From an eye witness account from the first three games.
Well, first of all let me say that overall, I was pretty satisfied with how the baseball team looked. There were some surprises, both pleasant and unpleasant. I'm taking this with a grain of salt because these games are almost like spring training except the games count.
Pitching- overall much improved. I thought Bowen looked erratic at times with his command. Moore and Crosswhite looked much improved. Routt has a very funky delivery, and seemed to get better as the game progressed. Devin Jones has a really good fastball, but needs some more work. Bussey looked OK. Houston didn't impress me all that much, and Swindle and Caleb Reed both struggled. The thing that I was really pleased with was the fact that the staff seemed to lack a lot more confidence. Butch Thompson has done a great job so far with a staff that is not all that talented and has a bunch of guys that are coming off bad seasons for the most part.
Offense- We take much better at bats. We may not get a hit, but we are much more aggressive, and I think I saw only one or two guys strike out looking. One was on a really nasty curveball. Jet Butler and Russ Sneed have made marked improvement. Collins looks very good as well.
Defense- MUCH improved. We look like a really good defensive team, and made a lot of really tough plays. We screwed up some in the second game, and it really hurt us, but two errors in three games is acceptable.
Baserunning- Aggressive. Probably overly aggressive in my opinion. We got thrown out at third THREE times by the same guy from UNI. Collins getting into a run down when he was at third, and there was one out after a ball was hit to the third baseman wasn't aggressive- it was stupid. That being said, there were times where you could tell that we were really getting the other team rattled by some of the things that we were doing. More often than not, our aggressiveness paid off for us.
Coaching- B+ It's a good start, but I thought Cohen left Reed in the game too long and getting thrown out at third three times by the same guy is not a good thing. Overall though, We look very good and I think this team is having fun playing Cohen ball. Even in the game we lost, we gave ourselves a chance to win and did everything we could do to win.
Uniforms- I like them. Bringing back the 85 MSU uniform script was cool, and I even like the white hats. I like the traditional uniforms that are sleeveless with the maroon hats better, personally, but I have no problem with either outfit. We at least look like a baseball team now.
Fans- F. We've been waiting for a real baseball coach for seven years, and then we finally get one and no one shows up. And I know that people had to work, and I think it was a mistake by the AD to move the game up, but we have people that will show up for a SR at 10 AM on a work day. While I am by no means calling for 13,000, there is no reason that we shouldn't have had at least 4,000-5,000 people there.
Well, first of all let me say that overall, I was pretty satisfied with how the baseball team looked. There were some surprises, both pleasant and unpleasant. I'm taking this with a grain of salt because these games are almost like spring training except the games count.
Pitching- overall much improved. I thought Bowen looked erratic at times with his command. Moore and Crosswhite looked much improved. Routt has a very funky delivery, and seemed to get better as the game progressed. Devin Jones has a really good fastball, but needs some more work. Bussey looked OK. Houston didn't impress me all that much, and Swindle and Caleb Reed both struggled. The thing that I was really pleased with was the fact that the staff seemed to lack a lot more confidence. Butch Thompson has done a great job so far with a staff that is not all that talented and has a bunch of guys that are coming off bad seasons for the most part.
Offense- We take much better at bats. We may not get a hit, but we are much more aggressive, and I think I saw only one or two guys strike out looking. One was on a really nasty curveball. Jet Butler and Russ Sneed have made marked improvement. Collins looks very good as well.
Defense- MUCH improved. We look like a really good defensive team, and made a lot of really tough plays. We screwed up some in the second game, and it really hurt us, but two errors in three games is acceptable.
Baserunning- Aggressive. Probably overly aggressive in my opinion. We got thrown out at third THREE times by the same guy from UNI. Collins getting into a run down when he was at third, and there was one out after a ball was hit to the third baseman wasn't aggressive- it was stupid. That being said, there were times where you could tell that we were really getting the other team rattled by some of the things that we were doing. More often than not, our aggressiveness paid off for us.
Coaching- B+ It's a good start, but I thought Cohen left Reed in the game too long and getting thrown out at third three times by the same guy is not a good thing. Overall though, We look very good and I think this team is having fun playing Cohen ball. Even in the game we lost, we gave ourselves a chance to win and did everything we could do to win.
Uniforms- I like them. Bringing back the 85 MSU uniform script was cool, and I even like the white hats. I like the traditional uniforms that are sleeveless with the maroon hats better, personally, but I have no problem with either outfit. We at least look like a baseball team now.
Fans- F. We've been waiting for a real baseball coach for seven years, and then we finally get one and no one shows up. And I know that people had to work, and I think it was a mistake by the AD to move the game up, but we have people that will show up for a SR at 10 AM on a work day. While I am by no means calling for 13,000, there is no reason that we shouldn't have had at least 4,000-5,000 people there.
