Quick thoughts on Arlington series

[KOdawg1]

-HUGE start to the season. We're a hit away from being 3-0 vs. three of the top 10 teams in the country when two of our three weekend guys didn't pitch and 5 of our top 12 pitchers didn't even make the trip. There's not many teams in the country that you can give those circumstances to that would win one game, much less two. Gutsy performance by everyone this weekend.

-There's never been more pitching talent on an MSU team in our history. I mean, we've got double digit guys who can come out and pump 94+. That's what wins national championships. We saw it with Vandy two years ago. The talent on this staff is unreal. I thought Jackson Fristoe looked really good at times today and like a freshman at others. He's got electric stuff, he just needs to harness it a little. KC Hunt looked really good in the 8th. We've got to cut down on the free passes though. 18 walks and 4 HBPs in three games is ENTIRELY too much. Just cut those in half, and we'll be alright.

-Hitting was an adventure this weekend like I had a feeling it would be this year. Besides Rowdy, the top of the lineup was MIA. James and Allen will have to step it up, especially since we're a lefty heavy lineup. If it were up to me (and I know it's entirely too early to start tweaking with the lineup), I'd move Dubrule to leadoff, push Rowdy to 2nd, and bump James down to 7th. Scotty is a contact guy who will find a way on base, and Rowdy is showing that he has some pop, so you want guys on base with him up. The bottom of the order surprised the hell out of me though. Hatcher and Hancock had a helluva a series. What's encouraging about them is that they continued to rake regardless of the lefty-righty split. Landon Jordan had a good series, and I thought McGowan looked decent. Cumbest got a big hit today, but I still cringe when he bats. Still think he should drop football and focus on baseball, but I get football is paying his scholarship. This lineup isn't going to be the best in the SEC, but they have potential and I was encouraged by what I saw this weekend. Moving forward, it'll be interesting to see if we just forget about Pimentel, how Skinner changes things when he comes back, and if Kellum Clark gets any opportunities.

We're in for a fun year boys and gals. Buckle up and enjoy it.
HAIL STATE

[msbulldog]

-HUGE start to the season. We're a hit away from being 3-0 vs. three of the top 10 teams in the country when two of our three weekend guys didn't pitch and 5 of our top 12 pitchers didn't even make the trip. There's not many teams in the country that you can give those circumstances to that would win one game, much less two. Gutsy performance by everyone this weekend.

-There's never been more pitching talent on an MSU team in our history. I mean, we've got double digit guys who can come out and pump 94+. That's what wins national championships. We saw it with Vandy two years ago. The talent on this staff is unreal. I thought Jackson Fristoe looked really good at times today and like a freshman at others. He's got electric stuff, he just needs to harness it a little. KC Hunt looked really good in the 8th. We've got to cut down on the free passes though. 18 walks and 4 HBPs in three games is ENTIRELY too much. Just cut those in half, and we'll be alright.

-Hitting was an adventure this weekend like I had a feeling it would be this year. Besides Rowdy, the top of the lineup was MIA. James and Allen will have to step it up, especially since we're a lefty heavy lineup. If it were up to me (and I know it's entirely too early to start tweaking with the lineup), I'd move Dubrule to leadoff, push Rowdy to 2nd, and bump James down to 7th. Scotty is a contact guy who will find a way on base, and Rowdy is showing that he has some pop, so you want guys on base with him up. The bottom of the order surprised the hell out of me though. Hatcher and Hancock had a helluva a series. What's encouraging about them is that they continued to rake regardless of the lefty-righty split. Landon Jordan had a good series, and I thought McGowan looked decent. Cumbest got a big hit today, but I still cringe when he bats. Still think he should drop football and focus on baseball, but I get football is paying his scholarship. This lineup isn't going to be the best in the SEC, but they have potential and I was encouraged by what I saw this weekend. Moving forward, it'll be interesting to see if we just forget about Pimentel, how Skinner changes things when he comes back, and if Kellum Clark gets any opportunities.

We're in for a fun year boys and gals. Buckle up and enjoy it.
HAIL STATE

Thanks KO! +1

[BuckyIsAB****]

agree with everything but the cumbest part, he is a football player. I do not know him personally but his on the field production in baseball is not close to football.

