Baseball end of the year thoughts

[Todd4State]

Today was disappointing but it doesn't take away from the fact that we had a tremendous regular season. David Murray's reports about what LT has been saying have gotten some of our fans concerned- but don't be. We should be a National Seed and have one of the best resume's out there. We have an RPI of 4, an SOS of 22, 14 top 25 RPI wins, 21 Q1 wins and 45 wins overall with 20 SEC wins. The SEC Tournament doesn't mean much for us. We essentially have zero bad losses this year. It doesn't really matter which one of the top 8 that we are- just that we get one. That means homefield for us throughout the regionals. Now the committee may very well play politics as they have in the past- but not with a team that has a good enough resume' like we do.

Now we get to play the SEC cashgrab called the SEC Tournament- which should be sponsored by some RV company. There is always some debate about how we should play it and how it may be to our advantage to lose out quickly. My personal opinion is you play to win. Yes, there is a fine line between that and being foolish with your pitching staff. I understand that. But from my personal experience watching baseball it seems like teams are typically better off throwing their guys normally and playing to win in the moment because if you do that you have a better chance of staying in the winner's bracket which in turn conserves your pitching because with the bye that we have if we win the first two we get Friday off. Which gives everyone on the staff other than the starters a reset so to speak in most cases. Then you go into Saturday and Sunday with a fairly fresh pitching staff.

So, our pitching staff this weekend threw 87 (Small), 86 (Ginn), and 78 (Plumlee) pitches during this series. And we also have to consider/assume that we will be in a regional which starts in 13 days. Which means if we start Small on Weds he will have at least 9 days between starts. And the same for the rest of the staff unless we pitch Plumlee first against the four seed on Friday which would then be 6-7 days of rest.

And to me with that being known I think we should pitch Small on Weds, Ginn on Thursday, and if we keep playing Plumlee in our third game and then go with bullpen by committee beyond that. So, to me ideally we would win the SEC Tournament or at least make the finals because having too much rest between starts can be an issue for pitchers as well. So, it's a fine line.

And I will say this as I say I say it every year. The SEC Tournament doesn't mean a lot to me personally. Now, I know that we have a lot of fans that do enjoy it and I totally respect that. And it doesn't mean a lot in the grand scheme of things to win it- but if you do win it- it's a LOT of fun. So hopefully we'll go over there and have a good showing. The silver lining to today is we got a better TV time slot for the SEC Tournament- why the four seed doesn't have to play at 9 AM I don't know. It also sets us up for a potential rematch with LSU and also a possible match up with Vanderbilt.

Also- congrats to Mike Bianco on breaking your six game losing streak which means you get to come back next year probably.

And congrats to Delta State on advancing to the D-2 Super Regionals.

#HailState

[Leroy Jenkins]

What did Uncle Dave say that LT said?

[Todd4State]

Basically that we had to beat La Tech and take 2/3 to get a National Seed and that the committee is looking to put another National Seed out west and basically insinuated that we are on the NCAA National Seed bubble.

[HoopsDawg]

disagree. I wouldn't start Small until Thursday. And then Ginn after that.

[FriarsPoint]

At what point does the sec tournament cease to exist?

Random extraneous answers 1 through 1000.

Bottom line, money. When people quit giving a shit. Welcome to extraneous answer 1000.

[Todd4State]

disagree. I wouldn't start Small until Thursday. And then Ginn after that.

We should avoid the loser's bracket if we can. I have a feeling that with how LSU hits LHP we will probably go with Small. If it's South Carolina again I bet we go with the bullpen.

[Todd4State]

At what point does the sec tournament cease to exist?

Random extraneous answers 1 through 1000.

Bottom line, money. When people quit giving a shit. Welcome to extraneous answer 1000.

As long as it's making money for the SEC it will exist.

[FriarsPoint]

As long as it's making money for the SEC it will exist.

