Ok so reading the baseball commit threads, pitching is fantastic...

[whosyourdawgy]

But what do we have coming in that is gonna help in the hitting department? Help an uneducated Dog out

[Todd4State]

Marrero, Stovall, Alexander, and Mangum are the best hitters in the class IMO. I think Blaylock will be a good hitter but will need some development and add some muscle. It's a good class as far as hitting for average, but not so good as far as power. One of the JUCO's in the class- Nate Lowe will compete for the first base spot next year and he does have some power.

[whosyourdawgy]

I'm tired of no power. I want a team that can hit it out of the park not barely out of the infield

[Smitty]

It's a good class as far as hitting for average, but not so good as far as power.

How do we know these guys aren't Matt Spruills, Kyle Hanns or Nick Ammiratis at the dish?

Will they hit 12+ XBH? Because that needs to start being the floor. If you can't get 12 XBH you better make up for it. The glove can buy you up to 4. Speed can buy you up to 2.

If you can't cut 6 XBH we will pass on to the next guy. That's the Smitty plan.

[MabenMaroon]

I'm tired of no power. I want a team that can hit it out of the park not barely out of the infield

A couple of years ago UCLA won a Natty pretty much playing station to station ball and excellent upperclassmen pitching ....

[Smitty]

A couple of years ago UCLA won a Natty pretty much playing station to station ball and excellent upperclassmen pitching ....

Oh here's some anectodal evidence**

Exceptions and norms. Pitching gets you to the dance, you cannot make it far without pitching. We all get that. But when everyone has good pitching it's the teams that can HIT that separate themselves.

Had this same post on Six Pack about 3 years ago.

[Tbonewannabe]

A couple of years ago UCLA won a Natty pretty much playing station to station ball and excellent upperclassmen pitching ....

They also had clutch hitting. The thing that we were awful at last year.

I don't care about HRs as much as seeing some folks hitting some doubles to drive in runs and not having the fastest player in the SEC hitting behind the slowest.

I would say that is the single dumbest baseball coaching decision I have seen in my life. Only Cohen could stop Robson's speed by putting someone in front of him preventing him from taking extra bases.

[Todd4State]

Oh here's some anectodal evidence**

Exceptions and norms. Pitching gets you to the dance, you cannot make it far without pitching. We all get that. But when everyone has good pitching it's the teams that can HIT that separate themselves.

Had this same post on Six Pack about 3 years ago.

Augie Garrido disagrees. He has won multiple NC's at Cal State-Fullerton and Texas with big time small ball teams, Vanderbilt last year as well.

The biggest coorelation between all the recent NC's is two dominant starting pitchers and a dominant closer. There have been a lot of different offensive styles that have won NC's- Bertman with power hitting teams and everything in between.

Now, I'm not saying that small ball is the way we should go- just that it isn't exactly a one time thing with UCLA. I want to have a good balance of both power and speed.

[Todd4State]

How do we know these guys aren't Matt Spruills, Kyle Hanns or Nick Ammiratis at the dish?

Will they hit 12+ XBH? Because that needs to start being the floor. If you can't get 12 XBH you better make up for it. The glove can buy you up to 4. Speed can buy you up to 2.

If you can't cut 6 XBH we will pass on to the next guy. That's the Smitty plan.

Because they have more talent and I've seen most of them play in person. And yes, I do think that they can hit more than 6-12 XBH a year.

[Todd4State]

I'm tired of no power. I want a team that can hit it out of the park not barely out of the infield

We all do. Maybe one year our coaches will not rely on just hoping the draft is kind to us.

[I seen it dawg]

Oh here's some anectodal evidence**

Exceptions and norms. Pitching gets you to the dance, you cannot make it far without pitching. We all get that. But when everyone has good pitching it's the teams that can HIT that separate themselves.

Had this same post on Six Pack about 3 years ago.

Well go back there. You have no baseball to stand on here.

[War Machine Dawg]

How do we know these guys aren't Matt Spruills, Kyle Hanns or Nick Ammiratis at the dish?

Will they hit 12+ XBH? Because that needs to start being the floor. If you can't get 12 XBH you better make up for it. The glove can buy you up to 4. Speed can buy you up to 2.

