My two cents and a cup of coffee

[Todd4State]

Lemonis needs to get this figured out. Not sure if he will. He seems to me like one of those analytics baseball managers that just wants to look at the data and put a lineup out there and just let the numbers work themselves out. Despite what Bill James says you can't really do that all the time. He is also being borderline over cautious with our pitching staff. Which I prefer over Bianco/Corbin. Let's see if it pays off in the postseason. I'm worried we'll only see Sims once in a regional. We'll see. Lemonis needs to be an elite recruiter to fit his management style because he is much more "let the players do their job" than a Tony LaRussa call a squeeze play to rattle Roger Clemens in the postseason and get a comeback manager. The good news is yeah- I think he is showing signs that he could be an elite recruiter. So, because of coaching turnover this team is essentially Lemonis's version of Cohen's 2011 team. It's a hodgepodge of Cohen, Cann, Henderson, and his recruits. At least we scrap and play hard in general. But we also aren't "complete" either as a team and have too many holes.

Starting rotation needs to be MacLeoud and Bednar and then we need to use Landon Sims as an opener on Sunday. Either let Sims throw 1-2 IP on Fri or 1 on Sat so he would still be the closer. This does a couple of things. It will show us how Sims will respond as a starter for next year potentially, we would be able to maximize his talent, and we would help his future draft stock by showing scouts that he could be an opener which helps him out. It would also give us a chance to have three innings to get a lead on Sunday. So things would look like this:

Fri- MaLeoud 4-5, Brandon Smith 1-2, Preston Johnson 1-2, and then Sims 1-2.
Sat- Bednar 4-5, Smith if he didn't pitch Friday 1-2, Stinnett 1-2, and then Simmons 1-2
Sun- Sims 2-3, Harding 2-4, Chase Patrick 1-2, Johnson 1-2 depending on his workload Friday, and then some mix of Carslisle Koestler, Eric Cerentola, and Spencer Price. Those last three are wild cards. All three are upperclassmen. Koestler has an ERA of 4.00 which is respectable and can eat an inning or two. Cerentola has been pretty good in low leverage situations out of the bullpen. Price is a veteran closer who has done it before in his career and has a good slider. I think we can use him in some way shape or form.


Tanner has catcher locked down.

As far as the infield goes we can not keep using James at third base. We just can't. Leggett has his issues at the plate but we generate enough offense to offset his .231 average. I would look at using Kellum Clark at first base. He may be the first baseman next year. Dubrule and Forsythe have the MIF locked up and Forsyth needs to slow things down some.

In the OF I would either use Cumbest or look at James out there and see if he can handle it for next year. Rowdey and TA have the other spots locked down. Hancock needs to be in the lineup either at DH or first base.

The bottom line on this weekend is we didn't respect the game as a program and we thought we could show up and sweep Mizzou and that our crowd and our magical tradition would somehow come through for us. The problem is our players seemed to forget that they're the ones throwing the pitches, swinging the bats, and using the gloves in the field. Not the fans or the ghost of Clark and Palmeiro. Defense is the biggest concern and until Lemonis fixes that- most likely by using Tanner Leggett and Cumbest- we're going to be inconsistent. Those errors extend innings and make it more difficult on our pitching staff which as you can see above can be gotten into. So yeah- we'll probably be fine but we better get our ass in gear and start playing better baseball or there will be no National Seed or Omaha.

[BeardoMSU]

What's the deal with all our infield errors? Nerves, talent, wrong position players, etc., or a combination? Hopefully these lumps Lane is taking this year will pay off the next 2 to 3 years for us, but damn....he is struggling right now.

[Todd4State]

What's the deal with all our infield errors? Nerves, talent, wrong position players, etc., or a combination? Hopefully these lumps Lane is taking this year will pay off the next 2 to 3 years for us, but damn....he is struggling right now.

