2014 MLB Season

[Will James]

Hard to believe its over this year. Other than your team, what are you looking forward to most next year.

1. Fantasy, of course.
2. Puig's growth as an overall player.
3. Watching the Reds with a competent manager.
4. Renfroe/Frazier updates
5. How can Harvey do with rehab?
6. Watching Kershaw pitch
7. MLB.TV

Just a few off the top of my dome.

[MsStateBaseball]

To many to count. Most of all though former players moving up the ladder to The Show.

[Todd4State]

I'm looking forward to seeing what the Cardinals do in the off season. There are already a couple of trade rumors out there and I think if either of the rumors materialize, it will put them over the top.

Funniest rumor I heard in St. Louis- the Angels wanted to trade Erick Aybar to the Cardinals for Wacha and Carlos Martinez in August. I bet Mozeliak laughed and hung up.

[CadaverDawg]

I'm looking forward to laughing at fellow Braves fans as they watch the season in optimism, when I know it will once again end in heartbreaking fashion that only Braves fans can understand.

And looking forward to talking about how MSU won the National Championship.

[I seen it dawg]

A Sox repeat. I've got to say Farrell is a baseball "guy" and a lifer. In 95 I was a HS asst in La and he was at our school helping us with a hitting camp over Christmas break while he was at Okla St. Even then I was real impressed with the guy the way he dealt with all the kids, coaches, and parents at the camp and how he really got his hands dirty with the rest of us grunts. Class act.

[Todd4State]

Hard to believe its over this year. Other than your team, what are you looking forward to most next year.

1. Fantasy, of course.
2. Puig's growth as an overall player.
3. Watching the Reds with a competent manager.
4. Renfroe/Frazier updates
5. How can Harvey do with rehab?
6. Watching Kershaw pitch
7. MLB.TV

Just a few off the top of my dome.

2. Puig will be better- but he is always going to be emotional as a player. The biggest thing the Dodgers need to do with him is make sure he doesn't end up like Daryl Strawberry with bad outside influences getting him into things he shouldn't. And there is a lot of that in L.A. There is some big time tension between Mattingly and the Dodgers front office- that and I think making some big time free agent moves will hurt their team chemistry.

3. I think Billy Hamilton will make the Reds vastly different in a good way. And we'll see how much of an internal distraction Brandon Phillips was causing that team- I think he may be more difficult to move than they think.

4. I think Renfroe will be in AA Mobile and Frazier will start out in A ball. Renfroe just has to keep working hard and doing what he is doing. Frazier has to hit .300 or better at every level- but I think he is capable.

5. Harvey will do fine- but he won't be back until 2015.

6. Kershaw is legit. No doubt about it. Some of the TV people are over the top with the comparisons to Koufax though. Koufax threw at least 10 MPH harder.

[bully99]

1. Will next year be Buck Showalters last in Baltimore. He's usually good for 3 or4 years before he wears out his welcome.

2. If Robin Ventura struggles early could Bobby "walk off homer " Thigpen step in and become manager of the white sox.

3. Could Jeff Brantley leave the booth and become a pitching coach.

4.Will major league baseball quit blackballing Rafael Palmeiro. That's easy. NO.

5. Will Ron Polk make peace with John Cohen and MSU. Again. NO.

6. Will Stricklan present renderings of a new baseball facility. Likely no.

7. How many baseball players will State have drafted next summer. The guess is a handful.

8. Will Butch Thompson be here after next season. Better than equal he won't.

9. Will Bill James, Will James, Fred James, or Leroy James continue to shove these damn baseball stats in my face. Sadly. Yes!

10. Will Gene Swindoll be wearing his jorts in the dead of winter. Don't want to think about it.

Happy Halloween!!!

[It_Could_Happen]

I wanna see if big Papi can repeat. One of the if not the best playoff appearances ever.

[Todd4State]

1. Will next year be Buck Showalters last in Baltimore. He's usually good for 3 or4 years before he wears out his welcome.

2. If Robin Ventura struggles early could Bobby "walk off homer " Thigpen step in and become manager of the white sox.

3. Could Jeff Brantley leave the booth and become a pitching coach.

4.Will major league baseball quit blackballing Rafael Palmeiro. That's easy. NO.

5. Will Ron Polk make peace with John Cohen and MSU. Again. NO.

6. Will Stricklan present renderings of a new baseball facility. Likely no.

7. How many baseball players will State have drafted next summer. The guess is a handful.

8. Will Butch Thompson be here after next season. Better than equal he won't.

9. Will Bill James, Will James, Fred James, or Leroy James continue to shove these damn baseball stats in my face. Sadly. Yes!

10. Will Gene Swindoll be wearing his jorts in the dead of winter. Don't want to think about it.

Happy Halloween!!!

1. I think Buck has learned a lot over the years as far as how to manage and handle a MLB team. The reason he has left in the past was because he would wear out his welcome and treat older players like you would younger players or player in the minors. I think being on ESPN and getting an outside perspective really helped him out a lot as well.

2. If they fire Ventura, they might go with Thigpen on an interim basis- but I doubt it.

3. If Brantley has any brains- no. Broadcasters have a lot more job security than pitching coaches.

4. No- but I do think eventually the steroid users will see some degree of forgiveness as time goes on depending on the player. McGwire will be more easily forgiven than Bonds or A-Rod.

