Baseball take with a little cold water

[AlSwearengen]

I?m going to start off with weaknesses.
- We are in trouble at 2B. I don?t think Halter is going to be good enough defensively to make up for his bat (probably should decide to be a pitcher). If he were a lock down defensively, we could stand for him to hit .200, but I don?t think he is that guy. Maybe he surprises me and turns it around, but I am a pessimist. Jordan looked like a liability defensively when i was watching the other night. 2B is going to be a problem.

- C is going to be interesting. Skelton is much improved, but he still has miscues and his throwing isn?t great. Hopefully Jones (and Skelton) improves throughout the year because he has the ability to shutdown the other teams running game. We need a rock steady presence back there. Skelton can have good games offensively, so that is a plus.

-Our offense is sputtering a little bit, but it is early so I?m not worried. We need Rowdey to be Rowdey. If he can get going, he and Jake create huge problems. They make the guys behind them better and are spark plugs that make things go.

-We have two top tier starters and that is a big ingredient to win it all. If J.T. Ginn learns an effective changeup, he could possibly turn into the no. 1 pick after next year.

-Cole Gordon gets his own bullet point. If ?bad Cole? is gone forever, we are good as far as a closing. ?Good Cole? is damn good. In the back of my mind though, I remember him melting down when he had a rough outing and he wasn?t able to shake it off. He has good enough stuff that if he can maintain his confidence after a bad outing, he will be fine. Every closer will have a bad day. What makes them good is being able to forget about it. I don?t know that we have a viable alternative to Cole. White is a one pitch pitcher, so you have to be careful how you use him. Price is coming off of tommy john, so there is that.

-The bullpen as a whole needs to be in the sec fire for most of the season before I feel totally confident. They pass the eye test right now though.

-All of that said, I think we have a damn good team and if things come together, we can be in the mix. We need Landon Jordan to hit like he did during the fall from the DH spot. We need Jones to progress at C. We need our SS to be a true 3 hole hitter as far as contact and average because he has special power. If he puts it all together, look out. Finally, keep your eye on 2B. That is the middle of the field and you can?t hide a weak defensive player there.

[Randolph Dupree]

I think Halter will get it going. Remember, it's a new position for him. Different angles etc. I feel
Like he will adjust.

Good points about C. But we have options there, so we have multiple guys to choose from. We just have to choose the one that gives us the best chance for that day.

Also, I expect Price to be back soon. He's pretty much ready (from what I understand) he just needs reps and to build stamina.

[Cowbell]

I?m going to start off with weaknesses.
- We are in trouble at 2B. I don?t think Halter is going to be good enough defensively to make up for his bat (probably should decide to be a pitcher). If he were a lock down defensively, we could stand for him to hit .200, but I don?t think he is that guy. Maybe he surprises me and turns it around, but I am a pessimist. Jordan looked like a liability defensively when i was watching the other night. 2B is going to be a problem.

- C is going to be interesting. Skelton is much improved, but he still has miscues and his throwing isn?t great. Hopefully Jones (and Skelton) improves throughout the year because he has the ability to shutdown the other teams running game. We need a rock steady presence back there. Skelton can have good games offensively, so that is a plus.

-Our offense is sputtering a little bit, but it is early so I?m not worried. We need Rowdey to be Rowdey. If he can get going, he and Jake create huge problems. They make the guys behind them better and are spark plugs that make things go.

-We have two top tier starters and that is a big ingredient to win it all. If J.T. Ginn learns an effective changeup, he could possibly turn into the no. 1 pick after next year.

-Cole Gordon gets his own bullet point. If ?bad Cole? is gone forever, we are good as far as a closing. ?Good Cole? is damn good. In the back of my mind though, I remember him melting down when he had a rough outing and he wasn?t able to shake it off. He has good enough stuff that if he can maintain his confidence after a bad outing, he will be fine. Every closer will have a bad day. What makes them good is being able to forget about it. I don?t know that we have a viable alternative to Cole. White is a one pitch pitcher, so you have to be careful how you use him. Price is coming off of tommy john, so there is that.

-The bullpen as a whole needs to be in the sec fire for most of the season before I feel totally confident. They pass the eye test right now though.

