Lemon's handling of the CF situation has been incompetent at best
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Lemon's handling of the CF situation has been incompetent at best
I think our mentality has been damaged by losing. We lost a lot of close games this year, it effects teams in all sports and even more so the fans! Look at all the negative stuff on ED during games iin game post. It has no effect on the game being played but it's human nature by most to just give up and loose faith. Some athletic teams do this especially teams with no tradition but it has played into this teams moral it seems.
I have not the answer, but like you say, we shall see if the fight is still in the dawg. Who plays centerfield this weekend? What is the batting order, seems to be a mystery and here we are still playing or guessing who will get hot.
It's pretty bad, IF it was me, I would play Alford at third (plays good defense from what I've seen) and James in CF.
Also if I was the coach, I would be working on bunting this whole week, when the shift is on lay down the damn ball, put some pressure on the defense and pitcher.
I think they do go down without a fight. I haven't seen anything this year that would lead me to believe that any of them are capable of stepping up. Seriously. No sarcastrix here. Not a pitcher, not a hitter, and definitely not both of them at the same time.
If they stop swinging for the fence every swing and look to hit the ball just simply to the gaps, maybe. If we can start to make an out pitch when we are up 1-2 in the count, maybe. Too many silly strike outs and too many beach balls sitting 1-2 counts to make me believe.
But think we do agree with you Commerce. It is POSSIBLE. But not PROBABLE. Now we all may have a slightly different idea of the probability we are able to get it done. Personally thinking it is around 20%. Think there is fight in our Dawgs, just not enough consistent performance.
We lost our chances at postseason play when we didn't manage 1 win at home against LSU and didn't win 2 of 3 minimum versus Mizzou. You add two wins to our resume right now and it's likely we get in. Just inexcusable to be swept at home and be owned by Missouri. And A&M and Tennessee could easily have us losing our last 6 with the way they're playing. I've had hope in the past that we could turn it on late and make a run, but that was when State had gritty dirtbags that were tough as a 2 dollar steak....this team doesn't appear to have those guys or that mentality. It's disappointing and concerning.
I think a lot of that is perception. When I watch us play I just don't see a team that isn't playing hard. Now we may not win but that doesn't necessarily mean that the team in complacent.
That doesn't mean that this team isn't flawed. The biggest issue is the pitching injuries. And Foxhall is going to have to stop all of this "saving arms" BS that he did this past week. We need them now. And asking Fristoe, Kohn and Hunt to throw 20 pitches one day and then coming back a day or two later to throw 20 more is hardly Bianco style management.
The thing that our fans have to understand about our offense is because of the types of players we have we're going to strike out a lot and our average won't be all that high. But we make up for it with a random home run at anytime during the game an that offsets other things. People don't realize that we're near the top of the league in runs scored. Now, that's not the way I prefer our lineup be built- don't get me wrong. But I understand why it is the way it is. I want guys that can hit in the clutch like we've had in the past as well as the power hitters.
Pretty much. We should have at least won the Tulane series too. I think that and not beating USM hurt our RPI a good bit. Even with that we would have be fine as you say had we at least won one against LSU and won the series against Mizzou.
As far as the mentality quote- the reality is we aren't in this position with a healthy Sims and Simmons. We have too many one runs losses to come to any other conclusion. If we have Sims then Brandon Smith is still in the bullpen and probably playing the midweek starter role that Houston Harding played last year. Simmons would have been a multi inning reliever and with Hunt that would have been a significantly better bullpen. Add in Auger for the full year too. If that happens then Fristoe isn't being asked to close out any games other than blowouts. Starters aren't overextended and we don't try to do hairball things like decide that we need to pitch our shortstop in midweek games.
That's the crux of it especially when you look at our offense and realize batting average wise we're better right now than we were last year and are threatening the school record for home runs in a season.
My point was with subs in CF, SS and a few outfield moves, we keep plugging guys in and out of the outfield and other positions, believe me it builds a little jealous attitude with some players thinking they should be starting. I've seen this first hand as an ex coach and athlete, most want to play and think they should be starting over guys in their position. Hell read message boards and read what many think about certain players.
dead on with this ... SS for instance - it's hard to get in a groove when you're constantly platooning and neither SS had much of a chance to stay in there and grind through it ... Finally after sticking with Forsythe long enough he started paying dividends at the plate as well. I think the same would have been true with Leggett but either way make a decision and stick with it for more than just a couple of games. I noticed the same seems to apply to Quarterbacks that platoon
Athletes want to play, some can adjust and be great teammates while a few or pissed off because they aren't starting or playing. It happens in all sports, believe me not all guys are good teammates on the inside and then some are pissed off. Look at guys leaving because someone beat them out. It happens a whole lot especially now days. Coaches have to recognize this and put things like this to bed.
P.S. I am not saying this is our "major problem" but no doubt it's an issue with team chemistry.
So after the disappointing series lost to the boon17cks from Mizzou, I rewatched last year?s season again. It cannot be stated enough how much Rowdy and Tanner brought to that team last year. We were never going to replace their leadership this year. No one on this team currently has that mentality. It kind of makes me feel better about this year and not as upset. Of course watching Dak yell F*ck yeah from the stands after we won the championship would brighten any State fans day
Don't leave Will Bednar off that list. To paraphrase Joc Pederson - "They were those MFer's". We have been lucky to have a lot of those MFer's over the past decade. Frazier, Renfroe, The Maple Hammer, Lowe, Fosc, Westy, The Mayor, Big Hit Mac, Rowdy, TA.
Yeager is pretty damn close to being a MFer. I think Hunter Hines will be a MF'er, but he's not quite there yet. If we get lucky and Cumbest comes back, he will be. The biggest difference is that typically when you have one of those guys, the clutch becomes contagious - and we've seen that over and over, especially from 2018-2021 - and we'd have guys like Leggett step up and keep the party going. For whatever reason we just haven't had that this year. Maybe we really did use up a lot of Mojo getting the title. Maybe losing Sims, Stone, and KC (then the rest) just took the wind out of everyone's sails. Seeing Vandy not be the same this season, and the Braves start out disoriented and play crappy for a month reminds me that it isn't just an MSU thing.
Great post.
You know, Bruns, every year is different no matter who the team(baseball,football,basketball, pro, amatuer, it doesn't matter), even for defending champs(like State and the Braves). You always have some changes and well it's just a different season and every one is different. I remember watching one of those mic'd up things and Bill Belichik was talking to Brady on the sideline at the end of a bad loss, and he was saying I just can't get this team to buy in, can't get them to make the plays, can't get them to do the little things, and he was just shaking his head and Brady was agreeing. They won the super bowl the next year.
You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to BrunswickDawg again.
I still think we make a regional and if I was a national seed, I wouldn't want anything to do with us.
I know we are struggling, and maybe we don't make a regional, but I think we can get to 13 SEC wins, and I still think with our reputation and help on the committee, we get in somewhere.