5. Yes! If hell freezes over. And I hate that. MSU baseball would be better with Ron Polk serving a role like Boo Ferriss serves at Delta State as an ambassador. But Polk won't let that happen- and there is ZERO reasons for distractions at this time for MSU baseball. The lesson there is to forgive others.

6. Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if we have some renderings at this time next year. But that's just a guess on my part.

7. I would say more than a handful. Woodruff, Lindgren, Holder, Fitts, Will Cox, I could see Bracewell getting a flyer or signing as a free agent, Rea, Pirtle, Britton if he has the year I think he will, Demarcus, possibly CT, and possibly Derrick Armstrong, and possibly Detz. Most of those guys will get drafted- and the ones that don't probably will get opportunities as free agents. Of this group, I think Woodruff, Lindgren, and Rea have the best chance at making it to MLB. Fitts, Holder, and Cox are close behind that group IMO.

8. We'll see- but I think the odds of him staying are better than most would think. We're not talking about our defensive coordinator here.

9. Based on the projections of wBS- the answer is yes. Those stats aren't that bad- you just have to figure out what they mean and how to apply them. Interestingly enough, SABR (Society for American Baseball Research) helped this year with the Gold Glove selections with a sabermetric defensive baseball stat that counted for 25% of the vote for the first time ever. The only thing I don't like about some stat people out there is when they try to cram a stat down everyone's throat and declare that it's the best thing ever and all other stats are irrelevant and if you don't agree you are a moron and a baseball purist.

10. Gene will not only be in jorts, but will have his radar gun ready and the scouts will run.

[Dawg61]

1. Who will be the new TroutHarperPuig? Sounds like manbearpig.

2. Which team will the media drool all over and they'll miss the playoffs? Nats probably

3. Will Miggy be the same player after groin surgery?

4. Will Chris Davis get busted for roids? He's on steroids guys

5. Why the **** did the Giants give Lincecum 35 million more? Dumbasses

6. When will Justin Upton beat his older brother's ass for being so awful?

7. Will Freddie Freeman ever not wear blue long sleeve under Armour? No he does it for a skin cancer awareness

8. Will the Red Sox shave? Ever?

9. Can the Marlins and Astros find a way to suck even more? Yes

10. Can Thom Brennaman and Hawk Harrelson please get fired? Joe Simpson too

11. How many games will I listen to Vin Scully? 60+

[Lefthandersrule]

1. Watch Puig collapse mentally, MLB pitchers have film on Puig now and he will not have close to the season he had last year.

2. Would love to see if Kershaw can get better (I don't know how but it will be fun to watch!).

3. How the Yankees will rebound and spend 1 billion in the process.

4. See what the Braves can do to get people interested yet again next year.

5. Watch the Houston Astros go for four straight first overall draft picks.

6. See how the former Diamond Dawgs progress through the Minors.

7. See if the administration matches the amount of dollars offered to Butch to take a HC job.

Just to name a few...

[Tbonewannabe]

Will there be any MSU players come through Trustmark Park this year? Is Mobile AL Hunter's next stop?

[bully99]

I agree Buck has matured, but it took too long for it to happen. Buck should have a couple of world series titles. He's got one of the best baseball minds in the game. When Palmeiro played for Buck in Texas at the end of his career, those two were barely on speaking terms. Yeah Todd you think Palmeiro is an a-hole but Buck is/was not a pleasant guy. I think Cohen learned a lot from Buck in that you don't always have to be a jerk.

Thigpen is the white sox bullpen coach and has managed in the minor leagues. He might have a chance but he wouldn't be at the top of the list.

I could tell Polks relationship with state is still not good when Scott Stricklan said before the UCLA series that he was gonna send Polk a ring if state won it all. Then he kinda laughed and said Polk would probably send it back. That told me everything I
needed to know that there's been no makeup.

Palmeiro will never be forgiven because of the so-called finger wag to Congress. It's amazing how many people still write and talk about that. You would think Palmeiro was an axe murderer the way he's been demonized. People say he's really not the same person since all this went down. Pretty much a hermit. Sad situation.

[messageboardsuperhero]

8. Will Butch Thompson be here after next season. Better than equal he won't.

I wouldn't say that. Sure, there's always a chance Butch could take a HC job, but people have been saying this for the past two off seasons already. I'm of the opinion that it will take a special HC job offer for him to leave Starkville. Butch gets to live close to his family, is one of the highest paid assistants in college baseball, and has pretty much free reign over a top flight SEC pitching staff that he built from scratch. It'd be tough for him to walk away from all that.


9. Will Bill James, Will James, Fred James, or Leroy James continue to shove these damn baseball stats in my face. Sadly. Yes!

If you put some of your preconceived notions about sabremetrics aside, you might find some of the stats to be very informative in the right context. They are pretty much new ideas/tweaks of measuring what it takes to win in baseball.

For example, wOBA is pretty much the same thing as OPS, but it is weighted more evenly. OPS used to be the "ultimate measure of a player's offense" by a lot of baseball experts before advanced metrics came along.

Advanced statistics are here to stay in baseball, so you might as well get used to it. The Red Sox hired Bill James as a consultant 10 years ago, and I don't think it's a coincidence that they have won three championships in that same time span. The A's and Rays have been extremely successful by using stats, given their limited budgets.