-All of that said, I think we have a damn good team and if things come together, we can be in the mix. We need Landon Jordan to hit like he did during the fall from the DH spot. We need Jones to progress at C. We need our SS to be a true 3 hole hitter as far as contact and average because he has special power. If he puts it all together, look out. Finally, keep your eye on 2B. That is the middle of the field and you can?t hide a weak defensive player there.

when it comes to Cole, I believe a lot of that was Henderson leaving him in too long. I remember the meltdowns that took place here because everyone knew when he was done and when it was time to get him out. Henderson really never had a gauge on this.

[Todd4State]

We need Landon Jordan to take over at second base but the truth is Halter has been hitting better at the plate. Also- it doesn't help that Stovall was elite defensively.

Skelton is going to probably start at least most of the rest of the regular season and I suspect we will work Hayden Jones in at least once a weekend. Skelton appears to be a good leader and he is doing everything better compared to last year. As good as Jones is I don't think Skelton deserves to sit a majority of the time. We have a really good situation at catcher because we have a steady veteran guy and an elite freshman talent backing him up.

Our bullpen is really good- no need to worry there. I think the biggest thing is getting Self right. To me I think there is potential for our bullpen to possibly get even better as the season goes along.

Our offense is sputtering because we faced Sam Houston State's ace and a really good Texas Tech team. Scoring 5 and 4 runs against them is respectable to me.

[Dawgcap]

If our players have half the skills and balls of our fan base I think we will be ok.

[Cooterpoot]

what a 17ing loser ass mentality some people have.

[TNDawg35]

The only real problem I see is Skelton is letting too many runners steal. You can’t get a good all or a single then automatically have the guy pretty much end up on 2nd or 3rd cause he steals 2 bags or passballs. TT and SHS were aggressive. Don’t think LSU or Ark or A&M isn’t seeing that. You take away the one game Skelton had at the plate, and he has been shit. We need to get Jones ready quickly. He needs to be catching on the Mid wk games and also the Sunday games until we are comfortable with him taking over.

[MetEdDawg]

Yeah we just beat #3 Texas Tech and are 10-1 and we have a post that has considerably more negatives than positives. This team looks like one of the best teams in baseball.

Halter has made 2 total errors in 11 games. For a guy switching positions as a 20 year old junior that's not horrible. He will get better as the season goes on. But we have options either way for 2B.

Skelton is an average catcher and an improved hitter. Jones is an above average catcher (still needs some work receiving and blocking) and is getting better at the plate. He's got a crap ton of potential but he's young. We are fine at catcher. Skelton is hitting .256 and Jones is hitting .316. Lot of teams would give their left nut for that.

Offense doesn't bother me one bit because they are doing what they always do. Pushing across late runs, getting some timely hitting. And we've played good competition. Southern Miss ranked, Texas Tech ranked, and Sam Houston State very good. We've scored a bunch of runs against bad teams and fewer runs against good teams. That's how that works. We've scored 89 runs in 11 games, 4 of which were against teams in the Top 25.

So we have to get to mid April before we can say we have a good bullpen?? Here, I'll help. We have a good bullpen. Our team ERA is 1.53 and we've played 4 Top 25 teams. We have pitched 15 pitchers so far this year. Only 4 have an ERA above 2.00. That's pretty damn good.

Things are already together and we are already in the mix. This is one of the best teams in all of college baseball and I don't need another month or two to tell me that. I would love to go just a little while before we start talking about how many holes we have or how we don't pass the eye test yet. We are 3 weeks into the season, a clear Top 10 team, and we have a post with more negatives than positives. Holy hell.

[Dawg2003]

We have some weaknesses like everyone has. We don't have any huge problems. You always have to hope that your weaknesses can be overcome every year. We're in a hell of a lot better position now than we were last year.

[The Federalist Engineer]

when it comes to Cole, I believe a lot of that was Henderson leaving him in too long. I remember the meltdowns that took place here because everyone knew when he was done and when it was time to get him out. Henderson really never had a gauge on this.

So true - everybody looked like crap with Henderson. All that nibbling. Look how badly Pilk regressed in his 3rd year.

[Cooterpoot]

By end of season, I think we’re a top 5 team (assuming no injuries).

[gravedigger]

If our players have half the skills and balls of our fan base I think we will be ok.

This is either the best post this board has ever had posted on it, or you are about to be elected president of Elitedawgs.

If the former, please post more.

[AlSwearengen]

Some of ya’ll are reacting to my post the way others react to a loss around here. Sorry to come across as so negative, wasn’t meant that way. I’m just looking at places with room for improvement, which aren’t many. I fully expect the C position to improve throughout the year and I didn’t take into account that Halter was a SS in juco and is in a new spot.

