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Mississippi State

JoJoforHeisman

JoJoforHeisman

All-American
Dec 7, 2000
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Obviously our bats have been struggling tremendously here lately, but if there was one team in the conference that I would not want to be playing right now, it would be Mississippi State. For some reason, not only have we been coming up short against right-handers recently, but southpaws have been killing us all season. Heath Castle of Kentucky, Stephen Head of Ole Miss, and Arnold Hughey of Auburn are three lefties in particular that have completely shut down our hitting. Mississippi State has two of the best in college baseball, with Paul Maholm and Todd Nicholas. Maholm is one of the highest-rated collegiate draft prospects, and projects as a top fifteen pick. Nichols is also being coveted by major clubs and will also be an early round selection. Former Jeff State standout Alan Johnson is a capable righty sandwiched in between Maholm and Nicholas in the weekend rotation. Johnson has tossed a pair of shutouts this season, limiting Ole Miss to just two hits and LSU to four in two truly impressive efforts. One would think that if we couldn't muster more than four hits against Jacksonville State pitching, the Bullies have a legitimate shot at three no-hitters on the weekend. Obviously that is not likely to happen, but our anemic offense going up against their staff under the present circumstances is cause for concern.

We've got to start hitting this weekend or that will be all she wrote for this season. We've got two capable starters right now who can pitch well enough to put us in a position to win and work long enough to get to Reed to close it out. Carter has emerged as the ace of the staff and has been one of the most effective starters in the conference this season. Seth Johnson has leveled off after starting out virtually unhittable, but the JUCO transfer from Utah has nevertheless pitched well enough to give us a chance to win ballgames. When Tankersley is at 100%, he is one of the best at the college level. The primary concern for us right now is that he appears to be nowhere near 100%. Although I woould personally opt for Woodward, I imagine that Coach Wells will probably give Tank the ball on Saturday, but it will be a risky move to say the least. Tank bounced back from a rough start at Ole Miss by pitching a gem against Arkansas. The question now is whether he can bounce back in the same way after consecutive sub-par weekends against Tennessee and South Carolina.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, and this might be the weekend we need to try and shuffle the rotation in order to matchup with State, assuming that they would not adjust theirs accordingly. We obviously have trouble scoring runs against lefties, and MSU pitches their lone righty on Saturday. If that game provides our offense with the best opportunity to win, perhaps it would be best to move Carter or Johnson to Saturday considering the risk involved with sending Tank out with a tired arm. I believe that Carter can shut down their hitters, but I am concerned about our ability to hit Maholm. What we do not need is another disappointing pitcher's dual that results in us emerging on the short end of a 2-1 decision.

Travis Garner has been the sparkplug of the offense the entire season, and is currently riding a 16-game hitting streak. However, when he gets on base, he usually gets left out there. We need the bats behind Travis to wake up. It is also important that we play smart, heads-up baseball all weekend. State is an extremely well-coached team that can really burn you by exploiting your weaknesses and mistakes. The defense has actually improved some over the course of the past couple months, but we still rank at the bottom of the conference in fielding percentage.

Our backs are to the wall this weekend and we absolutely must win one over there, and possibly two, if we want to see the postseason. Hopefully the team will realize that this is it right here, and now is the time to turn it up a few notches. What we have seen the past two weeks is not what this team is capable of producing, and this weekend, a truly pressure-packed situation unlike any other this season, provides them with the perfect opportunity to prove what they are really made of.

RTR

[This message has been edited by JoJoforHeisman (edited May 14, 2003).]
 
nice analysis, i agree this weekend is HUGE. I wouldnt mind seeing johnson bumped up a spot and throwing on saturday, at the very least it gives us a L,R,L look on the weekends rather than back to back left-handers.

Also why not shake up the line-up a little? we have lost 6 in a row and the offense is non-existant. maybe trey moody in for rice at 2nd, would like to see burns catch as well. Just anything to see if we can spark the offense
 
I agree with most of your points JoJo. However, Nicholas is not one of college baseball's best. Granted, we can probably make him appear that way, but he is nothing special. Right now, he is 86-88 and straight. LSU chased him in 2.

We will not only be playing against Mississippi State, we will be playing against Ron Polk. I was in Starkville for the LSU series, and watched as Polk outcoached Smoke. On Sunday, he will use Nicholas, but will not hesitate to yank him early. He goes to the pen early and often on Sunday.

I wouldn't start Tank either. However, I agree that he probably will. We cannot wait until we are 7 runs down before going to the pen. When we do go to the pen, if it is before the 7th, I don't think we need to bring in Reed. If Woody is ready after Tuesday night, I wouldn't hestitate to bring him early. Personally, I might start him Sunday, but I'm a little biased.


