Resetting Baseball Expectations

[confucius say]

With 15 games to go, what do you expect as far as postseason (traveling, hosting, or national seed) and do you see the end result as Omaha or bust?

[KOdawg1]

We'll host. I think we'll be a border line national seed. Somewhere like the 7-11 overall seed.

I honestly don't see us making it to Omaha, but I didn't see it last year either. We just don't have the pitching outside of Small and Ginn imo. We'll see though. Desperately need to take the series from Georgia this weekend. Then we'll go from there.

[Todd4State]

I expect them to get their head out of their ass and play like they can.

[confucius say]

I expect them to get their head out of their ass and play like they can.

Weekend rotation?

[MafiaDawg]

I expect all the coaches to coach better than they did last week. Throw strikes. Work pitch counts. Stop getting picked off at first base, etc, etc, etc.

[Maroonthirteen]

As was said earlier, it’s baseball. Our bats could get hot at the right time and carry us to Omaha. But I don’t expect a cws birth based on the pitching to date.

[Todd4State]

Weekend rotation?

Small, Ginn, Plumlee.

[The Federalist Engineer]

Small, Ginn, Plumlee.

Who is pitching the Governor's Cup?

KJ? Last year Denver McQ started and gave us a decent start and Luke Alexander won it in the 9th.

[Commercecomet24]

We will host and we can make Omaha. If y'all don't think our pitching is very deep you should watch college baseball from around the country. Outside of a very few programs we are blessed with arms. I want to see our guys throw more competitive pitches and more strikes. I'm more concerned about our infield defense than pitching at this point, they've cost us runs all year. Moving Foscue to second has helped tremendously but I don't want to see Halter on the infield anymore. We have warts but so does every team in college baseball. I expect our team to get it together. Baseball is a game of ups and downs and you have to try to be as consistent as possible. A game or series can change at the drop of a hat and you have to weather the storms(which we didn't do a good job of this past weekend, it does happen). We have a great staff and I can tell you the players were embarrassed by their performance this past weekend and I don't look for that to happen again. We'll know soon enough how they respond.

[MetEdDawg]

We'll host. I think we'll be a border line national seed. Somewhere like the 7-11 overall seed.

I honestly don't see us making it to Omaha, but I didn't see it last year either. We just don't have the pitching outside of Small and Ginn imo. We'll see though. Desperately need to take the series from Georgia this weekend. Then we'll go from there.

We do have the pitching, it's just wildly inconsistent. Baseball in the playoffs is about who's hot. This team this year by all accounts is better than last year. We have better starting pitching and our lineup hits better (this past week against Arkansas does not change that fact). Bullpen might not be as strong but as a whole we are more talented and more experienced.

But we got really really hot last year and had some extremely clutch/lucky breaks. If FSU doesn't make that dumbass decision to keep their starter in, we probably lose that game and don't go as far as we did. Add in the other stuff from the Vandy series and we basically had the right stuff go our way.

All we need is to get hot and have someone else get us quality innings in a regional. Small and Ginn are going to be really good. So when we can trot them out we have a chance to win. Question is can Plumlee or Keegan James find magic and do well enough in a couple games to get us over the hump.

We definitely have the horses to go to Omaha. We set up better for a super than a regional, especially if it's at home. So don't count us out yet. We get hot at the right time in the bullpen and it could carry us.

[confucius say]

With plumlee starting Gov cup, I'm not sure he goes Sunday.

What about Brandon smith? I thought he was good Friday in really clutch moments

[Todd4State]

With plumlee starting Gov cup, I'm not sure he goes Sunday.

What about Brandon smith? I thought he was good Friday in really clutch moments

Plumlee starting is a surprise to me. He probably won't go very long though. I suspect we'll throw Eagan, Barlow, Leibelt, and Colby if "the plan" comes together.

[Todd4State]

We do have the pitching, it's just wildly inconsistent. Baseball in the playoffs is about who's hot. This team this year by all accounts is better than last year. We have better starting pitching and our lineup hits better (this past week against Arkansas does not change that fact). Bullpen might not be as strong but as a whole we are more talented and more experienced.

But we got really really hot last year and had some extremely clutch/lucky breaks. If FSU doesn't make that dumbass decision to keep their starter in, we probably lose that game and don't go as far as we did. Add in the other stuff from the Vandy series and we basically had the right stuff go our way.

