South Alabama baseball thoughts

[engie]

Whatever dude. I meant that at no time in the tournament did we have to play LSU or Vandy.

Which makes both of them the lucky ones lest we had been the ones to send them packing. Lsu went 2 and q in Omaha and Vandy got beat in the Supers by the team that went 2 and q in our side of the bracket.

In reality -- you didn't have a point. You just wanted to demean our actual accomplishments as much as you could -- and got called on it.

[dawgday166]

Which makes both of them the lucky ones lest we had been the ones to send them packing. Lsu went 2 and q in Omaha and Vandy got beat in the Supers by the team that went 2 and q in our side of the bracket.

In reality -- you didn't have a point. You just wanted to demean our actual accomplishments as much as you could -- and got called on it.

Not trying to demean accomplishments ... but I am willing to make a small wager that you think Stans should get majority of credit for TAMs basketball banner this year.

[I seen it dawg]

I think Marrero has won the starting catcher spot. Leave Kruger at DH where he can continue to focus solely on hitting, also he doesn't ever have to sit games to rest when he is exclusively a DH. No reason to take Krugers bat out of the lineup to rest when we have 3 or 4 other capable catchers on the roster.

Which was my point with splitting DH up. Kruger catch midweek and maybe one game on the weekend. DH the rest of the time. I'm fine with him DHing all year and spelling marrero with Stovall though. I think though by mid April we won't want Marreros bat out of the lineup either.

[K9 Avenger]

If by "good draw in the tournament", you mean the single toughest regional that season by far which can be quoted several places online -- and being sent on the road to the #6 national seed -- then having to go through the #3 national seed twice -- qualifies as easy to you -- then yeah.

Please just stop. The veil on your posts are getting really thin.

Amen...this guy has got to be a Polkie...

[Political Hack]

Sorry for the double post, I'm a rookie in training posting. Me an cell phones are like oil and water. My apologies.

Not only did you double post, but then you apologized twice for it in the same post. If our baseball team finishes with as many doubles as you we'll be ok. Lol

[dawgday166]

Amen...this guy has got to be a Polkie...

No ... I'm not. I thought Cohen did a good job guiding team through NCAA tourney that year. But we were 1-2 agains LSU and 0-4 against Vandy that year. Might could've beaten them next time around ... but was glad to see them drop out.

[Todd4State]

Overall pretty good assessment Todd. While I would love to see as many pitchers as possible, 1st priority is to win games, this is not fall ball anymore these count and we will need as many as possible come tournament selection time. My lineup going forward, tell me your thoughts

CF Robson .300 avg and .400 on base guy
LF Brown .300 avg and another .400 on base guy
C Kruger to early to tell, may hit .400 avg on year and very good pwr
3B Collins power and will get Kruger pitches to hit
1B Lowe some power, inserted here to break all right handers
RF Rooker good pwr hope avg will follow
DH Humphries more power again hope avg will follow
2B Stoval/Gridley whichever is hitting
SS Alexander just feel comfortable with him defensively very smooth

It's good to have a strong bench and I believe we do this year, but this lineup gives us speed, power, gap power, and good hit for avg guys.
Really strong defensively with 3B exception. 2 guys at top who hit for avg and just get on base, 5 power hitters in a row with a lefty in the middle breaking up the righties. Let this lineup play for 3 or 4 series then reevaluate. At some point some or all will have a slump, it happens to ALL hitters even the good ones. My 2 cents worth for whats that worth,Go Dawgs.

I like your lineup given how they are playing right now. Personally I'd like to keep Alexander at SS if at all possible because he is so good there. I just hope it's possible.

[Todd4State]

Cohen is what he is. In recruiting if he tells a kid you will play early, he will, because that is the way he coaches and learns & teaches his players. Might as well accept that and move on.

Which I think helps us in recruiting. Especially since we have a track record of doing so.

And now we are recruiting better than we have in baseball in awhile and I don't foresee it letting up.

[Todd4State]

I wasn't one of those bitching. I'm new to the board. I'm just saying that I personally cannot think of a really good team that kept the same folks in the lineup and moved their positions all over the place. Alexander, Gridley, Stovall, & Collins have all played multiple infield positions. I think that hurts your defense. I believe ball players like to "own" a position for the most part. I don't know why you'd play Alexander at SS, Gridley at 2nd one day, then Alexander at 3rd, Gridley at SS the next. Hard to develop consistency this way. JMO.

