It's starting to get hopeless for us baseball fans of MSU.....

[Goat Holder]

Yeah, yeah, I know we won yesterday. Yeah, yeah, I know about our injuries. And yeah, yeah, we might couldv'e pulled out the Saturday game had we been healthy. But ****, Polk doesn't give a chance. We have to win despite this mother @%!@*$. And it hasn't always been this bad. It used to be just leaving pitchers in too long. He was never a good pitching coach anyway.

We should have beaten Ole Miss 12-0 yesterday. The number of stranded baserunners the past 3-4 years is frightening. Making absolutely the wrong decisions it seems in every inning. **** is mindboggling.

 

[Goat Holder]

Yeah, yeah, I know we won yesterday. Yeah, yeah, I know about our injuries. And yeah, yeah, we might couldv'e pulled out the Saturday game had we been healthy. But ****, Polk doesn't give a chance. We have to win despite this mother @%!@*$. And it hasn't always been this bad. It used to be just leaving pitchers in too long. He was never a good pitching coach anyway.

We should have beaten Ole Miss 12-0 yesterday. The number of stranded baserunners the past 3-4 years is frightening. Making absolutely the wrong decisions it seems in every inning. **** is mindboggling.

 

[SoxFan343]

After Friday, I thought you were looking at single digit conference wins. Now I think with some people getting healthy and some lineup changes, you could be a regional team if they get healthy in time.

Weatherford should be in the rotation if/when he gets healthy. Weatherford, Pigott, and Bowen is a good rotation. Having Turner between Hogue and Nappi will help your lineup tons. Polk really needs to put Weatherford in the rotation.

 

[8dog]

Weatherford's arm can handle being a starter. Not too mention that his future is probably in the pen.

One reason we are so bad at stranding runners is that we lead the league in strikeouts. We are striking out 7.5 times a game. You have to put the ball in play.

 

[Goat Holder]

4 innings of shut out then you don't know what will happen. Outings like the one on Sunday at Oxford last year are few and far between. With our current woes it may be our only option.

But yeah, for 4 innings, Weatherford is as good as anyone in the country.</p>

 

[Faustdog]

after this weekend than I did before. I thought we were terrible before. We've finally found another weekend starter, and we could easily have taken two of three from a top five team.

 

[DawgTeacher]

It's funny you bring up the fact that the number of baserunners stranded in the past 3-4 years is mindboggling. He has never been a bunt and steal type coach, yet that seems to be all we did yesterday. I think we'll be fine if we can get over the hump of injuries and youngness/inexperience. Think about who and what we lost from last year; Rea (leadoff, most career hits, steady defensively, LEADER), Easley (THE BEST catcher in the nation, #3 hitter all year)Moreland (role player defensively [1B, RF, closer], #4 hitter in the lineup), Laninfa (not a stud but defensively or hitting but consistent, senior leadership), McCaskill (same as Laninfa). All of this was coming from the offensive side, yet we are scoring runs and hitting the ball pretty well. I doubt anyone thought we'd hit and produce runs like this, considering what we lost. I felt, like most of the coaching staff, and thought our pitching would be one of our major strengths and it's not. But it's early. I'll take a season like last year each year. Make it to Omaha and give ourselves a nice run at the National title. This group will do some great things before they part ways with Starkville.

 

[RebelBruiser]

I think bunting and stealing is definitely more productive in college than in the pros, simply because bunt defense is not as good in college, and base stealers are successful at a higher rate in college due to catchers and pitchers not being as strong at holding runners. That said, I don't buy into bunting and stealing being a huge catalyst for your offense. I think walks, strikeouts, and extra base hits are much better measures for determining whether you'll have a chance at big innings.

Edited to add: Back on topic, I said for the past couple weeks that I was glad we played you now rather than late in the season. Due to injuries and a lot of questions, you're going to be a much easier out now than you would be later in the year. Getting our 2 of 3 to start the season will be a good thing for us by the end of the season, as I expect MSU will be playing better and be much tougher.

 

[Stormrider81]

One reason is we generally take too many pitches. Far too often our batters take strikes and get themselves into a hole. It's not rocket science, I'm stating the obvious here: when a pitcher gets ahead in the count they have an advantage over the batter.

Obviously this isn't the only reason we tend to strikeout a lot, but this is something we could correct. If a guy is hitting his spots, do not take the first pitch. I don't know more about baseball than Ron Polk, he's forgotten more than I'll ever know, so you'd think he could figure this out.

 

[Goat Holder]

1-0, 2-0, 3-0 and 3-1. Goes along with the wearing out of pitchers and playing for the big inning. We really only get 1, maybe 2 good cuts at the plate each batter.

