Y'all want to read something funny?

[Todd4State]

I pulled this gem out of the sixpack archives. My thoughts in bold, except for what is underlined.. This was from Independencebowlmainstay, an Ole Miss fan.



Todd, question for you...

You seem to be a pretty knowledgable baseball guy, ass kisserso I want to preface my two questions with that?

Do you truly believe MS State's signing class last year was a Top 20 class?

Do you truly believe Cohen was the right hire?

In all seriousness, this is not an intent to flame. right I have given you guys credit multiple times as a program, I am just curious if you really believe these two things. I personally believe, and said so upon the hire, that Cohen wasn't the right person for th job. That job was bigger than him. He wasn't/isn't ready for the demands that come with the job. This may not make much sense to some, but in some ways it was easier for him to do it in Lexington with no expectations. At State, that isn't the case. True, Polk didn't leave alot of talent That's being nice., but IMO, the class that was signed last year was more about quantity than quality. Honestly, outside of Bole and Stratton Im not sure there is a 2 year starter in the group.

I know it is only a year and a half in, but it certainly seems that this is too much job for him. My biggest issue with him besides constantly throwing kids under the bus ????????? is his inability to get these guys to do some small things well. They don't bunt, rarely run, and aren't very good defensively. They also seem to have their worst AB's when runners are in scoring position.

Again, some are going to say I am being a smartass Ole Miss fan, and that is fine, I'm just simply asking your honest opinion since you are obviously closer to the program than I am.

[Coach34]

Indy struck out again

[Todd4State]

My response at that time.

Yes, I do believe that the class he brought in last year was a top 20 class.

Stratton and Bole are very good, CC Watson was drafted by the Rangers, and I think he will be very good, Ben Bracewell will be a very good closer and he has already taken that mantle as a freshman and has performed very well, Chad Girodo is also a very good pitcher- he was a Louisville Slugger AA and will be starting tommorrow, I think. He throws strikes and can change speeds. Kendall Graveman has done OK, I think he is more of a middle reliever than a starter. I whiffed on this one. The other pitchers are projects- Matt Lane, Jared Miller and then Kolby Byrd is a project as well.

I'm not a big fan of JUCO guys, and I never have been. If you're JUCO, you're JUCO for a reason. And even if you're a guy like Kaleb Barlow, I think you lose some ground compared to guys that go to the SEC as freshmen because of the overall difference in talent. We should recriut no more than one JUCO a year, and I think if Cohen made a mistake, it was recruiting so many JUCO's. Shepherd was drafted, mainly on potential. At the same time, I see why he brought in so many- I think he is trying to bridge the gap between Polk's guys, and next year's freshmen- many who are position players so that he won't have to play so many freshmen. Based on how the JUCO guys have done in general, I think he may have to start freshmen anyway. It is worth noting that there are only three JUCO signees in our current class that signed in November- one of which is a holdover from last year's class that had Tommy John surgery.

Now, for your second question- yes, I do think that he was the right guy for the job. The reason being is because he is a good recruiter- which we are already seeing, he is a guy that has not only won at UK, he has won at Northwestern State, he has brought in good assistants, and he knows the program which I think is a bonus. I do think he sometimes wants to win so badly and wants to leave such an impression that I think he himself sometimes presses too much. I don't think Polk helped him out by essentially telling his players to transfer if MSU hired Cohen- that was very unprofessional of Polk in my opinion. I do think that even now there is a culture clash between Cohen's aggressive style and Polk's everybody learn about baseball style. I also think he is a good coach. I have seen him make many moves that have helped us to win ballgames that people maybe don't talk about- like last night when he got on to Ogden and then he comes through with the game tying single. There have been plenty of times where we have taken an extra base and gotten it, but people by nature only talk about the guys that get thrown out or do something ridiculous. The only thing that really hasn't improved this year over last year has been the hitting. I honestly don't know why. Maybe we just have a lot of guys slumping- I've heard a lot of people talk about how we hit a ball hard at someone, and some of these players have hit before like Sneed and Duffy and they're struggling. That happens sometimes, and you have to believe that the law of averages are going to balance out at some point. I will say when Cohen took over, our hitting improved almost 10 points as a team from 2008 to 2009. It's really a mystery to me.

