Dudy

[bully99]

Just listened to Gene Swindoll podcast. Boy that's some bad radio. Anyway he had Thompson and Mingione on and they didn't talk about the dirt changes to Dudy Noble but after they left Gene essentially said it had nothing to do with dead grass but everything to do with John Cohen's desire to further his punch and judy and small ball philosophy. There are gonna be adjustments in the future to the bat and ball but we will still be stuck with an ugly field. Very shortsighted.

[MsStateBaseball]

Actually, I think we will do less small ball in future years bc our hitters are getting better. You will see more HR and doubles than sac bunts. Watch and see.

[bully99]

I think you're right, so why mess up one of the best looking playing surfaces in the country. I would be interested in what the players think about once they start playing on it. Hope some of you keep us informed.

[engie]

Jives with what I heard this morning -- from someone that got it directly from Cohen and would know.

It's not got so much to do with the small ball as just an overall exploitation of speed IMO. Cohen saw what Vandy had as a big advantage to them -- and is semi trying to do the same thing for us.

I'm fine with the idea -- it's the execution I'm complaining about...

[bully99]

The same Vandy program that has had some of best talent in the country in the last decade and been to one world series.

[engie]

The same Vandy program that has had some of best talent in the country in the last decade and been to one world series.

Beside the point. They just put down the turf last year -- when they set multiple SEC win records. They went 26-3 in the SEC for goodness sakes.

They've been one of the best teams in the country consistently over the last 8-10 years. If you set college baseball expectations based on what happens in postseasons, you'll be on a constant roller coaster ride without rhyme or reason toward the overall development of the program.

College baseball is judged in regular seasons by those that follow closely. It's far more logical to judge a team over how they played for 4 months than it is to judge them on how they play over potentially as few as 2-3 days. Yes -- it's exceedingly rare that the BEST TEAM actually wins the CWS.

[Bark]

It wouldn't even be that noticeable if they would have just made the baselines green. I mean how damn dumb is Scott or whoever is responsible for it?

[Will James]

I'll go ahead and point out that Vandy's advantage came in the turf being there between 1st and 3rd base as well which made stolen bases an almost automatic. We do not have that on DNF. So this Vandy talk of advantages is 90% BS based on that fact.

Not saying posters saying that are BS'ing but if that is our supposed basis for doing this it is ****ing retarded.

[engie]

I'll go ahead and point out that Vandy's advantage came in the turf being there between 1st and 3rd base as well which made stolen bases an almost automatic. We do not have that on DNF. So this Vandy talk of advantages is 90% BS based on that fact.

Not saying posters saying that are BS'ing but if that is our supposed basis for doing this it is ****ing retarded.

Cohen wants to do more than is currently being done. Let's leave it at that.

[Todd4State]

Cohen wants his offense to be balanced between power and speed. If anyone thinks that we are going to stop bunting- that's just not likely to happen. We play an aggressive style of baseball and small ball is a component of that. That said, it doesn't mean we are going to shun power hitters and it doesn't mean that our entire line up is going to be punch and judy hitters either.

To add what engie is saying about Cohen wanting it done more than what we are currently doing- CT and Demarcus are not great base stealers up to this point in their careers. They're not bad- but they're not 20 stolen bases type guys either. Robson can be that- but he was just a freshman last year and didn't play a lot.

Let me break it down a little bit further so that people can see what I am saying with regards to the future: (3 year projection)

C- Vallot (hopefully) 10-15 home run guy, Gavin Collins- 10 home run guy.
1B- Dylan Ingram 10-15 home run guy, Trent Simpson if he plays baseball is also a guy that can hit 10-15 home runs.
2B- Dale Burdick 5-10 home run guy 10-15 stolen base guy; Kyle Hann 5-10 home run guy 10-15 stolen base guy.
3B- Could be Collins, Reid Humphries, Hann, Burdick, or Austin Riley depending on who comes and goes on the draft. I hope it's Collins because that means we got Vallot.
SS- Reid Humphries 10-15 home run guy; 10-15 stolen base guy or possibly Luke Alexander as a freshman or Hann.
LF- Brent Rooker 10-15 home run guy; 10-15 stolen base guy.
CF- Jacob Robson 0-5 home run guy; 20 stolen base guy. If Robson leaves after his junior year, it could be Jake Mangum as a freshman.
RF- Cole Gordon 10-15 home run guy; 10-15 stolen base guy.
DH- Austin Riley as a freshman he could legitimately be a 5-10 home run guy.

So, as you can see we are adding power but at the same time we are also getting some guys that can run. I didn't even mention Ryan Girdley who has some pop and if he finds his way in the line up can steal some bases, or Taylor Stafford who can steal between 10-15 if he finds his way into the line up as well. On down the line, of the younger players that we have committed- Hunter Stovall is very fast for a catcher and could be a 10 stolen base guy in college, Luke Alexander and Jake Mangum are both guys that could steal 20 bases apiece and I could see Austin Riley being a 10-15 home run guy and chipping in about 10 stolen bases himself when they become juniors in college.