He needs to pick one bc if he keeps doing both he will not get enough reps at either to hit his ceiling. Just my opinion

[Coach34]

Our arm talent is ridiculous. Today's Freshman has the talent to be our #1 in 2022 and 2023. What a live arm. Please stay healthy
James needs to slide in the order for a little while at least to see if he can relax some. I would flip him and Dubrule this week.
Hancock needs to slide to the 4 hole
Rowdy swings it well from the right side with some real pop
Sims is the best pitcher we have right now. If he develops a 3rd pitch halfway worth a damn watch out. He is dominant

As usual- a Super is expected and from there- let's see what happens

[somebodyshotmypaw]

Going to be a fun SEC season. With the COVID eligibility rules and the 5-round MLB draft, the product on the field in the SEC this year will be the best ever.

We just faced three good teams and won 2 of 3. Anybody would be happy with that. And we only had one of our SEC starters take the mound. Good weekend letting guys see great competition.

[Homedawg]

Our arm talent is ridiculous. Today's Freshman has the talent to be our #1 in 2022 and 2023. What a live arm. Please stay healthy
James needs to slide in the order for a little while at least to see if he can relax some. I would flip him and Dubrule this week.
Hancock needs to slide to the 4 hole
Rowdy swings it well from the right side with some real pop
Sims is the best pitcher we have right now. If he develops a 3rd pitch halfway worth a damn watch out. He is dominant

As usual- a Super is expected and from there- let's see what happens

Add that cade smith and Mikey tepper both have big time ability as fr.

[AlSwearengen]

I think McCowan showed signs of being a pretty decent hitter. He squared up quite a few balls against some pretty damn good pitching.

Our inexperience in spots showed at times. We get some of these young guys (field and pitchers) some experience and by the end of the year, we gonna be pretty good.

Our pitching is going to give the position players/hitters time to grow.

[parabrave]

One person we are forgetting about and the job he did is Coach Lemonis. Talking about making the right moves esp in a crisis situation, losing 2 starters, including one right before the game started and was one error and passed ball from going 3 and 0. He deserves coach of the week honors.

[Captain Falcon]

Don?t mistake this for one of our all time great batting orders, but we have enough guys to get the job done. Especially if pitching is what we think it can be.

I?d also continue to urge patience with this season. As good as this weekend was, we are still going to have some absolute knockdown drag outs in conference play, and we will probably lose a handful of series. The SEC is as loaded top to bottom as it?s ever been. Very real chance that when new the polls come out tomorrow 5 of the Top 6 or 7 are SEC teams.

We have developed a trend as a program in recent years that we play our best baseball in May and June. Just have to hope that trend continues. I agree with C34 that a Super should be the bare minimum expectation for us and then we will see what happens after that.

[parabrave]

Don?t mistake this for one of our all time great batting orders, but we have enough guys to get the job done. Especially if pitching is what we think it can be.

I?d also continue to urge patience with this season. As good as this weekend was, we are still going to have some absolute knockdown drag outs in conference play, and we will probably lose a handful of series. The SEC is as loaded top to bottom as it?s ever been. Very real chance that when new the polls come out tomorrow 5 of the Top 6 or 7 are SEC teams.

We have developed a trend as a program in recent years that we play our best baseball in May and June. Just have to hope that trend continues. I agree with C34 that a Super should be the bare minimum expectation for us and then we will. see what happens after that.

Remember baseball is a game of patience

[Todd4State]

Great post. Not a lot I would add.

We learned some things about our team and at the same time we have some question marks. What we learned was our team will scrap and fight and find ways to win. The question mark is what does our pitching staff really look like because not having Bednar and Cerentola as well several others out- we pitched some guys that may not pitch a lot for us during the year. Having Landon Sims and Brandon Smith is a luxury because it means we don't necessarily have to have a quality start every time out and because we have two quality arms that can go multiple innings we don't have to burn out Sims.

Spencer Price is a veteran closer who has been there and done that and can do a good job. Having Sims and Smith means we don't have to stretch him out beyond one inning.

