Ready for some baseball, +++@ it I'll be a sheep about it.....

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Goat Holder II

Guest
I think we finally turn the corner this year. Been sad seeing the talent differential in the SEC games we played last year. I think we'll at least be competitive now. 30 wins and a regional.
 
G

Goat Holder II

Guest
I think we finally turn the corner this year. Been sad seeing the talent differential in the SEC games we played last year. I think we'll at least be competitive now. 30 wins and a regional.
 

DowntownDawg

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May 28, 2007
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....its been under Cohen, and that's saying something. Routt is a wildcard with his injury, and we lost a few young arms to transfer and some are out with surgery. We're going to be playing a young infield.

It's going to be a looong year barring something miraculous. I think Cohen will can Thompson after this season, though, and we'll start to improve in 2012.
 
G

Goat Holder II

Guest
because I don't think it can get much worse.

My rationalization is that Cohen is the Rich Rod of baseball. He has a system he must implement. Culture changing type deal. Rough couple of years but once it's in it's hard to stop.
 

maroonmania

Senior
Feb 23, 2008
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I really wonder if Cohen didn't significantly slow down how fast our program could get turned around by keeping guys around that he shouldn't have (with bad attitudes and quite limited on talent) out of respect for the fact that they were Polk players and he didn't want to upset his former coach? Seems if you need a house cleaning it would be much easier for a coach to come in that had no affiliation with the former coach.
 
G

Goat Holder II

Guest
it's easy to jump on that bandwagon and I've caught myself doing it, but bottom line is we haven't had any pitchers worth a **** and that's on Polk for not recruiting anything at that position. I think the only bad thing Cohen has done so far is missed on his JUCO recruiting. He tried to fix things quickly instead of recruiting the high school guys first (at least it seems that way to me) and they've been huge busts. But he brought in pitching from the first class.

But I will say I am glad that I don't have to look at a few of those guys anymore that were on last year's team, I don't care how good their run production was. I just want to see some hard effort and those guys just weren't going to put that in.
 

BillBraskyDOG

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Mar 3, 2008
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And it wasone of "polk's guys" yelling at one of "cohen's guys" for not getting in front of a grounder and not hustling. Cohen had to step in. So i think the whole thing has been way overblown out of anger against the way polk left.
 
G

Goat Holder II

Guest
That's what it is most of all for me. All of this could have been avoided. Manieri could have us winning National Titles right now. But even so, Cohen is one of the better coaches out there, or he had a damn good resume coming into the MSU job. So you either believe Cohen's just not any good or that the MSU baseball situation was just in really really bad shape. You really have to go with the latter because the players we've brought in have all been highly rated, certainly with more acclaim than the guys he inherited from Polk (as a whole, I know Conner Powers was a big recruit).

The job is still what it was before. We're in a baseball crazy state. We have the fanbase if we could just give them a reason to show up and be excited. I can't think of a betterarea to recruit baseball talent with the exception of South Florida and California.
 

Todd4State

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Mar 3, 2008
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Our "young" infield is probably going to look like this:

Vickerson- Sr.
Frost- So.
Parks- Sr.
Ogden- Sr.

We only had two guys transfer this past year- Luke Bole and Matt Lea to JUCO's. I doubt that they would have pitched much this year.

And as of this time, we ONE pitcher out for next year because of surgery- that's Ben Bracewell and he could pitch in March, but we're going to sit him out instead of waste a year of eligibility, which is smart.

Routt is cleared and ready to go. If you don't believe me, you can ask Cohen or BDJ.

The other three with injury issues- Paxton Pace, Tim Statz, and Micheal Dixon- probably won't contribute much anyway and one will be cut. By the way, all three are cleared to pitch as of now.

Now what's important is who is healthy- that's Stratton, Routt, Devin Jones, and Chad Girodo.

Our pitchers have had a year of experience now and on top of that, they will be pitching to guys swinging bats that are a lot more dead than last year in a pitchers ballpark, and you somehow think that they're going to be worse?

