Cohen job will not be decided from the draft.

[Tbonewannabe]

Cohen has to make the post season next year regardless. If we get most of these guys to school great things are possible. A lot of schools deal with the draft so that isn't a true excuse.

[civildawg]

I feel like it will be a built in excuse for some people

[godlluB]

At this point, it doesn't look like the draft is going to hurt us much, so this conversation is probably moot.

[State82]

At this point, it doesn't look like the draft is going to hurt us much, so this conversation is probably moot.

Oh, it's going to hurt but I agree it will be moot as far as Cohen's job security. It's within his pay grade to take all this into consideration, have/make contingency plans and field a major D1 baseball squad that wins games. Period. He's no dummy and he knows this. I figure he gets it worked out. If not, the list of candidates waiting to take his place and get it figured out will be long and distinguished. Especially when Scott drops a set of construction plans on the conference table in front of said candidates with their new venue laid out in front of them. Yes, this draft is going to make it much harder on Cohen but there are too many freshmen scattered at D1 schools all over the country that are making their mark so far this year so he has to put up or get gone.

[smootness]

At this point, it doesn't look like the draft is going to hurt us much, so this conversation is probably moot.

I think it's going to hurt more than you think. Right now it looks like there's a good chance we lose Riley and Fenter and at least a decent chance we lose Pickett, Small, and possibly Marrero. Lowe is also one to watch.

[HSVDawg]

Agreed. Even if everyone but Riley comes to school, there is still a very high possibility that a minimum of 80% of these kids aren't going to be ready for immediate SEC playing time their first year, regardless of how highly regarded they were coming out of high school. Time and time again I've seen our fans talk about guys like Hunter Renfroe, Daryl Norris, Lindgren, Fitts, Woodruff, Humphreys, Dakota Hudson, Jesse McCord, etc. coming in and completely taking the SEC by storm their freshmen year. The light bulb just doesn't come on for these guys their first year 90% of the time, and for many of them it never comes on. Guys like Gavin Collins and Jonathan Holder are very much the exception rather than the rule, and we typically don't ever get more than 1 or 2 guys per year like that at most.

Bottom line is Cohen will sink or swim next year based on the talent that is currently on campus improving significantly over summer ball and fall camp. Also, Cohen and Butch are going to have to make significant philosophy changes to their respective hitting and pitching approaches to make us competitive in the current era with the new ball. There is no magic bullet in this recruiting class that can be reasonably expected to save us next year.

[dawgs]

Agreed. Even if everyone but Riley comes to school, there is still a very high possibility that a minimum of 80% of these kids aren't going to be ready for immediate SEC playing time their first year, regardless of how highly regarded they were coming out of high school. Time and time again I've seen our fans talk about guys like Hunter Renfroe, Daryl Norris, Lindgren, Fitts, Woodruff, Humphreys, Dakota Hudson, Jesse McCord, etc. coming in and completely taking the SEC by storm their freshmen year. The light bulb just doesn't come on for these guys their first year 90% of the time, and for many of them it never comes on. Guys like Gavin Collins and Jonathan Holder are very much the exception rather than the rule, and we typically don't ever get more than 1 or 2 guys per year like that at most.

Bottom line is Cohen will sink or swim next year based on the talent that is currently on campus improving significantly over summer ball and fall camp. Also, Cohen and Butch are going to have to make significant philosophy changes to their respective hitting and pitching approaches to make us competitive in the current era with the new ball. There is no magic bullet in this recruiting class that can be reasonably expected to save us next year.

Not finding freshmen that come in and produce immediately is a big part of our problem. Every super regional game I watched had multiple freshmen producing at above avg rates playing key roles. While we are over here getting 1 good year out of a guy before he gets drafted or graduates.

[maroonmania]

Not finding freshmen that come in and produce immediately is a big part of our problem. Every super regional game I watched had multiple freshmen producing at above avg rates playing key roles. While we are over here getting 1 good year out of a guy before he gets drafted or graduates.

That's one of the reasons I'm not as high on Butch as some others are. Maybe its just been poor recruiting but it seems we rarely ever get anything out of freshman pitchers. I can count on less than one hand FR pitchers under this regime that were real contributors. Holder for sure and Stratton was pretty good as a FR (though he went backward as a SO) but beyond that we haven't gotten much. And I'm talking true FR (not RFR) because in baseball once you get a guy on campus you have 3 years and he's open to the draft. If you have to burn a year redshirting you really only have 2 years left with him if he turns out to be a high end performer. I'm really hoping I see something different in this department with so many potentially great pitching prospects coming in with this class.