I’m actually really high on this team and am looking at what we need to get back to Omaha. I expect us to be in the high end of the mix to get there.

[somebodyshotmypaw]

We have some weaknesses like everyone has. We don't have any huge problems. You always have to hope that your weaknesses can be overcome every year. We're in a hell of a lot better position now than we were last year.

Exactly. Every fanbase for every team in the country can sit down and point out positions where they have weaknesses they wish didn't exist. It's part of the game. As an overall team, I like what we have. We just need to continue to work and improve.

[Cooterpoot]

Skelton is better than a lot of people think. He’s not Molina but Ginn is hard to catch and he struggles holding runners. It’s not all on the catcher. We’ve faced two great running teams this weekend too.

[Rawdawg]

We have a team ERA of 1.53, have only allowed 10 extra bass hits, and between Small & Ginn they have a combined 3 walks in 6 starts. Gordon hasn’t allowed a run in over 20 innings going back to last year. I think we’re gonna be ok...

[Dawg2003]

Henderson would just leave pitchers out there to implode last year. It got to the point where I wouldn't even watch us pitch. I only wartched is hit.

[Saltydog]

while I don't want to be overly optimistic, I think we can make a run at the SEC reg. championship. Of course, a lot of things have to fall into place for that to happen but this is a veteran club that's winning some tough, close games early in the year. If we can see Keegan James start being consistent as our 3rd starter, we're going to be very good.

[MetEdDawg]

while I don't want to be overly optimistic, I think we can make a run at the SEC reg. championship. Of course, a lot of things have to fall into place for that to happen but this is a veteran club that's winning some tough, close games early in the year. If we can see Keegan James start being consistent as our 3rd starter, we're going to be very good.

I think us and Vandy are the class of the SEC. Georgia, Arkansas, Florida, and Ole Miss will fight for the next 4 spots. LSU, TAMU, SC and Auburn for the next four. Missouri and Bama bring up the rear while Tennessee and Kentucky fight to make sure they don't end up worse than Bama or Missouri.

[Rawdawg]

Tennessee is currently undefeated

[ShotgunDawg]

Tennessee is currently undefeated

Tennessee is a middle of the pack SEC team. Their new coach is doing a hell of a job, but they aren't close to the better teams in the conference

[Commercecomet24]

Skelton is better than a lot of people think. He’s not Molina but Ginn is hard to catch and he struggles holding runners. It’s not all on the catcher. We’ve faced two great running teams this weekend too.

This. Skelton has improved and is very solid and handles the pitchers well. JT does a lot of things well but holding runners is not one of them.

[ShotgunDawg]

I?m going to start off with weaknesses.
- We are in trouble at 2B. I don?t think Halter is going to be good enough defensively to make up for his bat (probably should decide to be a pitcher). If he were a lock down defensively, we could stand for him to hit .200, but I don?t think he is that guy. Maybe he surprises me and turns it around, but I am a pessimist. Jordan looked like a liability defensively when i was watching the other night. 2B is going to be a problem.

- C is going to be interesting. Skelton is much improved, but he still has miscues and his throwing isn?t great. Hopefully Jones (and Skelton) improves throughout the year because he has the ability to shutdown the other teams running game. We need a rock steady presence back there. Skelton can have good games offensively, so that is a plus.

-Our offense is sputtering a little bit, but it is early so I?m not worried. We need Rowdey to be Rowdey. If he can get going, he and Jake create huge problems. They make the guys behind them better and are spark plugs that make things go.

-We have two top tier starters and that is a big ingredient to win it all. If J.T. Ginn learns an effective changeup, he could possibly turn into the no. 1 pick after next year.

-Cole Gordon gets his own bullet point. If ?bad Cole? is gone forever, we are good as far as a closing. ?Good Cole? is damn good. In the back of my mind though, I remember him melting down when he had a rough outing and he wasn?t able to shake it off. He has good enough stuff that if he can maintain his confidence after a bad outing, he will be fine. Every closer will have a bad day. What makes them good is being able to forget about it. I don?t know that we have a viable alternative to Cole. White is a one pitch pitcher, so you have to be careful how you use him. Price is coming off of tommy john, so there is that.

-The bullpen as a whole needs to be in the sec fire for most of the season before I feel totally confident. They pass the eye test right now though.

