It is always sad not to see Ms State baseball in an NCAA Regional. It surely is like a death in the family. We look around dumb founded as to what to do now.
Good luck to those SEC teams in the postseason.
I just have this feeling we will have 3 SEC teams going to Omaha but I think a non SEC team will win the National Championship.
Monday, May 25, 2015
Sunday, May 17, 2015
The 2015 Season - Part 9: The good stuff!
Junior college catcher Josh Lovelady played great. He was a nice pickup. He was solid, if not spectacular at times, throwing out runners. Once Gavin Collins came back his PT lessened. We needed Collins offense really bad. Those two returning will be the best one two punch in the SEC.
Freshman shortstop Ryan Gridley whose hero is Dustin Pedrioa won the job half way through the season. He might be small but he excelled at short. He had some big hits through out the season too.
Freshman pitcher Jesse McCord although he struggled when he pitched, I saw some great signs that he is an elite pitcher. Even Butch Thompson was calling him a preseason All-American. He can throw it low 90's with great movement. Hopefully, his surgery corrected what was wrong and he will be full speed next spring.
The 4 big sophomore pitchers: Dakota Hudson, Moonlight Tatum, Austin Sexton and Zac Houston each improved over their freshman seasons. Sexton really had some great starts but the bullpen couldn't hold the lead. Hudson and Houston out of the pen really flashed mid 90's fastballs. Tatum started and relieved and had spots where he was untouchable. All 4 will have significant roles in 2016.
The other sophomores: Jacob Robson, Reid Humphreys and Cody Brown each had solid years. All three were up and down sometimes. Robson started out on fire. Hump had a stretch where he was scorching the ball. Brown had some huge hits throughout the year. All 3 should be starters in 2016.
The other junior college players that made an impact besides Lovelady are Michael Smith, Luke Reynolds and John Holland. All three had up and down years, with injuries or slumps but these guys are solid and should have a good in 2016.
Freshman shortstop Ryan Gridley whose hero is Dustin Pedrioa won the job half way through the season. He might be small but he excelled at short. He had some big hits through out the season too.
Freshman pitcher Jesse McCord although he struggled when he pitched, I saw some great signs that he is an elite pitcher. Even Butch Thompson was calling him a preseason All-American. He can throw it low 90's with great movement. Hopefully, his surgery corrected what was wrong and he will be full speed next spring.
The 4 big sophomore pitchers: Dakota Hudson, Moonlight Tatum, Austin Sexton and Zac Houston each improved over their freshman seasons. Sexton really had some great starts but the bullpen couldn't hold the lead. Hudson and Houston out of the pen really flashed mid 90's fastballs. Tatum started and relieved and had spots where he was untouchable. All 4 will have significant roles in 2016.
The other sophomores: Jacob Robson, Reid Humphreys and Cody Brown each had solid years. All three were up and down sometimes. Robson started out on fire. Hump had a stretch where he was scorching the ball. Brown had some huge hits throughout the year. All 3 should be starters in 2016.
The other junior college players that made an impact besides Lovelady are Michael Smith, Luke Reynolds and John Holland. All three had up and down years, with injuries or slumps but these guys are solid and should have a good in 2016.
The 2015 Season - Part 8: more thoughts and concerns
1) Why was freshman 1B/RHP Cole Gordon redshirted? He had hit 2-3 HRs in the fall, then in preseason scrimmages, he was striking out guys. He is 6-6 240, throws right, bats left. I was expecting him to play. Turns out we really needed him. We needed his power bat and we needed another arm in the bullpen. Love to find out what happened to him.
2) OF Joey Swinarski came to us as a good hitter. He left HS early, reason he was RS last year. But this year he didn't play much at all. I know we had plenty of OF's but Joey is a good hitter and we needed that.
3) Did the new baseball really have that much affect on us? The pitchers we have couldn't throw it as good?
