THE TEAM, could have thought bringing in Houston with a 3-2 count was a good idea. Houston has been trash and Gentry had just battled his way back and had some momentum. Houston's first pitch, a wild pitch. Runner walks AND the runner advances and the floodgates open. LOL. Does anyone know why we never tried to give Mintz a chance?
It's not as simple as just bringing another pitcher in (Houston ) he was brought in the middle of the inning. Reguardless of the circumstances it messes with a pitchers mind, and it messes with it bad, again I pitched my whole bball career and if I put runners on base I wanted the chance to get out of the hole and show my worth to the team. Bringing a pitcher in mid inning is demoralizing and embarrassing to the man on the hill. Let the players take care of business

[yjnkdawg]

The solution to a bad bullpen is not to tell the offense to score more runs. That would be like Dan firing the OC (I know it is him but stay with me here) because Geoff's defense didn't perform in the Egg Bowl because the offense should have scored more to offset the shortcomings of the defense.

The reality is if the bullpen gets fixed, everything else is going to be fine.

If anyone is playing "tentative" on the team it's likely because they know that the pen is going to blow whatever kind of lead is built.

I agree with all that you said. I was just looking at it from a standpoint if the bullpen is what it is. Hopefully that can be fixed and we can get good production from our bullpen. On the tentative part, I was really referring to Cohen's philosopy as it seems like he thinks right now we have a Lindgren and Holder to come in and shut the other team down once we can small ball a run or two.

[SallyStansbury]

The reality is if the bullpen gets fixed, everything else is going to be fine.

I will follow along.....
I think it is possible that Dan had to find his Dak QB to be successful, but running him up the gut again and again vs Bama and Olemiss for a gain of nothing doesn't help anyone and Dan will likely study on that this off season (I hope he does, bet Dak does too*) and I hope fix his tendency to do this.
Dan won a bunch of games, so I figure he has earned our patience as fans.

Same with Cohen. If he has studied our park and has decided that his strategy works in this park with our pitchers, and he feels like taking power, pull hitters and telling them to hit up the middle, inside out their swings, dink and donk, then so be it. But he damn well better have the pitching staff to back this up and win the 1-2 run ballgames. W-L record will answer all of these questions. I think Coach Cohen has earned our patience, I am willing to let it play out.

[Liverpooldawg]

Again I'm not a baseball expert but it seems to me if the bullpen starts throwing more strikes most of this goes away.

[messageboardsuperhero]

Again I'm not a baseball expert but it seems to me if the bullpen starts throwing more strikes most of this goes away.

Yep. You don't need to be a baseball expert to see that if the pen is at least adequate and Cohen stops bunting after leadoff doubles, just about all of this shit fixes itself. We actually have guys that can hit balls in the gap, unlike last year. And our starters are better than any we've had in the Cohen era. Just get the pen to grow some stones and let the players play- of course that seems to be easier said than done.

And for the record, I like us doing some hit and runs and stealing- that is aggressive baseball. The hit and run with Holland and Robson yesterday was a thing of beauty. However, most of the sac bunting we do is passive, scared baseball and is miserable to watch.

[elitedawgs]

Alabama beat State twice using a big inning. When is the last time we had a big inning? Our bats are dead. We continue to be plagued with stranding runners.

We are tied with Kentucky for fewest home runs hit in the SEC at 7. A&M has three times as many HR's as we do with 21, UGA has 20. Alabama, who has 8 HR's this year, had no problem knocking the ball out of DNF, yet we cannot. Entering the weekend, Alabama had hit 5 HR's , State had hit 7.

[messageboardsuperhero]

Alabama beat State twice using a big inning. When is the last time we had a big inning? Our bats are dead. We continue to be plagued with stranding runners.

We are tied with Kentucky for fewest home runs hit in the SEC at 7. A&M has three times as many HR's as we do with 21, UGA has 20. Alabama, who has 8 HR's this year, had no problem knocking the ball out of DNF, yet we cannot. Entering the weekend, Alabama had hit 5 HR's , State had hit 7.

It would be a hell of a lot easier to have a big inning if Cohen would stop taking the bat out of our hands every time we get a leadoff double, or even after we get a leadoff man on base. Yeah we don't have much HR power, but we can hit balls in the gap and put some stuff together.

[engie]

I'm with Todd and MBSH here. Time for Cohen to flip the bird to the bunting game and go all in on letting our guys hit. Truly aggressive baseball.

The bullpen is the problem. Time for Butch to fix some stuff and adjust some stuff, which he's done extremely well for the past 4 years...

[War Machine Dawg]

Yep. You don't need to be a baseball expert to see that if the pen is at least adequate and Cohen stops bunting after leadoff doubles, just about all of this shit fixes itself. We actually have guys that can hit balls in the gap, unlike last year. And our starters are better than any we've had in the Cohen era. Just get the pen to grow some stones and let the players play- of course that seems to be easier said than done.

And for the record, I like us doing some hit and runs and stealing- that is aggressive baseball. The hit and run with Holland and Robson yesterday was a thing of beauty. However, most of the sac bunting we do is passive, scared baseball and is miserable to watch.

Uh-oh, better not say that too loudly.

