My two cents and a cup of coffee
Lemonis needs to get this figured out. Not sure if he will. He seems to me like one of those analytics baseball managers that just wants to look at the data and put a lineup out there and just let the numbers work themselves out. Despite what Bill James says you can't really do that all the time. He is also being borderline over cautious with our pitching staff. Which I prefer over Bianco/Corbin. Let's see if it pays off in the postseason. I'm worried we'll only see Sims once in a regional. We'll see. Lemonis needs to be an elite recruiter to fit his management style because he is much more "let the players do their job" than a Tony LaRussa call a squeeze play to rattle Roger Clemens in the postseason and get a comeback manager. The good news is yeah- I think he is showing signs that he could be an elite recruiter. So, because of coaching turnover this team is essentially Lemonis's version of Cohen's 2011 team. It's a hodgepodge of Cohen, Cann, Henderson, and his recruits. At least we scrap and play hard in general. But we also aren't "complete" either as a team and have too many holes.
Starting rotation needs to be MacLeoud and Bednar and then we need to use Landon Sims as an opener on Sunday. Either let Sims throw 1-2 IP on Fri or 1 on Sat so he would still be the closer. This does a couple of things. It will show us how Sims will respond as a starter for next year potentially, we would be able to maximize his talent, and we would help his future draft stock by showing scouts that he could be an opener which helps him out. It would also give us a chance to have three innings to get a lead on Sunday. So things would look like this:
Fri- MaLeoud 4-5, Brandon Smith 1-2, Preston Johnson 1-2, and then Sims 1-2.
Sat- Bednar 4-5, Smith if he didn't pitch Friday 1-2, Stinnett 1-2, and then Simmons 1-2
Sun- Sims 2-3, Harding 2-4, Chase Patrick 1-2, Johnson 1-2 depending on his workload Friday, and then some mix of Carslisle Koestler, Eric Cerentola, and Spencer Price. Those last three are wild cards. All three are upperclassmen. Koestler has an ERA of 4.00 which is respectable and can eat an inning or two. Cerentola has been pretty good in low leverage situations out of the bullpen. Price is a veteran closer who has done it before in his career and has a good slider. I think we can use him in some way shape or form.
Tanner has catcher locked down.
As far as the infield goes we can not keep using James at third base. We just can't. Leggett has his issues at the plate but we generate enough offense to offset his .231 average. I would look at using Kellum Clark at first base. He may be the first baseman next year. Dubrule and Forsythe have the MIF locked up and Forsyth needs to slow things down some.
In the OF I would either use Cumbest or look at James out there and see if he can handle it for next year. Rowdey and TA have the other spots locked down. Hancock needs to be in the lineup either at DH or first base.
The bottom line on this weekend is we didn't respect the game as a program and we thought we could show up and sweep Mizzou and that our crowd and our magical tradition would somehow come through for us. The problem is our players seemed to forget that they're the ones throwing the pitches, swinging the bats, and using the gloves in the field. Not the fans or the ghost of Clark and Palmeiro. Defense is the biggest concern and until Lemonis fixes that- most likely by using Tanner Leggett and Cumbest- we're going to be inconsistent. Those errors extend innings and make it more difficult on our pitching staff which as you can see above can be gotten into. So yeah- we'll probably be fine but we better get our ass in gear and start playing better baseball or there will be no National Seed or Omaha.