4) Confidence was a huge factor down the stretch. We just didn't have it. Like I alluded to earlier, once we started the downward spiral, we couldn't get out of it. Confidence was lost.
2) OF Joey Swinarski came to us as a good hitter. He left HS early, reason he was RS last year. But this year he didn't play much at all. I know we had plenty of OF's but Joey is a good hitter and we needed that.
3) Did the new baseball really have that much affect on us? The pitchers we have couldn't throw it as good?
4) Confidence was a huge factor down the stretch. We just didn't have it. Like I alluded to earlier, once we started the downward spiral, we couldn't get out of it. Confidence was lost.
Saturday, May 16, 2015
2016 Season: What do we have, pitching.
I got between 25-30 on my 2016 roster but that will be whittled down to around 20. This is the position with the most turnover. Lots of hard throwing premium arms (hopefully) coming to campus in July and August. This will push some to move on.
The age of throwing in the mid 80s is gone. We have got with the program and are bringing in guys who throw in low to mid 90's. This will be the norm in recruiting now.
I would think our rotation will have either have Dakota Hudson, Austin Sexton or Moonlight Tatum has two if not all 3 spots.
Of course, our star studded in coming class will push these guys. Way too early to tell right now.
Like I have said they past year, I think we have the best LHP class in the nation. These guys can bring it.
I will have more on the pitching as he summer progresses.
The age of throwing in the mid 80s is gone. We have got with the program and are bringing in guys who throw in low to mid 90's. This will be the norm in recruiting now.
I would think our rotation will have either have Dakota Hudson, Austin Sexton or Moonlight Tatum has two if not all 3 spots.
Of course, our star studded in coming class will push these guys. Way too early to tell right now.
Like I have said they past year, I think we have the best LHP class in the nation. These guys can bring it.
I will have more on the pitching as he summer progresses.
Recruiting: what do we have, what do we need
2015 Class: Loaded, any questions. The best LHP group in the nation, I think. Ranked 3rd by Perfect Game. We have 4 top 100 players. We have hard throwers, starters and relievers. We have big powerful hitters. We have middle infielders and a catcher. Three switch hitters. 22 total signees, 3 junior college. Nathan Lowe, a 1B, is big (6-3 230) and has hit over 14 HR's in JC ball. I will comment much more after the draft. I really hope we don't lose more than 2 to pro baseball.
2016 Class: 9 commits so far with 4 premium LHP's. BUT, we need hitters in a big way. This class must be 50/50 pitchers and hitters. Must get more premium hitters.
2017 Class: These guys will be juniors in 2015-16. Ripe for the picking. We have 5 so far, two hitters.
Like many people have said on twitter and on message boards, our roster needs to get better. Bigger and better players. Well, they 2015 class has that. As I have said before, we need elite players every year coming to Starkville. They make a huge difference.
The best way to keep up with commits is to see my blog. I keep up with it and put them on the list.
2016 Class: 9 commits so far with 4 premium LHP's. BUT, we need hitters in a big way. This class must be 50/50 pitchers and hitters. Must get more premium hitters.
2017 Class: These guys will be juniors in 2015-16. Ripe for the picking. We have 5 so far, two hitters.
Like many people have said on twitter and on message boards, our roster needs to get better. Bigger and better players. Well, they 2015 class has that. As I have said before, we need elite players every year coming to Starkville. They make a huge difference.
The best way to keep up with commits is to see my blog. I keep up with it and put them on the list.
The 2016 Season: What do we have?
I am going to go ahead and give the lineup, etc, even though its way too early and we don't know who is coming back, etc.
Catcher-Gavin Collins, Jr. He will come back healthy and hungry. Huge year ahead.
1B-Reid Humphreys, Jr. My money is on Reid playing 1B. This is his draft year and he needs to play in the field. He just can't DH and get drafted.
2B-John Holland, Sr. I wish he would come back for his senior year. He was so steady at 2B. His offense really came around.
