Baseball talk....

[Lumpy Chucklelips]

You're always going to have a lot of turnover in the roster, and looking back at a couple of recent signing classes, we've had just that. Was wondering if anyone knew anything about these players and what may have been lacking in their not making it further along than they did.

Basiel Williams
Sam Knowlton
John Parker Elkins
Tucker Childers
Ben Bell
Tyler Spring
Anthony Hickman

Also, in looking at the current roster, in the last class we just brought in. We will have 12 true freshmen and 9 juco's as newcomers.

In the 2020 class, we currently have 14 HS commits and 5 juco commits.

In the 2021 class, we currently have 12 HS commits and obviously 0 juco's at this point.

I know you're always going to need juco help, but hopefully with some coaching continuity, we can develop HS players more and not have to rely on juco's as much. This years jr class that came up through the ranks....Hatcher, Allen, Westburg, Foscue and Rowdery Jordan carry so much leadership that you just can't duplicate with juco's as much. They will be the glue that holds things together this year when it gets rough. We need that from every class.

[Todd4State]

Every player is different as far as what they lack. Our team and program is fairly high level so you have to be a really good player to contribute and IMO just making the team is impressive on some level. Much respect to anyone that does that from me. Some guys are really athletic but they're raw as baseball players. Sometimes those raw players turn into Brent Rooker and Hunter Renfroe. Sometimes they turn into guys that don't pan out. Then there are some that are role player types that really want to play for MSU and they try out and sometimes those players ultimately don't make it or contribute as well. I think most of those players you mentioned fall into one of those two categories.

As far as the JUCO's- for MSU we aren't a program that should have to rely on them. We can get some good role type players out of there though- midweek starters, relief pitchers, and back-up catchers. The good thing is it gives us a second look at a guy like a Peyton Plumlee. So that's kind of an advantage there. Every now and then we can get a guy to fill a hole on the roster like an Elijah MacNamee.

You do want a core group of players as you mentioned. I agree with that 100%- guys that come in as freshmen and are developed. Those are typically higher end borderline MLB draft pick guys or draft prospects. We have to have that to win at a high level in the SEC and go to Omaha.

The thing that I think we lack (but we are improving) is power arms. To me, that's really the biggest difference between MSU and Vanderbilt when you're talking about the actual players on the field. They have legit guys that they can bring out of the bullpen throwing like 96 with a nasty off speed pitch to complement it. We typically have had 1-2 starters that are really good like Small and Ginn and maybe a closer that is really good but beyond that it's kind of been mostly been big heart guys or arm angle guys. That's not a bad thing necessarily but the problem with the arm angle guys and the big heart guys is that they typically are pitch to contact guys whereas Vanderbilt can strike you out. See our game against Vanderbilt in Omaha to see what I'm talking about. It's really hard to find power arms in the JUCO's and get them to school- Colby White is basically a unicorn almost. And most of the guys in JUCO that do throw hard that make it to four year schools have big time command issues.

That said- I love arm angle guys. Dan Quisenberry was one of my favorites growing up and Chad Girodo and Jared Leibelt are awesome pitchers for us. And you can win in the SEC with guy like that. But when you're talking about winning a National Title it helps to have 2-3 guys that can get swings and misses and have command. Especially in a ballpark like Omaha which is big and it seems like the infield plays really fast and balls seem to shoot through there sometimes. Plus in Omaha you're typically not going to score a ton because you're facing some of the elite pitchers in college baseball every game so that makes for close games making strike outs in tight situations more of a premium.

[basedog]

Heading up Wednesday to see a signing party at DeSoto Central. I am amazed at the Baseball talent at this school year in and out.

[Todd4State]

Heading up Wednesday to see a signing party at DeSoto Central. I am amazed at the Baseball talent at this school year in and out.

They’ve got it going on for sure. In a good area with a lot of talent.

[basedog]

What a great striker thrower with a breaking ball out the scouts love, 92-94 mph, one of our commits signing tomorrow. Should be a fun day tomorrow watching several signing.