MSU baseball pre-spring preview

[Todd4State]

I'm going to put two lineups out there- one is the rumored starting lineup for MSU, and one is what I think it will look like at the end of the year. I'm not going to mention every player, so just because I don't mention someone, it doesn't mean that they won't play or that I think they are bad.

Weekend rotation:

Stratton
Routt
Ben Bracewell
Evan Mitchell- remember we have a couple of four game series at the beginning of the year.

Weekend rotation end of year:

Stratton
Routt
Mitchell
Graveman- midweek

Closer: Caleb Reed

Closer end of year: Ben Bracewell with Reed and Pollorena setting him up.


Alright now- First name is rumored starter for opening day and the second name is who I think will start at the end of the year.

Catcher- Mitch Slauter; Hunter Renfroe- we're going to play at least two catchers anyway, so you could say this a platoon situation.
First base- Wes Rea; Rea
Second base- Philip Casey; Demarcus Henderson- may be a left/right platoon spot as well.
Third base- Daryl Norris; Norris- I like Nick Flair, but he just had surgery on his wrist. I think that will put him behind for this year.
Shortstop- Adam Frazier; Frazier
Right field- Brandon Woodruff; Woodruff
Center Field- CT Bradford; Bradford
Left field- Brent Brownlee; Brownlee
DH- Hunter Renfroe; Taylor Stark- Hunter can play a lot of positions. We may use him sort of as a utility guy to give people a day off here and there.

 

[Todd4State]

I'm going to put two lineups out there- one is the rumored starting lineup for MSU, and one is what I think it will look like at the end of the year. I'm not going to mention every player, so just because I don't mention someone, it doesn't mean that they won't play or that I think they are bad.

Weekend rotation:

Stratton
Routt
Ben Bracewell
Evan Mitchell- remember we have a couple of four game series at the beginning of the year.

Weekend rotation end of year:

Stratton
Routt
Mitchell
Graveman- midweek

Closer: Caleb Reed

Closer end of year: Ben Bracewell with Reed and Pollorena setting him up.


Alright now- First name is rumored starter for opening day and the second name is who I think will start at the end of the year.

Catcher- Mitch Slauter; Hunter Renfroe- we're going to play at least two catchers anyway, so you could say this a platoon situation.
First base- Wes Rea; Rea
Second base- Philip Casey; Demarcus Henderson- may be a left/right platoon spot as well.
Third base- Daryl Norris; Norris- I like Nick Flair, but he just had surgery on his wrist. I think that will put him behind for this year.
Shortstop- Adam Frazier; Frazier
Right field- Brandon Woodruff; Woodruff
Center Field- CT Bradford; Bradford
Left field- Brent Brownlee; Brownlee
DH- Hunter Renfroe; Taylor Stark- Hunter can play a lot of positions. We may use him sort of as a utility guy to give people a day off here and there.

 

[jlm255]

havent heard much on him. do you think he could see some time at third

 

[dawgatUSM]

Last year he struggled bad. I chalked a lot of that up to the stuff going on with his dad...<div>
</div><div>Also, I thought Mitchell was our best pitcher by years end, so if he's truly our #3 or 4 then I think our staff is in good shape.</div>

 

[TilloDawg]

unless he plays his way out of it....and he won't.

 

[jacksdawgs]

but I highly doubt that had anything to do with his struggles.

 

[dawgatUSM]

Stratton was pitching lights out last season until that stuff started going down.

 

[engie]

A senior starting pitcher and a senior closer
2 junior starting pitchers
1 soph starting pitcher

jr and soph catcher
soph at first
fresh and soph at 2nd
soph and a fresh at 3rd
soph at SS
fresh in right
soph in center
senior in left
with nearly ALL of these guys being dual threats on the mound...

Starting to feel reall wooly about the future under Cohen. The one place where experience is NOT overrated, on the hill, we have experience. Everywhere else, we have talent...

