Baseball Lineup for MSU

[Choctaw Dawg]

This is one of those things that is going to have to be reiterated as the season goes on this year, but we are really gonna miss Brandon Smith this year. He was a massive piece out of the bullpen as a freshman all last year and he would have been a good midweek/sunday starter for us.

[KOdawg1]

Why Hatcher at First and Allen at RF? I would have thought Hatcher is faster than Allen and a better fit in RF.

Allen has always been an OF playing first base. Hatcher is taller too. They just fit the new positions better

[ShotgunDawg]

Why Hatcher at First and Allen at RF? I would have thought Hatcher is faster than Allen and a better fit in RF.

Staff is doing Allen a pretty big draft favor here. Allen doesn't have the power to play 1B in pro ball but as a corner outfielder, he's got a chance to be a big leaguer.

[smootness]

Here's the good thing about college baseball: one year can make a massive difference. So a guy like Westburg could become a dominant hitter, someone like Landon Jordan could become too good to take out of the lineup, and someone like Cerantola can suddenly make a jump to elite.

We have the talent, and that is the most important thing.

We also have a junior-heavy lineup, and juniors in college baseball are huge. I think there's a chance our lineup ends up being as good as anybody in the country. There aren't many teams who enter the year with over half of their lineup made up of talented, experienced, proven juniors. And that's what we'll have this year.

If Ginn stays healthy and we just get one other guy to be a pretty good SP, we'll win a ton of games.

[trob115]

I expect Logan Tanner will make a push for major PT at DH or C. He's got huge upside.

[ShotgunDawg]

I think we should devise a trash can banging scheme. Then we'd definitely win*

[bulldogcountry1]

Neither one is talented enough to do that

Have you forgotten 2017? I'd call that a dependable season for both.

[bulldogcountry1]

Everyone is worried about the bullpen, but someone is going to step up and be the new Brandon Smith. It happens every year, and it HAS to happen for us to compete for Omaha every year. The best teams have to have multiple freshmen contributing every year to have sustained success.

[Randolph Dupree]

Neither one is talented enough to do that

When Price is his normal self, he is plenty capable. I thought he'd be back last year and it didn't happen. I think some of it was mental but all indications are he's back now.

[The Federalist Engineer]

When Price is his normal self, he is plenty capable. I thought he'd be back last year and it didn't happen. I think some of it was mental but all indications are he's back now.

Some major shoes to fill are the middle relievers that gave us huge clutch innings last year:

Leibelt, Cole Gordon, and White

This year we have lots of candidates but I?m not sure we will know this for sure until SEC play.

Eagan, Brock, a Freshman (Sims), and a JUCO (Schemper) is the MSU-Baseball thing to happen. We will get a Zac Neff/Leibelt/Harden/Girodo/Ross Mitchell from where we least expect it. This freshman class has amazing upside.

Price back to 2017 All American level would fill a huge need very nicely. We need a closer.

[Todd4State]

Great write up Todd. One thing that I will throw out there is that if you have listened to some of Lemonis’ interviews, I think he is excited about our young pitchers and is expecting more from them than a lot of us are. Hope he is right.

Some major shoes to fill are the middle relievers that gave us huge clutch innings last year:

Leibelt, Cole Gordon, and White

This year we have lots of candidates but I?m not sure we will know this for sure until SEC play.

Eagan, Brock, a Freshman (Sims), and a JUCO (Schemper) is the MSU-Baseball thing to happen. We will get a Zac Neff/Leibelt/Harden/Girodo/Ross Mitchell from where we least expect it. This freshman class has amazing upside.

Price back to 2017 All American level would fill a huge need very nicely. We need a closer.

I think both of you are correct in that some guys will probably step up and will surprise. My guess would be Koestler, Eagan, and Price. But it could be anyone really.

