The Portal and baseball

[The Federalist Engineer]

Next year is 9-months away but just making this observation...

(1) Stephens saved the MSU season.
(2) Holman and Jump were worth every penny for LSU, or they would have suffered a catastrophe season. Worse than MSU after 2021 and maybe worse than Auburn
(3) Montgomery made TAM a National Championship contender.

Had MSU been able to swing Holman and Montgomery. MSU would have won the SEC, shared with Tennessee and Kentucky. Hosted a regional. That close.

Next season, the ability to sign Holman, Montgomery, or Skenes will be much better. Imagine trying to sell Skenes on last place and Foxy. Imagine selling Holman after 2-horror seasons and a fired PC. With Montgomery, he did not like us for many reasons, everybody likes Austin's Taco and Selfie scene. But you are also a solid last place team.

If MSU can get 2 or 3 Stephens prospects and 1 glamour Skenes/Holman prospect, you are suddenly top-10. You can say that Justin Parker will find 4 or 5 ready dudes from Stevens, Pico, Ligon, Dotson, Loftin, Holcombe, Booth, O'Leary, Grant, Black, and Siary. You just need 6 or 7 total dudes for a college baseball season. You fix Holcombe, Stevens, Ligon, and Loftin you are very legit. I wonder if MSU gets Hardin back.

Lemons better get busy pulling the St Johns catcher. Lemons might even drag his nuts on Butch's Auburn or Bianco's roster. All those Foxed up Auburn pitchers may actually be stars with good coaching. Joseph Gonzalez was a big recruit, now a 10 ERA shell-shock patient. JT Quinn might call his dad for a path out-off Oxford, something like that.

[StarkVegasSteve]

Next year is 9-months away but just making this observation...

(1) Stephens saved the MSU season.
(2) Holman and Jump were worth every penny for LSU, or they would have suffered a catastrophe season. Worse than MSU after 2021 and maybe worse than Auburn
(3) Montgomery made TAM a National Championship contender.

Had MSU been able to swing Holman and Montgomery. MSU would have won the SEC, shared with Tennessee and Kentucky. Hosted a regional. That close.

Next season, the ability to sign Holman, Montgomery, or Skenes will be much better. Imagine trying to sell Skenes on last place and Foxy. Imagine selling Holman after 2-horror seasons and a fired PC. With Montgomery, he did not like us for many reasons, everybody likes Austin's Taco and Selfie scene. But you are also a solid last place team.

If MSU can get 2 or 3 Stephens prospects and 1 glamour Skenes/Holman prospect, you are suddenly top-10. You can say that Justin Parker will find 4 or 5 ready dudes from Stevens, Pico, Ligon, Dotson, Loftin, Holcombe, Booth, O'Leary, Grant, Black, and Siary. You just need 6 or 7 total dudes for a college baseball season. You fix Holcombe, Stevens, Ligon, and Loftin you are very legit. I wonder if MSU gets Hardin back.

Lemons better get busy pulling the St Johns catcher. Lemons might even drag his nuts on Butch's Auburn or Bianco's roster. All those Foxed up Auburn pitchers may actually be stars with good coaching. Joseph Gonzalez was a big recruit, now a 10 ERA shell-shock patient. JT Quinn might call his dad for a path out-off Oxford, something like that.

1. If we just sign Montgomery. Khal Stephen, yes that is STEPHEN. NO S. He was head and shoulders better than Holman and it isn't even close. If we sign Braden Montgomery, who was never coming here because he didn't want to play in MS, we would have been the overall number 1 seed. There's ZERO doubt.

2. We are always going to struggle to land that crown jewel prospect out of the portal. Unfortunately C34 is correct. Being a school in MS puts you behind the 8 ball, we have to blow people away with NIL offers to be able to get those kind of players.

3. The St. Johns catcher is not coming here to sit behind Ross Highfill.

4. We also need to be looking for pieces that FIT OUR TEAM. Now this year that is a little different because we need a lot, but we don't have unlimited funds. We have to be smart with the money we got. Dakota doesn't clear up as much as some people seem to believe. He had a national NIL deal with Adidas that paid him a pretty penny.

[Saltydog]

Next year is 9-months away but just making this observation...

(1) Stephens saved the MSU season.
(2) Holman and Jump were worth every penny for LSU, or they would have suffered a catastrophe season. Worse than MSU after 2021 and maybe worse than Auburn
(3) Montgomery made TAM a National Championship contender.

Had MSU been able to swing Holman and Montgomery. MSU would have won the SEC, shared with Tennessee and Kentucky. Hosted a regional. That close.