 

[Todd4State]

He will be worked into the lineup some early in the season and will be given an opportunity- most likely at third base, possibly a corner outfield spot and DH. I think he's going to be a valuable role player for us as his time at MSU goes on and I think he has a chance to start. He's a good player and will be useful for us.

 

[Todd4State]

and knowing what kind of work ethic he has, yes, I feel like he is over his issues from last spring. And yes, I do feel like there were some external things that affected his performance. Just my personal opinion.

Here's the thing about our pitching situation- as others have mentioned, we have a good bit of experience (finally) and we also have some guys that have struggled. What people need to understand is the strength of our staff is not in our starters, but it's in our bullpen. Not that our starters are bad, but at the same time, we don't have a Paul Maholm SEC type automatic win guy either. That's different than the past few seasons where we didn't have as much quality depth in the bullpen and we were having to rely on freshmen to get the job done and didn't really have a closer. Last season was better, but we had some depth issues still and we had some starters that couldn't get deep in the game- and we ended up riding our bullpen hard, and they finally gave out in the SR. Also, because we lacked bullpen depth we were asking our starters like Stratton to give us seven or eight innings every time- that's a lot of extra pressure on a young pitcher.

But now, because we have depth in our bullpen, we really need our starters to go about five innings or so everytime. Having Ben Bracewell back is going to make a big difference whatever his role is on the team because I think he is going to kind of link it all together. Asking a starter to go five helps them mentally because they don't feel like they have to carry the team every time out. And sometimes you get that seven inning outing as well thrown in there.

Think about it this way just as an example:

Friday- Stratton (5-6) Pollorena (7-9)
Sat.- Routt (5-6) Reed (7-9)
Sun.- Evan Mitchell (5-6) Graveman (7-9)

And of course, that doesn't mention guys like Bracewell, Stark, Daryl Norris, Girodo, etc. My point is, we can throw our starters for less than a quality start, back them up with a good option for a few innings at a time with someone out of the bullpen, and not burn anyone out- like we did with Reed and Pollorena last year. It also means that you won't see me say things like "we really need Evan Mitchell to be strong this year for us to go to a regional". Which was the case with guys like Ricky Bowen, Devin Jones, Routt, and Stratton.

 

[Todd4State]

Although I doubt he does- but we'll know more later in the year. I'm not sure what he wants to do as far as going pro or if he just wants to play college baseball and move on with his life. He could play pro baseball if he wants to- but I don't think he's going to be a high (top ten round) pick either. He has to prove that he's healthy more than anything.

We do have talent- really with the position players, it's a matter of developing them and getting them experience.

As I said, our pitching should be pretty strong and we also have a more athletic team that can play defense as well- especially Rea, Casey, Renfroe, CT and Brownlee. Frazier is solid and just outworks you. Norris is OK at third- Flair might be the best defensively, but he has to get healthy. Woodruff is solid, and he should improve defensively and be pretty good as he gets more experience.

I'd like to see CT steal at least 20 bases this upcoming year and I think we could have a little bit more power than last year- Rea, Renfroe, Norris, and Woodruff will have a lot of say in that.

 

[sleepy dawg]

I pretty much depend on you for my preseason MSU baseball news and previews.

Thanks for posting.

 

[CadaverDawg]

Nm

 

[Rutherford B Hays]

I'm not trying to set you up Todd, but you know more about college baseball than anyone else on this Board. PM me if youare concerned aboutpredictions blowing up on you later.

 

[KurtRambis4]

have to give us more than 4-5 innings for us to have a successful SEC year.

 

[Todd4State]

Or something similar to last year as long as we stay healthy. I think we will probably finish third in the SEC West behind Arkansas and LSU, and we should at worst make a regional. We should be one of the top six teams in the SEC next year. I've missed on my predictions as far as wins pretty much every year- so I'll survive the Internet cred hit.

This next sentence is not a prediction, but what I want to see out of our team next year as far as goals:


I want to see us host a regional, go back to Super Regional and then go on to Omaha. I think we have a realistic chance to accomplish that.

 

[Todd4State]

but we also don't have to have them go 8 innings every time either for us to have a successful season.

