Mississippi State Baseball Preview: Bulldogs out to defend national title

At long last, the Mississippi State Bulldogs took home a national championship in 2021, which marked a first for not just the baseball program, but all Mississippi State teams.

Mississippi State will look to defend its national championship in 2022, a task that certainly won’t be easy, especially after losing plenty of talent to the MLB Draft; however, if the preseason rankings are any indication, Mississippi State has as good a chance as the field. The Bulldogs came in at No. 4 in the D1 Baseball top 25 poll, and in the SEC preseason coaches poll, Mississippi State was picked to finish second in the stacked West division. The Bulldogs also received four votes to win the SEC Championship in 2022.

Mississippi State will open up its 2022 season on Friday, as the Bulldogs host Long Beach State in Starkville. Before first pitch, On3 caught up with Theo DeRosa to preview the upcoming season. This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Theo DeRosa covers Mississippi State athletics for The Dispatch. He can be reached on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.

What do you think Mississippi State’s weekend rotation will look like this season, and who fits as a midweek starter?

For the weekend rotation, Landon Sims is obviously looking like the Friday night starter. I believe Cade Smith will be the Saturday starter, and then Jackson Fristoe would be the third guy. As far as midweek guys, there are a lot of different guys that can fit in there. I’m thinking it could be Andrew Walling, a junior, or Brandon Smith. Mississippi State returns a lot of pitchers from last year, but they also lost quite a few as well. They lost Christian MacLeod, Will Bednar, Eric Cerantola — they basically lost the entire starting rotation and several guys in the bullpen.

I think the late relief part of the bullpen will be really good for Mississippi State. I think you’ll see Preston Johnson in one of those midweek starter roles, but I think it’ll be something like Sims, Smith and Fristoe on the weekends, with maybe KC Hunt and Johnson in the weekday roles.

You mentioned Preston Johnson contributing as a long reliever as well — who else do you think Mississippi State will rely on out of the bullpen?

I think Andrew Walling is going to be an important name in the bullpen. He started his college career at Oregon State, then went to JUCO, and now he’s here. He and Mikey Tepper both throw upper 90’s, maybe touching 100, which is going to be nice out of the bullpen. Then you’ve got Stone Simmons back, you’ve got Brandon Smith, Cam Tullar — I mean, there are some serious options out there for Mississippi State. This is a deep bullpen.

What will Mississippi State’s lineup look like to start the season, and who will the Bulldogs rely on most for production behind the plate?

Mississippi State’s lineup last year wasn’t as good as it really could have been. They finished fifth in on base percentage, something like seventh in batting average and ninth in slugging percentage in the SEC. They were kind of middle of the pack there, but they obviously stepped it up in the postseason and in Omaha.

Mississippi State returns a lot of the pieces that made the lineup so good last year. You have catcher Logan Tanner back, first baseman Luke Hancock, third baseman Kamren James, left fielder Brad Cumbest, and then Kellum Clark is going to move from the DH role to right field. Of course, you lost Tanner Allen, the SEC Player of the Year, and Rowdey Jordan, a productive lead off player and center fielder.

You’ve got some new guys that can fill those roles, though. RJ Yeager is a transfer from Mercer, he’ll be competing with Tanner Leggett, who had the walk-off hit against Texas to send Mississippi State to the championship series. Then there’s Lane Forsythe — he’s not a super strong hitter, but he’s a really good defensive player. And Jess Davis was a Gold Glove winner with UAB last year, and he transferred in. He’s an outfielder, and he’ll be competing with Skinner in center field.

Which losses will be the hardest for Mississippi State to replace?

I think a guy like Tanner Allen is the hardest to replace. Coach Chris Lemonis talked about how many clutch hits Allen had, and he really did have pretty much every one: against Virginia, against every team, it seemed like it was always Tanner Allen coming up clutch. Without him, there’s going to be a hole in that lineup that’s not going to be easy to fill. Now, Kellum Clark came on really strong towards the end of last year, playing every day with some power as a freshman. He’ll be a good replacement, but it’s hard to replace a guy like Allen.

Additionally, in the rotation, with Bednar — he was just so strong down the stretch and was the most outstanding player in the College World Series, before he was selected in the first round of the MLB Draft by the Giants. Especially when you lose your other two weekend starters, it’s just really hard to replace that kind of production.

Lemonis also mentioned how hard it is to replace a leadoff guy, which is what Rowdey Jordan was. He said that Luke Hancock might be that guy, but it’s too early to tell. We will see what happens at that spot on Friday, but losing that leadoff production is tough to replace.

Last season, before winning the national title, did Mississippi State have any weaknesses? If so, how did they address them?

I would say they did have some weaknesses, and you saw that towards the end of the season. The pitching was such a dynamic level. You had incredible depth, and they set the NCAA strikeout record. But it wasn’t always consistent. You had a bunch of bad starts from Christian McCloud and Jackson Fristoe down the stretch. Not so much Bednar, he was pretty reliable, but there was some vulnerability there. Especially with those guys being gone, that could be a weakness, especially with unproven guys in the rotation so far. Even Sims was a great, great reliever but we don’t know yet how he’ll fare as a starter when he takes on this new role. I think that was the biggest weakness, if you want to call it that, for Mississippi State last year.

Their offense was also a little inconsistent at times, but that happens to most teams. It’s hard to hit at a championship level for 68 games. All that matters is that State hit that way when it really counted most. If you want to talk about weaknesses, I think the pitching rotation could be one.

What is the ceiling for Mississippi State as it looks to repeat as national champions, and where do you see the Bulldogs finishing in SEC play?

I think that Mississippi State has a pretty tough SEC schedule. They go to Arkansas, and they go to Ole Miss as well, and those are two of the top projected teams. They do avoid Vanderbilt in the regular season, so as far as playing them in SEC play, they won’t have to worry about that this year. I think this is a team that’s going to go back to Omaha. I don’t know if they’re going to win the national championship, but not many people thought they were going to win the national championship as a No. 7 seed that struggled down the stretch last year. And once you get to Omaha, anything can happen. I think this is a team that will probably finish second in the SEC West behind Arkansas or Ole Miss, and I think they will make it through Regionals, Super Regionals and get back to Omaha for the fourth straight time.

Who would be your early pick for team MVP?

I think it could be Logan Tanner. I know Landon Sims might seem like the obvious choice, but Tanner hit .287 with some power last year. He told us he wants to get his average up to .330. I don’t know if that’s doable, but it’s a great goal to set. If you’re as talented as he is, it’s not out of the realm of possibility. For a catcher who has such a strong arm, to be able to hit like that, I think he’s going to be Mississippi State’s MVP this season.

Who would be your early pick for Mississippi State’s newcomer of the year?

Freshman Hunter Hines from Madison Central High School in Madison, Mississippi is my choice here. Hines has been talked up by his teammates as a pretty good hitter right away. He’s listed at infield and outfield, so he could be seeing time at the DH spot, or just playing really wherever they need him. But that kind of bat is going to make it effective for them, and I think he’ll be the newcomer that everybody is going to be talking about.