So resident baseball experts, what is the realistic outlook for this season? Bright spots, concerns? I will watch every game but I don't follow the recruiting/fall ball closely and I know we had a ton of turnover on the roster so lotta new faces to learn.
Baseball Outlook Question
- Thread starter columbiadawg2
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Foxhall supposedly said during Fall Ball that there were pitching "concerns", whatever that means. If he was out there making it public it must be a real "concern".
We could be great, but we could be awful. This year has me on the fence. Which leads me to believe we will be above average in SEC with a trip back to a regional with hopes of Omaha next year.
I wasn’t generally impressed with the stats of the transfers we signed last summer. None of them really jumped out as SEC weekend starters to me.
Probably fewer Lemonhead moments than last year but more than the year before**
Unless our transfer pitchers pan out, we will need to win 13-11 types of games. That's usually not a recipe for success. Our offense should be much improved, but we are struggling with command right now. Our freshman look pretty good, but all know we can't rely on them all season. I would say that our team's ceiling is a regional host as a non top 8 seed. I expect to be a 2 or 3 seed this year in a regional. Expect lots of growing pains on the bump.
What happened to our baseball program? We go to Omaha 3 straight years, win one, recruit top 10 talent every year, have the facilities and resources, and have the portal. We're just coming off a losing season, after winning it all, and now we're still not looking good for a 2nd consecutive year? There is no excuse to not be in a great position right now. Why are we not a legitimate top 10 team? What are other teams doing that we're not? I say this and we could very well have a great year, but it's a little disheartening hearing our baseball folks say to not expect much this year. Where did we go wrong?
Good questions. I'm looking forward to the replies from those who have some insight.
I live in central TX. My daughters are both Aggies. I went over last year for the Sunday game at College Station. It was embarrassing. No offense. Very thin bullpen. aTm brought in mid inning relief that was filling the strike zone and throwing 100mph fastballs. Our mid and late relief looked like a 2A high school Jr varsity pitchers and they got hammered. It was bad but talking to the State guy sitting next to me it had pretty much been that way all season.
I know we had some injuries on the pitching staff but I was shocked at the complete lack of offense. Some of the worst at bats I've ever seen from a State team. Small sample size being a single game, but still.
Everything is LSU's to lose. They are flat out loaded. Probably a good early pick to win it all. OM has their entire pitching staff returning from their CWS Championship. If the Sharks find 2-3 hitters to replace their losses, they will be formidable also. I think we will be improved too, but just not sure how much. I would hope we will make the SEC tourney this time, and then at a minimum get a bid to the dance whether it be at home or on the road. How deep we go after that....I just don't know.
it starts with all of the coaching turnover before Lemonis came in and the resulting dip in recruiting. Rowdey, TA, Westberg, Mangum and Foscue were some badass college baseball players and they ran out of eligibility. Hard to replace that.
Then, we had a decent team to start the year, but eventually injuries decimated what we had. In the SEC, you can’t survive with the losses that we had.
Concerning the portal, we got out nil’ed on some pitchers. lsu is going insane and are outbidding everyone for the top players. It isn’t just lsu though. Florida outbid lsu for the usm pitCher, one of the few that lsu lost out on.
Being the best fanbase and loving baseball the most doesn’t outweigh money and we don’t have as much as most everyone else.
Then, we had a decent team to start the year, but eventually injuries decimated what we had. In the SEC, you can’t survive with the losses that we had.
Concerning the portal, we got out nil’ed on some pitchers. lsu is going insane and are outbidding everyone for the top players. It isn’t just lsu though. Florida outbid lsu for the usm pitCher, one of the few that lsu lost out on.
Being the best fanbase and loving baseball the most doesn’t outweigh money and we don’t have as much as most everyone else.
Last year was tough, no question. Joel T./Logan are now cranking out tales of great transfers and juco talent. Time can only tell. There are bright spots. Outfield looks solid in fall ball. Infield is a work in progress. Pitching is the key, like it was last year. At least this year, I won’t have to watch Fristoe give up ‘taters’ that lose the lead and the game. Thank you, Lord.
NIL will not be good for our baseball team. Our usual advantages (fan support, ball park) are now outweighed by $$$$ offered by other programs.
Small sample size is right. We scored 0.06 fewer runs per game overall last year than the natty team did, and it was similar when looking only at conference games. Pitching was our biggest issue last year, and will again be the biggest question mark this year. A lot of long term injuries from last year’s squad that won’t be recovered, and we’ll be relying heavily on transfers and freshmen to fill in the gaps.
I personally expect a regional appearance, maybe no national seed or host. Folks should be fine with that considering how big a jump we’d need to make from last year for that to happen.
Are you talking about these 6 guys?
Dawgs Place Six On D1 Baseball Top 100 Impact Transfers - Mississippi State
With baseball season just around the corner, D1 Baseball has named its 2023 Top 100 Impact Transfers, and the Mississippi State Diamond Dawgs were well repre...
We lost a ton of on the field leadership in Jake Mangum, Rowdy Jordan, Elijah McNameee, and Landon Sims. Think about it. A lot of that 2021 roster had been through 4 coaches. So until I see evidence to the contrary, I believe they won in Omaha despite Lemonis and not because of Lemonis.
But we weren't particularly explosive offensively even in the title year, were we? My impression from several hundred miles away is our run production hasn't been anything special for a while. But I don't follow it that closely anymore and I'm too lazy to look up and compare stats.
