I feel like we are back in the Polk 2.0 era

[MSUDC11-2.0]

Clearly behind many conference peers in talent and development

Being surpassed by programs that didn’t give two ***** about baseball 5 years ago (in the 2000’s it was Ole Miss, now it’s Tennessee)

Losing series to Mike 17’ing Bianco

Losing games because our bullpen sucks and we do the little things poorly

If you went into a coma in 2008 and woke up in time to see this weekend’s games, you would think not a dang thing had changed while you were out.

 

[patdog]

That's been my prediction ever since we didn't do what needed to be done 11 months ago. It's Polk II all over again. Lemonis will do just enough to be back next year. And next year will be more of the same. It's like the Groundhog Day movie.

 

[HumpDawgy]

If you hang your hat on offensive players and scoring runs, but only have 4 batters hitting over 300 in SEC play, that's a problem. Most of us knew that we would need to outscore teams to win games, but even with a homer or 2 a game will not beat teams with the dog$#!+ we have for pitchers. Its Khal Stephen and nobody else. Mershon, Larry, and Kohler need to find them some slumpbusters or we are in deep doo doo. But I'm sure most fans will still want to keep Lemon since he won that Natty. What a wasted opportunity to build a dynasty. Lazy POS.

 

[OG Goat Holder]

If you hang your hat on offensive players and scoring runs, but only have 4 batters hitting over 300 in SEC play, that's a problem. Most of us knew that we would need to outscore teams to win games, but even with a homer or 2 a game will not beat teams with the dog$#!+ we have for pitchers. Its Khal Stephen and nobody else. Mershon, Larry, and Kohler need to find them some slumpbusters or we are in deep doo doo. But I'm sure most fans will still want to keep Lemon since he won that Natty. What a wasted opportunity to build a dynasty. Lazy POS.

We weren't ever going to build a dynasty. Truth be known, we just lived through the golden era of MSU baseball, highly doubt we see an era like 2011-2021 again. The only way we can do this is to commit the same level of resources to baseball as say, a program like UConn basketball does. And obviously this probably comes at the expense of other sports, but that's how things work.

 

[HuntDawg]

If you hang your hat on offensive players and scoring runs, but only have 4 batters hitting over 300 in SEC play, that's a problem. Most of us knew that we would need to outscore teams to win games, but even with a homer or 2 a game will not beat teams with the dog$#!+ we have for pitchers. Its Khal Stephen and nobody else. Mershon, Larry, and Kohler need to find them some slumpbusters or we are in deep doo doo. But I'm sure most fans will still want to keep Lemon since he won that Natty. What a wasted opportunity to build a dynasty. Lazy POS.

Losing Highfill kills us. To have an offensive guy who they were probably expecting to be a 5 hole hitter this year.. and the replacement cant even hit is weight is a huge loss.

Obviously Koehler in the portal was a big miss. Not sure what happened there. But again to not have a servicable plan B is on the staff.

Think they obviously felt good about having enough bodies to throw at the LF and DH spots to be able to find servicable player.. those didnt pan out... and had Koehler hit and Highfill been around this probably would be non-issue spots.

And then Larry has regressed...

Obviously need more depth, as we have a large gulf it seems between guys we see play and reserves. Thats due to just plain misses the last few years in recruiting.

 

[Shmuley]

You mean we resemble a middle-of-the-pack big ten team? How could THAT have happened?

 

[Leeshouldveflanked]

We weren't ever going to build a dynasty. Truth be known, we just lived through the golden era of MSU baseball, highly doubt we see an era like 2011-2021 again. The only way we can do this is to commit the same level of resources to baseball as say, a program like UConn basketball does. And obviously this probably comes at the expense of other sports, but that's how things work.

Yep our success in the past was based on 95% of the NCAA not caring about baseball. Now with TV money. A lot of schools have money to burn on baseball.

 

[MSUDC11-2.0]

We weren't ever going to build a dynasty. Truth be known, we just lived through the golden era of MSU baseball, highly doubt we see an era like 2011-2021 again. The only way we can do this is to commit the same level of resources to baseball as say, a program like UConn basketball does. And obviously this probably comes at the expense of other sports, but that's how things work.

While I do agree that we were due a drop off after the 2016-2021 run and it’s not realistic to plan on being in Omaha or even a Super every single year like we were in that stretch…. The drop off has been far worse than it should’ve been.

Really and truly the problem is still how bad we were in 2022 and 2023. If we had won the national championship last year and followed it up with a season like this current one, eh not a huge deal. But following up a NC with three seasons of being either bad or mediocre is inexcusable.

 

[OG Goat Holder]

While I do agree that we were due a drop off after the 2016-2021 run and it’s not realistic to plan on being in Omaha or even a Super every single year like we were in that stretch…. The drop off has been far worse than it should’ve been.

