A note on our baseball team..

[57stratdawg]

Vandy, South Car, and Florida are a combined 23-4 against the SEC West, but MSU has 3 of the 4 wins.

The rest of the SEC West is a combined 1-17 against those 3 teams.

*The one win from the rest of the SEC West was Ark over Vandy
*South Carolina has only played 1 series against the SEC West (2 wins @ MSU)

 

[57stratdawg]

Vandy, South Car, and Florida are a combined 23-4 against the SEC West, but MSU has 3 of the 4 wins.

The rest of the SEC West is a combined 1-17 against those 3 teams.

*The one win from the rest of the SEC West was Ark over Vandy
*South Carolina has only played 1 series against the SEC West (2 wins @ MSU)

 

[MedDawg]

Top 15 conveniently leaving out #16 Arkansas and #18 Georgia, but including #12 Auburn and #14 Southern Miss.

 

[skydawg1]

26-46.<div>
</div><div>Our schedule, on paper, just got a little easier. But as we demonstrated in Georgia, and like Cohen said last night, if we do not play well, we will not win. We won't be out-talenting any of the remaining teams on our schedule..maybe UT.</div>

 

[dawgatUSM]

.

 

[patdog]

But LSU, UM and Alabama are all pretty good teams and Tennessee doesn't suck. The remaining schedule is still pretty tough.

 

[DirtyLopez]

We might tank the rest of the way, but we have definitely improved.

 

[Todd4State]

we're doing this without a full deck still, and several freshman that are playing a lot for us. If we keep recruting well, we should have that full deck in a year or two. We're only going to get better and better. The biggest difference to me between us and those teams is we don't quite have the starting pitching depth and we don't have the balance in our lineup that those top teams do.

Pat is right about the rest of the schedule, it is easier, but there are no gimmees either.

Mt biggest concern right now is that we are a little banged up, and it's pretty clear to me at this point that we won't have a third starter this year.

 

[coach66]

tier of the SEC has but we have closed the gap considerably and we are playing like we give a **** again. I think we are going to be ok. I would love to see the crowds and atmosphere return to Dudy Noble, it was something very special.

 

[57stratdawg]

I remember us talking about Auburn saving their best starter till Sunday and some of us liked it, some of us didn't. Seems like our coaching staff has taken a fairly similar philosophy to winning SEC games.

It's pretty clear to me that our best Sunday starter is one of our middle revilers, but we've left them in the bullpen because we want to make sure we win 1 game a weekend. Our best chance to win a game against the top teams is Straton/Rout > Pollorena > Reed.

It'll be interesting to see if we change our philosophy to Sunday starter against lesser SEC competition.

 

[OMlawdog]

Im not even counting any draft eligible players, but watching MSU play, there is no doubt that this year's team is certainly improved and at times playing really well, but when I watched a little of the USC series I was very surprised by the number of seniors that were starting.

Parks
Freeman
Ogden
Collins
Vickerson
Trey Johnson
Jaron Shepherd
Thigpen

Those 8 players have 240 starts between them. They have accounted for 147 RBI's of a team total of 212 RBi's, 164 of the 239 runs scored, and 13 of the 15 Homers hit.

That is a ton of production that is leaving off an already shaky offense.

Now the pitching staff is a different matter, I think next year's pitching staff should be really good, but the offense? Beyond Bradford and Norris, both of whom should be good, who picks up the pace on offense. Parks is proving that he is going to be really difficult to replace.

 

[Todd4State]

I do think that the offense is going to be a question mark next year, but you also have to remember that Norris, Bradford, Stark, and Frazier have all played a lot. They should be better next year. We are also missing Wes Rea, who I think would have helped us out a lot this year in terms of power. We need him to get healthy. Hunter Renfroe and Demarcus Henderson are still adjusting to the SEC, but I think they will before too long.

The main thing for most of our underclassmen is that they go play somewhere this summer and have good, solid, productive summers and carry that over into the fall. Renfroe and Henderson in particular.

And as fragile as he is, we also return Brent Brownlee who will strart if healthy.

IF things go as planned, we've got a lineup that looks like this:

C- Renfroe
1B- Rea
2B- Frazier*
3B- Norris*
SS- Henderson
RF- Hopefully Woodruff if he doesn't go pro.
CF- Bradford*
LF- Brownlee*
DH- Stark*

The * means a player that has started more than 5 games this year. As you can see, MSU has five guys that fit in that category, and only one freshman in the lineup, and only one other player that has not taken an at bat at the D-I level in Rea. Also, rumor is MSU is going to sign one JUCO position player- my guess is outfield, so we'll see what happens with that.

Our biggest loss is going to be Parks.

Also, one other thing about that above lineup- it has 5 players in it that have been drafted in the past, and that's not including Woodruff who will be in June. Rea would have been drafted had he not been hurt- that was what a scout told me, so that's not my opinion. I do think that next year, those players will be learning still, but I also think that they will take off as juniors.