From what I remember about Cohen at UK, he used the bullpen a pretty good bit. I think we will see that a lot now that we have some people that can actually pitch.

 

[majors42]

How much home run production can we realistically expect from rea as an unproven and norris who has yet to hit a home run in a game for us?

Also CT stole 11 bases last year but was thrown out 7 times. I sure as hell don't want that to double. We can't afford to have him thrown out 14 times next season. How much does Cohen work on timing etc? I always thought you were a good base stealer or you weren't.

 

[Foronce]

forgot about bracewell coming back.

 

[DowntownDawg]

...we need consistency. We've got as much experience on that staff as you can ever hope to have. The "we're young" excuse will not fly this year. Time for Butch to step up.

 

[TheStateUofMS]

I'm going to put two lineups out there- one is the rumored starting lineup for MSU, and one is what I think it will look like at the end of the year. I'm not going to mention every player, so just because I don't mention someone, it doesn't mean that they won't play or that I think they are bad.

Weekend rotation:

Stratton
Routt
Ben Bracewell
Evan Mitchell- remember we have a couple of four game series at the beginning of the year.

Weekend rotation end of year:

Stratton
Routt
Mitchell
Graveman- midweek

Closer: Caleb Reed

Closer end of year: Ben Bracewell with Reed and Pollorena setting him up.


Alright now- First name is rumored starter for opening day and the second name is who I think will start at the end of the year.

Catcher- Mitch Slauter; Hunter Renfroe- we're going to play at least two catchers anyway, so you could say this a platoon situation.
First base- Wes Rea; Rea
Second base- Philip Casey; Demarcus Henderson- may be a left/right platoon spot as well.
Third base- Daryl Norris; Norris- I like Nick Flair, but he just had surgery on his wrist. I think that will put him behind for this year.
Shortstop- Adam Frazier; Frazier
Right field- Brandon Woodruff; Woodruff
Center Field- CT Bradford; Bradford
Left field- Brent Brownlee; Brownlee
DH- Hunter Renfroe; Taylor Stark- Hunter can play a lot of positions. We may use him sort of as a utility guy to give people a day off here and there.

Good stuff I agree....have you thrown in the towel on Chad Girodo and C.C. Watson (he's still on the team isn't he)?

 

[Todd4State]

He almost can't help but hit a few. Some of it is going to depend on Trey Porter too, because they could share the position. I wouldn't be surprised if Wes hit 10 home runs if he starts exclusively at first, and I think we could definately get that many between Rea and Porter at the first base position. Either way, it's an upgrade over Ryan Collins.

Norris has changed his stance- something I had been calling for awhile. It's more closed now, and I think that will help his power along with experience- so I'd expect about 5 home runs from him.

As far as CT- I'm honestly not sure how much Cohen works on timing or baserunning. But, I think CT's problem last year was being overaggressive. There were some things that he got away with in high school that you can't get away with in college. I think experience will help him out more than anything. Also- I think having a number two hitter that makes better contact will help him out a lot as well. I don't know how many of those caught stealings were botched hit and runs. I think we will probably hit Frazier second. Anyway, that's the biggest thing with CT right now is his baserunning.

 

[Todd4State]

Obviously, he has had some injury issues, but he is supposed to be able to pitch this spring. So, how much he helps us out depends on how well he looks in the spring practices. I wouldn't be shocked if we have to redshirt him like we did with Ben Bracewell- although the coaches don't want to at this time. But he's very close to coming back. I know Cohen has talked some about how hard he has worked in rehab, so he's someone I'm pulling for. If CC is healthy, I think he can be another really good arm out of the bullpen that is left handed.

I think Girodo will pitch a pretty good bit. His issue is consistency. He'll have games where he will pitch really well like the Gov. Cup last year and then he will have games where he will get knocked around like he did against Ole Miss. Last year, he was developing a slider and he didn't always have command of it. When he had command of it, I thought he was pretty good. I think his best role is in 1-2 inning stints, and I think at times, we had to extend him a little bit again because of depth but there isn't a reason to do that this year.