Really and truly the problem is still how bad we were in 2022 and 2023. If we had won the national championship last year and followed it up with a season like this current one, eh not a huge deal. But following up a NC with three seasons of being either bad or mediocre is inexcusable.

Meh ya'll get too down in the weeds. There's a lot of things you can point to in 2022 and 2023, injuries, whatever. But one thing we all agree on, we should be built back up by now and should be solidly in the tournament this season.

Either he'll do it, or he won't. It's really that simple. If he barely squeaks in, well, we've got a decision to make.

 

[ZombieKissinger]

We have a losing SEC record since 1991. Just checked!

 

[MSUDC11-2.0]

We have a losing SEC record since 1991. Just checked!

It’s very humbling that our fans think so highly of our program and yet we have one SEC championship since 1989.

 

[OG Goat Holder]

We have a losing SEC record since 1991. Just checked!

That's pretty nuts.

I'll go even further. Without COVID, we ain't 2021 national champs. That said, we might have won it in 2020, who knows, but either way, TA and Rowdy aren't on that 2021 team without the Vid. Maybe TA is, because he had gotten hurt in early 2020. But of course, that goes for a lot of people, including Ole Miss baseball and Baylor basketball.

And now obviously things have changed for the worse with NIL/portal, as far as Mississippi State. It's hard to be positive at this point.

 

[HuntDawg]

That's pretty nuts.

I'll go even further. Without COVID, we ain't 2021 national champs. That said, we might have won it in 2020, who knows, but either way, TA and Rowdy aren't on that 2021 team without the Vid. Maybe TA is, because he had gotten hurt in early 2020. But of course, that goes for a lot of people, including Ole Miss baseball and Baylor basketball.

And now obviously things have changed for the worse with NIL/portal, as far as Mississippi State. It's hard to be positive at this point.

Without covid. We play red hot NC State instead of Vandy.

 

[OG Goat Holder]

Without covid. We play red hot NC State instead of Vandy.

Oooof. Even worse.

I still look at how hard it was for Cohen to rebuild the program, and we're lucky we've gotten where we have. We really messed up in 2002 by hiring Polk 2. But alas, here we are. Thanks to Cohen, we did finally get that elusive title, even if it cost us in other ways.

I think we need a wholesale reset of how we're going to approach baseball at this point. We need to bring back a Cohen guy, like Burroughs or Mingione, who will go out and get those tough, 4* type players who want to work. We also need to mobilize NIL even moreso, in order to keep them, and get 2-3 real difference makers per year, whether they are in the portal or incoming freshman. Those guys will be high dollar.

 

[thekimmer]

Right now I just want Lemonis gone. There is nothing he can do at this point to satisfy me. It should have been over for him last season. Even if we make a regional he still needs to go. We thought we had turned a corner but obviously LSU was fool's gold and the UF series that seemed promising despite a series loss turns out to be just as terrible as the UM series. Now here we are with a 3B and 2B that can't hit or field, a DH position so devoid of talent that we played a freshman with a .000 BA, a bullpen that blows a 4 run lead in the 8th, can't win after posting a lead in the top of TWO extra innings, then gets run ruled the next day against a bad SEC opponent.

I have never rooted for State to lose but it is awfully tempting at this point to make sure someone else is coaching us next season.

 

[HumpDawgy]

So he wins a natty. Even with a total rebuild, you might expect a bad drop off the next season with a lot of freshman/new players, then an average, but improving season the next, and this season rebuild should be complete with those proven freshmen producing and hosting a regional at best, high seed in a regional worst case. Lemonis is set to have his 3rd disappointing season after that Natty. We will not finish above 500 in this league with this team. That is not even bottom of the bar acceptable. This program has been poorly coached and poorly recruited.

 

[OG Goat Holder]

So he wins a natty. Even with a total rebuild, you might expect a bad drop off the next season with a lot of freshman/new players, then an average, but improving season the next, and this season rebuild should be complete with those proven freshmen producing and hosting a regional at best, high seed in a regional worst case. Lemonis is set to have his 3rd disappointing season after that Natty. We will not finish above 500 in this league with this team. That is not even bottom of the bar acceptable. This program has been poorly coached and poorly recruited.

The problem that so many don't get is that 2023 was the rebuild year. Where Lemonis messed up, was 2022. We were supposed to be average at least that year, and get into a regional, maybe even a low level host. That's the one that got him. Whether it was him or the TJ bug, that's the year.

To me, 2023 was expected.

Fast forward to 2024, and it's obviously a disappointment.

 

[ETK99]

It's time to move on. It was time last year but I can understand why it didn't happen.