Coach Thompson

[berr6728]

In my opinion we can ill afford to lose Coach Thompson to Auburn baseball. We can stand to lose any other coach on staff, including our head coach, Cohen and be able to keep Butch. Losing Butch could set back our pitching staff after next year some 2 to 3 years, not to mnchen effect on recruiting, especially pitchers.

[msstate7]

I don't wanna lose butch, but I'm not sure he just had a great approach in the dead ball period. I don't want to pitch to contact anymore.

[bulldogcountry1]

The only way I see losing BT is if he can't coexist with Cohen. Everything else points to him having it made where he is at.

[engie]

I don't want to pitch to contact anymore.

Dude, seriously?

It's been one whole season since we were top 15 nationally in k/9(#13), which was another whole season since we were top 10 nationally in the same category, which was another whole season since we were #11 nationally in that category. We fell all the way to the top 1/3 nationally when things fell apart last year(top 100).

The main complaint about butch is something he's been top 30 nationally in in 4 of the last 5 years. Let that sink in.

[Bubb Rubb]

I don't wanna lose butch, but I'm not sure he just had a great approach in the dead ball period. I don't want to pitch to contact anymore.

Well you'd better hope we're recruiting 12 guys with 98 MPH gas and nasty sliders. In the real world, pitchers pitch to contact and get outs. Especially in a park as big as ours.

[Homedawg]

The only way I see losing BT is if he can't coexist with Cohen. Everything else points to him having it made where he is at.

No.....this is sec head job! This isn't ark st or uab, it's one of the 14 head jobs in the sec. The timing might be something that helps us. If this had taken place immediately after the season and he was offered, I'd say, for sure he's gone. As it stands, just wait and see, certainly possible.

[msstate7]

Well you'd better hope we're recruiting 12 guys with 98 MPH gas and nasty sliders. In the real world, pitchers pitch to contact and get outs. Especially in a park as big as ours.

I prefer velocity over movement at the moment. Although velocity and movement would be nice haha

I lost some confidence in butch when he continually ran Ross out there. Don't mind me... I'm still a little pissed off about last year and don't really care if we lose any of our coaches bc I think with my emotions a lot... Like now haha

[berr6728]

Have you ever thought that it might not have been Butch making that decision to keep sending out Ross.

[msstate7]

Have you ever thought that it might not have been Butch making that decision to keep sending out Ross.

From all we've been told, butch had complete control of pitching. If we've been told wrong, then I apologize to butch and criticize John for running Ross out there so much

[CadaverDawg]

Darryl Berryhill's patented "Cohen sucks" posts in September?....

https://media.giphy.com/media/yHUiExmU40A4U/giphy.gif

[engie]

From all we've been told, butch had complete control of pitching. If we've been told wrong, then I apologize to butch and criticize John for running Ross out there so much

There was talk of Cohen interference last year... Really don't know what we can believe or take from it. Probably nothing for as long as it can be considered an isolated outlier.

[engie]

Darryl Berryhill's patented "Cohen sucks" posts in September?....

https://media.giphy.com/media/yHUiExmU40A4U/giphy.gif

Lol, glad you said it. Hate I got sidetracked from my initial intention of doing the same

[messageboardsuperhero]

There was talk of Cohen interference last year... Really don't know what we can believe or take from it. Probably nothing for as long as it can be considered an isolated outlier.

Rumor I heard was Butch kept putting Ross out there until Cohen stepped in wanted more of Houston/Hudson- hence why we saw more of them as the season went on... Don't know if that's true or not, but it's what was told to me. I guess we'll never really know.

[CarolinaDawgs]

From all we've been told, butch had complete control of pitching. If we've been told wrong, then I apologize to butch and criticize John for running Ross out there so much

I know for a FACT that Cohen was making a lot of the pitching substitutions regardless of what Butch thought.

Is Butch the kinda guy that takes someone out in a 3-2 count or is Cohen? If you can't answer that then I'm sorry. I can't help you.

[engie]

Rumor I heard was Butch kept putting Ross out there until Cohen stepped in wanted more of Houston/Hudson- hence why we saw more of them as the season went on... Don't know if that's true or not, but it's what was told to me. I guess we'll never really know.

That was the popular rumor when the anti-butch sentiment was going around during the season. Personally, I'm going to choose not to believe it, based on butch's body of work overall... The guy who went away from a talent like Lindgren in his second year surely wouldn't be that hard-headed about Ross. Or maybe he was....

Clean slate, back to zero. I expect us to be elite this year and will be antsy in my pantsy for anything less from any facet

[Todd4State]

Rumor I heard was Butch kept putting Ross out there until Cohen stepped in wanted more of Houston/Hudson- hence why we saw more of them as the season went on... Don't know if that's true or not, but it's what was told to me. I guess we'll never really know.

This is the rumor that I heard as well. There was definitely some Cohen interference going on at the end of the year- but it was because of Butch going to guys like Ross ad nauseum.

And @engie it's not so much that Butch is hard headed as he is loyal. I guess that's hard headed though not that I have typed it.

Butch is sort of like Dan in that regard too- he trusts veterans typically over younger guys in most cases.

I love Butch- but he had a really bad year last year. If he had started Hudson, Sexton, and Tatum and then used Laster like Lindgren and then used Fitts/Houston out of the pen we would have made a regional.

[Todd4State]

That was the popular rumor when the anti-butch sentiment was going around during the season. Personally, I'm going to choose not to believe it, based on butch's body of work overall... The guy who went away from a talent like Lindgren in his second year surely wouldn't be that hard-headed about Ross. Or maybe he was....

Clean slate, back to zero. I expect us to be elite this year and will be antsy in my pantsy for anything less from any facet

As far as Lindgren that year- Butch had a lot more options on our staff then than he did last year. Graveman was solid as the ace, and Pollorena and Bracewell were solid veteran pitchers who could give us three solid innings to hand it off to our deep bullpen- plus Girodo emerged. And Ross could eat up innings as well.

[bulldogcountry1]

Rumor I heard was Butch kept putting Ross out there until Cohen stepped in wanted more of Houston/Hudson- hence why we saw more of them as the season went on... Don't know if that's true or not, but it's what was told to me. I guess we'll never really know.

I've said before here that I recall a televised game in the second half of the season. It was one of those moments where a pitching change was inevitable. The camera showed Butch and Cohen in the dugout disagreeing. They weren't in each other's face or anything. They were standing next to each other having heated words. Then, Butch came out on put in Ross. I always assumed that meant he won.

That really gave me doubts about Butch's ability to change with the times. Being loyal is admirable, but it will eventually lead to your downfall in Coaching. See Sylvester Croom. This also gives me doubts about his ability to be a head coach. Can he handle the hard decisions and put winning before loyalty? Does he want to try?