Looking the MVSU game may be a wash...
- Thread starter engie
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For Cohen to be a supposed hitting "guru" his minions have certainly improved under his tutelage as the season has progressed, wouldn't you say?**
However, because of Thompson's pitching staff, this team is about where I expected it to be before season started..... and especially way ahead of where I expected it to be after the 5-10 SEC start. So kudos to Cohen for making a great hire in a pitching coach.
I'll give him his due, if this team holds onto the 5-6 spot after the next 2 weeks. If they flop because of lack of hitting and the pitching not being able to hold opponents under 3 runs a game, then that flop will be on Cohen. You just cannot expect the pitchers to hold every team under 3 runs every single game though.
However, because of Thompson's pitching staff, this team is about where I expected it to be before season started..... and especially way ahead of where I expected it to be after the 5-10 SEC start. So kudos to Cohen for making a great hire in a pitching coach.
I'll give him his due, if this team holds onto the 5-6 spot after the next 2 weeks. If they flop because of lack of hitting and the pitching not being able to hold opponents under 3 runs a game, then that flop will be on Cohen. You just cannot expect the pitchers to hold every team under 3 runs every single game though.
is Frazier, Fullerton, Porter, Slauter, Casey, Stark, Britton, Renfroe, Frost, and Cox on the hill.
That's 18, 0, 0, 0, 0, 8, 0, 5, 42, 0 career starts prior to this season. Sam Frost had more experience at the beginning of the season than the entire rest of our lineup combined, the only guy with more than 1 year here. That's incredible inexperience.
We will be fine at the plate in the future and would have been much better this year, had we not lost Stark, Norris, Bradford, and Brownlee, 4 of our 10 best hitters. Everyone that follows closely knew this year would be an uphill battle at the plate. We'll be a middle of the conference hitting team next year, while still being a top 2-3 pitching staff...
Edit for misnaming
That's 18, 0, 0, 0, 0, 8, 0, 5, 42, 0 career starts prior to this season. Sam Frost had more experience at the beginning of the season than the entire rest of our lineup combined, the only guy with more than 1 year here. That's incredible inexperience.
We will be fine at the plate in the future and would have been much better this year, had we not lost Stark, Norris, Bradford, and Brownlee, 4 of our 10 best hitters. Everyone that follows closely knew this year would be an uphill battle at the plate. We'll be a middle of the conference hitting team next year, while still being a top 2-3 pitching staff...
Edit for misnaming
Seems like recruiting should have been more balanced previous 2 or 3 years so there would have been more balance from Freshmen to Juniors... Don't really care if we have more than 1 or 2 seniors in the line up because that "usually" means they weren't good enough to get drafted or got drafted way late when they were Juniors considered to be long-term projects. There are some rare gems who stay through their senior year....but not many. All the seniors we had last year were mostly juco transfers who made strides but not enough in their first year....or just wanted the college experience one more year.
Cohen's first true recruiting class(which came after his first year as coach, due to baseball having the early signing period) was HEAVY on juco's. He'd probably tell you it was too heavy in hindsight. Just got no meaningful contribution from any HS position players from that class. Overall, IMO that will be the worst top to bottom recruiting class he will have. He made a trade-off to try to quick-fix with the juco's, and it almost got us to Omaha, but it has in turn caused us some growing pains this year.
This current FR class has potential to go down as one of our best ever, IMO. Especially on the hill. The soph class has a ton of potential too, especially if we can keep some of those position players healthy, and get the rest of them to "grow up." IF we continue to recruit at this level, will truly be BACK, and I'm sticking with what I've said all along, next year is when this rubber will REALLY begin to meet the road, when we'll(hopefully) have 5 junior position player starters that should all stand a chance to be drafted on a good season.
Look at it like this... How did Caleb Reed look as a fr? Stratton? Routt was good, I'll give that, he was the exception. Mitchell? Graveman? We had to "baptize those guys by fire" and they struggled until their third year mostly. Mitchell has potential IMO to be as good as Stratton is right now, he just hasn't put it all together yet. All those guys struggled through the first 2 years of their career, because as talented as they were(and we're seeing it now), they were NOT mentally ready to be a primetime SEC starter. Our freshmen pitchers this year are LIGHT YEARS better than those guys were as freshmen, and can bring them along at a normal pace without butchering their confidence by putting too much on them too early.
We've had to "baptize our position players by fire" in this same way, and next year is many of their 3rd years. Hopefully starting next year, we will have depth to treat our young position players like we've treated our young pitchers this season. It's going to pay major dividends in the future...
This current FR class has potential to go down as one of our best ever, IMO. Especially on the hill. The soph class has a ton of potential too, especially if we can keep some of those position players healthy, and get the rest of them to "grow up." IF we continue to recruit at this level, will truly be BACK, and I'm sticking with what I've said all along, next year is when this rubber will REALLY begin to meet the road, when we'll(hopefully) have 5 junior position player starters that should all stand a chance to be drafted on a good season.
Look at it like this... How did Caleb Reed look as a fr? Stratton? Routt was good, I'll give that, he was the exception. Mitchell? Graveman? We had to "baptize those guys by fire" and they struggled until their third year mostly. Mitchell has potential IMO to be as good as Stratton is right now, he just hasn't put it all together yet. All those guys struggled through the first 2 years of their career, because as talented as they were(and we're seeing it now), they were NOT mentally ready to be a primetime SEC starter. Our freshmen pitchers this year are LIGHT YEARS better than those guys were as freshmen, and can bring them along at a normal pace without butchering their confidence by putting too much on them too early.
We've had to "baptize our position players by fire" in this same way, and next year is many of their 3rd years. Hopefully starting next year, we will have depth to treat our young position players like we've treated our young pitchers this season. It's going to pay major dividends in the future...