That coupled with always leaving the pitcher in 2 batters too long, and sending Cody Freeman home when a rifle arm left fielder has already fielded the ball, and holding up Grant Hogue BEFORE the ball is fielded, drive me INSANE. And people wonder where the bipolar **** comes from. I know the inning where Hogue got held worked out for us, but ****, Nappi was down 1-2 with the bases juiced or we would have gotten screwed that inning too. For a coach that bitches about not being able to get enough good players in here, he sure puts alot on the shoulders of those players who do get in.

 

[rebel law]

I couldn't believe Polk sent Freeman against Power. Power might very well have the best arm in the SEC.....glad MSU didn't want him. If/when you get Turner back, Pigott healthy, Weatherford healthy, and if Sunday was Bowen's coming out party, the dogs could put a pretty good baseball team on the field in a few weeks. Of course that is a lot of ifs and y'all will need to right the ship sooner rather than later.

 

[Goat Holder]

but the problem is that you have to actually win the games to get in the tournement. .500 isn't gonna get it.

 

[patdog]

IF we get everybody healthy, and IF the real Bowen is the one who almost no-hit you and not the one who gave up all those runs to North Florida and Air Force, then we could be reasonably competitive in the SEC. But, we'll still lose a lot of mid-week games because we don't have the pitching. We could maybe get to a regional, but if we do it'll be just barely. And our only prayer of winning it would be to go 3-0 like we did last year.

 

[Stormrider81]

after playing a so-so early schedule. Yesterday was a must win game. We had to have that game if we were going to make any kind of push this year, but to be honest we really need to clean up on OOC games from here on out and avoid any sweeps in SEC play. A sweep would really kill this team because we probably aren't good enough to sweep anyone else to balance it out. We play SC at their place, meaning there is a good likelyhood we will be 2-4 in conference after this weekend. After that we play UGA at home and UK on the road. Ugh.</p>

 

[patdog]

I agree with you. I was just saying that if a lot of things suddenly fell into place for us tomorrow, we'd still have a huge fight just to be in contention for a regional bid. I fully expect this MSU team to finish with a losing overall record and to win no more than 12 SEC games.</p>

 

[Todd4State]

I'm going to hit several topics in one post, so don't be mad when it looks like I didn't post it to the right person.

I'm happy that Bowen stepped it up yesterday, but our pitching situation is scary even being sheepish. I think we're going to maybe see Bowen on Fri., Lalor on Sat., and Carver/Moore splitting Sun. Then we'll have to hope that Lee Swindle steps up as a midweek guy and then throw the "staff" on Weds. when we have two midweek games. Weatherford should not start because heck, he got a sore shoulder coming out of the bullpen, much less throw 120 pitches every seventh day. The midweek games might be "rehab assignments" for people like Pigott. I don't know if Crosswhite will come back this year or not. Also, right now our closer is Andy Wilson, and we're going to see some guys like Houston, Busby, Hollingshead, Wesson, and Koon pressed into action a lot more than anticipated. If I was Polk, I'd have to take a long look at using Paxton Pace and Shawn Marquardt because of the injury situation.

Agree with everyone on Polk not sending/sending runners. He should not be in the third base coaching box. I think he only does it because he likes doing it. It probably hurts his overall coaching a little bit. Believe it or not, I think Raffo should be the third base coach. There has been a debate in the past about Big League managers coaching third, I believe Tom Lasorda did it for a very short time, and the consensus is that it is easier to manage a game in the dugout.

Agree on taking pitches. Storm nailed it.

I do feel better about our team after this series. Instead of firing Polk, we might just need to fire the trainer. We have the most season ending muscle strains in the history of baseball. I think we can manage if we get Turner and Pigott back.

Also, I think Ole Miss is a good team with two great pitchers. You can go a long way with that, but I just don't think that they are the 5th best team in the country. At least not right now.

 

[Stormrider81]

Our team just getting better won't be enough. We'll have a tough road the rest of the season, as you said.

 

[RebelBruiser]

Also, I think Ole Miss is a good team with two great pitchers. You can go a long way with that, but I just don't think that they are the 5th best team in the country. At least not right now.

I agree with your second statement. We're not a Top 5 team right now. We very well could be by the end of the year though. We have the pieces. They just have to be put in the right position. As for your comment about our pitching, this is how I'd rank our pitchers:

1. Lynn
2. Bittle
3. Pomeranz
4. Satterwhite
5. Baker

I'm guessing you were saying Lynn and Satterwhite when talking about our pitching, but I really don't think Satterwhite is our 2nd best pitcher. He'll be a high draft pick, but I don't think he's as good as Bittle or Pomeranz. Both of those guys have been basically unhittable this year, and I won't be shocked to see one of them in the rotation before the year is out.

