Anybody else excited about baseball starting this week??

[CadaverDawg]

I'm pumped, but a little surprised that the best MSU baseball board on the web doesn't have more baseball chatter.,

Any guesses on lineup/rotation?

What will you be "satisfied" with this weekend? What will exceed expectations, or fall short?

Also, while I know Pilk looked solid as a Freshman, he rarely went deeper than 4-5 innings. He had a solid summer, but why is everyone so confident that we have "a legit SEC Ace"? Not disagreeing, just hoping we aren't setting ourselves up for a let down with too high of expectations for Pilk. I'm a big Pilk guy though, as you all know...just playing devil's advocate.

Also, what's the verdict on Marrero? Going to play, or no? I thought grades were a major problem.

Let's talk baseball!

[msstate7]

No. I want to keep melting over basketball**

Heck yeah... I'll be there for Sunday's game vs TT

[CadaverDawg]

No. I want to keep melting over basketball**

Heck yeah... I'll be there for Sunday's game vs TT

I just now realized we only play Tech twice. Would be great to split with them imo, and then win both vs the Leathernecks. After seeing & hearing from coach Cann...I just don't see us sleepwalking against shitty teams under him like we did occasionally under John. AC seems to be a high energy 24/7 SOB

[SaintDawg]

Very excited!!! Got my first season tickets this year. Chairbacks in Sec K, Row 10. They're not together, but same row. Close enough and good enough for me!

[AusTexDawg]

Since basketball doesn't do much for me, I've been jonesing for some baseball for a while. I'll be more than satisfied if we split with Tech and win both against a bottom-dweller in the Summit League. It'll stink if we lose both games to the Red Raiders, but I won't freak out if they're close games with few errors on our part.

Regarding Pilk, hopefully he can handle the pressure. I kinda wish the 3rd game were against Tech, since I'm wondering if Henderson will have to get Butch Thompson-ly creative with the staff to get us through game 4 against a well-coached, quality team that is unlikely to beat themselves with errors. I get that the 4-game schedule is designed to force us to test our depth, I'm afraid the path from the bullpen to the mound will get more work this weekend than during the other 4-game weekends.

[HoopsDawg]

I think we throw Pilk and Cyr against Texas Tech. No idea on the 2 games vs Western Illinois.

Lineup is going to be:
Mangum, CF
Rooker, RF
Poole, LF
Stoval, 2B
Gridley, SS
Alexander, 3B
Lovelady, C
Gordon, 1B
Bragg, DH

[shoeless joe]

I don't get to focus on state baseball like I'd like...especially early season so I always go in with very little knowledge or expectations, bus since it is my favorite sport I'm always excited to see it get underway.

Based on what we did last year and who's back I'd say our fortunes ride with the pitching. If we get a little better than expected I could see us surprising some folks. About what we expect or below and I could see a melt over the new coach. Speaking of that I'm very interested to see what AC brings to the team. I am definitely a "Cohen guy" but I could see AC providing a newish spark to the program.

[maroonmania]

Since basketball doesn't do much for me, I've been jonesing for some baseball for a while. I'll be more than satisfied if we split with Tech and win both against a bottom-dweller in the Summit League. It'll stink if we lose both games to the Red Raiders, but I won't freak out if they're close games with few errors on our part.

Regarding Pilk, hopefully he can handle the pressure. I kinda wish the 3rd game were against Tech, since I'm wondering if Henderson will have to get Butch Thompson-ly creative with the staff to get us through game 4 against a well-coached, quality team that is unlikely to beat themselves with errors. I get that the 4-game schedule is designed to force us to test our depth, I'm afraid the path from the bullpen to the mound will get more work this weekend than during the other 4-game weekends.

I don't think this particular pitching staff needs to see many 4 game weekend sets. Injuries have just taken away most of our pitching depth.

