Some stats from Cohen year 1 and Cohen year 4 (Long)

Forrest4Moore

Sophomore
Nov 14, 2011
605
168
43
Conference statistics only:
2009 ERA: 7.80
2012 ERA: 3.24

2009 Ks/9innings: 6.9
2012 Ks/9innings: 7.91

2009 BB/9: 5.25
2012 BB/9: 3.24

2009 Opp. Batting Avg: .330
2012 Opp. Batting Avg: .262

2009 Batting Avg: .307
2012 Batting Avg: .225

2009 OBP: .396
2012 OBP: .335

2009 Offensive Ks/9: 9.67
2012 Offensive Ks/9:6.53

2009 SB- SBA: 35- 45
2012 SB- SBA: 6-20

2009 Opp. SB- SBA: 42-54
2012 Opp. SB- SBA:21-26

2009 Opp. OBP: . 420
2012 Opp. OBP: .337

Few things that stand out. Wow what a job Butch has done with our staff. He deserves a huge raise as he is also our best recruiter. He was vital in bringing in those players that Auburn had 3 and 4 years ago that could tear the cover off the ball. His recruiting is just as good as his player development.

I don't care how many hit and runs we missed. At some point you have to stop running yourself out of innings. A .300 SB% is terrible, especially when your opponents are above .750 in that category.

Besides the pitching I included some hitting statistics to compare to 2009. The bats really have had a major impact on numbers across the board, as you can see our opponents numbers have fallen, too. Interesting that even though our opponents are hitting near 40 points better than us, they only have a .002 edge in OBP which is more telling than plain average. Although, big innings are what we have been terrible at producing and hits are what put those together. Definitely room for improvement. Our hitting numbers have dipped every year since Cohen got here. And while that isn't a problem now because we are winning games, if we want to take the next step we have to drastically improve with the sticks.

I know most statisticians include ks/ab or Ks/BB, but I found it interesting that we strike out 3 times less per game now than in 2009. Shows that we have hitters that seemingly put the ball in play more. That is a testament to our OBP. Putting the ball in play and putting pressure on the defense along with fouling more pitches off and making a pitcher work to get you out leading to more BBs and HBPs really helps out that OBP. We have to find some guys though that can hit the ball in the gaps and drive more of those runners in.

Great to see that we walk 2 less batters per game than two years ago. Amazing the % of walks that end up scoring. I saw some stat on MLB network that was gaudy. Don't remember the exact number but it was over 40%.

I didn't include SLG% because that stat really isn't comparable with the new bats. Combining both ours and our opponents HRs this year gives us 14 total HRs. In 2009, we combined for 82 HRs. That is truly remarkable.

The most telling stat is that we have 3 more SEC wins already than we did that year. Improvement has been made in the most important position, pitcher. However, to get over the hump and compete we have to get a couple big bats. Give us Matt Snyder and Alex Yarbrough and I think we are a Top 5 team. Obviously, we don't have those guys and there one on the roster. Hopefully, we can get or develop a couple guys that can become what those two are.

Sorry for the length. Just got bored with classes done and did some research. Found some of these number interesting and thought I'd share.
 

Irondawg

Junior
Dec 2, 2007
2,703
378
83
is that there is no real identity. We're extremely small from a physical standpoint so we have very little power regardless of ballpark/bats.<div>
</div><div>Typically you offset that with speed and defense - but we're horrible at stealing and our gloves haven't been very good. I think some of the gloves (i.e. Britton) will come around by next year with some experience and comfort, but they're not going to get much faster. Injuries have slowed some guys down but we certainly don't have a burner that i'm aware of.</div><div>
</div><div>Our ability to get hit with a pitch and draw some walks is our only saving grace offensively right now. I'm pretty sure Cohen has a plan when he's putting the lineup together but I just don't know what it is.</div><div><div>
</div><div>
</div> </div>
 

Cossa

Redshirt
Oct 22, 2010
60
0
6
Butch Thompson is the best coach on the entire staff. He doesn't take crap from rent a cops either. That takes him up another notch or two.
 

RonnyAtmosphere

Redshirt
Jun 4, 2007
2,883
0
0
..in your breakdown, you didn't even mention this 2012 squad has show marked improvement over the 2009 squad even though this 2012 squad is full of the walking wounded.

As far as Matt Snyder and Alex Yarbrough: You have to be fair to the statistics & factor in if these 2 were on the current MSU squad, at least one of them would be hurt.


But I will say this about Alex Yarbrough: He's the 2nd best college baseball player in the state of Mississippi (Stratton being #1).
 

Forrest4Moore

Sophomore
Nov 14, 2011
605
168
43
Granted pitching was mostly where those injuries were. I attribute much of that to the McNickle effect. Had Butch been here for say, all 4/5 of Chad Crosswhite's years then I think the staff could have been vastly different in 2009 even with the same players. A healthy Ricky Bowen (both physically and mentally)was a legit friday night SEC starter. I know people here don't want to hear that, but it is true. He had all the stuff, 93-94 FB, 85 Breaking Ball, 80 CU... and he could locate them all in bull pen sessions. Just struggled greatly during games. It was crazy to see. Some players just respond differently to pressure than others and Cohen had a negative effect on Ricky. While we're on that subject, a healthy Chad Crosswhite, Forrest Moore, Jared Wesson, Paxton Pace, Michael Busby, and even Devin Jones would have given us a chance to win a lot more ball games. All of those guys listed had major injury issues in 2009. Plus Tyler Whitney and Nick Routt were throwing 140+ pitches in consecutive weeks.

When you are already lacking much quality veteran depth, and then you add in the fact that every single contributor on the staff pitched with at least a minor ailment, things aren't going to go well for you. People forget that we took the first 2 of a 3 game series against #5 South Carolina in the first SEC series that year. Then the injuries started mounting on the pitching staff. Guys that could throw and locate at 90+ when healthy were hanging around 83 to 84. And good SEC hitters with those BESR composites were going to tee off on that pitching.

Plus, Brownlee was injured, Ryan Powers played with a broken wrist, Freeman was still dealing with knee problems, Parks hardly touched the field because of injuries, Grant Hogue was out for a bit, and Cohen's biggest mistake in my opinion as the MSU head coach, Ryan Duffy only batted against right handed pitchers.