Well, it is becoming more

[dawgoneyall]

and more evident that the crazy SOB left the baseball in poor shape talent wise.

Makes me even more pissed off than I was, if possible, at the irrational, crazy tantrums he threw last year.

Makes me almost forget what he did for MSU his first 15 years and magnifies the neglect during his last 15 years.

 

[JacksonDevilDog]

He knew the program would have another bad year (2 in a row) and his fire to recruit and his staff's had dwindled years ago. The 17er still wanted to coach and that's why his *** was hitting fungo infield to the UAB team in Starkville earlier this week.

The good thing is Cohen has a HELL of a lot to sell right now. He has one of the top facilities in the nation to sell, great crowds unmatched anywhere to sell, and 1-9 positionally is wide freaking open. I expect him and our staff attending some of the junior college tournaments when our season wraps up. LSU did the same thing. They went Juco heavy and added some strong in state talent and was in the CWS in 2 years. We'll do the same (as far as adding the talent).

Edited to add: I know it's hard to say that a senior in high school will be a huge plus for us next year, but if we can get C.C. Watson on campus from Alabama, he might be our Friday night guy next year. He's that good from all that I've read about him. He threw a no-hitter last weekend and struck out like 25 about a month ago. He's a lefty that throws around 93. He's expected to be a top 10 round draft guy, but I think we have a shot. He's supposed to be the top played from Alabama.

 

[jackstefano]

Y'all were 6 outs from a sweep last weekend. A little different this weekend, but why assume that this is the way it's going to be the rest of the way?

 

[patdog]

I've been saying the same thing since before the SOB even retired. We have maybe 10 SEC caliber players on our entire roster. No coach could have a winning SEC record with these players. We will struggle this season, and we will struggle mightily. When we recruit some SEC players, we will win a lot of games.</p>

 

[Paper Dog]

nt

 

[maroonmania]

to give up on the season, it is by no means premature to state the obvious. And that is that our current talent level is way below what we are accustomed to at MSU in baseball. We don't truly have a standout player in the lineup OR on the pitching staff and that is pretty hard to believe for an MSU team. Routt looks to be the best player we have and he is a true freshman just starting his career.

 

[patdog]

you're going to be very disappointed. We simply do not have the talent to compete in this league. Even our best players are only average SEC starters and we have damn few of them. Here's the truth. Our best in the following categories from last year (returning players only) :

Batting average: Grant Hougue .321 batting average, 36th in the SEC
ERA: Michael Busby 5.84, 117th in the SEC

 

[HammerOfTheDogs]

When the season began, I thought our biggest weaknesses would be pitching and defense. The weekend pitching has held up pretty well. Where we're screwing the pooch is in hitting. We've shown we can hit the baseball, but the players are choking with runners in scoring position, just like the Polk years.

 

[basedog]

clutch hitting is the name of the game. We lack SEC caliber talent here as well. Oh crap, our defense is ok, not great but ok. Cohen inherited a mess, it is gonna be tough to make the SEC tourney this year. It makes me sick how Polk and staff left the program, I'm just amazed at the mess!
One thing I will say about Cohen, he's gonna improve this club before the season is over, will it be enough, probably not. Gonna be tough today as pitching will probably be a major problem today.

 

[patdog]

meaning we can't hit for either power or average. We were also last in triples and tied for 9th in doubles. What ever gave you the impression that we could be a good hitting team? As critical as I've been of Polk, he wasn't THAT bad of a coach. If he'd had decent players last year, he could have had a winning record.

 

[MSUCostanza]

Raffo was a terrible hitting coach. I think we will be better hitting this year, simply because we will be much better coached. And Polk was incredibly lazy the last several years, so (a) we never would have had good players unless they accidentally signed up for his camp and (b) he wasn't paying much attention to how Raffo was instructing the players, he was more concerned with writing creepy letters on his typewriter to the NCAA.

Having said all that, I agree that we still aren't going to be a very good hitting team, simply because the talent isn't there. Cohen gets a complete pass from me this year. Polk left us very little to work with. I feel like we'll be better coached, which will give us a chance in some games, but we still aren't good.

 

[Phil Wenneck.sixpack]

I've noticed we rarely even make really great contact on pitches. I've seen only about 3 balls hit hard this weekend. I really don't think it's coaching, approach at the plate, etc. We simply have no talent right now. I can't begin to tell you how many hanging curves I've seen our hitters watch or wave at that a good hitter should hit a mile.