[BB30]

I just now realized we only play Tech twice. Would be great to split with them imo, and then win both vs the Leathernecks. After seeing & hearing from coach Cann...I just don't see us sleepwalking against shitty teams under him like we did occasionally under John. AC seems to be a high energy 24/7 SOB

We will occasionally sleep walk on bad teams because that is the nature of baseball. It is a fairly long season and it is tough to bring it every day. That being said having a "high energy SOB" should benefit us some in this area. I think we could have some let downs against weaker teams this year due to the fact that we will be young on the mound. That lends itself to having a few games where we throw young guys in the fire midweek and they struggle with walks etc. We also tend to draw a weekend guy for the weaker teams and with baseball some of those teams happen to have a very talented #1. That is what makes baseball so great it is just as much an individual match up as it is a team sport. An average team with a great arm on the mound can beat a great team any given day.

[maroonwhitedawg3ddd]

Yep i'm ready for some baseball!

[AusTexDawg]

I don't think this particular pitching staff needs to see many 4 game weekend sets. Injuries have just taken away most of our pitching depth.

Agreed. That's why I'm not sure what we're going to do for middle relief by the time those game 4s roll around.

[MaroonFlounder]

I just wish we could find a way to get Cody Brown on the field. He's paid his dues. Has the same energy that Mangum does, and is a helluva competitor. It looks like he will be nothing but a late-inning replacement/pinch hitter.

[bulldogcountry1]

I'm pretty amped up. This is my favorite time of year.

I suppose I'm not as worried as most seem to be about our chances. Yeah, we have a few key injuries, but look at what were were facing this time last year. Nobody had even heard of most of the guys that ended up being key to our success. We have 6 experienced SEC-caliber starters on the defensive side, we have a Friday ace, and we have our two best bullpen guys back. That's nothing be be depressed over, and that's just the start. other guys will step up and fill in roles.

As to your question about Pilk, we went into last year with Hudson being hailed as elite and a 1st rounder, but he had actually done very little to contribute on the field at that point. Pilk was effective from day 1, and has consistently progressed. He really hasn't done anything to make me think he can't and won't handle the responsibility.

I am a bit surprised that 1st base hasn't been won yet.


Personally, I like the 4 game weekends. It forces you to play more guys and see what everyone can do under the lights. Yeah, you may not have your best 9 out there with the game on the line, but someone may surprise you. The other teams typically have to play 4 as well, so it evens out. I think those extra ABs and pitches pay dividends in the long term.

[bulldogcountry1]

I just wish we could find a way to get Cody Brown on the field. He's paid his dues. Has the same energy that Mangum does, and is a helluva competitor. It looks like he will be nothing but a late-inning replacement/pinch hitter.

He could start at 1st base.

[louisvilledawg]

I think we throw Pilk and Cyr against Texas Tech. No idea on the 2 games vs Western Illinois.

Lineup is going to be:
Mangum, CF
Rooker, RF
Poole, LF
Stoval, 2B
Gridley, SS
Alexander, 3B
Lovelady, C
Gordon, 1B
Bragg, DH

What do you think will be the batting order?

[HoopsDawg]

What do you think will be the batting order?

No clue other than Mangum is the lead off guy.

[preachermatt83]

Anything less than 3-1 will be disappointing.
My guess on opening day Lineup.
1-Mangum-CF
2-Gridley-SS
3-Rooker-RF
4-Gordon-1b
5-Bragg-DH
6-Poole-LF
7-Alexander-3b
8-Stoval-2b
9-Lovelady-c


I think our 4 starters on the mound will be Pilk, Cyr, Self, and Ashcraft

[preachermatt83]

Bragg better show up like he has in the spring. If he shows up like he did in fall or summer he won't play long.

[Schultzy]

Cannizzaro is coaching an aggressive approach at the plate is what I'm fired up about and we have some pop
too.
The extended forecast for the rest of February is is almost looking too good to be true, please let that be.

It's gonna be some slugfests at Dude this year I think.

[I seen it dawg]

Very fired up. Great weather, round at Waverly, brand new baseball season, hoops and baseball all day Saturday. Can't get much better.

We lost a helluva lot on last yrs team gonna take a little time for guys to get acclimated to this level of baseball. That being said I'm excited about the style canni is gonna bring to this spring.

