What will next years starting 9 look like opening day?

[Leeshouldveflanked]

Any ideas?
Alford 3B
Forsythe SS
Hines 1B/DH
Bane/Portal C
Siebert DH/1B
2nd Portal or signee
LF Cumbest? Corder or Downs,
CF Portal/ or Signee,
RF Clark? Downs or Corder or Signee
P C Smith
No guarantee either Clark or Cumbest comes back.

[Coach34]

Catcher is a question
Hines at 1B...thats a given
2B? wtf knows
SS? Probably Foreskin again.
3B? Alford looks to be the guy right now
LF? Siebert or wtf knows. Cumbest will be drafted and leave almost assuredly
CF? wtf knows
RF? Clark is a wildcard. Where he is drafted and what they offer will determine it. I hope he returns for another season to work on consistency. Downs needs to grow up
DH? Ugh

Portal will be big for us. We have to have a couple of impact players or we will be worse next year.

[TNDawg35]

Forsythe is hitting damn near .300. He is our damn shortstop you coffee selling ****…

[AlSwearengen]

Coach, can you expound a little on Downs needing to grow up?

[Coach34]

Nothing big- Alford and Downs are rookies and they just have to grow up. They have to be ready to roll next year and play.

[Coach34]

Forsythe is hitting damn near .300. He is our damn shortstop you coffee selling ****…

ok dude. He's a lightweight singles hitter batting .275. I'm pretty sure he wont make All-SEC

[99jc]

Catcher is a question
Hines at 1B...thats a given
2B? wtf knows
SS? Probably Foreskin again.
3B? Alford looks to be the guy right now
LF? Siebert or wtf knows. Cumbest will be drafted and leave almost assuredly
CF? wtf knows
RF? Clark is a wildcard. Where he is drafted and what they offer will determine it. I hope he returns for another season to work on consistency. Downs needs to grow up
DH? Ugh

Portal will be big for us. We have to have a couple of impact players or we will be worse next year.

This is a fact^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^

[Cooterpoot]

Going to be a lot of transfers

[StarkVegasSteve]

C-Portal/Highfill
1B-Hines
2B-Portal/Downs
SS-Forsythe
3B-Portal/Alford
LF-Portal/Chance
CF-Portal
RF-Portal/Clark

The only two positions that need to be safe are Forsythe and Hines, and if you found an impact 1B Hines can DH. We need to leave no stone unturned. These next 3 weeks we need to find out if guys like Corder, Alford, Meche, Siebert, and Downs belong at this level. Otherwise they need to find a new home next year. We probably need AT MINIMUM 4 portal position players and 3 portal pitchers. I've said for a few weeks we honestly might need 12 guys from the portal. 7 position players and 5 pitchers.

[CadaverDawg]

How tf are we the defending champs, with a coach we hired as a "recruiter", and can't fill out at least a serviceable lineup card for next year? This feels like an issue. Yes we need to hit the portal, but we ought to let guys like Alford, Meche, Downs, etc play A LOT the rest of the way. Those guys should be starting bc the season is over.

[RougeDawg]

I suspect they will look something like a Sunbelt League team.

Who the hell are the pitchers going to be?

[CadaverDawg]

I suspect they will look something like a Sunbelt League team.

Who the hell are the pitchers going to be?

Cade Smith and Pico Kohn better work on endurance this offseason....who else is there?

[State82]

I suspect they will look something like a Sunbelt League team.

That is exactly what they are going to look like. Study/watch the rosters around the league guys. We are in deep shit.

[The Federalist Engineer]

I suspect they will look something like a Sunbelt League team.

Who the hell are the pitchers going to be?

The pitching is a way bigger issue than the field lineup.

Losing: Sims, P Johnson, Hunt, B Smith
Recovery: Stinnett, Auger, Simmons
Grads: Tullar and Talley
Known SEC level roster players: Cade, Pico
SEC Wildcards: Fristoe, Tepper, Walker, Walling?

It's like 2015 again for pitching, to make 2016 better there was the miracle transformation of Dakota Hudson and Zac Houston. Plus 2 big transfers Rigby and Blake Smith. Plus the great but TJ ravaged HS recruiting class.

[RougeDawg]

Cade Smith and Pico Kohn better work on endurance this offseason....who else is there?

Maybe we emulate the mustard buzzard recruiting playbook. Go after actual baseball players and not travel league pampered babies. Just a thought. My dad and 1st cousin both played there and they?ve had competitive teams through the years, recruiting hard nosed, never highly recruited kids.

