Do you feel better or worse about the baseball team now, compared to Thursday?

[Tbonewannabe]

Because you have to let guys figure stuff out early in the season. Can't kill a kids confidence game 2 in a 50+ game season.

Oh hey you walked a couple guys in your first game of the season. Forget ever pitching in another situation like that again but hey we still need you to just keep your chin up and do your best in these no leverage situations!

Kid deserves a couple more shots to see what he can do. Now if it's game 15 or 20 and this is still happening? Yeah sorry bud we've given you a fair shake. But game 2? No way.

We need Holcombe in order to maximize our potential as a team. I think we would all agree a really good Holcombe makes our team better. Can anyone really tell me after one game that Holcombe can't help us?

I sure can't.

Holcombe was missing in the same spot over and over. He shouldn't have went out in the 9th but should have definitely been pulled after the first walk. What does it help when you see he just doesn't have it that day to let him keep struggling?

[the_real_MSU_is_us]

That's the million dollar question to me. If he just makes a regional then what? My stance has and still stands at SR or go unless you win the SEC or SEC Tournament.

I could tell by the way he acted this weekend that he is feeling the heat.

Agreed 100% with your take. That's how it SHOULD be

However... we kept him after he missed Hover back to back years. Making a regional is a solid step forward. Would we really fire a coach that showed improvement? Right after we just bought out the football coach?

I fear that if we make a regional the same powers that brought him back after missing Hoover back to back will say "He's on the right path, give him another year". Then some on here will argue that we can't find a replacement coach anyway because "who'd want to work at a place that fires you after you improve the team and make a regional?"

[maroonmania]

Holcombe was missing in the same spot over and over. He shouldn't have went out in the 9th but should have definitely been pulled after the first walk. What does it help when you see he just doesn't have it that day to let him keep struggling?

That's my whole take on Holcombe. He had already shown in the 8th that he was struggling in that particular game with control. Maybe his control issues aren't fixed yet or maybe it was just pitching in cold weather or maybe something else. Doesn't mean he shouldn't get more chances down the line but I felt very uneasy when he came back out in the 9th. Not sure why the coaches didn't feel the say way? I personally didn't think he should have come back out in the 9th but why he was allowed to stay in after walking the leadoff hitter is truly beyond me? We currently need to secure every win possible over letting someone work out their issues in a one run ball game.

[Todd4State]

Agreed 100% with your take. That's how it SHOULD be

However... we kept him after he missed Hover back to back years. Making a regional is a solid step forward. Would we really fire a coach that showed improvement? Right after we just bought out the football coach?

I fear that if we make a regional the same powers that brought him back after missing Hoover back to back will say "He's on the right path, give him another year". Then some on here will argue that we can't find a replacement coach anyway because "who'd want to work at a place that fires you after you improve the team and make a regional?"

I'm honestly not sure what would happen. He's very much on the hot seat. The standards and expectations are higher here and they should be. Getting to a regional here isn't the same as it would be at say Auburn or Alabama. Arnett's buyout was pretty low and will not factor in this decision at all. His attitude is completely different this year than any other year so far- he's much more fiery in the dugout than normal. Has gotten on to umpires more and more.

I know you don't believe me but so far we have handled this the right way. You may not like it- but firing him last year would have led to a really bad situation and because we didn't fire him we were able to secure some key recruits that are now on campus and have now signed LOI's for next year. The powers that be understand that. It has allowed us to put ourselves in a great position for the next coach. It's not about the powers at be "liking Lemonis". It's about the powers at be making sure our program doesn't turn into Texas A&M football.

All comes down to how the season goes. Unless things go obviously sideways. More than likely if we have to fire Lemonis I could see it being framed more as a resignation than a firing. I wouldn't be completely shocked if he resigned anyway to tell you the truth. Seems like there are a lot of fans that just don't like Lemonis. Something goes wrong and he immediately gets jumped on and attacked. I think they want someone fiery like Vitello or someone who is super Christian like Justin Haire. But of course if we were to hire Vitello then fans would complain about how he yells at umpires and how the team acts on the field. Same as when everyone wanted Cohen as baseball coach until he was hired. And then the cussing at players was suddenly an issue.

[Todd4State]

That's my whole take on Holcombe. He had already shown in the 8th that he was struggling in that particular game with control. Maybe his control issues aren't fixed yet or maybe it was just pitching in cold weather or maybe something else. Doesn't mean he shouldn't get more chances down the line but I felt very uneasy when he came back out of the 9th. Not sure why the coaches didn't feel the say way? I personally didn't think he should have come back out in the 9th but why he was allowed to stay in after walking the leadoff hitter is truly beyond me? We currently need to secure every win possible over letting someone work out their issues in a one run ball game.

