Give me your starting lineup in baseball for 2025. Curious to see opinions.
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Give me your starting lineup in baseball for 2025. Curious to see opinions.
1b - Hines
2b - Cupp, Mershon, Citadel guy
SS - Mershon, Cupp
3b - Frei, Cupp, Citadel guy
C - Highfill, Powell
OF - Stevens, Ace, Chance, Downs, Obrien
DH - the two xfer 1b
Mershon?s decision is key obviously
MSU has a big 3B freshman, Henry Allen. Power Hitter 6-3 205.
Conrad Cason is a freak of nature baseball athlete. Georgia POY. 8th best recruit in the nation. If you get him on Campus, you play him.
Red Sox drafted Cason in the 8th but given his talent, they can't draft a player this good that late.
I'll give it a shot but it's going to be inaccurate because there is going to be a TON of competition this year. We're going to have a lot better depth and I think we're going to have a better lineup all around. We also have the draft deadline of August 1st to contend with.
Closer- Nolan Stevens. He has been in high leverage situations before and the staff isn't afraid to use him. I know he struggled and had some bad moments that were learning experiences like giving up a walk-off to Caglione. That said he is a year older and will be more experienced. And the K/BB ratio and the peripheral numbers were pretty good for a freshman. Starting him out in the 9th in clean innings will probably help him too.
Set-up- Gavin Black. He is having a strong year in the Cape. If his command improves even a little bit he will be very good.
Relief ace- Stone Simmons. I know the summer league he is in isn't the best and he is the oldest player there. But at the same time he has been dominant and he was dominant before Tommy John. I put him here because he is a veteran and he has the ability to go anywhere from 1 up to probably 5 innings. He will be a surprise weapon in the SEC and will figure in somewhere.
Sidearm guy- Chase Hungate. He is a veteran and I expect him to pitch a lot of innings for us. I think he can go 2-3 innings at a time.
Wild cards- Makhai Grant who is coming off of an injury and it's wait and see how he does. Unless he looks dominant in the fall and spring I don't think they're going to push him. Would not shock me if he ends up at closer. Charlie Foster- has a really good fastball but he is a freshman so again no need to rush him.
Rotation:
Fri- Pico. At least for opening day. He has experience and is healthy now. I have to think he will be in the rotation.
Sat- Travis Smith. We have to get him through the draft but if we do I think Parker can work his magic and we'll have another quality SEC guy.
Sun- Kevin Mannell. He's a JUCO guy that pitched a year at K-State and pitched at the MLB combine. He's coming to start but if he falters he could end up being a guy in the bullpen.
Midweek- Jacob Pruett is a transfer from Indiana State that will be a candidate for the weekend rotation. He's more of a Sunday 5 inning guy- but that's OK. If Bradley Loftin turns the corner and gets healthy he absolutely could get a weekend spot.
Wild Cards- Nolan Stevens, Makhai Grant, and Luke Dotson will compete for weekend spots. Among the true freshmen Cade O'Leary who was a MLB draft top 250 prospect, Charlie Foster, and Braden Booth who was the Alabama player of the year are all candidates. And then with the JUCO guys Robert Weatherford who was absolutely dominant will be a candidate along with JT Schnoor who is your typical small school in Mississippi guy that was overlooked.
C- Ross Highfill will be back and if he is healthy he will help the offense a lot. Joe Powell is likely back but I haven't heard what his waiver situation officially is. If Ross improves his defense some we will be much better at catcher next year from a production standpoint.
1B- Hines. Will probably set the MSU career record for home runs and has 20 home run potential especially if he uses the whole field.
2B- Mershon if he comes back. He's an All-SEC player but we'll see if he comes back. Mershon has sneaky power and I wouldn't be completely shocked if he hits 6-10 home runs next year. The batting average will be high and the defense is elite. If he goes pro then we're probably looking at Ethan Pulliam or Sawyer Reeves here. Cupp may play here but he is so good defensively I think he starts out at SS.
3B- Ace Reese from Houston. We're very fortunate that he is so versatile. I'm pretty sure he will start somewhere and you'll see why I think he starts here in a minute. I think he is a guy that can hit at least 10 home runs for us next year. He also has above average speed. Gehrig Frei is also a candidate here and perhaps Henry Allen who is a freshman.
SS- Dylan Cupp is elite defensively but Mershon will battle with him and may very well start here. I think Cupp will be much better with good health. Worst case scenario we're looking at Pulliam, Reeves, or maybe Conner Barth a pretty highly thought of freshman from California.