If you like, I can send you a link with the roster if you would actually like to start following MSU baseball.
 

Todd4State

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Mar 3, 2008
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is that pretty much all of Polk's guys are gone. And not trivialize his injury, but I think Ryan Duffy's injury has polarized our team a little bit

Any chemistry problems that we have this year won't be because of Polk's guys- because they aren't there.

I do agree about the JUCO players. Cohen had a lot of success at UK with some JUCO guys, but it typically doesn't work. MLB usually strip mines the JUCO ranks of the top players, so there isn't much left once they get done. You will notice that in our current class, we have signed one JUCO guy, a big reduction from past years. And that guy is pretty much a back-up catcher who is being brought in for his glove.
 
G

Goat Holder II

Guest
if a guy from JUCO is a bonafide player, you know it. You don't have to rationalize like we did others.
 

DowntownDawg

Redshirt
May 28, 2007
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....and Ogden can't hit. Frost was a worthless player last year. Poor defensively and anemic at the plate. He will have to improve by leaps and bounds to even be an adequate player. I sure hope we have a better option. And Parks may be a senior but he has never played a significant amount.

Again, show me what Thompson has ever done. Good God, did you really throw Devin Jones out there as an example of why we are going to be improved? You need to take a deep breath. That guy was absolutely terrible last year. Our best arm last year was Stratton and he was an average Sunday guy in terms of ERA. Thompson 17ed up Routt's arm and even when he was at the top of his game, he's not dominant. It's a pretty big leap to think he'll be a big asset for us this year coming off that injury. I actually like Girodo. I think he has a lot of potential. He competed as a freshman, but again, was nowhere near SEC caliber.

I hope we are improved but I think we will suck. You do this every year. You convince yourself that we are going to be world beaters and then you spend the rest of the year offering excuses as to why you were wrong.

We sucked last year, primarily because of our pitching staff. The pop in our average lineup is gone, and our pitching staff has suffered transfers and injuries, and considering Routt didn't pitch in the fall, he is a huge and important question mark.

For us to be good, we are going to have to have some monster years from guys who have never produced either because they are young or they haven't been able to get it done in the past.
 
G

Goat Holder II

Guest
think about this. He did hit .248, which I believe is along the same lines as Berkery, Butler and Hunter (just thinking of guys who started as freshmen). Freeman, back in '95, I believe hit around .235 (not 100% sure). So, in our success starved emotion, we really should take a step back and let this play out. Maybe he's not quite so bad after all. I mean, he did start as a freshman after all. Who else would come in and do better, you know what I mean.

And please don't start with the Butch Thompson hate. Todd proved you wrong a week or two ago about that. Can't get any worse than McNickle. And just about every program out there is experiencing these arm injury problems, which is another story in itself.

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alabamadog

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Oct 7, 2008
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and I read on here he had an injured foot during part of last season. Also, I'm thinking that Henderson starts over Frost at second.
 
G

Goat Holder II

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this past decade. All they've done is fire me up about certain players only to be disappointed royally.
 

Todd4State

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Mar 3, 2008
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Seriously? That projects out to 30-26. Because that is the most wins that I have ever predicted during the Cohen era so far. Feel free to use the search features on sixpack speak if you would like- assuming you are smart enough to figure out how they work, which I have my doubts. Also, I feel pretty confident in saying that had Routt been healthy, we would have met that, so you will have to excuse me for not having a functional crystal ball. As it was, I was only about 6-7 wins off, which is not too bad considering the amount of games that are played and me assuming that we would have our ace.

As far as Devin Jones- I've said that he would likely be in our rotation and needs to step up. He has the potential to be very good- he will be drafted after this year. But I'm pinning my hopes more on Stratton and Devin Jones. Saying someone will be inthe rotation is hardly pinning my hopes on him. My point is we have some talented pitchers that have something to work with, which is an improvement over last year. We're actually healthier than we have been on the pitching staff in quite some time.

