Thoughts and assessment with 2 weeks to go....

thekimmer · May 4, 2026

We have a pretty good team but not a great team and that is just who we are.

We seem to be psychologically fragile for some reason. My evidence of that is when one or two players have a bad day it appears to inordinately affect everyone else. Examples are the entire team getting in an extended hitting funk at the same time. Starting pitching last week all crapping the bed against LSU, however we were able to overcome it. Yesterday Charlie Foster lost it in the 3rd and then the guy behind him picked up right where he left off until we had given up a snowman with no outs.

The catcher position is a liability that must be fixed before next season. I appreciate Milewsky. He has started to improve at the plate and come through for us in a couple of games but he is a .215 hitter that is also below average defensively. Texas was stealing 2nd AND 3rd seemingly at will. Must get better there.

Foster is not the answer as a 3rd starter. I think he plays a role but we cannot risk what happened yesterday ever again. We have to be able to identify when he doesn't have it and get him out because right now when he loses it, he loses it for good. I predict he will be pitching at UGA next season.

What happened to Billingsley this weekend? He looked to be poised to step up then brief subpar appearances vs LSU and UM and with all of the **** show on Sunday he was never in the mix.

I think we are good enough to win a regional and we can possibly win a super at home, little chance on the road but barring getting much hotter that we have ever been at any time this season, that is about our high water mark. I will consider it a positive step forward to host a regional this year. Hosting a super would be gravy.

Auburn is going to be a tough series. Possibly tougher than TAM.

CochiseCowbell · May 4, 2026

thekimmer said:
Texas was stealing 2nd AND 3rd seemingly at will.

It was Sesame Street day at our minor league park yesterday, so I was only able to listen. Jay Powell made it sound like that was on the pitchers.

But, I agree the defensive woes behind the dish are not good.

Darryl Steight · May 4, 2026

thekimmer said:
We have a pretty good team but not a great team and that is just who we are.

We seem to be psychologically fragile for some reason. My evidence of that is when one or two players have a bad day it appears to inordinately affect everyone else. Examples are the entire team getting in an extended hitting funk at the same time. Starting pitching last week all crapping the bed against LSU, however we were able to overcome it. Yesterday Charlie Foster lost it in the 3rd and then the guy behind him picked up right where he left off until we had given up a snowman with no outs.

The catcher position is a liability that must be fixed before next season. I appreciate Milewsky. He has started to improve at the plate and come through for us in a couple of games but he is a .215 hitter that is also below average defensively. Texas was stealing 2nd AND 3rd seemingly at will. Must get better there.

Foster is not the answer as a 3rd starter. I think he plays a role but we cannot risk what happened yesterday ever again. We have to be able to identify when he doesn't have it and get him out because right now when he loses it, he loses it for good. I predict he will be pitching at UGA next season.

What happened to Billingsley this weekend? He looked to be poised to step up then brief subpar appearances vs LSU and UM and with all of the **** show on Sunday he was never in the mix.

I think we are good enough to win a regional and we can possibly win a super at home, little chance on the road but barring getting much hotter that we have ever been at any time this season, that is about our high water mark. I will consider it a positive step forward to host a regional this year. Hosting a super would be gravy.

Auburn is going to be a tough series. Possibly tougher than TAM.

I think your assessment is dead on. We'll host a regional, but not a super. We all saw the potential in the team at the plate early in the season, but some flaws have reared their heads. McPherson going down seems to have been a much bigger deal than I thought it was. I thought we could weather the storm with the three we had, plus assumed he would really be back in 3-4 weeks. Guess not. Some of the pitchers have probably underperformed expectations, which is disappointing but not unusual.

So we will be in the 9-16 range, and that's about where we are honestly. It's a good step back this year, nice to be in the discussion again.

GoToHellOleMiss.sixpack · May 4, 2026

We host and win a regional. Go 0-2 in a super.

champdawg.sixpack · May 4, 2026

I agree about not being a top 8 unless we go 4-2. However, don’t forget 2007. We got the super bass ackards and wen to Omaha

patdog · May 4, 2026

It's a good season so far for sure, but it's been a strange one. We've done a good job developing about a half dozen pitchers, but lack of pitching depth and losing our #1 starter has hurt. Overall I think we've done about as well as we could hope for there, considering the injury. Offensively, we've been inconsistent. We're not bad (5th in SEC conference only runs scored), but we could and should be better. IF we can play up to our potential offensively and get McPherson back and/or have another pitcher step up and be reliable, this could be a special season. If not, we're probably looking at a 9-16 seed and a road super regional.

