Thoughts on the opener?

[preachermatt83]

Cohen said Fitts tomorrow

I look for fitts to be a very solid weekend starter for us

[State82]

Lol at anybody who thought we would have an undefeated season, let alone sweep this series. I saw this coming when I saw that we were going to open against WCU instead of Hofstra. I think we will look different tomorrow and have some good hitting with a start at 4 and temps in the 60's.

Speaking of weather, NWS now says high tomorrow of 48 with 5-10 mph winds. Not so comfortable after all. Paging Ref for some clarification.

[Todd4State]

it all boils down to 3 things to me...

1. Woody was off.. why ? I don't know. I tend to agree with I seen it dawg here. I think he was just overthrowing.. adrenaline and nerves combined with a year off is not a good recipe. I may be wrong. He could never get back his accuracy but hopefully he will be fine.

2) Null is a really really good pitcher. As soon as he comes out we come alive at the plate. That is not a coincidence.

3) There is no way our heads were right completely. I mean we had fully scouted and planed to play Hofstra up until 2 days ago. That goes a long way in an opening series.


all that said, I think we win the next two and oh by the way, Ross Mitchell did Ross Mitchell things.. That dude is unreal.

1. Woody needs to step up. Dead horse. But I'm tired of Devin Jones, Lindgren, etc. not living up to their potential causing us to tax our bullpen and moving people around. It's ridiculous.

2. Yep.

3. They had just as much time to scout us AND they had to travel from the Smoky Mountains. You have to come to the ballpark prepared to play no matter what. And I don't think we were unprepared- we had too many walks and HBP and gave them two runs because our pitcher felt the need to prove that he is Sandy Koufax. We gave them runs. And then you combine that with a good pitcher on their side- you can't do that and win a lot of baseball games against anyone in any league. I mean, Ross's head was certainly in the game. CT's head was in the game. Same for everyone else. We shut them down pretty much aside from the first inning.

[mstatefan91]

Speaking of weather, NWS now says high tomorrow of 48 with 5-10 mph winds. Not so comfortable after all. Paging Ref for some clarification.

Damn. Was looking forward to some comfortable weather after tonight.

[Todd4State]

True but I mean do you really have to do much scouting when you have a guy that can throw 100 pitches plus on opening day and be lights out?

Unless you have Sandy Koufax and can throw 100 MPH fastballs with movement and locate it, then yes you do have to scout.

[preachermatt83]

Unless you have Sandy Koufax and can throw 100 MPH fastballs with movement and locate it, then yes you do have to scout.

haha. The guy tonight looked like Koufax for 8 innings . we will be fine. guarantee you we win the next two. We just ran into a heck of a pitcher on opening day.

[bully99]

Final St. Louis 2 Alabama 1

[Coach34]

Way too much analyzing going on

1. Their Ace was ready to go tonight and was on
2. Ours was not

[RAYn_Man]

C- Garner
1B- Rea
2B- Pirtle
3B- Humphries
SS- Britton
LF- Robson
CF- CT
RF- Gavin Collins
DH- Detz

Gavin Collins is a catcher...while we're at it, why don't we put Wes Rea at SS

[BLC]

A couple thoughts from the game. One, it's just one game - no big deal. I was very impressed with the post-game thoughts by the players. Very grounded and they understand and have the experience to get them to the promised land. They know this game was no big deal. Second, I was surprised by who pinch hit, etc. too (this notion about freshman not being ready for college ball is not valid anymore - check the box scores from around the country), but was really surprised by our lack of aggressiveness. We played for the big hit on a cold night in a big park against a legit arm. Against pitchers like Null, you have to push the envelope, and we didn't. Make that giant field his position!

Didn't try one theft attempt, including the situation when Britton was on 1st with two outs and Vick swings at the first pitch. I thought all their pitchers were really readable and I thought we could grab some bags, particularly late in the game. We did nothing to get them out of their comfort zone, save for stepping out of the box a few times.

At any rate, the horses are out of the gate. I expect State to roll the next two games and have fun doing it. The great thing is, we've got tons of depth. Lots of chances for guys to contribute.

[Todd4State]

Gavin Collins is a catcher...while we're at it, why don't we put Wes Rea at SS

Catcher is his primary position. He can play RF/3B/DH as well. And "while we're at it" it's totally unheard of for a catcher to play the outfield- like Hunter Renfroe did. In fact, there is a better than average chance Collins moves if we get Vallot.

