1) Cohen is an offensive coach. He is not going to let us be this bad again offensively. The stars just lined up that way this year and we were counting on Rea, Norris, Bradford, and Brownlee to hit. None of them did, and most of that was due to injury. He will either bring in some guys with some sticks or we will get better. We won't lead the SEC, but we will be better than this.
2) We bunted so much because he knew we had a bunch of guys who were very likely to strikeout, pop up, or hit into a double play. If you have only a 20% chance of getting a base hit, bunting's not terrible. We all disagreed with some of the situations that he did it in, but by and large, I think he saw the pitching staff he had and more importantly, his lack of pop at the plate, and he played it conservatively. We won 40 games and an SEC tourney doing it. I'd say he played it right most of the time.
3) The ONLY guy that saw any decent amount of SEC pitches last year that stayed healthy this year was Adam Frazier, who finished up hitting .371. This year, Rea, Slauter, Porter, Henderson, Britton, and Renfroe all saw that pitching. They're not all going to leap to .371, but they will all make a big leap, and I bet most of them will hit close to .300 next year.
4) Stratton is our only real loss. Reed was terrible this year, and losing that Friday night LSU game and that Friday SC game probably cost us hosting a regional. Brownlee was terrible too, epitomized by that last at bat.
5) The best thing about the late season surge and tourney run is that Woodruff, Lindgren, and Ross Mitchell grew way up. All of those guys got valuable experience and will be weekend guys in some capacity. And they are all pretty awesome.
6) The great pitching cancelled out the horrible hitting and vice versa. But the best thing to me is that this team was scrappy. They gutted it out and never quit, had several late inning comebacks and showed extreme toughness in winning that tournament. The specter of the coddling, disinterested Polk is totally gone and we've got a bunch of mentally tough players who have taken on the personality of their coach.
The future is bright any way you slice it. We're not going to host 3 out of every 5. We've not going to Omaha every other year, but as long as JC is here, we will be competitive, we will make Hoover most years and play in a regional most years and that gives you a chance.
2) We bunted so much because he knew we had a bunch of guys who were very likely to strikeout, pop up, or hit into a double play. If you have only a 20% chance of getting a base hit, bunting's not terrible. We all disagreed with some of the situations that he did it in, but by and large, I think he saw the pitching staff he had and more importantly, his lack of pop at the plate, and he played it conservatively. We won 40 games and an SEC tourney doing it. I'd say he played it right most of the time.
3) The ONLY guy that saw any decent amount of SEC pitches last year that stayed healthy this year was Adam Frazier, who finished up hitting .371. This year, Rea, Slauter, Porter, Henderson, Britton, and Renfroe all saw that pitching. They're not all going to leap to .371, but they will all make a big leap, and I bet most of them will hit close to .300 next year.
4) Stratton is our only real loss. Reed was terrible this year, and losing that Friday night LSU game and that Friday SC game probably cost us hosting a regional. Brownlee was terrible too, epitomized by that last at bat.
5) The best thing about the late season surge and tourney run is that Woodruff, Lindgren, and Ross Mitchell grew way up. All of those guys got valuable experience and will be weekend guys in some capacity. And they are all pretty awesome.
6) The great pitching cancelled out the horrible hitting and vice versa. But the best thing to me is that this team was scrappy. They gutted it out and never quit, had several late inning comebacks and showed extreme toughness in winning that tournament. The specter of the coddling, disinterested Polk is totally gone and we've got a bunch of mentally tough players who have taken on the personality of their coach.
The future is bright any way you slice it. We're not going to host 3 out of every 5. We've not going to Omaha every other year, but as long as JC is here, we will be competitive, we will make Hoover most years and play in a regional most years and that gives you a chance.