 

[bulldogcountry1]

Team percentage-wise, yes. Relatively-speaking, no. Parks is the only guy we are really going to miss. Shepherd, Vickerson, and Freeman have done very little, offensively, in conference play. These freshmen just have to show up not looking like freshmen next year.

I just wish we had a few more sophomores and juniors this year.
</p>

 

[pinebeltdawg]

Anyone heard any talk about possible transfers of some freshman players?

 

[CivilEngineerDog]

asdf

 

[alabamadog]

not that Thigpen is that great, but we won't have anyone that has played catcher. Trey Johnson has been playing well lately, but he still only plays against right handed starters. We will miss Ogden's bat, but not his 15 errors. Freeman is only played DH and has hit around .230 in conference games so its not like he is irreplaceable.

 

[State82]

earlier this year after having dinner one night with Mullen and Stricklin, it takes a special player to come into the respective programs and put up with what both coaches lay on them. If some of the freshmen can't handle it, I'm sure there are more waiting in the wings to take their place, especially considering the shcolly situation in baseball. If not, well, next year will tell the tale for Cohen.

 

[Todd4State]

that there will be a couple of guys that transfer- but that's normal attrition that everyone else has to deal with too.

Since your name is pinebelt and I'm assuming that you are from Hattiesburg- be very wary of any USM people talking bad about our baseball program. They've already spread lies about the MSU baseball staff and Sumrall's staff not getting along and about Lane Burroughs leaving for a community college.

We are taking a lot of players that they used to get in Mississippi, and it's going to hurt them in a couple of years.

 

[Irondawg]

Well I have heard from an ex-USM player that still talks to Lane that he doesn't really like Cohen very much.

Take that for what it's worth and that's was about 2 months ago.

 

[Todd4State]

I don't have much sympathy for Lane- Cohen and Burroughs both started coaching together at Northwestern State. Burroughs knew what he was getting into when he was hired.

 

[DirtyLopez]

southern fans may have enjoyed our baseball demise more than rebel fans did. They pretty much understand their lot in football for the most part and that leaves baseball as their best hope (their cws trip gave them even more). As I have said in the past, I would play their asses in tiddly winks and watch them wither on the vine.

 

[Todd4State]

USM should want us to be good in baseball- it helps their RPI more if we're better. And they should feel the same about Ole Miss too.

Especially since they are in C-USA and have to play the likes of Marshall. And yes, C-USA is a good baseball conference, but it's not as strong top to bottom as the SEC. I mean, USM had to play a three game series vs New Orleans a couple of weeks ago for goodness sakes.

USM will be OK- baseball is improving in Mississippi every year in terms of talent. They should be able to get enough talent to be good- but they won't dominate the state every year.

 

[markymark.sixpack]

jj

 

[pinebeltdawg]

that there will be a couple of guys that transfer- but that's normal attrition that everyone else has to deal with too.

Since your name is pinebelt and I'm assuming that you are from Hattiesburg- be very wary of any USM people talking bad about our baseball program. They've already spread lies about the MSU baseball staff and Sumrall's staff not getting along and about Lane Burroughs leaving for a community college.

We are taking a lot of players that they used to get in Mississippi, and it's going to hurt them in a couple of years.

I hear the negative recruiting junk from all the schools.Coach Cohen does have his detractors even among high school coaches but that will change with winning.I know you are in touch with what is happening in the program so I was interested to see if you had heard about transfers in the freshman class. Hate to lose talent because we need to build depth.

 

[Todd4State]

I don't know of anyone specifically that is planning on transferring, but with roster limits and the fact that we're losing eight seniors and have a class of nine coming in plus probably two more, someone is going to have to go. And usually that is a freshman that didn't play much the year before, and is usually a guy that is a project anyway. Thing is, with this last class, just about everyone has shown at least the potential to be good, so there's not anyone that is obviously going to be cut. I will say that if I was Cohen I would kind of be looking at giving Victor Diaz his walking papers.

Last year the rumors were pretty rampant- all of our freshmen were going to transfer- usually Luke Bole was mentioned, and of course that actually turned out to be true, our recruits were going to all sign with MLB, and CT Bradford was going to decommit and go to a JUCO. And then Butch and Lane were going to leave. It's not like that at all this year, though.

As far as the high school coaches- maybe, but not necessarily. Some people just don't get along, and if we won multiple NC's with Cohen, those coaches and Cohen still wouldn't get along. But, the thing is, these coaches for the most part also want their players to go to SEC schools because it makes them look good when they can tell parents "Hey, I sent so and so to MSU." I honestly don't know a coach in the state in baseball that is like Bobby Hall where they take it to a new low.

 

[OneParticularHarbor]

There is about to be a serious talent drought at Sumrall. Oak Grove, on the other hand,is on the rebound big time.