Texas A&M Baseball Thoughts
WHAT A WEEKEND for the Diamond Dogs! I was worried about how we would perform at Texas A&M after losing the Auburn series and then it looked like on Friday my fears were confirmed. But then in typical 2017 MSU baseball fashion this team steps up yet again and dominated A&M in game two and then found a way to win the series in game three. The bottom line is as amazing as this all seems given our circumstances- good teams find ways to win games.
Pilkington does need to pitch better than he did against A&M because we're going to need him to be a legit ace down the stretch. Really that's about my only complaint. Yes, Plumlee gave up a grand slam but that should have been a foul ball. Denver McQuary stepping up could be HUGE for us. We desperately need someone to step up as the number two guy- and ever since the Governor's Cup he has been the guy to do that. He just keeps getting more and more confident it seems- and with that confidence his command is starting to follow suit gradually. He's going to be a very good pitcher for us. Billingsley was better overall than he was against Auburn and he gutted out his start and then we turned it over to our back end bullpen guys. Cole Gordon was a big reason why we were able to do that and if he can step up and be a long relief option for us that would be huge as well. Riley Self was outstanding and completely shut them down. It's ideal to have about seven legit pitchers for the postseason but between Pilkington, McQuary and then a bullpen of Gordon, Barlow, Self, and Price we could go a long with that.
Josh Lovelady was huge in game three at the plate for us. He kind of shows us how baseball is- last week against Auburn he got thrown out at the plate on a really good play by Auburn, but this week he scores on a passed ball that gave us the lead that we never gave up. The guy is an absolute warrior. Rooker only went 3-11 with a double which is not a good weekend for him- but us winning two games without him dominating like he has at times has to give our team some confidence. Hopefully Stovall's hand heals soon so that we can get him back into the lineup. I think the splint was supposed to come off today. LA had a big game on Friday and to me he looks like he is gradually improving. Bragg is a talented player that has been working on his work habits but he has been improving on that throughout the year. He has to get that bunt down when he is asked to do so at this point in his career. Gridley did not get a hit- but he did reach base four times with three being HBP and he also parlayed that into two runs scored.
Tanner Poole has had a tough year at times but he really stepped up for us on Saturday driving in Lovelady with a double. Mangum had a tough weekend as well- but he had a double on Friday and then an RBI on Sat. To me it looks like he is starting to feel a little bit better as far as swinging the bat. The two Texans- Hunter Vansau and Elijah MacNamee had good weekends going back home. Vansau had a big game on Friday getting three hits and a walk to go with two RBI's and then MacNamee had RBI's in the first two games and then a double in the third game.
One thing I think we all saw this weekend is how tough and dangerous the SEC is in baseball. You can't assume that just because you are playing the 14th best team in the SEC that you are going to automatically win. Auburn and Kentucky learned that the hard way. Even though Georgia has struggled this year, we're going to have to be really sharp on the road and play our best baseball to come out of there with a series win. That's going to be a big series for a guy like Gridley who is from there. They do have some very good players like Michael Curry and they hit better than Ole Miss obviously so we've got to be ready to play. I'm guessing it could be senior weekend for them but I'm not sure. They're playing with a lot of confidence after taking the series on the road at Kentucky and this week they play Georgia Tech in their version of the Governor's Cup. Tech has struggled this year so it wouldn't shock me if Georgia beat them especially as confident as they are right now. Their only path to the postseason is to get into the SEC Tournament and win it- so we're going to get their best. On top of all of that their coach could be in trouble if they don't finish the season hot, so you know they're going to go all out.
As we all know we got messed over by that umpire on the grand slam call and in his defense it was obviously hard to see- but that's not an excuse and the right call needs to be made. It wasn't just that but there were several obviously blown calls in other games around the league- a badly blown call at first base that went LSU's way and affected that game a lot and then a couple of really bad calls in Auburn/Alabama. The SEC needs to do something about this because it's hurting the quality of the product in the league. They don't allow coaches to argue anymore even if the coach is right and they end up fining the school and suspending the coach- which is simply too severe of a punishment for this level and it doesn't hold the umpires accountable. The replay system that the SEC has is a joke as well. They need to expand it beyond scoring plays and they need someone in Birmingham watching the games to alert the umpire that a call should be reviewed like MLB. As far as MSU specifically, we need a student manager to watching the TV version of the game on a computer to alert Cann that a challenge should occur. MLB teams have someone that does that for them and that helps with the process as well so that you don't have people like Paul Manieri challenging every single call and you also don't have coaches that miss plays that should be legitimately challenged.
On the pro baseball front- Jacob Robson was just named one of the Tigers top 30 prospects and Dakota Hudson had a great start a couple of days ago for Springfield the Cardinals AA team. Brandon Woodruff has been dominating in AAA and he should be called up pretty soon. Chad Girodo has been solid as the closer for the Blue Jays AAA team in Buffalo and will hopefully be called back up soon and Tyler Moore hit a couple of home runs for the Marlins AAA team in NOLA- yes, the Baby Cakes. I can see Hudson getting called up by the Cardinals in September if he continues to pitch well because their bullpen sucks. Although it has been better lately. Jonathan Holder pitched well for the Yankees last night and he also picked up his first MLB win a couple of days ago.
We have such as bright future right now as a baseball program. We have an AD that cares about baseball and is willing to help us out, we have a rock star of a coach that is just starting and is going to improve our recruiting and hopefully player retention- I can't wait to see what our 2019 and 2020 classes look like, and we have a new state of the art stadium on the way. And on top of that we have a lot of former players having success in pro baseball and making it up to MLB. We also have a totally united fan base behind this program. I can't wait to watch us in Omaha and this time Thunder and Lightning is going to refer to hitters 1-9 for us and starting pitchers 1-4. Hopefully there will be a lot more National Seeds, SEC Tournament and regular season titles, and Governor's Cups in there as well.
Hail State!