Next season, the ability to sign Holman, Montgomery, or Skenes will be much better. Imagine trying to sell Skenes on last place and Foxy. Imagine selling Holman after 2-horror seasons and a fired PC. With Montgomery, he did not like us for many reasons, everybody likes Austin's Taco and Selfie scene. But you are also a solid last place team.

If MSU can get 2 or 3 Stephens prospects and 1 glamour Skenes/Holman prospect, you are suddenly top-10. You can say that Justin Parker will find 4 or 5 ready dudes from Stevens, Pico, Ligon, Dotson, Loftin, Holcombe, Booth, O'Leary, Grant, Black, and Siary. You just need 6 or 7 total dudes for a college baseball season. You fix Holcombe, Stevens, Ligon, and Loftin you are very legit. I wonder if MSU gets Hardin back.

Lemons better get busy pulling the St Johns catcher. Lemons might even drag his nuts on Butch's Auburn or Bianco's roster. All those Foxed up Auburn pitchers may actually be stars with good coaching. Joseph Gonzalez was a big recruit, now a 10 ERA shell-shock patient. JT Quinn might call his dad for a path out-off Oxford, something like that.

Meh.....We didn't have a great portal haul after winning a NC.....We got Yeager and Jess Davis....Based on the past I see no reason to think we'll get anyone who will be able to turn this dumpster fire into an even average sec team next year.....Pitching could be decent but we still won't be able to hit.....

[HoopsDawg]

Lemonis better be thankful for the portal bc our roster is a mess. We are likely losing 8 of the 9 starters vs UVA. And possibly our top 7 arms.

I can't remember an MSU roster in worse shape.

[Tbonewannabe]

Pitching: Pico, Ligon (maybe), Loftin (if healthy), not sure who else can start. Pico has maybe Friday night stuff but probably more of a Saturday starter. Loftin and Ligon are both who knows what.

Hitting : Mershon hopefully is back and then Pulliam and Highfill. The rest is a complete question mark. I don't trust any of the big time freshman hitters that couldn't get on the field at DH this year. I also don't trust us to get enough out of the portal to make a Regional next year.

Added : forgot that Chance is back. Good enough to be on the field.

Parker is a dude with his development of that pitching staff into a legit SEC staff. Best coaching job in a long time. Remember, the 2022 staff was statistically the WORST in MSU history.

I don't trust Geautro with developing any hitters.

[Tbonewannabe]

Lemonis better be thankful for the portal bc our roster is a mess. We are likely losing 8 of the 9 starters vs UVA. And possibly our top 7 arms.

I can't remember an MSU roster in worse shape.

Yep and if we somehow lose Mershon then we are replacing pretty much almost our entire offense.

[StarkVegasSteve]

Pitching: Pico, Ligon (maybe), Loftin (if healthy), not sure who else can start. Pico has maybe Friday night stuff but probably more of a Saturday starter. Loftin and Ligon are both who knows what.

Hitting : Mershon hopefully is back and then Pulliam and Highfill. The rest is a complete question mark. I don't trust any of the big time freshman hitters that couldn't get on the field at DH this year. I also don't trust us to get enough out of the portal to make a Regional next year.

Added : forgot that Chance is back. Good enough to be on the field.

Parker is a dude with his development of that pitching staff into a legit SEC staff. Best coaching job in a long time. Remember, the 2022 staff was statistically the WORST in MSU history.

I don't trust Geautro with developing any hitters.

Pitching: Mikhai Grant is back who would've been a weekend starter for us this year had he not gotten hurt. Pico is back and fully healthy. Siary, Cheatham, Dohm(only a JR so a possibility), Hardin, Black, Ligon, Loftin(maybe), Stevens(depending on what they do with him). That's not an empty cupboard. We need some pieces definitely, but not empty

Hitting: Mershon(unlikely but possible), Hines(a little more possible), Downs, Cupp, Chester, Highfill, O'Brien, Stevens, Chance, Pulliam, McKenzie. We have some work to do in the portal there no doubt. But again, not bare.

We will just have to see. We get an early jump on the portal guys and we need to take advantage of it.

[StateDawg44]

We get an early jump on the portal guys and we need to take advantage of it.

I have zero confidence that Lemo will do anything with the slight head start he's earned himself. Still, a lot of time to pass and players to hop in the portal the next few weeks but as many holes as we need to fill.... there's got to be some players already in the portal that would benefit us.

I also keep seeing people say we need to be shopping for power. Hell, we need to be shopping for contact and just simply slapping the ball in the gap as much as we need power.

[StarkVegasSteve]

I have zero confidence that Lemo will do anything with the slight head start he's earned himself. Still, a lot of time to pass and players to hop in the portal the next few weeks but as many holes as we need to fill.... there's got to be some players already in the portal that would benefit us.

