Todd4State
05-04-2019, 10:18 PM
Our starting pitching staff has become dominant. Small pitched a no hitter for seven innings and we were one play away from a combined no hitter and made A&M "Get some". Ginn three hit them and lost. And Plumlee shut them down until he got tired. Plumlee emerging as our three has been huge. We barely had to use the bullpen but Leibelt did a good job. The rain delay IMO helped us because I do not believe that we would have won this series without Plumlee pitching. We need to find a fourth starter and we need to get the bullpen back on track against Memphis. Keegan needs to step up on Weds as I am assuming that he will start. We need to get Colby White, Cole Gordon, and Trysten Barlow back strong as well.
I've seen a lot of complaints about our hitting here and on social media especially in game one of the DH today. People need to understand that A&M leads the SEC in pitching right now and we were facing them at their stadium. That in and of itself is not easy. Asa Lacey is likely a first round pick next year and even though he shut us out we made him work for it. Doxasis is a likely second round pick and the number 56 prospect in the draft per MLB.com. A lot of people think that they are the top 1-2 punch in the SEC. I'm partial to Small and Ginn and they showed why. But this was a tough series for our hitters and we got four off of their ace and then four in a seven inning game. I think we probably score a little more if we play two 9 inning games and get into their pen a little bit. We have faced the top three pitching staffs in the SEC- including the top rated staff at the time two weeks in a row- and are second in the SEC in hitting, third in slugging, and third in OBP. And we hit well enough to win five of those games. That's pretty good.
We do have some guys like Westburg, MacNamee, and Tanner Allen struggling- but I expect that to improve the last two weeks. Do we need to change up the lineup? I wouldn't be against it. MacNamee has been dealing with a foot issue so that explains his issues.
Foscue, Mangum, and Skelton were the offensive MVP's this weekend IMO. Foscue's insurance run in game two today was the difference in winning the series and playing extras on the road.
As for MacNamee not bunting- I think we would have had people complaining if we did because he is one of our most clutch players. Mac has bunted six times total in his MSU career- and has zero this year. My personal philosophy is if a guy has a better chance of hitting a home run than getting a bunt down you let him swing away.
Our RPI is three as I type this and we are in line for a National Seed. That is huge because thus far we are 28-4 in Starkville. With our resume I think 16 SEC wins locks us up as far as a regional host and then 17 I'm starting to think gets us a National Seed. This is going to be a huge week because we play Memphis which is our only opportunity to have a Q3 loss. So it's an important game to win besides the fact that we need to take care of some business with our pitching staff. I'm expecting us to use our primary relievers since they didn't pitch much this weekend. And then we have Ole Miss on the road and that is going to be another tough series for us. We have Jake Mangum though. If we take two of three I will be satisfied with that. Ole Miss potentially has a lot at stake as well too as far as trying to host a regional. So a lot on the line besides bragging rights. As of now we have 38 wins and if we win our two OOC games we will finish with 40 on the year. That's pretty remarkable. Just have to finish this thing strong!
Hail State!
I've seen a lot of complaints about our hitting here and on social media especially in game one of the DH today. People need to understand that A&M leads the SEC in pitching right now and we were facing them at their stadium. That in and of itself is not easy. Asa Lacey is likely a first round pick next year and even though he shut us out we made him work for it. Doxasis is a likely second round pick and the number 56 prospect in the draft per MLB.com. A lot of people think that they are the top 1-2 punch in the SEC. I'm partial to Small and Ginn and they showed why. But this was a tough series for our hitters and we got four off of their ace and then four in a seven inning game. I think we probably score a little more if we play two 9 inning games and get into their pen a little bit. We have faced the top three pitching staffs in the SEC- including the top rated staff at the time two weeks in a row- and are second in the SEC in hitting, third in slugging, and third in OBP. And we hit well enough to win five of those games. That's pretty good.
We do have some guys like Westburg, MacNamee, and Tanner Allen struggling- but I expect that to improve the last two weeks. Do we need to change up the lineup? I wouldn't be against it. MacNamee has been dealing with a foot issue so that explains his issues.
Foscue, Mangum, and Skelton were the offensive MVP's this weekend IMO. Foscue's insurance run in game two today was the difference in winning the series and playing extras on the road.
As for MacNamee not bunting- I think we would have had people complaining if we did because he is one of our most clutch players. Mac has bunted six times total in his MSU career- and has zero this year. My personal philosophy is if a guy has a better chance of hitting a home run than getting a bunt down you let him swing away.
Our RPI is three as I type this and we are in line for a National Seed. That is huge because thus far we are 28-4 in Starkville. With our resume I think 16 SEC wins locks us up as far as a regional host and then 17 I'm starting to think gets us a National Seed. This is going to be a huge week because we play Memphis which is our only opportunity to have a Q3 loss. So it's an important game to win besides the fact that we need to take care of some business with our pitching staff. I'm expecting us to use our primary relievers since they didn't pitch much this weekend. And then we have Ole Miss on the road and that is going to be another tough series for us. We have Jake Mangum though. If we take two of three I will be satisfied with that. Ole Miss potentially has a lot at stake as well too as far as trying to host a regional. So a lot on the line besides bragging rights. As of now we have 38 wins and if we win our two OOC games we will finish with 40 on the year. That's pretty remarkable. Just have to finish this thing strong!
Hail State!