I disagree that Bianco is solely responsible for moving that needle, but do agree he’s a primary reason, obviously. He’s done a very good job, is the reason we have a program that we as fans even have a reason to expect more out of. But he’s also been the recipient of extreme buy-in by a fan base that was not bought in, previously. All it took was him giving us something to be excited about. And the administration has invested in his program, and him, heavily. Someone on OM board posted (I don’t know that it’s accurate, let me be clear) that Ole Miss spent more on baseball last year than any program in the country (not sure what this is based on? Total budget? Recruiting budget? Coaches salaries? I don’t know?) Whether that’s true or not, we all agree Ole Miss has made a substantial investment in improving the once dormant program. I feel like early on, Bianco over-achieved. Then there was a stretch where he was pretty much on par with reasonable expectations. Now, we are entering a stretch of under-achieving that is starting to outlive the over-achievement. And that’s probably more acceptable if he’s actively trying to make changes to do things differently, but he’s not. Him and Lemonis are pretty much the antithesis of one another in terms of embracing analytics, usage of bullpen, shifts, etc. And one isn’t necessarily right and the other wrong, but when you’ve consistently gotten similar results year-after-year, maybe try something different?
Ole Miss baseball is not, and will likely never be MSU. I can admit that, I’m not a child. But, he’s had the resources and investment and support to close the gap more than he has. I think that’s fair to say. I’ve always been a Bianco supporter and I’m not saying I am out on him now. But the questions and frustrations around him are valid. And it all played out right in front of y’all’s (hey WSUMSU75 or whatever the letters are!) eyes on Sunday. We continue to recruit power bats and assume they’ll fit somewhere defensively, which showed over the weekend. (Our defense sucks) And we continue to overvalue left/right matchups. And we continue to use our bullpen like it’s 1994.
With all that said, we are still a very good team, which is what makes these decisions so hard. In a vacuum, going 3-6 @ Florida, Arkansas and @ MSU isn’t that bad. You’d rather be 4-5, but those are 3 tough series. But it’s the fact that all 3 of our wins never really were that close and came down to a coach’s decision making, and 4-5 of our losses were swung by the opposing coach either making a smart decision sooner than Mike, or having better depth (recruiting) than us. It’s that frustration of being so close, but never quite getting there. We are the young guy who’s dated the same girl for a couple years, but just can’t quite get past 3rd base. You love her, she’s good to you, and you should probably accept and be happy with that situation. But, what if.....