Let me put it into perspective. Brad Cumbest would most likely be playing baseball at Southern Miss had he not been recruited to State for football. He was a raw high school kid in south Mississippi. There are tons of them in the area. USM would have recruited him for baseball. I could go field a competitive major conference team in 4 years by recruiting south Mississippi. The real baseball players are there. Their numbers and stats may not show it but there are tons of raw guys that just need a little coaching to release that potential.

[Todd4State]

C-Portal/Highfill
1B-Hines
2B-Portal/Downs
SS-Forsythe
3B-Portal/Alford
LF-Portal/Chance
CF-Portal
RF-Portal/Clark

The only two positions that need to be safe are Forsythe and Hines, and if you found an impact 1B Hines can DH. We need to leave no stone unturned. These next 3 weeks we need to find out if guys like Corder, Alford, Meche, Siebert, and Downs belong at this level. Otherwise they need to find a new home next year. We probably need AT MINIMUM 4 portal position players and 3 portal pitchers. I've said for a few weeks we honestly might need 12 guys from the portal. 7 position players and 5 pitchers.

I agree. The good news is this staff has done a solid job finding players in the portal like Dubrule and Yeager.


Cade Smith and Pico Kohn better work on endurance this offseason....who else is there?

I could see Fristoe and Tepper making a jump. I could see Tullar being better. He's getting used to his arm slot. Reminds me a little bit of Girodo. We'll see how they look this summer. We need to get Colby Holcombe to school and we should get Stone Simmons back by SEC play next year.


The pitching is a way bigger issue than the field lineup.

Losing: Sims, P Johnson, Hunt, B Smith
Recovery: Stinnett, Auger, Simmons
Grads: Tullar and Talley
Known SEC level roster players: Cade, Pico
SEC Wildcards: Fristoe, Tepper, Walker, Walling?

It's like 2015 again for pitching, to make 2016 better there was the miracle transformation of Dakota Hudson and Zac Houston. Plus 2 big transfers Rigby and Blake Smith. Plus the great but TJ ravaged HS recruiting class.

Very similar situation honestly. Back then Nate Lowe and Jack Kruger were the equivalent of players from the portal today. I think what we're seeing is us paying the piper for the Cann/Henderson/Lemonis switch. Most of our current players were recruited by Cann and they are graduating/moving out. Which means Lemonis's first class will just be getting to school in the next year or two.


Maybe we emulate the mustard buzzard recruiting playbook. Go after actual baseball players and not travel league pampered babies. Just a thought. My dad and 1st cousin both played there and they?ve had competitive teams through the years, recruiting hard nosed, never highly recruited kids.

Let me put it into perspective. Brad Cumbest would most likely be playing baseball at Southern Miss had he not been recruited to State for football. He was a raw high school kid in south Mississippi. There are tons of them in the area. USM would have recruited him for baseball. I could go field a competitive major conference team in 4 years by recruiting south Mississippi. The real baseball players are there. Their numbers and stats may not show it but there are tons of raw guys that just need a little coaching to release that potential.

Which is why I cringe when I see someone say we should go away from recruiting Mississippi so hard. I think we do pretty well in Mississippi overall. But I do think we need to make more of an emphasis on getting tough hardnosed OBP guys again like Rowdey and TA. Both were from Alabama interestingly enough. Although Mangum was from Mississippi. At the same time we need to keep recruiting power hitters like we have to give the lineup the balance we need. I know we're getting three recruits from that way in our current class- Hollis Porter, Logan Forsythe, and Max Miller. Miller is really underrated when people talk about Mississippi baseball. Porter and Forsythe are both pretty athletic.

[Cooterpoot]

Maybe we emulate the mustard buzzard recruiting playbook. Go after actual baseball players and not travel league pampered babies. Just a thought. My dad and 1st cousin both played there and they?ve had competitive teams through the years, recruiting hard nosed, never highly recruited kids.

Let me put it into perspective. Brad Cumbest would most likely be playing baseball at Southern Miss had he not been recruited to State for football. He was a raw high school kid in south Mississippi. There are tons of them in the area. USM would have recruited him for baseball. I could go field a competitive major conference team in 4 years by recruiting south Mississippi. The real baseball players are there. Their numbers and stats may not show it but there are tons of raw guys that just need a little coaching to release that potential.

Cumbest has played a lot. We recruited him in baseball too. Hell, there was some talk of him going later round draft at one point. You guys sit back and watch USM get smoked come regional time. Hell they lost to UAB this week. Beating State and OM this year is nothing. This staff hasn't recruited and developed. I tried to tell everybody what was happening with Foxhall last year. But nobody could see past the guys other coaches brought in. And if y'all think other schools aren't signing travel ball kids, well damn, I can't help you.
You have to recruit nationally to win big here. Bednar, Sims, TA, Rowdy were our studs last year. None from MS. Just like Clark, Palmeiro etc. etc. weren't either. The top players are generally from out of state. FL used to be big for us.

