I'm going to say what I'm going say and try to do it without being redundant because most of what is being discussed is what I'm seeing too.

MSU baseball has a standard and we have a formula for success. We have talented players that will attack you and play their asses off for nine innings and do everything it takes to win. Not this team- historically. Tanner Allen, Jake Mangum, Landon Sims, Ethan Small, Brent Rooker, Adam Frazier, Kendall Graveman, Brooks Bryan, Will Clark, Jeff Brantley, Palmeiro, Showalter, Jocko Potts, Brantley Jones- and etc. And as far as this team I still think we have some guys who have that in them- Hunter Hines, Luke Hancock, Nate Dohm among others.

But the problem is playing hard and winning and solid baseball fundamentals has been clipped by this coaching staff in favor of loyalty and relying too much on baseball analytics.

The root of our problems goes back to pitching. We should have gotten rid of Scott Foxhall last year. We should get rid of him now. I've seen this coming for awhile. His approach to pitching is too one size fits all and you can not do that with pitchers because they are human beings and are all different. Pitching like Nolan Ryan works great for Nolan Ryan- and Jacob DeGrom and Landon Sims. But not every pitcher in the HOF pitched like Nolan Ryan- Greg Maddux, Whitey Ford, and Tom Glavine are in and were great but had to do it differently. What Foxhall is doing is trying to make everyone the same guy and the results are not good for those that simply do not have that ability. Some pitchers have to pitch down- and if you ask them to live up in the zone they're going to get hit. Or since they know that they can't live up in the zone they try to get a hitter to chase. That results in balls, getting behind in the count, and walks and eventually they have to throw something hittable and then we get lit up. And then to make matters worse he sits on his ass while the pitchers rot and then their confidence is eventually destroyed to where we can't even really use them. Or he puts struggling guys into impossible situations and then it predictably doesn't work. On top of that add in all of the "minor injuries"- not Tommy John- guys just missing a month here and there. We have pitchers whose mechanics are all over the place- and they simply rarely make any progress at all and typically regress.

On top of that we suck at holding runners on which makes the catchers look bad and then the defense is standing around and having to attend to runners- it makes it much more difficult to concentrate and it's affecting our defense as well. It's starting to affect our offense because what the hell is the point when you have to score 10 runs to even have a chance?

I think the only chance that Lemonis has to survive is to fire Foxhall ASAP. And in season. I don't think this is going to turn around now organically. The only chance is to do something drastic and firing Foxhall is the best and really only chance Lemonis has to survive. It will be a wake up call and a fresh voice for the pitchers. They need someone that can at least somewhat assess their strengths and weaknesses and play off of their strengths. That in and of itself will make a huge difference I assure you.

Defense is the second most pressing issue. Catchers- I know that one knee is the analytical thing to do but NOT WHEN THE WINNING RUN IS ON THIRD BASE!!!!!! WTF????????????? Our catchers are going to be issues all year no matter what but we can at LEAST use good fundamental common sense. Stealing a strike doesn't matter if the game is over because you couldn't keep the ball in front of you. Alford just needs to sit. Let Hujsack, Chester, and Mershon fight it out. We're Ok everywhere else in general. But if I was Lemonis I would be repping these guys to death everyday on defense.

I think hitting will get better once we're more competitive IF we make those changes.

This is how I would play it if I were in Lemonis's shoes.

Fri- Loo with Dohm following
Sat- Cade with Gartman following and Nixon or Hunt closing
Sun- Holcombe with Ynetema following and then some combination of Dohm, Hunt, and Nixon based on their status that weekend.

Tues- Loftin

C- Going to have to be Highfill
1B- Hines- Hancock if his back isn't too bad
2B- Larry
3B- Hujsack
SS- Forsythe
LF- Downs
CF- Ledbetter
RF- Kellum
DH- Chance

If Hancock is healthy then things change.

As I've said I can't see the boosters putting up with this for long and even though I haven't heard anything I would be surprised if we don't see some major changes soon.