Baseball Stuff

[Todd4State]

They're hoping that Self will be ready for opening day- but no guarantee at this point. One way or the other I think (my guess) that he will be back by the Houston tournament at the latest and based on what I know I'm guessing he will most likely be ready for the USM series. That said, I expect MSU to be careful with him and use him more as a short reliever instead of a multi-inning guy like last year. I think Self and Blake Smith will likely be the closers at least initially. As Self heals up I think he will be THE closer and Smith may slot in as the set-up guy and still could close a good bit to give Self some rest if necessary.

Cole Gordon I think will surprise a lot of our fans on the mound- and while he is a candidate for the Sunday job I think he is better out of the bullpen. Zach Neff and Jared Leibelt are two new pitchers that our fans are going to see pitching a lot this year.

I think the rotation is going to be Pilkington, Small, and Billingsley. I'm expecting Keegan James to start midweek for us. At least initially. Denver McQuary is still wild but he could get the nod at midweek.

Catcher is probably going to be Marshall Gilbert starting and Skelton as the back-up- but I'm expecting them to split the job.

The infield is set- Josh Hatcher at first, Stovall at second, Tanner Allen at third, and LA at SS. Hatcher and Allen are both freshmen- but both were drafted last year.

The outfield is also set- MacNamee in RF, Mangum in CF, and Rowdy Jordan in LF. Vansau will DH. Jordan played summer baseball in a college league and did really well. He could surprise people. If someone struggles we may see Jordan Anderson play and start but right now I think he will be a guy we use off of the bench for now. Jordan Westburg can play a lot of positions and he can be used in a lot of roles if we need to move the infield around some.

This is going to be a good team- draftable players at most positions except for maybe a couple of guys. A lot of guys with either Team USA or Cape Cod experience and a few guys that have been drafted either last year as a sophomore or out of high school. Our early season schedule is tough because we are on the road a lot- but we get some of the better teams in the West in Starkville- Arkansas, Ole Miss, and Texas A&M while the toughest West road team we play is Auburn. LSU could have a down year and Alabama is rebuilding. We also have Florida and Vandy in Starkville and winnable series on the road against Kentucky and Mizzou.

My minimal expectation for this team is another SR and possible Omaha trip.

[Commercecomet24]

Good stuff, Todd! Thanks!

[Choctaw Dawg]

Fired up. Ready to see Allen and Hatcher tear the SEC up over the next few years.

[VandelayIndustries]

Good stuff Todd. Is France hurt or just not in the rotation?

[shoeless joe]

Someone help me out...was there a big debate on here about whether Alexander was our best option at SS? Seem to remember that but I may just be thinking of C34 trumpeting that he can't hit the curveball.

[I seen it dawg]

There was but i think most of the chatter was bc he had never really played it here. And still hasn’t. That being said i trust he’s the best option bc Cann says so. Also it probably is best bc with our personnel he’s better there than anyone else we could put combining with the options we have at 3b and 2b.

[I seen it dawg]

And he has to prove he can handle breaking stuff

[Tbonewannabe]

I hope some of these freshmen are as good as we hope. They could be laying a foundation for the next few years. Pilk and Small could be the 1 - 2 punch we have needed to get us to Omaha. I just hope we can make it this year without the injuries. We will probably have the strongest middle defense in the country with LA, Stovall, and Mangum. That could be the best ever at MSU as long as LA lives up to billing. I thought Stovall was the best in the SEC last year and Mangum has a cannon along with covering about as much ground as Fred Smoot. I guess we can use Fred's line "The Earth is 70% covered by water and the rest is covered by Mangum".

[Tbonewannabe]

There was but i think most of the chatter was bc he had never really played it here. And still hasn’t. That being said i trust he’s the best option bc Cann says so. Also it probably is best bc with our personnel he’s better there than anyone else we could put combining with the options we have at 3b and 2b.

No one but the coaching staff truly knows but Stovall covers a lot of ground on the right side so to replace him would lessen that side. It boils down to LA and Stovall are both GREAT defenders so who is the best with the guys you have left. Do we have someone you put in the lineup at 3rd or 2nd.

[I seen it dawg]

Bingo

[Choctaw Dawg]

Good stuff Todd. Is France hurt or just not in the rotation?

Just sore, may or may not pitch opening weekend but his inflammation/soreness is nothing serious.

[War Machine Dawg]

No Kale Breaux in your pitching eval? I'd be shocked if he doesn't have some sort of impact, whether that's midweek starter, Sunday starter, or key bullpen guy.

[Tbonewannabe]

No Kale Breaux in your pitching eval? I'd be shocked if he doesn't have some sort of impact, whether that's midweek starter, Sunday starter, or key bullpen guy.

For some reason I was thinking of Breaux when I read Keegan James. Do we go with best pitcher for Sunday or do we try to get our best RH on the mound like Billingsley? Not that I wouldn't take a dominate LH starting pitcher rotation like Pilk, Small, and another dominate guy.

[The Federalist Engineer]

For some reason I was thinking of Breaux when I read Keegan James. Do we go with best pitcher for Sunday or do we try to get our best RH on the mound like Billingsley? Not that I wouldn't take a dominate LH starting pitcher rotation like Pilk, Small, and another dominate guy.

I think James and Breaux will be huge x-factors in the second half of the season, potential Aces

Even Small is an x-factor because he has less than 10 innings of experience coming into the season

Amazingly Cole Gordon has far more experience, started more SEC games, and post season experience that James, Breaux, and Small. There is a chance that we can get Dakota Hudson or Zac Houston 3rd year from 2 or 3 people.

The only down side is that we possibly only get an awesome 30/40 game stretch before all these kids are drafted. It will be like Zac Houston leaving before we really got to know him.