NukeDogg · May 4, 2026

To be a top 15 team that should host in Oak's first year is a giant step forward, and I'll take it. Winning a regional won't be a given, but we CAN win a regional, and then anything can happen in a super.

Agree 100% on Foster. He reminds me of watching my nephews 13U travel team pitchers. He starts out fine, but hits a wall and once he's lost it, he isn't getting it back that day. I appreciate the hell out of him for stepping up as much as he can to be that third starter for us, and he's eaten some innings in key series. He's not our biggest pitching problem though. Our bullpen has no order to it.

Closer: We don't have one. It looked like Pitzer for a minute. At one point we wanted it to be Davis, but now he's injured. Now it's looking like Webb.
Long relief: Oak wanted Billingsley here, and Sweeney maybe? Right now I think it trust Bauer most in this role.
Situational lefty: Burns. Although he's one of our better bullpen arms, I hate using him in a "get me out of a jam" role only.
Mishmash: Miller, Gleason, Fowler, Sweeney

Most weekends it feels like we go the same path with relief pitching. Gleason is first out of the pen, Burns if it's a tough spot vs. lefty, then we just throw Miller/Fowler/Webb/whoever and see what sticks.

Dawgbite · May 4, 2026

We’re exponentially better than the last couple of years. I’m excited about baseball again.

thatsbaseball · May 4, 2026

NukeDogg said:
To be a top 15 team that should host in Oak's first year is a giant step forward, and I'll take it. Winning a regional won't be a given, but we CAN win a regional, and then anything can happen in a super.

Agree 100% on Foster. He reminds me of watching my nephews 13U travel team pitchers. He starts out fine, but hits a wall and once he's lost it, he isn't getting it back that day. I appreciate the hell out of him for stepping up as much as he can to be that third starter for us, and he's eaten some innings in key series. He's not our biggest pitching problem though. Our bullpen has no order to it.

Closer: We don't have one. It looked like Pitzer for a minute. At one point we wanted it to be Davis, but now he's injured. Now it's looking like Webb.
Long relief: Oak wanted Billingsley here, and Sweeney maybe? Right now I think it trust Bauer most in this role.
Situational lefty: Burns. Although he's one of our better bullpen arms, I hate using him in a "get me out of a jam" role only.
Mishmash: Miller, Gleason, Fowler, Sweeney

Most weekends it feels like we go the same path with relief pitching. Gleason is first out of the pen, Burns if it's a tough spot vs. lefty, then we just throw Miller/Fowler/Webb/whoever and see what sticks.

"To be a top 15 team that should host in Oak's first year is a giant step forward, and I'll take it"
^^^^THIS^^^^

Pak Drescott · May 4, 2026

Glad to see we have a coach now that will make lineup adjustments throughout the season based on individual performance (Parker, Bevis, Wyers starting now). Lemonis would stick with certain players regardless of their performance (Johnny Long, Luke Hancock, etc.)

Was hoping for a slightly better SEC record at this point based on our roster and coaching staff. We have the same conference record now, 14-10, that we did at this point in the season in 2024. That team finished with 17 SEC wins. Will be disappointing if we can't finish out at least 3-3 to match that team's conference win total.

8dog · May 4, 2026

I’d like to know Milewskis pop time relative to other catchers bc it feels like they are stealing on our pitchers

Msuirondawgs · May 4, 2026

To me, the glaring issue is Sunday. No reliable innings eater most weekends. Add to the fact, IF the pen gets taxed on Friday or Saturday, its almost a wrap for Sunday--unless we can outscore teams. Having McPherson back for ANY amount of work would be a massive shot in the arm

She Mate Me · May 4, 2026

Agree with a lot of what's been said. We're just not quite up to the standards of the best teams.

I won't be surprised if we only get 2 more SEC wins and settle for a seed in the 11-14 range. If they can overachieve and keep a Top 8 alive I'd be real happy.