I also keep seeing people say we need to be shopping for power. Hell, we need to be shopping for contact and just simply slapping the ball in the gap as much as we need power.

Agreed 100%. You definitely need the power, but you also need the guys who can get doubles and triples for you. That's why I added those names to the transfer portal thread. Those are guys we need to $$convince$$ to jump in the portal

[Todd4State]

The only player I would take from Ole Miss is Andrew Fisher.

[Cooterpoot]

I'm guessing Downs and Chance are the only possible starters back from the position/DH players yesterday. Highfill should be back. Cupp I assume is back. Stevens should be back. After that, it's a huge nothing unless Spalitta, OBrien, McKenzie really make massive jumps.
Pitching gets back Grant and I'd think Pico is back and then you've got the Black and a couple others possibly back (lots of iffy there).
We'll need to blow massive NIL on a roster this year and we're about to begin a steady cycle of it too. It's going to be interesting to say the least.

[StarkVegasSteve]

The only player I would take from Ole Miss is Andrew Fisher.

I would take Luke Hill

[HoopsDawg]

We are looking at something like:

LF: Chance
CF: Portal
RF: Portal

C: Highfill/Powell
1B: Stevens
2B: Pulliam
SS: Cupp
3B: Portal
DH: McKenzie/Portal

Weekend rotation:
1.Pico-hopefully
2. Portal
3. Portal

Not going to pencil in guys coming off arm injuries

Not a great freshman class coming in bc this is the class that had so many decommit after 2022 season. Nori would start in CF but he's a likely draft pick.

A whole lot of work to be done. And it's not like other schools aren't recruiting the portal too. DVH has already said he's going after Outfielders.

[Coach34]

Meh.....We didn't have a great portal haul after winning a NC.....We got Yeager and Jess Davis....Based on the past I see no reason to think we'll get anyone who will be able to turn this dumpster fire into an even average sec team next year.....Pitching could be decent but we still won't be able to hit.....

We didnt go hard in the portal after the Natty. One thing I've criticized Lemon on is his allegiance to guys he has recruited over portal guys.

Thats got to change

[Coach34]

Guys acting like our freshman suck need to remember Hunter Renfroe batted about .160 as a freshman

[Coach34]

Pitching: Pico, Ligon (maybe), Loftin (if healthy), not sure who else can start. Pico has maybe Friday night stuff but probably more of a Saturday starter. Loftin and Ligon are both who knows what.

Hitting : Mershon hopefully is back and then Pulliam and Highfill. The rest is a complete question mark. I don't trust any of the big time freshman hitters that couldn't get on the field at DH this year. I also don't trust us to get enough out of the portal to make a Regional next year.

Added : forgot that Chance is back. Good enough to be on the field.

Parker is a dude with his development of that pitching staff into a legit SEC staff. Best coaching job in a long time. Remember, the 2022 staff was statistically the WORST in MSU history.

I don't trust Geautro with developing any hitters.

Is Downs leaving? People seem to forget he batted about .290 this year and hit .400 in the Regional

[Saltydog]

Didn't Highfill have TJ surgery. If so, I wouldn't pencil him in anywhere.

[BrunswickDawg]

Guys acting like our freshman suck need to remember Hunter Renfroe batted about .160 as a freshman

I think this issue is that too many of them are unknowns. Renfroe was at least known from his HS prowess where as a lot of the freshman who didn't play much are from out of state.
I will say, if he stays, Luke Dotson was a dominate HS pitcher in GA and I think he can make jump.

[Tbonewannabe]

Is Downs leaving? People seem to forget he batted about .290 this year and hit .400 in the Regional

Forgot to mention Downs, he did pretty well in the regional but was on the bench for most of the year. Not sure if I remember correctly but it seems like he had a high strikeout percentage along with no extra base hits.

We have Mershon (the guy that drives the offense), Chance who almost everyone agrees is a SEC bench player or at best platoon guy, Downs (outfielder with no power), Highfill (coming off injury but is at least a quality SEC starter), Pulliam (decent freshman year), Cupp (all defense but couldn't hit shit OOC pitching).

Outside of Mershon, not sure if we have anyone that would start for an SEC team, maybe Highfill.

[Young dawg]

In the portal we need to focus on getting some dirtbags. For example everyone love watching Mershon because of the way that he grinds out at bats and plays great defense. He is also a threat on the base paths. He is a guy that finds a way to make things happen if you can find 9 guys that grind out at bats and play solid defense and hopefully make some things happens on the bases it doesn?t matter what level you are playing at you are going to be hard to beat.