Baseball recruiting class

[Coursesuper]

I'm past giving a dang about ratings. I want to get back to recruiting hard-nosed players that never, ever quit and fight to the very end. We may have upgraded "talent" -- but we've downgraded mental capability. We've lost our identity somewhere along the way here...

I could not agree with you more!

[War Machine Dawg]

Here's the thing: Todd is saying he's worried about losing 5 guys to the Draft. At least 1 (Pickett) is certain. Those 5 are the 5 we need most to be the type program we want to be, particularly the hitters. The rest are more of the same. So if we lose them, this class goes from potentially great to average. And all the hoping in the world won't change that. We'll continue being a has been with midget slap hitters and pitch to contact arms.

[Homedawg]

Here's the thing: Todd is saying he's worried about losing 5 guys to the Draft. At least 1 (Pickett) is certain. Those 5 are the 5 we need most to be the type program we want to be, particularly the hitters. The rest are more of the same. So if we lose them, this class goes from potentially great to average. And all the hoping in the world won't change that. We'll continue being a has been with midget slap hitters and pitch to contact arms.

Actually Riley is the only hitter- dual guy that we might lose. Besides Pickett, of course, who you mentioned. I think we are good w merrano. Alexander isn't going anywhere. It's the power arms, which at this point we have exactly one on our staff- Hudson.

[engie]

pitch to contact arms.

This is the part of your baseball posting that I take issue with. It can't just be factually pessimistic -- it always has to take 2 steps off the cliff.

We're #103 in K/9IP right now. Struggling. Relievers are in transition(like many of us thought we would be -- just worse than we had hoped at this point).
Were #13 last year.
Were #10 in 2013.
Were #11 in 2012.
Were #30 in 2011.

I for one hope we keep recruiting these "pitch to contact" arms if it means we're going to be nationally elite 3 every 4 years on the hill. I'm not going through the full spreadsheet averages -- but I'd bet that stat is cumulatively about #8 nationally since the rebuild was complete just like ERA and most every other pitching metric under Butch Thompson the last 4 years. That doesn't mean this year isn't sucking -- but he's earned some good will at this point in time. Especially with the committed class...

[Saltydog]

kinda like our football program does. All toll, I think Butch has done a decent job with that but, sans this year. On the hitting side, we are shit. Simple as that. No power and we're not developing what we do have. Some of our guys should be further along than they are. You have a guy like Swinarksi that supposedly has a ton of talent but for some reason he hasn't sniffed the field. That's just one example.

[Todd4State]

Quick question, What position was Bobby recruited to play?

That's a good one. My guess would be RF.

[engie]

kinda like our football program does. All toll, I think Butch has done a decent job with that but, sans this year. On the hitting side, we are shit. Simple as that. No power and we're not developing what we do have. Some of our guys should be further along than they are. You have a guy like Swinarksi that supposedly has a ton of talent but for some reason he hasn't sniffed the field. That's just one example.

Time for Mingione to fall on the ax.

I agree with you fwiw. These guys should be further along. There are talented hitters -- but not good situational hitters. Alot of that is mental -- and all the bunting and "I don't have faith in you" crap that we do doesn't do that aspect any favors. Hard to know what the cart is and what the horse is on that -- it depends on the player. And it's still ultimately on the coaches for going away from the hard-nosed approach that was on it's way to winning a title with Lane Burroughs here in order to chase Perfect Game all-stars under Mingione...

[Todd4State]

I'm past giving a dang about ratings. I want to get back to recruiting hard-nosed players that never, ever quit and fight to the very end. We may have upgraded "talent" -- but we've downgraded mental capability. We've lost our identity somewhere along the way here...

I think you hit the nail on the head here with a major issue that we have currently. Cody Brown and Ryan Gridley are the only ones that we currently have that I would put in that category as far as on the field players. Fitts is redeeming himself in that regard, and then I think we can put Preston Brown and Laster in that category also.

Hard nosed players win you games.

That's actually one of the things that excites me about our class- Gridley is just the first of several that are coming in that are back to that style. Luke Alexander, Jake Mangum, Brant Blaylock, Elih Marrero, and Hunter Stovall all fit that mold. Kale Breaux, Konnor Pilkington, Noah Hughes, and Keegan James fit that mold on the mound.

We just have to find ways to get the Pickett's in to class. And unfortunately, it's not sounding good on that front right now. As WMD said, I'm expecting five to not come- and all are the elite types that we must have.

[Todd4State]

kinda like our football program does. All toll, I think Butch has done a decent job with that but, sans this year. On the hitting side, we are shit. Simple as that. No power and we're not developing what we do have. Some of our guys should be further along than they are. You have a guy like Swinarksi that supposedly has a ton of talent but for some reason he hasn't sniffed the field. That's just one example.

Even Dan could only get so much out of Tyson Lee. It's hard to develop power from guys that don't have it and never really will. Collins and Humphreys have it- they have progressed nicely and should be even better next year. Rooker has it and he has progressed. Rea hasn't. Swinarski has had concussions to deal with which is why he hasn't developed like he should. Even though it seems like he has been around for five years, he is still only a RS freshman and it's too soon to give up on him even though I'm not counting on him either.

[Todd4State]

Time for Mingione to fall on the ax.

