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Yeah, it's mind boggling that a program with zero national championships has issues with thinking they're too good at times. We should be the hungriest damn athletic department in the World. There should be no "letting up" when you've never won the big one before in any sport. But like you said, it's mental...and easier said than done to change that mentality.
Ouch! Seriously it?s a series we got our ass whipped. It happens and I?ll say this to the deaf IT WILL HAPPEN AGAIN. Grow balls and shut up. We are good but not that great. You don?t win a Natty because some of y?all call it. You have to win it and last I checked our opponents have the same goalsQuote:
Originally Posted by msstate7
I'm to the point that I really think this team just feeds off being bitch slapped and told they're awful. The mindset of this team just can't handle any success. Don't get me wrong. We have problems we need to fix. But our problems last year were a lot worse.
I'm also really tired of our fans making this LSU series out to be some huge thing. It's not. It's just three games that we play every year. LSU has very little to do with the trajectory of our program overall. Do you think they really care about us? No, they don't.
At this point we should almost feel honored that they get so jacked up for us, that maybe...just maybe...they're our real rival.
You're predicting that we're going to lose another series this year? Bold.**Quote:
Originally Posted by Dawgcap
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Originally Posted by Dawg2003
You're right. And that's the bad thing about our team right now because the only motivation that they need is to win the National Championship.
I'll throw in my comments on these areas:Quote:
Originally Posted by Todd4State
Pitching- We've got to find some more guys that can locate pitches and have command of the strike zone. Half of LSU's runs today came as the result of walks and wild pitches. Nothing more frustrating than watching Keegan James with 2 outs wild pitch a guy from 2nd to 3rd and then from 3rd to home and THEN get the strikeout. Damage is already done. And across the board we threw a slew of 55 foot curveballs while also issuing free passes. LSU's staff may not be great but they don't beat themselves, they make you earn it. And I thought Plumlee pitched well the first 2 innings minus the mistake to Duplantis. Why pull him so early?
Defense- One of the worst displays of defense over an SEC weekend I can ever remember. Looked like we had a HS infield out there while LSU had a major league infield the difference was so substantial. I can't remember one play made all weekend that wasn't totally routine. Any ball LSU put in play that wasn't a Sunday hop resulted in another LSU baserunner. Outfield had some issues as well but the infield play was horrendous. I HOPE that was a 3 game aberration.
Hitting- Only thing I'll add here is that the 2 biggest holes in the lineup right now are Tanner Allen and Gunner Halter. Bad part about that is that both are liabilities in the field as well. That's a really bad combination.
Baserunning- Skelton had 2 costly outs on the basepaths this weekend. One was just a really bad decision and the other may have been a hit and run, but why send your catcher in that situation when you know a swing through is pretty much an automatic out at 2nd?
The funny thing is how did y’all rate this at 24-3. We have shit the bed the last 2 games but the guys haven’t all of of sudden turned shitty. Maybe we played a couple teams that brought shit together and we digressed the last few games. It’s too early to panic and believe it’s a common problem
I agree. I think the thing about Plumlee and other pitching moves for that matter is that Lemonis/Foxhall come up with this gameplan and are too rigid with it. Let's say Plumlee struck 9 guys in a row. Well, they're going to pull because the plan was for him to go through the order once. They need more flexibility. Like- hey, Plumlee looks good let's give him another inning and if gets in trouble we'll have Keegan ready. Or Gordon is our closer and we're only going to throw him one inning no matter what.Quote:
Originally Posted by maroonmania
No one is saying that the team is shitty. Everyone is saying that they played shitty and it's unacceptable. No one is panicking here either. Everyone is very unhappy with the performance. I don't believe that the team is happy either. But it's their own damn fault.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dawgcap
The biggest glaring weaknesses to me is our inconsistency in the bullpen and middle infield defense.
We have pitchers that look great, locating well and spinning their curves one day and then the next, they are throwing batting practice. It is one thing to have a bad outing here and there but it is happening too often. I’m beginning to worry that we just don’t have good enough talent there.
On the infield, we aren’t going to take hits away from other teams but we have to make all of the routine plays. Halter is driving me crazy at the plate and Tanner has got to make the pitcher bring the ball down. I don’t remember him having this love affair with the high fastball last year but it is killing him now and teams have taken notice.
My 2 cents and it isn’t worth that but I have watched every game either in person or streaming if available.
