My reasoning for my position change on Lemon

[Coach34]

While I dont agree with some of the things Lemon does like screwing up Dakota Jordan the 1st half the season or not making Hugesak a 3rd baseman and cutting the cancer out of the team, or why we didnt have an SEC level SS- my biggest issues with the program centered around pitching. Pitching decisions, pitch-calling, pitching recruiting, not having guys heated and ready when we should. Those have been glaring issues since he and Fox got to town.

That has looked different since Fox was let go. The pitch-calling improved and was more FB friendly. We started challenging hitters at their hands more. Fewer instances of 6 or 7 straight breaking balls. Going to the pen quicker. Chewing a little ass on mound visits. Just looked better run the last 3 weeks.

We battled after the UPig series. We hustled- plays like Highfill hustling on the dropped flyball the other days. We took a series from LSU. We nearly took one from A&M.

We have to fix the pitching- period and this team will be back next season competing in the top 20 again. We have some good young talent with more coming in along with some injured guys returning. Need 4 quality guys from the portal and then a couple more for depth.

C- Highfill
1B- Hines
2B- Mershon
SS- Freshman or portal
3B- ??? (I'd work to put Hugesak here if he'll stay)
LF- ???? (Hugesak possibly here)
CF- Jordan
RF- ????

Fri- Simmons
Sat- Loo
Sun- Loftin or Holcombe
Midweek- Siary

Dohm
Auger
Tapper
Gartman (could return if not drafted)
No idea about Gibbs or Miller who didnt pitch this year
Forsythe
Freshman signee that surprises

Need a couple of impact guys out of the portal on the field and on the hill

Team could be pretty good with the right pieces added

[the_real_MSU_is_us]

I see 3 issues:

1) this game can be played for every sport in every season. "We have A and B returning, so if C takes a step forward we just need to find D from somewhere!" and then in reality B gets hurt and C doesn't take that step and D never gets found and ABCD combines to be the worst position group on the team.

2) your list of pitchers relies a LOT on guys taking steps forward. The entire week's rotation is guys who are coming off TJ or can't get through 2 innings of SEC play today. That's a lot of big steps forward to become serviceable starters. But the Portal can flip a team in no time so we may put together a rotation that way.

3) Lemonis has flaws in other areas. First he makes some... interesting roster decisions. For example he expected Hancock to play C this season. 2 years on the roster and Lemo never noticed he had a weak arm, or thought to actually see his arm at catcher. He just said "We have hancock, no need to pursue a transfer!". SO going into next season, I can't trust him to evaluate our RF options, or evaluate our 3B options, etc. Moreover our defense is league worst this season. These can't be blamed on FOx.

Overall, I recognize he may bounce back next year, that we can't find anyone decent to replace him, that we don't have the $6m to replace him, whatever. Keeping Lemo might be what we have to do, and it may even be the right call. But I doubt it is. You dont' miss Hoover back to back and still get to claim to be a good coach, anymore than a football coach that goes 4-8 back to back seasons can.

[EdwardDrayton]

Well, then we should at least fire whoever chose to hang on to the pitching doofus way too long. That'll work for me. ****

[civildawg]

Agreed. I can?t believe we are sticking with him. I don?t even follow baseball that closely but to be a supposed blue blood in baseball, we sure don?t seem to be acting like it. I also hate how the goalposts always move when it comes to MSU fan expectations. Say he has to improve after last year then he doesn?t improve and it?s oh well we fired the pitching coach so he should get another year. Mind blowing

[KOdawg1]

C- Highfill
1B- Hines
2B- Mershon
SS- Cupp
3B- LH Transfer
LF- Chance
CF- Jordan
RF- Hujsak/LH transfer

[EdwardDrayton]

Agreed. I can?t believe we are sticking with him. I don?t even follow baseball that closely but to be a supposed blue blood in baseball, we sure don?t seem to be acting like it. I also hate how the goalposts always move when it comes to MSU fan expectations. Say he has to improve after last year then he doesn?t improve and it?s oh well we fired the pitching coach so he should get another year. Mind blowing

Last. Next to last. Head coach is responsible. A third time to try and fix it?!!? Hmmmmm.

