But it's also important to understand that UK has one of, if not the smallest ballpark in the SEC- Cliff Hagan Field.
Even if he had our exact same lineup that we currently have now, our home run totals would be higher. If Clark and Palmeiro had played there, there's no telling what their home run totals would have been. You almost can't help but hit a lot of home runs there.
I saw UK play MSU when Cohen was at UK- they were aggressive on the bases, the tried to make things happen by moving the runners, they could bunt, and they played hard. This was one of his bad UK teams- I can't remember if it was his first or second year there.
We have to manufacture runs not because we don't have talent- it's because we don't have a lot of power hitters and we play in a ballpark with big power alleys. It's also hard to hit a ball out of Dudy-Noble Field in the early part of the season because of the weather and wind that always seems to occur at this time of the year. There will be more home runs once the weather warms up a little bit. And as far as MSU is concerned, we will be better in the power dept. once guys like Daryl Norris, Hunter Renfroe, Wes Rea, Demarcus Henderson, and Taylor Stark get experience, get at bats, get stronger, and etc. they will hit with power as well. And then we are going to add in other recruits that can hit with some power as well and once they also develop, we will hit our share of home runs and extra base hits.
Also, when you have speed and guys and very little power, you have no choice but to try to create runs.
I think Cohen is just using lip service when he is talking about small ball and all of that. He is right with what he is saying about the ballpark, but I think he would agree with me that power is something that can make you that much better offensively. Aggresiveness and the threat of stealing bases puts pressure on the opponent, but you become all that much more dangerous once you add a dangerous hitter in the lineup. That mistake pitch that occurs because we are distracting the pitcher with our baserunning to a contact hitter might turn into a double, but to a power hitter, it could become a home run. Power is usually the last thing to come for most hitters. Even at the Big League level that holds true. So, that's the bad thing- we have to wait on it to develop, even though we're recruting it. It's rare to find guys that can come in right away and be a force at the plate with power as a freshman.
Also, when Cohen was at UK, he had a pretty good pitching coach named Gary Henderson, who is their HC now.