Baseball what will be the strength of this years team?
- Thread starter NTDawg
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If we hadn’t used the shift we would have won the national championship twice last year.
That’s an interesting comparison. If you are wanting TAs production at the plate I think that you asking a little too much. TA was the National Player of the Year but if you want LT to be a TA type of leader I agree with you and I think without a doubt that LT and Sims be the leaders in the clubhouse.
I agree. The ball will flying out next year. I think we saw the tip of the iceberg last year with Clark.
Don’t forget Yeager as a power bat. Hopefully Davis can get on base ahead of them. And hopefully Walling and Fristoe can pitch to their capabilities.
The most surprising improvement of last years team was fielding. We went from one of the worst SEC fielding teams to a record setting 0 fielding errors in the CWS. I think pitching will be good again. On Sports Talk MS they were interviewing USM's baseball radio guy. He said 8 of their pitching staff were throwing over 90 MPH. Hadad said, "Only 8?" I died laughing.
Anyone have a feeling about Hines and his power potential? It will be interesting to see what he is able to do as a true freshman. I’ve seen it mentioned that the staff likes this past incoming class’ bats and Hines is the one that Lemonis mentioned in an interview with D1 awhile back.
Power will definitely be a strength. This will probably be the best power hitting group we’ve had in years.
But to me the biggest strength of our team is simply that we don’t have any obvious weaknesses right now. We have easily one of the five or so most balanced teams in the country and a great, stable coaching staff.
The SECW is loaded with the best offenses (Arkansas, OM, and LSU) in America and I expect us to be somewhere in that grouping. On paper, we should have the best pitching staff in the SECW going into 2022. Sure we lost some starting pitching, but we return WAY more one the mound than anyone else in the division. Defensively we should be damn good- especially up the middle with Tanner, Forsythe, Yeager, and presumably Jess Davis.
But to me the biggest strength of our team is simply that we don’t have any obvious weaknesses right now. We have easily one of the five or so most balanced teams in the country and a great, stable coaching staff.
The SECW is loaded with the best offenses (Arkansas, OM, and LSU) in America and I expect us to be somewhere in that grouping. On paper, we should have the best pitching staff in the SECW going into 2022. Sure we lost some starting pitching, but we return WAY more one the mound than anyone else in the division. Defensively we should be damn good- especially up the middle with Tanner, Forsythe, Yeager, and presumably Jess Davis.
Neither of those guys will hit that type of average. Luke Hancock is likely the only one capable of approaching that, and he won't get that high, maybe .340 or so. But Tanner has the better chance, he will likely be above .300 with plenty of bombs. Clark won't, he'll be .275 at best (but also plenty of bombs).
Cumbest will probably hit for better average than those two, too. James will be around .300.
Fans who, for whatever reason, get hung up on batting average as the end all be all statistic will probably get frustrated with this team… Because there aren’t going to be many over .300 in our lineup. But there may be seven slugging over .450 with 20-25+ extra base hits.
Strikeouts will also be up over last year, but we will still be pretty good at putting it in play compared to the rest of the league.
The question is, what will happen to this board when Arky sweeps us again this year?
I think we’ll be really really good, but we will have some bad weekends where our nervous nellies are going to say that championship was a fluke. Book it.
I think we’ll be really really good, but we will have some bad weekends where our nervous nellies are going to say that championship was a fluke. Book it.
Tanner Allen got to the point where he was NOT getting fooled at the plate ever. I am not sure any of those mentioned are there yet. Hopefully they will show improvement in that. Cumbest is probably the least likely to get fooled IMO. I expect Clark will improve significantly in that. Going from Freshman to Sophmore is when you can make a big leap. I hope James has worked hard on reading and anticipating breaking pitches. I would think most teams have that in their books on his weakness there so hopefully that was his focus of improvement. If he corrected that, he could hit .350 - .370 in this league.
Going from "being the hunter to the hunted" will be interesting. Definitely a healthy optimism from my perspective. What I'd expect --
Hitting should be powerful and hopefully remain as timely as it did last year.
Pitching will likely take a bit of a dip, but that's to be expected given last year's performance.
If fielding can remain as strong as it did at in the 2nd hald of the season, that will be a huge plus
And, as always, health of the team over the course of the season, as well as, the hope that some form of "complacency" doesn't set it in
Baseball is so hard to predict, in my opinion, but I expect a post-season run with a very good chance to making it to Omaha again.
If getting swept by Arkansas means we're in the CWS every year, I'm ok with it. Especially since they don't have a national championship yet either.
It pisses Arkansas off more than it does Ole Miss that we got a National Championship in Baseball before them. We have an elite program, but Arkansas still looks down on us and thinks they should have had one before we did especially with the year they had last year.
We lose TA and Rowdey. I assume Cumbest and transfer Jess Davis will be in the OF.
Will Kellum Clark play OF or remain at DH? If he is OF, who will be DH? If he is DH, who will play OF?
Will Kellum Clark play OF or remain at DH? If he is OF, who will be DH? If he is DH, who will play OF?
Watching Cumbest at bats he seems to be in flow with each pitch. Now he doesn't always pull the trigger, but he doesn't seem to get out of position to make a swing. He just needs more ABs. James and Logan are dangerous when they get on the ball. Logan especially doesn't have to be in perfect position to punish a ball. However, last year they both had pitches where they are just not ready to make a move. I think the best hitters are ready to hit every pitch, they just decide at some point they aren't going to move on it.
I agree with you about Cumbest. The last player that seemed to be as in flow with each pitch as Cumbest, was Foscue in my opinion. And if he can finish his career at MSU like Foscue, that would be fantastic.
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