I know that everyone is pissed at the baseball team and rightfully so. I'm pissed to. That said, the only thing the team can do is move forward and learn from their mistakes.
I briefly glanced at SEMO State and Michigan State's stats and schedules, so this prview will be Athlon quality at best.
I think SEMO State may be what we need right now- which is a team that on paper that we SHOULD beat- like SELU. But that may be good for our players to win and get some confidence back and move forward. I'm sure after last weekend, they want to get out on the field and play and try to put the past behind them. Looking at the stats, I think SEMO State is a team that isn't all that great. They have some decent pitching stats until you look at K/BB ratio. They have a lot of pitchers that have control issues. Because of that, I think it's going to be very important for our hitters to be patient and not swing at pitches out of the zone and get themselves out. If there ever were a time for the team to channel their inner Raffo, this weekend would be a good time to do that. I did notice that SEMO State is indeed pitching their ace who has an ERA below 2.00 and has beaten Auburn, and we will counter with Nick Routt, which I think is a good move by Cohen because we can not afford a loss at this point in the year, and I think Friday is a must win for us. And as far as their ace- despite his sub 2.00 ERA, he still has 9K's to 9 BB's. So even against him, we have to be patient. If we are patient, we should be able to cause him to throw a lot of pitches, and then we can do some things on the basepaths because hopefully we will have runners on board.
Michigan State looks like a pretty solid team. They have some good hitting stats, but don't have a whole lot of power. They have lost to Clemson and Louisville- two pretty good teams. I suspect that we will throw Stratton possibly against their ace, as they play SEMO State on Fri., and I suspect that since they likely know that the Redhawks aren't throwing their ace, they may save theirs for us. I think this will be a good test for our team, and again very important for our team in terms of showing progress.
Also, as far as the game that was delayed against South Alabama- I have to wonder if Cohen and Steve Kittrell, USA's coach, didn't amiacably decide to delay the game. That was a blessing for us in my opinion because it allowed us to take a bit of a break and work on some things- namely defense- and kind of give our team a chance to catch its breath and evaluate themselves going forward. USA also hs struggled this year some, and I think the day off may have helped them in the long run as well. Which is why I think the delay could be mutual. I do know that the day that the game was supposed to be played, that the team had a big practice outdoors and indoors working on defense.
Lastly, one thing that is encouraging to me is that Cohen is identifying some problems- namely not relaxing- instead of blaming the fans for putting too much pressure on the players. Cohen understands that as a baseball player, when you play in a high level league, you will play in front of a lot of people. And I consider the SEC a high level league. It's an unavoidable thing. And it's something that the players have to deal with. Now, why are the players so uptight? I honestly don't know, but I do suspect that the competitive atmosphere that Cohen has created- in other words, you screw up, you sit- may have something to do with it. I'm not saying that competition is a bad thing at all, and again it is something that the players have to deal with. I don't know how Cohen will deal with it, and it's something that I will be watching for this weekend, but it may be something very simple as reassuring everyone who is starting that they will start the entire weekend no matter what. It may be giving positive encouragement, and it may be simply trying to make the game fun for the players. But that's why we're paying him to coach.
What I will be watching for:
1. I want to see the defense improve. No more than six errors the entire weekend for four games.
2. I want to see how Chris Stratton bounces back from a rough start. And I want the rest of the pitching staff to continue to perfrom reasonably well.
3. I want to see Devin Jones take the mantle of closer over the next two weeks. Either him or Ben Bracewell or CC Watson. Someone needs to step up.
4. I want to see our hitters be patient on balls that are up in the strike zone. We swung at a lot of pitches up out of the zone on last weekend.
5. I want to see us win at least three out of four.
Also, on a sidenote, I am hoping to go to the game tommorrow, so I will actually see the team in person hopefully for the first time this year, and I can maybe gauge some of their problems, strengths better than I can on M2M.
I briefly glanced at SEMO State and Michigan State's stats and schedules, so this prview will be Athlon quality at best.
I think SEMO State may be what we need right now- which is a team that on paper that we SHOULD beat- like SELU. But that may be good for our players to win and get some confidence back and move forward. I'm sure after last weekend, they want to get out on the field and play and try to put the past behind them. Looking at the stats, I think SEMO State is a team that isn't all that great. They have some decent pitching stats until you look at K/BB ratio. They have a lot of pitchers that have control issues. Because of that, I think it's going to be very important for our hitters to be patient and not swing at pitches out of the zone and get themselves out. If there ever were a time for the team to channel their inner Raffo, this weekend would be a good time to do that. I did notice that SEMO State is indeed pitching their ace who has an ERA below 2.00 and has beaten Auburn, and we will counter with Nick Routt, which I think is a good move by Cohen because we can not afford a loss at this point in the year, and I think Friday is a must win for us. And as far as their ace- despite his sub 2.00 ERA, he still has 9K's to 9 BB's. So even against him, we have to be patient. If we are patient, we should be able to cause him to throw a lot of pitches, and then we can do some things on the basepaths because hopefully we will have runners on board.
Michigan State looks like a pretty solid team. They have some good hitting stats, but don't have a whole lot of power. They have lost to Clemson and Louisville- two pretty good teams. I suspect that we will throw Stratton possibly against their ace, as they play SEMO State on Fri., and I suspect that since they likely know that the Redhawks aren't throwing their ace, they may save theirs for us. I think this will be a good test for our team, and again very important for our team in terms of showing progress.
Also, as far as the game that was delayed against South Alabama- I have to wonder if Cohen and Steve Kittrell, USA's coach, didn't amiacably decide to delay the game. That was a blessing for us in my opinion because it allowed us to take a bit of a break and work on some things- namely defense- and kind of give our team a chance to catch its breath and evaluate themselves going forward. USA also hs struggled this year some, and I think the day off may have helped them in the long run as well. Which is why I think the delay could be mutual. I do know that the day that the game was supposed to be played, that the team had a big practice outdoors and indoors working on defense.
Lastly, one thing that is encouraging to me is that Cohen is identifying some problems- namely not relaxing- instead of blaming the fans for putting too much pressure on the players. Cohen understands that as a baseball player, when you play in a high level league, you will play in front of a lot of people. And I consider the SEC a high level league. It's an unavoidable thing. And it's something that the players have to deal with. Now, why are the players so uptight? I honestly don't know, but I do suspect that the competitive atmosphere that Cohen has created- in other words, you screw up, you sit- may have something to do with it. I'm not saying that competition is a bad thing at all, and again it is something that the players have to deal with. I don't know how Cohen will deal with it, and it's something that I will be watching for this weekend, but it may be something very simple as reassuring everyone who is starting that they will start the entire weekend no matter what. It may be giving positive encouragement, and it may be simply trying to make the game fun for the players. But that's why we're paying him to coach.
What I will be watching for:
1. I want to see the defense improve. No more than six errors the entire weekend for four games.
2. I want to see how Chris Stratton bounces back from a rough start. And I want the rest of the pitching staff to continue to perfrom reasonably well.
3. I want to see Devin Jones take the mantle of closer over the next two weeks. Either him or Ben Bracewell or CC Watson. Someone needs to step up.
4. I want to see our hitters be patient on balls that are up in the strike zone. We swung at a lot of pitches up out of the zone on last weekend.
5. I want to see us win at least three out of four.
Also, on a sidenote, I am hoping to go to the game tommorrow, so I will actually see the team in person hopefully for the first time this year, and I can maybe gauge some of their problems, strengths better than I can on M2M.
