Obviously the story today is Gunnar Hoglund. He'll have an MRI today and see if it's a UCL injury, a UCL displacement or some type of tissue issue. Those have different timeframes, but I think he'll have to get VERY lucky to not miss time. The indicators aren't great, but there's no reason to speculate. We'll know soon enough. The length of time changes how we view the team; we'll discuss that when we know more.
Yesterday is a game to circle if Ole Miss is one game away from whatever when the resume turns into postseason positioning. The Rebels will be one of the 20 teams in the host site pool when the NCAA announces that list at the end of the week. The Rebels are 14-10 in the league and I still think they need to get to 17 to feel pretty good about it. Ole Miss is 3-5 in weekend series in league play. The RPI is 11 which is perfectly good and the quad 1 record is 13-9 which is fine. Ole Miss is currently sixth in the SEC and the road to a top four finish is a difficult one. Pretty unlikely which means Ole Miss plays on Tuesday in Hoover. That doesn't really matter, but for two things: Not playing after Tuesday could at least open Ole Miss up to host bid stealers and you don't want to play Missouri on that Tuesday because of RPI. Long story short: Ole Miss is still fine in the hosting discussion, but it's a weird resume and yesterday a win would have really solidified things and kept the top-8 seed discussion in play. Now the Rebels can't coast, and Hoglund's injury does factor into resume as far as judging a team.
Ole Miss has two sacrifice bunts in conference play and just three all season. The team doesn't bunt. It's not how it's built and it's not what it does well. It's last in the SEC in sacrifices. Mike was going to bunt Van Cleve if Alderman got on base in the LSU finale, but otherwise it hasn't been a thing. I'm not sure he trusts anyone other than Van Cleve and Bench to bunt. When it's not the DNA of the team and it becomes the move that defines the inning, that says something. I'm not sure what exactly, but I don't like it. It shows a management style change that hasn't been the case. If you're going to play that kind of baseball, then you play it all the time. You don't scattershoot it. Now, Ole Miss could have easily scored a run there, but Harris has the highest double play percentage on the team. I also have issue with that even if Ole Miss had played for one run there. Taylor Broadway wasn't as sharp as we've seen him and it wasn't the ninth inning. You may have needed runs -- plural. Hayden Leatherwood was 3-for-3 and can put Tim Elko in for an at-bat at some point in the inning. Had the Rebels tied it and things advanced, it also wounded the bottom of the order. It was Plumlee-Sammons-Harris with the bench depleted.
Frizzell had hit breaking balls, changeups and fastballs out of the park. I don't intentionally walk him there. He's not Barry Bonds. I do think some careful would be appropriate. Ironically, Ole Miss hardly ever challenges hitters 0-2, and Broadway went right at him. The pitch was better than I thought at first glance, but some changeups away wouldn't have been a bad move for a pitch or two. Hindsight obviously, but that's what I thought when I rewatched it.
Yesterday is a game to circle if Ole Miss is one game away from whatever when the resume turns into postseason positioning. The Rebels will be one of the 20 teams in the host site pool when the NCAA announces that list at the end of the week. The Rebels are 14-10 in the league and I still think they need to get to 17 to feel pretty good about it. Ole Miss is 3-5 in weekend series in league play. The RPI is 11 which is perfectly good and the quad 1 record is 13-9 which is fine. Ole Miss is currently sixth in the SEC and the road to a top four finish is a difficult one. Pretty unlikely which means Ole Miss plays on Tuesday in Hoover. That doesn't really matter, but for two things: Not playing after Tuesday could at least open Ole Miss up to host bid stealers and you don't want to play Missouri on that Tuesday because of RPI. Long story short: Ole Miss is still fine in the hosting discussion, but it's a weird resume and yesterday a win would have really solidified things and kept the top-8 seed discussion in play. Now the Rebels can't coast, and Hoglund's injury does factor into resume as far as judging a team.
Ole Miss has two sacrifice bunts in conference play and just three all season. The team doesn't bunt. It's not how it's built and it's not what it does well. It's last in the SEC in sacrifices. Mike was going to bunt Van Cleve if Alderman got on base in the LSU finale, but otherwise it hasn't been a thing. I'm not sure he trusts anyone other than Van Cleve and Bench to bunt. When it's not the DNA of the team and it becomes the move that defines the inning, that says something. I'm not sure what exactly, but I don't like it. It shows a management style change that hasn't been the case. If you're going to play that kind of baseball, then you play it all the time. You don't scattershoot it. Now, Ole Miss could have easily scored a run there, but Harris has the highest double play percentage on the team. I also have issue with that even if Ole Miss had played for one run there. Taylor Broadway wasn't as sharp as we've seen him and it wasn't the ninth inning. You may have needed runs -- plural. Hayden Leatherwood was 3-for-3 and can put Tim Elko in for an at-bat at some point in the inning. Had the Rebels tied it and things advanced, it also wounded the bottom of the order. It was Plumlee-Sammons-Harris with the bench depleted.
Frizzell had hit breaking balls, changeups and fastballs out of the park. I don't intentionally walk him there. He's not Barry Bonds. I do think some careful would be appropriate. Ironically, Ole Miss hardly ever challenges hitters 0-2, and Broadway went right at him. The pitch was better than I thought at first glance, but some changeups away wouldn't have been a bad move for a pitch or two. Hindsight obviously, but that's what I thought when I rewatched it.