-All of that said, I think we have a damn good team and if things come together, we can be in the mix. We need Landon Jordan to hit like he did during the fall from the DH spot. We need Jones to progress at C. We need our SS to be a true 3 hole hitter as far as contact and average because he has special power. If he puts it all together, look out. Finally, keep your eye on 2B. That is the middle of the field and you can?t hide a weak defensive player there.

Good post.

We are a very good team. Not flawless but certainly among the best in the country. With two top tier starting pitchers, it's difficult to see us getting swept this year & we should have an opportunity to win 2/3 every weekend.

The only thing I disagree with here is that we need to be careful how we use White. When your one pitch is an elite FB, you don't have to be careful about how you're used. FBs get both sides of the plate out & are the easiest pitch to throw for a strike.

[chef dixon]

Not sure why everyone is automatically down on Halter. The guy has potential to rake and has not been abysmal.

[Rick Danko]

Not sure why everyone is automatically down on Halter. The guy has potential to rake and has not been abysmal.

We are state fans. We have to find something to complain about. There is always someone on the bench that is ?better? and should be playing.

[ShotgunDawg]

Not sure why everyone is automatically down on Halter. The guy has potential to rake and has not been abysmal.

Halter is stepping in the bucket on every swing. He has absolutely no chance of handling a located slider or good FB on the outer half.

He uses a closed off stance & his first movement is in the bucket, which causes him to pull off & for his bat to not cover the outer half of the plate.

If I were the hitting coach, I'd tell him to open his stance & step in to even himself out instead of doing the opposite, which is his current approach.

I do like Halter & want him to stay in the lineup. He's our most athletic, lively bodied infielder & has a great arm for turning double plays. He can be a real weapon for us if things come together. However, with the way his lower half currently works in his swing, he has little to no chance of hitting SEC pitching.

[Cooterpoot]

Not sure why everyone is automatically down on Halter. The guy has potential to rake and has not been abysmal.

As long as his defense is solid and he’s marginal as a hitter, not a problem.

[AlSwearengen]

Good post.

We are a very good team. Not flawless but certainly among the best in the country. With two top tier starting pitchers, it's difficult to see us getting swept this year & we should have an opportunity to win 2/3 every weekend.

The only thing I disagree with here is that we need to be careful how we use White. When your one pitch is an elite FB, you don't have to be careful about how you're used. FBs get both sides of the plate out & are the easiest pitch to throw for a strike.

Tell me more about White. I have only watched him once and he was throwing 93 with what looked like a lot of 4 seem spin which kept it up. Granted, it seems that the gun has not been spot on, so 93 may be wrong. If he is throwing a legit 96 or 97 with life, I can be less nervous about only having one pitch.

[MetEdDawg]

Tell me more about White. I have only watched him once and he was throwing 93 with what looked like a lot of 4 seem spin which kept it up. Granted, it seems that the gun has not been spot on, so 93 may be wrong. If he is throwing a legit 96 or 97 with life, I can be less nervous about only having one pitch.

You must not have see Aaron Fitt's tweet from yesterday when he had a behind the plate view of White's FB against a Tech batter. It was 95 running in hard on the hands of the RH he was facing. That thing is almost untouchable when he locates it.

[ShotgunDawg]

Tell me more about White. I have only watched him once and he was throwing 93 with what looked like a lot of 4 seem spin which kept it up. Granted, it seems that the gun has not been spot on, so 93 may be wrong. If he is throwing a legit 96 or 97 with life, I can be less nervous about only having one pitch.

He was 95-96 last night with a true, tight, spin axis, & late horizontal movement, which basically means you want him pitching up in the zone because his FB rises to the hitter.

He has a top shelf FB that maybe only a few hitters in the country have a chance of handling. He doesn't really need a breaking ball, but, if he showed a usable one that he could get in the zone, it would make him near about unhittable in 1 inning stints

[CadaverDawg]

We're damn good. Whatever we do with catcher is fine, but I think we may have seen the end of Skelton at DH when Jones catches, and I'm fine with that. I think Halter will come around...we just need him and Jordan competing to drive both to be better.

As for the post above that keeps referring to USM as a Top 25 team, they're not anymore. Still a good series win and they'll hopefully improve, but they lost to UNO midweek and have lost 2 straight to a bad Gonzaga team at home this weekend. Again, I'm still glad we won that series, just may not want to use "Top 25 USM" to help prove a point right now.

[99jc]

[QUOTE=CadaverDawg;1078539]We're damn good.

