Todd4State
06-12-2017, 02:48 AM
This is the end of the first year of a new era of MSU baseball. Cohen going to Omaha was the high water mark for him and his era and that culminated with us winning the SEC last year. After that, we began a transition period that we are in the midst of with a new stadium being built and basically a new coaching staff. When we first hired Andy Canniazaro I was very skeptical of a few things. He had no experience and I expected a lot of first year coaching mistakes, I wasn't sure how he would mesh with Cohen's staff, and I wasn't sure if Cohen would stay out of the way or how that would play out. I would say that Andy Cannizaro has exceeded my expectations and is only going to get better. I think the coaching mistakes were at a minimum and I was very impressed with how he handled everything this year. The staff got along well enough and I don't remember a point where I thought- gee, why is Cohen in the dugout? In fact I think with a healthy pitching staff, we're probably SEC champs again and in Omaha. I think we have landed one of the elite baseball coaches in the country- and Tulane is probably kicking themselves because I'm pretty sure they just pulled off the biggest mistake in their program's history not hiring Cann.
I do like the fact that Cann was at LSU because he knows how they do things there and also their expectations and how they are built. I think one of the biggest mistakes MSU has made in baseball and why we don't have a NC yet is because we've tried to stay status quo going back to 1990 whereas LSU evolved and progressed. What eventually happened was we actually flamed out around 2008 I think because of that and it forced us into a situation where we ended up with a fractured fan base and a team that was low on SEC talent. Cohen built us back to where we were before aside from the 2015 season which I think was an anomaly more than anything but now I think we are ready to take that next step as a program.
But I think if you look at both MSU and LSU's programs there are to me two main differences. The main one is they are historically able to get as Shotgun put it perfectly yesterday more "will be drafted players" back for their senior years. I'm not talking about Jake Fraley or Alex Lange who I think will go pro. I'm talking about the Kramer Robertson's, Cole Freeman's, and etc. To me, it seems like the reason most of them come back is because they "want to win a championship for LSU". We have to somehow develop that kind of pride in our program to where players in that second tier talent bracket want to come back and want to win a championship for MSU rather than take 200K or whatever it is. Even if it's only two or three guys a year that do that for us- that makes a HUGE difference. Especially if you have a guy like Cody Brown who is a fifth year senior guy to go along with them and then you hopefully have at least 2-3 top 10 draft picks as juniors and the rest of the key guys being "will be drafted players" on the field for us.
I think we're actually pretty close to that. I mean- let's compare this team to Cohen's first team. I think for us it's more about evaluating signability better than anything. I think Cann will do that better than Cohen and Polk II isn't even in the same ballpark. You have to have a guy that can evaluate talent well and also signability. And I think you need a coach that players that want to go to college feel like will help them get to MLB- and I think Cann has that personality. I also think it's very important to have a very good pitching coach for us and historically I think it's been easier for us to find that than a good hitting coach. So, with Andy handling the hitters and someone like Gary Henderson I think we have a pretty good set-up for the future. To figure out the signability aspect you really need someone with scouting ties and connections and I think Cann has that moreso than any other coach we have ever had at MSU. So, as part of this new era of MSU baseball I think we are going to start to see some things that MSU fans aren't used to. And that's more guys coming back for their senior year and also higher end prospects coming to MSU as freshmen. And Cohen actually didn't do that bad of a job of bringing in higher end freshmen- but with Cann it's just going to get even better for us. And I think we're also going to see us recruiting and relying on the JUCO's less. My biggest personal gripe with Cohen was if we did lose a guy like Austin Riley, we would try to replace him with a JUCO. Some of that was because we didn't always evaluate signability that well and that's how we tried to band aid losses. But as we've seen that's feast or famine. We might end up with Lowe and Kruger or you might end up with guys like the 2015 team. And while I think JUCO ball has it's place, in general you're probably better off with mostly your own homegrown recruits than not.
As far as next year- I think three things will really be emphasized in the offseason. Throwing strikes and attacking the strike zone, taking better AB's and taking more pitches, and better baserunning. I think a full year of Cann will help out with that. I'm interested to see how our offseason weight training program changes with him to since he's in better shape than anyone in the program. We might look like a lot more fit next year. And not that we don't look that way now- we just may look like we could win a team bodybuilding contest or something. I think there will be a lot of competition in the fall and I think we'll be a lot deeper next year and I honestly wouldn't be surprised at all if we end up having a similar type of season. I don't know if we will win the SEC although I think we have to talent to do so just because we are going to be on the road so much next year. USM is going to spend all offseason focusing on us and they probably already have pictures of us on bulletin boards as I type this. Texas Tech is a very good program and then the Shrine Classic has some really good teams in it even though it's three mid majors. I'm not sure what the SEC schedule will look like yet either but there's a good chance we'll have to play Florida and Vandy.
And we'll see what the draft does this week. If we lose a bunch of guys or if Gridley doesn't come back I'm not going to hold that against Cann. He didn't put together this class aside from a few players and it will be what it will be. And the guys that come back for their senior years, I think that is kind of evaluated a little bit in the recruiting process in high school as well. I think it takes a certain personality and social situation to do that- or as the Navy SEALS would say, someone that is "uncommon".
At the end of the day, I think we have a very bright future and I am extremely excited about what we're going to be doing at MSU over the upcoming years. I think we're going to see top 10 recruiting classes, most of those guys coming to school, Governor's Cups, SEC titles, SEC Tournament Titles, Hosting regionals- hopefully USM will come so that we can show them how to actually do it without embarrassing yourself, hosting SR's, becoming a mainstay in Omaha and yes- National Titles.
