Rippee Writes: Friday Scoop
Baseball, baseball and more baseball
Happy Friday to all. We have a new podcast out previewing this weekend’s Vanderbilt series. Check that out here or anywhere you get your podcasts. A ton of baseball to dive into today.
Let’s go.
Rebels fight for host bid against Vanderbilt
Ole Miss opens up a three-game set with the Commodores tonight in their first game without Gunnar Hoglund. Ole Miss needs to find a way to take one game from Vanderbilt, and if it is able to win the series, it will certainly be back on the right side of the hosting conversation, assuming the Rebels are named as one of the 20 potential host sites later today (they should). It’s an important weekend from the standpoint of seeing what this team has left in the tank after losing a series to a bad team in excruciating fashion, and then learning their Friday night guy is on the shelf for the remainder of the season. You’ll see what this group is made of, even if the series result doesn't go in their favor.
Vanderbilt scout
If you watch network television, you're probably operating under the assumption that Jesus and any one of his 12 disciples could not comprise a more formidable one-two punch than Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter. I’d argue there have been three better SEC duos in the last five years alone, but what do I know. I am just some clown with a newsletter. May I offer up LSU’s Jared Poche and Alex Lange five years ago? How about John Doxakis and Asa Lacy just two seasons ago? Both of those duos had better numbers than Leiter and Rocker, but I digress.
All of that aside, these two guys are incredibly good pitchers and are definitely the best duo from a professional prospect standpoint that this league has seen in some time. There’s a difference between that and being the toughest to face on Fridays and Saturdays in the SEC. Anyway, this will be a tough task for the Rebels. I am not downplaying it. I just find the continuously growing legend of these to two be a little bit exaggerated. Leiter was scratched from his start last weekend against Alabama due to workload, and as recently as Wednesday, head coach Tim Corbin wouldn’t commit to starting him this weekend. Leiter is now listed as a probable in the game notes. Both guys will come at you with upper 90s fastballs, devastating breaking stuff and plus command of three pitches. It will be a battle, but they’re also human. Rocker has given up eight runs in his last two starts that spanned ten innings, hasn’t reached the 6th in three weeks and has nine walks over that span. Leiter has surrendered eleven runs over is last two outings over a nine-inning span. These guys are talented, but this will be the best offense they’ve faced this year.
My biggest takeaway from this is that fans were robbed of two must-see TV pitching duels due to Hoglund’s absence. It’s a shame, but it will still be a fantastic mid-May SEC series with a lot of implications.
Offensively, the Commodores started the year pretty sluggishly, but have morphed into a top three offense in this league. Vanderbilt hits in the gaps a lot, has middling-home run power and gets on base at a pretty high clip. The guys to worry about are Dominic Keegan and Carter Young. Both can do significant damage at any time and are a terror with men on base. But you could argue Ole Miss should just be glad to not see Will Frizzell on a lineup card this weekend.
This will be a battle that the Rebels are not favored in, but it is also a golden opportunity to prove they aren’t waving the white flag just yet despite injuries and some manager-induced adversity stemming from last weekend.
SkyBox’s results speak louder than any convincing I can do. Go see these guys now with the NBA playoffs, golf and baseball heating up. Check out their Twitter for free plays and then go do yourself a favor and buy a package. Right now, if you buy the four-week NASCAR package and it doesn’t profit, you get your money back. How can you beat that? Go see them and ensure you’re making money
What I am looking for from Ole Miss
As I outlined in the newsletter earlier this week, the most important player on Ole Miss’ roster going forward is Derek Diamond. He’s the man that can either partially fill the void Hoglund left behind or make it seem like an even larger crater. The ability is there and so is the arm talent and stuff. A lack of consistency has plagued him and the inability to mitigate damage when things start to go awry has proved incredibly costly for Diamond and the Rebels. He’ll have his work cutout for him, but a strong performance, particularly considering who is his opposition is on the mound, would make a loud statement about this team’s postseason chances and collective confidence, not only to the fanbase and outsiders, but also to the other 30-plus kids in that dugout. No result from Diamond’s outing would surprise me, good or bad, which is probably why I am so intrigued by it.
What’s Tim Elko’s role this weekend? Hopefully it doesn’t involve pinch-hitting with a base open. But in all seriousness, does Bianco cut him loose? His home run last weekend was an incredible sports moment from a novelty standpoint, but that power is also still there and very real. How much do they try to get out of him? If Ole Miss is going to win this series, its going to need to bludgeon the Commodores at the plate. Elko in the lineup is the Rebels’ best chance to do that. Is he healthy enough to start a game? Multiple games? Only he and the coaching staff know. I’d argue if he doesn’t start a game this weekend, it is unlikely he does the rest of the way, but that’s just a guess. I think this weekend will be telling in terms of what this team will be able to get out of its captain the rest of the way.
Diamond’s insertion into the rotation means one less arm in an already thin bullpen. We discussed this in yesterday’s newsletter, but it' bears repeating: Bianco is going to have to trust someone else he’s yet to trust this year. Whether that is Wes Burton, Austin Miller, Bradyn Forsyth or Jackson Kimbrell remains to be seen, but it’s got to be someone. Ole Miss can’t win a series with Dougherty and Broadway alone, unless you get a pair of completely heroic starts from Nikhazy and Diamond, which is unfair to ask. This is the second biggest storyline this weekend in my opinion.
Is there another late-game blunder from Mike Bianco? I did not think we’d see a game mismanged more obviously than the Sunday game at Mississippi State this season, or perhaps within the next five years. Yet, it happened less than a month later last weekend in College Station. The conversation surrounding Bianco has lost all nuance in recent years. It seems impossible to criticize him without bringing up his long term future and he doesn’t get enough credit for the good coaching jobs he’s crafted in 2015, 2016 and 2018. Two things can be true at once without discussing firing the guy. I’m not advocating for or against him, I just think it’s foolish to argue job security before the season ends. My point in all of this is to simply state that he does not have a good feel for this team. That seems apparent and it has directly cost them two games and you could make the argument or two more. With this team’s injury rap sheet, it cannot afford to have its coach cost them games. If it happens again this weekend, there might be a riot. I am kidding, sort of.
The 16 oz prime strip for $10 deal is still rolling but you can now get a second one for $15 bucks if you want more than one. Also, you get $2 off any fish in the freezer. Thanks for subscribing and enjoy. Go by LBs. They’re the best.
On the horizon:
Sunday megapod recapping the series with Collin Brister
A week of newsletters
A long-form story I have been working on for a while that I think you will enjoy
That’s all from me today. Thanks for being a subscriber. Send to your friends and tell them to join in on the fun. Have a wonderful weekend.