SS-Ryan Gridley, So. He had a great freshman season. Only will get better and better.
3B-Luke Reynolds, Jr. This may be a platoon position but Luke got better as the season went. He just needs to play summer ball at 3B and get better defensively.
LF-Brent Rooker, So.RS He is a big powerful kid that should play some in the field in 2016.
CF-Michael Smith, Sr. He is such a great player, I think. If he wouldn't have gotten hurt, he may have been drafted in June. Jacob Robson could factor in here but I think he will be drafted.
RF-Cody Brown, Jr.RS Such a great competitor and hustler. Had some huge hits in 2015.
This is my way too early lineup. I will update this as time goes by. MLB draft will have a say in this.
Catcher-Gavin Collins, Jr. He will come back healthy and hungry. Huge year ahead.
1B-Reid Humphreys, Jr. My money is on Reid playing 1B. This is his draft year and he needs to play in the field. He just can't DH and get drafted.
2B-John Holland, Sr. I wish he would come back for his senior year. He was so steady at 2B. His offense really came around.
SS-Ryan Gridley, So. He had a great freshman season. Only will get better and better.
3B-Luke Reynolds, Jr. This may be a platoon position but Luke got better as the season went. He just needs to play summer ball at 3B and get better defensively.
LF-Brent Rooker, So.RS He is a big powerful kid that should play some in the field in 2016.
CF-Michael Smith, Sr. He is such a great player, I think. If he wouldn't have gotten hurt, he may have been drafted in June. Jacob Robson could factor in here but I think he will be drafted.
RF-Cody Brown, Jr.RS Such a great competitor and hustler. Had some huge hits in 2015.
This is my way too early lineup. I will update this as time goes by. MLB draft will have a say in this.
The 2016 Season: What needs to change
1) Non-conference schedule: yes sir. We are slated to play Oregon Ducks at home and go on the road to Los Angeles to play in the Dodgertown Classic and play USC, UCLA, etc. We better play these teams. Don't back out bc we had a bad season. We must play these teams. The thinking about the nc schedule needs to change. We need to play teams we know will have higher RPI's. We need to play away (like in Houston or Los Angeles). We need to stop playing Ms Valley, Alcorn St, etc, whose RPI is way over 200. It is embarrassing to have our 2015 RPI over 100 when all other SEC teams are under 100. We just didn't play a good non-conference schedule.
2) The grass. No not that grass... The infield turf needs new life. It looked like my back yard. I don't care if the tarp leaked and it messed up. It looked bad last year. Also, I would go back to dirt around home plate and leave it plastic around the field.
3) John Cohen: he needs to stop keeping secrets. We had two guys to have surgery and will miss the remainder of the year. He should have said it in his presser. But reporters saw the players and asked. Why not say? We heard two players got suspended. Why not let us know?
4) The offensive philosophy has got to change. We must be bashers and hit home runs and doubles. Singles and bunting is not going to work at all. This will change because it has to. And it will change, if the coaches can get bigger, stronger, heavy hitters.
5) Pitching is simple, to throw strikes. Here again, the pitchers must throw harder now. The pitcher that pitches to contact and hopes for a ground ball is gone. We need hard throwers that strike batters out.
6) John Cohen: lastly, he is the manager. He is the leader. His way needs to change also. If he is calling on bunts in the 4th inning, he has to change it. If he is solely responsible for the lineup, he needs to change his ways. I know he was trying to do anything to jolt the offense this year but a set lineup is the way to go. Leadoff hitters in the front, big burly guys in the middle.
2) The grass. No not that grass... The infield turf needs new life. It looked like my back yard. I don't care if the tarp leaked and it messed up. It looked bad last year. Also, I would go back to dirt around home plate and leave it plastic around the field.
3) John Cohen: he needs to stop keeping secrets. We had two guys to have surgery and will miss the remainder of the year. He should have said it in his presser. But reporters saw the players and asked. Why not say? We heard two players got suspended. Why not let us know?
