Quote Originally Posted by engie View Post
Why do people keep engaging this on an honest, intellectual level?

Humphreys is a year behind where he would/should be. As is Collins. Their injuries were daggers for us in different ways. This summer is hopefully when this all comes together. It's the most important summer of Cohen's tenure bar none between the development that needs to happen with 7-10 talented guys currently on the team in summer ball and the elite signing class itself and MLB.
This is a good point about the injuries. Humphreys missed all of a summer baseball last year and had some nagging injuries this year. This will actually be his first summer baseball action since arriving at MSU. Collins- we all know about his hand. A healthy Michael Smith would have made a huge difference for us as well- he could be our Jacob Robson next year. The guy that missed most of the year with injuries that might come back next year and hit well over .300 and steal a ton of bases for us. We've caught some glimpses of what he can do defensively. Gridley, Cody Brown, and Luke Reynolds all had very good years for us as well- and they could all take big steps for us. A lot of people forget that those three are still underclassmen.

But the biggest thing we need to improve and that we MUST have happen is for the five pitchers in the Cape to step up- or at least three of them. We can talk about hitting all we want- but the fact of the matter is we are only going to be as good as our pitching is. I feel pretty confident about Hudson, Sexton, Tatum, and Houston stepping up. I'm still a little skeptical about Daniel Brown- mostly because I question his toughness. And even though he is not in the Cape, I think Levi Mintz will be better next year. More than anything, I think he hit a wall the last half of the SEC season. He reminds me a lot of Caleb Reed- except he's ahead of where Caleb was at this time of his career.