Circle of Baseball Success Complete?

[AstroDog]

I break down baseball into 3 parts: Pitching, hitting, and fielding. Now, I weight them differently according to their importance. In your mind, you may weight them differently than me and that’s fine. This is just my opinion. Obviously, I consider pitching the overwhelming factor than can lead a baseball team to success.

Pitching: 50%
Hitting: 25%
Fielding: 25%

Now, we have hired Justin Parker of SC to be our new pitching coach. Good move, right? According to most, he is a very good pitching coach. So, we have satisfied our greatest need at the moment. But remember…..when Scott Foxhall was hired, I heard basically the same accolades about him. Scott was generally considered a fine pitching coach and we were lucky to get him. Now, I haven’t compared Scott’s history vs Justin’s. I’ll leave that to you stats junkies to play with.

Needless to say, while pitching is the most important factor to me, the other 2 areas (hitting & fielding) can also ruin a season if not executed properly. When all 3 fail, then you have an epic disaster like we have had the past 2 seasons.

So, if Parker can correct the pitching, will our hitting and fielding be corrected as well? That brings us around to Jake Gautreau, Bobby Austin, and Kyle Cheesebrough. Lemonis is their boss, so IMO, he needs to evaluate are we doing the best we can with those individuals to complete the circle of success.

It takes all 3 fundamental areas done well to return to Omaha. Until the 3 are hitting on all cylinders, MSU will be a good team, just not an Omaha-bound team.

What Say Ya’ll ??

 

[baddawggy]

i say as long as lemondick is our coach we will under achieve again. keep your sofa warm for next year.

 

[patdog]

i say as long as lemondick is our coach we will under achieve again. keep your sofa warm for next year.

My biggest fear is that he does just enough to keep his job for the next few years and we settle into a Polk II like period of mediocrity where we make regionals on a pretty regular basis, but don't host and don't win them. I also think this is probably the most likely scenario for the next 5-6 years.

 

[AstroDog]

The quality of pitching depth of UT and FL is DEEP and incredible. And LSU has the Golden Spikes Winner (Skenes) IMO. I think we need to sign 50% of our recruiting classes as pitchers. Maybe even 60%. I'm hoping that the hiring of Parker will keep our younger hurlers from entering the Portal. We have several promising ones and they need to be on a better development path.

 

[Seinfeld]

My biggest fear is that he does just enough to keep his job for the next few years and we settle into a Polk II like period of mediocrity where we make regionals on a pretty regular basis, but don't host and don't win them. I also think this is probably the most likely scenario for the next 5-6 years.

Yep, we can all sit here and talk about hosting a regional still being the benchmark, but let’s say that we do slip into a regional as a 3 seed next year for example, are we really going to can Lemonis then when we didn’t after the last two atrocious seasons?

Again, by keeping Lemonis, Selmon just confirmed that he doesn’t give a rat’s *** about baseball

 

[Seinfeld]

All I’ll say is… when JWS fired his coordinators and brought in Ron Cooper, how did that work out for us?

 

[patdog]

All I’ll say is… when JWS fired his coordinators and brought in Ron Cooper, how did that work out for us?

Well, the good news is, we didn't hire a Ron Cooper. The bad news is, if we don't get some pitchers, it won't matter who the pitching coach is.

 

[patdog]

Again, by keeping Lemonis, Selmon just confirmed that he doesn’t give a rat’s *** about baseball

This is what makes me the angriest. It's not just Selmon, either. It's the cigar boys. We're just fat and happy that we've got a great stadium, big crowds, and past success. We don't give a damn about being competitive.

 

[The Cooterpoot]

Buckle up. This ride ain't going to be smooth. Hang on to your asses, and hope and pray for a lot of portal help. We're going to need it in a big way.

 

[BulldogBlitz]

If your pitching is good enough to minimize putting the ball in play, there isn't much room for fielding errors to occur.