If you can't cut 6 XBH we will pass on to the next guy. That's the Smitty plan.


Oh here's some anectodal evidence**

Exceptions and norms. Pitching gets you to the dance, you cannot make it far without pitching. We all get that. But when everyone has good pitching it's the teams that can HIT that separate themselves.

Had this same post on Six Pack about 3 years ago.

Not to mention the new ball is improving offense (outside of Starkville, at least), so being able to hit gappers is even more critical. Enough of this trying to bunt our way to 2 runs a game bullshit. Either find some players who can hit some damn doubles or hit the road.

[Joe Schmedlap]

Question?
Will there be a new hitting coach who can develop these guys to be BETTER hitters than they were upon arrival? If not, history has shown they are more likely to regress.

[I seen it dawg]

Lol give up coaching changes people.

[War Machine Dawg]

Lol give up coaching changes people.

This. If Cohen hasn't made any moves yet, he isn't going to make any. I'd like to give him the benefit of the doubt as a lot of top assistants have been tied up with the NCAAT, but that shouldn't have stopped him from making a move with the S&C staff. Those guys are a dime a dozen and finding a good one should be pretty easy. The fact he didn't even make that change tells me all I need to know about whether or not he'll make any staff changes. He had an opportunity to renovate the house and hasn't taken it. When it starts going south again next season, after he wastes the fall without deciding who our best 9-12 are, I'm going to be merciless.

[smootness]

People focus too much on power. What we need more than anything is just a group of quality hitters. Marrero is the definition of a quality hitter.

[Tbonewannabe]

This. If Cohen hasn't made any moves yet, he isn't going to make any. I'd like to give him the benefit of the doubt as a lot of top assistants have been tied up with the NCAAT, but that shouldn't have stopped him from making a move with the S&C staff. Those guys are a dime a dozen and finding a good one should be pretty easy. The fact he didn't even make that change tells me all I need to know about whether or not he'll make any staff changes. He had an opportunity to renovate the house and hasn't taken it. When it starts going south again next season, after he wastes the fall without deciding who our best 9-12 are, I'm going to be merciless.

And if we look the same next year as we did this year no one will be on the other side of that argument. Similar to Croom saying he will get another Offensive coordinator after the offense sucks for a long time and he is getting fired. If we have another year of punch and judy hitters and we don't improve not much to say. Cohen knows there is a problem, it is up him to decide what he wants to do. I am sure he knows the ramifications of not changing anything with the same results.

[Smitty]

People focus too much on power. What we need more than anything is just a group of quality hitters. Marrero is the definition of a quality hitter.

We hope. Not buying anymore croot hype with this crew.

[blacklistedbully]

I'm tired of no power. I want a team that can hit it out of the park not barely out of the infield

This does not take into account the home field. We play in a pitcher's park, so it behooves us to have guys who can hit line drives, as opposed to long fly balls that are caught on the warning track. It is advantageous for us to have contact hitters who can advance runners, get a clutch hit with RISP, as opposed to guys who are feast or famine with the long ball.

Yes, it is true that being a long-ball-hitter doesn't necessarily mean the hitter can't also hit line drives, etc, but if you're mindset is that we need to favor guys who can hit home runs, that's probably not going to work out so well in our park, or Ameritrade for that matter, unless the ball change has made a HUGE difference for hitters at those kinds of fields as well.

[5 Star]

Florida: 2 guys hit double digit HRs:
Harrison Bader (6'0", 190 lb. Jr.) - hit 1 and 2 HRs his Fr. and So. seasons
JJ Schwarz (6'1", 205 lb. Fr.) - just a stud, can't argue him

Vanderbilt: 3 guys hit double digit HRs:
Dansby Swanson (6'1", 190 lb. Jr.) - hit 1 and 3 HRs his Fr. and So. seasons
Rhett Wiseman (6'1", 205 lb. Jr.) - hit 3 and 0 HRs his Fr. and So. seasons
Xander Wiel (6'3", 225 lb. RJr.) - hit 5 and 5 HRs his Fr. and So. seasons

Common theme, unless you're a 17th round stud that not many teams can get (Schwarz), you don't really drop a bunch of bombs until your 3rd year on campus. Second, you only need 2 or 3 guys hitting for that type of power. Again I say, stop worrying about power, it will come. Watch what Humphreys, Collins and Rooker do this year.

