Would anyone disagree? The staff and the left side of the infield aren’t complete horror shows this year.
I feel like we’re better in 2024 than in 2022 and 2023
- Thread starter 57stratdawg
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Was this the plan? Lower the bar so low that looking like a college team against little sister of the poor looks better?
Can agree with Stat and civil that pitching and defense have turned a corner. Not a sharp corner but getting there. Then I look at hitting and baserunning and see what lead us down the rabbit hole on d starting on the offensive side of the team. K's, straight pull hitters, and the 17'n baserunning blunders. Seems one guy gets caught up in the base paths every game or at least twice a week. This weekend was a relief but work has to be done.
I’ll wait until we have a competent opponent to pass judgement.
No idea. We have played absolutely nobody. First decent test is Tuesday against USM and even that is hard to tell since it’s a one off midweek game.
There is absolutely no way to really judge this team based on what we have played. These are perennial bottom dwellers that we should destroy but some (AP) swept us, some we swept, most we had slow starts against, some we let back in the game in middle innings. I am eager to see how we look against those Golden Eagles. Hopefully when we are done they will be crispy fried golden eagles but I'm not overly confident. I keep telling myself it's coming together and by mid season we will be good. But I'm probly a liar
It's all worst-case scenario. Team isn't elite enough to obviously keep him, team isn't terrible enough to obviously fire him.
That’s not really true. He gets fired if he doesn’t make a regional. Certainly gets another year if he does. There’s no doubt about that. There won’t be any conflict one way or the other by the time late May rolls around.
That is worst case scenario. We won't truly know which direction the program is going if he just makes a regional. Do you not remember how frustrating 2004-2006 was? Just floating along, basically. We made regionals all those years.
Too soon to tell. Pitching should be better. Offense, if anything, looks even worse against a terrible early schedule.
This question is about to be clearly answered. In case anyone has not looked at the schedule, let me help you out:
USM 8-4 This Tuesday in Pearl
Evansville 7-5 3 games this weekend
South Alabama 10-2 Tues in Biloxi
UNO 7-4 Wed in Biloxi
LSU 11-1 3 Games
Memphis 7-6 Tues
Texas A&M 11-0 3 games AWAY
Samford 8-4 Tues AWAY
Florida 8-3 3 Games AWAY
This is freaking brutal. Everything will be crystal clear by April 1.
USM 8-4 This Tuesday in Pearl
Evansville 7-5 3 games this weekend
South Alabama 10-2 Tues in Biloxi
UNO 7-4 Wed in Biloxi
LSU 11-1 3 Games
Memphis 7-6 Tues
Texas A&M 11-0 3 games AWAY
Samford 8-4 Tues AWAY
Florida 8-3 3 Games AWAY
This is freaking brutal. Everything will be crystal clear by April 1.
We've played one of the worst schedules in college baseball. This past week alone, in our 4 wins, we played Jackson State who left their uniforms, and the 2nd worst team net wise in all of college baseball.
Elite high school teams would probably go 2-2 against those programs.
We know NOTHING about this team at all.
The fact we've lost 4 games against this schedule is worrisome and not sure how anyone could say we look better. If this is looking better, the bar is really low.
Elite high school teams would probably go 2-2 against those programs.
We know NOTHING about this team at all.
The fact we've lost 4 games against this schedule is worrisome and not sure how anyone could say we look better. If this is looking better, the bar is really low.
This is the worst thing Lem has done to this program. Not the losing. The total shift in expectations where we have been fooled into debating whether we are better than 2 of the worst teams in history. Where we are saying “Austin Peay isn’t that bad”.
Let’s hope we don’t make a regional as a 3 or a low 2. That’s the absolute worst thing long term for this program.
Let’s hope we don’t make a regional as a 3 or a low 2. That’s the absolute worst thing long term for this program.
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One thing to note:
Hines - Jr.
Jordan - So., but supposed to be the type player who rarely makes it campus
Hugesack - Sr.
