Thought this was a nice read...

LINK

 

Scouting Report

Mississippi

Pitching has been the key to Mississippi's 14-4 start. The Rebels boast a 2.71 staff ERA, and junior lefthanders Matt Crouse (4-0, 1.67) and Austin Wright (2-1, 2.66) have bracketed hard-throwing junior righty David Goforth (0-2, 2.42) to form a strong weekend rotation. Offensively, the Rebels are led by senior two-way player Matt Tracy (who leads the team with a .348 average in 12 starts—twice as many as he made all of last season) and shortstop Blake Newalu (.340/.421/.380), a junior-college transfer. A National League area scout broke down the Rebels heading into their Southeastern Conference-opening series against Alabama. "They've got a couple of good arms, some power arms. The kid Goforth that's throwing on Saturdays is showing really big velocity. He's not a big guy, 5-11 maybe, but he was 97-99 opening weekend. He's throwing a cutter this year that's new from last year, anywhere from 88-91. When it's 88, it has more of a slider effect, but when it's 90-91 it straightens out a bit but has some cut to it. Last year he was just straight velocity but really got hit. I saw him early in the year last year when he was closing, and he was 95-96, and he still didn't have any secondary stuff but he was on the mound with some confidence—he said, 'I throw hard, I'm coming after those guys.' He became a starter out of necessity and he had nothing to get guys out with, he started dropping down, doing anything to get guys out. He threw a slider that wasn't very good. This year he's got that cutter, and he's pitching with confidence, and I think that's the biggest thing for him. He's confident that he has a little something else besides that fastball to keep guys honest, so they can't cheat on the fastball. "Friday they've got a lefty, Crouse, kind of a pitchability guy, relies on some deception. He steps on the first-base side, comes from a high three-quarters slot that's 86-87, but beats guys. I don't think anything he has is average on a pro scale, but he throws all of them for strikes, he locates his fastball, and he throws them in any count. He kind of relies on some deception with his fastball because it's not overpowering by any means, but he'll run it in on righties, freeze guys with two strikes—the catcher sets up inside and he hits the mitt. So many college hitters are diving out over the plate, so any lefty that can run it inside will get guys out and jam guys. "Sunday they come at you with the lefty, Wright, who was at Chipola last year. He's been 90-94—he's a big, physical lefthanded power arm with below-average secondary stuff. I think ultimately in pro ball he becomes a bullpen guy—probably him and Goforth both, bullpen guys with velocity. Wright can flip it over a little bit, but his fastball is much better than his feel for his slider. I think those guys are definitely good enough to win. They've gotten deep into ballgames so far this year, and they've got some other bullpen arms that can get outs. I would feel pretty confident if I was the guys at Ole Miss that the arms I'm running out there can win me two out of three most weekends. I think they've done a good job of acquiring arms over there. I think they're plenty deep enough on the staff to have the type of year they had last year. "I think they've got a couple of guys at the top of the order with (Tanner) Mathis and (Alex) Yarbrough that can hit a little bit, that are basically their table-setter guys. Then they've got a bunch of big donkeys in the middle with (Matt) Smith and (Matt) Snyder, and the combination of (Miles) Hamblin and (Taylor) Hightower, and (Preston) Overbey. They can score some runs. I think the way to beat Ole Miss is to keep Mathis and Yarbrough off base. Make Smith and Snyder and those guys hit with nobody on. Mathis and Yarbrough are good players. Mathis is a lefthanded hitter, plays left and center, a pesky leadoff guy that plays his game, uses the whole field, slaps it to the left side. Matt Tracy's interesting because he spent so much time as a pitcher the last couple years. I saw him play right field, and he did a fine job in right field, and he's got a couple of home runs. The shortstop, Newalu, he's a mature junior college kind of player. He's going to make his plays, he's not going to do anything flashy. The type of player that if you hit it to him, you're out, which is what you want at shortstop. Behind the plate, they're solid. Nothing spectacular prospect-wise, but they do a good job calling a game and handling a staff, controlling the game. They're both older guys, upperclassmen that do a fine job back there."