4) The offensive philosophy has got to change. We must be bashers and hit home runs and doubles. Singles and bunting is not going to work at all. This will change because it has to. And it will change, if the coaches can get bigger, stronger, heavy hitters.
5) Pitching is simple, to throw strikes. Here again, the pitchers must throw harder now. The pitcher that pitches to contact and hopes for a ground ball is gone. We need hard throwers that strike batters out.
6) John Cohen: lastly, he is the manager. He is the leader. His way needs to change also. If he is calling on bunts in the 4th inning, he has to change it. If he is solely responsible for the lineup, he needs to change his ways. I know he was trying to do anything to jolt the offense this year but a set lineup is the way to go. Leadoff hitters in the front, big burly guys in the middle.
The 2015 Season - Part 7: What now?
The players that will be with us in 2016 need to heal up if they are injured, if not, go to summer ball and let it fly. Get better in everything you think you need to. Come back in July and August and get ready to be winners.
The coaches after their meetings will hit the road recruiting. The 2015 class is pretty much in the can. We shall see after the draft. But the 2016 class needs a lot. Needs a lot of big hitters period.
June 4th is D Day. Draft Day. We have 22 signees and half might be drafted. Roughly 5 could very well be drafted high. I will do my best to keep you updated on this. This is where the rubber meets the road. This is where we do a lot better in 2016 or struggle again.
July 1 is another day to remember. It is the first day to offer a scholarship to the 2016 players. We better be getting some high profile hitters in July.
July 15 is the last day a draftee can sign with a MLB club.
July 5 (I think) is when signees can show up for workouts and summer school.
All the players and signees need to show up and work their tails off. Go out with beautiful women and enjoy football games. When they come back in January, it will be time to get it on again. No more losing like we did.
The coaches after their meetings will hit the road recruiting. The 2015 class is pretty much in the can. We shall see after the draft. But the 2016 class needs a lot. Needs a lot of big hitters period.
June 4th is D Day. Draft Day. We have 22 signees and half might be drafted. Roughly 5 could very well be drafted high. I will do my best to keep you updated on this. This is where the rubber meets the road. This is where we do a lot better in 2016 or struggle again.
July 1 is another day to remember. It is the first day to offer a scholarship to the 2016 players. We better be getting some high profile hitters in July.
July 15 is the last day a draftee can sign with a MLB club.
July 5 (I think) is when signees can show up for workouts and summer school.
All the players and signees need to show up and work their tails off. Go out with beautiful women and enjoy football games. When they come back in January, it will be time to get it on again. No more losing like we did.
The 2015 Season - Part 6: The Reckoning
What is the fall out of such a horrendous year? In my view, if the teams doesn't win 35 its a bad year. John Cohen, as he does yearly, and every head coach for that matter, has to meet with the athletic director. The AD is the boss and Cohen has to explain this season to him. If Cohen stays, and I think he should, he will then deal with his coaches. Again, I don't think any of them leave. But I will say this, the way they do things must change. I will expound on that later.
Then the coaches will have exit interviews with the players. They will say goodbye to the seniors and wish them luck in pro ball or in life. The remaining roster is another question. Lots of speculation abounds of course in a bad year.
There have been reports of players suspended, players not showing up for workouts, pretending to be hurt and not working out. I don't know this for sure, just what I read.
The only way to find out if a player will be back in 2016 is when they report to a summer team and they say they play at Ms State. Unless they come out and say they won't be back. This is nothing new to them. Travel ball is reeked with players switching teams, dads don't like each other, etc. They know the drill. I will try to glean what I can and update my 2016 roster on my blog.
If a player decides to leave early for the draft, or moves on to a junior college or whatever, then good luck to them.
There is bound to be a pretty good change to the roster. John Cohen has said he wants players to compete. I think he means, players that battle in an at bat and pitchers that throw strikes and attack the hitters. We will see.