RTR
38
 
Good points, guys. I agree that we should send Johnson out on Saturday and use Woody on Sunday, if he can go after pitching Tuesday night. Does anyone know how many pitches he threw? I also would not be opposed to a shakeup in the batting order. I just don't know how much good that would do in light of the fact that, aside from Travis, no one seems to be hitting very well at this point. What I think what we need to change is our approach. We have too many guys that go to the plate and simply refuse to hit the first pitch. Over the past couple of weeks I have seen far too many hitters watch the first pitch when it is no more than a belt high medium fastball "get over" pitch. Opposing coaches and pitchers seem to know that we are not going to hit the first pitch. They lay one in there and we are then behind in the count and have to become defensive hitters. If we would jump on a few of those pitches we would make opposing pitchers change their approach. Besides, if the first pitch is the best pitch to hit, jump on it. I realize that when a pitcher is struggling we need to be patient and make him work. I also know that we shouldn't necessarily hack at the first pitch thrown, but when it is the best pitch you will see, hit it. Busta, I don't know where you have been lately, but Burns has been catching quite a bit lately. I like the fact that we have two capable backstops. Both Burns and Lyons are solid defensively. I believe that Lyons has a slightly higher batting average and Burns has a couple more homeruns than Lyons. Otherwise, they are similar. If I were going to play Moody, I would try him at 3B rather than 2B. Alan Rice has been our most consistent infielder defensively and I don't think we should take him out. Granted, his offensive numbers have not been great, but at least he makes the pitchers work to get outs. Unfortunately, I will not be able to make the trip to StarkVegas this weekend so those of you who do go, bring us a couple of W's.
 
<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by bamajake:
Good points, guys. I agree that we should send Johnson out on Saturday and use Woody on Sunday, if he can go after pitching Tuesday night. Does anyone know how many pitches he threw? </font>
Click to expand...


He threw 75 pitches.
 
I'm just trying to get our best offensive team on the field. Obviously it doesnt matter what kind of defense we play if we only score 1 or 2 runs. Thats why i said maybe moody at 2nd, and i like burns bat in the order.

Id like to see tank in the pen for the weekend too, but i doubt it happens. Woodward threw a lot of pitches on tuesday that makes me think that unless norris or reed starts this weekend the rotation will stay the same
 
75 pitches is not alot of pitches with four days rest. And since when did pitch counts matter?

Allen Rice has been hitting the ball very hard as of late and will not be taken out of the order.
 
I agree 38. I didn't think that Woody threw very many pitches as he had several quick innings. Also, Rice has been hitting the ball pretty hard lately, just right at people. As my old coach used to say, "Keep hittin em hard, they'll find a hole." As for getting Moody in Busta, I don't have a problem with Moody playing. I would love to see him play. My point is, if you are going to insert him into the game, why not put him into a spot that has hurt us offensively and defensively like 3B? Burns' bat is not any better than Lyons'. Lyons is hitting about 15 to 20 points higher than Burns. Burns has 4 HR's to Lyons' 1. They both have around 10 RBI. I think we will again see both of them play this weekend.
 
38 Special, perhaps I should have rephrased that to two of the better lefties in the conference instead of the nation. When Tankersley is at the top of his game, I'd take him along with Carter as the top southpaw tandem in the SEC anyday.

bamajake,
You hit the nail right on the head. I have also noticed over the course of this season that nearly all of our hitters usually find themselves passing up fastballs down the middle on 0-0 or with a good hitter's count and end up swinging at some junk outside of the zone after falling behind. We have become so selective in that respect that all opposing pitchers can throw a fastball down the middle on the first pitch with no concern about it being hit. Travis Garner is really the only hitter that has been unafraid to jump on a good pitch early in the count, and he's the leadoff man, typically the one man in the lineup who is supposed to be the most patient at the plate.

For example, early in the season, teams were pitching around Beau consistently, feeding him a steady diet of offspeed junk, yet he was able to burn them when they made mistakes. Now, pitchers seem to know that they can get away with throwing a fastball down the pipe on the first pitch. Granted, there are times when you need to be selective and times when you need to be aggressive, but with our current offensive woes, guys like Beau who are usually very patient at the plate need to feast on those first-pitch fastballs when they can, at least in the early stages in the game. As a general rule, everyone on this board knows that it's much easier to hit a fastball than an offspeed pitch. We've got to start ripping those good pitches instead of taking them and chasing something horrible later in the at-bat. If we don't, we automatically place the opposing pitcher in an advantageous situation. Work the count at times, but if it's too good to pass up, don't sit back just for the sake of having him increase the pitch count by a couple. In the long run, it likely will not make that much of a difference.

