From Kendall Rogers and Aaron Fitt

[Bulldogg31]

From the weekly D1 Baseball chat:


"Comment From Larry
Will Ole Miss bounce back in Starkville this weekend? Need to get back over .500 in the league

Kendall Rogers:
Larry,
That’s a rivalry series, and both of those teams are pretty good, but I think I side with Miss State at home. The times Miss State is motivated, it seems to play at a very high level. However, the opposite holds true in midweek, etc. The Bulldogs will be jacked up this weekend and I think Hudson gets them started on the right foot, with Gavin Collins and that offense doing enough the rest of the weekend."

Comment From John
Mississippi State is set with Hudson and Sexton on Friday and Saturday. How worrying should the trouble on Sunday the past couple of weeks be? Also, how do you see the Bulldogs doing over the next few weeks (vs Ole Miss, @ Florida, vs Texas A&M, and @ LSU)?

Kendall Rogers:
John,
Yeah, it’s a concern. I thought Daniel Brown’s start against Vanderbilt was just an aberration, as his stuff looked solid but he was missing spots. But, after he struggled out of the pen against Georgia, I have to wonder if he’s just scuffling right now. I would actually like to see a guy like Kale Breaux or Vance Tatum get a shot in that No. 3 spot. Really, that’s the only thing that you could point to as a blemish with this club.

 

[Bulldogg31]

From Aaron Fitt:

Comment From Bob
Texas A&M looks like the most complete team in the SEC West, but also has the toughest schedule with Florida, Vanderbilt, and South Carolina from the East as well as the entire West to play. Do you think they will still finish with the best record in the West?

Aaron Fitt:
Yeah, and two of those series (at Florida, at South Carolina) are on the road — the schedule did the Aggies no favors this year. Of course, I would consider Mississippi State the other top contender in the West at this point, and the Bulldogs also have to go on the road to Florida, plus they went to Vandy (and won two of three). Remaining schedule feels more favorable for MSU, especially since it already has that Vandy series out of the way, and it managed to win that series.

 

[Shmuley]

Perfect. Sets up perfectly to lose 2 of 3. Thanks, Kendall.

 

[Bulldogg31]

More from Fitt:

Comment From Tom in Austin
How far can Mississippi State go in the SEC season without getting their Sunday pitching woes fixed? Also, Ole Miss was looking pretty good before the Gamecocks got through with them. What happened to the Rebels?

Aaron Fitt:
I’ll admit that I’ve been surprised Daniel Brown couldn’t hold down that job — he’s got good stuff, and had a strong summer in the Cape, and I thought he was ready for a big year. But he struggled again in relief Sunday. I think eventually the Bulldogs will that that figured out, because they do have a really deep staff, and somebody will emerge… As for the Rebels, I think they just ran into a hotter (and better) team. Ole Miss deserved to be in the top 10, because it had a great first five weeks, and a big-time series win against Louisville, but realistically I don’t think Ole Miss was ever really one of the 10 best teams in the country. That said, they should bounce back from this, and figure to be in the regional hosting mix.

 

[KurtRambis4]

Ken saying

we should star BP Tatum tells me all I need to know about his thoughts...

 

[coach66]

Man, you have been pretty Old Testament lately, Oh wait a minute**

nm

 

[rugbdawg]

Meaning that they aren't based in reality?

nm

 

[Bathtubgene]

we should star BP Tatum tells me all I need to know about his thoughts...

and "gavin collins and the offense" insinuating that he's our best hitter

 

[57stratdawg]

They're going to screw someone if MSU, SC, UF, and A&M are all bunched at the top of the SEC. We (the SEC) won't get 4 national seeds.

Seeing how our OOC schedule isn't exactly blowing people away and our dropped midweek games, I would imagine we'd be the first one out.

 

[Gus Fring.sixpack]

Psh....College Baseball "Experts"

and "gavin collins and the offense" insinuating that he's our best hitter

I sympathize. No matter how good of a writer and analyst you are, the coverage of college baseball just isn't there and there are far too many teams for you to really know much about any single team, even the top teams in the country. ] Kendall and other national college baseball writers are doing the best they can. For elite teams, they probably base their assumptions on some reports from scouts about top draft prospects (which is often completely different from current ability), take in a few Summer League games to see a few of the top prospects, and then maybe see a couple of elite teams play four or five times in a season. That's probably at best. For the most part, you can't convince me that they aren't talking out of their asses about everyone else, basing it on some scouting reports on who is a big prospect, some names they remember from the past season, a phone interview with a coach (who surprise, surprise LIKES his team), and looking at the stats. Kendall hasn't really been the same since PErfect Game either, which seemed to force him to focus on draft prospects. I feel like every other thing he says now is based on whether or not some scout was jizzing over a kid's velo when they were in high school. "94-95 with a fastball and plus slider. Scouts love him!" Uh....he has like a 5 ERA.

I love college baseball but you can't convince me that any of these publications are worth subscribing to. Mark Etheridge did the best job with SEBaseball but that was because they limited themselves to one region. Even then, you knew there was still a lot of guesswork.