I would like to see us kind of take the next step where we aren't having to piece together pitching staffs with JUCO's, grad transfers, and freshmen. I think we had to do that just because we have changed pitching coaches so much the past few years and some recruits followed Butch to Auburn, Wes to Arkansas and those would have been guys that would have been seniors in this group. I think Foxhall will be good and hopefully he stays for a few years- although I thought he underused Colby White and overused Self and Barlow last year- but more than anything we need the stability and we need to stay with his program. We went from weighted balls to more traditional with Henderson and now we're probably at a happy medium with Foxhall.

So, all of that may bite us this year and we'll be frustrated at times when we struggle some trying to figure things out and maybe guys just being inconsistent in general. But the good news is I think we have some stability for the first time since 2016 and even while we had all of that change going on- not just at pitching coach, but also hitting and head coaches- I think we finally turned the corner to being a program that we all expect to have in baseball after our team flamed out in 2015 and somehow along the way took the next step. As long as we continue to have stability I think we will continue to have a chance at Omaha and finally have that balance that we need as a program both on the mound and at the plate- the 2021 class has some really talented pitchers and hitters in it that will likely make it to school (I'm not talking about Austin Hendricks here) that I think are going to take the mantle and help us to continue to be elite. I don't think this is THE year- but I think THE year is coming.

And as an aside it will be interesting to see what kind of legislation is passed regarding baseball scholarships and with the new law where players can be paid royalties which hasn't been fleshed out yet. Pretty much all potential legislation I have heard suggested would help us out. And Cohen has been leading a lot of that charge right now. Our Vandy-type advantage may be coming in the next decade and level the playing the field out- or tip it in our favor. Which again is why we really need Ginn to have a good year. If we can have someone to point to as a reference point it will help us attract Vandy-type pitchers in the future. And while a Vandy-education may be important to a lot of baseball players- all of whom intend to leave schools after three years and not get a degree by the way- I would imagine a LOT more would love to play in front of thousands of fans who treat them like rock stars while they get developed into MLB draft picks.

[BrunswickDawg]

And as an aside it will be interesting to see what kind of legislation is passed regarding baseball scholarships and with the new law where players can be paid royalties which hasn't been fleshed out yet. Pretty much all potential legislation I have heard suggested would help us out. And Cohen has been leading a lot of that charge right now. Our Vandy-type advantage may be coming in the next decade and level the playing the field out- or tip it in our favor. Which again is why we really need Ginn to have a good year. If we can have someone to point to as a reference point it will help us attract Vandy-type pitchers in the future. And while a Vandy-education may be important to a lot of baseball players- all of whom intend to leave schools after three years and not get a degree by the way- I would imagine a LOT more would love to play in front of thousands of fans who treat them like rock stars while they get developed into MLB draft picks.

This is what is going to give us our bump. I don't think there can be any better advertisement for MSU baseball than the last game of the SR last year at the Dude. That was a World Series atmosphere - not a CWS atmosphere - a Subway Series game 7 in the Bronx in old Yankee Stadium atmosphere. I still get chills watching Mac hit that HR. Show recruits that video and say - "this is MSU baseball - 365 days a year"

[smootness]

I would like to see us kind of take the next step where we aren't having to piece together pitching staffs with JUCO's, grad transfers, and freshmen. I think we had to do that just because we have changed pitching coaches so much the past few years and some recruits followed Butch to Auburn, Wes to Arkansas and those would have been guys that would have been seniors in this group. I think Foxhall will be good and hopefully he stays for a few years- although I thought he underused Colby White and overused Self and Barlow last year- but more than anything we need the stability and we need to stay with his program. We went from weighted balls to more traditional with Henderson and now we're probably at a happy medium with Foxhall.

I think that's just pretty much what you're going to have to do in college baseball. The bottom line is, there is constant turnover, and rarely do true freshman make a big impact. So typically you get, at most, 2 solid years out of your best guys. That's just the way it is.

You don't want freshmen, either, evidently, so you're basically saying you would like us to fill our pitching staffs with sophomores, juniors, and seniors who have come through the program. Well, your seniors are guys without big-time pro talent, and often, if a talented pitcher hasn't gotten a lot of opportunity by their sophomore or junior year, they're gone. You're also always having to make room for your new freshmen every year, so you have to bump some guys. We've had plenty of JUCO guys be really valuable for us recently, especially in the pen. You're always going to have to plug holes and try to find guys in the JUCO and grad transfer ranks, and you want your freshmen to be good enough to contribute.

