**Mississippi State vs. Rice - Game Thread**

[Coach34]

The fact Downs isn?t an everyday player is what drives me nuts about Lemonis. Kid is producing and you have him on bench. Get his tail in lineup

He and Stallman both gonna play. Platoon in LF

[Coach34]

Absolutely enjoyed it. Just wouldn't use this result to vindicate Gotro. Let's see what we do the next 2 days.

nothing done this weekend will vindicate GoTro good or bad

[Commercecomet24]

Frei and Stevens need to be on the field every day.

100%! Plug and play and let em rake.

[Commercecomet24]

He and Stallman both gonna play. Platoon in LF

I dont mind this one bit either. They're both producing and they're being put in positions to have success. Beneficial for us and them.

[Lord McBuckethead]

Kind of feel like Hines needs to give back his NIL money. Dude had 3 Ks looking and a fourth that looked just as bad swinging Tuesday. Not to mention, he rolled over a soft chopper to first. 0-5 with 4Ks. I think he alone left like 8 runners on base.

[Lord McBuckethead]

We pumped a lot of NIL money into the kid and he refuses to adjust. Some may call it ?rest?, I call it benching. If you refuse to adjust when for two years in a row you keep trying to pull everything and guess at pitches you need to be benched.

Lemonis had all fall and spring to see where this was gonna go. Should?ve had an open competition at the corner instead of playing the kid he felt obligated to play because of NIL influencers.

Maybe NIL should be based on who gets the position? Like some small contract language that says you take a 80% cut if you don't win the position?

[Lord McBuckethead]

So when our team hits poorly, blame Gotro. When the team puts 14 runs on the board, can use this result to vindicate Gotro. Got it.
Simple fact they sat Hines after his fantastic 0-5 with 4k day against Troy, that reflects on Gotro? It isn't his fault Hines tries to pull every single pitch he sees and is guessing on what is coming next.

[The Federalist Engineer]

Proud of Lemons today

Makes a big move and he shows the team he is the boss.

He just needs to consult us here ED

Frei needs to play, Stevens needs to play and now get Buckner in the game. Sawyer did alright today.

[parabrave]

Wow nice lineup.

[DawgFromOxford]

Gotta find a way to get Downs at bats every game

[CaptainObvious]

Here is what I see. And I'm sure "most" Coaches do the same thing.

Lemonis loves to play the % and the analytics.

Platooning left and right vs pitching.
Playing the shift defensively, including the times when he doesn't shift until there are 2 strikes on the batter. I question this for 2 instances: 0-2 and 1-2 counts; shifting on an 0-2 or 1-2 count when you are most likely going to pitch to the chase or try to waste a pitch outside, is inviting a batter to go the other way beating the shift.
Some will say well you should pitch em inside 0-2 or 1-2 if you are going to shift. I say 2 things can go wrong pitching inside 0-2 or 1-2. Your pitcher hits the guy, or the guy turns on one and hits it over the shift. I don't like either of those possibilities even if you are trying to get them to hit into the shift. If you are going to shift, shift at beginning of the bat.

As for platooning, I also believe you have to look at a guys approach. If he is prone to a lot of pop out balls to his pull side, platoon him. If he handles the bat well and can hit to all fields, or shouldn't matter which side the pitcher pitches from. Play the best most consistent hitter, period!

[Ranchdawg]

Today is the way I like to see our team play baseball. Is there room for improvement sure but a lot of things looked really good.

[Todd4State]

Maybe NIL should be based on who gets the position? Like some small contract language that says you take a 80% cut if you don't win the position?

Problem is if you do that and LSU or Arkansas guarantee full NIL it's going to cost us players.

[Todd4State]

Here is what I see. And I'm sure "most" Coaches do the same thing.

Lemonis loves to play the % and the analytics.

Platooning left and right vs pitching.
Playing the shift defensively, including the times when he doesn't shift until there are 2 strikes on the batter. I question this for 2 instances: 0-2 and 1-2 counts; shifting on an 0-2 or 1-2 count when you are most likely going to pitch to the chase or try to waste a pitch outside, is inviting a batter to go the other way beating the shift.
Some will say well you should pitch em inside 0-2 or 1-2 if you are going to shift. I say 2 things can go wrong pitching inside 0-2 or 1-2. Your pitcher hits the guy, or the guy turns on one and hits it over the shift. I don't like either of those possibilities even if you are trying to get them to hit into the shift. If you are going to shift, shift at beginning of the bat.

As for platooning, I also believe you have to look at a guys approach. If he is prone to a lot of pop out balls to his pull side, platoon him. If he handles the bat well and can hit to all fields, or shouldn't matter which side the pitcher pitches from. Play the best most consistent hitter, period!

The thing is if you are going full analytics you can't assume that we are always going to try to get guys to chase away because analytics tells coaches to beat a guy where their weakness is.

And with analytics they can even break it down into where guys are most likely to hit a ball in certain counts.