I know everyone wants a team that has 5-6 guys that are hitting between 15-20 home runs and has three guys in the rotation that are 6'5" and throw 96. I would like that as well- add in some guys that can steal a ton of bases at the top and bottom of the lineup as well too. But unfortunately- that is not what we are this year. Now- we are building at least more towards that based on the recruits that we have coming in over the next few years. Collins, Humphreys, Swinarski and Garner are the first of this new wave of guys coming in anticipation of the baseball changes coming up in 2015 with the seams.
But while we are waiting, we can still win and win big time with what we have.
It will be interesting to see if Cohen starts Preston Brown on Friday or Sunday. He's a four pitch pitcher now and is throwing with a lot of confidence. Fitts is solid and we have Lindgren and Holder behind him- and it's good to see Holder pitching well again. Ross has earned a starting spot. All of that means that we get to move Ben Bracewell back to the bullpen where I think he is better suited. We need Gentry, Cox, and Dakota Hudson to step up in the other bullpen roles. Hudson could be a useful weapon coming in for an inning or two throwing 98. If Woodruff straightens things out, we could be even more dangerous in the postseason. It will be interesting to see how he is used going forward. The week off is going to do him some good. He'll probably throw a simulated game this week and then go out against SEMO State.
Gavin Collins could be a big difference between this year and last year as far as the Vandy series goes. I do agree that he needs to work on blocking balls better. But Vandy likes to run and play small ball- and he will help us out against them as far as neutralizing them.
Wes needs to be a leader on this team. I think Detz heating up will help him out at the plate. Pirtle is solid and is one of the best in the SEC at second base. I think Matthew Britton may have found a home at third base. Sometimes with players that are young and raw, it's just a matter of finding them the right spot. Hunter Renfroe was thought to be a catcher by a lot of scouts- but his home is in the outfield. Cohen probably thought that Britton was a shortstop because of his athleticism- but third base may be where his best spot really is. He's hitting .238, which is an improvement from what he was hitting- and his OBP is .467 which is good. Seth Heck continues to play well and has stabilized our infield defense. He's up to .280 after a slow start.
The outfield continues to be crowded. Vickerson needs to be the left fielder and he needs to hit lead off. He has 11 K's to 10 BB's- but that is skewed by the first weekend where he struck out more than normal. CT has played well this year and he needs to be in CF because of his defense. Especially since we have a lot of pitchers who are going to pitch to contact. Demarcus is going to Demarcus at times- but he also steals a ton of bases. Cody Brown and Derrick Armstrong also deserve starts and playing time as well.
It's good to see Alex Detz back again. I wouldn't be surprised at all if he's hitting .300 by the end of the year. You look at his K to BB ratio and it's 12 to 12- which is very good, but I think it also shows that he is/was striking out too much for the player he is- which is the root of his struggles. Also, if he just plays DH and doesn't have to worry about playing defense, I think that will help his production out as a player.
That leaves us with Humphreys and Garner on the bench- two productive players who can help us out pinch hitting and things like that.
Don't get down on this team though- I think we are going to be very good and will have a good season. Last year, our OOC was much easier than it was this year. Last year, we didn't play a game away from Dudy-Noble until we played USM- and that was at Trustmark Park in front of a pro-MSU crowd. Our first real road test last year wasn't until the second week of SEC play when we went to Kentucky. If we had played Hofstra, we would probably have two more wins at this point. Instead because of the weather, we played Western Carolina and got to face the national pitcher of the week. We also lost to a pretty good Memphis team in a game where our defense let us down and then we lost three games on the road to some good Cal-Santa Barbara and Arizona teams. We can play some good mid majors at home like we did last year and come close to running the table OOC or we can do like we did this year and play in nationally recognized tournaments and a weekend series against a PAC-12 team and lose a few more. There's value either way and pros and cons- but if we play a tough OOC schedule, don't jump off the ledge because we don't have our rotation or lineup completely set and we lose a few here and there.
And for the record, I think it's good to play in national tournaments like the two that we have scheduled coming up. That's going to help with exposure in Texas and California and it's going to be good for our national brand in the baseball community. We're trying to recruit California harder and we are already seeing the benefits from that in guys like Alex Detz and Gavin Collins. Houston also has a ton of baseball talent. We also have a tournament in New Orleans and while that one is not as prestigious, it's a good excuse to party and there is a lot of talent in Louisiana also.
