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DawgatAuburn wrote:

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And as a Cub fan, 8dog's opinions would be better than that Cardinal fan Todd.

I agree with you- 8dog, BulldogBruce and Cuzdawg are all really good baseball posters. I'd actually would like to meet both of them at some point, if the opportunity presents itself. I'm sure that I'm leaving some posters out to.

First of all, we lost Runey Davis to the Cubs of all people. I don't think we are going to lose anyone else from our class to MLB, Jaron Shepherd has said he is coming to school, and while I haven't seen where CC Watson has said anything officially, all indications seem like he is going to go to school. Of course, I've learned with the draft to hold your breath until August when classes start.

And that brings me to my next point- you can't really even start to judge a class until they actually go to class and are officially on campus.

That said, I really like what Cohen did with his first class. This upcoming year is going to be very thin across the country as far as pitching- Mississippi is not an exception this year. I like the fact that we are recruiting dual position athletes for the most part- CC Watson, Luke Bole, Jared Miller, Ben Bracewell, and Ethan Bright are all guys that can potentially play in the field and pitch for MSU. Pitching was obviously a need, and Cohen addressed that. I like the fact that our pitching prospects are guys that are at least topping out in the 90's- Watson (93-94), Stratton (93), Bole (93), Bracewell (92), and Miller (91) or are guys that are very projectable- Matt Lane and Kendall Graveman, and then Cohen acquired a LH pitcher who doesn't throw all that hard, but is a good control pitcher, and who I think will be valuable in match-ups or even potentially as a starter in Chad Girordo.

I also think that Kolby Byrd, who I do question the competition that he played against, and Ethan Bright are two guys that I think have the potential to be power hitters in the future. Byrd is also a very good defensive catcher.

As far as the JUCO's, I think he's trying to bring in guys that fit his mold while also bringing in a little bit more maturity. Under Polk, we would have cycles where we were "young" and then we would build up and maybe even go to Omaha and then blow that team up and start over again. I think Cohen is trying to get it so that we're replacing Jrs with So. or Jrs instead of replacing Jrs with Fr. I like that because I think it gives you a better chance to win the NC. Why? Because in the past when we would have a team that would finally make it, they had no one on the team with any CWS experience. Doing it this way, hopefully we will have at least a few guys that have played under the bright lights of Omaha before. I really believe that the most valuable thing you can have in postseason baseball in experience. Look at the list of NC's and see how many of them were in Omaha the year or the year before. Why does a team like LSU win so much? Because they go every year. They know what to expect.

I like what I am seeing from Cohen as far as recruiting Mississippi, which I think is vitally important to us. Yes, there is a ton of talent in Florida, California, and Texas, but we shouldn't rely on those states to have enough wealth to send us their leftovers. If you think about it, a school like Texas is going to get the top players in their state, and there are a ton of schools there from Texas A&M all the way to to the Stephen F Austin's. A lot of players would rather go to those schools than go off to Mississippi. We can get some good players from those states, but I feel like our best chance to get elite type players is to get the Mississippians. I'm not saying that we should abandon those states, but if we focus too much on Florida, we're going to spend too much time getting Brad Jones and not enough on Stephen Head. I know this may sound cheesy, but I really think that Mississippians want to play for their home state schools harder than these out of state guys. And you have to have hustle guys on your team to push the stars- basically, it's the Rudy effect. A lot of Cohen's walk-ons are Mississippians, and I think he is going to find a few Grant Hogue's.

Overall, I like Cohen's class- including the walk-ons. I think we're going to be very good in a couple of years when these guys are So. This is the most excited I've been about a MSU baseball recruiting class in a while.

As far as Polk, the game simply passed him by. He just got to a point to where he couldn't function in today's game of college baseball as a HC at the SEC level. I think Ron Polk would be perfect for a school like Mississippi College, where there isn't as much emphasis and pressure on winning and it's more about teaching the game and having a good college experience. (apologies to MC grads, I'm Southern Baptist so, I pull for them). I think it could be like Hill Denson at Belhaven. Polk is similar to Frankenstein- he was destroyed by the monster he created.

The thing you have to understand about Polk- he was as much about spreading the game of baseball as much as anything. I honestly don't know very many, if any coaches that were more influential than Polk as far as baseball in a particular state. Maybe Bertman in Louisiana. Ron Polk and Boo Ferris are probably the two most respected coaches in the state right now and influential. The growth of the game at all levels since Polk came to Mississippi is phenomenal. We're a very small state, and we're 19th in the country at producing professional baseball players, in a study I last saw. Our high school baseball is not bad. Our JUCO baseball is lacking mainly because we don't have the population to stock 14 teams, or whatever we have. And MSU, Ole Miss, and USM are all very strong programs, as is DSU. A lot of that is because of Ron Polk. Polk had the vision and understanding way back in the 70's that if MSU was ever going to win a NC in baseball, we were going to have to have a high school system that could develop quality players. The only way to do that was to have quality high school coaches, and quality coaches at the youth levels. So despite his tantrum, which was wrong on all levels, if we ever win a NC, Polk's fingerprints will definately be there. So, I to have a lot of respect for Coach Polk.

get a walk-on from Puerto Rico of all places.

But you could tell that much of this class was influenced by Butch Thompson's connections to Alabama.