[Goldendawg]

I see 3 issues:

1) this game can be played for every sport in every season. "We have A and B returning, so if C takes a step forward we just need to find D from somewhere!" and then in reality B gets hurt and C doesn't take that step and D never gets found and ABCD combines to be the worst position group on the team.

2) your list of pitchers relies a LOT on guys taking steps forward. The entire week's rotation is guys who are coming off TJ or can't get through 2 innings of SEC play today. That's a lot of big steps forward to become serviceable starters. But the Portal can flip a team in no time so we may put together a rotation that way.

3) Lemonis has flaws in other areas. First he makes some... interesting roster decisions. For example he expected Hancock to play C this season. 2 years on the roster and Lemo never noticed he had a weak arm, or thought to actually see his arm at catcher. He just said "We have hancock, no need to pursue a transfer!". SO going into next season, I can't trust him to evaluate our RF options, or evaluate our 3B options, etc. Moreover our defense is league worst this season. These can't be blamed on FOx.

Overall, I recognize he may bounce back next year, that we can't find anyone decent to replace him, that we don't have the $6m to replace him, whatever. Keeping Lemo might be what we have to do, and it may even be the right call. But I doubt it is. You dont' miss Hoover back to back and still get to claim to be a good coach, anymore than a football coach that goes 4-8 back to back seasons can.

Have to spread rep around before repping you again.

[Cooterpoot]

17 Lemonis

[magrooder]

If Lemonis stays, I hope he gets it turned around and is the guy we need. I just don't see it happening tho and would prefer to move on.

[EdwardDrayton]

If Lemonis stays, I hope he gets it turned around and is the guy we need. I just don't see it happening tho and would prefer to move on.

Exactly. Didn't we give him this year to fix it after dead last the previous season. Is next to last a turnaround?!!? Why would we think a third time will be the magic?!!?

[Pancho]

I wonder if Selmon will have to let him go about mid April of 24 now.

[Quaoarsking]

Most competent coaches would have had us better in 2022 and 2023, and they probably would in 2024 too. We don't have anything to lose by replacing him and trying to do better.

[SPMT]

Most competent coaches would have had us better in 2022 and 2023, and they probably would in 2024 too. We don't have anything to lose by replacing him and trying to do better.

I agree. I mean FSU fired Martin Jr and he didn?t have a losing record and was .500 or above in conference. Fired him basically after 2 year basically.

We don?t know how to handle success because we?ve never really had it in any sport until now.

Hopefully, he gets it together to at minimum make a regional next year.

For sure we are a blue blood, but we are Nebraska football right now.

[confucius say]

Again. We're not paying 6 million dollars to get rid of a staff plus another couple million to buy out the contract of whatever staff we would hire in a non-revenue sport.

[Todd4State]

I agree. I mean FSU fired Martin Jr and he didn?t have a losing record and was .500 or above in conference. Fired him basically after 2 year basically.

We don?t know how to handle success because we?ve never really had it in any sport until now.

Hopefully, he gets it together to at minimum make a regional next year.

For sure we are a blue blood, but we are Nebraska football right now.

Would you care to look at Florida State's record right now?

Going 23-31 for those who don't have time to look it up is hardly a ringing endorsement on going that route.

[Quaoarsking]

Again. We're not paying 6 million dollars to get rid of a staff plus another couple million to buy out the contract of whatever staff we would hire in a non-revenue sport.

You're just making up numbers now. 2 million to buy out whom?

[Todd4State]

I see 3 issues:

1) this game can be played for every sport in every season. "We have A and B returning, so if C takes a step forward we just need to find D from somewhere!" and then in reality B gets hurt and C doesn't take that step and D never gets found and ABCD combines to be the worst position group on the team.