You want to win a national title? Recruit some lights out pitching, play ice cold defense, have adequate power, in that order. Adequate power is about the best you can hope for in today's college games, without sacrificing elsewhere. ESPECIALLY at Dudy Noble Field.

[Smitty]

This does not take into account the home field. We play in a pitcher's park, so it behooves us to have guys who can hit line drives, as opposed to long fly balls that are caught on the warning track. It is advantageous for us to have contact hitters who can advance runners, get a clutch hit with RISP, as opposed to guys who are feast or famine with the long ball.

Yes, it is true that being a long-ball-hitter doesn't necessarily mean the hitter can't also hit line drives, etc, but if you're mindset is that we need to favor guys who can hit home runs, that's probably not going to work out so well in our park, or Ameritrade for that matter, unless the ball change has made a HUGE difference for hitters at those kinds of fields as well.

What a false trade off. We need guys that can have gap power. Those guys will also be the guys that hit bombs. Home run hitters don't just fly out all the time and hit a low average.

Western Kentucky's power didn't hinder them that cold extra inning game this year did it? Our opponents out homered us 39-22 this year. But let's keep getting singles hitters.

[smootness]

Florida: 2 guys hit double digit HRs:
Harrison Bader (6'0", 190 lb. Jr.) - hit 1 and 2 HRs his Fr. and So. seasons
JJ Schwarz (6'1", 205 lb. Fr.) - just a stud, can't argue him

Vanderbilt: 3 guys hit double digit HRs:
Dansby Swanson (6'1", 190 lb. Jr.) - hit 1 and 3 HRs his Fr. and So. seasons
Rhett Wiseman (6'1", 205 lb. Jr.) - hit 3 and 0 HRs his Fr. and So. seasons
Xander Wiel (6'3", 225 lb. RJr.) - hit 5 and 5 HRs his Fr. and So. seasons

Common theme, unless you're a 17th round stud that not many teams can get (Schwarz), you don't really drop a bunch of bombs until your 3rd year on campus. Second, you only need 2 or 3 guys hitting for that type of power. Again I say, stop worrying about power, it will come. Watch what Humphreys, Collins and Rooker do this year.

You want to win a national title? Recruit some lights out pitching, play ice cold defense, have adequate power, in that order. Adequate power is about the best you can hope for in today's college games, without sacrificing elsewhere. ESPECIALLY at Dudy Noble Field.

Great post. It just takes time for most guys to develop in college baseball. People have compared the SEC to something like high A ball or so. Well, you're throwing a kid straight out of high school into that, and usually a guy who wasn't an elite prospect out of HS. It just takes time.

Benintendi hit 1 last year, 19 this year. The fact that Humphreys hit 6 this year means we could see a huge jump from him next year.

[blacklistedbully]

What a false trade off. We need guys that can have gap power. Those guys will also be the guys that hit bombs. Home run hitters don't just fly out all the time and hit a low average.

Western Kentucky's power didn't hinder them that cold extra inning game this year did it? Our opponents out homered us 39-22 this year. But let's keep getting singles hitters.

False trade-off my ass. You know exactly what I was talking about. I even said there are exceptions. But when you talk about getting guys because they are, "home-run hitters", that often means you're willing to sacrifice speed in pursuit of power.

Hitting doubles and triples isn't all about the ability to hit to the power alleys, but also about having a guy with the wheels to stretch those hits into doubles or triples. Guys that can do both are rare.

[State82]

People focus too much on power. What we need more than anything is just a group of quality hitters.

You nailed this statement about as well as you can. Simple but so true.

[smootness]

We hope. Not buying anymore croot hype with this crew.

But all recruits are unknowns, yet you're asking for better recruits. Well, as a recruit, Marrero is the definition of a quality hitter.

Sure, he could bust, but so could any 'power' hitter.