To the detriment of the league in the purest sense of competition

[RougeDawg]

If this team locks in mentally, they are as difficult an out as any team I have seen in a long time. Top to bottom, the lineup has pop. No real holes at all, outside of Westburg. He should come around.

Pitching is there if coaches manage it well.

[CadaverDawg]

I disagree with pitching Small Wednesday. That would be on short rest, and the tournament just isn't that important. If we want to match LSU's lineup, pitch Eagan. I would throw some combo of Eagan, Cerantola, James. If we get to the 5th or 6th with a lead, maybe go to one of our better relievers to try to win. Then go to the regular rotation Thursday. If we win Wednesday without throwing Small, we're in the drivers seat. If not, oh well.

[Todd4State]

I disagree with pitching Small Wednesday. That would be on short rest, and the tournament just isn't that important. If we want to match LSU's lineup, pitch Eagan. I would throw some combo of Eagan, Cerantola, James. If we get to the 5th or 6th with a lead, maybe go to one of our better relievers to try to win. Then go to the regular rotation Thursday. If we win Wednesday without throwing Small, we're in the drivers seat. If not, oh well.

I think our fans have fallen into the trap of assuming that we lost the regionals in 2012 because we won the SEC Tournament that year and so a lot of us are like just throw the midweek guys. If we lose the opening game and then win with Small the next day, we still pitch Ginn but then we have to use our bullpen a lot more on Saturday. It is short rest- but it's one day up for Small. And he hasn't even gone to 90 pitches his last two outings plus as I said he is going to have a long period off no matter when he throws.

[Cooterpoot]

There’s no point in starting small before Friday. This tourney is worthless. Who cares if we don’t win a game? I don’t. The season wears you out. Get rest when you can.

[CadaverDawg]

I think our fans have fallen into the trap of assuming that we lost the regionals in 2012 because we won the SEC Tournament that year and so a lot of us are like just throw the midweek guys. If we lose the opening game and then win with Small the next day, we still pitch Ginn but then we have to use our bullpen a lot more on Saturday. It is short rest- but it's one day up for Small. And he hasn't even gone to 90 pitches his last two outings plus as I said he is going to have a long period off no matter when he throws.

My thoughts have zero to do with the past, and everything to do with this year. I either want to win the SECT in as few games as possible, or exit fairly early. Throwing midweek guys on day 1 accomplishes that without forcing our staff to all go on short rest all week. Get by day 1 without our 3 best starters, and suddenly we are in prime shape to sweep through the tourney. Lose game 1, you still can win a game or two, but you can keep low pitch counts and exit early to prep for the real tournament. Just my 2 cents

[Todd4State]

My thoughts have zero to do with the past, and everything to do with this year. I either want to win the SECT in as few games as possible, or exit fairly early. Throwing midweek guys on day 1 accomplishes that without forcing our staff to all go on short rest all week. Get by day 1 without our 3 best starters, and suddenly we are in prime shape to sweep through the tourney. Lose game 1, you still can win a game or two, but you can keep low pitch counts and exit early to prep for the real tournament. Just my 2 cents

The best way to win it in as few games as possible is to stay in the winner's bracket after you get the bye. We have the bye obviously so check. But if Small and Ginn win games 1 & 2 then we get Friday off. Then Saturday is single elimination I believe. Sunday would be a bullpen day.


If we lose Weds because we have a pitching mismatch we still probably win Thursday with Small, which means we have to play Friday and throw Ginn anyway. And then we may have to play on Saturday possibly. So, we actually potentially run the risk of using more pitching and our bullpen more by throwing our midweek guys on Weds because with our starters being Small and Ginn it could very well likely force us into playing an extra game or two.

[MarketingBully]

LSU is going to pitch a guy who shut us down. If we pitch a midweek guy against them that game could get ugly. We would basically be conceding that tournament before we even start. The whole point of getting the bye is we could get ourselves more normalcy with our rotation. We are a 4 playing a 5 so the stakes are more even. If LSU is pitching their ace why can’t we pitch ours? If we do pitch a midweek guy, you have to pitch Egan over Smith. Their lineup is 7/9 left handed hitters. Ginn even had trouble facing their lineup. We went with the approach you guys are talking about in 2016 but it didn’t help anyway as we went 1-2 in that tournament but as a 1 we played an 8 and that’s a bit different. 4 vs 5 is a whole other ballgame. If Small feels good to go Wednesday, you start him.