Pitching-we dominated early on because we threw strikes. We almost threw too many strikes. We have great command of our FB’s but our junk balls are not high normally thrown for a ton of strikes. Auburn and now LSU were able to come in and mainly sit on fastballs. The majority of time they were going to be thrown for strikes and they locked in on them. That was the strategy. One of the dead give-a-ways was the number of times LSU swung early on our FB’s. You don’t see that a ton, swinging early on a 95mph fastball. We need to get better command of the offspeed, especially out of the bullpen. Sunday - we gotta figure it out. This team isn’t built to do what we did today running new pitchers out there each inning.
Hitting - I am not worried about hitting. We scortched a lot of balls today and they were just hit right at people or LSU made plays. They defended the hell out of the field.
Fielding - The lack of communication is an issue. It is one thing to have it happen once but several times over the weekend is crap. Foscue is a 1/2 second slow to react compared to what a normal 3rd baseman is. He doesn’t even have time to dive at a ball because it is passed him by the time he begins to react. Not certain we can improve much with that. We need his bat. Westy - Needs to control his emotion a little. You can see him talking to himself and almost sped up before the ball is even hit. Just watching him warm up at the top of each inning you will see him field a ball then make a poor throw to first. That leads to him pacing around and almost getting more worked up. He may be the best athlete on the damn field in all honesty. If he can just breathe a little out there and settle in, he is going to make a great shortstop. We need his bat. Gunner, I am just not really impressed. Again, terribly slow to react and I would almost rather us run a freshmen out there that is going to make the same mistakes but atleast get that experience. Just crazy slow. I knew we would miss Stovall but damn, I think we can do better at 2nd. 1st - I don’t know if TA is in his own head or what but he is just off right now. Again, slow to react and just seems to be the least engaged of all of them. I think we HAVE TO sit him for at least a game or two and put Hatcher in. I think he needs that competition to snap out of whatever this is. No part of his game looks good right now.
The one thing in common with all of this is that I would be curious as to how Cohen had us practice infield vs what we are doing now. We don’t look comfortable when a ground ball is hit right at us and we don’t field it out in front, we let it get in on us and just don’t use good fundamentals. The reason I bring up Cohen is that his infield always used excellent fundamentals and was solid. Hell, he took Collins, a damn catcher, and had him serviceable at 3rd. Us looking uncomfortable isn’t new to this weekend.....we just ran out of luck and won’t be able to hide it in the SEC.
Long season and we will get better. This one just stings because I think everyone, including the players, were dreaming about sweeping LSU and never even considered we would lose the series. We need to bounce back strong and throw a couple sweeps in somewhere.
No reason to panic but I think we know what the issues are. Now Lemonis gets to earn his check and fix them.
One more thing I will add that I have noticed this year and may be completely wrong about. Brandon and his crew do the best damn job I have ever seen with the playing surface. But it seems they have been asked to change something and I am curious if anyone else has noticed.
For years, or at least since Cohen got here, we almost over-watered the infield. So much so that they had trouble keeping the grass looking right in front of home because it would be so overwatered that ground balls would rip it up. The goal, as I have read somewhere with Cohen was to keep the infield so wet or damp that a ball never hopped higher than 6 inches off the ground. The belief was that it slowed the ball down and made for less bad hops. Remember all the pitchers slipping when trying to field bunts. The grass was soaked.
This weekend the ball hopped a lot off the bat. Seemed to have a lot more bounce and almost get on defenders quicker.
Just wonder if there is different direction to Brandon and his crew on this. Yes both teams play on the same infield but it just seemed to be a pretty big difference this weekend compared to years past.
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Originally Posted by CadaverDawg
Yep, I agree CD (still laughing).
Good thoughts. Agree with everything.Quote:
Originally Posted by weblow
See I don?t know the rules but I think it?s sad that is ok to rail on a group of players having a bad week or a coach that continues to play them. I guess my point is when will the negativity stop
Grow a pear ��Quote:
Originally Posted by Dawgcap
The "negativity" will stop when they start playing up to their potential and start playing the game at an acceptable standard.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dawgcap
If this weekend was "OK" to you then you need to start wearing Bad News Bears gear and support them.
Yeah, mango up! Peach it, gun**Quote:
Originally Posted by ShotgunDawg
I'd say since this a message board you guys have beat this situation to death. Time to move on, it's what baseball players and Coaches do.
This is an outstanding observation. With our defense right now I'd say we may need to water it a little more to help.Quote:
Originally Posted by weblow