Rippee Writes: Friday Scoop
South Carolina scout, Ole Miss thoughts, NFL Draft and more
Happy Friday. We have a new podcast out with Collin Brister previewing Ole Miss’s crucial series with South Carolina that begins tonight. Check it out here or anywhere you get your podcasts. We held off on Mailbag Friday because of time constraints and travel plans, so we will flip that to Sunday. Send questions if you have them. There is a lot to dive into today.
Let’s go.
South Carolina scout:
Ole Miss starts an important series with the Gamecocks in Oxford this weekend. If the Rebels win two, believe it or not, they’re still in pretty good shape to play June baseball in Oxford. If they don’t they’re likely going on the road for the postseason. It’s a huge weekend. Let’s take a look at their opponent.
South Carolina pitches the ball well. It does not hit the ball with any consistency. You’re going to see two good arms on the mound (not exactly in order, more on that in a second) and a pretty sturdy bullpen. This pitching staff will give Ole Miss a good test as it is what this Gamecocks team is built around.
South Carolina is going to hurl three right-handers at the Rebels. Thomas Farr tonight, Brannon Jordan tomorrow and Will Sanders on Sunday. Their rotation is actually a backward-pitching mechanism. Sanders is probably the guy they’re going to if they have to win a game to save the season and the other two are fairly interchangeable but Jordan is slightly better. So essentially, it is an inverse rotation. Arkansas matched up to it last week and held their ace until the finale, but Mike Bianco doesn’t have plans to do the same. He’ll go Gunnar Hoglund, Doug Nikhazy and Drew McDaniel in that order.
I am sure this sounds similar to a fair number of the teams Ole Miss has faced in SEC play, but South Carolina struggles to score runs outside of hitting the ball over the fence. The Gamecocks are bottom four offense in essentially every major offensive statistical category, except for home runs where they ranked 4th heading into the midweek (56) and then slid to 5th behind Tennessee. The point is, they hit a lot of home runs to stay afloat offensive because they do not do a whole lot else well.
Brady Allen and Wes Clarke are the two names to watching the Gamecocks’ lineup, they have 26 of the team’s 56 long balls and are the two RBI leaders. Outside of that, there isn’t a ton that scares you.
What I am looking for from Ole Miss
The Rebels have the best one-two punch in the SEC outside of Vanderbilt, yet they haven’t won the first two games of a series in over a month. With South Carolina’s struggles at the plate and Ole Miss’ advantage on the mound in each of the first two games, it is vitally important that this team final utilize the advantages of the way it is constructed. That starts tonight with Hoglund on the mound. He’s given them a chance to win every week, yet the Rebels are 6-10 in the last 16 SEC series openers. That won’t hunt.
Mike Bianco said earlier in the week Tim Elko has taken batting practice and is facing live pitching. Who knows what that means regarding a potential return to the lineup and his contribution the rest of the way, and I wouldn’t get my hopes up if I were you, but it is a good sign he is hitting in practice and seems to be managing the pain. As Bianco put it, Elko won’t be legging out any doubles this year, it is more about whether or not he can hit on the torn ACL and get to first base. I think a realistic expectation, if he returns to game action at all, is spot pinch-hitting with the occasional start at DH. I think the team would be thrilled if that was the outcome over the season’s final month. How that factors into this weekend, I suppose we will find out.
This group has to be better defensively. I think something must be done with Cael Baker at first base, but Bianco hasn’t seemed to have the same worry. You could DH baker, move Graham to first base and insert Plumlee into the outfield alongside Leatherwood and McCants. There are other options too. Regardless of what the lineup is, the Rebels have to field the ball better. Giving up unearned runs like they did last weekend, this time to a worse offense, could definitely cost them their fifth straight series.
Does anyone want to read about the bullpen anymore? It needs to get outs. it is that simple. Derek Diamond should help with that and a few guys looked good in the finale against LSU. We’ll see if any progress has been made this weekend.