So it sounds like you want something that's just incredibly rare.

[Todd4State]

I think that's just pretty much what you're going to have to do in college baseball. The bottom line is, there is constant turnover, and rarely do true freshman make a big impact. So typically you get, at most, 2 solid years out of your best guys. That's just the way it is.

You don't want freshmen, either, evidently, so you're basically saying you would like us to fill our pitching staffs with sophomores, juniors, and seniors who have come through the program. Well, your seniors are guys without big-time pro talent, and often, if a talented pitcher hasn't gotten a lot of opportunity by their sophomore or junior year, they're gone. You're also always having to make room for your new freshmen every year, so you have to bump some guys. We've had plenty of JUCO guys be really valuable for us recently, especially in the pen. You're always going to have to plug holes and try to find guys in the JUCO and grad transfer ranks, and you want your freshmen to be good enough to contribute.

So it sounds like you want something that's just incredibly rare.

We're just pieced together in the bullpen right now with very few guys that we've actually developed. It's a lot more rare to be built like that than what I'm talking about. I think it's a short term thing though because of our recent situation and based on how our recruiting numbers are looking going forward with who we have committed. We just missed on pitching recruits a couple of years and it has hurt us.

[Johnson85]

We're just pieced together in the bullpen right now with very few guys that we've actually developed. It's a lot more rare to be built like that than what I'm talking about. I think it's a short term thing though because of our recent situation and based on how our recruiting numbers are looking going forward with who we have committed. We just missed on pitching recruits a couple of years and it has hurt us.

SO do we have any intelligence on what our pitching is looking like?

Ginn is obviously a known quantity except for how much we can use him.

Any info on Cerentola? Is he at least looking like he has control in practice? Or was his only problem with control during the games last year?

Do we know if Price has fully recovered? Or did he lose some stuff that he is not getting back even though he's fully healed?

[Todd4State]

SO do we have any intelligence on what our pitching is looking like?

Ginn is obviously a known quantity except for how much we can use him.

Any info on Cerentola? Is he at least looking like he has control in practice? Or was his only problem with control during the games last year?

Do we know if Price has fully recovered? Or did he lose some stuff that he is not getting back even though he's fully healed?

Cerentola needs to work on his command still. I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up closing for us honestly.

Price looked good in his last outing. We'll see how he looks against life competition but promising so far.

[Rex54]

Cerentola needs to work on his command still. I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up closing for us honestly.

Price looked good in his last outing. We'll see how he looks against life competition but promising so far.

We don't need Mitch Williams closing. If he's wild he can't close. I'd say midweek him so he can develop as a starter and go deep, even if he's walking 4-5, because it should be against teams we can easily outslug

[Todd4State]

We don't need Mitch Williams closing. If he's wild he can't close. I'd say midweek him so he can develop as a starter and go deep, even if he's walking 4-5, because it should be against teams we can easily outslug

I agree. But I neglected to mention that Cerentola seems to maintain his command for an inning or so typically and then gets wilder as the game goes on. So I think he can maintain good command over a short outing.

[Homedawg]

I agree. But I neglected to mention that Cerentola seems to maintain his command for an inning or so typically and then gets wilder as the game goes on. So I think he can maintain good command over a short outing.

This is something you want to believe, not something that has been proven. He didn't get out of the first at least twice last year due to command. Had another that he didn't do much better. Yes, he had the two good outings at the end of the year, but the wilder as the game goes on has not been proven. Actually, he's either had it or he hasn't .

[Todd4State]

This is something you want to believe, not something that has been proven. He didn't get out of the first at least twice last year due to command. Had another that he didn't do much better. Yes, he had the two good outings at the end of the year, but the wilder as the game goes on has not been proven. Actually, he's either had it or he hasn't .

I'm talking about his time this summer with Team Canada, his summer league team, and the recent scrimmage moreso than last season.