All we need is to get hot and have someone else get us quality innings in a regional. Small and Ginn are going to be really good. So when we can trot them out we have a chance to win. Question is can Plumlee or Keegan James find magic and do well enough in a couple games to get us over the hump.

We definitely have the horses to go to Omaha. We set up better for a super than a regional, especially if it's at home. So don't count us out yet. We get hot at the right time in the bullpen and it could carry us.

Thing to remember about a regional: We won't play SEC completion in all those games. Plumlee or Keegan can beat a mid major. That means we can use Small and Ginn against the better teams as long as we don't mismanage it. The exception being that we get a regional of death like last year with FSU and Oklahoma.

[Randolph Dupree]

With plumlee starting Gov cup, I'm not sure he goes Sunday.

What about Brandon smith? I thought he was good Friday in really clutch moments

Plumlee probably had a bullpen session scheduled today, so look for him to maybe pitch an inning and be done. Just a guess, but the guys that had bullpens scheduled for today will probably all pitch some.

My expectations have not changed. The team is capable of winning the whole thing and I expect us to compete that way. We are more complete top to bottom than most teams. I'm not worried about this past weekend, in fact, I'm actually glad it happened. I like the idea of these guys having the taste of losing just before post season...I hope they don't forget how bad it sucks.

[basedog]

Thing to remember about a regional: We won't play SEC completion in all those games. Plumlee or Keegan can beat a mid major. That means we can use Small and Ginn against the better teams as long as we don't mismanage it. The exception being that we get a regional of death like last year with FSU and Oklahoma.

I wouldn't count on Keegan, maybe non Sec tams but he sure hasn't performed like I thought.

[bulldogcountry1]

I'm going to take a wild guess and say that the Arkansas crowd really got into their heads. That plus Mangum having to deal with the record talk made for a bad weekend. Will they fold or leather up and right the ship? We will be fine.

[sleepy dawg]

This team is quite a good bit better than last year's team. Last year's team got hot and lucky and snowballed their way into a deep run. This team, like every team, will also need some luck and to get hot at the right time. Every team that wins it all is a very good team, but they are also a hot team that had a lot of luck come their way. We can be that team.

What do I expect? Nothing really. I know what we're capable of and I'm just hoping it all comes together again for another magical ride.

[preachermatt83]

To me, the expectations are the same every year... host a regional and win it. Anything above that is about who is hot at the right time.

[BeardoMSU]

To me, the expectations are the same every year... host a regional and win it. Anything above that is about who is hot at the right time.

Yep. And I know it sucks that we got swept, but not that we just got swept, but how we looked doing it...lets be real, though...it's not like Arkansas is some scrub team. They should've won last year, and they're a legit top 10 team this year.

I'm betting it will all balance out. We won 2 on the road at TN (when we could've won 3; now I wish we had), and we just swept Bama. As long as this was a "hiccup", and we've got it out of our system, I think we'll probably be better for it. Now it's time for our leadership to step up and kick some guys in the ass.

[Leeshouldveflanked]

Our expectation should be Omaha every year.... 80% of D1 schools don’t even take Baseball seriously...

[TNDawg35]

Ole Miss can’t hit lefty pitching. Throw every lefty we have and we win if we hit the ball half ass

[BuckyIsAB****]

Ole Miss can’t hit lefty pitching. Throw every lefty we have and we win if we hit the ball half ass

Barlow should pitch several innings then. He needs a bounceback effort after the outing he had last weekend

[confucius say]

Plumlee starting is a surprise to me. He probably won't go very long though. I suspect we'll throw Eagan, Barlow, Leibelt, and Colby if "the plan" comes together.

May have been mentioned already, but going the whole weekend without leibelt or Colby throwing a meaningful pitch was horrible. Have to go them Thursday down 3-2 or Friday down 7-5.

[gravedigger]

We will host and we can make Omaha. If y'all don't think our pitching is very deep you should watch college baseball from around the country. Outside of a very few programs we are blessed with arms. I want to see our guys throw more competitive pitches and more strikes. I'm more concerned about our infield defense than pitching at this point, they've cost us runs all year. Moving Foscue to second has helped tremendously but I don't want to see Halter on the infield anymore. We have warts but so does every team in college baseball. I expect our team to get it together. Baseball is a game of ups and downs and you have to try to be as consistent as possible. A game or series can change at the drop of a hat and you have to weather the storms(which we didn't do a good job of this past weekend, it does happen). We have a great staff and I can tell you the players were embarrassed by their performance this past weekend and I don't look for that to happen again. We'll know soon enough how they respond.