[KOdawg1]

We need to go to every Friday night G5 pitcher that doesn't get drafted or graduate, and get them to transfer here. We need arms.

I'm confident we'll get some good hitters out of the portal, but like football, you just never know. We struck gold with Yeager. They might not all be like that.

It's a weird situation to be in for sure. Makes you scratch your head at our recruiting because if we're the national power we claim to be, we shouldn't have this many holes to fill. Gotta do a better job at evaluating players and we have to cool off on the Jucos. Don't mean to call the kids out like this, but Brayland Skinner, Tanner Leggett, Von Seibert, Cam Tullar, Matt Corder are not SEC caliber players. The occasional Juco player (like Preston Johnson) is fine, but you can't rely on them like we have. Get kids to school and fill in the rest with the portal. That needs to be our MO.

[Hot Rock]

Catcher is a question
Hines at 1B...thats a given
2B? wtf knows
SS? Probably Foreskin again.
3B? Alford looks to be the guy right now
LF? Siebert or wtf knows. Cumbest will be drafted and leave almost assuredly
CF? wtf knows
RF? Clark is a wildcard. Where he is drafted and what they offer will determine it. I hope he returns for another season to work on consistency. Downs needs to grow up
DH? Ugh

Portal will be big for us. We have to have a couple of impact players or we will be worse next year.

It's not OK to call a dude Foreskin in any circles. I hope you grow up some day but I don't see it happening. You are not a complete idiot all the time and bring some good points at times but that kind of crap is just childish and stupid.

[StarkVegasSteve]

Maybe we emulate the mustard buzzard recruiting playbook. Go after actual baseball players and not travel league pampered babies. Just a thought. My dad and 1st cousin both played there and they?ve had competitive teams through the years, recruiting hard nosed, never highly recruited kids.

Let me put it into perspective. Brad Cumbest would most likely be playing baseball at Southern Miss had he not been recruited to State for football. He was a raw high school kid in south Mississippi. There are tons of them in the area. USM would have recruited him for baseball. I could go field a competitive major conference team in 4 years by recruiting south Mississippi. The real baseball players are there. Their numbers and stats may not show it but there are tons of raw guys that just need a little coaching to release that potential.

We don't have time for raw guys who need to be developed. We need IMPACT players NOW. The time to do that was 2019-2021 and it became increasingly difficult when coaches couldn't evaluate for over a year. I said it last year and it was biggest fear this year, Rowdey Jordan and Tanner Allen covered up multiple issues. Not only were they the table setters at the top of the lineup, but they also took up two outfield spots that we have gotten no consistent production out of since they left. On top of both of those things, they were the links to Cannizarro and the swagger he had as well as the toughness of the 2018 team. Swagger and Toughness combined is what we are missing. We have plenty of one and none of the other. I'll let everyone figure out which one that is.

[FISHDAWG]

It's not OK to call a dude Foreskin in any circles. I hope you grow up some day but I don't see it happening. You are not a complete idiot all the time and bring some good points at times but that kind of crap is just childish and stupid.

I totally agree with this ... nicknames are a part of sports but this is just absolutely degrading ... and he's a Bulldog

[The Federalist Engineer]

We need to go to every Friday night G5 pitcher that doesn't get drafted or graduate, and get them to transfer here. We need arms.

I'm confident we'll get some good hitters out of the portal, but like football, you just never know. We struck gold with Yeager. They might not all be like that.

It's a weird situation to be in for sure. Makes you scratch your head at our recruiting because if we're the national power we claim to be, we shouldn't have this many holes to fill. Gotta do a better job at evaluating players and we have to cool off on the Jucos. Don't mean to call the kids out like this, but Brayland Skinner, Tanner Leggett, Von Seibert, Cam Tullar, Matt Corder are not SEC caliber players. The occasional Juco player (like Preston Johnson) is fine, but you can't rely on them like we have. Get kids to school and fill in the rest with the portal. That needs to be our MO.

I don't have the link anymore, but one of the players on your list claimed that MSU never saw him play very much. He heard from Gautreau after a game, MSU was recruiting Stinnett, then saw him play a bit. "You will replace Rowdey Jordan" is the gist.

Talking pitchers and straight nonsense here - as usual - but why not pay some former SEC/PAC12 Umpires to watch the games, have cats in all regions to watch and scout games for us. Make sure the strike zones have verisimilitude to the SEC and that pitches are hitting locations. It really stinks to collect kids that throw 95 but flat and without control. This would have detected two or three wasted roster spots in 2022. Our pitching recruiting needs a heuristic. Only two spots for Canadian Syndrome players and they must be HS players with a potential multi-year payoff. Transfers must be polished in the JP France or Zach Neff mold.

