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Summary: everybody else got a lot better in 2022 & 2023, while MSU stayed relatively the same as they were in 2021 except in pitching. Pitching in 2022 was bad because of injuries.
Pitching in 2023 was bad because of bad coaching And injuries.
Simply improve pitching in 2024 and we at least catch up to everybody else in the middle and that will be Regional Level talent.
Can?t wait.
Depends on what we land in the portal. If we get Montgomery he will help in the OF and potentially on the mound as well. As it is we've simply filled our holes for the most part outside of getting an elite Friday night starting pitcher. Of course, we're still working on the portal at this time.Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptainObvious
Again- I don't think people really fathom just how bad we were on the mound. So a lot of fans have assumed that our pitchers just suck. It was really an issue of the pitchers being asked to pitch in a way a lot of them could not, leaving pitchers in way too long, and just not developing them as individual players. I'm not sure how we had a winning record- that's probably more of a testament to the talent we actually do have. Our pitching coach was essentially the equivalent of Peter Sirmon as a pitching coach. I think how we handled our staff may have contributed to some of the injuries we've had- not Tommy John- the ones where a guy is out for a couple of weeks here and there.
But if we get Montgomery to go along with Hines and Dakota and then add in a legit Friday night guy we're going to probably see a jump similar to what we saw from 2015 to 2016. And we could probably accomplish that by getting our team ERA on the season down to 5.00 which is not great. If Parker gets us in the 4's we're going to have a very good year. And that's really not a stretch at all.
This is going to sound crazy...Quote:
Originally Posted by Coach34
But in the fall and spring I would look to see if Cupp and Mershon could potentially play CF. Could be a good way to get both of them in the lineup at the same time and could potentially make us really good defensively if they can handle it.
Food for thought.
Lol I'm done with these homer takes. Ignore 3 years of college because of SUMMER BALL?? Amazing how our whole team battled injuries last year but you assume nobody will next year to make those individuals worse than they were this season. Montgomery would cover Clark, but who's covering Ledbetter?
I'm officially out yall want to see everyone through the most optimistic lense instead of what's likely to happen.
I hear ya! No way this team is improved unless we find 2 Paul Skenes.Quote:
Originally Posted by the_real_MSU_is_us
I think we will be better, but how much is the question. I can't see us being in the top six or so in the Sec, mainly because we have a Coach who drove the train off the cliff. Recruiting slipped big time and it showed as did with coaching decisions on and off the field. I'm pulling for us to be as good as Todd and several others predicting, but the Sec is very tough every year and right now we are at the bottom. I'm in a wait and show me what you got mode!
Quote:
Originally Posted by confucius say
I still feel the sameQuote:
Originally Posted by BigDawg81
Dont know anything about Montgomery buddying up with Burns, but heard back on Memorial Day weekend that he is really good friends with Hines, Highfill, and Jordan and he wants to come home. He wants protection in front and behind him in the lineup and we have that with Hines and Jordan.
We battled injuries? Nah, that was year before last. Stone is the only big injury we had. He could've given us innings. We've got Jordan and Montgomery along with Hujsack/Chance. That's two early round draft guys in the OF. There's no fall off there. If you're worried about the OF with Montgomery out there, I don't know what to tell you. Pitching and 3B were a much bigger problem. Even C was a bigger issue. Pitching is still to be determined and that's what holds it all together. Got to get Holman, Molina, or someone like that. Ligon is better than what we had. Loftin needs to win the 3rd spot. That's pretty damn solid.Quote:
Originally Posted by the_real_MSU_is_us
I would add Augur as a guy that was hurt who could have given us innings.Quote:
Originally Posted by Cooterpoot
And I think we need Loftin to grow into a legit Saturday guy. He has the stuff. Ligon stuff is more that of a Sunday guy to me.
If the culture piece is right, we will have a chance to be good again in 2024.