 

[wpnetdawg]

We're tied for second in the West and only a game back.

 

[wpnetdawg]

I don't think it was a result of State not being a good hitting team. I think he was just that good.

 

[DiamondReb1083]

I agree with your order. I moved over to sit behind home plate after the 5th. I was talking to a scout from Detroit. I asked him who he was there to see and he told me he couldn't tell me. He gunned a few of Satterwhite's pitches along with 3 or 4 other scouts. Somebody went down to the bullpen and the scout goes "watch my stuff, I'm going to see who is warming up". I told him not to waste his time that it would be Bittle. He said, "It better be Bittle". By the time Bittle comes in there are easily 30 or 35 radar guns going. I had no idea he was that highly thought of.

I don't know what the deal is with Bowen. How can this guy pitch like that yet come into the game with a 10.2 ERA? Is he that good, or did he get that hot?

Nappi is a heck of a player and should have started last year over JoeMac. Houge is an outstanding leadoff man who is virtually impossible to throw out. I like your team a WHOLE heck of a lot more after watching them in person. You'll make a regional if your injuries clear up.

And by the way I HATE Jet Butler. He is the most fidgety, annoying POS I've ever watched play baseball. Watch him when he leads off first, he's like digging in the dirt and doin the hand jive and all this ****. He has the hatred usually reserved for loser white basketball (ala Duke players) and loser white safties in football like Tony Bua. I don't know...it's just something about those guys, and Butler that make me want to punch them in the face.

That said, you guys shouldn't give up on this team. They are good. If Bowen is close to what he showed yesterday you'll be fine. Find a good number two hitter and your 1-5 are fantastic, and 1-6 when Turner is back. Moore is a pretty nice number 7. Don't give up on them yet.

One other thing, I find any way to replace any way to replace Sneed and Powers on the left side. They suck at defense. Powers has NO range and Sneed lollypops one over to first makes an error then decides to not throw the ball to end the game. I can say with about 95% certainty that Overbeck would've been out. Unless of course he didn't have a good grip on it.

 

[RebelBruiser]

Well, Bianco keeps saying Bittle is the best pitcher on the staff, and he doesn't qualify it by saying "outside of Lance Lynn". So obviously he's highly thought of by the baseball guys.

And as far as what he's shown this year, I'd say they are right. 1 run in 18 innings, 33 Ks, and only 4 walks.

As for Bowen, I think he's obviously got good stuff. And from looking at his stats, my guess is he's struggled finding his control in previous starts. If he can figure out his arm slot and throw with good control, he'll be a quality pitcher for State. He's obviously got good enough stuff.

 

[8dog]

would it be possible to have 3 first round picks off this staff? Lynn and Sattterwhite though were touted out of HS. Bittle seems like he was just an avg juco player.

I like Bowen. Im more surprised that he had a 10.2 ERA than I am that he threw a 2 hitter yesterday. I like that he seems to be having fun and wants the ball. Last year in Tallahassee, he was huge and he wanted the ball badly.

 

[Goat Holder]

nm

 

[DiamondReb1083]

Satterwhite won't be a first rounder. I think Lynn will be and Bittle will be a 2nd or 3rd rounder. Throwing 97 as a freshman doesn't look as good when you're only throwing 91 and can't locate a slider or changeup to save your life. Satterwhite will be a 3rd to 5th based off potential.</p>

 

[8dog]

wow...was he drafted out of high school? I'll never understand these guys that go to college.

 

[Todd4State]

he had a rough start against UNF, and a couple of below average starts against Air Force and Baylor. I don't know what happened to him yesterday, but I hope he keeps it up.

I haven't seen Bittle pitch, and I just remember him as a guy who basically threw curveballs all day. If you played stall ball against him, he would walk you. So, I guess someone finally told him to attack the hitters.

 

[Todd4State]

he's no more annoying than anyone on your team with bleach blonde hair.

Thank God that trend has apparently ended with Zack Cozart.

 

[rebel law]

He was projected to go in the first 3 rounds but his parents made it known that he was going to college so teams cooled on him. His 98 mph fastball as a sr in high school made him a lot more attractive than he looks 3 years later. Because of a few injuries he now usually maxes out around 94 and despite the occasional dominant outing, he doesn't look that special anymore. I think he will go between rounds 5-10. Unless he really turns it on, he definitely cost himself alot of money by going to college. On another note, if Pomeranz doesn't get injured I think he could be our highest draft pick ever 2 years down the road. Lefties that hit around 95 with a big league curve are hard to find.

 

[rebel law]

after 3 super regional losses, I think the team decided it was time to go a different direction and try some other type of mojo. Where is Jobu when you need him?

 

[someonestolemyusernamedamnit]

so far this year, have you?

