What do you think is the real problem with baseball?

[8dog]

While we don’t have the talent some think..and it’s very hard to measure leadership especially on a bad team. This team is incredidly bad fundamentally, just see the two run downs last night and the one earlier against AF.…. That’s coaching. Also the ability to put the right players in the right position is coaching as well. Keeping a catcher a 1b and in the 5 hole all last season even though he was the worst 1b in the sec, is coaching. I could list more examples but I’ll stop….

And Leadership is something people just assume one way or the other. I’m sure there are plenty of bad teams that had good leadership- you would just never hear about it. I have no doubt Wes Rea and Ross Mitchell were good leaders in 2015.

Leadership just isn’t important enough to get people out or barrel balls.

 

[HuntDawg]

He’s about to make the same mistake this year. Chance has hit 3 homers and has 8 extra base hits in roughly 150 plate apperabces. Get him out of the middle of the order. And Hujsak seems like he’s taken over the Luke Hancock role. He’s hittin 219 in 70 career at bats over 2 seasons. Why again is his name written in permanent marker?

 

[HuntDawg]

And Leadership is something people just assume one way or the other. I’m sure there are plenty of bad teams that had good leadership- you would just never hear about it. I have no doubt Wes Rea and Ross Mitchell were good leaders in 2015.

Leadership just isn’t important enough to get people out or barrel balls.

Yep for all we know or anyone does..there were some guys on those teams whose leadership kept things from looking like this

 

[Trojanbulldog19]

I think Lemonis believed the hype after the national championship year and got lazy. Recruiting suffered and fundamental baseball suffered. It also seems he and the staff went all in with analytics (without really understanding what they were doing) and tried to coach every player into the "correct" mode of play with no regard to that player's strengths or weaknesses.

I think this pretty spot on

 

[NWADog]

I think it’s a different mental makeup and lack of leadership. The teams we had that went to 3 straight trips to Omaha had guys like Mangum, Macnamee, Rowdey, TA, Sims, Bednar, Ethan Small, Hooty and others that were cussin players while on the mound saying “step in the 17’n box”. We don’t have any dogs from what I can see. Just no dudes that refuse to lose. I don’t see much grit out of the roster over the last two seasons. Bend over and take it and listen to the other dugout jawin all game and do nothing about it. Let teams come in here that have no business winning at the Dude come in and dominate.

 

[Seinfeld]

I think the issue with this team is that we decided to keep on truckin with a coach that can't recruit, develop, make effective in game decisions, or find the right personalities for this team. Mostly things that he did pretty well for 3 years, so either that was a complete fluke for three consecutive seasons or else we've got a guy that got his ring and then decided to coast towards retirement. I tend to lean towards the latter because you cannot convince me that a coach with as many resources as MSU baseball could do this poorly for this long. It'd be about like Ohio St football suddenly becoming the laughing stock of the B1G. It just shouldn't be possible

 

[ronpolk]

That couldn't be further from the truth. Today after 1 inning there were multiple conversations among multiple different groups in multiple boxes about this product on the field. And for those that claim to have never been invited to partake, they need to know a lot of those seemingly good ole boys in t shirts and flip flops out there aren't just country bumpkins. Some but obviously not not all are the same guys pulling the strings elsewhere otherwise they wouldn't still be out there

It’s obvious now that if you don’t let the baseball team ruin your mood and turn you into a sore loser, that you’re causing the problems with this baseball team. If selmon cared for the baseball program, he would ban grills and start kicking anyone out of the stadium who is appearing to have good fellowship with friends.

 

[IBleedMaroonDawg]

Same problem we had last May, and we did nothing about it then either. We had a chance to, but we decided suffer longer and wait another year.

Tell me, don't you feel better that we waited?

 

[OG Goat Holder]

I'm going to disagree with some people in that I think we actually have talent on the roster. I think our recruiting strategy shifted too much to more top rated travel ball guys instead of mixing those types with some good ol' dirtbag ball players.

I also question our leadership amongst the players and the coaching staff. We don't seem to have any players that want the ball or be up to bat with the game on the line. As for the coaching staff it's easy to lead a team with a Landon Sims, TA, or Mangum.

I 100% agree with you……but wouldn’t that make the problem still…..talent? Just because they are rated highly out of high school doesn’t mean they will be good players are the college level.

The travel ballers are coached to a T in high school and most are maxed out due to taking lessons and such for years. They go to all the showcases and have the ‘numbers’.

The 5 star guys are who they are, any idiot can find and pick out those guys - and they normally get drafted are snatched up by the LSUs Floridas and Vanderbilts who can offer more scholarship money (though that may change a little with NIL). It’s the 3 and 4 star tier that is tougher to evaluate in baseball because you have the athletic guys mixed in with the maxed out showcase guys. It appears that Lemonis is choosing the numbers over the projectable athletes.

They all play travel ball so that in and of itself isn’t the problem. You have to look deeper at them. Small town guys who play multiple sports. The suburban kids are harder to evaluate too, because they generally can’t play multiple sports. But more and more kids are suburban now, so that makes it even more tough to discern.

If I am coach I try and get us back to the MS/AL guys like we used to do instead of trying to be a national showcase recruiter. It doesn’t work.

 

[ETK99]

Throwing out talent since we are basically Bama playing UAB at this point. What is the real issue?

Horrible base running and little league run downs on defense. Horrible two strike hitting approaches.

I don't think actual effort is the problem but I could be convinced otherwise.

Pitchers are finally attacking and not nibbling and walking the bases full.

Talent is an issue and it's not debateable. But it's not nearly as bad as the pathetic leadership and coaching.

 

[Bulldog from Birth]

The covenant I made with God, sitting in my seat at TD Ameritrade, desperate after getting blasted by Vandy in Game 1.