[CadaverDawg]

Not finding freshmen that come in and produce immediately is a big part of our problem. Every super regional game I watched had multiple freshmen producing at above avg rates playing key roles. While we are over here getting 1 good year out of a guy before he gets drafted or graduates.

I noticed that too. We aren't getting nearly the amount of production that we SHOULD be getting out of our best recruits.

Then again, we do get more production than expected out of some not so highly recruited players as well...so it isn't ALL bad.

[HSVDawg]

Not finding freshmen that come in and produce immediately is a big part of our problem. Every super regional game I watched had multiple freshmen producing at above avg rates playing key roles. While we are over here getting 1 good year out of a guy before he gets drafted or graduates.

I totally agree with that as well, but its not our most pressing problem currently. When we made our Omaha run 2 years ago, it wasn't because of a bunch of hot shot freshmen (in fact, I can't think of one freshmen on that team that contributed significantly). Lets say we have 4 guys from the incoming class that are major contributors off the bat, two pitchers and two hitters. Based on our past history as well as that of other SEC teams, that would pretty much be our best case scenario. Even if that happens, we aren't going to be any better if we can't get about a .280 cumulative average and 15-20 HR's from Humphreys / Rooker, can't get Jesse McCord to turn a corner and be a legit weekend starter or elite level reliever, can't find somebody that can close a game, and can't get Gavin Collins to return to his freshmen level form. Last year's team was just an abomination both offensively as well as on the mound, and a few guys from one recruiting class aren't going to be able to close the gap from last place in the SEC to a regional team and at the same time replace the production of the guys that graduated. We need MAJOR improvement from the guys that are already on campus to get to where we need to be, and for Cohen to be our coach beyond 2016.

[CadaverDawg]

As much as I agree that we aren't maximizing our offense....at the end of the day our most pressing issue is pitching. And I feel we are addressing that in a big way in this class. I expect to see several freshmen arms get valuable minutes next season. If our pitching is where it should be next year, we'll be right back as a 2 or 3 in a Regional. Now, if we want to start talking Hosting and/or National Seed....we will have to start maximizing our offensive potential in addition to those pitching improvements.

My opinion

[dawgs]

I totally agree with that as well, but its not our most pressing problem currently. When we made our Omaha run 2 years ago, it wasn't because of a bunch of hot shot freshmen (in fact, I can't think of one freshmen on that team that contributed significantly). Lets say we have 4 guys from the incoming class that are major contributors off the bat, two pitchers and two hitters. Based on our past history as well as that of other SEC teams, that would pretty much be our best case scenario. Even if that happens, we aren't going to be any better if we can't get about a .280 cumulative average and 15-20 HR's from Humphreys / Rooker, can't get Jesse McCord to turn a corner and be a legit weekend starter or elite level reliever, can't find somebody that can close a game, and can't get Gavin Collins to return to his freshmen level form. Last year's team was just an abomination both offensively as well as on the mound, and a few guys from one recruiting class aren't going to be able to close the gap from last place in the SEC to a regional team and at the same time replace the production of the guys that graduated. We need MAJOR improvement from the guys that are already on campus to get to where we need to be, and for Cohen to be our coach beyond 2016.

Gavin Collins will be fine if he didn't let the injury mess him up mentally. Anyone that thought he'd bounce back without missing a beat from hamate bone surgery hasn't paid attention to MLB guys that have gone through the same injury. it usually results in a lost season even once the guy is back from the DL because it takes several more months for guys to return to pre-injury form.

And of course we need the guys on campus to improve. But for the long term health of the program, we need to start getting some freshmen on campus that produce immediately and give us 3 good seasons before they are drafted. Besides holder, when was the last time we had a guy that gave us 3 quality seasons before getting drafted? Having a couple of guys improve to being quality sec players and potential MLB draft picks doesn't do a whole lot of all our freshmen and sophomores can't figure out how to produce until their junior seasons. You need production out of players over all classes to have a sustainable roster.

[maroonmania]

Besides holder, when was the last time we had a guy that gave us 3 quality seasons before getting drafted? Having a couple of guys improve to being quality sec players and potential MLB draft picks doesn't do a whole lot of all our freshmen and sophomores can't figure out how to produce until their junior seasons. You need production out of players over all classes to have a sustainable roster.

Best I can think of would be Adam Frazier but even he was late in his FR year before he really came on but that's to be expected. As far as pitchers though the list is just Holder, Ross gave us 3 good years but he was never a pro prospect.