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[CaptainObvious]

He lasted 2 innings against OM

Perfect! This is our guy!

[bigbub50]

Loftin was basically unhittable.

Opponents only hit .146 against him. Struck out 43 in 26 innings.

Only probably was the walks. 28 BB in 26 IP.

Cut those in half, and he's our ace.

I love your confidence in Mr. Loftin and I hope you?re right, but he did not face sec bats to my knowledge. Somebody help me, who was the best team Loftin faced? USM?

Also, didn?t he battle some type of injury mid season. Anybody know what his injury was and if he is okay now?

[bigbub50]

Another thought on Loftin and lo. If Loftin came in as the more polished pitching prospect and lo was seen as more of a position player talent that wanted to pitch, why did lemon trot lo out there on Friday nights and leave Loftin at midweek? Not trying to be a butt, just generally curious.

[CaptainObvious]

Another thought on Loftin and lo. If Loftin came in as the more polished pitching prospect and lo was seen as more of a position player talent that wanted to pitch, why did lemon trot lo out there on Friday nights and leave Loftin at midweek? Not trying to be a butt, just generally curious.

Here. I know! I know! ✋✋✋✋

Lemonis dint know his 🫏 from a hole in the top of a bucket! Or 🦊hall made ALL pitching decisions!

[KOdawg1]

I love your confidence in Mr. Loftin and I hope you?re right, but he did not face sec bats to my knowledge. Somebody help me, who was the best team Loftin faced? USM?

Also, didn?t he battle some type of injury mid season. Anybody know what his injury was and if he is okay now?

I never said I had confidence in Loftin. The walks are a concern and I never said he was going to solve it. Just said that if he could, he immediately becomes one of our best pitchers because the stuff is there.

[Cowbell]

What pisses me off is that every non-conference opponent we faced that was any good had a pitcher that would be as good as anyone on our staff. Why are we not going after those kids and getting them in the portal. How in the world do we not hustle and find those kids? I am convinced that Lemonis is lazy and it won't change until I see otherwise.

[Coach34]

What pisses me off is that every non-conference opponent we faced that was any good had a pitcher that would be as good as anyone on our staff. Why are we not going after those kids.

Oh really? Then how did we go 18-5 OOC this past season if those pitchers we faced were as good or better than ours?

[Todd4State]

What pisses me off is that every non-conference opponent we faced that was any good had a pitcher that would be as good as anyone on our staff. Why are we not going after those kids and getting them in the portal. How in the world do we not hustle and find those kids? I am convinced that Lemonis is lazy and it won't change until I see otherwise.

Then we would have fans complaining about not going after the big fish like we should because we're a blue blood.

[Todd4State]

Another thought on Loftin and lo. If Loftin came in as the more polished pitching prospect and lo was seen as more of a position player talent that wanted to pitch, why did lemon trot lo out there on Friday nights and leave Loftin at midweek? Not trying to be a butt, just generally curious.

Because Loo is a better pitching prospect than he is a hitting prospect. Both started out midweek until things started to happen. Loftin may have found himself there eventually but he got hurt so that ended that. Plus Loo was pitching better than Loftin early on. Loftin's last game was against Alabama April 7th and then he was done after that.

[Todd4State]

Yep. I?ll be surprised if he isn?t Mr Friday for us in 24

Or Saturday. They're kind of interchangeable in the SEC anyway.

[TNDawg35]

I love your confidence in Mr. Loftin and I hope you?re right, but he did not face sec bats to my knowledge. Somebody help me, who was the best team Loftin faced? USM?

Also, didn?t he battle some type of injury mid season. Anybody know what his injury was and if he is okay now?

He pitched against Bama didnt he in relief? I thought i remember him doing good, but got in some trouble due to walks.

[smootness]

I have never understood the talk of Loo at SS. He played it in HS and I am sure he hit well. But he has only ever been a prospect as a pitcher. I am not sure if some wanted to make excuses for his struggles last year or what, but no one has seen him as anything other than a future pitcher.

[basedog]

I think we fans are way too excited for young players to be stars after a few early games against teams that aren't in the Sec level. It takes time and some confidence especially young pitchers. I do think both Lo and Lofton will be ok. Pitching is a process over time for the majority.

[KOdawg1]

I have never understood the talk of Loo at SS. He played it in HS and I am sure he hit well. But he has only ever been a prospect as a pitcher. I am not sure if some wanted to make excuses for his struggles last year or what, but no one has seen him as anything other than a future pitcher.