Then the coaches will have exit interviews with the players. They will say goodbye to the seniors and wish them luck in pro ball or in life. The remaining roster is another question. Lots of speculation abounds of course in a bad year.
There have been reports of players suspended, players not showing up for workouts, pretending to be hurt and not working out. I don't know this for sure, just what I read.
The only way to find out if a player will be back in 2016 is when they report to a summer team and they say they play at Ms State. Unless they come out and say they won't be back. This is nothing new to them. Travel ball is reeked with players switching teams, dads don't like each other, etc. They know the drill. I will try to glean what I can and update my 2016 roster on my blog.
If a player decides to leave early for the draft, or moves on to a junior college or whatever, then good luck to them.
There is bound to be a pretty good change to the roster. John Cohen has said he wants players to compete. I think he means, players that battle in an at bat and pitchers that throw strikes and attack the hitters. We will see.
The 2015 Season - Part 5: Summation
1) By not playing in the Houston Texas Classic, this hurt our RPI, recruiting in my opinion. Both we need and needed.
2) Injuries: losing Gavin Collins and Michael Smith right off the bat hurt the offense when we needed a big hit against San Diego, Ark Pine Bluff, Alabama, Auburn. Paul Young and Jesse McCord never got untracked which hurt the pitching later in the year. McCord eventually got hurt and had surgery.
3) Bad Luck?: really, how many times can you hit into a DP or overrun a base or hit a ball so hard but its right at a defender or hit a ball in the middle of the huge CF fence and not score? We need to exorcise the demons before next year.
4) Coaching decisions: bunting is a bad decision now, especially to our fans. It doesn't work so stop it. It tells the hitter, well, I know you can't get a hit so move the runner instead. Juggling the lineup too much hurt the momentum according to many fans.
5) Murphy's Law: when we scored 7 runs, the pitching wasn't there; when we shut down the opposing batters, we couldn't score runs; when we had a great start by our starting pitcher, the bullpen blew it. Usually this stuff happens a couple of times a year this happened all year.
6) The Players: as the saying goes, put yourself in their shoes. They got punched in the gut weekend after weekend. They never quit. They got down on themselves, they felt so snake bit. I am sure it was tough to keep your head up after all that went wrong.
2) Injuries: losing Gavin Collins and Michael Smith right off the bat hurt the offense when we needed a big hit against San Diego, Ark Pine Bluff, Alabama, Auburn. Paul Young and Jesse McCord never got untracked which hurt the pitching later in the year. McCord eventually got hurt and had surgery.
3) Bad Luck?: really, how many times can you hit into a DP or overrun a base or hit a ball so hard but its right at a defender or hit a ball in the middle of the huge CF fence and not score? We need to exorcise the demons before next year.
4) Coaching decisions: bunting is a bad decision now, especially to our fans. It doesn't work so stop it. It tells the hitter, well, I know you can't get a hit so move the runner instead. Juggling the lineup too much hurt the momentum according to many fans.
5) Murphy's Law: when we scored 7 runs, the pitching wasn't there; when we shut down the opposing batters, we couldn't score runs; when we had a great start by our starting pitcher, the bullpen blew it. Usually this stuff happens a couple of times a year this happened all year.
6) The Players: as the saying goes, put yourself in their shoes. They got punched in the gut weekend after weekend. They never quit. They got down on themselves, they felt so snake bit. I am sure it was tough to keep your head up after all that went wrong.
The 2015 Season - Part 4: Coaching decisions
Lets start way before the season started. I along with many fans were looking forward to playing in the Houston College Classic in Houston, Texas at the home of the Astros. It was decided in early 2014 I believe not to play in this highly competitive tournament. The field consists of 6 teams, Houston, Rice and Texas A & M are the usual hosts. Three other teams get invited and we were, I suspect, right after the CWS run in 2013.
