A voice from the stands- please read John Cohen
First of all, I have been on a crazy baseball odyssey which has taken me from Jackson, to St. Louis and Baseball Heaven only to watch the Cardinals win one (yay!) and then watch Mike Matheny be a dumbass and gamble by bringing in Mitchell Boggs to blow the game because he thought (incorrectly) that the game would be rained out, and then after I drove through a tornado in Missouri to get to Starkville which included waking up at 5 AM to leave St. Louis, I then somehow am sitting here at a hotel typing this.
All of that is to say this.....
1. I know a LOT of you are probably wondering why we keep making errors against this shitty team. It's because they are FAST. And because all but two-three of them are decent hitters, they make weak contact. So, what we NEED to do is bring in our middle infielders 2-3 steps to help take away the speed advantage that they have. The exception to this would be the 2-3 guys that are decent hitters. Other than that, I think it would negate their speed a LOT and allow us to slow things down on the infield. PLEASE TAKE NOTE OF THIS MSU BASEBALL STAFF.
2. We need to use a fly ball pitcher/or a power arm. I wouldn't be surprised AT ALL if Lindgren pitches well tomorrow against them. They want to hit the ball on the ground, but if we can overpower them, and/or make them pop it up, well, that's not what they want to do.
3. They appear to have our hitters well scouted. We need to start going opposite field more. They nearly have a shift on when Renfroe is at the plate.
4. We need to take their speed game to THEM. We have yet to really test their defense with bunting (yeah, sorry- but excuse me how did Mercer do again?). I don't think their corner infielders are very athletic and I think we can take advantage of their catcher by running on him.
5. If Lindgren has a great game tomorrow, it's a hell of a move by Butch and Cohen. But it's also risky as hell. I don't know what to think about it really. I still like where our staff stands right now, and I'm glad we can't/won't do something stupid like tonight by keeping Gentry in the game too long. I think part of the reason they didn't throw him was his defense, which is also part of the reason why Kendall started against them and not Pollo who probably leads America in risky/stupid fielding plays by a pitcher. They basically had two guys pitch the game of their lives today. Can they do that again?