You said our infield "would be young". I just posted the projected infield for next year, which had three seniors on it. I would imagine that we will probably start at least two seniors at least 75% of the time next year. You can nitpick their talent, but they aren't young as you said. I highly suspect that some freshmen will play as well- especially Daryl Norris and DeMarcus Henderson.

Routt didn't pitch in the fall because that was part of his rehab protocol. What would you rather have happen? We blow his arm out in a scrimmage, or follow the protocol? Are you seriously questioning why our coaches didn't follow the MD's, orders? He has been throwing on the side and as I have said, it has been reported by several reputable sources that he is now healthy.

One thing about injuries and players- you can not assume that a player is going to get hurt.

I have said that the pitching will be better for several rational reasons- aGAIN to recap: More experience, more healthy, easier schedule, and bats that are dead in a pitchers ballpark. And you have- Butch sucks because I guess he ran over your dog or set your house on fire and hurt Nick Routt.

As you said, we won't have as much power- I guess if you fling enough **** against a wall, something will inevitably stick- because guess what? We're going to be swinging the same bats as everyone else. And you are right, we won't have as much power as last year, but we also have a much faster team than last year- or really since probably 1998. It won't be so much be about batting average and home runs as it will be about stealing bases and creating runs. I doubt anyone will hit .357 or whatever, but one thing we can do is get on base and steal. I wouldn't be shocked if whoever leads the SEC in home runs has 15 for the year. The style of baseball that we are going to have to play fits our team and what they do well as well as our ballpark.

I've shown you 2-3 times what Butch has done. You choose to not believe it or are too stupid to comprehend it, and I can't fix either of those for you.
 

Todd4State

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Mar 3, 2008
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1. When someone does something good, is also means someone did something bad. Applies for any sport.

2. Some of those stats are against walk-ons.
 

Todd4State

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Mar 3, 2008
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I agree with you. DeMarcus is a very talented player and he could really take over for Ogden if he doesn't hit too. For Frost to stay the starter, he has to play, and hit better.

That's one good thing about talent- we have guys that will push the other players to be better and perform, and we have depth, so we aren't stuck with Micheal Rutledge at third for an entire season.
 

alabamadog

Redshirt
Oct 7, 2008
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but seriously, Isaid "for what its worth". Fall stats do slightly project potential, even though guys like Ricky Bowen prove every year we can'tassume much fromthese fall stats. Ogden might actually manage a decent year at the plate, but I'm not expecting it until I see it. Also, he somehow managed to have around a .350 obp last year while hardly ever getting hits, so its not like he needs to hit over .300 to be productive. At this point I'm hoping he breaks .250, plays good defense, and gets several walks.
 

Todd4State

Redshirt
Mar 3, 2008
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aGAIN- and pay attention this time, I'll give you the Cliff's Notes version since you obviously have a limited attention span to go with your limited intelligence:

Auburn's pitching staff his last two years- out of three- there would have finished in the top five of SEC pitching staffs this past year. And that was in a hitters ballpark. After Butch left, their team ERA went up by over a run. He had success before that at UGA and Birmingham-Southern. Do you know why Butch even left Auburn? It was because he was hired as a head coach at High Point, and that's where we got him from. Schools don't hire assistants that aren't producing as a head coach in D-I.

****, even Goat got it.

You want to talk about me overblowing Polk's players causing problems- you can ask Nick Mingione about Ryan Powers and him almost getting into a fight two years ago- but you are at least equally, if not more- overblowing Butch being a problem. Butch's first year, he had ONE pitcher that were his recruit and were leftovers from Polk's staff. And they sucked. There was a pitcher named David Hayes that was lighting up the radar gun at a blistering 72 MPH. Last year, his second year, he has a pitching staff that was almost totally made up of freshmen. And you're surprised that they weren't all-world and struggled? That is a recipe for disaster in the SEC. I would be willing to bet that the pitching improves this year, and if you do, keep in mind that the odds are stacked in my favor.



The only thing you know about baseball is that you can't hit it, and you can't post about it either.