He is bringing in some players that I am very encouraged about next year- like Chase Luwallen, DeMarcus Henderson, Daryl Norris, CT Bradford, Cody Abraham, and Garrett Pitts. I also hope that we sign Jackson Posey and Hunter Renfroe- and I hope Renroe doesn't give us the finger. So, I do think that there is hope on the horizon in addition to the players that we already have. But it's really frustrating to be patient while we are waiting on these Polk and JUCO players to graduate. I'll say this- I am more optomistic about the future of MSU baseball right now than I was two years ago.

Cohen at UK liked to do things like bunt, hit and run and etc., and it's very hard for some of these players to do some of those things. I think we will see ore of that as he continues to coach here.

Remember when Lou Piniella was coaching the Tampa Bay Rays a few years ago? He struggled, but it wasn't because he was a bad manager. In fact, he goes to the Cubs after that and gets them to the playoffs. He struggled because he had bad players. It's the same thing with MSU right now. We have some players that can do some things, but are horrible at others. And so we end up with a lot of liabilities in the field and in the lineup. I was hoping for 30 wins this year, but I am not real encouraged about that right now. There are just too many holes- many of which Cohen inherited.

And I'll say this to- I have actually seen our team play in person, and we are much more enjoyable to watch to me than we were the past two seasons. I really got tired of Polk's "That's baseball" schtick. And I wish I had one of my best friends here posting to verify this, but everything that happened under Polk II's tenure, I predicted except for the CWS appearance in 2007 and the 05 SEC Tournament. We may not be good, but we are at least playing baseball the way it is supposed to be played. Maybe not well all the time, but we're doing things that make sense, and I feel like Cohen is at least trying to win. Polk really didn't care if we won or not at the end of his career.

Here's what I think will happen for the future of MSU baseball:

2010: We struggle have a losing season, get rid of more Polk players. We have another top 10 recruiting class.

2011: We start several freshmen and the pitchers are now Sophomore dominated. We improve. Recruits are skeptical after three straight losing seasons, we haul in a top 20 class though. We go to a regional.

2012: Pitchers are now juniors, Polk's players are almost entirely gone, position players are now So. dominated and we have a few freshmen at a couple of other positions. Young, but experienced. We make/ maybe host a regional. If we play really well maybe even make a SR.

2013: Cohen's first class are finally seniors, position playes are junior dominated, make a SR, maybe go to Omaha.

I think that's kind of the timeline we are looking at as a program right now. It sucks losing, though.

[CadaverDawg]

Hilarious. I bet he'd trade Bianco and a Nkemdiche brother for Cohen now.*

[Todd4State]

And as far as Mitch Thompson goes- the guy Ole Miss wanted us to get instead of Cohen:


"Longtime Baylor baseball assistant coach Mitch Thompson has been reassigned to another position within the athletic department, Baylor head coach Steve Smith announced Wednesday.

Thompson, 46, was in his 18th year at Baylor, including his third as assistant head coach. He had worked with Smith since their days at Mississippi State in the early 1990s.

?This decision has been made after much prayer and deliberation,? Smith said in a press release. ?I believe it to be the best for all concerned.?

Baylor volunteer assistant coach Trevor Mote, who had been working primarily with Baylor?s pitchers, has been promoted to full-time assistant for the rest of the season. Mote is in his fourth season on staff.

Thompson had served as Baylor?s primary recruiting coordinator in his time with the program, helping to bring in six top 25 recruiting classes since 1998. He was named National Assistant Coach of the Year in 2006 by the American Baseball Coaches Association after landing the No. 1-ranked class in the nation.

Baylor athletic officials said they?d have no further comment about Thompson?s reassignment"

[MSUDawg4Life]

Hilarious.

I was also staunchly in Cohen's corner early on. I, too, was tired of Polk's "that's baseball" attitude and was ready for a fiery competitor. I felt like we needed a change of culture here. Not to mention I was very impressed with what Cohen was doing at Kentucky. I didn't and still don't have the detailed knowledge of the players and the program, but I know that I wanted Cohen over Raffo and any other choices out there.

I'll admit that my only detraction was the brouhaha about Cohen cursing in front of the kids. I didn't like that, but everything else has been just what the doctor ordered as far as I'm concerned.

[SignalToNoise]

Whatever happened to CC Watson?

[Coach34]

Whatever happened to CC Watson?

left because of arm injuries

[swdawg]

Wasn't IndependenceBowlMainstay the asshole who guaranteed that Nick James and Quay Evans would "never play a down" of football for MSU?