[I seen it dawg]

Bunting as much as we do is miserable to watch. It's not small ball it's tiny ball.

[maroonmania]

I absolutely love this post every point is spot on but, can you honestly see Cohen "chilling out" during the game. Come on man he will micromanage everything down to the last pitch of the game.

Well, if he has his catcher (no matter what level of experience) calling all the pitches and players serving as 1st base coaches then there may be areas where he and his staff should micromanage more and other areas where they need to stay the heck out of the way.

[RougeDawg]

It would be a hell of a lot easier to have a big inning if Cohen would stop taking the bat out of our hands every time we get a leadoff double, or even after we get a leadoff man on base. Yeah we don't have much HR power, but we can hit balls in the gap and put some stuff together.

We don't have much power because our hitters swings have been tweaked for slap hitting. Our hitters hands do not start in the proper position for a powerful, yet consistent swing. Our swings are not mechanically sound to generate power. Based on someone's "flick the ball through the infield" coaching philosophy they mentioned yesterday, it makes sense why our hitters swings are not getting fixed for a more complete offensive game. There's a reason that all these guys, who we expect more production from, are producing less. There's a reason our hitters suddenly explode during summer leagues (Renfroe). We are teaching a small ball type swing and mechanics. I've broken it down a few times before on why our hitters lack power. Hand position and lower body position have a ton to do with it, but every time I've pointed out the reasons we lack power I've gotten bashed by Engie and the likes because they think Cohen is all knowing, and how could a non coach possibly be able to look objectively at our hitters swings and tell the reasons for our lack of power and offensive output. There were about 5-6 people on here who gave me a ton of shit for pointing out our glaring deficiencies a long time ago.

When I get some time I'll go back and look up the posts I made the last couple years on our lack of power and the causes. I'll also look up the bashing responses for people ridiculing me for "trying to be a hitting coach" or "if you know so much why aren't you a hitting coach" and "you think I know more than Cohen". For one, I never said I knew more than Cohen. Secondly, hitting coaches don't make bank. Lastly, All I've ever stated is that our hitters are not being taught the proper mechanics for a powerful, consistent swing. Now all of that is making sense to everyone else On here, and even our coaches have confirmed their philosophy with the "flip it" bullshit approach.

I may not be a hitting coach but I did play for one of the best known hitting coaches in the south. Juan Pierre had very little power before this hitting coach tweaked his swing. He's worked with Darin Erstad on his swing as well. These are just a couple of the players he helped with their swings and they became better all around hitters. This coach coached many MLB players in the Cape and actually won the title a few times. He's no idiot when it comes to hitting mechanics and the mental aspect of the game.

[smootness]

Juan Pierre. LOL

[maroonmania]

I was saying this to someone the other day. I know kentucky has a hitter's park and we have a pitcher's park, but we aren't petco here. I think cohen wanted to adjust his style to the stadium, but he's overdone it and swung way too far to the small ball side of things.

And what's even worse is his small ball philosophy is failing AT DNF! Other teams are coming in here and playing their game and beating us even though our players and style are supposedly tailored for our park. Its not going to get any better when we finally have to start playing road games.

[maroonmania]

The solution to a bad bullpen is not to tell the offense to score more runs. That would be like Dan firing the OC (I know it is him but stay with me here) because Geoff's defense didn't perform in the Egg Bowl because the offense should have scored more to offset the shortcomings of the defense.

The reality is if the bullpen gets fixed, everything else is going to be fine.

If anyone is playing "tentative" on the team it's likely because they know that the pen is going to blow whatever kind of lead is built.

I don't think JUST the bullpen improving is going to make everything else just fine. Its going to take a combination of an improved bullpen AND an improvement on offensive RUN production. As I said in another thread, we've only scored more than 6 runs in a game ONCE since Feb. 24th. Even with improvement in our pitching staff we will NEVER get to the point where 3 to 6 runs in games is going to be all we ever need.

[maroonmania]

It's not as simple as just bringing another pitcher in (Houston ) he was brought in the middle of the inning. Reguardless of the circumstances it messes with a pitchers mind, and it messes with it bad, again I pitched my whole bball career and if I put runners on base I wanted the chance to get out of the hole and show my worth to the team. Bringing a pitcher in mid inning is demoralizing and embarrassing to the man on the hill. Let the players take care of business

I'm actually not strictly opposed to the strategy as it does force a batter to adjust to something new with no strikes to play with. My problem is that it was just plain stupid to use that move when you have a bases loaded 3-2 count situation and you are telling your incoming pitcher to get there on that mound that you haven't been on all day and YOU HAVE TO THROW A STRIKE on your very first pitch. That's why I can see it on an 0-2 or 1-2 count or maybe if the bases aren't juiced but a guy can pitch all day in the bullpen but until he stands exactly where is going to be pitching from things are different and he needs a pitch or two to adjust.

[War Machine Dawg]

And what's even worse is his small ball philosophy is failing AT DNF! Other teams are coming in here and playing their game and beating us even though our players and style are supposedly tailored for our park. Its not going to get any better when we finally have to start playing road games.

Yep. Tiny ball and passive sacrifice bunting wins us a ton of games at home.***