Collegiate Baseball preseason # 2

[smootness]

Either way, we need both Detz's and Humphreys' bats in their.

I definitely agree with this. I would assume we will see Humphreys in the outfield some. I don't see 3 OFs on our team good enough to keep Humphreys from moving out there if need be.

We have Robson, Bradford, Vickerson, Henderson, and Armstrong that will probably be the primary rotation out there as of now (let me know if I'm missing someone - I don't see Swinarski as an immediate-impact guy right now). That's a good group, but it seems to be our weakest grouping on the team, or the least set in stone. I like the potential of all of them, especially Robson and Vickerson, but if we can add some real pop in that group, we should do it.

[Goat Holder]

I don't think you're going to see this. I think if Humphreys plays it'll be DH. He's honestly competing more with Garner for that spot, than he is with the outfielders. Bradford and Henderson are set, per Cohen. Vickerson is looking like he'll be the left fielder.

[smootness]

I'm fine with DH, too.

[Tbonewannabe]

Didn't Reid have close to the best fall at the plate? Can't keep him out of the lineup.

[Todd4State]

Cohen told Swindoll couple weeks ago that Rooker and Dylan Ingram would probably be redshirted.

Perfect Game will probably have OM preseason #1.

That's doesn't totally surprise me. Rea has first base locked down as long as he stays healthy. Ingram played at a small school in Alabama and he probably has a little bit more of bigger leap in competition because of that. Rooker struggled in the fall- I think he has to believe that he is good enough to play SEC ball which he is.

[Todd4State]

We certainly look better on paper going into this year than we did last year. That postseason experience is huge too.

What are your realistic expectations going into this season? Anything less than hosting will be a disappointment to me. Some good goals for the team would be to compete for the SEC and get a national seed.

I think we will win somewhere between 35-40 games if we stay healthy. We should be in the hunt for a National Seed and hosting a regional at the very least.

[Dawg61]

We lost because UCLA took advantage of the dead bats. It was ****ing IMPOSSIBLE to hit a homerun in that park last year. Only 3 in all the games combined! That's not baseball. At no point (besides UCLA last year) in the history of baseball are you instructed to throw 89 mph fastballs at the top of the strike zone and get rewarded for it. Any other league any other park those balls are getting DESTROYED. UCLA was just smarter than us. Play us anywhere else and we win the national championship. The dead bats rule is so awful. Please just go to wood.

[Todd4State]

Are you saying we would have won in 2013 with Woodruff, or are you saying we WILL win in 2014 with Woodruff? Because I still don't think we're talented enough to go around proclaiming stuff like that. Took an awful lot of clutch hits for us to get there this past year, pitching wasn't the problem until the finals.

Detz doesn't return at DH, he returns at 3B and will likely start there all year. Cohen said as much on Wednesday, that he's settled in at that position. Britton is the starter at SS too, he's becoming a leader on the team. We don't 'lose' anything with Frost, that much is guaranteed. He's just a Cohen player much like Perkins is for Mullen.

Would have won with Woodruff in 2013. Any team that wins a championship along the way has a lot of clutch hits. Actually, if you look at NCAA postseason run we won every game in our regional (other than the one we lost of course) by at least two runs. We dominated Virginia and the only reason the second game was a 1 run game was because we started to throw the ball around the ballpark in the 9th out of nerves which was due to inexperience in that situation as much as anything. The same thing happened in Omaha in game 1 against OSU where we had some nerves at the start and then calmed down, and we did have the clutch hit by Porter against Indiana. Then we beat Oregon State by three.

So, we actually hit pretty well and outplayed most of our opponents- but a lot of our postseason games were closer than they actually were because of some of our players getting caught up in the situation a little bit.

With Detz, I'm being speculative. I think a lot of the reason Cohen is playing him at third is because we need his bat, but he also wants CT to pitch. If CT pitches, that means he DH's. I think CT will probably struggle on the mound and we move him to CF full time which will displace one of the outfielders. So, I think what will eventually happen is Detz will DH and Humphries will move to third to get everyone in the lineup.

[Todd4State]

We lost because UCLA took advantage of the dead bats. It was ****ing IMPOSSIBLE to hit a homerun in that park last year. Only 3 in all the games combined! That's not baseball. At no point (besides UCLA last year) in the history of baseball are you instructed to throw 89 mph fastballs at the top of the strike zone and get rewarded for it. Any other league any other park those balls are getting DESTROYED. UCLA was just smarter than us. Play us anywhere else and we win the national championship. The dead bats rule is so awful. Please just go to wood.

