SEC play begins- G1 vs UPig

[maroonmania]

That doesn't mean throw a freshman out there. Hell- Landon Sims could have lost tonight too. Doesn't mean if we had him we shouldn't put him on the mound. And i absolutely trust Ben Davis. He has been lights out and has an ERA of 0.00 since they stopped trying to use him for more than two innings. Pitzer has closed SEC games before.



It's not but at the end of the day they are doing what they need to do to put us in position to win. And then we decide "hey! Tie game on the road after we made a great comeback! This seems like a good time to get Miller some experience or see if Billingsley has figured things out."

I agree I trust Davis over everyone else. And if we had scored in the Top of the 10th I'm sure he would have been out there. You don't normally want to burn your closer in a tie first game of a 3 game set, so I'm not going to criticize that move too much.

[BeardoMSU]

I agree I trust Davis over everyone else. And if we had scored in the Top of the 10th I'm sure he would have been out there. You don't normally want to burn your closer in a tie first game of a 3 game set, so I'm not going to criticize that move too much.

Even if not Davis, just not a freshman that has already lost us a game.

[Todd4State]

I agree I trust Davis over everyone else. And if we had scored in the Top of the 10th I'm sure he would have been out there. You don't normally want to burn your closer in a tie first game of a 3 game set, so I'm not going to criticize that move too much.

If this was MLB Davis would have been in. You have to play to win now because we have no idea how tomorrow is going to turn out. We could blow them out twice. They could blow us out twice. Neither is a situation ideal for using your best relievers. And sure, we might be in a situation where we need them too. And in two of those three situations/scenarios what we did was a mistake. We don't have a crystal ball so we have to play to win now because nothing is guaranteed tomorrow.

[maroonmania]

Even if not Davis, just not a freshman that has already lost us a game.

Agree

[BeardoMSU]

If this was MLB Davis would have been in. You have to play to win now because we have no idea how tomorrow is going to turn out. We could blow them out twice. They could blow us out twice. Neither is a situation ideal for using your best relievers. And sure, we might be in a situation where we need them too. And in two of those three situations/scenarios what we did was a mistake. We don't have a crystal ball so we have to play to win now because nothing is guaranteed tomorrow.

You play your best to win game 1.

[Coach34]

You play your best to win game 1.

agree

Glad we agree BOC ****ed up his 1st game in the SEC.

[Maroon Glasses]

That doesn't mean throw a freshman out there. Hell- Landon Sims could have lost tonight too. Doesn't mean if we had him we shouldn't put him on the mound. And i absolutely trust Ben Davis. He has been lights out and has an ERA of 0.00 since they stopped trying to use him for more than two innings. Pitzer has closed SEC games before.



It's not but at the end of the day they are doing what they need to do to put us in position to win. And then we decide "hey! Tie game on the road after we made a great comeback! This seems like a good time to get Miller some experience or see if Billingsley has figured things out."

I doubt that was the mindset of the coaches. For whatever reason they felt like Miller was the best option without burning Davis. They have all the scouting and analytics in the world.. it just didn't work out.

I agree the decision was questionable to say the least. Maddox can use this experience to better himself from here on out and be better in the moment next time he is called on. In the end we left 12 or 13 runners on base. That is what ultimately lost the game. 100%. Miller was just the culprit left at the alter. He didn't do his job but he didn't lose us the game. Sweep tomorrow and tonight is forgiven and BOC will be praised again!

[Quaoarsking]

agree

Glad we agree BOC ****ed up his 1st game in the SEC.

If he finishes 9-21 in both year 1 and year 2, I'll call for him to be fired, and you'll say we should keep him.

[Maroon Glasses]

If this was MLB Davis would have been in. You have to play to win now because we have no idea how tomorrow is going to turn out. We could blow them out twice. They could blow us out twice. Neither is a situation ideal for using your best relievers. And sure, we might be in a situation where we need them too. And in two of those three situations/scenarios what we did was a mistake. We don't have a crystal ball so we have to play to win now because nothing is guaranteed tomorrow.

Absolutely! Can't disagree with this. You always play to win today

[Skydawg1]

Tonight was simply another Baum Walker owns State curse ballgame. Maddox Miller was going up against a shitty hitter. Shitty hitter won. The staff gambled and lost.

[Todd4State]

I doubt that was the mindset of the coaches. For whatever reason they felt like Miller was the best option without burning Davis. They have all the scouting and analytics in the world.. it just didn't work out.

I agree the decision was questionable to say the least. Maddox can use this experience to better himself from here on out and be better in the moment next time he is called on. In the end we left 12 or 13 runners on base. That is what ultimately lost the game. 100%. Miller was just the culprit left at the alter. He didn't do his job but he didn't lose us the game. Sweep tomorrow and tonight is forgiven and BOC will be praised again!