By the way, we will have company in the Portal Heist. LSU and OM need players. UGA needs a full pitching staff (+7 ERA), without Cannon they are dog meat.

[R2Dawg]

How tf are we the defending champs, with a coach we hired as a "recruiter", and can't fill out at least a serviceable lineup card for next year? This feels like an issue. Yes we need to hit the portal, but we ought to let guys like Alford, Meche, Downs, etc play A LOT the rest of the way. Those guys should be starting bc the season is over.

Yeah, if we don't reload with some major talent, we have an issue. We should be able to reload and just rock and roll. Yeager, Hines were good gets last year and maybe a couple of others pan out.

As much as we've struggled this year in various areas, we need to top 3 class this next year that pans out.

[RougeDawg]

We don't have time for raw guys who need to be developed. We need IMPACT players NOW. The time to do that was 2019-2021 and it became increasingly difficult when coaches couldn't evaluate for over a year. I said it last year and it was biggest fear this year, Rowdey Jordan and Tanner Allen covered up multiple issues. Not only were they the table setters at the top of the lineup, but they also took up two outfield spots that we have gotten no consistent production out of since they left. On top of both of those things, they were the links to Cannizarro and the swagger he had as well as the toughness of the 2018 team. Swagger and Toughness combined is what we are missing. We have plenty of one and none of the other. I'll let everyone figure out which one that is.

I?m not saying go all in on these types of players. But there is room for a few of these a year to created a different locker room mindset. There are plenty of overlooked true players in Mississippi who did not get the coaching in high school or have an opportunity to ply travel ball. Thus the recruiting services over look them. Think the Jonathan Banks types of Mississippi baseball. It?s hard to find these guys but USM seems to do it and develop them.

And whoever said they will get smoked in a regional is not paying attention. They can hit and should have knocked the KlanSharts out last year. They seem to always hit and are scrappy. Something we had up until this year. We lost the scrap.

[Todd4State]

I don't have the link anymore, but one of the players on your list claimed that MSU never saw him play very much. He heard from Gautreau after a game, MSU was recruiting Stinnett, then saw him play a bit. "You will replace Rowdey Jordan" is the gist.

Talking pitchers and straight nonsense here - as usual - but why not pay some former SEC/PAC12 Umpires to watch the games, have cats in all regions to watch and scout games for us. Make sure the strike zones have verisimilitude to the SEC and that pitches are hitting locations. It really stinks to collect kids that throw 95 but flat and without control. This would have detected two or three wasted roster spots in 2022. Our pitching recruiting needs a heuristic. Only two spots for Canadian Syndrome players and they must be HS players with a potential multi-year payoff. Transfers must be polished in the JP France or Zach Neff mold.

By the way, we will have company in the Portal Heist. LSU and OM need players. UGA needs a full pitching staff (+7 ERA), without Cannon they are dog meat.

We probably just need to recruit the Cape. There are a few mid major players playing there that we can accurately evaluate along with our current players. Including a couple from USM and La Tech. If there are coaching changes we may even be able to get some players with SEC experience. Especially with Florida and South Carolina being possibly in the mix for a new coach. Ole Miss too.

[Todd4State]

I?m not saying go all in on these types of players. But there is room for a few of these a year to created a different locker room mindset. There are plenty of overlooked true players in Mississippi who did not get the coaching in high school or have an opportunity to ply travel ball. Thus the recruiting services over look them. Think the Jonathan Banks types of Mississippi baseball. It?s hard to find these guys but USM seems to do it and develop them.

And whoever said they will get smoked in a regional is not paying attention. They can hit and should have knocked the KlanSharts out last year. They seem to always hit and are scrappy. Something we had up until this year. We lost the scrap.

Our strategy is to usually see who pans out in JUCO. Like Preston Johnson, Peyton Plumlee, Spencer Price, and Tanner Leggett.

Part of the issue with the USM guys is because of the recruiting cycle a lot of them commit early like our guys do. But then there is that gentleman's agreement about flipping recruits. And yes, I realize we did that with Ross Highfill this year.

That said I would say that we probably have more Mississippians in our lineup than they do. They have guys from all over. Including two from Guatemala. Their top two guys in their rotation are out of state guys. The other they got from Delta State. I think they're really only starting three Mississippians regularly in the lineup but they are three of their best players too. But we start way more Mississippians than they do. I wonder how much of that was because of the coaching changes we were going through as far as our misses?