Downs - Jr. (what happened to this guy? Was a big time croot)
Larry - Super Sr.
Kohler - Sr.
Chance - Jr.
Long and Powell - Sr.
Chester - Jr.
And this lineup can't hit? Crazy, we should be raking....
And while some of the freshmen and sophomores have the credentials, how can we know? How do we know they aren't just travel ball All-Americans? Sure Cupp is legit, but what about the rest?
Hines - Jr.
Jordan - So., but supposed to be the type player who rarely makes it campus
Hugesack - Sr.
Downs - Jr. (what happened to this guy? Was a big time croot)
Larry - Super Sr.
Kohler - Sr.
Chance - Jr.
Long and Powell - Sr.
Chester - Jr.
And this lineup can't hit? Crazy, we should be raking....
And while some of the freshmen and sophomores have the credentials, how can we know? How do we know they aren't just travel ball All-Americans? Sure Cupp is legit, but what about the rest?
Hines: Has a track record, have to believe he will hit
Jordan: Is what he is. Going to hit, but going to look bad and K a lot
Hujsak: Never been a believer of, never shown he can hit at this level
Downs: didnt dominate bad private school baseball, someone should have seen this coming
Larry: Should be hitting 7-8-9
Kohler: jury's out on
Chance: should be hitting 7-8-9, or in some type of platoon. Should not be an sec starting LFer
Long/Powell: Gimme a break, where is highfill????
Chester: Shouldnt be on the roster
People on this board were gushing over Jordan and Hines: Facts are we need at least 1 more of them, and 2-3 other quality hitters. After the 4 spot our lineup doesnt project any fear onto anyone.
Highfill is hurt. I don’t know that he will catch this season. And with Larry now DH there is no spot.
I was one of them. I was hoping they'd make a jump and be a deadly combo. But Hines is the exact same he was as a freshman, a 300/1.000 (BA/OPS) hitter. That screams maxed out travel baller to me. And Jordan will make a jump, and he's a fine player, but not a world beater.
And Highfill is hurt. If you go to games and keep up, you should know that.
I realize highfill is hurt. Was saying when was he coming back, i thought he was orginially suppose to be back by now. If he doesnt catch this season our catching position is bad. Between that and Cupp hitting 9th... thats two very weak spots.
I'd consider Larry in LF if at all possible, to open that DH spot up.
Hines will be a top 3-5 round draft pick. He was polished coming in. It was unlikely for him to make a huge jump. He wasnt raw. He played for the best high school team in the country. To expect him to make a huge leap really wasnt fair. Jordan was the one I hoped to see polish a little, but he's got 18Ks in 45 at-bats against this level of pitching.. he looks to be what he is. Which is like you stated, fine player, but no world beater.
Problem is, those travel-ballers like Hines won't ever be the type that just carry the team. Good role players, but we need one of those guys who hit .350 plus. I think Jordan is the only one who had a chance at that, but like you said, it's not showing up yet. And yeah he's a sophomore, but he's also one of those guys that got held back (which is not always the best plan), so he's junior age. But either way, he's just not that guy, that I've seen anyway. I don't mind the Ks as much, if the other numbers are there. But he was just hailed as this guy who normally always gets drafted highly, and when I think about that - the big names come to mind, like Clark/Palmeiro. I'm sorry Rosebowl, but that level of ability is just not there.
I will be curious if Larry keeps up his production. I'm guessing he comes down to earth in SEC play.
We’ll know its heading in a positive direction if he goes from back-to-back cellar finishes to a regional. That’s an extremely tall order….especially for the current shortcomings we appear to still have.
He’d still need another regional in 2025, at minimum, to keep from getting canned.
I think it's safe to say the pitching staff and defense is improved against poopoo competition. Hell, VMI came into the Dude and beat them last year mostly thanks to walks. I'm not sold that as a team we are improved. Our offense has looked like crap so far. I'm holding out hope, but if I were to bet I'd say we'll be looking for a new coach come May/June.
