So is anybody feeling any better about baseball?

[paindonthurt]

If they come in and win tonight, that will be a 7 game win streak. Depending on tonight, the highest score by an opponent could be 4 runs.

Are we figuring anything out or can you just tell nothing from the competition we've played?

We definitely aren’t as bad as some wanted us to believe but let’s take a wait and see approach through march 27 and then we’ll know a lot more.

 

[Drebin]

The teams we are playing lately are better than VMI who we started the year against.

To me, the improvement is obvious because we seem to have mostly fixed the biggest issue (pitching), and the biggest root cause of that issue (walks / free passes). None of that is related to level of competition. Loftin is the only one still struggling there. We’ve found the guys we can count on in both the weekend rotation and the bullpen, which are two things we didn’t have last year.

So walks/free passes have nothing to do with the level of competition?

 

[MSUDC11-2.0]

The front half of our conference schedule is not that bad. @kentucky, Vandy, South Carolina, @Bama, Ole Miss. It’s important that we have a strong start to league play, because the back half of our schedule is absolutely brutal.

 

[stateu1]

The front half of our conference schedule is not that bad. @kentucky, Vandy, South Carolina, @Bama, Ole Miss. It’s important that we have a strong start to league play, because the back half of our schedule is absolutely brutal.

That looks pretty bad to me. South Carolina and Bama are playing well.

 

[Drebin]

The front half of our conference schedule is not that bad. @kentucky, Vandy, South Carolina, @Bama, Ole Miss. It’s important that we have a strong start to league play, because the back half of our schedule is absolutely brutal.

They're all better than Lipscomb and Nichols, so let's hope we have a strong start and have figured things out.

 

[onewoof]

We set up a Zoom call so all the internet wisdom and super coaches can be shared with Lemonis, Foxhall, Gautreau and Cheesebrough. Check your PM for the invite link.

 

[patdog]

The front half of our conference schedule is not that bad. @kentucky, Vandy, South Carolina, @Bama, Ole Miss. It’s important that we have a strong start to league play, because the back half of our schedule is absolutely brutal.

That's #6, #16, #24 and #3 in the latest poll. If that's the part of the schedule that's not that bad, we're in real trouble. (Looks at back half of schedule and see it includes #2, #6, #1 and #15.) We're screwed.

 

[OG Goat Holder]

Shows how much some of you actually keep up. Bama isn't good, their schedule is terrible.

But either way, the SEC is the best of the best. That many rankings isn't really a surprise to anyone.

 

[Perd Hapley]

So walks/free passes have nothing to do with the level of competition?

You tell me. Do umpires check the RPI / ELO rankings of teams before deciding what their strike zone is going to be?

 

[Drebin]

You tell me. Do umpires check the RPI / ELO rankings of teams before deciding what their strike zone is going to be?

Don't get defensive, baseball expert. I asked you a question.

 

[L4MANDW]

I reserve my comments on this year’s baseball team till after SBW, then we’ll really know what we got.

 

[patdog]

Shows how much some of you actually keep up. Bama isn't good, their schedule is terrible.

Last year and so far this year, they're better than us.

 

[Perd Hapley]

Don't get defensive, baseball expert. I asked you a question.

My answer to the question should have been obvious. If you can’t locate pitches and throw strikes, it doesn’t matter who you are playing.

 

[Drebin]

My answer to the question should have been obvious. If you can’t locate pitches and throw strikes, it doesn’t matter who you are playing.

But, you realize that pitchers locate and throw different pitches depending on the quality and/or scouted tendencies of the hitter, right? No, of course you don't, because your answer is obvious.

Great job.

 

[OG Goat Holder]

Last year and so far this year, they're better than us.

Not true, in any way. You lean so far negative on MSU baseball that your opinion is, again, laughable. It's time to give it up, you have basically been wrong for like 10 of 14 years since Cohen got here (2009, 2010, 2015, 2022) and you were only right those years because you just spew negativity until it hits. And you weren't really right in those years, any logical unbiased person understands what went wrong during those seasons.

 

[patdog]

Not true, in any way. You lean so far negative on MSU baseball that your opinion is, again, laughable. It's time to give it up, you have basically been wrong for like 10 of 14 years since Cohen got here (2009, 2010, 2015, 2022) and you were only right those years because you just spew negativity until it hits.

I've given Cohen plenty of credit for the good years in his program. He did some great things rebuilding our baseball program from what Polk did to it. So don't start this crap that I've been wrong for 10 of the 14 years he was here.

 

[Perd Hapley]

But, you realize that pitchers locate and throw different pitches depending on the quality and/or scouted tendencies of the hitter, right? No, of course you don't, because your answer is obvious.

Great job.

