Baseball Hot Board

[Coach34]

Seriously though, WHY are they still in his corner??!!?? Do they not see what we see every game??!!??

Homedawg told you that if he makes a Regional its a very good chance he keeps his job. That means Homedawg has heard from or been told by someone very important that that is the case at this time

[EdwardDrayton]

Homedawg told you that if he makes a Regional its a very good chance he keeps his job. That means Homedawg has heard from or been told by someone very important that that is the case at this time

What important looks like ..........

[EdwardDrayton]

Sadly Mississippi State has become plagued by painfully ineffectual leadership both internally and externally.

[Todd4State]

Recruited at a high level?? Bahhahaha he got Tanner Allen. He did that. And with out him we have no shop. So I'll give him credit for that. But let's not go there. You will be shocked w what he got committed. Lem stuck e a bunch of his commits that were trash. He wasn't the elite recruiter the internet leads you to believe it's the opposite

I do not understand the Cann love at all. He was all potential. But was a flop. And he doesn't get near the credit for 2022 and 2023 that he deserves because our great baseball fans can't grasp how recruiting cycles work. But hey! He got Tanner Allen. No one talks about how he didn't get Bednar or Sims though.

Seriously though, WHY are they still in his corner??!!?? Do they not see what we see every game??!!??

Because it's baseball and anything can happen. And yes, it doesn't look good and it probably won't end well. Those same boosters have seen MSU do some crazy things when we looked dead in the water. Just look at 2018.

There are a lot of factors that go into the decision of removing a coach and fans kicking and screaming aren't real high on the list.

That said- let's be realistic here. We have 8 weeks left in the season including the SEC tournament. So we're talking 2 months here. Or less really. Memorial Day weekend and this continues and it's over. Then you get what you want. Making Gautreau the coach doesn't help anything. Or Polk 3. It's all the same result because we're cooked.

[Todd4State]

Fair, I trust your opinion.

Hell- he couldn't run a high school team in New Orleans. Eastern Kentucky and New Mexico State didn't want him. I don't see how our fans don't get it.

[Todd4State]

One more comment about analytics and how baseball coaches use them. If you think we use them too much, just wait until we hire someone like Will Coggin and Josh Elander. You will see a major difference in the use of analytical tools under both of them. I'm not just talking using the better statistics we have available to evaluate player performance such as WAR, wOBA, FIP, xFIP, SIERA, and wRC+. I'm talking about the data analytics that goes into player development. How Will Coggin and Josh Elander are using player tracking technology to improve swing paths while maximizing the power potential of a player. I'm talking about using the same data to maximize spin rate and velocity on pitches like fastball, sliders, and curves. I'm talking about how they can use this data to pair pitches up better for tunneling effect. We have the technology at Mississippi State. I'm not convinced that we are utilizing it to its fullest extent.

Oh we use analytics and technology a lot. Maybe more than anyone in the SEC. But I think from talking to the coaches they actually rely on it too much. Let me give you an example. Karson Ligon. In the lab he had I think the second best numbers of any pitcher we have behind Pico I think it was. However, in scrimmages he had major control issues and struggled. So, that's why he is still in the rotation despite the fact he hasn't played very well.

The other thing about analytics in baseball that a lot of people miss is you can't really just blanket statement analytics. It comes down to individual match ups and what THOSE analytics say when you're talking about what gets the weight in decision making.

And the thing about that is as fans we don't have that info readily available. Now you can probably find SIERRA or whatever data you can find for a team more easily and maybe even calculate some of it depending on how complicated the formula is but that is only a piece of what the coaches have which is way more in depth.

And in fact I think they rely so much on analytics that it may have caused them to become emotionless compared to some of their other contemporaries and I think it may have caused them to lack focus on fundamentals. Why? Because they're waiting on their data to bear itself out.

I will also add this. I completely understand where those who think the program is too big for a first-time head coach come from. Hiring a first-time head coach at this program is a risk. I 100% agree.

However, I'm not against it. Why? Because sometimes you have to make a decision whether to take a chance to be great or play it safe and be average. I think with the way college baseball coaches tend to not hop around, hiring an established head coach from a lower-level program may be the safe move, but is it the move that will ensure that we become the perennial national championship contenders we know this program can be? I look at what Tennessee has done under a first-time head coach in Tony Vitello. Yes, he took over a program that was not on the same level as our program when he got that Tennessee job. All he's done is build a perennial national championship contender out of a program that was an also ran program prior to him. He's won 73% of his games since 2018. Look at what Wes Johnson has done with the Georgia baseball program. They are top 5 in the country in his second season.

Everyone wants a Tony Vitello, but to get the next Tony Vitello, you are likely going to have to go the first-time head coach route. Someone like Will Coggin, Josh Elander, or Nate Thompson.

The only assistant out of that group I would consider is Coggin. Because at least he understands MSU's culture and that is a very real thing. As I've said before this job is a monster and you can't just half ass hire someone and hope they figure coaching out. There is way too much scrutiny here and the expectations aren't changing.

[Duckdog]

I do not understand the Cann love at all. He was all potential. But was a flop. And he doesn't get near the credit for 2022 and 2023 that he deserves because our great baseball fans can't grasp how recruiting cycles work. But hey! He got Tanner Allen. No one talks about how he didn't get Bednar or Sims though.



Because it's baseball and anything can happen. And yes, it doesn't look good and it probably won't end well. Those same boosters have seen MSU do some crazy things when we looked dead in the water. Just look at 2018.

There are a lot of factors that go into the decision of removing a coach and fans kicking and screaming aren't real high on the list.

That said- let's be realistic here. We have 8 weeks left in the season including the SEC tournament. So we're talking 2 months here. Or less really. Memorial Day weekend and this continues and it's over. Then you get what you want. Making Gautreau the coach doesn't help anything. Or Polk 3. It's all the same result because we're cooked.

