Buy/Sell MSU Baseball 9th in SEC - Coach Cann Sells

[YoungB]

https://twitter.com/CoachCannizaro/status/961636876451971072

[Commercecomet24]

Hard sell. If Cann won 40 last year with all the adversity and injuries, imagine what he's gonna do this year. Cann knows what he's got in that locker room. He's just gonna use this as extra motivation. Love Cann!

[Homedawg]

These polls are based on what a team has returning. Therefore, I have no issue w where we are picked. 2/3 true fr starting typically isnt a recipe for success. To add, we have one legit returning rotation guy. With all that said, I expect us to be better than 5th in the west. Some guys will step up and Small is a huge addition assuming he stays healthy.

[Cooterpoot]

Soft buy/sell. I think we're around the middle of the pack.

[Saltydog]

better but some of you guys seem to forget how much Rooker carried this team in the early to middle of the season. He literally put that team on his back for a few SEC weekends. He faded down the stretch a bit but early on he was absolutely outstanding at the plate. We've got some young guys that have never played in the SEC before too. It does make a difference.

[AusTexDawg]

Soft buy/sell. I think we're around the middle of the pack.

Sell. I've been surprised at State being ranked so high in some polls, and I'm just as surprised we're this low in the SEC coaches' poll. The way things look going into the season, I think almost the whole SEC is middle of the pack ? at the top it's Florida & Arkansas, Kentucky right below them. At the bottom, it's Tennessee and Alabama. Everyone else has some good things going for them and some warts.

If you look at an average of the 6 most-referenced baseball polls, D1BB, BA, PG, NCBWA, USA Today Coaches, and CB (some more reputable than others), LSU, Vandy, A&M, TSUN and MSU are between 12th and 18th in the country, with 4 of these teams 25th or worse in at least one of these polls and all 5 of these teams in the top 12 in at least one poll. That suggests to me that there will be a pile-up in the middle of the conference. (I won't be surprised if Auburn or Georgia get in the mix, too)

My maroon-tinted view of this is that our team has what it needs to have a solid season: a) maybe not the best pitching in the conference, but sufficient quality pitching, b) a coach who can squeeze every drop out of the offense and c) a good personnel/make-up mix (seasoned third-year players and talented newcomers). With all of that, I think we'll be in the top half of the middle of a really strong SEC this year with a good outlook at tournament time.

[Tbonewannabe]

better but some of you guys seem to forget how much Rooker carried this team in the early to middle of the season. He literally put that team on his back for a few SEC weekends. He faded down the stretch a bit but early on he was absolutely outstanding at the plate. We've got some young guys that have never played in the SEC before too. It does make a difference.

We also had Mangum batting one handed for most of the year. It wouldn't surprise me if he hits .500 as long as he learns to not swing over his head or at his feet. He has some of the best hand eye coordination I have ever seen. He can actually get a solid hit on something on his shoe tops.

[Saltydog]

In '16 when he led the league in hitting he was slapping the ball. Last year, he tried pulling the ball much more. Hopefully he gets back on track to where he was in '16. Damn, you know somebody is good when they hit .324 and you say they had an off year.

[Todd4State]

We also had Mangum batting one handed for most of the year. It wouldn't surprise me if he hits .500 as long as he learns to not swing over his head or at his feet. He has some of the best hand eye coordination I have ever seen. He can actually get a solid hit on something on his shoe tops.

That's the problem. He knows he can do that at times and so he swings at just about anything in the area code.

[Todd4State]

I think we will be better if Small is as good as projected. Pilkington and Small are a good one two punch for us.

[The Federalist Engineer]

To be fair, there are some great teams listed ahead of us. UF is the national champs, LSU is national runner up and alwys good, Hogs are top-5 and swept us last year

After that, about 5 clubs are basically equal to a neutral observer. Vandy should be strong, OM has some big pitchers, UK is a flavor of the week, uSC won’t suck forever, TAM is usually good abd Shoemake is the new Jake Mangum