He was one of our best pitchers in scrimmages as a whole. And he is one of the more veteran guys as far as SEC experience goes. No one has really been able to answer who should have pitched there instead? At this point there are simply no obvious answers. That was Auger's first game coming back from an injury. I don't think that's the situation they wanted him in. Dohm is masquerading as a starting pitcher right now. Gavin Black looked good but was an unknown and his command wasn't super sharp and it looked like he had some nerves. Siary is a veteran but he had a rough outing the day before. We still don't know anything about Will Passeau or Logan Forsythe as far as what they can give us. Guys like Simmons, Loftin, and Kohn are injured so they weren't options.

I can't put it all on pitching or Holcombe though. Our baserunning was awful and we should have had more than two runs to start with.

[Coursesuper]

We've played three games in a 50 game schedule. If you think you have a grasp on exactly where this team is at the end of the year then you should be running out today an snapping up that winning lottery ticket. The only thing that I could tell was that for the most part we didn't pitch like 9 year old's, which is an improvement.

[basedog]

He was one of our best pitchers in scrimmages as a whole. And he is one of the more veteran guys as far as SEC experience goes. No one has really been able to answer who should have pitched there instead? At this point there are simply no obvious answers. That was Auger's first game coming back from an injury. I don't think that's the situation they wanted him in. Dohm is masquerading as a starting pitcher right now. Gavin Black looked good but was an unknown and his command wasn't super sharp and it looked like he had some nerves. Siary is a veteran but he had a rough outing the day before. We still don't know anything about Will Passeau or Logan Forsythe as far as what they can give us. Guys like Simmons, Loftin, and Kohn are injured so they weren't options.

I can't put it all on pitching or Holcombe though. Our baserunning was awful and we should have had more than two runs to start with.

I agree. Whole lot of difference in practice and game time. I've played and coached folks who were like two different folks when they got into a real game. Practice isn't intense nor have a crowd watching. Kinda like a speech class, some folks can relax and deliver their practice speech and some can't.

[KentuckyDawg13]

[basedog]

I feel better about this season moving forward, but like most I have no clue yet where we stand in the Sec, after all we are a "baseball school".

[CaptainObvious]

I just think Holcombe was used to getting a lot of swing and miss on off the plate pitches in high school and he continues to think nibbling just off the plate is his best approach. But a guy with his Velo needs to challenge hitters in the zone. They may lose one in the trees from time to time, but he needs to see he can get guys out by going right at em.

[The Federalist Engineer]

I understand that the collegiate strike zone has changed for pitcher advantage, somewhat. Not sure of the broadcast source, may have been Jay Powell.

We'll see in the numbers as the season moves along.

After this Air Force series, MSU has a 4:1 k to bb ratio. While using 16 pitchers. That's pretty good improvement over the 1.6:1 KK to BB ratio in 2023. By the way, 1/3 of all the team walks, were by Holcombe.

[Todd4State]

I just think Holcombe was used to getting a lot of swing and miss on off the plate pitches in high school and he continues to think nibbling just off the plate is his best approach. But a guy with his Velo needs to challenge hitters in the zone. They may lose one in the trees from time to time, but he needs to see he can get guys out by going right at em.

I doubt he was getting calls in the opposite batters box of the hitter in high school. LOL.

[Todd4State]

I agree. Whole lot of difference in practice and game time. I've played and coached folks who were like two different folks when they got into a real game. Practice isn't intense nor have a crowd watching. Kinda like a speech class, some folks can relax and deliver their practice speech and some can't.

Exactly. Unfortunately he didn't deliver this time.

[Quaoarsking]

A little worse again. Still not the end of the world, but every loss like this is a little hit on our RPI, which is not likely to be good to begin with, considering the fairly weak non-conference schedule.

[maroonmania]

Way worse now. Parker is doing his job and we STILL can't beat bad teams.

[DownwardDawg]

I felt a little worse Sunday than I did Thursday. Not much but a little. I liked the pitching this weekend but that's about it. I didn't see any grit and we still can't hit worth a crap. We are the same as the last 2 seasons.
After tonight, a little worse than yesterday. Not expecting any post season play but hopefully something drastic will happen. But the head coach is who he is.