I told him not to waste his time that it would be Bittle.

 

[Todd4State]

in the C-L when he was in High School that said to the effect that his Mom was a big Ole Miss fan and wanted him to go there.

I agree about Pomeranz. He definately could be a high pick again in a couple of years. I just want to add to your lost lefties that are also 6'5" and hit around 95 with a big league curve. He probably should start ahead of Baker, to me anyway.

 

[RebelBruiser]

wow...was he drafted out of high school? I'll never understand these guys that go to college.

</p>]

I bet that a point will come where most guys are forced to go to college. If teams would start to do analysis of their top draft picks from college versus their top draft picks from high school, they'll probably start drafting mostly out of college. Satterwhite is a good example. If he really was throwing 98 or 97 in high school, and you're a major league team that drafts him, you're going to be pretty ticked when 3 years later he's throwing 93.

Basically, the longer you can wait to see a guy develop, and the better the competition you can see him face, the better your chances of making a strong evaluation and actually landing someone that will make it to the bigs. The A's and Red Sox in particular have already started going with an increased look at college players. If you think about it, it really only makes sense to make your investment in commodities that are closer to a known than drafting on potential that's undeveloped. And of course a shift to drafting college players more highly will only be good for college baseball.

 

[SoxFan343]

Why are people thinking like this. Big league starters with plus fastballs average 94-96. Watch Josh Beckett or Jake Peavy throw. They hardly ever throw it above 95, but they have plus fastballs. They may go to 98 once or twice a game to get guys out, but they don't throw it 98 everytime they throw a freaking pitch. You won't last three innings. Closers can throw that hard because they only pitch one, maybe two innings. Satterwhite isn't throwing it as hard because he is STARTING games now and the goal is for him to pitch deep into the game. If he comes out throwing 98, by the 3rd inning his arm will be dead. If he stays 92-95, it won't. Besides, he got pulled in the third inning of the TCU game because he gimped off the mound with a hamstring injury. That can't be helping his velocity either.

Satterwhite's knock is not his fastball or his slider. Satterwhite has elite stuff, he just needs location and durability. The biggest red flag the kid has is his health. </p>

 

[Todd4State]

that there should be a rule that all high school players should go to college. But, most Big League teams have already started to shift their draft to college players. You still see a lot of high school kids go in the early rounds, but those are the elite prospects, and even in the early rounds I would venture to guess that a majority of them are college players. I know some people will say "you can't force people to go to college", but the NFL and NBA do, and they can get hurt just as easily in college like the football and basketball players.

 

[SoxFan343]

they wouldn't force anyone to do anything. If you get drafted out of high school, you don't go straight to taking the mound at Yankee Stadium. You spend a minimum 3 or 4 years in the minors (playing in front of crowds similar to college ones in size). The NFL and NBA can't offer that. College is their farm system.

You'll never see pro teams make players go to college. Besides, a large percentage of the high end players come from either high school picks or foreign picks. Only like 17 of th 64 players who were all stars last season went to college.

 

[RebelBruiser]

That number is likely going to change with the shift in draft strategy. You'll still have a lot of foreign players at the All-Star level, but as far as American born guys, you're going to see more and more of them coming out of the college ranks rather than the high school ranks.

It'll be another 5-10 years before you see it significantly at the ML level though. Most Major League scouts have been too caught up in 60 times, height, weight, arm strength, power, and the other things that make a player a "5-tool player". The bottom line is, if you're a pitcher, can you get guys out, and if you're a position player, can you make plays defensively, and can you get on base? It doesn't matter how you do it, just that you do it well. The NFL can focus more on things like that because so much of what goes on, at least at positions other than QB, is based on size, speed, agility, and other measurable things. Point being, you don't see anyone like David Eckstein or Gregg Maddux having success in the NFL. You can't be undersized or less athletic in the NFL. You can be in MLB.

 

[LandArchDawg]

next year's recruiting. At least that seems to be the rule for football. Har, har!

 

[SoxFan343]

In recent years, only 2006 has seen more college players drafted in the first round than high school. 15 of Baseball America's top 20 prospects didn't go to college. It think 71 or 72 of the top 100 didn't go.

Teams are drafting more college guys overall, but high school draftees and foreign players still constitute a large majority of high end players. That will not change despite the fact that you read moneyball.

 

[DiamondReb1083]

I'm in total agreement with you about the bleeched hair. Horrible trend. It started as a freshman hazing thing Cozart's year and for some unknown reason he liked it and kept it. Horrible look. I do also think it's about time to stop having the MSU newcomers shave their head every year. Poor Cody Freeman looks like a cancer patient. No disrepect to cancer patients. That kind of gets old.

I just freakin hate Jet Butler and can't totally express why. I just do.