Tonight could be a stat-padder for the baseball team

[Hump4Hoops]

Grambling giving up an average of over 10 runs a game.

 

[patdog]

I hate we even scheduled this game. Does no good for us or them. I'd rather just play 55.

 

[aTotal360]

We're gonna lose 2-1.

 

[MSUDC11]

We've lost two SWAC games in the last six years (including getting handled by 0-9 Texas Southern last year) so I no longer look at these games as stat-padders and instead look at them as "oh dear gosh I hope don't they don't step on that trip wire".

 

[engie]

Basically talking about the no hitter*

 

[Wizard.sixpack]

Basically talking about the no hitter*

anything less and the season is a wash.*

 

[johnson86-1]

I hate we even scheduled this game. Does no good for us or them. I'd rather just play 55.

I don't mind throwing a bone to JSU or Alcorn or Valley. I don't get why we would play a swac team from outside of Mississippi.

 

[o_dawgnabit]

This game also has the recipe of them having a pitcher that tops out at 83 and we can’t hit him for the first couple innings. Just setting ourselves up for that so SPS doesn’t panic when that happens. Lol

 

[kired]

My senior year in high school we went something like 22-4 regular season. We were undefeated in our division with 2 games left... and then we played the last place / winless in the division team. That ended up being our only division loss and their only win. Everyone on the team knew after about 3 innings that it was going to be a loss. Road game, mid-week, no one could hit, errors everywhere, pitchers getting blasted.

 

[philduckworth]

I hate we even scheduled this game. Does no good for us or them. I'd rather just play 55.

It's awful. Makes no sense to me.

 

[Hugh's Burner Phone]

Hope it's a good game. My first game at the new stadium and my son's first MSU baseball game period.

 

[Go Budaw]

I hate we even scheduled this game. Does no good for us or them. I'd rather just play 55.

We have 5 games against the SWAC in our nonconference schedule. 17ing FIVE. Almost 20% of our nonconference slate against RPI murderer’s row. And it would have been even worse if we didn’t replace TN Tech with Kent State by sheer luck. That is just flat out embarrassing for a program of our stature, and it seems like we do it almost every year. We’d be better off playing and losing 5 games to Top 50-75 caliber teams, playing nobody, or playing 5 intrasquad scrimmages than playing these games and winning each by 20 runs. I just don’t get it.

 

[philduckworth]

We have 5 games against the SWAC in our nonconference schedule. 17ing FIVE. Almost 20% of our nonconference slate against RPI murderer’s row. And it would have been even worse if we didn’t replace TN Tech with Kent State by sheer luck. That is just flat out embarrassing for a program of our stature, and it seems like we do it almost every year. We’d be better off playing and losing 5 games to Top 50-75 caliber teams, playing nobody, or playing 5 intrasquad scrimmages than playing these games and winning each by 20 runs. I just don’t get it.

Is it Cohen or Lemonis or both?

 

[NWADog]

I’m gonna start by saying I haven’t played baseball since I was 12... I’m a huge fan and have watched closely as long as I can remember so I feel like I know the game pretty well.

One thing I don’t understand is this. How difficult is it as a batter to face a guy who’s fastest pitch is around 85mph when you’re typically seeing 90-98mph? Does it really effect you as a batter that much?

 

[Hugh's Burner Phone]

I’m gonna start by saying I haven’t played baseball since I was 12... I’m a huge fan and have watched closely as long as I can remember so I feel like I know the game pretty well.

One thing I don’t understand is this. How difficult is it as a batter to face a guy who’s fastest pitch is around 85mph when you’re typically seeing 90-98mph? Does it really effect you as a batter that much?

Haven't seen their pitcher break 84 yet.

 

[bulldogcountry1]

It’s a good opportunity to learn some discipline. First off, you have to learn to stay sharp mentally, even though you are playing and 0-7 team. Secondly, to have to be able to make the velocity adjustment instead of swinging for the fences trying to pad your numbers.

 

[karlchilders.sixpack]

Speed is not everything.

Breaking balls (moving balls)frequently matter.

 

[karlchilders.sixpack]

4 hits in the 5th, so far

not exactly a stat padder.

Edited to say, now 5.

 

[maroonmadman]

Now in the 6th. Finna get ugly for grambling. We play these games to get kids some playing time that they normally wouldn't get. Experience. No substitute for it.

 

[TrueMaroonGrind]

Ron is already bored. He let out a 5 second yawn live on air. I got a laugh out of it.