First of all, there are tons of HS talent in the Houston area and I am sure they go see most of the games on a yearly basis. Just right for recruiting great talent.
Second, is the RPI issue. The Texas teams are always very competitive and have respectable RPI's. Plus the formula now is the RPI jumps when a visiting team wins on the road.
To play 3 games in a MLB stadium, in a huge city where HS baseball talent abounds, we have a huge alumni base that don't get to see some of our games, our RPI would have been better by playing these teams. I just don't understand why we didn't play in the tournament.
Now on to the season.
(My memory is so so). At the beginning of the season, two instances where we had a lead off double and the player was pumped to get a big hit. What did we do? Bunt him to 3rd or tried to. I think both instances, the next batter was left handed. He can't hit it to the right side to move him? This decision by the coaches is asinine! We can't get the offense rolling if we are bunting runners over in the 4th inning! That, I do not understand.
Rooker was up to bat with the bases loaded one time and he looked to the 3B coach and the coach was going through signals. Signals! What signal? Hit the ball hard, preferably to the OF. Don't hit into a DP. What does he need signals for? I don't get that either.
I kind of understand, moving the lineup to get the hot hitting players in, etc. But a leadoff type hitter does not bat cleanup. Reid Humphreys should have batted in every game, slump or no slump. He strikes fear into the pitcher. He was held out of some games. I don't get that.
Bunting period, prior to the 9th inning is a cardinal sin. Please make sure the coaches know this next year.
This is all I can think about at this moment. But not playing in Houston, bunting with no outs after a leadoff double, and having them bunt prior to the 9th inning sums it up.
First of all, there are tons of HS talent in the Houston area and I am sure they go see most of the games on a yearly basis. Just right for recruiting great talent.
Second, is the RPI issue. The Texas teams are always very competitive and have respectable RPI's. Plus the formula now is the RPI jumps when a visiting team wins on the road.
To play 3 games in a MLB stadium, in a huge city where HS baseball talent abounds, we have a huge alumni base that don't get to see some of our games, our RPI would have been better by playing these teams. I just don't understand why we didn't play in the tournament.
Now on to the season.
(My memory is so so). At the beginning of the season, two instances where we had a lead off double and the player was pumped to get a big hit. What did we do? Bunt him to 3rd or tried to. I think both instances, the next batter was left handed. He can't hit it to the right side to move him? This decision by the coaches is asinine! We can't get the offense rolling if we are bunting runners over in the 4th inning! That, I do not understand.
Rooker was up to bat with the bases loaded one time and he looked to the 3B coach and the coach was going through signals. Signals! What signal? Hit the ball hard, preferably to the OF. Don't hit into a DP. What does he need signals for? I don't get that either.
I kind of understand, moving the lineup to get the hot hitting players in, etc. But a leadoff type hitter does not bat cleanup. Reid Humphreys should have batted in every game, slump or no slump. He strikes fear into the pitcher. He was held out of some games. I don't get that.
Bunting period, prior to the 9th inning is a cardinal sin. Please make sure the coaches know this next year.
This is all I can think about at this moment. But not playing in Houston, bunting with no outs after a leadoff double, and having them bunt prior to the 9th inning sums it up.
The 2015 Season - Part 3: Bad Luck or what??
I really can't think of such a bad luck season. I know, I know. Don't blame this or that on bad luck. Take the first LSU game. Reid Humphreys hits the ball 415 feet.....off the middle of the center field fence.....CF grabs it, throws it in, our runner slips and falls past 3B and he gets tagged out. Hump hits it ANYWHERE else, he walked off the win.
We hit the ball just has hard as the other team but its right at a defender.
This type of stuff got in the head of our players and they couldn't shake it. Snake bit is a baseball term. These guys have been playing baseball 15 or so years, they have seen it all. They have seen balls drop when it wasn't supposed to and seen balls caught when they aren't supposed to.
We were Murphy's Law in 2015. We need to burn the bats, the baseballs, the uniforms, whatever we can to rid ourselves of bad luck.