 

[dickiedawg]

Yep, we can all sit here and talk about hosting a regional still being the benchmark, but let’s say that we do slip into a regional as a 3 seed next year for example, are we really going to can Lemonis then when we didn’t after the last two atrocious seasons?

Again, by keeping Lemonis, Selmon just confirmed that he doesn’t give a rat’s *** about baseball

You're not going to fire Lemonis if he makes the NCAA tournament next year. You're just not.

 

[MSUDAWGFAN]

Well, the good news is, we didn't hire a Ron Cooper. The bad news is, if we don't get some pitchers, it won't matter who the pitching coach is.

You just gave me PTSD.

Remember when Ron Cooper and John Blake looked at each other and said "Can you believe all the talent we have here?"

 

[ronpolk]

I break down baseball into 3 parts: Pitching, hitting, and fielding. Now, I weight them differently according to their importance. In your mind, you may weight them differently than me and that’s fine. This is just my opinion. Obviously, I consider pitching the overwhelming factor than can lead a baseball team to success.

Pitching: 50%
Hitting: 25%
Fielding: 25%

Now, we have hired Justin Parker of SC to be our new pitching coach. Good move, right? According to most, he is a very good pitching coach. So, we have satisfied our greatest need at the moment. But remember…..when Scott Foxhall was hired, I heard basically the same accolades about him. Scott was generally considered a fine pitching coach and we were lucky to get him. Now, I haven’t compared Scott’s history vs Justin’s. I’ll leave that to you stats junkies to play with.

Needless to say, while pitching is the most important factor to me, the other 2 areas (hitting & fielding) can also ruin a season if not executed properly. When all 3 fail, then you have an epic disaster like we have had the past 2 seasons.

So, if Parker can correct the pitching, will our hitting and fielding be corrected as well? That brings us around to Jake Gautreau, Bobby Austin, and Kyle Cheesebrough. Lemonis is their boss, so IMO, he needs to evaluate are we doing the best we can with those individuals to complete the circle of success.

It takes all 3 fundamental areas done well to return to Omaha. Until the 3 are hitting on all cylinders, MSU will be a good team, just not an Omaha-bound team.

What Say Ya’ll ??

I generally agree… might would put pitching even higher than 50% though. Obviously, offense is exciting and fun to watch. But if you gave me a choice of the best pitching staff in college baseball or the best offense in college baseball or a mix of the 2, I’d take the best staff in college baseball. It does not matter how bad your offense is, if you have a guy like skenes taking the mound, you have a chance to win.

 

[AstroDog]

I generally agree… might would put pitching even higher than 50% though. Obviously, offense is exciting and fun to watch. But if you gave me a choice of the best pitching staff in college baseball or the best offense in college baseball or a mix of the 2, I’d take the best staff in college baseball. It does not matter how bad your offense is, if you have a guy like skenes taking the mound, you have a chance to win.

And UCLA proved your point in their first CWS Championship over us. They had 3 stud starters, and a team batting average of .266. Well, so far we have a DII pitcher from the portal and that's it. Lemon and Parker better get busy.

 

[Seinfeld]

You're not going to fire Lemonis if he makes the NCAA tournament next year. You're just not.

Oh I agree, which confirms that we have a new standard for MSU baseball

 

[Fang1]

All I’ll say is… when JWS fired his coordinators and brought in Ron Cooper, how did that work out for us?

Thanks for triggering my PTSD

 

[IBleedMaroonDawg]

If your pitching is good enough to minimize putting the ball in play, there isn't much room for fielding errors to occur.

Fielding has been a big deal in some of the CWS games. I remember one unforced error that kept LSU batting. The next pitch tried to hit the mascot, and the runner scored on a wild pitch. They should've been out of the inning. It may not have figured in the final outcome, but significant errors can significantly affect everyone's psyche. I'm just as worried about our defense as our pitching, not to mention it can make our pitchers confident to throw for groundouts instead of trying to strike everyone out. We need to get stronger at Catcher as well. I would almost sacrifice some batting average for an excellent catcher.

