More details on bulldog initiative,
Didn't yall say elite Dawgs is trying to get an nil thing together?
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This exactly. We should have done what Johnson is doing at LSU and wiped the slate clean when he started.
On a side note, we actually don?t look as bad as y?all think. I think we will be solid. Y?all wanna bitch and complain, but we are a bullpen away from making noise this year. We took 2/4 from OM, 2/3 from Bama, 2/3 from Auburn, and won 1 at Ark which we haven?t done in years. Plus We beat Texas Tech 1/2. We were 5-4 against CWS participants without a bullpen and truly only 1 starter.
Now onto the draft. The only real loss I?m seeing is Jett Williams. He is gone from what I?m hearing. The kid who is a switch pitcher was suppose to be on campus early, and a lot of scouts are iffy on him. Dakota Jordan will
Be here baring some miracle. We have a couple really good juco pitchers coming in plus the 2 or 3 we have picked up in the portal already. There was also a kid on campus who damn near came straight from Omaha for a visit. We are still in with the Air Force kid and also the Stetson kid. Some of y?all need to relax and let it play out. Our lineup actually looks pretty good as long as nothing crazy happens in the draft. I don?t think Kam will be drafted high enough to go nor will Clark. If that?s the case, we are looking at this?
1b Hinse
2B transfer
3b Alford (having a good summer)
SS Forsythe
LF Dakota Jordan (barring something crazy happening)
CF Ledbetter
RF Clark
I can get behind that outfield. It is ALOT better defensively than last year. We need to pick up a good 2B in the portal or someone is gonna have to step up?
That's why I have to absolutely laugh when people say that they want him back. Yes, he is part of the reason we won a championship. He's also part of the reason we had to pay the piper this year. There's a reason Cohen fired him when he did. And why he can't get a job at Eastern Kentucky or New Mexico State. His messing around may have also cost us a title in 2019 arguably. I'm happy we at least got the one. And we're pretty fortunate we didn't have to pay the piper until this year. When you're distracted like he was you're not going to be focused on recruiting either. Heck- he wasn't even focused on who if anyone was in the bullpen. I heard the story about him trying to make a pitching change at USM and we didn't even have anyone warming up.
And apparently part of the reason some of them came back was because we won last year.
See my response to Homedawg. I'm just not computer savvy enough to organize this in a coherent form.
Not only that but Nate Dohm looked good in summer ball last night and there is a good chance we get Colby Holcombe in. KC Hunt has looked good. Fristoe's first Cape outing was rough however. Add in Landon Gartman and Pico and I think we are off to good start with our pitching staff. We need more but we have time and I know we're working hard to fix it. I'm guessing we're still looking to get 3-4 more pitchers and around 2-3 more position players pending what Luke Hancock decides to do. Probably an OF and DH and maybe a second baseman. Still have work to do but we also have time to do it.
We're a bullpen from making a regional. We still don't have a weekend stud to send to the mound. Gartman is solid but he's not an SEC big dog. Dohm was better as a starter and can bring it but can he handle it? We really need more. I don't see a reliable closer. Stone has never proven to be that. Maybe he steps up. I'm not sure on a couple guys being back but we'll see. I'm not counting on Dakota being ready to start as a FR either. He's got a lot to work on with the bat.
Still don't have a CF. Ledbetter isn't it defensively there IMO. And out OF was a weakness this year defensively. SS isn't adequate (I hate to agree with C34) with the bat.
We've got to eliminate strikeouts. Those were damn killers this year. A ridiculous amount of strikeouts. If the draft doesn't go great for us, we'll be in trouble. And it's killed us lately.
He hadn't gone more than just over 3 innings all year.
We've return Hines, Clark, Alford, Downs, maybe a couple others depending on things, Forsythe, we add Ledbetter and we've already added a top pitcher and a kid throwing 99. If DeLusia returns, OM will be solid on the mound. But they won't remotely be the hitting team they were this year. They were a very veteran team. We saw how things went after winning it. That focus won't be like it was with the whole team back like it was this year.
Am I having a brain fart? Who is our Friday starter? One of the transfers? Or is Cade Smith Friday night material? I know we can put him out there and he'll be as good or better than what we had this year, but was under the impression that he was not quite Friday night good.
AGree that arms will be key. We weren't good this year, but we weren't as bad as we looked. One good pitcher out of the bull pen and we are at least in a regional. But just not sure we're going to get the pitching issue fixed. If Fristoe could suddenly live up to his potential, we would all the sudden have a strong start for next year. Granted, that's probably not happening at this point, but it's not like it's a 1 in a 100 chance. A Fristoe that is right between the ears, Cade Smith, and then the Memphis transfer looks like a strong rotation.
Cade is good enough to give us Friday night starts and a chance to win.
Jack has got to be fixed. He throws 93-95 so the arm talent is there. He has to change his grip on his FB slightly to make it move more. There is something he can be taught to make him better. Fix it. Too much talent being wasted with this guy.
We have a transfer arm that will help. Need more
Right now, I like Cade on Saturday. I've got Gartman on Friday and Dohm on Sunday. Now, we get either of the two starters we're chasing, things change. And if Cade or Dohm really throw it well, that changes too. We need a dominating Friday guy. We just don't have that. We've got good pitchers. We need a top two round type guy to compete in the SEC. Best SEC teams will have that.
Agreed we have to get Fristoe fixed if he is salvageable at this point. We need to be able to slide him back into that Sunday role. A Skenes, Cade, and fully unlocked Fristoe is a hell of a weekend rotation. Pull Nixon and you may have your closer to tag team along with KC. Add in Gartman and Holcombe and you have your midweek guys and relievers to go along with a returning Cheatham and a newcomer in Dohm. Add in Loftin as a possible midweek guy and another lefty reliever and our pen in night and day from last year.
Again that all sounds great on paper. We have to be able to 1. Close and pull those transfers and 2. Get Fristoe and KC right and 3. Hope Cade continues to progress.
If you could pull Skenes and he wins the Friday night job like he should you are able to really help the rest of your pen because as we saw last year, and as OM just proved, having a dominant Friday guy sets up the rest of your rotation and gives you a chance to have a full pen for Game 2 and 3 of a series.
We are also forgetting the ultimate wild card in all of this. What if we pull Cijntje to campus?? How much different does the staff look then?
Right now I think KC Hunt will be our Friday night guy if he doesn't go pro. Cade will be Saturday. And then Sunday could be anyone from Gartman, Holcombe, Fristoe, Dohm, or a freshman.
That's assuming we completely whiff in the portal. We need an elite Friday night guy and the only guys with that kind of potential are our freshmen.
So what is the worst pitcher we've had suddenly figure things out after two years?
I remember several pitchers that seemed to make big jumps as Juniors or later(girodo, Hudson, Gordon, Stratton, Zach Smith), but I can't remember if any of them were basket cases before they figured it our or if they just needed to fine tune things and just get over the hump.