 

[smurphdawg]

I’m gonna start by saying I haven’t played baseball since I was 12... I’m a huge fan and have watched closely as long as I can remember so I feel like I know the game pretty well.

One thing I don’t understand is this. How difficult is it as a batter to face a guy who’s fastest pitch is around 85mph when you’re typically seeing 90-98mph? Does it really effect you as a batter that much?

I’m with you on this. My baseball credentials are not much better than yours, but I always think this particular defense of high level hitters vs. mediocre pitching is weird. They have to adjust because they aren’t used to seeing pitching this slow? Ok watch one pitch. Then crush the next one. Obviously I understand the difficulty in adjusting to a pitcher that changes speed effectively.

 

[msudog4]

I am bored too. Is the ten run rule in effect

 

[MSUDawg25]

I haven’t been watching the pitches very closely, but you gotta assume a guy has pretty good movement on his pitches if he only throws mid 80s but has earned a starting spot at a D1 school. Even if it’s a smaller program.

 

[Go Budaw]

Is it Cohen or Lemonis or both?

I’d guess both. With COVID going on and a lot of teams wanting to stay more regional with scheduling, I somewhat understand it this year. But it hasn’t seemed to be going on for just this year.

 

[patdog]

And no games against South Alabama, a traditional OOC opponent. I'm hoping some of this is Covid related scheduling problems, and overall I'm happy with the weekends vs the Texas teams and Tulane (and Kent St., but that one wasn't scheduled). But I'd seriously rather just not play than play a bunch of out of state cellar teams like Grambling.

 

[johnson86-1]

I’m with you on this. My baseball credentials are not much better than yours, but I always think this particular defense of high level hitters vs. mediocre pitching is weird. They have to adjust because they aren’t used to seeing pitching this slow? Ok watch one pitch. Then crush the next one. Obviously I understand the difficulty in adjusting to a pitcher that changes speed effectively.

Not sure it’s really comparable, but I would have said the same thing about hitting a slow pitch softball. Yet most players take time to adjust. Of course there’s quite the difference in angles there, so a little bit different. But maybe similar I’m that it’s not as easy to adjust as you’d think.

 

[NWADog]

All good points. I know it messes with timing and all of that but I know all of these guys have probably seen that type of speed and junk ball in the past through high school or in some form or another. The junk ball pitcher from the small school that beat us last year or the year before still haunts me

 

[PartTimeGenius]

There are multiple things that make it challenging.

1) Pitch speed- When all your timing mechanisms are based primarily off upper 80s-mid 90s fastballs, it takes a little while to adjust to low 80s. There's more "thinking time" vs "reaction time."

2) Pitch Effectiveness- Tying in with pitch speed, you become accustomed to reacting to average-above average pitch movement. As crazy as it sounds, when a pitch doesn't do what it is supposed to do (slider not sliding) it makes it difficult. Great hitters have great pitch recognition. When you read slider and it acts more like a fastball, it can be difficult the first AB or so until you learn what that pitch will actually do from that pitcher.

3) Mental approach- In today's game, velocity (in theory) means a guy is difficult to hit. Therefore, the "lack of velocity" creates the opposite mental effect on hitters--this guy sucks. When you have no velocity, you are 1 of 2 type pitchers:
1-Greg Maddox a.k.a low velocity, but pinpoint precision/pitch location/execution
2-Low velocity, low precision/pitch location/execution
From a hitter's standpoint, both can be very difficult to adjust to and very frustrating to face. Once is a legit pitcher (even though the theory on "velocity" says he shouldn't be) and the other just sucks so bad it completely throws everything off with your timing and mental execution.

Think of the difference in fast pitch and slow pitch softball. It takes time to adjust going from one to the other.

 

[thekimmer]

Then why take BP?....

Not sure it’s really comparable, but I would have said the same thing about hitting a slow pitch softball. Yet most players take time to adjust. Of course there’s quite the difference in angles there, so a little bit different. But maybe similar I’m that it’s not as easy to adjust as you’d think.

Logically, if adjusting to changing speeds is that hard then BP must be murder. But then, I know, competitive pitching is different but then that is the key. It's not just about speed of a fastball but how it is located and looks compared to the other pitches being thrown. A guy thowing 85 down the middle with nothing to offset it is literally pitching BP and should require no adjustment.

 

[AusTexDawg]

If the team is playing an out of state SWAC school just to get a game in, couldn’t they just schedule a DII school like Delta State? My understanding is that a DII game wouldn’t count at all in the RPI, so it wouldn’t drag State’s RPI down, and you’d probably get a similar game that lets the bench get some live game experience.