Even with all of the runners left on base we had tied the game going into the 9th inning. So even with all of those runners left on base we still had given ourselves a chance to win. Then with three very legit options to close the game we went with a freshman.

Sure, he'll learn from this but if we keep putting him in this situation and he keeps failing it's going to have a negative impact on him if it happens too often. And then we're left picking up the pieces. Miller is not much different than any other freshmen pitcher.

But like I said I don't understand why he and Billingsley get to keep going out in the mound to figure things out while Webb and Pitzer have to figure things out in the lab when they have performed better. That doesn't make any sense to me.

[Todd4State]

You play your best to win game 1.

Absolutely! And I think too many of our fans remember saving Sims and it working out in the postseason. But that is an exception and honestly doing that even then was the wrong move because it cost us wins in the long run. And yeah I know his family was very strict about Sims being used only once a weekend.

[Maroon Glasses]

Even with all of the runners left on base we had tied the game going into the 9th inning. So even with all of those runners left on base we still had given ourselves a chance to win. Then with three very legit options to close the game we went with a freshman.

Sure, he'll learn from this but if we keep putting him in this situation and he keeps failing it's going to have a negative impact on him if it happens too often. And then we're left picking up the pieces. Miller is not much different than any other freshmen pitcher.

But like I said I don't understand why he and Billingsley get to keep going out in the mound to figure things out while Webb and Pitzer have to figure things out in the lab when they have performed better. That doesn't make any sense to me.

I agree with you on all points. I question Miller and Billingsley too.. especially Billingsley. I just know that BOC is one of the best and he has to see something we don't. It's hard not to question the decisions though.

I know losing brings negativity as it should. Our 3 losses are 3 losses no matter how you look at it. But in those 3 losses we had chances to win every one of them. We fell behind early. Had costly errors and walks. Left 12 on base tonight and still had the chance to win. We aren't far from being really good if we can just clean some things up. And in the game of baseball you have to have luck no matter how good you are and we haven't had the luck yet. I believe all that's going to turn around.

[Todd4State]

I agree with you on all points. I question Miller and Billingsley too.. especially Billingsley. I just know that BOC is one of the best and he has to see something we don't. It's hard not to question the decisions though.

I know losing brings negativity as it should. Our 3 losses are 3 losses no matter how you look at it. But in those 3 losses we had chances to win every one of them. We fell behind early. Had costly errors and walks. Left 12 on base tonight and still had the chance to win. We aren't far from being really good if we can just clean some things up. And in the game of baseball you have to have luck no matter how good you are and we haven't had the luck yet. I believe all that's going to turn around.

Mistakes are magnified when you lose. I believe you make your own luck more than anything in baseball. What it comes down to is either you execute or you don't.

BOC is awesome. He might end up being my favorite MSU baseball coach of all time. But just like Tony LaRussa is my favorite manager of all time- he made mistakes sometimes. Shoot- Team USA's manager Mark DeRosa didn't even know the rules of the World Baseball Classic and had to rely on Italy to get us through to the next round. And he's a good and smart baseball guy.

IMO we did not put ourselves in the best position to win the game tonight. I have a feeling this is more Parker than BOC because this is the same crap that happened with the pitching staff under Lemonis. The difference is BOC will put his foot down and stop it. In fact, he already has done that with how we are using Ben Davis. Until then Ben was going on the same path as KC Hunt.

[Tater]

lowest hitting output of the year (1-14 by 2 through 5 hole) and we're blaming pitching and pitching decisions when we never led.

k

[Pancho]

lowest hitting output of the year (1-14 by 2 through 5 hole) and we're blaming pitching and pitching decisions when we never led.

k

drive them in

[State82]

lowest hitting output of the year (1-14 by 2 through 5 hole) and we're blaming pitching and pitching decisions when we never led.

k

Gotta agree here. LOB is the stat of this game.

[maroonmania]

For better or worse, here was BOC's quote after the game:

“My heart breaks for Maddox Miller. He earned that opportunity to pitch in that inning. Tie ball game, it’s tough to go to Ben Davis on the road when you know you’re staring at two games (Saturday) in a doubleheader. Maddox has done such a great job for us. He’ll pick himself back up and do a better job tomorrow.”

Just a shame that Woodson's homer didn't actually give us the lead, then putting in Davis would have been a no brainer.

[Tater]

Even if not Davis, just not a freshman that has already lost us a game.

Catcher lost us the game vs. USM. Both runs scored on a passed ball strike 3 against miller. How tf is that his fault that his stuff was that nasty.

[Quaoarsking]

Our team is going to be OK. We are mentally and fundamentally strong. Every team has their "that's baseball" games.