LF- Reed Stallman. I think we have to find room for him and even though he is a first baseman by trade he has power and is a LH hitter and he also stole 8 bases. That makes me believe he has the ability to potentially play the OF. Arm could be a question but that could be answered in the fall. Bryce Chance is a possibility of course as well and he has a lot of SEC experience and is now an upperclassman. He seems to find his way into the lineup too.
CF- If we get Nolan McCarthy from Kentucky in the portal I think he will start here. If we don't I think we go with Nolan Stevens here or another transfer. Micheal O'Brien is also a possibility and he is hitting pretty well this summer so I wouldn't rule that out at all. I also wouldn't rule out Ethan Pulliam here either.
RF- Nolan Stevens if we get McCarthy. If we don't, I think we go with Ace Reese or Stallman here which could open up LF for Chance.
DH- Noah Sullivan. He has power and he has a really good K/BB ratio. To me he is actually a really big pick up for MSU. He could figure into the OF plans as well. And he can pitch so if he struggles as a hitter I think he will still contribute out of the bullpen. I think there is a chance that Bryce Chance could end up here too.
PH- Aaron Downs. He's a senior who could thrive in that role.
PR- O'Brien
So a few moving parts because of the draft and portal but as you can see I think we will be a better team next year overall and much more complete. I think we will have more power as a team and I think we will hit much better and we will be faster as well. Those things go hand in hand to me because that speed will hopefully result in more doubles and triples. Which if you look at the stats was really our biggest issue last year. Definitely a lot of unknowns but there are also a lot of good options that will be competing and this is by far our deepest team since 2021.
I think there will be a focus on winning the OOC games whereas last year at times it seemed like the team was going through the motions (Central Arkansas, Austin Peay) or made critical baserunning mistakes (Air Force game 2), or did something poor fundamentally (South Alabama) to cost the team the game paired with a normally pro style approach at the plate that simply didn't work against those teams. So that being said- I think this teams floor absolutely is a SR and the ceiling is Omaha. We should be one of the more talented teams in the country and if we go back to the approach to baseball that has typically worked for MSU we should be in for a fun season.
Good info. Thanks.Quote:
Originally Posted by Todd4State
Well done.Quote:
Originally Posted by Todd4State
Pruitt won't be a midweek guy IMO. He's a weekend arm 100% if he's healthy. Could be some changing around on the IF too.
Todd are you a writer for a living? Very well done!
Heard Rosebowl on sports talk radio the other day and said that the kid from Georgia told him that the reason he chose State was for Parker. That he believed Parker to be the best college pitching coach in all of P5 baseball. I believe it was the kid from Ga. We get that kind of reputation going around high school and college baseball in general it will help our program stay in the hunt for top pitchers.
Yeah Pruitts coming in to be a weekend arm. Hopefully he's completly healthy but he should be good to go.Quote:
Originally Posted by Cooterpoot
His last name is Pruitt. In typical Mississippi State message board fashion, in this thread his last name has been spelled Pruitts, Pruitt, and Pruett. Lol.Quote:
Originally Posted by Commercecomet24
Easy Mr Grammar- I’m pretty sure Comet left out the apostrophe and wasn’t pulling a Crooms
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cooterpoot
He very well could be a weekend guy and I'm sure that's why he is coming. But that could be said about Mannell and Smith too. And Pico is the most likely guy to have a weekend spot going into the season. Basically for that post I went with the guy who was a sure thing (Pico) and then the guy who was drafted by MLB (Smith), and the guy who was invited to the MLB combine (Mannell). Pruitt's durability is a question mark too.Quote:
Originally Posted by Commercecomet24
Now I do think that Pruitt could absolutely win a weekend role I don't think that's out of the question at all. He's very good and even if we get 5 IP on Sunday from him that's valuable. But to me it really shows how much deeper we are than last year because I think Stevens, Loftin, Grant and etc. are also going to fight for weekend roles and it's going to come down to who performs the best.
And as far as the infield and really the entire prediction I'm sure it's going to be way off because we're still trying to add in the portal and we have a week and half before the draft signing deadline. There's a lot that can happen between now and then. Plus there aren't very many sure starters in my prediction at any position other than Hines, Stevens, Mershon if he comes back, and maybe Highfill and Pico. So there is going to be a ton of competition and that's going to make us deeper and probably better overall unless we completely whiffed on a position.
Thanks! It's my pleasure.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ranchdawg
I really like Foster and of course Parker is a rock star that is still on the upswing. The best thing I liked about getting Foster is we got him from Georgia who tried to poach Dakota Jordan last year.
After a season of dealing with Khal (Stephen, Stephens, Steven, Stevens) and Nolan (Stevens, Stephens) I am gun shy.Quote:
Originally Posted by Coach34