[JohnnyQuid]

If he continues to be our #1 starter im concerned. He looks EXACTLY like he did against valley last year when he couldnt get out of the first. 0-2 HBP, walk , hit, walk etc etc. It's a terrible cycle. The kid is a prospect so they say, but ross mitchell makes him look like shit and throws the ball 85 mph. anyone who evaluates based on MPH should be ****ing institutionalized. if you throw 95 and cant get a single mf'er out, it's an issue. evanmitchell v2.0.\

You can sit back and try to justify this loss as its good for the club, it will ground us etc etc. This is a game we should win with a real friday night guy that doesnt put us behind the 8-ball from the first inning. Give one of the other guys (sat sun) a shot a friday, or give a freshman a shot (dakota etc). They can't do any ****ing worse than woody did.

I just wish we stopped getting pumped about these guys (OMFG THIS GUY IS A DIFF PLAYER AFTER THIS BLAH BLAH BLAH). If nothing changes nothing changes. Woody may be a great kid, but a friday starter he is not. I see the same subpar shit from last year - HBP and walks - THAT SHIT WILL KILL YOU. Maybe its mental.

[JohnnyQuid]

Didn't try one theft attempt, including the situation when Britton was on 1st with two outs and Vick swings at the first pitch.

Even when we have speed on the bases we rarely attempt (last year go back and look). It's a troublesome stat.

[Todd4State]

A couple thoughts from the game. One, it's just one game - no big deal. I was very impressed with the post-game thoughts by the players. Very grounded and they understand and have the experience to get them to the promised land. They know this game was no big deal. Second, I was surprised by who pinch hit, etc. too (this notion about freshman not being ready for college ball is not valid anymore - check the box scores from around the country), but was really surprised by our lack of aggressiveness. We played for the big hit on a cold night in a big park against a legit arm. Against pitchers like Null, you have to push the envelope, and we didn't. Make that giant field his position!

Didn't try one theft attempt, including the situation when Britton was on 1st with two outs and Vick swings at the first pitch. I thought all their pitchers were really readable and I thought we could grab some bags, particularly late in the game. We did nothing to get them out of their comfort zone, save for stepping out of the box a few times.

At any rate, the horses are out of the gate. I expect State to roll the next two games and have fun doing it. The great thing is, we've got tons of depth. Lots of chances for guys to contribute.

That's because when you are behind, you don't want to risk running yourself out of an inning. That's why we didn't run or try anything. That's another reason getting behind hurt us- if it's a tie game we probably try to do something with CT on or late in the game. When you are behind you want base runners.

Pitchers know that too- and they take liberties if they can.

And if you do run in those situations, you better make it. Otherwise the coach is going to feel like an ass and probably have to answer a question from the media about it after the game.

Some people have these unwritten rules about "you don't steal this base with two outs" or whatever- but my personal rule has always been if you steal a base, make sure that you make it.

[Todd4State]

Even when we have speed on the bases we rarely attempt (last year go back and look). It's a troublesome stat.

Yep. And there's two reasons for it:

1) Our faster guys are not great base runners/base stealers.

2) We had more power last year.

[Todd4State]

If he continues to be our #1 starter im concerned. He looks EXACTLY like he did against valley last year when he couldnt get out of the first. 0-2 HBP, walk , hit, walk etc etc. It's a terrible cycle. The kid is a prospect so they say, but ross mitchell makes him look like shit and throws the ball 85 mph. anyone who evaluates based on MPH should be ****ing institutionalized. if you throw 95 and cant get a single mf'er out, it's an issue. evanmitchell v2.0.\

You can sit back and try to justify this loss as its good for the club, it will ground us etc etc. This is a game we should win with a real friday night guy that doesnt put us behind the 8-ball from the first inning. Give one of the other guys (sat sun) a shot a friday, or give a freshman a shot (dakota etc). They can't do any ****ing worse than woody did.

I just wish we stopped getting pumped about these guys (OMFG THIS GUY IS A DIFF PLAYER AFTER THIS BLAH BLAH BLAH). If nothing changes nothing changes. Woody may be a great kid, but a friday starter he is not. I see the same subpar shit from last year - HBP and walks - THAT SHIT WILL KILL YOU. Maybe its mental.

I'll give him a pass on Valley since we know he had a broken arm that he was throwing with last year. What's odd to me is he looked pretty good in scrimmages- and then he lays this turd burger down tonight. He has pitched and pitched well in big games before- SEC Tournament Championship Game. I can't figure it out, and it's just disappointing. He'll start against Holy Cross and if he does this again, I wouldn't waste a lot of time with him.

Heck, I might put him in the batting cage and see if he can hit since he came to us as an P/OF. Hopefully he'll turn it around.

[C222]

I wouldn't read much into this game. The weather sucked. It's really hard to hit when it's cold. The pitcher has a huge advantage.

You don't think we should cut some people and go get 4 hitters??