MSU baseball always has at least one head up our ass weekend

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Originally Posted by KOdawg1

Think it was A&M. At home too if I remember correctly.

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A&M could have swept any team in the country that weekend. They smoked us and we won the conference that year

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Originally Posted by Reunion Dog

We beat Arkansas in Starkville to win the SEC in 2016..

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Arkansas was the worst team in the conference in 2016

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Originally Posted by Choctaw Dawg

A&M could have swept any team in the country that weekend. They smoked us and we won the conference that year

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"That's baseball." Especially SEC baseball. On any given weekend I'd say any team but Missouri is capable of a sweep, and every team except Vandy (and probably Arky) is capable of being swept. And I'm not saying "all is well". But baseball is an incredibly streaky sport that allows teams to ride waves that put them in positions way above - or below - their actual talent level.

i think some of you just miss the issue..we cant 17ing hit yesterday, tomorrow or next week get used to it.. it wont be just this weekend but every SEC weekend. we will make a regional but lack of hitting will be our demise, the sooner you accept this this season will be much easier to accept. this pansy hitting bunch wont turn into the "29" yankees no matter how you slice it.

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Originally Posted by 99jc

i think some of you just miss the issue..we cant 17ing hit yesterday, tomorrow or next week get used to it.. it wont be just this weekend but every SEC weekend. we will make a regional but lack of hitting will be our demise, the sooner you accept this this season will be much easier to accept. this pansy hitting bunch wont turn into the "29" yankees no matter how you slice it.

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It may be, it may not be. I don't think anyone has denied that offense is a problem right now. The flip side of that is if our pitching and defense had been on form this weekend we scored enough and hit enough to win at least 2 of 3.

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Originally Posted by BrunswickDawg

It may be, it may not be. I don't think anyone has denied that offense is a problem right now. The flip side of that is if our pitching and defense had been on form this weekend we scored enough and hit enough to win at least 2 of 3.

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This. Baseball is such a mercurial game and everything can change at the drop of a hat. Had we caught 2 popups saturday and made a couple of plays that shouldve been made yesterday we take 2 out of 3.

They had a bad weekend. It happens. Probably got out coached as well.

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Originally Posted by Commercecomet24

This. Baseball is such a mercurial game and everything can change at the drop of a hat. Had we caught 2 popups saturday and made a couple of plays that shouldve been made yesterday we take 2 out of 3.

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And saying "we can't hit" or "don't have the bats" just isn't true either. Do we have guys built like Rooker or Wes Rea? No. But we hit Texas (now #5) and Texas Tech (now #4) just fine. Had HR and Extra Base Hits. Scored 8 and 11 respectively. But no, we aren't going to be a power based team. Our guys just need to buckle down and fight thru their slumps, get their approaches right at the plate, and focus on winning.

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Originally Posted by BrunswickDawg

And saying "we can't hit" or "don't have the bats" just isn't true either. Do we have guys built like Rooker or Wes Rea? No. But we hit Texas (now #5) and Texas Tech (now #4) just fine. Had HR and Extra Base Hits. Scored 8 and 11 respectively. But no, we aren't going to be a power based team. Our guys just need to buckle down and fight thru their slumps, get their approaches right at the plate, and focus on winning.

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Agreed, also 4-5 runs a game with our pitching staff should be enough to win most games. Our defense cost us multiple runs this weekend while arkys defense saved them 4-6 runs at least. Arky literally made every play, and not just the routine plays while we misplayed popups and fly balls. It was a tough weekend all the way around. We didn't defend well nor did we hit well. Our discipline at the plate needs to improve greatly. We still chase way to many pitches out of the zone.

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Originally Posted by Commercecomet24

Agreed, also 4-5 runs a game with our pitching staff should be enough to win most games. Our defense cost us multiple runs this weekend while arkys defense saved them 4-6 runs at least. Arky literally made every play, and not just the routine plays while we misplayed popups and fly balls. It was a tough weekend all the way around. We didn't defend well nor did we hit well. Our discipline at the plate needs to improve greatly. We still chase way to many pitches out of the zone.

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I'm now thinking we need to play small ball with this team. We aren't built for big innings

What we need is Clark to get healthy, move James to first, and find a 2B. Forsythe is damn good at short and his bat will come around.

Some of the juniors playing need a wake up check and to sit a few games.

Cumbest needs to forget football and focus on baseball. He could be damn good if he would get the at bats and practice he needs. He’ll teach him 1B. He has the frame for it...

I also think McDonald needs some playing time.

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Originally Posted by Commercecomet24

Agreed, also 4-5 runs a game with our pitching staff should be enough to win most games. Our defense cost us multiple runs this weekend while arkys defense saved them 4-6 runs at least. Arky literally made every play, and not just the routine plays while we misplayed popups and fly balls. It was a tough weekend all the way around. We didn't defend well nor did we hit well. Our discipline at the plate needs to improve greatly. We still chase way to many pitches out of the zone.