I agree with you fwiw. These guys should be further along. There are talented hitters -- but not good situational hitters. Alot of that is mental -- and all the bunting and "I don't have faith in you" crap that we do doesn't do that aspect any favors. Hard to know what the cart is and what the horse is on that -- it depends on the player. And it's still ultimately on the coaches for going away from the hard-nosed approach that was on it's way to winning a title with Lane Burroughs here in order to chase Perfect Game all-stars under Mingione...

And as you know, a lot of it is talent. Talented players tend to be more confident- for obvious reasons. And coaches tend to be more confident in confident players- which means asking them to bunt less.

I don't know that it's going after the PG All-Stars as much as it is trying to rely too much on JUCO guys when we should have been going after high school guys or just pool our scholarship money. When over half of your signing class is JUCO's- that's too many.

We're doing pretty well with recruiting speed and power arms- I think we can get a few in this class and that is getting better. I think we need to re-evaluate how we recruit power. We need to be looking more at guys like Hunter Renfroe and Brent Rooker- guys that were raw and can be developed and therefore weren't major draft risks as opposed to relying so much on elite power hitters to come to school like Pickett and Riley. Now- don't get me wrong, we absolutely should continue to take commitments and recruit guys like Pickett and Riley. But they shouldn't be the main power guys in the class.

[msstate7]

Do we have a lh power bat coming in? Desparately need one to put between Collins, hump, and rooker next season

[Todd4State]

Do we have a lh power bat coming in? Desparately need one to put between Collins, hump, and rooker next season

Nate Lowe- JUCO first baseman. Last I saw he had 16 home runs and was hitting .387 in the Florida JUCO leagues- one of the better JUCO leagues out there. The only other realistic option is Cole Gordon. Pickett is a LH power bat, but he ain't coming.

[msstate7]

Nate Lowe- JUCO first baseman. Last I saw he had 16 home runs and was hitting .387 in the Florida JUCO leagues- one of the better JUCO leagues out there. The only other realistic option is Cole Gordon. Pickett is a LH power bat, but he ain't coming.

Nice numbers. I hope it translates well. I would like a lineup like this...

Robson (if back)
Brown
Collins
Hump
Lowe
Rooker
Holland (if back)
3b
Gridley

[Todd4State]

Also, may be random but we need to ditch the Adidas bats. May or may not have anything to do with anything. But with bats I at least want the comfort of going with something name brand that is reliable like Easton or Louisville Slugger.

[Todd4State]

Nice numbers. I hope it translates well. I would like a lineup like this...

Robson (if back)
Brown
Collins
Hump
Lowe
Rooker
Holland (if back)
3b
Gridley

Always expect JUCO numbers to be a lot less. I think Lowe would translate out to 6-8 home runs and .270-.290 realistically. He used to play at Mercer, so at least he has some D-I experience.

I'm not even going to guess what Cohen's lineup will look like ever but...

C- Collins
1B- Even with Lowe, Rooker still is my frontrunner.
2B- Gridley
3B- Riley
SS- Alexander
LF- Michael Smith
CF- Robson
RF- Cody Brown
DH- Humphreys- have to wonder if he doesn't get moved to third if Riley goes pro.

[smootness]

Pickett isn't coming, but a guy like that isn't going to show up anywhere. Same with a guy like Chase Vallot.

In college baseball, you're just not going to get a guy who would be a 1st or 2nd rounder unless you're Vandy or the kid has just grown up wanting to play for you. Especially when those guys are power hitters.

We just have to get quality bats (Marrero and Stovall are absolutely that) and some high-ceiling arms (we have a crap ton in this class) and develop them. Our problem this year seems to be that our more experienced players just aren't that talented, and our talented players aren't that experienced and haven't put it together last year.

I still think we'll be good next year. One down year doesn't mean you blow up everything about the program. Our recruiting continues to improve. So far, this year is just a blip. If it continues next year, you have a problem. If it doesn't, you're fine.

[engie]

Also, may be random but we need to ditch the Adidas bats. May or may not have anything to do with anything. But with bats I at least want the comfort of going with something name brand that is reliable like Easton or Louisville Slugger.

Yep. I was fired up about the early reports of the prototype bats -- many of which came from people not associated with nor invested in seeing MSU do well. Seems when Adidas started ramping up for mass production sometime after that first fall with them, they cut the nuts off the bats in fear of failed BBCOR tests really messing them up from a manufacturing standpoint. They may not be any worse than anything else -- but it's safe to say at this point that they are not superior, as was initially alleged and widely believed(by me when about as well-connected of OM guy as one can be was telling me about it)...

[Jacksondevildog]

No way Holland doesn't play next year. IMO.

[RocketCityDawg]

Also, may be random but we need to ditch the Adidas bats. May or may not have anything to do with anything. But with bats I at least want the comfort of going with something name brand that is reliable like Easton or Louisville Slugger.

I've heard that Cohen is strongly considering dumping the Adidas bats and going with Easton.

[War Machine Dawg]

I've heard that Cohen is strongly considering dumping the Adidas bats and going with Easton.

We dumped Easton to go to Adidas. F both of them. Switch to Louisville Slugger, dammit. There's a reason most of the top teams are using LS.