[Cooterpoot]

Screw the SEC tournament.

[Activated Alpha]

Screw the SEC tournament.

Screw LSU. I say throw our best against those sister ****ing bayou clowns. Once we beat them, then we can take it easy the rest of the tournament

[Cowbell]

Screw LSU. I say throw our best against those sister ****ing bayou clowns. Once we beat them, then we can take it easy the rest of the tournament

We have bigger fish to fry...

[maroonmania]

Been a great year no doubt and we definitely deserve a national seed. It is disappointing to end the year however with the worst loss of the season in the fact that SC is without doubt the worst team we've dropped a game to all year and we did it at home. If we've had a 'bad' loss, that was definitely it losing to a team that was 27-27 on the year and only 7 SEC wins. Our pitching seemed to lose focus yesterday and for some reason our offense, which all in all had a great weekend, could never get going in the first few innings of any game against SC. We got behind early in all 3 games but yesterday we just let SC get on a roll offensively and we let the deficit get too large to overcome. The other glaring issue is Jake Mangum who had maybe the worst week of hitting we've seen from him in a long time. He was 2-21 for the week's four games with both hits being singles. We don't need him getting into a slump with post-season play starting. Hopefully it was just a bad week.

[Leeshouldveflanked]

Knowing the past History of SEC office in Birmingham, I won’t believe we are a National seed until I see it.

[Captain Falcon]

Not very worried about yesterday, it was a bit fluky to me. Plumlee had his worst start in a month, we lost a two run game where we gave up four unearned runs, and our offense got shut down for six innings by a guy making his second start of the year. We scored seven runs the last three innings after he came out of the game, so it was really just that one guy all weekend who we had problems hitting. Division titles mean very little in baseball, and we still won a share of it and won the series this weekend, so I don?t feel like yesterday is much to dwell on.

Whatever happens in Hoover, happens. I think I?d be a little disappointed if we went 0-2, but anything beyond one win is gravy.

We are going to be a national seed guys, I don?t think there?s any need to be paranoid. Currently 4th in the RPI and won 20 games in the top RPI conference. The SEC has gotten four national seeds multiple times in recent years, and we objectively have one of the best resumes in the country.

[AlSwearengen]

There?s no point in starting small before Friday. This tourney is worthless. Who cares if we don?t win a game? I don?t. The season wears you out. Get rest when you can.

This is how I feel. The ?long season? is made even longer from a mental stand point when you are trying to lock up a national seed. You have to show up every game and that is hard to do for college kids. Wouldn?t bother me a bit to get out of there immediately.

I am speaking strictly about the importance of the tournament and not who pitches when. I just want the team to be as mentally fresh as possible and ready to get locked in for the regionals.

[MarketingBully]

Quick question. Is Tyler Horka an idiot or what? His article yesterday was dumb as hell. Reading it you would think we didn’t share the Western Division crown. Last I checked we finished tied with Arkansas to win the SEC West. Did we miss an opportunity to win it outright? Yes but it really doesn’t make a shits bit of difference. All it did was seed us 4th instead of 2nd in the upcoming SEC baseball tournament. And for you idiots saying that we didn’t win the SEC West because we tied it are idiots. This is only the second time we have done this since 1992. This is only the 3rd time since 1989 that we finished with 20+ wins in the SEC. All pretty damn big accomplishments. I’m pretty impressed with Lemonis’s first year. He deserves the Coach of the Year award.

[dawgs]

Y'all worried we won't be a national seed need to stop being so paranoid. Our resume is way too strong. We literally have 2 more Ws than anyone else in the country against a tough schedule with the #3 RPI.