Of course. But previously we couldn’t throw the pitches we were trying to throw, regardless of scouted tendencies. We were throwing pitches multiple feet off the plate against VMI. Every time Loftin reached for anything off-speed on Tuesday night, he had no clue where it was going. Even MVSU and Jackson State are good enough to lay off pitches that are in the other batter’s box.

It’s gotten better in the past 7-10 days for everybody besides Loftin. We’ll see what SEC play brings.

 

[johnson86-1]

But, you realize that pitchers locate and throw different pitches depending on the quality and/or scouted tendencies of the hitter, right? No, of course you don't, because your answer is obvious.

Great job.

Generally of course the competition matters. Pitchers can get away with more against weaker competition, so they can give themselves more margin for error when locating. And there is just the confidence/mental aspect of it. I haven't watched enough to know, but it doesn't appear that competition has been playing a huge part of our control issues. We were walking bad teams and not as bad teams, and now we're not walking bad teams as much. And didn't walk ULL (who I guess is a not so bad team this year?). I'm hoping that we have some snakes out of pitchers heads and we will not revert when we face good competition.

 

[maroonmania]

Certainly feel better now that we are at least beating the teams we should be beating as opposed to the first couple weeks of the season. Won't really know a lot about this team until the competition stiffens which it is about to.

 

[Perd Hapley]

The staff could get 3 arms back next week: Pico, Nixon, and Cade. All could pitch this weekend, but won't due to the extreme cold temps.

With all due respect, we’ve been hearing that for weeks. Now SEC play is here and it seems they still aren’t available, which is concerning. Not doubting your info….just curious where you are getting it because nobody seems to have the slightest clue as to what is ailing any of those 3 guys.

 

[Perd Hapley]

I'm hoping that we have some snakes out of pitchers heads and we will not revert when we face good competition.

I wonder how much different the perception would be right now if we simply hadn’t blown the huge lead in the one VMI game. We’d be 14-4 against the 4th toughest schedule of any SEC team, which would put us record-wise in the same category as every other team in the conference with no truly bad losses.

Right now, there don’t seem to be any bad SEC teams, and no one is really standing out as being head and shoulders above the rest, either. Every team seems to be in one of two categories: 1-2 losses against weaker schedules or 3-5 losses against tougher schedules. Its pretty wide open. And no one should think that any of the poll voters have the slightest clue who the best teams are right now, either.

 

[Drebin]

Generally of course the competition matters. Pitchers can get away with more against weaker competition, so they can give themselves more margin for error when locating. And there is just the confidence/mental aspect of it. I haven't watched enough to know, but it doesn't appear that competition has been playing a huge part of our control issues. We were walking bad teams and not as bad teams, and now we're not walking bad teams as much. And didn't walk ULL (who I guess is a not so bad team this year?). I'm hoping that we have some snakes out of pitchers heads and we will not revert when we face good competition.

Well, talk to Perd about it. He says our competition has nothing to do with it. He's apparently the expert.

 

[Perd Hapley]

Well, talk to Perd about it. He says our competition has nothing to do with it. He's apparently the expert.

If your dumba$$ had made it even halfway through his post, you’d have seen he was saying the same thing as I was.

 

[Called3rdstrikedawg]

Nobody should be fully confident at present time because we are currently missing 3 cornerstone pieces of the staff due to injury. Any universe with Cade, Nixon, Kohn, Auger, and Simmons all not contributing to this season would have us in a bad spot. If / when we get those first 3 guys back, we’ll have them plus Lo, Ynetma, Gartman, Loftin, Tapper, Dohm, and Siary. That’s a solid 10 guys who have all shown some promise….with Loftin and his walk problem being the only major concern currently. We can play .500 ball in the SEC with that group, no question.

Davis, Gibbs, Hardin, Stinnett, Holcombe, and all the others shouldn’t be factors for meaningful innings. Those experiments should be over. Any long term injuries to Smith / Kohn / Nixon is going to force one or more of them into more work, which would be a problem.

Tapper was living up to his name last night. He was getting tattooed but fortunately they were mostly Atem balls. I wouldn’t go all googoo eyed on the hitting just yet. We have had some good timely hitting this year that we didn’t see last half of last year. But every team we have played has found a pitcher during the game that shut us Don and got a lot of ground ball outs. Last year the team couldn’t get many out of the infield. This year, because of speed, I think we already have a lot more infield hits. Again, the level of competition may change that with 6 SEC teams in the Top 10 and 9 in the Top 25.

 

[Drebin]

If your dumba$$ had made it even halfway through his post, you’d have seen he was saying the same thing as I was.

No, he didn't say that level of competition has no impact on throwing strikes. That was all you.

 

[aTotal360]

I never lost confidence in this team.