[Esmerelda Villalobos]

Also said wes rea wasnt a d2 baseball player

[Todd4State]

Wasn't IndependenceBowlMainstay the asshole who guaranteed that Nick James and Quay Evans would "never play a down" of football at for MSU?

Yes, and has never been seen again.

It's really an interesting thread because you can see how they use propaganda. Trying to get a "respected" poster (Me, and I say that with the knowledge that he probably bashes a lot of what I have to say behind my back) to agree with them. He also threw out a reference about Cohen throwing players under the bus- something that he simply doesn't do.

What you didn't see later on in that thread- we had a lot of freshmen that year, and he makes the argument that if our freshmen were any good, they would be starting and contributing right away. Some of the freshmen that year included Stratton, Graveman, Girodo- ALL were top 10 picks. Two of the guys that left the team ended up drafted after going JUCO as well- Matt Lane and Kolby Byrd. That class also included Nick Vickerson, Jaron Shepherd, Jonathan Ogden, and Wes Thigpen- all very productive JUCO players.

Another thing later on in that thread- he talks about how bad Kentucky looked that year. In other words, subtly applying the "Cohen left UK in shambles" card.

[messageboardsuperhero]

And I'll say this to- I have actually seen our team play in person, and we are much more enjoyable to watch to me than we were the past two seasons. I really got tired of Polk's "That's baseball" schtick. And I wish I had one of my best friends here posting to verify this, but everything that happened under Polk II's tenure, I predicted except for the CWS appearance in 2007 and the 05 SEC Tournament. We may not be good, but we are at least playing baseball the way it is supposed to be played. Maybe not well all the time, but we're doing things that make sense, and I feel like Cohen is at least trying to win. Polk really didn't care if we won or not at the end of his career.


Hmmm... Substitue Ray for Cohen and Stansbury for Polk and you've got similar situations. I'm not saying that Ray will have the success that Cohen has had, but he sure as hell deserves time to build his program.



Here's what I think will happen for the future of MSU baseball:

2010: We struggle have a losing season, get rid of more Polk players. We have another top 10 recruiting class.

2011: We start several freshmen and the pitchers are now Sophomore dominated. We improve. Recruits are skeptical after three straight losing seasons, we haul in a top 20 class though. We go to a regional.

2012: Pitchers are now juniors, Polk's players are almost entirely gone, position players are now So. dominated and we have a few freshmen at a couple of other positions. Young, but experienced. We make/ maybe host a regional. If we play really well maybe even make a SR.

2013: Cohen's first class are finally seniors, position playes are junior dominated, make a SR, maybe go to Omaha.

I think that's kind of the timeline we are looking at as a program right now. It sucks losing, though.

I've gotta say, you were pretty damn spot on. The Indybowl moron probably laughed at you (and the rest of us that supported Cohen) at the time, but who's laughing now?

[Todd4State]

I absolutely agree about Ray. He wasn't a big name hire, but as far as I can tell he seems to be a solid hire. I think he is definitely a better X's and O's guy than Stansbury. I don't know why we sometimes tend to "eat our own" at MSU. Everyone has their time and once it's over, it's time to move on. It's like every coaching move is personal with some people. I think if Ray gets support, he will be fine and might make some Sweet 16's.

Indy was definitely barking up the wrong tree if he thought I was going to turn on Cohen after I spent YEARS trying to get him hired by promoting him on message boards. What the hell did he really think I was supposed to say? Hey guys- I know I promoted Cohen for years, but you know what? Nevermind. Let's get Mitch Thompson.

I think some of their ire stems from another thread that I couldn't find where right after we hired Cohen, I proclaimed that Cohen would build our program back and take us back to being the top program in Mississippi and also that the Ole Miss program would gradually decline. THAT pissed them off. But here we are- the Clarion-Ledger is putting out posters of our players and calling the MSU baseball team "Our State's team" and they're trying to figure out how to fire Bianco.

[PMDawg]

This thread is full of awesome. Great job Todd.

[Drugdog]

Todd, If you ever change your name i suggest Nostradamus.

And in the fifth quatrain Todd says :
And in the year 2013,
The bulldogs of yore will enter into the Land of Milk and Honey known as a diamond shaped field where Fantastic play of young men in maroon and white uniforms display their skills in front of multitudes. Upon entering the final day of competition afore mentioned Bulldogs will fall just short, but will once again rise like the Phoenix and be back in the promised land in the year 2 0 1 4.

[FlabLoser]

Good stuff, but you need to mention a grassy knoll somewhere.