Probably mostly due to the fact that when Forsythe an James are out there it's experience. Both are freshmen essentially. James hasn't played a lot at third. SEC baseball is a completely different animal than 6A baseball in Mississippi at DeSoto Central. For James specifically it's about finding a position for him first and foremost and then him getting reps at whatever position that is. I'm not 100% sure where that is right now because we have a lot of corner INF/OF types coming in that will compete for spots along with James and Kellum Clark. With Forsythe it's more about reps than anything because I think he has found a home at SS although if McCants were to come to school which I don't think is likely we would probably move Forsythe to second base.

We have talented freshmen but none of them have ever been in anything like what they are experiencing now. That's why you're seeing guys like Fristoe hit a freshman wall.

The truth is I think our team is really probably like two years away from resembling what we are seeing with Arkansas but I also want to see who we get through the draft this year. It's also hard to know how players like James and Logan Tanner are going to handle having a year of extra leverage.

[Rex54]

Landon Sims as an opener is a foolish proposition. You can't just say "use him on Friday then Sunday" - what if we're up huge early Friday and need him Saturday? My God the levels of reinventing the wheel out of you sometimes. We hit a speedbump, it's baseball.

[HoopsDawg]

Putting Clark at first base over Hancock solves nothing. 1 needs to play first and one needs to DH. Hancock played a really good first base this weekend. Also, we aren't moving James to the outfield at this point. And the coaches aren't thinking about next year right now. We are trying to win a championship.

[HoopsDawg]

Landon Sims as an opener is a foolish proposition. You can't just say "use him on Friday then Sunday" - what if we're up huge early Friday and need him Saturday? My God the levels of reinventing the wheel out of you sometimes. We hit a speedbump, it's baseball.

Maybe not as an opener. But have a plan to use him in the first high leverage situation in game 3 IF he only throws 24 pitches in Game 1. That would have been the 3rd inning yesterday with the bases loaded. Our bullpen gave up 5 runs. What if Sims got us out of that bases loaded mess like did vs Texas? Might have won the game.

[Todd4State]

Landon Sims as an opener is a foolish proposition. You can't just say "use him on Friday then Sunday" - what if we're up huge early Friday and need him Saturday? My God the levels of reinventing the wheel out of you sometimes. We hit a speedbump, it's baseball.


Maybe not as an opener. But have a plan to use him in the first high leverage situation in game 3 IF he only throws 24 pitches in Game 1. That would have been the 3rd inning yesterday with the bases loaded. Our bullpen gave up 5 runs. What if Sims got us out of that bases loaded mess like did vs Texas? Might have won the game.

Hoops gets it. We have to find a way to maximize using Sims.

[Rex54]

Maybe not as an opener. But have a plan to use him in the first high leverage situation in game 3 IF he only throws 24 pitches in Game 1. That would have been the 3rd inning yesterday with the bases loaded. Our bullpen gave up 5 runs. What if Sims got us out of that bases loaded mess like did vs Texas? Might have won the game.

That's an incredibly reasonable and correct proposition

[BeardoMSU]

Meanwhile, OM took 2/3 from Vandy. It'll be interesting to see how far they rise, and far we fall in the rankings. Us shitting the bed and losing a National Seed, and them finishing strong and backdooring one would be painful.

[Activated Alpha]

Maybe not as an opener. But have a plan to use him in the first high leverage situation in game 3 IF he only throws 24 pitches in Game 1. That would have been the 3rd inning yesterday with the bases loaded. Our bullpen gave up 5 runs. What if Sims got us out of that bases loaded mess like did vs Texas? Might have won the game.

This is why I put a lot of blame on Lemonis for the 3rd game. I know the team didn't execute, but he ultimately could have put our best player in a position to control the game, but didn't. Not sure why he only wants to use him when we are up in the late innings.

[preachermatt83]

I think this is the first time I’ve ever disagreed with you Todd but I very much disagree about large amounts of this post. You are still the man though

[Maroonthirteen]

Two cents and Jager shots for the dugout.