We did battle injuries this past year. They were smaller, miss a start or 3 type injuries. Cade missed all of March; Gartman missed most of May; Nixon missed a week or two. I'm sure there were others that we knew less about. A lot of times the strain injuries are all about training (or lack there of) or poor mechanics not being adjusted. Missing time has a domino effect on the staff. Losing a guy to TJ hurts - but having a guy come up lame on a start day hurts just as much. How many weekends did we have a Friday start named and TBA filled in for the other 2 starts? That wasn't because Fox was being cagy, it's because we didn't know who would be available until the day of the game in many cases.Quote:
Originally Posted by Cooterpoot
People crack me up. Someone post that MSU will be 0-30 next year and show their "homework"Quote:
Originally Posted by 99jc
We had no more injuries than the next school. We just sucked. LSU had more injuries than us and they won the whole damn thing. We've gotten rid of about 50% of our errors, we're about to possibly upgrade our pitching in a big way. Those things alone will get us in post season.Quote:
Originally Posted by BrunswickDawg
I'm no Lemonis fan, but he pulls that off, I'll give him props for getting big-time talent in here. It's in our best interests for him to turn this back around. If he doesn't, people know I'll blast his ass.
Loftin was our best Fr, gartman was honestly our 2nd best starter. Neither was pitching in SEC play.Quote:
Originally Posted by Cooterpoot
Aren't you literally the person on the previous page of this thread who said Hines D would get better because his back was hurt last year? Somebody listed that, sorry if it wasn't you. That's mostly what I was referring too as being an overly "homer" take; every team in the history of any sport has had at least one "back tweak" to deal with, so to act like Hines getting that squared away will fix the D is ridiculous because next year it'll be Larry or Highfill ect that gets dinged up.
Overall we did get pretty lucky with injuries last year, will probably have more next year.
Everybody has injuries. So we're not the only team that dealt with it.Quote:
Originally Posted by the_real_MSU_is_us
But I disagree that we were lucky with injuries. Stone and augur missed the whole year. They were 2 of our top 5 arms when they went down.
Cade and Nixon were our best two and both missed a third of the year, maybe more.
That doesn't include Pico and Nate Williams missing the whole year, both of whom we thought would be bullpen guys.
Then Dohm and Gartman both missed multiple weeks.
Coming up with absurd takes about how we aren't really going to be better is worse at this point.Quote:
Originally Posted by the_real_MSU_is_us
You do you but it sounds like you're awfully nervous that you're going to be wrong about Lemonis.
Pretty much every TJ surgery means that pitcher will miss the next season. Since so many pitching injuries are TJ, I don't count it as out of the ordinary for a guy to miss an entire season. LSU and Arky lost guys early last year/right before the season and they won't pitch next year either, for example.Quote:
Originally Posted by confucius say
We got lucky that our only TJ this season was Gartman, a veteran transfer that probably wasn't coming back anyway. Next year we probably get 1-2 TJs and another Loftin type non-TJ injury that still shuts him down all year. There's also ALWAYS multiple guys shut down a few weeks like you mention for Dohm and Nixon. It's just statistically what tends to happen.
In football we all recognize you need some depth because injuries happen, but in baseball we act like every injury is an anomaly that'll never happen again. Look around baseball- if you have a staff of guys throwing 92+ who did travel ball, there will be TJs. Stack depth accordingly before the season starts
Loftin did nothing in SEC play to say he was going to be great. He was our midweek guy. His walk numbers alone were poor. What was Gartman's ERA? Let's not pretend it was outstanding either. LSU lost pitchers. Had some other injuries too. They did fine. Plus, we took two of three from them at their place flipping around the rotation. This team had a terrible pitching coach problem. His talent evals were shaky and development poor. He's gone.Quote:
Originally Posted by the_real_MSU_is_us
The staff got lazy. But if they can get the players to correct some things and not 17 around, we're close to being a pretty good club. I'd say top 20 for sure with Montgomery and Holman. Probably to 15. If the FR advance as they should, we could be top 10 going into SEC play.
If you want to say a rash of injuries will kill us, fine. That's the case for most teams. There's no negatives otherwise minus questions about the FR. We'll see on those.
By damn, the Best Catcher in the Nation is in the Portal.
Malcom Moore of Stanford a Freshman All American, PAC-12 Freshman of the Year, and future top-10 pick.
MSU has a catcher, a Freshman, a Madison Central guy that could help MSU land Braden Montgomery. So, we are probably not in the mix.
Moore is a stud but we're full at C now. Somebody must have gotten to him. That would be a big money grab like LSU or somebody if I was guessing. He's from Cali, so seems odd. Maybe he's trying to get more from Stanford.