Except for Ole mss winning the CATS had a good day with all the right teams winning...CATS now stand in a five way tie for fourth so this thing could go anyplace ...need to take care of business going forward, but if the bats don't get going it is going to be difficult...
Sunday Results...
- Thread starter sluggercatfan
- Start date
Yes, UT, Miss. State, and Texas A&M helped us this week. Auburn blew a 5-0 lead in the 9th, and lost 6-5 to Ole Miss.
If we get Becker and Wilson back soon that will help, Marshall did well filling in, and Hairston picked us up in game 3. Squires is coming along, and Kottem is pretty solid.
If we get Becker and Wilson back soon that will help, Marshall did well filling in, and Hairston picked us up in game 3. Squires is coming along, and Kottem is pretty solid.
As bad as our hitting is right now I think DH needs to be inserted into the lineup daily
You guys are pretty optimistic. I am not as much. I look at it as though we are no better than 5th (since we have a tie with Vanderbilt and they have the tiebreaker), but no worse than 8th. The good thing is that the only team that is really that much closer to us is Alabama, who is 9-9. After that everyone has 7 or fewer wins. We have 12 games left, so anything can happen, but Georgia is 3 games behind us, Tennessee and Arkansas are 4, and Auburn and Missouri are 5 and 6 games respectively. We have a good head start and with Missouri and Auburn still left on the schedule I think we should stay ahead of most teams. The question is whether we can actually move above anyone.
This week is another big one. We play Auburn. Arkansas only had 4 league wins before this weekend. Auburn only has 5 league wins. So, we have a good chance to sweep them. I think one big difference is that Arkansas was a solid team that has struggled in league play. Auburn, on the other hand, is 18-22 on the season and has been largely a train wreck. Brad Bohannon will face his old team and that might have an effect as Auburn should have some cues on what our pitchers will be looking to do. We'll see, but we need a sweep in the worst way. We need it for our NCAA chances and we need it to build confidence to face USC the weekend after.
This week is another big one. We play Auburn. Arkansas only had 4 league wins before this weekend. Auburn only has 5 league wins. So, we have a good chance to sweep them. I think one big difference is that Arkansas was a solid team that has struggled in league play. Auburn, on the other hand, is 18-22 on the season and has been largely a train wreck. Brad Bohannon will face his old team and that might have an effect as Auburn should have some cues on what our pitchers will be looking to do. We'll see, but we need a sweep in the worst way. We need it for our NCAA chances and we need it to build confidence to face USC the weekend after.
Cb3 it is hard to be optimistic, but you know bb is a fickle sport. I was convinced that we would sweep ark and the Auburn series is on the road...the guys have a tough road ahead of them...they have already reached a plateau I didn't think they would reach with 10 conf wins so who knows. One thing I think for sure is that DH needs to remain in the lineup for his bat even if it means replacing McNeil as DH and I don't know what you do with Shelby as he looks like a zombie at the plate.
To be honest... I might consider doing a huge lineup change in order to get some bats that are actually doing well. I'd take Wilson out of center and replace him with Pompey. Next, I would take Shelby down and put Squires at third base. Catcher would be Cottam, who would get some rest through Arnold (as long as Arnold can make throws back to the pitcher). If not then I go to Marshall Gei in a pinch. You got Gei and he has already likely redshirted so you might as well play him. Then I'd have Marshall playing second base. In right field I'd have Hairston. For road games, especially ones with a big outfield, I might consider moving Evan White off of first and moving him into the outfield and having McNeil play first. That way you don't worry about Hairston not having enough speed to cover the outfield.
My lineup would look something like this:
Reks - LF
White - 1B/RF
Cottam - C
McNeil - DH/1B
Hairston - RF/DH
Mahan - SS
Squires - 3B
Pompey - CF
Marshall - 2B
I could move the people around a bit. I like Marshall at the bottom to flip the lineup back over. Pompey has some power and could fit in a lot of places in the lineup, but at this point I just don't trust him enough to be up there really high. I think your first 4 hitters are very dangerous in this lineup and then you have Hairston and Mahan who are pretty similar and can both probably get you hits and even homers. Squires was hard to find a spot for and he may be better served being a bit higher considering he seems to hit well with RISP, however, he is another one I have to see more to trust more. When Cottam doesn't play I'd have Gei hitting last and I would move Squires to hitting third.
First thing I do is try that out this midweek. See how the bats respond and see if I want to continue with it this weekend. You have two games to check it out and see if it works. If it doesn't then you can go back to the usual on the weekend. Depending on how Squires and Marshall do you can move Shelby in and out of either position.
Interesting thoughts regarding the drastic lineup change. Only thing that makes me wince is moving White off of First, as he makes up for so many bad throws when he plays first base. He singlehandedly bailed us out at least 5 times this weekend by making amazing catches of bad throws by Shelby and Mahan.
It isn't necessary for White to be moved. However, in a place like Hoover, which is a very big field, you might want to have an outfield with a lot of range. Hairston might be fine, but he might also be a liability in right. I'm personally not entirely sure. We also don't know how White might do in the outfield or how well McNeil might do at first. We'd have to see. That would be the advantage of seeing how we do during the midweek.
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