Here is what needs to bother you about Baseball recruiting

[R2Dawg]

Give me our Friday night all American and best two pen arms and we'd be in the same place.

That may be true, can't under estimate the impact of our pitching mess this year.

[Rawdawg]

NIL is going to make the divide between the haves and have nots even bigger.

When used properly. This current team had a collective NIL deal that was $1000 a month for 10 months for every player.

[Hambone]

Give me our Friday night all American and best two pen arms and we'd be in the same place.

Don?t you dare bring common sense to this argument.

[The Federalist Engineer]

Give me our Friday night all American and best two pen arms and we'd be in the same place.

Teams lose pitchers all the time, every year. This year Arkansas lost the Ace. In 2021, MSU only had 1 weekend guy still pitching well by Omaha and only 1 starting pitcher from Arlington still going. Also 2021, the 8th inning and closer we're done within the first month. Even Bama lost their Ace and still made the SECT.

[Cooterpoot]

We weren't winning games before those injuries. Maybe things come together later, but our pen and staff was shaky as hell no matter what. The hitting was never where it should've been production wise (clutch). We still had a bad OF defensively. Struggled to get SS settled. Maybe we make the tournament and slide into a regional somewhere. But we were still going to max out at a bubble team in all likelihood.

[the_real_MSU_is_us]

Don?t you dare bring common sense to this argument.

Except it isn't common sense. Almost EVERY team loses pitchers to injury, and they still don't automatically end up as the worst team in the SEC. This whole "is we didn't lost Sims and Simmons we'd have made the SEC tournament" misses the context, that in baseball this happens often to everyone

[Coach34]

Don?t you dare bring common sense to this argument.

Landon Sims was 0-2 this year on the mound. We would have still lost Friday night games

[confucius say]

Teams lose pitchers all the time, every year. This year Arkansas lost the Ace. In 2021, MSU only had 1 weekend guy still pitching well by Omaha and only 1 starting pitcher from Arlington still going. Also 2021, the 8th inning and closer we're done within the first month. Even Bama lost their Ace and still made the SECT.

Self nor price were the closer. That was obvious after Tulane 2021.

Regardless, identify for me a team that lost its Friday night all American and top two bullpen arms and its third best pen arm for half the season. It's no wonder our offense was fine and pitching was the problem.

[confucius say]

Landon Sims was 0-2 this year on the mound. We would have still lost Friday night games

We were 0-2 bc we couldn't score early in the year vs atrocious teams. We ended up one of the top offenses in the league per you.
Sims era was 1.15 and his whip was .87.

You cant say the offense was fine and the pitching was the problem, which you said, and then ignore we lost our Friday all American, best pen arm, second best pen arm, and third best pen arm for half the season.

[confucius say]

Except it isn't common sense. Almost EVERY team loses pitchers to injury, and they still don't automatically end up as the worst team in the SEC. This whole "is we didn't lost Sims and Simmons we'd have made the SEC tournament" misses the context, that in baseball this happens often to everyone

No it doesn't. Tell me another team that is in the tourney that lost its Friday night all American with a 1.15 era and .86 whip, it's best pen arm who hadn't given up a baserunner on the season, it's second best pen arm with a 3.05 era, and it's fourth best pen arm for half the season. Not to mention a guy who started 3 weekend games.

Our offense was better than 2021. The problem was pitching. And people are totally discounting having the most injury-ravaged staff in the league and likely the country. We lost double digit games after being tied or having the lead in the 7th. That's no coincidence.

[Cooterpoot]

Texas lost a lot of pitching and are playing for a championship. TN didn't miss a beat when their guys were out. AR is still going without some pitching. LSU has dealt with pitching injuries. Oregon State has a lot injuries and still going. Our pen was thin as hell and we only had one proven starter no matter injuries. Outside of Sims and Johnson we really had no proven performers.

[BrunswickDawg]

Texas lost a lot of pitching and are playing for a championship. TN didn't miss a beat when their guys were out. AR is still going without some pitching. LSU has dealt with pitching injuries. Oregon State has a lot injuries and still going. Our pen was thin as hell and we only had one proven starter no matter injuries. Outside of Sims and Johnson we really had no proven performers.

Which gets back to those programs had done a better job of recruiting and development then us over the past couple of years. Neither side in this argument are wrong - our recruiting and development in pitching has not been strong beyond our top line guys. If your top line guys go down, then those problems with R & D are highlighted. If our top line guys had not gone down, we likely make the post season - especially since our offense was one of the better ones in the league. We may not have been quite as clutch, but because of the pitching problems we were always having to play from behind - which made the times we didn't come thru with needed hits more visible and critical.

[Cooterpoot]

I agree. We would be better with those players. But, we had issues no matter what. We just have no real idea how the team might have come together but our pitching was going to be thin. Fristoe, Tepper, Walling were all counted on and none were good. Stone? Who knows how he goes. Cade did an adequate job but seem to hit the wall late because we had no pen. But no real 3rd starter (which seems to be a Foxhall regularity).

[confucius say]

Texas lost a lot of pitching and are playing for a championship. TN didn't miss a beat when their guys were out. AR is still going without some pitching. LSU has dealt with pitching injuries. Oregon State has a lot injuries and still going. Our pen was thin as hell and we only had one proven starter no matter injuries. Outside of Sims and Johnson we really had no proven performers.

Did those teams you listed lose their Friday all American guy, top pen arm, second pen arm, third pen arm for half the season, and a guy who started 3 weekend games? If not, the comparison isn't the same.

Nobody is saying we go back to Omaha with all those guys, but we would be in the tournament just like 14-16 Vandy, which was my point. And we'd have a shot in a regional with sims, Johnson, and Cade starting with Simmons and augur added to the pen. We would still have holes no doubt, primarily LH pitching.

[Hambone]

THIS ^

[Pancho]

Is Nate Chester the next 2baseman? looks to have good size and some pop in the stick

[ShotgunDawg]

Landon Sims was 0-2 this year on the mound. We would have still lost Friday night games

Poor take here. We would?ve won a ton on Friday night with Sims and him being 0-2 is absurdly irrelevant.

That said, we?ve recruited poor athletes, especially on the mound. The evaluations have been poor and the tinkering of pitching mechanics, attempting to create more vertical rise, has destroyed some of our guy?s strike throwing ability, which should always be the number 1 concern.

The coaches have to evaluate better and not try to clone players.

Tennessee keeps it simple and is the most aggressive/tampering program in the country right now.

[ShotgunDawg]

Multiple things are true here.

- Losing Sims obviously hurt terribly.

- The lack of decent depth behind him is a massive failure by the staff.

[Mjoelner34]

Poor take here. We would?ve won a ton on Friday night with Sims and him being 0-2 is absurdly irrelevant.

He is actually very correct. We were 4-6 in Friday night SEC games. In all but one of those losses we scored 2 or less runs. Sims on Fridays would have won us the Friday aTm game and that's it. Going Johnny Wholestaff on Fridays, Sims on Saturday and Cade on Sunday would have gotten us to the SEC tourney and probably the NCAA tourney too but the fact remains our staff was far from deep enough to win a tournament.

[TNDawg35]

Is Nate Chester the next 2baseman? looks to have good size and some pop in the stick

Looks like it. #3 prospect in MO, signed with Mo out of high school, tore his shoulder up and they brought in someone else and were slow playing him. He transferred to John Logan. Has 3 years of eligibility left…