He was drafted in the late rounds last year as a SS. Now, he would've been drafted higher as a P had he not told teams he was coming to school, but he was a pro prospect as a SS.

[the_real_MSU_is_us]

Yep. I’ll be surprised if he isn’t Mr Friday for us in 24

Loftin is our best odds of a stater from the big 3 Fr for sure, however he only faces one SEC team (Bama) and gave up 3ER in 2.1IP. Southern was the only other decent team he played and he gave up 3 ER in 4 IP.

He's got stuff but he still needs to improve. He's far and away the furthest along of the big 3 so you've gotta think he'll end up starting whether he's ready or not

The thing is I'd be excited about him if he was our Sunday starter. But as a Friday arm? Holman was the clear missing piece for the team and I don't think we'll be able to make up for it. Already relying on a lot of jumps from the returning guys just to fill out the bullpen alone

[Coach34]

A bullpen of Holcombe, Simmons, Auger, Dohm, Tapper, and Siary should be good enough for us.

[the_real_MSU_is_us]

Or Saturday. They're kind of interchangeable in the SEC anyway.

Friday and Saturday? No, they're not. We won the series Vs LSU because we conceded Friday. This next year, it will be our #1 vs their #1, etc. Big difference if Loftin is our #1 vs #2. Right now the Miami kid is our #1 so we better hope Loftin starts on Fr, as that would mean he took over the #1 spot. The Miami guy isn't a Fr starter imo.

[the_real_MSU_is_us]

A bullpen of Holcombe, Simmons, Auger, Dohm, Tapper, and Siary should be good enough for us.

If they progress and stay healthy? Yes. But for some guys it just never clicks, and there's always an injury to someone. We're going to be extremely thin at starting pitcher and asking Dohm to go 4 innings instead of 2 is a big difference. That's where Holman would have makes some flaws that will now have to be left on an island to sink or swim.

Dohm and Tapper and Siary got shelled in SEC play. Holcombe had a good opponent average but walked a ton, has to figure out control. Simmons and Auger are coming off major injury. Will some of them be good? Absolutely. Will they all improve dramatically/come back healthy and stay healthy? Almost certainly no.

PS- got Dohm as a Starter next year. Just not sure where starter #3 will come from. I got Loftin probably being a Starter, one of Loo or Holcombe as a midweek starter, and the other of those 2 not taking a step forward. Statistically that just seems likely. So the 3rd starter would be Dohm I guess

[Coach34]

If it was me?

Friday- Loftin
Saturday- Miami
Sunday- Holcombe

Middle relief- Simmons, Tapper, Siary, Dohm
Set-up- Auger
Closer- Loo

[the_real_MSU_is_us]

Going to add some stuff to your comment to make my point easier to read. I'm going to add their stats from last year and how many innings a weekend we can expect from these guys IF they take big, but possible steps:

If it was me?

Friday- Loftin (ERA of 8.08 vs the only 2 tournament teams he faced. Say he goes 5 IP next year)
Saturday- Miami (4.8 ERA. 6IP)
Sunday- Holcombe (8.25 ERA. 5IP)

Middle relief- Simmons (will be good if he comes back strong from injury. 4IP) , Tapper (.309 avg against. 2IP), Siary (7.07 ERA, .299 avg against. 2IP) , Dohm (already OK, will be good if he takes a step. 4IP)
Set-up- Auger (will be good of he comes back strong from injury. 2IP)
Closer- Loo (8.10 ERA due to control issues. 3IP)

I by my count, Dohm and Miami are the only 2 proven arms. Need 2/2 giys coming off injury to pick up where they left off. Need 3 guys to fix control issues (Loftin, Loo, Holcombe) and need 2 more to dramatically increase their swing and miss stuff to bring the average against down.

All to have a combined 33 innings of pitching BEFORE injuries. Add in 7ish innings from JuCo and Fr and we'd have enough for SEC play after injuries.

My issue with all this? The idea what everyone will all make a massive jump. My guess is guys like Tapper and Siary don't pan out, maybe a guy coming off injury can't perform, say Holcombe can't work out control issues and gets pulled in the 3rd every Sunday. My guess is we loose about 8-10 innings due to guys you're counting on not panning out.

We really needed a Portal stud. No other way to say it. That would free up 5-6 innings of bullpen work where things really get sketchy.