Me neither, Cann got his dumba$$ fired from a high school job for being an idiot. Why would we want that back. Folks are stupid

[KB21]

Amazing the analytic czar skipped that part

I see your ass is still chafed because I was correct on Arnett and Barbay.

[KB21]

Oh we use analytics and technology a lot. Maybe more than anyone in the SEC. But I think from talking to the coaches they actually rely on it too much. Let me give you an example. Karson Ligon. In the lab he had I think the second best numbers of any pitcher we have behind Pico I think it was. However, in scrimmages he had major control issues and struggled. So, that's why he is still in the rotation despite the fact he hasn't played very well.

The other thing about analytics in baseball that a lot of people miss is you can't really just blanket statement analytics. It comes down to individual match ups and what THOSE analytics say when you're talking about what gets the weight in decision making.

And the thing about that is as fans we don't have that info readily available. Now you can probably find SIERRA or whatever data you can find for a team more easily and maybe even calculate some of it depending on how complicated the formula is but that is only a piece of what the coaches have which is way more in depth.

And in fact I think they rely so much on analytics that it may have caused them to become emotionless compared to some of their other contemporaries and I think it may have caused them to lack focus on fundamentals. Why? Because they're waiting on their data to bear itself out.



The only assistant out of that group I would consider is Coggin. Because at least he understands MSU's culture and that is a very real thing. As I've said before this job is a monster and you can't just half ass hire someone and hope they figure coaching out. There is way too much scrutiny here and the expectations aren't changing.

You are going to have a hard time convincing me that we are using analytics and technology more than Tennessee and Georgia are when you look at the results on the field. Georgia hasn't hit 1800 HRs this season because they avoid having too much data.

[Coach34]

You are going to have a hard time convincing me that we are using analytics and technology more than Tennessee and Georgia are when you look at the results on the field. Georgia hasn't hit 1800 HRs this season because they avoid having too much data.

analytics in the pitching lab is the only way to convince someone that Ligon should be an SEC SP

[KB21]

analytics in the pitching lab is the only way to convince someone that Ligon should be an SEC SP

It's actually not, because the analytics on his fastball are trash. It's flat. It has almost zero movement. It's the definition of a deadzone fastball. If they were really using the data the pitching lab shows, they would decrease the use of his fastball, have him develop a cutter to go opposite of his slider, and increase the use of his slider and change up, which do have good analytics. When they call pitches for him though, they are probably calling close to 60% fastball.

The only thing he has with his fastball is velocity. It's low spin, and that's why it has below average IVB. His extension isn't that great either.

[KB21]

Go check out the ground ball to fly ball percentages of Georgia's top hitters, compare them to the ground ball and fly ball percentages of Mississippi State's top hitters, and try to tell me that we are using technology to maximize swing paths to generate power.

Will Coggin has Ryland Zaborowski hitting 22% ground balls to 50% fly balls. There's a reason he has 14 home runs on the year, which is close to his total he hit last year at a lower competition level.

We have Ace Reese hitting 40% ground balls. We have Nolan Stevens hitting 50% ground balls. Hunter Hines hits 35% ground balls. None of these three should be above 25% ground balls.

[Todd4State]

You are going to have a hard time convincing me that we are using analytics and technology more than Tennessee and Georgia are when you look at the results on the field. Georgia hasn't hit 1800 HRs this season because they avoid having too much data.

I don't know if they are using it more than us but I do know we have access to more technology than they do. So that would lead me to believe we use it more based on that alone.

[Todd4State]

It's actually not, because the analytics on his fastball are trash. It's flat. It has almost zero movement. It's the definition of a deadzone fastball. If they were really using the data the pitching lab shows, they would decrease the use of his fastball, have him develop a cutter to go opposite of his slider, and increase the use of his slider and change up, which do have good analytics. When they call pitches for him though, they are probably calling close to 60% fastball.

The only thing he has with his fastball is velocity. It's low spin, and that's why it has below average IVB. His extension isn't that great either.

They have been working on his extension. It may not be translating from the lab to the game. In the lab they have info that takes into account all of the data and they go off of that.

[Todd4State]

Go check out the ground ball to fly ball percentages of Georgia's top hitters, compare them to the ground ball and fly ball percentages of Mississippi State's top hitters, and try to tell me that we are using technology to maximize swing paths to generate power.

Will Coggin has Ryland Zaborowski hitting 22% ground balls to 50% fly balls. There's a reason he has 14 home runs on the year, which is close to his total he hit last year at a lower competition level.

We have Ace Reese hitting 40% ground balls. We have Nolan Stevens hitting 50% ground balls. Hunter Hines hits 35% ground balls. None of these three should be above 25% ground balls.

Hitting the ball in the air or trying to is what got Hines benched. He has been much better and hit with more power since he started using the whole field.

You have to know yourself as a hitter and very few can hit well by trying to get the ball in the air. In fact, that thinking is going away some in MLB because so many were struggling with it.

[KB21]

Hitting the ball in the air or trying to is what got Hines benched. He has been much better and hit with more power since he started using the whole field.

You have to know yourself as a hitter and very few can hit well by trying to get the ball in the air. In fact, that thinking is going away some in MLB because so many were struggling with it.

What got Hunter a sit down was not that he was trying to hit it in the air. It was more that he was trying to hit everything to the pull side, and he wasn't making good in zone contact at all. He's been hot as a hitter in conference play, and his ground ball percentage is down to 22.7% in conference play with 50% fly balls. So, him getting the ball more in the air has helped. 27% of his fly balls are home runs as well. Now, if we could get Ace Reese to stop hitting the ball on the ground.