[MaroonFlounder]

We currently don't have a starter that can get past the 4th inning.

The 3-hole hitter has what..1 or 2 hits in the past 2 weeks.

We have a coach that put 2 freshmen on the mound yesterday in pressure situations before they were ready.

Go back and count how many clutch 2-out hits Mizzou had. And how many times they led off the inning with a walk or a base hit.

We had what...half dozen fielding errors this weekend.?

Our season went south when we got jobbed in the Sunday game @ USC. The umps were hell bent on making sure the cocks didn't get swept 2 weekends in a row vs MIssissippi teams.

I'm pissed.

[AlSwearengen]

If we were mid season, I think we could look at and try some of the position changes you mention Todd. I think at this point though, we roll with Leggett at 3B and Hancock at 1B. I would say put Clark into the rotation in LF but he didn’t look like an outfielder on a couple of deep flies. On the other hand, if we are looking at Clark in LF, we might see what James looks like out there in practice. However, if James continues his struggles at the plate, he might be out of the lineup all together a good bit.

I think we just need to go all in on defense at 3B and LF. Have Leggett and Forsythe practice bunting until they beg to stop so they can be of some help against the top notch pitchers when we have to face them.

I agree with just about everything you present Todd. I just think we are at the point of no return now b/c of how late we are in the season.

[mudbugs]

You all make very good points, and I, too, have hope that they'll get if figured out. Realizing they're just kids, this may come across as overly critical, but it seems our starting pitchers (and maybe a significant portion of the position players, too) lack the emotional toughness to overcome the first sign of adversity. In the Friday night game, MacLeod was set to get out of the first on only 12 pitches, but an error on our true freshman shortstop lead to 2 runs and 15 more pitches, several of which appeared to be both up in the strike zone and had too much of the plate. And that may have cost MacLeod being able to go deeper in the game.

[basedog]

We currently don't have a starter that can get past the 4th inning.

The 3-hole hitter has what..1 or 2 hits in the past 2 weeks.

We have a coach that put 2 freshmen on the mound yesterday in pressure situations before they were ready.

Go back and count how many clutch 2-out hits Mizzou had. And how many times they led off the inning with a walk or a base hit.

We had what...half dozen fielding errors this weekend.?

Our season went south when we got jobbed in the Sunday game @ USC. The umps were hell bent on making sure the cocks didn't get swept 2 weekends in a row vs MIssissippi teams.

I'm pissed.

You have some good points.
1) Not only did they have clutch two out hits but many were two strikes!
2) I don’t recall a 1-2-3 inning
3) As far as Freshman pitchers, I can only say it was a good situation for Cade except he made one bad pitch but it was a grand slam. It was time for him, his command isnt100% because of injury and lack of pitching in competition.
4) 4 errors plus 10 walks, 4 home runs with 2 wild pitches and one pass ball.

One word to describe this, Shocking.

I think we bounce back but it want be an easy series against Bama. They are one of the few Sec teams that has an overall winning record against us. Imagine that?

[Choctaw Dawg]

A lot of our issues come down to the fact we do not have elite starting pitching, that will be the difference in being able to get out of a Super Regional

Macleod is good, but not elite
Bednar is good but not elite
Fristoe has potential but is just a freshman

We are 4th in the SEC in walks given up and lead the league in wild pitches. We have walked 192 guys total and Bednar, Macleod, and Fristoe are responsible for 77 of them

Our hitting this week should have been better, our approach at the plate was abysmal, Missouri has walked 302 batters this year, the next closest is Georgia with 215(!). Although it seemed our batting did keep us in games we should have taken more bases from them.

Silver lining though if there is any: I think they will come out focused and be a lot better, there is no way the team could stand for that. The coaching staff should take them to Starkville High School or Mckee park to practice and tell them no team that plays like they did over the weekend should be able to play in a park like we do.