re: Early Look at Next Season

quote:

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9 - Mississippi State (15-15) probably fairly big step back

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State's current lineup, with returning status:

1 - CF - Mangum (.353) - Returning Senior
2 - LF - Jordan (.333) - Returning Sophomore
3 - 1B - Allen (.300) - Returning Sophomore
4 - 2B - Stovall (.319) - Potentially returning Senior
5 - RF - MacNamee (.318) - Returning Junior
6 - 3B - Foscue (.256) - Returning Sophomore
7 - SS - Alexander (.213) - Returning Senior but will likely get processed on account of influx of new talent
8 - C - Skelton (.248) - Returning Junior
9 - DH - Westburg (.250) - Returning Sophomore

All but one in our starting lineup, which has looked very dangerous this postseason, will definitely be back next year. Very potentially all will be back. We have 4 guys coming in that will be immediate impact guys as well and easily fight to take a starting spot from the back end guys. With freshman->soph year over year improvement, we could easily have 8 guys batting .300+ in that lineup. You don't need phenomenal pitchers to win with that lineup.

But let's look at pitching:

Ethan Small is our ace. He was selected in the 26th as a sophomore. He'll come back for his junior year and boost that stock way up as one of the best lefties in the league.

We also lose Pilkington and Billingsley from the weekend rotation, two 4+ ERA guys with a combined 7 wins. Nothing special, nothing unreplaceable. One spot will likely be filled by stud current bullpen man Riley Self. The other will likely come from the return of one of several big arms we lost to injury.

We also get back Spencer Price, our shutdown closer who was out this year.

We're going to be much improved next year. Big step back?? Ha.