Can't 17 around and lose to Nicholls. Our excellence in games we're supposed to win is a plus.

I think the Foster as a weekend guy experiment needs to be over. I'm interested to see if Oak makes a move.

patdog · May 4, 2026

She Mate Me said:
Agree with a lot of what's been said. We're just not quite up to the standards of the best teams.

I won't be surprised if we only get 2 more SEC wins and settle for a seed in the 11-14 range. If they can overachieve and keep a Top 8 alive I'd be real happy.

Can't 17 around and lose to Nicholls. Our excellence in games we're supposed to win is a plus.

I think the Foster as a weekend guy experiment needs to be over. I'm interested to see if Oak makes a move.

I don't know how you could justify starting him again this season.

NukeDogg · May 4, 2026

If McPherson is still out the next few weeks, who would you want to see as our Sunday starter? Nobody else is "stretched out" enough to be a starter. We've seen Billingsley, Sweeney, and now Pitzer start in the midweek, but we always go with a Johnny Wholestaff approach so they never go more than 2 innings.

Maybe we get crazy and swing for the fences and give Bauer the ball on Sundays. Couldn't work out worse than what we currently are doing...

leeinator · May 4, 2026

Preseason I had 3 concerns:
1) Pitching depth and a few unknown pieces.
2) Catcher position in every facet.... again, mostly unknown at that time.
3) SS and who would step up to become the most complete player.

Several on here crapped on my #1 saying we would have one of the best staffs in the SEC. Fact is: We don't. And the loss of McPherson threw what little top-end pitching we had deeper into the abyss. Right now, I would rate our pitching as a little above average. Now, if McPherson could come back to what he was pre-injury and Bauer can continue to add more quality innings as he goes, then I would say we would definitely be above average and might propel the team to a Super Regional. Right now, the Peter Principle for our team is a Regional Series. Get McPherson and Bauer to top speed and it could get us into a Super. CWS is just not in my telescope at the moment.

Shmuley · May 4, 2026

The zenith for this bunch is to survive a home regional and then tap out fairly quietly on the road in a super. There is just zero evidence that it is capable of more.

and, for the record, this outcome should be celebrated as a vast improvement over what the prior management was capable of.

patdog · May 4, 2026

leeinator said:
Preseason I had 3 concerns:
1) Pitching depth and a few unknown pieces.
2) Catcher position in every facet.... again, mostly unknown at that time.
3) SS and who would step up to become the most complete player.

Several on here crapped on my #1 saying we would have one of the best staffs in the SEC. Fact is: We don't. And the loss of McPherson threw what little top-end pitching we had deeper into the abyss. Right now, I would rate our pitching as a little above average. Now, if McPherson could come back to what he was pre-injury and Bauer can continue to add more quality innings as he goes, then I would say we would definitely be above average and might propel the team to a Super Regional. Right now, the Peter Principle for our team is a Regional Series. Get McPherson and Bauer to top speed and it could get us into a Super. CWS is just not in my telescope at the moment.

Actually, we're 4th in the SEC conference only ERA out of 16 teams. Pitching has been better than you're giving it credit for. Despite losing our #1 starter for most of the season.

Seinfeld · May 4, 2026

thekimmer said:
We have a pretty good team but not a great team and that is just who we are.

This is pretty much it. We’ve got a fair amount of talent spread across the roster, but we’ve also got glaring holes in every facet of it.

It’s time to accept that losing McPherson was a lot more devastating than we wanted to admit, and while I tip my hat to the team for remaining competitive, they’re just not an Omaha team without him.

Barring a complete collapse over the next couple weeks, we should host a regional which is a perfectly acceptable accomplishment this year. O’Conner’s gonna have some serious work to do this offseason, though, and it’ll be interesting to see how it goes without a UVA crop of transfers to lean on.

eckie1 · May 4, 2026

I ran into a fellow State fan in the late innings yesterday. We literally looked at each other and just shook our heads. Hahaha. Then talked about “why do we do this to ourselves?”, as we both had about a 3-hour trip in plus hotels.

The locals thought the umps were out to get them. I thought they were just consistently bad, but that pitch to Reese was criminal.