This bad luck thing wasn't the whole story of 2015 but it had a little to do with it. I mean bad luck stuck out so bad that we didn't have any GOOD LUCK.
We hit the ball just has hard as the other team but its right at a defender.
This type of stuff got in the head of our players and they couldn't shake it. Snake bit is a baseball term. These guys have been playing baseball 15 or so years, they have seen it all. They have seen balls drop when it wasn't supposed to and seen balls caught when they aren't supposed to.
We were Murphy's Law in 2015. We need to burn the bats, the baseballs, the uniforms, whatever we can to rid ourselves of bad luck.
This bad luck thing wasn't the whole story of 2015 but it had a little to do with it. I mean bad luck stuck out so bad that we didn't have any GOOD LUCK.
The 2015 Season - Part 2: The injury bug
I felt pretty good coming out of fall ball. I didn't see any injuries reported by anyone. Yes, a couple of players were coming off surgery and a couple banged up but no one had season ending stuff.
Then the first and biggest bomb dropped right before the season: Gavin Collins had surgery on his catching hand. He is our 3 hole hitter and starting catcher. He was out several weeks and really never had the strength to hit balls like he should. Josh Lovelady and Walker did really good job while he was out but they aren't the hitter Gavin is.
Michael Smith came on strong the latter part of fall. In one of John Cohen's preseason interviews he indicated that Smith would be a difference maker. His first AB of the spring he smoked a ball to the wall for a double but came up lame at second. I strongly believe Smith would have been an offensive and defensive spark plug all year long.
Paul Young was another who had surgery last spring and was getting back into shape. He was drafted in the 21st round out of JC. He had a lot of raw talent as a pitcher. The cold spring really prevented him from getting action pre-SEC which would have given him valuable experience.
Myles Gentry never pitched much because of soreness, etc. He would have given us another arm in the thin bullpen.
Jesse McCord was a highly ranked player coming out of HS. Butch Thompson had such high hopes for him. Once he went down, I knew we were going down hill. He is a difference maker.
Matthew Britton got banged up in the beginning of the season, had a great game at Kentucky then messed his knee up. The last few games he has been tearing it up. He would have solved out 3B woes! I know some of you don't believe in him but he has a lot of talent. I said before the season, if he can hit the ball consistently, he would be a fine player. Well, he did at the end.
I truly believe losing Collins and Smith early hurt our offense production. We couldn't overcome the lack of offense. Then the pitching started to give up runs and we needed premium arms. Young never got untracked and McCord had surgery half way through.
Then the first and biggest bomb dropped right before the season: Gavin Collins had surgery on his catching hand. He is our 3 hole hitter and starting catcher. He was out several weeks and really never had the strength to hit balls like he should. Josh Lovelady and Walker did really good job while he was out but they aren't the hitter Gavin is.
Michael Smith came on strong the latter part of fall. In one of John Cohen's preseason interviews he indicated that Smith would be a difference maker. His first AB of the spring he smoked a ball to the wall for a double but came up lame at second. I strongly believe Smith would have been an offensive and defensive spark plug all year long.
Paul Young was another who had surgery last spring and was getting back into shape. He was drafted in the 21st round out of JC. He had a lot of raw talent as a pitcher. The cold spring really prevented him from getting action pre-SEC which would have given him valuable experience.
Myles Gentry never pitched much because of soreness, etc. He would have given us another arm in the thin bullpen.
Jesse McCord was a highly ranked player coming out of HS. Butch Thompson had such high hopes for him. Once he went down, I knew we were going down hill. He is a difference maker.
Matthew Britton got banged up in the beginning of the season, had a great game at Kentucky then messed his knee up. The last few games he has been tearing it up. He would have solved out 3B woes! I know some of you don't believe in him but he has a lot of talent. I said before the season, if he can hit the ball consistently, he would be a fine player. Well, he did at the end.