I know a lot of people want us to be LSU 1998. But you have to consider that we play at Dudy-Noble Field, Trustmark Park, and TD Ameritrade in Omaha- ALL huge ballparks. We all know about Jim Ellis "back, deeep, could be.....caught at the warning track" and Trustmark and TD Ameritrade are even MORE difficult to hit balls out of- even with pending changes to come. Our offense has to be able to adapt to those ball parks or teams will do what we did to Indiana in Omaha- throw cookies up there and tell them to hit it as far as we can and watch outfielders shag fly balls.

If we keep building around pitching and defense and then have a balanced philosophy while adding Omaha experience to it- we're going to have a really good chance to win in Omaha. See UCLA- and they couldn't hit. But I think we can get and have pitchers that will be as good as their guys were and we can hit better than them. If we patch some holes in the field like at third base- we will be fine defensively.

[Will James]

Nobody is saying to never bunt straw man. I'd rather not **** up our field to start playing gimmick ball though. That Vandy fake dirt shit should be outlawed. It's not in the spirit of the game to do a tony kemp 20 foot slide.

As to the ballpark question, there's not shit wrong with natural getting on base. Boyd shows its still far preferable to the one man move to second bunt. College OBP still far outweighs MLB. We don't need a gimmick to hit line drives, especially with the croots we got coming in. I'm with msstatebaseball we SHOULD bunt far less now. It's even more of a bad play with great hitters. So in essence this will hurt us with other retard teams being able to better small ball it neutralizing our natural talent advantage. Very blockheaded if you ask me.

[Todd4State]

Nobody is saying to never bunt straw man. I'd rather not **** up our field to start playing gimmick ball though. That Vandy fake dirt shit should be outlawed. It's not in the spirit of the game to do a tony kemp 20 foot slide.

As to the ballpark question, there's not shit wrong with natural getting on base. Boyd shows its still far preferable to the one man move to second bunt. College OBP still far outweighs MLB. We don't need a gimmick to hit line drives, especially with the croots we got coming in. I'm with msstatebaseball we SHOULD bunt far less now. It's even more of a bad play with great hitters. So in essence this will hurt us with other retard teams being able to better small ball it neutralizing our natural talent advantage. Very blockheaded if you ask me.

Who said anything about sacrificing? Cohen is talking about this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fg6vaHuxXkg


What does Boyd say when you have a runner on first, second, or third with no outs? Cohen isn't wanting to do this so we can straight up sacrifice.

We're still going to have the advantage even over people like Central Arkansas because our defenders will actually practice on our field much more than they will. We will know how it plays, etc. That's one reason why Vandy had an advantage over everyone.

What I really wanted to find was the video of Billy Hamilton bunting for a hit twice and then stealing second- that is what Cohen is wanting to do. I wasn't disagreeing with MSbaseball that we will bunt less though- we will have better hitters and more power. I was just making the point that we're not abandoning the bunt.

[Will James]

I was just making the point that we're not abandoning the bunt.

Nor should we. But if we can out talent other teams and not have to try to bunt as often... it will lessen our advantage if the bunt is made easier to get down. Just my thought process on that.

[smootness]

I'll just go ahead and say: I don't care if it gives us some slight advantage, I don't want to create a turf field so we can slide around everywhere and get a leg up.

As Will said, it is the definition of a gimmick. It would be akin to putting trampolines on the baseline so you could just jump on them and dunk with regularity. Other teams aren't used to having a trampoline there, so they won't be as good at making use of them! Yay!!!

Some may encourage that if the rules allowed, but I don't. I want to play whatever the sport is and play it straight up, especially when we will be able to simply field a better team than most. We don't need to use this kind of thing.

I'm all for figuring out strategies (like bunting for hits, etc.) that your team does better than most as a way to exploit weaknesses. But to change the composition of your field so other teams aren't used to it? That is the ghey.

[godlluB]

I still contend the only reason to play on artificial surfaces is if you are either indoors, or so far north it's still snowing when the season starts. Then, it may be a necessary evil. Here, it's just evil.

[601Dawg]

Actually, I think we will do less small ball in future years bc our hitters are getting better. You will see more HR and doubles than sac bunts. Watch and see.

Unless Pirtle and Detz become power hitters this year, I dont see anybody other than Rea hitting 5+ homeruns this year.

[bully99]

Just when Cohen got most of the fanbase on his side he pulls off this stunt. This is Cohen's gimmick as he likes to do.

[engie]

Unless Pirtle and Detz become power hitters this year, I dont see anybody other than Rea hitting 5+ homeruns this year.

You'll be wrong -- and you'll probably be wrong before the beginning of conference play...

[messageboardsuperhero]

Unless Pirtle and Detz become power hitters this year, I dont see anybody other than Rea hitting 5+ homeruns this year.

Humphreys and Gardner could easily hit 5+ each. There are others who I think could too (Hann, maybe Gardner or Collins, etc), but at least those two should have really good pop this year.

[MsStateBaseball]

We will be considered a HR hitting ball club by June. Bet my dog on it.