Playing Moody might have its advantages, but this late in the season, and considering his limited game experience, it would be extremely risky to do so. I have no doubt that he is arguably the best defensive option at third right now, but offense is the main concern heading into this weekend. Meiners obviously has the best bat out of the group, and when he gets base hits, they are usually line drives ripped to the gap. When you look back, he hasn't had a lot of seeing eye singles or Texas Leaguers; when he gets a hit, it's usually a shot. Bush has struggled both offensively and defensively, but has shown some signs of improvement in the field in his past couple games. Despite his low average, he is nevertheless a pretty disciplined hitter and knows how to work the count when he needs to. He has also been one of the few hitters on the team that has been able to successfully lay down a bunt. The issue with Moody is whether he would be able to contribute offensively. There is certainly somewhat of a dilemma with the third base situation, and I guess the decision would have to come down to choosing offense over defense or vice versa. Although I am usually one to favor solid defense over offense any day of the week, given our paltry offensive output here recently, I would probably be inclined to go with Meiners and hope that his production at the plate would outweigh any liability of sending him out at the hot corner. If he can get back to where he was when he first started there, making the routine plays on a consistent basis, then we'll be fine. The important thing for him is to make accurate throws to first. Most of his errors have been throwing errors, though he has also had trouble fielding bunts. The strange thing is that Allen Rice, our best defensive second baseman, is probably our best defensive third baseman as well. However, he's done so well at second this season, I'd be hesitant to shift have back to third. We need his defense up the middle more than we do on the corner. On the other hand, he's been struggling at the plate pretty much since his huge weekend against UGA, with the exception of a couple big games here and there.

Our offensive problems have been magnified because not only are we failing to produce when swinging away, we have been unable to compensate the decline in raw power production with good situational hitting. This is one of the poorest bunting teams I have seen. We have some capable base stealers, but I think we need to run more often than we have been. There are no catchers in the SEC than anyone with legitimate speed should be wary of running on. Javi Herrera and Landon Powell may be so-called "draft material," but they have Piazza-esque numbers when it comes to throwing out runners. When you can't bunt to advance runners, try to swipe some more bases. Throw the hesitant, cautious base running out the window when it's early in the game and you've got a guy with wheels like Garner or Rice on. Obviously for the not-so-fleet-afoot guys, it's best to play it safe, but those with base stealing ability need to take advantage of the green light. Craig Tatum, State's backstop, has thrown out seven out of 25 runners this season (28%). It's not a bad total, but not enough to warrant being afraid to run a little.

We have also got to do a better job of "guarding the plate" on 0-2. When Beagle struck out looking to end the game against Jax State, I have a feeling that he had made up his mind before the pitch was even thrown that he was going to take. This is the natural inclination of the hitter in that situation because you are expecting something out of the zone. It then becomes a guessing game between the batter and the pitcher. Unfortunately for us, the Jax State pitcher may have been a step ahead of Beagle. He basically a hung a little hook that dropped in right down the middle for the called third strike. Had Beagle connected, it would have probably landed out near Coleman. Granted, I may be completely wrong in that assessment, but the bottom line is that when you're down in the count, especially 0-2 late in the game, it is not the time to be selective. Stay on your toes, hit it if it's close, but don't make the mistake of assuming that the pitch will be a ball. You may just get a pitch to drill.

RTR

[This message has been edited by JoJoforHeisman (edited May 15, 2003).]
 
Ok, here's my two cents on Moody. First of all, Trey hasn't gotten alot of playing time this season, so nobody really knows what he can do. All I can go by is what I do know. I watched him in the fall, and he is solid defensivelly. I also know that he puts in extra hours, yes, hours of batting practice every week. So, in this rare occasion, I'm going to agree with bustareed. Well, somewhat. I say let him play third. What in the world could it hurt? See what he can do and if he can't get it done, there are two viable options behind him. However, Allen Rice NEVER leaves my order. In fact, as much as he gets hit, I might shake the lineup up further and lead Rice off. That way, Pac bunts, Garner hits, Rice scores, Beau hits a 2 run bomb, Carter shuts em down, and we win one and go to Hoover. Wishful thinking...perhaps.

RTR
38



------------------
"You're the only Alabama fan I've ever liked"--Jim Fyffe talking to me the last time I saw him.

"I still don't like any Auburn fans".---My Response. RIP, Jim
 
I'll say this for Moody, you won't have to worry about his effort. He'll give you all he has. His problem used to be pitch selection and he chaces high pitches often. I haven't seen him in awhile and he may be much improved. I'm sure the capable hitting coach at Alabama has worked on this problem since his high school days and has the kinks out by now.
 
<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by WarEagleBB:
I'm sure the capable hitting coach at Alabama has worked on this problem since his high school days and has the kinks out by now.</font>
Click to expand...

HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa
 
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