Excellent take.

[Todd4State]

May have been mentioned already, but going the whole weekend without leibelt or Colby throwing a meaningful pitch was horrible. Have to go them Thursday down 3-2 or Friday down 7-5.

I know for a fact that I mentioned it a few times. I suspect that they may be more Foxhall than Lemonis though. I'm not sure how that dynamic is in the dugout though.

[MarketingBully]

I'm going to take a wild guess and say that the Arkansas crowd really got into their heads. That plus Mangum having to deal with the record talk made for a bad weekend. Will they fold or leather up and right the ship? We will be fine.

The crowd definitely got in their heads. Arkansas pitching wasn?t much better then ours this weekend AND had we been patient in the Friday and Saturday games we would have seen that their pitchers were just as wild. Arkansas hitters were patient and worked counts. We didn?t. They pitched two freshman on Friday and Saturday. If we jump on those kids early, both of those games go in completely different directions. It?s hard though when your lead off guy swings at everything and doesn?t give you a chance. He hurt us this weekend just as much as anyone else. I?ll be glad when he gets that record because maybe then he won?t be pressing so much.

[confucius say]

The crowd definitely got in their heads. Arkansas pitching wasn?t much better then ours this weekend AND had we been patient in the Friday and Saturday games we would have seen that their pitchers were just as wild. Arkansas hitters were patient and worked counts. We didn?t. They pitched two freshman on Friday and Saturday. If we jump on those kids early, both of those games go in completely different directions. It?s hard though when your lead off guy swings at everything and doesn?t give you a chance. He hurt us this weekend just as much as anyone else. I?ll be glad when he gets that record because maybe then he won?t be pressing so much.

Agree about us not jumping on their freshmen. But Jake will always swing freely early in counts, record or no record. It's who he is. I'm fine with it bc it usually works well.

And ark hitters were patient bc we didn't throw strike 1 all weekend. If we pound the zone, that patience goes away unless they won't to be 0-1, 1-2 all night.

[confucius say]

I know for a fact that I mentioned it a few times. I suspect that they may be more Foxhall than Lemonis though. I'm not sure how that dynamic is in the dugout though.

Do you think our hitting woes against ark were maybe due to Texas Southern midweek? TSU guy was 79-81 and I think it just slowed our guys down. We didn't get barrel to anything vs ark and our hands looked slow. Just a theory.

[Saltydog]

I think we'll know a lot more about our post season chances after tonight and this weekends games. We desperately need to win tonight. Lose this one and there's a chance we'll lose at least 5 straight because Friday night against Emerson Hancock is going to be extremely difficult.

[Todd4State]

Do you think our hitting woes against ark were maybe due to Texas Southern midweek? TSU guy was 79-81 and I think it just slowed our guys down. We didn't get barrel to anything vs ark and our hands looked slow. Just a theory.

This is an odd answer I know.

No. But it didn't help either.

On ESPN last night they were talking about how hard it is to hit a slower pitch after seeing faster pitching which made me think of the Texas Southern game.

But offensively we scored 3 on their ace and then 5 the next day. Not too bad those days. Saturday was a complete disaster. I think overall the team just wasn't focused.

[I seen it dawg]

We will host and we can make Omaha. If y'all don't think our pitching is very deep you should watch college baseball from around the country. Outside of a very few programs we are blessed with arms. I want to see our guys throw more competitive pitches and more strikes. I'm more concerned about our infield defense than pitching at this point, they've cost us runs all year. Moving Foscue to second has helped tremendously but I don't want to see Halter on the infield anymore. We have warts but so does every team in college baseball. I expect our team to get it together. Baseball is a game of ups and downs and you have to try to be as consistent as possible. A game or series can change at the drop of a hat and you have to weather the storms(which we didn't do a good job of this past weekend, it does happen). We have a great staff and I can tell you the players were embarrassed by their performance this past weekend and I don't look for that to happen again. We'll know soon enough how they respond.

As usual well said

[AusTexDawg]

The crowd definitely got in their heads. Arkansas pitching wasn?t much better then ours this weekend AND had we been patient in the Friday and Saturday games we would have seen that their pitchers were just as wild.

If that crowd got in their head, we don?t have much chance against A&M. They have better pitching and a rowdy crowd (although their hitting is dicey).

As far as expectations for the rest of the year, if we can get thru a Regional, they have a decent chance to win a Super in two games and little chance to win a Super in three.