I truly believe losing Collins and Smith early hurt our offense production. We couldn't overcome the lack of offense. Then the pitching started to give up runs and we needed premium arms. Young never got untracked and McCord had surgery half way through.
The 2015 Season - Part 1: The post CWS fail
Each year, Ms State must bring in freshmen different makers. Ryan Gridley is one of them. The failure of this season goes back to June of 2013. The coaches just stepped off the bus with a CWS appearance in hand. We came very close to winning the National Championship.
The 2013 recruiting class was 99% in the bag (Gavin Collins, Reid Humphreys). So we really needed to strike while the iron was hot and go after the 2014 class, the juniors in HS. After such an outstanding year, we needed to go after the most talented players. This is the first failure of the 2015 season.
We got 4 outstanding players in the 2014 class: RHP Jesse McCord, C Chase Vallot, IF Dale Burdick and IF Ryan Gridley. Another signee LHP Andrew Mahoney was secured but he had arm trouble so spring 2015 was up in the air for him. Another guy 1B/RHP Cole Gordon wasn't highly rated by PG but I love this kid. Why we redshirted him is a big question to me.
Vallot and Burdick were very good offensive players. These guys would have helped our club tremendously. But both signed pro contracts, Vallot in the 1st Supplemental and Burdick was 40th.
This is my big gripe. We only signed 8 HS players who were entering their senior year in June of 2013. Hence, we had to sign 8 JC players, a few late, after Vallot and Burdick signed their contracts.
The coaches should have done a better job at getting the premium HS players right after the CWS appearance. I know players are committing earlier now and there may not have been that many left. But to me, this is the root cause for failing in 2015.
Why? Look at Gridley. How much of a difference he made in 2015. McCord has premium talent. A nagging injury took him out midway through the season.
We should have signed more premium HS talent in 2013, riding the high from the CWS but failed and we had to make up the class with JC players.
Now, with that being said, we did an outstanding job with the HS sophomores (upcoming juniors) in 2013. Our class is ranked 3rd per Perfect Game with 4 top 100 players. This is the group we will be very concerned about in 3 weeks.
The 2013 recruiting class was 99% in the bag (Gavin Collins, Reid Humphreys). So we really needed to strike while the iron was hot and go after the 2014 class, the juniors in HS. After such an outstanding year, we needed to go after the most talented players. This is the first failure of the 2015 season.
We got 4 outstanding players in the 2014 class: RHP Jesse McCord, C Chase Vallot, IF Dale Burdick and IF Ryan Gridley. Another signee LHP Andrew Mahoney was secured but he had arm trouble so spring 2015 was up in the air for him. Another guy 1B/RHP Cole Gordon wasn't highly rated by PG but I love this kid. Why we redshirted him is a big question to me.
Vallot and Burdick were very good offensive players. These guys would have helped our club tremendously. But both signed pro contracts, Vallot in the 1st Supplemental and Burdick was 40th.
This is my big gripe. We only signed 8 HS players who were entering their senior year in June of 2013. Hence, we had to sign 8 JC players, a few late, after Vallot and Burdick signed their contracts.
The coaches should have done a better job at getting the premium HS players right after the CWS appearance. I know players are committing earlier now and there may not have been that many left. But to me, this is the root cause for failing in 2015.
Why? Look at Gridley. How much of a difference he made in 2015. McCord has premium talent. A nagging injury took him out midway through the season.
We should have signed more premium HS talent in 2013, riding the high from the CWS but failed and we had to make up the class with JC players.
Now, with that being said, we did an outstanding job with the HS sophomores (upcoming juniors) in 2013. Our class is ranked 3rd per Perfect Game with 4 top 100 players. This is the group we will be very concerned about in 3 weeks.
Friday, May 8, 2015
New signee/commit rankings by Perfect Game and new commits
Check out 2015 and 2016 signees and commits. We are getting the best players!
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