Jake?

[60sdog]

Hate to say but we may be missing Jake’s leadership. Was he exclusively the reason for the success of the last four seasons? If so, we may be in tough shape.

 

[Willow Grove Dawg]

Ethan Small was pretty big last year. It really helps to have a shut down Friday starter

 

[Bulldogg31]

Hate to say but we may be missing Jake’s leadership. Was he exclusively the reason for the success of the last four seasons? If so, we may be in tough shape.

We are young, which I hate to hear people say, but it’s true.

When Hunter French pinch hit in the 8th he became the 16th player on this roster to make his Mississippi State debut this season, half of which are freshmen.

 

[MSUDC11]

We had a loaded lineup last year and a lot of those guys are being replaced by guys who haven’t figured it out yet. Obviously Mangum, but Skelton was a huge piece at the plate last year. MacNamee was up and down but he had his moments. Gilbert was one of the better nine hole hitters in the country.

Westburg and Foscue have been fine, but that’s about it. We have a ton of BA’s in the low .200’s or worse from guys we were counting on to have big years. I still feel like we will snap out of it, but it’s certainly been rough to watch the last week or so.

 

[Len2003]

We lost two starting pitchers. That is going to kill anyone.

 

[J-Dawg]

We lost two starting pitchers. That is going to kill anyone.

Pitching doesn’t bother me as much as our approach at the plate.

 

[PineGroveBully]

Was fixing to say, “what did those 2 starting pitchers hit?”

 

[bruiser.sixpack]

Yep. If you can hit, you can give up 4 runs and still win games. If you cannot hit, you cannot give up 2 runs and win. There are 5 guys that aren’t young that are struggling with the bats.

Jordan, Westburg, Allen, Foscue, and Hatcher. Then Landon Jordan is also experienced. But those 1st 5 guys I listed have played a lot of baseball the past 2 years, and should not be struggling like this.

No excuses.

 

[MSUDC11]

Yep. If you can hit, you can give up 4 runs and still win games. If you cannot hit, you cannot give up 2 runs and win. There are 5 guys that aren’t young that are struggling with the bats.

Jordan, Westburg, Allen, Foscue, and Hatcher. Then Landon Jordan is also experienced. But those 1st 5 guys I listed have played a lot of baseball the past 2 years, and should not be struggling like this.

No excuses.

Westburg and Foscue are hitting .370. Allen hasn’t played in about half our games to this point. Rowdey has struggled out of the gate his entire career. Hatcher is a disappointment but frankly he’s never really been consistent for us, though that was expected to change this year.

I’m not really worried about the top four in our lineup. I’m definitely worried about the bottom of the order though. MUST have some of the less experienced guys step up or it doesn’t matter what kind of year our top four has.

 

[missouridawg]

We are young, which I hate to hear people say, but it’s true.

We are losing games because we can’t hit. The TSU game may be an exception for a singular poor pitching performance... but it can still be said that 4 runs against TSU is putrid.

Our lineup is full of 3 year juniors. We are not young in the lineup. And those guys aren’t performing right now.

 

[8dog]

The big 5 juniors are 3-33 with 13 ks in our two D1 losses. So yes we have some guys getting significant playing time for the first time but those five should be good enough to keep us competitive offensively. Plus hancock and landon jordan have seen enough pitching to help us. I know the coaches really want hancocks bat in the lineup.