I think there are several things that are different this year.
We did lose some key players- Easley, Rea, and Moreland
We have had some injuries to some key players- Weatherford, Pigott, Crosswhite, Whitney, Turner, and now Freeman and C. Powers.
Last year, I think Polk felt a little bit of heat from some of the fans in general and was in the last year of his contract, and he did some more things to win like change pitchers sooner and play small ball a little bit more than he usually did. This offseason, after going to the CWS, we essentially gave him a "lifetime" contract and people were willing to give him a little bit of a pass. With the heat off, Polk decided to spend his time writing letters to the NCAA while people patted his back.
We did have some luck in the postseason once we got there, no doubt. I think our crowd carried the team to Omaha at least a little bit in the SR.
There has been the distraction with the whole Polk retirement fiasco that I'm sure has been a major distraction to the program as a whole. I think the current coaching staff realizes that they are probably all gone regardless, and probably have mailed it in. Therefore their attitude trickles down to the players. I also think that the players probably have some things going through their heads like how their playing time will be affected next year, wanting to perform for their coaches, the possibility of having to transfer (I think Polk will encourage many of the players to do this), and I think they feel some pressure from the fans. There are a lot of unknowns for the players right now, but the reality is that everything will probably be OK.
McNickle has done a piss poor job with the pitching staff. Pitching has been a hallmark for MSU baseball for years, and we're playing guys that have no business being in the SEC. There have been some questions about MSU's conditioning and pitching regimen from fans and parents- in particular Matt Lea and Aaron Weatherford's family.
I don't think that the defense is any worse than last year- at least it hasn't been to me as a casual observer. There may be stats that show that we are worse, but I think with the pitching, timely hitting, and lack of base running the defense has all appeared to relative to me. I do think we lack range and athleticism in general in the field, with the exception of a couple of guys like Freeman, Hogue, Goforth and Tyler Moore. And then you have some guys like Jet Butler who are erratic with throwing the ball. Russ Sneed plays very tenatively sometimes as well on defense.
Poor recruiting- I think this has actually gotten a little bit better the past couple of years, but it's still not where it needs to be. We need to be a lot more aggressive going after big name high school players. Yes, a lot of them go pro, but you also may end up with a Lance Lynn. I think we undersign too much as well. We need to do a much better job of recruiting in the large population states- Florida, Texas, and California. We need to sell MSU baseball- the atmosphere and all that- better.
Lack of senior leadership on the field. All of our captains are pitchers, who aren't on the field all the time. Typically we start 0 seniors. We do have some young players, but we also have experienced players. But no one has really stepped up as the leader on the field.
The best news is that all of this will be over in five weeks.