 

[Forrest4Moore]

With our current roster, we have zero shot at a regional. We need 13 SEC wins minimum and that’s if we take care of non-conf.

If we lose Cade and Nixon, plus DJ, Ledbetter, Clark, and obviously Alford is gone, next year could be worse than the last two years.

We’re now losing over 50% of our HRs and nearly 60% of our RBI.

We’ve got to hit the portal for 3-4 SEC quality arms, at least. (5 if we lose Cade and Nixon). And 2 BIG bats. We need a Yeager and a Ledbetter. Not just one.

If some semblance of the above doesn’t happen, we have a chance to be significantly worse than this year. While LSU, UGA, UT, A&M, SCar, Vandy, UF are all locking down all-conf transfers.

 

[dickiedawg]

Oh I agree, which confirms that we have a new standard for MSU baseball

I’m not sure that tracks. When have we fired a coach after a tournament appearance? Never, as far as I can tell.

 

[Leeshouldveflanked]

If you would have fired Lemonis 2 years after winning a National Championship, you wouldn’t have got any established coach worth a flip. MSU baseball fans think a lot more of the job than Elite baseball coaches do. Not to mention the money you would have had to pay Lemonis and GoThro.

 

[Trojanbulldog19]

It's obvious we need more pitching talent from watching the sec teams left. Lemonis and foxhall shat the bed in that department. Lemonis needs to pick up at least three beasts in the portal

 

[WilCoDawg]

If you would have fired Lemonis 2 years after winning a National Championship, you wouldn’t have got any established coach worth a flip. MSU baseball fans think a lot more of the job than Elite baseball coaches do. Not to mention the money you would have had to pay Lemonis and GoThro.

I don’t understand this thinking. If a coach pulls QB1 after a terrible game and replaces him w QB2, do you think QB2 is thinking “I’m not sure I want to play for a coach who won’t stick with his starter”? I think he wouldn’t anymore than a good competitive coach would be nervous working for a school that’s hellbent on having a great team and performance on the field.

 

[Trojanbulldog19]

Not to mention this team needs to drop some giordos. That was sorely lacking past two years. No one stepped up and improved and carried the team when we needed. That's more concerning with the guys we have now.

 

[Seinfeld]

I’m not sure that tracks. When have we fired a coach after a tournament appearance? Never, as far as I can tell.

Had we ever fired a football coach after consecutive bowl game appearances and egg bowl wins before Moorehead?

You guys know as well as I do that head coaching decisions are rarely about individual seasons. They’re about the overall direction of the program, and I don’t think I need to convince anyone that our 2 year direction has been straight down the toilet.

I begrudgingly agree that we’re not going to fire Lemonis after making a regional, but my point is that no one should be treating that as any sort of accomplishment after 2 entire years at the absolute bottom of the barrel. Making a regional should’ve been absolute minimum expectations back in ‘22, and he is woefully behind schedule

 

[patdog]

If you would have fired Lemonis 2 years after winning a National Championship, you wouldn’t have got any established coach worth a flip. MSU baseball fans think a lot more of the job than Elite baseball coaches do. Not to mention the money you would have had to pay Lemonis and GoThro.

This is the dumbest take in this whole thing. Of course good coaches would be interested in the job. Any coach who would even hesitate at taking a job because the last coach got fires after 2 single-digit conference win seasons wouldn't be worth having in the first place.

 

[JoeSchmedlap]

If you would have fired Lemonis 2 years after winning a National Championship, you wouldn’t have got any established coach worth a flip. MSU baseball fans think a lot more of the job than Elite baseball coaches do. Not to mention the money you would have had to pay Lemonis and GoThro.

I disagree. A blind squirrel can see the depths of futility Lemonis has taken our program to immediately after winning the CWS title with other coach’s recruits. I don’t think a computer program could be devised that could wreck the baseball program any faster. It’s an unbelievable disaster. There are dozens upon dozens of programs that don’t give a crap about baseball or invest any money into the sport that are far better than MSU over the last two seasons.