I will stick my neck out. We are probably the best team in the country right now. We are going to win the SEC and number 1 seed in the country at seasons end.

[CadaverDawg]

I will stick my neck out. We are probably the best team in the country right now. We are going to win the SEC and number 1 seed in the country at seasons end.

We heard it here first. I hope you're right. Hard to argue based on results so far...if we get the bats going like we're capable of hitting, it's very possible.

[AlSwearengen]

MetEd and Shotgun, thanks. The one time I saw him, I wasn’t picking up the horizontal movement and it sounds like he is throwing a little harder than I thought. I do know that he has been unhittable in his short stints, but I like a larger sample against some better opposition before I feel good. I’m speaking of our opponents other than Tech (it is impressive to do it to them).

[MetEdDawg]

MetEd and Shotgun, thanks. The one time I saw him, I wasn’t picking up the horizontal movement and it sounds like he is throwing a little harder than I thought. I do know that he has been unhittable in his short stints, but I like a larger sample against some better opposition before I feel good. I’m speaking of our opponents other than Tech (it is impressive to do it to them).

It's hard to see that type of run unless you are right behind the plate. It's impressive for anyone, but for a freshmen it's doubly impressive. A second pitch that's even halfway decent and he's the closer the next two years after this year.

[Homedawg]

It's hard to see that type of run unless you are right behind the plate. It's impressive for anyone, but for a freshmen it's doubly impressive. A second pitch that's even halfway decent and he's the closer the next two years after this year.

Ummmm white is a jr..... FYI

[MetEdDawg]

Ummmm white is a jr..... FYI

Yeah for some reason in my head I was thinking about Cerantola. Not sure what happened lol

[The Federalist Engineer]

He was 95-96 last night with a true, tight, spin axis, & late horizontal movement, which basically means you want him pitching up in the zone because his FB rises to the hitter.

He has a top shelf FB that maybe only a few hitters in the country have a chance of handling. He doesn't really need a breaking ball, but, if he showed a usable one that he could get in the zone, it would make him near about unhittable in 1 inning stints

Hey shotgun, how many pitches does Zack Hess have at LSU? What makes his FB distinctive to Whites?

I have read that Hess has FB, Changeup, and Slider but in games it seems he is all FB.

[ShotgunDawg]

Hey shotgun, how many pitches does Zack Hess have at LSU? What makes his FB distinctive to Whites?

I have read that Hess has FB, Changeup, and Slider but in games it seems he is all FB.

Hess & White are tough to compare because LSU is trying to start Hess, when he should be a reliever & MSU is using White in the correct role.

Hess has a much better breaking ball than White but also a slightly straighter FB with more effort in the delivery.

The main reason you see mostly all FBs with Hess is because he struggles to get ahead in counts & get his breaking ball.

[ShotgunDawg]

We heard it here first. I hope you're right. Hard to argue based on results so far...if we get the bats going like we're capable of hitting, it's very possible.

We are really good. I wish we were a little more athletic & live bodied throughout our lineup, but our pitching is elite with the best in the country.

In comparison to Texas Tech, Tech's lineup is more athletic & a hair better than ours, but our pitching is significantly better on the top end than theirs. Their pitching is deep, but Ginn & Small would be their best two starters, White would be their best reliever, & Gordon would be tied with their best reliever & that's not even considering what we would look like if Cerantola clicks

While you could argue that Texas A&M & TCU have just as good of starting pitching as us (Doxakis & Lacy/Lodolo & Williamson) & LSU/Texas Tech/ & Arkansas have slightly better lineups than us, I'm not sure any team is as balanced in both pitching & hitting as us.

I'd say, if pitching wins in Omaha, we are in damn good shape. Our biggest threat to making a run to Omaha is that we really don't have a great hitter on the team that can carry us when struggling. So, if our bats are cold in a Super Regional, we may have to win low scoring games

[I seen it dawg]

Some of ya’ll are reacting to my post the way others react to a loss around here. Sorry to come across as so negative, wasn’t meant that way. I’m just looking at places with room for improvement, which aren’t many. I fully expect the C position to improve throughout the year and I didn’t take into account that Halter was a SS in juco and is in a new spot.

I’m actually really high on this team and am looking at what we need to get back to Omaha. I expect us to be in the high end of the mix to get there.

That's how i took it. Unfortunately we still have some that like their first reaction to be combative.

[Randolph Dupree]

Diamond Dawgs win the SEC this year. Book it.