Fun trip, overall. Got to spend time with my son who will be in Starkville in the fall, and met up with an old buddy Aggy friend on Sunday. Saturday was AMAZING once we broke it open. Once Chance hit that slam on Sunday, I thought it would be a fun game…. But our pitching made sure we’d implode. Pitcher after pitcher skipping balls to home plate. Awful.

We do tend to get the best of Auburn on the reg. We have to again this year if we want to help ourselves at all in the postseason.

TheDawg-Pound · May 4, 2026

patdog said:
Actually, we're 4th in the SEC conference only ERA out of 16 teams. Pitching has been better than you're giving it credit for. Despite losing our #1 starter for most of the season.

I agree. We don't lose McPherson and things look drastically different. Losing him was a domino effect.

ronpolk · May 4, 2026

Good… not great team. Will probably win a regional as long as we stay in the winners bracket. I’ll be shocked if we win a super.

Gotta figure out a 3rd starter. Foster ain’t it. I don’t think continuing to trot him out there is doing any good for the team or him. I’m at a point I want to see Bauer as a starter.

dickiedawg · May 4, 2026

I expect to host a regional and win it fairly comfortably. Whether we can get to Omaha will depend entirely on our draw (not exactly groundbreaking analysis there, I know)

8dog · May 4, 2026

dickiedawg said:
I expect to host a regional and win it fairly comfortably. Whether we can get to Omaha will depend entirely on our draw (not exactly groundbreaking analysis there, I know)

The risk in a home regional is that any pitcher can lock this bunch up.

Shmuley · May 4, 2026

8dog said:
The risk in a home regional is that any pitcher can lock this bunch up.

I'm on record predicting that we get wrecked by a "crafty left-hander" throwing 87. I feel it in my plums..

CochiseCowbell · May 4, 2026

Shmuley said:
I'm on record predicting that we get wrecked by a "crafty left-hander" throwing 87. I feel it in my plums..

00Dawg · May 4, 2026

I thought we were top 5 after that weekend in Arlington. Now I think we're top 15, and that's without McPherson plus our best hitters (on paper) struggling. IF we get McPherson back to starting form by the Regional and no one else is out (Davis or Webb), we're headed to the Supers where it will depend on draw. A McPherson-Valincius-Stone starting 3 with Bauer, Davis, Miller, and Webb out of the pen can win two against almost anyone, but I don't want to try to prove that out against, say, Georgia Tech in Atlanta.

OG Goat Holder · May 4, 2026

thekimmer said:
We have a pretty good team but not a great team and that is just who we are.

You ended your own thread with the first sentence.

All this team needs to do is host a regional.

leeinator · May 4, 2026

Seinfeld said:
This is pretty much it. We’ve got a fair amount of talent spread across the roster, but we’ve also got glaring holes in every facet of it.

It’s time to accept that losing McPherson was a lot more devastating than we wanted to admit, and while I tip my hat to the team for remaining competitive, they’re just not an Omaha team without him.

Barring a complete collapse over the next couple weeks, we should host a regional which is a perfectly acceptable accomplishment this year. O’Conner’s gonna have some serious work to do this offseason, though, and it’ll be interesting to see how it goes without a UVA crop of transfers to lean on.

Our #1 requirement will be to find the best catcher we can (no disrespect to Milewski...he's done the best he can). Put some NIL behind it. And keep looking for more really good hurlers....can never have enough.

leeinator · May 4, 2026

eckie1 said:
We do tend to get the best of Auburn on the reg. We have to again this year if we want to help ourselves at all in the postseason.

Biggest series of the year.....bar none. TAMU will be big too, but with Auburn at home, we better take care of business if we want to play in the friendly confines of the Taj Mahal of College Baseball.

Msuirondawgs · May 4, 2026

leeinator said:
Our #1 requirement will be to find the best catcher we can (no disrespect to Milewski...he's done the best he can). Put some NIL behind it. And keep looking for more really good hurlers....can never have enough.

It would be nice to get Will Brick to campus but he probably will be drafted fairly high. Reclassified for 26. #1 backstop in HS.

QuadrupleOption · May 4, 2026

It's frustrating to lose a series but we didn't get swept and that was the goal. At this point we should do well enough to host a Regional. That's better than we were the last 4 years and good enough for season one under O'Conner.

Thoughts and assessment with 2 weeks to go....

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