Lovett and Hunt impressed me. Lovett looks like a legit set-up guy- and probably a future closer for us.

I'm guessing that we go Harding and Koestler midweek as kind of a two pitcher tandem and then pitch Fristoe or one of the other freshmen will pitch the second game if we have two midweek games.

One thing no one is talking about is we are missing Brayland Skinner. I think he would add another speed dimension to the lineup. Who knows how he is going to be when he comes back because wrist injuries are really tough for baseball players to come back from. It would be ideal if he can come back 100% and perform well but I'm not counting on it because of the injury he had.

I agree with everyone that wants to move Dubrule up and James down.

I'm pretty excited because of how we performed despite the short handed pitching staff and because of the quality of the opponents. I think Texas is going to be bad/below average. TCU and Texas Tech will probably be pretty solid teams. I'm curious to see how we do against Tulane because Cerentola and Bednar both should be back at that point. I think we'll have a lot better idea what our staff will actually look like this time next week. I hope we kick Jackson State's ass because they have that ungrateful asshole of a coach who got on ESPN and called us out because we donated some equipment to them to use after they lost a bunch of their's in a fire and said it was "the wrong color". The thing about playing a SWAC team is a lot of times their pitchers are wild and the key is to be patient at the plate and force them to throw meat. And be OK taking walks. Usually when a SEC team loses to a SWAC team it's because they're swinging at trash out of the zone and it results in weakly hit balls.

I think Logan Tanner is going to replace Ed Easley as the best catcher in MSU history. Guy is a special talent that is going to control the running game. That could especially be big if we have to play a team like Vanderbilt that likes to run.

Luke Hancock is going to be one of those guys that is a leader and probably a really good four year guy for us. He can play and you need guys like that on a college team. Rowdey and TA are the same types of players. Dubrule looks like an impact pick up as hoped. McGowan surprised me and he may end up winning the job outright if Skinner can't make it back.

We don't have Will Clark, Palmeiro, Rooker, etc on this team but I think we have enough offense. LHP looks like it could give us trouble- although I also think the guy TCU threw was a legit dude and not some average LHP. Hopefully we have enough pitching to where we can win our share against LHP.

I agree with other's assessment that we should be a SR team with a legit chance at Omaha. I think we have a really good chance to host a regional as well.

[StarkVegasSteve]

I'll add one more thought to what's been said, but the people out in Arlington did a hell of a job putting that tournament on. That's a world class stadium and they brought in some of the best teams in the country to play. But next time, maybe just get the SEC Network to do the broadcasting.

[KOdawg1]

I'll add one more thought to what's been said, but the people out in Arlington did a hell of a job putting that tournament on. That's a world class stadium and they brought in some of the best teams in the country to play. But next time, maybe just get the SEC Network to do the broadcasting.

Or even MLB Network since it's in an MLB stadium. They were playing classic games this weekend that no one watched.

[parabrave]

I'll add one more thought to what's been said, but the people out in Arlington did a hell of a job putting that tournament on. That's a world class stadium and they brought in some of the best teams in the country to play. But next time, maybe just get the SEC Network to do the broadcasting.

One good thing about that area of Arlington is that there are plenty of Hotels and restaurants within walking distance of the stadium.

[The Federalist Engineer]

I'll add one more thought to what's been said, but the people out in Arlington did a hell of a job putting that tournament on. That's a world class stadium and they brought in some of the best teams in the country to play. But next time, maybe just get the SEC Network to do the broadcasting.

Can we just book Arlington as the season Kick-Off site in mid February for the next 10-15 years.

Just invite TCU, Texas, Baylor, TTU, Oklahoma, Ok State, Rice, and Houston on a Rotating Basis for 3 game series.

Since, no MLB, it should be open and available, no?

Maybe MSU, Arkansas, and Texas A&M make it a permanent SEC vs BIG-12 tournament.

[Cowbell]

Great post. Not a lot I would add.