Speaking of left handed pitchers- Tim Statz will be dropping down to submarine style and he will be another weapon that we can use.

 

[RonnyAtmosphere]

..that for the first time in many years, MSU had HR hitters in the line-up.


I remember a couple of years ago we kept hearing (just like we hear every year) that Dudy-Noble is a pitcher's park & don't expect either our team or any other team to enter Dudy-Noble & hit HR's.


Then arrived a home game with Auburn (I think), & they promptly went yard 5 times in the same game.


Every year our batters are too weak to be in the upper tier SEC teams that hit HR's.


And don't tell me it's because MSU plays in a pitcher's park, since every other SEC team transforms that pitcher's park into a bandbox.

 

[engie]

and the new bats really did a number on future HR production in our house. Might as well be swinging wood bats. It's also a drastically different park in May than it is in February, and MUCH "deader" to left/center than it is to right. If you can consistently hit a ball out of Dudy Noble in February with the current bats, you will be drafted high and playing in MLB.

That said, I do agree with you, I'd like to see us hit more balls out of the yard. IMO we will greatly increase our homerun production this year as compared to last year because several of the freshmen/sophs have the ability to hit the deep ball, rather than just being a "doubles" team based on speed and gap power.

 

[Todd4State]

In the game that you are referencing (I think) Russ Sneed hit a moon shot. That MSU team also had a little bit more power than our team did last year- Conner Powers, Sneed, Ryan Duffy, etc. It was just a different team than what we had last year.

That said, I do agree with you as far as power- and really I would like to see a team with power and speed to get really good balance thorughout the lineup- but the thing about power hitting and home runs in general is that it's something that for most players that comes last in development. Or you hear a lot of people say that anyway.

I think Cohen agrees with you too based on how we've been recruiting. Hunter Renfroe, Wes Rea, Nick Flair, Reid Humphries who is argueably the top junior in Mississippi and is a commit, Woodruff, and Daniel Garner who is a signee and has won some home run derbies in high school, as well as Norris are all guys that have the potential to hit for power. I know Lane Burroughs thinks that Demarcus can hit for a little bit of power as well. But the issue this year is most of those guys are freshmen or sophomores that are still learning and developing and we really will see them at their peak during their junior and senior years. So, I expect to see our power as a team gradually get better and better.

The real issue with power last year was we had to rebuild with JUCO guys to be compeititve and it's really hard to find legit power guys in JUCO ball that don't go to MLB- getting a guy like Vickerson or Ogden last year were fairly solid for JUCO guys in the power department.

And I don't think we are going to stop getting guys that can run and defend because of the ballpark that we have either. I do think we will see a good mix of both.

 

[Todd4State]

And I'm no weather man, but we have very "wet" winters and the air is pretty heavy early in the year. Just what I was told and it could be way off.

And you think about some of the good power hitters MSU has had over the years- Clark and Palmeiro were both left handed hitters. Mitch Moreland was left handed too. Maybe we need to really go hard after left handed power hitters.

 

[engie]

Dudy Noble is much more power-friendly to lefties, which can be shown over the years numbers-wise, especially when you remove the gorilla-ball years in the late 90s. The hill behind right basically prevents wind blowing in from right-center from having much effect on the ball up to 50ft or so off the ground. In left and center, the field basically sits on top of a hill. Here, you not only get the full effect of inward wind direction, you get an "updraft" from mid-outfield back to around the fence. That's why you so often see balls smoked to left that tend to hang in the air forever, before just dying out and being caught on the warning track early in the season.

Early humidity is a factor hitting in any park in the SEC, but another thing hurts us is that the prevailing winds change from the winter to spring. In winter, it's almost always blowing directly IN, whereas in the spring you get alot of outward "launching" winds at DNF for whatever reason...

 

[Goat Grindin]

period.

 

[Uncle Ruckus]

wasn't rea also recruited as a pitcher? anyone know if that has been completely abandoned and he is strictly a 1st baseman now?