Drew McDaniel was roughed up last weekend in his start against LSU. It was lost in the comeback and the overall slog of the weekend, but he’d do well to rebound with a strong outing this time. The last thing Ole Miss needs right now is another ailment to bandaid on its pitching staff.
Greg says you people love the 16 oz prime strip for $10 deal so he will roll with that for a third consecutive week. Check out our grill corner podcast from yesterday. It will make you want to fire up your grill. Also, you get $2 off any fish in the freezer. Thanks for subscribing and enjoy. Go by LBs. They’re the best.
SEC Picks:
Collin and I did picks again. I have all but given up on keeping up with the results, but that’s likely not why you read this segment anyway. Like always, two means a series win and three means a sweep.
Kentucky at Tennesse: Collin - UK 2, Rippee - UT 2
Vanderbilt at Florida: Collin - Vandy 2, Rippee - Florida 2
Missouri at Alabama: Collin - Alabama 2, Rippee - Alabama 2
Auburn at Georgia: Collin - UGA 2, Rippee - UGA 2
South Carolina at Ole Miss: Collin - Ole Miss 2, Rippee - South Carolina 2
Texas A&M at Mississippi State: Collin - MSU 2, Rippee - MSU - 2
Arkansas at LSU: Collin - LSU 2, Rippee - Arkansas 2
The draft rolls on today and you’ll want to wager on it. Go see my guys and make some money. SkyBoxSportsPicks.com is something you shouldn’t miss out on. Their draft guide is up on the site and they’re destroying Vegas in NASCAR. They’ve got golf, baseball and hoops going on too. Check out a package here and use my promo code “Rippee” for 20 percent off any purchase. If you’re into wagering, you’ll love what these guys do for your wallet.
Moore still on board after 1st round of NFL Draft:
The first round of the NFL Draft concluded last night and it lived up to the hype. Here’s five quick storylines that played out before we get to Elijah Moore
San Francisco decided on Trey Lance, which allowed Mac Jones to fall all the way to New England.
Chicago traded up for Justin Fields.
Oakland Raiders once again drafted someone that no one else would have thought about taking.
Alabama had a record six first-rounders and the SEC dominated again the number of total picks again.
Ja’Marr Chase and Joe Burrow are reunited in Cincinnati, Tua and Jaylen Waddle are too, and Devonta Smith is back with one of his college QBs too in Philadelphia with Jalen Hurts. That is pretty cool and surely isn’t something that happens often.
So about Elijah Moore. I was pretty surprised when neither New Orleans nor Tennessee took him and it sucks for the kid to get his hopes up only to slip out of the first round. None of it is in his control. It of course debate surrounding the narrative of Ole Miss receivers falling in the draft, how D.K. Metcalf and A.J. Brown have made teams look silly for doing so and if this is some sort of indictment on Ole Miss as a program. While there may be something to the fact that the Rebels have had players slip over the last half-decade, I think last night was more of a product of this 2021 receivers class being loaded and Moore being the odd man out. Minnesota WR Rashad Bateman going 28th to the Ravens over Moore seems silly, but they’re different types of receivers and teams do dumb stuff all the time. I think Moore is picked early tonight and this doesn’t end up being a big deal, but I was surprised he was not picked last night.
NCAA still sucks at messaging:
You may have seen this update to the regional host sites selection process. This, I guess, is good news for Ole Miss as it gives them more time to strengthen its resume, but I think most of us knew generally how this would work. Everyone got up in arms at the initial report last month that these regional host sites would be predetermined, but all it needed up being was the NCAA wanting a couple of extra weeks to implement their own COVID protocols at the ballparks. Sure, that is fine, but the message was conveyed terrible. I, for one, am just shocked the NCAA inefficiently got a message across. In the end, it’s going to have very little effect on how the sites are selected and the process is not all that different from a normal year. Think about it: when teams head to the conference tournaments in late May, how many are still in the mix to host? it’s usually not more than 20 and rarely more than 25. It’s essentially the same thing as a normal season.
On the horizon:
Mailbag Sunday
Full draft recap
Sunday megapod recapping the South Carolina series
A week of newsletters covering a variety of topics.
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