I agree that it didn't help. The new ball in a couple of years and hopefully our new Adidas bats will help us out. We got away from a line drive approach as well.

[smootness]

I really do think it had more to do with that field than the bats. The bats are obviously having a big effect on offensive production in college baseball, but it's not nearly as drastic anywhere else as it was in Omaha. I think even if they went to the gorilla ball bats, teams would struggle to hit it out consistently. The field is facing the opposite direction from Rosenblatt, and evidently the wind is always blowing in.

[Goat Holder]

So did we, smart guy. Did you happen to catch Game 1?

[Goat Holder]

Cohen is just trying to help Bradford get drafted IMO

[Todd4State]

Cohen is just trying to help Bradford get drafted IMO

Probably so, but he's not going to help him out at the expense of the team. CT is a good player, but he is small and injury prone. That's two strikes against him no matter what he does this year.

[MsStateBaseball]

I expect to be top 10 in all the polls beside PG. CB has been a fan of us for 30 years. With the health of Paul Young that pput us over the top. First order of business is to win the SEC then I expect to host regional. RPI and SOS goes into national seed. We win the conf we will be one. I cannot wait until baseball

[Todd4State]

I expect to be top 10 in all the polls beside PG. CB has been a fan of us for 30 years. With the health of Paul Young that pput us over the top. First order of business is to win the SEC then I expect to host regional. RPI and SOS goes into national seed. We win the conf we will be one. I cannot wait until baseball

I bet Paul Young is our midweek starter. We can bring him along slowly and develop him now that he is healthy.

Fri- Woodruff
Sat- Fitts/Lindgren
Sun- Hudson/Ross

Woodruff is our ace, but if he struggles, we can go to Ross, Gentry, Cox, etc.

Fitts has starting experience and he should be better than last year. He's a fastball/curve right handed pitcher. Lindgren is a left handed sinker/slider guy. That's a difficult contrast for hitters.

Hudson throws 93-96 and is tall and right handed. Then we come back with Ross throwing left-handed at 82-86 with a lot of movement. Plus, this allows us to use Ross on Friday if we need him- which hopefully isn't very often.

Young is a pitcher for the first time in his life. I'd start him out on a 50 pitch limit and then build up throughout the year to about 100 pitches and just teach him how to pitch physically. We'll have plenty of bullpen to back him up.

[bully99]

Yes collegiate baseball publication has been a big supporter of MSU going back decades. It's been run by the Pavlovich family for about 40 years and they've been good friends with Ron Polk. They've done a lot of positive stories about State baseball over the years.
perfect game ..well they love them some bears

[engie]

I dunno Todd... Young was 5-0 last yr with 5 complete games...

I'm all for starting him slow given his injury, but he was a total iron man last yr in Juco...

[messageboardsuperhero]

I bet Paul Young is our midweek starter. We can bring him along slowly and develop him now that he is healthy.

Fri- Woodruff
Sat- Fitts/Lindgren
Sun- Hudson/Ross

Woodruff is our ace, but if he struggles, we can go to Ross, Gentry, Cox, etc.

Fitts has starting experience and he should be better than last year. He's a fastball/curve right handed pitcher. Lindgren is a left handed sinker/slider guy. That's a difficult contrast for hitters.

Hudson throws 93-96 and is tall and right handed. Then we come back with Ross throwing left-handed at 82-86 with a lot of movement. Plus, this allows us to use Ross on Friday if we need him- which hopefully isn't very often.

Young is a pitcher for the first time in his life. I'd start him out on a 50 pitch limit and then build up throughout the year to about 100 pitches and just teach him how to pitch physically. We'll have plenty of bullpen to back him up.

Damn, our pitching staff makes me wooly- really our whole team does.

It's crazy to think about how far Cohen and co. have brought us in the last 5 years. When he got here, guys like Kyle Hann or Derrick Armstrong would've been stars instead of fighting for playing time. And a pitcher like Austin Sexton would've been thrown into the fire on weekends, whether he was ready for it or not.

[Todd4State]

I dunno Todd... Young was 5-0 last yr with 5 complete games...

I'm all for starting him slow given his injury, but he was a total iron man last yr in Juco...

That's also probably why his arm was hurt in the fall. I think he has the ability to do it- he just needs someone to show him how to do it and learn how to do it.