2) your list of pitchers relies a LOT on guys taking steps forward. The entire week's rotation is guys who are coming off TJ or can't get through 2 innings of SEC play today. That's a lot of big steps forward to become serviceable starters. But the Portal can flip a team in no time so we may put together a rotation that way.

3) Lemonis has flaws in other areas. First he makes some... interesting roster decisions. For example he expected Hancock to play C this season. 2 years on the roster and Lemo never noticed he had a weak arm, or thought to actually see his arm at catcher. He just said "We have hancock, no need to pursue a transfer!". SO going into next season, I can't trust him to evaluate our RF options, or evaluate our 3B options, etc. Moreover our defense is league worst this season. These can't be blamed on FOx.

Overall, I recognize he may bounce back next year, that we can't find anyone decent to replace him, that we don't have the $6m to replace him, whatever. Keeping Lemo might be what we have to do, and it may even be the right call. But I doubt it is. You dont' miss Hoover back to back and still get to claim to be a good coach, anymore than a football coach that goes 4-8 back to back seasons can.

1. We don't know what will happen but at a minimum we will be very strong up the middle next year with Highfill, Mershon, Cupp, and Dakota Jordan. Teams that are typically good are strong up the middle. We know Hines is a 20 home run guy as well and Chance appears to be a quality player who should be better. Improving a team ERA of 7 is hardly unrealistic as well. Lemonis has hit pretty good in the portal on position players- Dubrule, Yeager, Larry, and Ledbetter to name a few.

2. I don't think most of our fans fathom how bad Foxhall was. If we can improve our team ERA to five which is still not very good but significantly better than this year then we will easily be in a regional. Foxhall was essentially Lemonis's Peter Sirmon. Which is a lot more relevant comparison compared to the Moorhead comps. If our rotation next year is Loo, Loftin, and Holcombe that would be three top 200 MLB draft prospects in our rotation alone. Our fans don't think someone average as a pitching coach even could do something with that? Not to mention Dohm coming back. And by the way- having a winning record with an ERA of 7 and setting a school record for walks by a mile is unheard of. And actually in a morbid way kind of impressive.

3. Hancock had not had any problems before this year. And it's not like Highfill didn't get better as the season went on. A lot of those stolen bases early on were on our pitchers not holding the runners on. So yeah- even that is on Foxhall. We made 65 errors as a team this year 28 of those were by two players alone. Seems like an easy fix- in fact Lane Forsythe won't be back from what I've heard. So there goes 15 right there. I haven't heard anything about Alford yet although there are rumors he will enter the portal. But at the same time I wouldn't be shocked if we bring him back and see if he can improve while bringing in a UTL type INF that profile at third if he can't figure it out. He may be a douchebag but he also got some of our biggest hits this year too. None of us are around the team but losing can turn people into assholes sometimes. Essentially he's our Roger Dorn.

[Todd4State]

You're just making up numbers now. 2 million to buy out whom?

He's talking about whoever the new staff would be. And he's not only talking about the head coach- that's likely a pitching coach, a hitting coach and then the two other MISC. coaches that everyone has. Sure it may be lower but again- it's money spent. And on top of that it doesn't what we would have to pay them to be our coaches as well.

[CaptainObvious]

Again. We're not paying 6 million dollars to get rid of a staff plus another couple million to buy out the contract of whatever staff we would hire in a non-revenue sport.

Who is We?re?

You nor I know who has the pockets deep enough to pay a big chunk of a buyout and limit the financial damage to the program. Nobody has a right to tell someone what to spend their money on and if a few boosters choose Coach buyouts over NIL or BC, that is their prerogative. Don?t come back and say that is a poor decision. The money is not any of yours to earmark. Let?s see what happens in the next few of days.

[maroonmania]

Whatever, I'm pretty much checked out on baseball for now. Looking much more forward to football and basketball season for the next school year. Ridiculous that after 3 straight trips to Omaha that our coaching staff let the program fall to this anemic level.