We learned some things about our team and at the same time we have some question marks. What we learned was our team will scrap and fight and find ways to win. The question mark is what does our pitching staff really look like because not having Bednar and Cerentola as well several others out- we pitched some guys that may not pitch a lot for us during the year. Having Landon Sims and Brandon Smith is a luxury because it means we don't necessarily have to have a quality start every time out and because we have two quality arms that can go multiple innings we don't have to burn out Sims.

Spencer Price is a veteran closer who has been there and done that and can do a good job. Having Sims and Smith means we don't have to stretch him out beyond one inning.

Lovett and Hunt impressed me. Lovett looks like a legit set-up guy- and probably a future closer for us.

I'm guessing that we go Harding and Koestler midweek as kind of a two pitcher tandem and then pitch Fristoe or one of the other freshmen will pitch the second game if we have two midweek games.

One thing no one is talking about is we are missing Brayland Skinner. I think he would add another speed dimension to the lineup. Who knows how he is going to be when he comes back because wrist injuries are really tough for baseball players to come back from. It would be ideal if he can come back 100% and perform well but I'm not counting on it because of the injury he had.

I agree with everyone that wants to move Dubrule up and James down.

I'm pretty excited because of how we performed despite the short handed pitching staff and because of the quality of the opponents. I think Texas is going to be bad/below average. TCU and Texas Tech will probably be pretty solid teams. I'm curious to see how we do against Tulane because Cerentola and Bednar both should be back at that point. I think we'll have a lot better idea what our staff will actually look like this time next week. I hope we kick Jackson State's ass because they have that ungrateful asshole of a coach who got on ESPN and called us out because we donated some equipment to them to use after they lost a bunch of their's in a fire and said it was "the wrong color". The thing about playing a SWAC team is a lot of times their pitchers are wild and the key is to be patient at the plate and force them to throw meat. And be OK taking walks. Usually when a SEC team loses to a SWAC team it's because they're swinging at trash out of the zone and it results in weakly hit balls.

I think Logan Tanner is going to replace Ed Easley as the best catcher in MSU history. Guy is a special talent that is going to control the running game. That could especially be big if we have to play a team like Vanderbilt that likes to run.

Luke Hancock is going to be one of those guys that is a leader and probably a really good four year guy for us. He can play and you need guys like that on a college team. Rowdey and TA are the same types of players. Dubrule looks like an impact pick up as hoped. McGowan surprised me and he may end up winning the job outright if Skinner can't make it back.

We don't have Will Clark, Palmeiro, Rooker, etc on this team but I think we have enough offense. LHP looks like it could give us trouble- although I also think the guy TCU threw was a legit dude and not some average LHP. Hopefully we have enough pitching to where we can win our share against LHP.

I agree with other's assessment that we should be a SR team with a legit chance at Omaha. I think we have a really good chance to host a regional as well.

Your first sentence and then you wrote a book lol - I'm jacking with you

[Cowbell]

Can we just book Arlington as the season Kick-Off site in mid February for the next 10-15 years.

Just invite TCU, Texas, Baylor, TTU, Oklahoma, Ok State, Rice, and Houston on a Rotating Basis for 3 game series.

Since, no MLB, it should be open and available, no?

Maybe MSU, Arkansas, and Texas A&M make it a permanent SEC vs BIG-12 tournament.

I agree 100% because it's 75 miles from my front door. Plus the weather isn't a factor.

[OLJWales]

Did cumbest get drafted out of high school? in what round?

[StarkVegasSteve]

Can we just book Arlington as the season Kick-Off site in mid February for the next 10-15 years.

Just invite TCU, Texas, Baylor, TTU, Oklahoma, Ok State, Rice, and Houston on a Rotating Basis for 3 game series.

Since, no MLB, it should be open and available, no?

Maybe MSU, Arkansas, and Texas A&M make it a permanent SEC vs BIG-12 tournament.

I wish we were going back next year. The 2022 field is less than impressive(Arizona, TTU, Michigan, OU, Auburn, and KState). They'll learn after next year that to have any kind of a crowd you're going to have to invite one or two of the big 4 fanbases(MSU, OM, Arky, LSU) every year. I doubt they average half of what they did this year and it'll be full capacity next year.

[Homedawg]

Did cumbest get drafted out of high school? in what round?

No, not that I recall.