[Choctaw Dawg]

Bold Predictions
1. Rooker has an amazing year, thinking 13-16 Home runs
2. Marrero has bad start but rebounds as the season heats up
3. Mangum hits over .380, which would be a sophmore slump for him
4. We will have fantastic infield defense
5. Teams will take complete advantage over our lack of leftys in the Bullpen unfortunately
6. Bragg may be average, hope im wrong but i say that because he doesn't have the defense that will get us anywhere, maybe he will DH
7. Our bullpen will be better than we think
8. Thinking in the range of 16-18 conference wins

[Todd4State]

I think we are most likely going to see:

Bullpen- Smith, Rigby, Spencer Price (may start- at any rate remember his name), Billingsley and then who knows from there? Ashcraft and Self are candidates to start- but I'm going to keep them in the bullpen for now. And then you have Andrew Mahoney, Kale Breaux who has been pitching better lately, and maybe Parker Ford. Denver McQuary will get a look too.

Rotation- Fri. Pilkington. He pitched well for us in SEC play and won some big games and then he was dominant in the Cape Cod League. Saturday I think Cyr will get the first shot and I think he will be OK. And then this could change but at the moment it looks like it's going to be Peyton Plumlee vs. Cole Gordon for the Sunday spot. My edge right now would be with Plumlee. I'm thinking that they will battle it out against Western Illinois.

The long and short of it- our starting rotation isn't as good as last years, but at the same time our bullpen is better. And as a result we're going to rely a lot more on the Blake Smith's and Ryan Rigby's more than we did last year when it was Friday night- complete game by Dakota Hudson, Saturday night- complete game by Austin Sexton, etc.


Marrero and Lovelady are going to split the catcher spot at least initially unless one of them clearly emerges to the point where we have to play whichever one is playing better. Dustin Skelton is going to catch some as well. Lovelady probably starts Friday.

I think the infield is going to be:

1B- Cole Gordon and then Cody Brown when Gordon isn't pitching.
2B- Hunter Stovall
3B- LA- which sucks because it doesn't optimize our MIF defense and it means that Harrison Bragg isn't far enough along defensively to start at this point.
SS- Gridley.

I think the OF will most likely be:

LF- Tanner Poole
CF- Mangum
RF- Rooker

With Brant Blaylock and Vince MacNamee nipping at Poole's heels. Cody Brown could play some here as well.

I think Harrison Bragg is going to be the primary DH for now at least. He's starting to hit better but he hasn't quite put it all together yet.

[Steakonastick]

I'm gonna guess we see Davis Friday night.

Cf mangum
2b Stovall
Ss Gridley
Rf Rooker
Dh gordon
1b brown
Lf poole
C lovelady
3b Alexander

If it was me making the decision

Cf mangum
Ss Gridley
Rf Rooker
1b gordon
Dh macnamee
2b Stovall
Lf poole
C marrero
3b Skelton

[state66]

Todd, why are you so high on Blaylock? Not to rag him but he led the fall in strikeouts and every scrimmage report I have seen thus far for the spring shows him striking out most at bats and 0 production.

[Todd4State]

Todd, why are you so high on Blaylock? Not to rag him but he led the fall in strikeouts and every scrimmage report I have seen thus far for the spring shows him striking out most at bats and 0 production.

Well, I think he's in the fifth-sixth outfielder group behind Rooker, Mangum, Poole, and Cody Brown right now so I don't know if that's being really high on someone. My point is if Poole struggles Blaylock and MacNamee may get some time out there.

Long term I think Blaylock has a chance to develop into a very good player for us. He can run and defend well and has a good arm. This summer he participated in his summer leagues HR derby.

[cohening4life]

From the looks of the previous scrimmages, it seems to me that Blaylock has zero approach at the plate. He will quickly realize that opposing pitchers throw more than just fastballs throughout an at-bat and struggle early. Will benefit from potential midweek ab's to gain some confidence.

[AusTexDawg]

Just heard Cannizaro talk about the starting rotation for this weekend on MPB:
- Friday: Pilkington
- Saturday: Plumlee
- Sunday vs. Tech: Cyr
- Sunday vs. Western: TBD, possibly Ashcraft