Here's some food for thought:
Year one records for coaches:
Ron Polk- 28-17 and 11-12 SEC (1976)
Skip Bertman- 32-32 and 12-12 SEC (1983)
Paul Manieri- 29-26-1 and 12-17-1 SEC (2007)
Ray Tanner- 33-24 and 13-17 SEC (1997)
Tim Corbin- 27-18 and 14-16 SEC (2003)
Kevin O'Sullivan- 34-24 and 17-13 SEC and made a Regional (2008)
Andy Cannizaro- 40-27 and 17-13 SEC and made a SR
Looking at that list- I'd say we have a pretty promising head baseball coach.
I do like the fact that Cann was at LSU because he knows how they do things there and also their expectations and how they are built. I think one of the biggest mistakes MSU has made in baseball and why we don't have a NC yet is because we've tried to stay status quo going back to 1990 whereas LSU evolved and progressed. What eventually happened was we actually flamed out around 2008 I think because of that and it forced us into a situation where we ended up with a fractured fan base and a team that was low on SEC talent. Cohen built us back to where we were before aside from the 2015 season which I think was an anomaly more than anything but now I think we are ready to take that next step as a program.
But I think if you look at both MSU and LSU's programs there are to me two main differences. The main one is they are historically able to get as Shotgun put it perfectly yesterday more "will be drafted players" back for their senior years. I'm not talking about Jake Fraley or Alex Lange who I think will go pro. I'm talking about the Kramer Robertson's, Cole Freeman's, and etc. To me, it seems like the reason most of them come back is because they "want to win a championship for LSU". We have to somehow develop that kind of pride in our program to where players in that second tier talent bracket want to come back and want to win a championship for MSU rather than take 200K or whatever it is. Even if it's only two or three guys a year that do that for us- that makes a HUGE difference. Especially if you have a guy like Cody Brown who is a fifth year senior guy to go along with them and then you hopefully have at least 2-3 top 10 draft picks as juniors and the rest of the key guys being "will be drafted players" on the field for us.
I think we're actually pretty close to that. I mean- let's compare this team to Cohen's first team. I think for us it's more about evaluating signability better than anything. I think Cann will do that better than Cohen and Polk II isn't even in the same ballpark. You have to have a guy that can evaluate talent well and also signability. And I think you need a coach that players that want to go to college feel like will help them get to MLB- and I think Cann has that personality. I also think it's very important to have a very good pitching coach for us and historically I think it's been easier for us to find that than a good hitting coach. So, with Andy handling the hitters and someone like Gary Henderson I think we have a pretty good set-up for the future. To figure out the signability aspect you really need someone with scouting ties and connections and I think Cann has that moreso than any other coach we have ever had at MSU. So, as part of this new era of MSU baseball I think we are going to start to see some things that MSU fans aren't used to. And that's more guys coming back for their senior year and also higher end prospects coming to MSU as freshmen. And Cohen actually didn't do that bad of a job of bringing in higher end freshmen- but with Cann it's just going to get even better for us. And I think we're also going to see us recruiting and relying on the JUCO's less. My biggest personal gripe with Cohen was if we did lose a guy like Austin Riley, we would try to replace him with a JUCO. Some of that was because we didn't always evaluate signability that well and that's how we tried to band aid losses. But as we've seen that's feast or famine. We might end up with Lowe and Kruger or you might end up with guys like the 2015 team. And while I think JUCO ball has it's place, in general you're probably better off with mostly your own homegrown recruits than not.
As far as next year- I think three things will really be emphasized in the offseason. Throwing strikes and attacking the strike zone, taking better AB's and taking more pitches, and better baserunning. I think a full year of Cann will help out with that. I'm interested to see how our offseason weight training program changes with him to since he's in better shape than anyone in the program. We might look like a lot more fit next year. And not that we don't look that way now- we just may look like we could win a team bodybuilding contest or something. I think there will be a lot of competition in the fall and I think we'll be a lot deeper next year and I honestly wouldn't be surprised at all if we end up having a similar type of season. I don't know if we will win the SEC although I think we have to talent to do so just because we are going to be on the road so much next year. USM is going to spend all offseason focusing on us and they probably already have pictures of us on bulletin boards as I type this. Texas Tech is a very good program and then the Shrine Classic has some really good teams in it even though it's three mid majors. I'm not sure what the SEC schedule will look like yet either but there's a good chance we'll have to play Florida and Vandy.
And we'll see what the draft does this week. If we lose a bunch of guys or if Gridley doesn't come back I'm not going to hold that against Cann. He didn't put together this class aside from a few players and it will be what it will be. And the guys that come back for their senior years, I think that is kind of evaluated a little bit in the recruiting process in high school as well. I think it takes a certain personality and social situation to do that- or as the Navy SEALS would say, someone that is "uncommon".
At the end of the day, I think we have a very bright future and I am extremely excited about what we're going to be doing at MSU over the upcoming years. I think we're going to see top 10 recruiting classes, most of those guys coming to school, Governor's Cups, SEC titles, SEC Tournament Titles, Hosting regionals- hopefully USM will come so that we can show them how to actually do it without embarrassing yourself, hosting SR's, becoming a mainstay in Omaha and yes- National Titles.
Here's some food for thought:
Year one records for coaches:
Ron Polk- 28-17 and 11-12 SEC (1976)
Skip Bertman- 32-32 and 12-12 SEC (1983)
Paul Manieri- 29-26-1 and 12-17-1 SEC (2007)
Ray Tanner- 33-24 and 13-17 SEC (1997)
Tim Corbin- 27-18 and 14-16 SEC (2003)
Kevin O'Sullivan- 34-24 and 17-13 SEC and made a Regional (2008)
Andy Cannizaro- 40-27 and 17-13 SEC and made a SR
Looking at that list- I'd say we have a pretty promising head baseball coach.