Question - No Flame
- Thread starter beachreb61
- Start date
good answer Todd - Didn't know. Maybe the Bullies still have a record better than us Rebs now. Against JSU.
We had like a 23 game winning streak against them snapped tonight. I'm not going to look it up. It's above .500. Just trust me.
my messages might be coming off badly. Was a kid in the lounge in the days of Bruce Castoria, Will Clark, Palmiero, etc. Although an Ole Miss guy, would love to see OM/MSU be the decider in all sports.<div>
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Can't remember his name. Did he ever make the show? Always ggood to hear from a highway 45 guy. I grew up in Waynesboro.
I'm not very easily offended. To answer your other question- Is MSU baseball headed in the right direction?
Despite tonight- yes. I think it is for a few reasons-
1. We are just now getting the Polk era behind us. Now, when I say that understand this- we had/have a large portion of our fanbase that thinks that Ron Polk is Abner Doubleday/Alexander Cartwright/Moses of baseball- he invented it and can do no wrong. What they didn't realize was how much he was holding MSU baseball back because they are morons. They had no clue that our recruiting practices were grossly outdated and that our stadium was falling apart- heck I didn't realize until about a year ago that our skyboxes at Dudy-Noble take on water. Bottom line- MSU was never going to move forward untl he and his regime were gone. And yes, that does mean Raffo to. Had Raffo been named coach at MSU, Polk would have still been around, and I think Raffo would have essentially been a puppet. I think Raffo is proving to be a good coach at Arkansas State, but I think he would have failed here because he would not have been allowed to do his thing.
2. We are bringing in highly rated classes. For reference here I'm calling highly rated top 20 classes. Coach34 did some research that shows how crappy Polk's last few classes were. Coach's point is extremely valid. Cohen's first two are much better than Polk's last two. The thing about baseball is this- good players win games. You have to have good players to win. John Cohen had a good point last night- you have to have several classes in a row "stacked" to get to the point where you are playing almost all juniors and seniors every year. We're just not there yet in general. The only way to get there is to recruit well. And at least according to the experts, we are doing that. We will see how these players pan out in the future, but at least someone other than the coaching staff thinks that we're getting decent players in here.
3. The other thing that we have to do is get rid of the players that are not SEC caliber in terms of talent and attitude in general. Fact of the matter is while about half of the team are Cohen's players, the majority of the players in the field are Polk guys- We start anywhere between 4-7 of Polk's players in general, including the DH. Many of them are seniors, though. Once they leave, THEN I really want to see how the team responds to Cohen. I think there is a lot of backstabbing going on behind the scenes as it is right now. We may be young next year, but like the pitchers this year, I think people will see the potential that these players have as far as the future. And honestly, I think a lot of MSU fans don't realize how good a lot of these players potentially are. Yeah, some of them will struggle next year, but some will also adjust right off of the bat and do well. What Cohen needs right now more than anything in my opinion are players that fit his style that want to win. Once we start winning, I think it will unite the fanbase or run off the morons.
4. One thing I can not question about John Cohen- he wants to win and MSU baseball is priority one. I couldn't say that about the last coach. That in and of itself is a step in the right direction.
5. Let's say Cohen is a collosal failure. Let's say we get to year four, and Scott Stricklin fires him. (Let's be honest here- Lee Fowler? Serisously?) OK, so Cohen leaves the next coach- hopefully Brian O'Conner- a team that has had at least two top 20 recruiting classes and by that time, those guys will be if my late night math is correct, juniors and sophomores. If we make a decent hire, and I'm not going to bet against that since LT is gone, we'll be in good shape.
So, there you go.
Despite tonight- yes. I think it is for a few reasons-
1. We are just now getting the Polk era behind us. Now, when I say that understand this- we had/have a large portion of our fanbase that thinks that Ron Polk is Abner Doubleday/Alexander Cartwright/Moses of baseball- he invented it and can do no wrong. What they didn't realize was how much he was holding MSU baseball back because they are morons. They had no clue that our recruiting practices were grossly outdated and that our stadium was falling apart- heck I didn't realize until about a year ago that our skyboxes at Dudy-Noble take on water. Bottom line- MSU was never going to move forward untl he and his regime were gone. And yes, that does mean Raffo to. Had Raffo been named coach at MSU, Polk would have still been around, and I think Raffo would have essentially been a puppet. I think Raffo is proving to be a good coach at Arkansas State, but I think he would have failed here because he would not have been allowed to do his thing.
2. We are bringing in highly rated classes. For reference here I'm calling highly rated top 20 classes. Coach34 did some research that shows how crappy Polk's last few classes were. Coach's point is extremely valid. Cohen's first two are much better than Polk's last two. The thing about baseball is this- good players win games. You have to have good players to win. John Cohen had a good point last night- you have to have several classes in a row "stacked" to get to the point where you are playing almost all juniors and seniors every year. We're just not there yet in general. The only way to get there is to recruit well. And at least according to the experts, we are doing that. We will see how these players pan out in the future, but at least someone other than the coaching staff thinks that we're getting decent players in here.
3. The other thing that we have to do is get rid of the players that are not SEC caliber in terms of talent and attitude in general. Fact of the matter is while about half of the team are Cohen's players, the majority of the players in the field are Polk guys- We start anywhere between 4-7 of Polk's players in general, including the DH. Many of them are seniors, though. Once they leave, THEN I really want to see how the team responds to Cohen. I think there is a lot of backstabbing going on behind the scenes as it is right now. We may be young next year, but like the pitchers this year, I think people will see the potential that these players have as far as the future. And honestly, I think a lot of MSU fans don't realize how good a lot of these players potentially are. Yeah, some of them will struggle next year, but some will also adjust right off of the bat and do well. What Cohen needs right now more than anything in my opinion are players that fit his style that want to win. Once we start winning, I think it will unite the fanbase or run off the morons.
4. One thing I can not question about John Cohen- he wants to win and MSU baseball is priority one. I couldn't say that about the last coach. That in and of itself is a step in the right direction.
5. Let's say Cohen is a collosal failure. Let's say we get to year four, and Scott Stricklin fires him. (Let's be honest here- Lee Fowler? Serisously?) OK, so Cohen leaves the next coach- hopefully Brian O'Conner- a team that has had at least two top 20 recruiting classes and by that time, those guys will be if my late night math is correct, juniors and sophomores. If we make a decent hire, and I'm not going to bet against that since LT is gone, we'll be in good shape.
So, there you go.
And let me tell you that there is not an Ole Miss fan- of baseball- that would argue with you. We lost 5 pitchers to the pros and 3 to injuries before the season started. If any OM poster told you they expected to be tied for 1st in the west now - they would be a liar. I think that if y'all keep he course with the coach, you will be happy with the end result. We are at least consistent - and don't suffer huge dropoffs because of coaching changes.