If we're not sitting at 0-6 in conference play after the first two weekends, I'll be absolutely shocked.
If we're not sitting at 0-6 in conference play after the first two weekends, I'll be absolutely shocked.
I completely agree. It would potentially turn into a Polk II situation where he's making regionals, and the wheels haven't completely come off the program. But, it isn't where we as fans expect the program to be.
That last paragraph sticks out to me. This is a Jr/Sr laden team that has already lost 4 games against one of the worst non-con schedules that’s ever been devised, so I’d argue that we actually do know something. It just isn’t good
Mershon isnt going to be drafted high enough to leave. Someone will take a flyer on Cjinte because of the need for arms, but I wouldnt be concerned about him being drafted high enough either, unless he just wanted to leave.
Neither of those guys project high enough to be leaving after year 2.
I'll let @Seinfeld answer this one:
Correct, this is supposed to be the up year. The year that makes you forget about the building year. I've compared this 2021-2024 run to 2013-2016 many times. 2022 was the true disappointing year, because that team had some returners. The difference in 2022 and 2014 was the pitching injuries, it just derailed us. 2023 was a rebuild with young players like 2015. Now this was supposed to be the 2016 year. And I'm not saying we had to win the SEC and be a national seed, or even host.........but we need to at least look the part of a good baseball team. We have not, so far.
I'm not giving up just yet, though. 2016 had some puzzling early losses as well (FAU and EKU), though we did sweep Oregon. We didn't realize how good that team was until they went and beat Vandy, so there's still hope. That team was soft, too, but they were just uber-talented. I think Cohen had started to wear down by that point, had lost some intensity.
And does anybody, ANYBODY, think we're in the type of shape that would allow a 2017-2021 type run after this year? I don't see a Jake Mangum on this team, but I see some decent pieces (Mershon, Cupp). We'll see.
We just had our first sweep of the year.
It was against maybe the worst baseball team to ever step on Dudy Noble field.
#304 out of #305 total baseball teams in college baseball. Jury is still out. This is possibly our weakest OOC in no telling how long. An average SEC team is probably undefeated with this schedule or maybe 1 RAT loss.
I told anyone that would listen that if we had more than 4 losses preconference that we may as well go ahead & fire him. We will probably be 12-6 possibly worse before we start that 9 game SEC gauntlet.
wont argue that. But he's a better hitter than either of the other catchers we have on the roster. He hit 231 with 9 homers last season. Our catchers combined wont hit that this season.
Braden Montgomery has 1 less HR than our team and nearly 1/4 of the RBI. He would have been a huge boost, but also a 1 year rental and gone like most of the rest of this team. The program is in big time trouble with no depth following all of these departures. The new coach is going to have to be a portal king for a few years.
I don’t think anyone with half a brain expected a 2016 type season with this group….or any group really. That’s the only SEC championship we’ve had in the last 35+ years. That’s not our baseline as a program, and it took exceptional talent and luck to make it happen.
Bottom line is that the powers that be (the boosters) decided to give Lemonis another year to show that he can start bringing us back into relevance. I’m not sure that was the correct decision, but at this point as a fan I think you still have to hope he can do it. Getting to a regional is going to be damn difficult, and require massive improvement from where we currently are. For some reason, we have fans that want us to fail spectacularly so as to make a clean and fast break with Lemonis. Him getting us back into the postseason is a far better outcome than firing him and a total dice roll for the replacement. I honestly don’t think he’s going to do it. But if he does, you have to give credit where its due for at least one more season.
Yeah. See if you think we still have improved by the end of this month. I know the old Mississippi baseball teams would not be intimidated because of this schedule.
Obviously would love to have him but this is what he did last year. He tore up OOC pitching last year and then was not nearly as good in conference. Kellum Clark had a better conference season in a much tougher conference.
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