Pre-exams meaning MSU has finals this week.

I'm taking a 5 tools approach with this- the five tools for non-baseball fans is arm strength, power, hitting for average, speed, and defense. I personally because I like to add my own thing add leadership and baseball IQ to the mix as well. That's just me. But for this I'll stick to five.

Arm strength (pitching)- MacLeoud and Bednar are talented but they're also essentially sophomores because of COVID despite their draft status. So sometimes they flash like Bednar did against Vanderbilt and sometimes they look like Bednar against Ole Miss. One thing about our starters is none of them are very efficient. We're only able to get 5-6 IP max because of that. That means we have to rely on the bullpen a lot- and fortunately we have a very good bullpen. But it also means we have to work those guys a lot. Against some of the better teams in the league we're going to have to use Sims twice in a weekend. We need to get Brandon Smith back. We need to keep developing Cerentola. And we need Stinnett and Preston Johnson to keep stepping up. Lemonis needs to have a quicker hook with Fristoe. He is a freshman and he is getting lit up the second-third time through because he does not have a third pitch to go to at this point. Foxhall and Lemonis need to stop being stubborn and "seeing what happens" and give him the hook after the first time through and go to Harding. I'm not just talking about today. It's a weekly theme. We also need someone like Cade Smith, Mikey Tepper, Stone Simmons or Spencer Price to step up an give us some innings here and there. How good this staff ultimately is will depend on 1. IF Smith comes back and 2. IF Cerentola can be used out of the bullpen as an option. We need to stop being cute on Sunday and use our big guns out of the pen sooner- ideally I would be fine with something like Harding starts and gives us 3, a healthy Smith gives us 2, Preston Johnson/Stinnett/Chase Patrick piece together innings 6-7, and then use Sims for 8-9. We need to maximize our talent and stop sitting on our ass waiting to see if a guy can work out of every jam.

Power- Hot take- we're going to have at least four guys that have 10 or more home runs on this team this year and are going to end up hitting more home runs than Ole Miss this year. Our schedule has been top heavy this year and three of the four remaining SEC series are against teams that have pitching staffs in the bottom half of the SEC with South Carolina being the exception. Tanner, James, Allen, and Rowdey are all going to hit 10 or more- and if he can bust out of his slump maybe Hancock as well. If I'm wrong I'm wrong- but I'll be pretty close one way or the other.

Average- Along those lines for the year our offense will finish in the top half of the SEC in average for the same reasons. One thing that will help is if we stop being so pull heavy- looking at you Josh Hatcher. Our hitters have GOT TO start looking to hit gap to gap more. Our approach is BAD at times. Some of that is some guys being inexperienced. But it needs to start to improve. The good news is we have beaten some really good pitchers this year- Madden from Texas, Hill from LSU, Hoglund from Ole Miss, and Leiter from Vanderbilt. We've gotten shut down some too. That happens against really good pitchers. We need to find a way to sit Hatcher without sacrificing defense. Which leads me too...

Defense- We HAVE TO get better here. We're so sloppy at times. Except for Logan Tanner who is a freak and has the run game shut down. It's past time to move Tanner Allen back to first and play Cumbest in RF. This maximizes our defense while also adding some offense because despite the fact that Cumbest having zero summer ball experience he's still better than Hatcher. Now that school is out this needs to be a MAJOR point of emphasis. Kam James needs to take at least 200 ground balls a day now that class is out. Get Ron Polk back out there and have the team go over his playbook defensive fundamentals AGAIN. Like every day. A lot of times when we have lost it's because we kick the ball around like the Bad News Bears with special guest Chuck Knoblauch.

Speed- We're among the best in the league at stealing bases so no complaints here. Forsyth needs to get better at bunting though. That needs to be part of his game and no reason for him to not be decent at it.

Leadership- Lemonis has to do a little bit better job of managing this team if he is going to beat elite teams. That means find a solution to a guy like Josh Hatcher struggling. That means not sitting around like a bump on a log while Fristoe is getting lit up the second or third time through the order again. That means finding ways to use Sims twice in a weekend against some of the better teams in the league like he did against Ole Miss.

This was a pretty critical review. But I think this team is clearly third in the SEC and we'll find out in a couple of weeks if we're third or fourth after the South Carolina series. For us to get to the top we have to get a little bit better- and I think we will in the future. What we are seeing right now is kind of a byproduct of having essentially four coaching changes in about five years. So it's a bit of a mess. But we're hardly bad. Overall we're pretty good in fact. But with some hard work and maybe a couple of tweaks and some more aggressive decision making this team can reach it's full potential. What I think will happen is we will improve on defense and our hitting will improve. Our pitching will be about the same. Lemonis will keep running Hatcher out there. As long as we take care of business the next few weeks we should be a national seed. I always like our odds in the postseason at Dudy-Noble. And I wish we had Landon Sims a couple of years ago against that ridiculous umpire in the CWS that squeezed us against Louisville. Anyway, overall I think we continue to improve and make a run and end up in Omaha again.