Baseball Thoughts

[ShotgunDawg]

The road to the SEC Title & Omaha is going through Starkville this year & the road to the national title is going through MSU.

Any concerns & solutions I mention here are not in the spirit of criticism, but in the spirit of wanting MSU to built as air tight, national championship caliber team as possible.

With that said, I'm going to put on my GM hat & unpack this baseball team.....


- Small & Ginn are awesome & Mangum is at a different level of hitting ability than most anyone I've seen in the SEC in my life time. Enough said & I'm not going to mention those guys again.

- This team is as mentally tough as any MSU baseball I've seen. They absolutely do not give in & make you earn 27 outs to beat them. They give away ZERO ABs & approach every at-bat as if the national championship is on the line. They are an absolute grind. Not sure I've seen a more focused lineup from pitch to pitch than this one in college baseball.

- I continue to be super impressed by this staff. There is absolutely no panic in Lemo & he sticks with his most talented players. This is a breath of fresh air honestly. Very much like Ron Polk in that regard. The more I see, the more I think Cohen made one hell of a hire here.

- Props to the coaching staff for reading ED & realizing that we needed a right-handed DH vs lefties. I'm cool with Hatcher vs righties, but Cumbest is dynamic, &, while he doesn't have the most fluid or pretty swing, he's incredibly strong, quick twitch, & stays on the baseball extremely well. I think with his approach & the way he stays on the ball, he'll be able to hit righties as well & just be the full time DH. Biggest thing for right handed hitters is to be able to handle the slider away & I think Combest can do that. Major props to the staff for seeing the need & addressing it.

- The improvement of Dustin Skelton is next level player development & an absolute validation of this staff. They've turned a complete liability into a team strength. Guy has been fantastic. No single player has improved more.

- Jordan Westburg is a future Major League player in the making. Reminds me so much Paul DeJong with the Cardinals. Power hitting SS that doesn't have a ton of range but has reliable hands & an accurate, strong arm. The modern analytics & shifts make it easier to play a guy like Westburg as SS due to being able to position them better from batter to batter. Lessens the need for plus range at the position.

- Foscue has been a rock & Gunner Halter is slowly turning into an above average 2B in this league. Just like JUCO's in football, he needed his adjustment & has been very productive.

Now the pitching staff:

- First thing that stands out to me is we are getting nothing out of Keegan James because he's in the wrong role. Keegan's fastball is fairly straight & thus when he has to dial it down the low 90s, it gets ripped. First thing I would do is move Keegan to the bullpen & start Plumlee on Sunday until Cerantola is ready. I'm not sure if Plumlee can be a productive Sunday starter, but neither is Keegan & this move would help solidify our bullpen with a 95+ mph arm & Keegan would be more successful because his straight fastball would now be thrown in the mid-90s & have a much higher chance of success. Moving Keegan to the 6th-7th inning role would give us a 2 inning reliever, which we desperately need. Championships, #1 seeds, & SEC titles are won on the weekend, not the mid-week. Even if this move cost us a weekday game, it's worth it.

- While we are talking about the bullpen, one major problem I see is that we lack much uniqueness. Essentially, our entire middle reliever unit are sinker/slider guys that look very much the same to the hitters. While their velocities may differ slightly, they (Leibelt, Smith, & Price) are essentially trying to get hitters out the same way. What I would give for a Saunders Ramsey or Ross Mitchell type, unique reliever that gave the hitters a completely different look. Gordon & White differ a little in their style from the sinker/slider guys, but it's still a similar look from a similar arm slot. We need more uniqueness to mix it up. Not sure where that comes. from though.

All together, there aren't many issues & they are all 1st world problems.

In review:

1. Keep Cumbest as the DH
2. Move Keegan to the pen where he has a chance to be successful & plug a hole.
3. Move Plumlee to the Sunday spot & hope for 4 - 5 innings.
4. Find someone on this team that can create some uniqueness out of the bullpen & offer the hitters a different look from a different slot.

Big series next weekend. We are going to win this thing!