I don't get in the batting order discussions cause there could be many ways to tackle that problem. Some of that depends on a given philosophy too, although dependent on the available personnel. I do think that 1-7 should be fairly consistent tho. I also think that something should be stuck with for a period of time to see how it works. Saying someone is batting .250 now isn't necessarily indicative of how they will bat over the whole season. I'm sorta assuming Cohen has a feel for how each player handle the bat, the type of hitter they are, how much power they have, etc.

We've been pretty consistent with where people have been playing position wise.

Yeah, Collins played second base for a few innings against a small mid major which is most likely a one time deal. Stovall has moved around some, but he is a utility guy at this time and he has looked good wherever he has played. Alexander has only played third when Collins has been suspended or as a late inning defensive replacement and the same with Reid Humphreys starting when Collins was suspended and obviously we had to have someone there. Gridley has moved some between SS and second but he has been doing that his whole life before he even got to MSU.

So, I don't understand all of this complaining about guys moving around. Its been pretty minimal this year and 4-5 innings of Collins playing second against a team we were going to blow out anyway is hardly reason to complain about it on a weekly basis.

[Todd4State]

No ... I'm not. I thought Cohen did a good job guiding team through NCAA tourney that year. But we were 1-2 agains LSU and 0-4 against Vandy that year. Might could've beaten them next time around ... but was glad to see them drop out.

We also lost that series to LSU because Preston Brown went against the coaches and threw a curveball to Mason Katz which he hit for a home run. If you notice Brown sat the rest of the year. Vandy swept us in Nashville and that was the series where Lindgren completely fell apart and was reduced to a role on the Bench Mobb. Vandy won game two with a bunch of weak infield hits on a wet field.

That was also before Girodo emerged as a huge weapon for us.

And I guarantee you that if we pitched Graveman against LSU, we were winning.

Anyway, what you are saying would be like me saying that our 1985 team was lucky they didn't have to play Mississippi College in the postseason. Things change over the course of the year. For example, Central Arkansas won their series with us- and then we beat them in the regional two out of three.

[dawgday166]

We've been pretty consistent with where people have been playing position wise.

Yeah, Collins played second base for a few innings against a small mid major which is most likely a one time deal. Stovall has moved around some, but he is a utility guy at this time and he has looked good wherever he has played. Alexander has only played third when Collins has been suspended or as a late inning defensive replacement and the same with Reid Humphreys starting when Collins was suspended and obviously we had to have someone there. Gridley has moved some between SS and second but he has been doing that his whole life before he even got to MSU.

So, I don't understand all of this complaining about guys moving around. Its been pretty minimal this year and 4-5 innings of Collins playing second against a team we were going to blow out anyway is hardly reason to complain about it on a weekly basis.

Thanks for the explanation, although it won't change my perception immediately. We'll see where we end up later on in the year.

[dawgday166]

We also lost that series to LSU because Preston Brown went against the coaches and threw a curveball to Mason Katz which he hit for a home run. If you notice Brown sat the rest of the year. Vandy swept us in Nashville and that was the series where Lindgren completely fell apart and was reduced to a role on the Bench Mobb. Vandy won game two with a bunch of weak infield hits on a wet field.

That was also before Girodo emerged as a huge weapon for us.

And I guarantee you that if we pitched Graveman against LSU, we were winning.

Anyway, what you are saying would be like me saying that our 1985 team was lucky they didn't have to play Mississippi College in the postseason. Things change over the course of the year. For example, Central Arkansas won their series with us- and then we beat them in the regional two out of three.

That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying I thought our odds improved a lot when they dropped out.

[louisvilledawg]

My lineup vs Oregon (all lh starters, I believe)...

Robson cf
Gridley 2b
Kruger dh
Collins 3b
Rooker rf
Hump LF
Lowe 1b
Marrero c
Alexander SS

I like the middle of the lineup. We need collins batting cleanup, not 2nd. Hella power with that lineup from 3-7. i like.