Why Andy Cannizaro was a home run hire

[DeviousDawg]

1. First and foremost, he was the hottest young name in College Baseball due to his elite recruiting and evaluating abilities.

2. He is young and gets along with players and recruits on a level that Cohen could not.

3. He grew up around baseball coaches as his dad was a head coach on the high school and college level.

4. He played under two of the best Managers in recent MLB history in Joe Torre and Joe Madden.

5. As a former MLB scout, he has connections within the league that can give him honest opinions on whether certain recruits are MLB draft threats out of high school.

6. He coached under one of the best College baseball coaches in the country in Mainieri. He knows how SEC baseball works and built relationships throughout the Southeast that will benefit us in recruiting.

7. He is a hitting coach first and did a great job adjusting swings during his time in Baton Rouge.

8. He is a players coach that lets players play to their strengths and will not try to force a square peg into a round hole.

9. This is the biggest one for me. Most peoples biggest problem with Cannizaro is that he has no head coaching experience, however, he is sandwiched between two guys that have decades of head coaching experience in the SEC. The guy directly above him, AD John Cohen, has 13 years of head coaching experience in the SEC, and 17 total years of D1 head baseball coaching experience. The guy directly below him, Assistant HC/pitching coach Gary Henderson, has 8 years of head coaching experience in the SEC.

I have a feeling that he is going to absolutely kill it here. My prediction: Coach Cannizaro wins a National Championship at Mississippi State in the next 5 years. I will be bookmarking this post so that I can bump it at a later date.

[JoseBrown]

I agree 100% with every point you just made!

[Todd4State]

I think the biggest question is how he actually does managing during games because while he has a lot of experience being around the game, being around great coaches, and access to great coaches it’s totally different when you have the keys to the car. I think he will be fine but there could be some learning that goes on as well and it may cost us a few games early on.

As I have said I think Cohen’s biggest weaknesses were sometimes overworking the team too hard if things weren’t going well- I think that’s part of what happened his first two years and maybe to a lesser extent in 2015. Cannizaro is just as intense and competitive as Cohen but from what I have been told he is also very level headed which will hopefully prevent things like 2015 from happening.

The other two things that Cohen needed to do a better job of were getting more high level recruits to MSU and to keep some of the higher end juniors for their senior year. Vanderbilt and LSU do a good job getting higher end recruits to campus. If we can start to do that it will give us a better chance to win in Omaha. And LSU does a great job keeping guys for their senior years. LSU players gave Cannizaro a lot of credit for that. If we do better in those two areas it will help us immensely.

The only other big change I foresee is that we will steal more bases more than likely and I think that will help our offense out. I’m a little surprised that Cohen didn’t steal more than he did. Cannizaro is supposed to be a good coach when it comes to baserunning so that will hopefully improve some as well although that did get better over time with Cohen as well.

Henderson may very well be a good pitching coach, but I hope he moves along in a couple of years so that we can get LSU’s pitching coach. At least that’s how I hope it works out. I also hope that Cannizaro can unite the Polk vs. Cohen people and that the hatchet can be buried there. That will help with the stadium and all of the other things that we need to be a top tier program.

[msbulldog]

1. First and foremost, he was the hottest young name in College Baseball due to his elite recruiting and evaluating abilities.

2. He is young and gets along with players and recruits on a level that Cohen could not.

3. He grew up around baseball coaches as his dad was a head coach on the high school and college level.

4. He played under two of the best Managers in recent MLB history in Joe Torre and Joe Madden.

5. As a former MLB scout, he has connections within the league that can give him honest opinions on whether certain recruits are MLB draft threats out of high school.

6. He coached under one of the best College baseball coaches in the country in Mainieri. He knows how SEC baseball works and built relationships throughout the Southeast that will benefit us in recruiting.

7. He is a hitting coach first and did a great job adjusting swings during his time in Baton Rouge.

8. He is a players coach that lets players play to their strengths and will not try to force a square peg into a round hole.

9. This is the biggest one for me. Most peoples biggest problem with Cannizaro is that he has no head coaching experience, however, he is sandwiched between two guys that have decades of head coaching experience in the SEC. The guy directly above him, AD John Cohen, has 13 years of head coaching experience in the SEC, and 17 total years of D1 head baseball coaching experience. The guy directly below him, Assistant HC/pitching coach Gary Henderson, has 8 years of head coaching experience in the SEC.

I have a feeling that he is going to absolutely kill it here. My prediction: Coach Cannizaro wins a National Championship at Mississippi State in the next 5 years. I will be bookmarking this post so that I can bump it at a later date.

Good post, I hope your right. +1

[TNDawg35]

I have always thought he was a great recruiter and coach. I remember watching the Arkansas vs LSU game last yr where they came back from way down. He pulled everyone in the dugout and looked like he was really coaching them up. Of course, I have no actual clue what he said, for all I know he may have chewed them a new one right there, but whatever he said, it worked. Im very excited about our baseball program and cant wait to see whats in store. We are pulling excellent classes, have the mecca of college baseball headed our way, and Coach Can leading the way. The future looks very very bright guys!!

[Mjoelner34]

I think #5 is a huge deal. Its screwed up how in college baseball you're scared to recruit the best so you have to evaluate down and start with almost the best and a lot of times thats a very fuzzy line.

[Tbonewannabe]

If we can start to get those high talent guys that LSU, Vandy, and UF get into school then National Championship here we come.

[blacklistedbully]

I have loved this hire since the moment it was announced. Young, skilled, connected, enthusiastic, GRATEFUL TO BE HERE, able to lean on Cohen and Henderson until he doesn't need to, reporting to a kick-ass former HC who will always want to give him what he needs....he could be here for decades, building a first-rate dynasty.

Great chance he becomes a legendary coach at MSU. Great chance people will eventually talk about the Can/Cohen duo creation as being the point we went from being a great baseball program that occasionally gets to the CWS to a dominating program that is a perennial CWS participate, and favorite to win it all.