One more thing, Dakota Jordan could be the best player in a State uniform in many years. He hits the ball hard; mostly hard liners to centerfield, not a power hitter swing. He makes contact. He covers so much ground in the outfield. If he is not a major player, I will be surprised.
WRONG!
Never satisfied with Just making a Regional especially if we don’t host.
We should be hosting every year following a Natty for some time and we didn’t even make the Trny last year.
Just so many unknowns going into the year it's tough to say. We could be good, we could be bad. My guess is we're a 13-15 win team in the league. I think we'll squeeze in a regional but I wouldn't expect anymore than that. We should know what we have pretty early on. Second series of the year we host AZ State. Play USM midweek and then play in the Frisco tourney against Ohio State, Oklahoma and Cal. Btw, it's time to quit blaming Cannizzaro. From this point on its on Lemo.
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That's reality. We spent big on a stadium pre-NIL. NIL is what matters the most in the SEC now. LSU is loaded with players and NIL money. I wonder where we rank in NIL money for baseball in the SEC.
These same “baseball folks” probably predicted we’d be back in Omaha last year… point being, no one knows. Let’s at least let the season start before we get down on our baseball program
What happened? Are you 17ing dumb? Do you really need an explanation?
Number 1, are we not allowed a down year after the most successful run in our history?
Number 2, did you forget all the injuries we had last year? Ace and best reliever, and others? That magnifies everything. Players then press.
I hate our fanbase. Oh, you think I’m too hard on people? Well **** if they wouldnt act so mother 17ing negative and assume the worst about every damn thing, instead of just supporting, I wouldn’t do that.
17ing 17.
1) A down year, yes. A losing record and not making post season or even the SEC tournament, no. You think it's acceptable to win 1 out of your last 12 conference games? We lost 11 straight SEC games to close out the year. Throw in a mid-week loss to Samford too while we're at it. That's embarrassing at any level for any program let alone a program as prestigious as State's.
2) Our Ace was 0-2 before the injury. Things weren't exactly hitting on all cylinders from the get-go. Also, injuries happen to everyone. I understand the team probably won't be as sharp when some players go down, but with the way we recruit, I expect our coaches to find serviceable replacements.
I'm not calling for anyone to be fired. But if we have another season similar to last, that **** shouldn't fly at State. We haven't heard a whole lot to get excited about this year and when we hear "yeah, don't expect too much this year" or "A regional should be a good goal", it raises some questions.
2) Our Ace was 0-2 before the injury. Things weren't exactly hitting on all cylinders from the get-go. Also, injuries happen to everyone. I understand the team probably won't be as sharp when some players go down, but with the way we recruit, I expect our coaches to find serviceable replacements.
I'm not calling for anyone to be fired. But if we have another season similar to last, that **** shouldn't fly at State. We haven't heard a whole lot to get excited about this year and when we hear "yeah, don't expect too much this year" or "A regional should be a good goal", it raises some questions.
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If we make a regional, this year won’t be similar to last year in the slightest. We were nowhere close to a regional last season at any point. We wouldn’t have made it even if we won 15 games, strictly due to the weak nonconference schedule and how poorly we did against it.
Do you expect us to go from dead last in the SEC straight to Omaha?
That would be almost as crazy as a team going from National Champs to dead last.
This^^^. Starting pitching was thin to start with and losing Landon was a back breaker. We were 3-7 on Friday night in SEC play last season. Plugging Sims into that spot makes that more like 7-3 or 8-2. Add in the trickle down effect of saving a starter and bullpen for the weekend, that team is probably 15-16 wins minimum in SEC play. Solid tournament team if one injury was avoided.
Certainly possible. Happens all the time, at least from being a bad team to a host level team. Happened to us in 2015-2016.
My honest take.
I have no 17ing idea and I don't think anyone here has much of one either.
Way too many unknowns. Last season gets a pass after the natty, but Lemonis needs to earn his money this year.
I have no 17ing idea and I don't think anyone here has much of one either.
Way too many unknowns. Last season gets a pass after the natty, but Lemonis needs to earn his money this year.
Exactly. Let’s stop acting like we just dipped to a 3 seed in a regional last year. We were 17ing awful.
Dead last in the conference, overall losing record, and our 114 RPI was nestled in between Oral Robert’s and Bryant. We weren’t even remotely close to the postseason
Does that mean we should start talking about a Lemonis replacement? Of course not, but it’s time to see progress this year, and no one’s going to be thrilled to hear that we’ve got all the same problems as last season
2023 gonna be a wild year when it starts off with me agreeing with Goat.
I've said it before and I still believe it to be true: The floor for this program should be the NCAA tournament. The underfloor should be the SEC tournament. Once you're in the tournament, whatever happens happens, but getting there should always be the bare minimum. Two straight years of no tournament should make for some hard re-evaluations of where we are.
2 straight years of no tournament should make for a new head coach.
I'm not that far yet, but I think the seat gets pretty damn warm.
Of course its possible. But I don’t think there is any way that should be the expectation. You can’t just say “by gawd we MSU baseball….should host every year no matter what!111!!1” without taking any sort of honest assessment of the roster.
If we’re a regional 2 seed this year, that’s still a massive leap from 2022 and a big step back towards where we want to be. Doesn’t mean that its the long term expectation every year, but it would be very good for the here and now to steady the ship. And you can still win the whole damn thing from that position, too, as we saw last year.
I agree about that. I was more saying that one bad year does not indicate something is wrong with the program. Our baseball program is in excellent shape right now.
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