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Honestly the defense upset me more than anything. We had juniors and seniors misplaying fly balls. Defense is a lot more controllable than offense. And those mistakes weren't a ball hitting a rock on the infield and it bounced a weird way.

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Originally Posted by Todd4State

Honestly the defense upset me more than anything. We had juniors and seniors misplaying fly balls. Defense is a lot more controllable than offense. And those mistakes weren't a ball hitting a rock on the infield and it bounced a weird way.

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I personally wish we would put Tanner Allen back at first, move Rowdey to LF or RF, put Skinner in CF and find the next best true OF (Cumbest? McGowan?) to shore up the other LF/RF spot. We apparently are not going to hit regardless so we might as well put a competent defense on the field. If we can at least pitch AND field, we might actually win a few games scoring 3 or 4 runs. Infield needs to be the best defense as well. The thing this team can't do it give away runs because no matter what lineup we have it won't be good enough to make up for charity runs given to the other team from bad defense. Allen was no worse at 1st base than Hatcher and with Hatcher's bat he might as well sit.

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Originally Posted by Choctaw Dawg

A&M could have swept any team in the country that weekend. They smoked us and we won the conference that year

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I was convinced we were getting a State-A&M rematch for the title in Omaha, and somehow neither of us even got there. That was the year you had freaking Coastal Carolina winning it all and all these great teams getting knocked out in the Supers.

After thinking about this Hog series. It?s good that we did not get lucky and pull out one game. Getting your butt whipped is a great teacher. Losing with all systems failing keeps the Goddess Nemisis away. Since the season continues, we get to try again.

Since baseball is a marathon and we want a National Title or nothing at all, we now know the gaps and limitations, only limited damage was done. Coaches still need to find the #1 and #2 starter if they want to beat Top-5 clubs in Supers and Omaha. We fans now see we are borderline National Seeds if National Seeds at all. I bet our starting 3 is only 1/3 settled.

Lemonis in the SI interview sounds like us. We are flaccid with our batting approach and making poor decisions. He?s not complacent you can see he is angry like us fans.

https://www.si.com/college/mississip...mpression=true

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Originally Posted by Captain Falcon

I was convinced we were getting a State-A&M rematch for the title in Omaha, and somehow neither of us even got there. That was the year you had freaking Coastal Carolina winning it all and all these great teams getting knocked out in the Supers.

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SEC baseball coaches should mostly be judged on their ability to host regionals. That is by far the best correlated measurement of success in coaching at this level.

Coach 1 - 5 years, 4 regionals hosted, 0 trips to Omaha
Coach 2 - 5 years, 0 regionalS hosted, 1 trip to Omaha

Coach 1 has done a vastly superior job.

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Originally Posted by maroonmania

Todd, while that's true, the areas of play that bit us this weekend have been there all year for those really looking at things critically. When you aren't putting up runs against weak competition its a big red flag. I guess the big eye opener this weekend though was that we thought our pitching staff was elite enough to hold down most any offense for at least 2 out of any 3 games in a 3 game series. That obviously isn't the case.

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Agree with this. What was exposed this weekend is what we have been all season. Hopefully we improve, as most good teams do during a season.

Being ranked so high early in the season hurt Msu fans and players, we all were thinking how good we were until the Hogs knocked our butts in the ground. Yes, it may be a wake up call and yes we aren't as good as we thought but we aren't as bad either. I do think we are somewhere in the middle of the pack in the Sec, is it say 4th or 6th place? Well if we don't win say the next 4 out of 6 games in home we may not be in the middle. The Sec is a strong baseball conference, our fan base is one of the best as is our program, but success doesn't come easy and we fans and players can't relax on our past and the stadium we built. Seems all the teams in the West have good stadiums and crowds now days, a few in the East also. Kentucky want be an easy series, baseball is a tough game, we lack on defense in a few spots and I don't care how good of pitching one has if you don't defend the field and at least have timely hitting.

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Originally Posted by Todd4State

Honestly the defense upset me more than anything. We had juniors and seniors misplaying fly balls. Defense is a lot more controllable than offense. And those mistakes weren't a ball hitting a rock on the infield and it bounced a weird way.

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Same here. The defense pissed me off more than anything. Plays were there to be made and we didn't make them and left our pitchers hung out to dry.

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Originally Posted by Captain Falcon

I was convinced we were getting a State-A&M rematch for the title in Omaha, and somehow neither of us even got there. That was the year you had freaking Coastal Carolina winning it all and all these great teams getting knocked out in the Supers.

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That's baseball!