I posted something similar a couple of weeks ago for the Tulane series so wanted to give everyone a heads up for this as well.  It appears that since Kentucky uses CSTV as their media provider we should be able to watch this weekend's games for free on their CSTV XXL package. 

If you signed up to watch the Tulane games, just log in...your trial is good for the month of March.  If you didn't, follow the steps below to receive a free month trial of the CSTV XXL package.  No credit card information is needed.

 

Follow these steps:

1. Click HERE.

2. Click "Register"

3. Click the radial button for CSTV XXL Monthly ($14.95)
4. **Important Part** - in the field labeld "Coupon Code" type in "FREEMONTH10" (it must be in capital letters) and click "apply coupon"
4b. This will change the price of the monthly package to $0. Now click Register
5. No Credit Card info is needed. Put in an email address, your birthday, password, etc. and register.
6. Send a message to ColonelJohnSartoris thanking him for being such a badass.

Follow these steps:

1. Click HERE.

2. Click "Register"

3. Click the radial button for CSTV XXL Monthly ($14.95)
4. **Important Part** - in the field labeld "Coupon Code" type in "FREEMONTH10" (it must be in capital letters) and click "apply coupon"
4b. This will change the price of the monthly package to $0. Now click Register
5. No Credit Card info is needed. Put in an email address, your birthday, password, etc. and register.
6. Send a message to ColonelJohnSartoris thanking him for being such a badass.

 Though the Rebels dropped their first season-opener since 1981, the entire weekend was not a loss as Ole Miss responded to take the next two games as well as the series (two games to one) against an experienced UL-Monroe squad.  Question marks always arise at the start of a new baseball season and over the weekend we saw a few familiar faces make contributions as well as some newcomers who are expected to carry a substantial load as the Rebels embark on the 2010 season.  

Surprisingly, fan whipping post David Phillips emerged as the star of the weekend as he went 6 for 9 with 2 doubles, 3 homeruns, 6 RBI, 7 runs scored and 1 SB against the WarHawks.  Phillips has already surpassed his HR total from last year (2) and with 5 out of his 6 hits going for extra bases, if he can maintain anywhere near this production it will put Ole Miss one step closer to hosting another Regional.  Honors also go to Aaron Barrett who, similar to Phillips, had his struggles in 2009 as he took the mound in the second game after the home-opening loss and notched a fine outing with 6 IP, 2 H, 7 Ks, 0 ER and a 7/1 strikeout to walk ratio on the way to the win. 

 

Newcomers:

 

Tanner Mathis, OF:  4 of 8 with 3 RBI, 1 R and 2 BB (2 K)

Alex Yarbrough, IF:  2 of 9 with 4 RBI, 1 3B, 2 R and 1 BB (3 K)

Miles Hamblin, C/DH:  2 of 13 with 4 RBI, 1 HR, 2 R and 4 BB (5 K)

Trent Rothlin, SP:  1 W, 6 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 4 BB, 2 K, .111 BAA

Brett Huber, RP:   3 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, .111 BAA

Eric Callender, RP:   3 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, .200 BAA, 1 SV

 

The Rebels were a rare Rory McKean blow up from sweeping the opening weekend from the WarHawks.  They’ll next see action Tuesday as they host Arkansas State for a lone midweek game.

 

Around the Nation:

 

#1 Texas dropped 2 of 3 to the Lobos of New Mexico with All-American closer Chance Ruffin taking the loss in the middle game.

#3 Virginia took 2 of 3 in Greenville, NC against #16 East Carolina

#4 Cal St Fullerton won 1 of 3 over the weekend as they dropped games against Oregon and Pepperdine.  Oregon coach George Horton coached at Fullerton since 1990 before taking on the task of building the Oregon program from the ground up in 2008.  Oregon went 2-1 for the weekend.

#5 Rice was swept at Stanford (#30) as the historically strong Rice pitching staff yielded 27 runs to the Trees.  To put this in perspective, it’s the first time Rice has been swept since a 2005 series at San Jose St.

#15 Arkansas took 2 of 3 from Ball St losing the middle game 5-2.

#17 Coastal Carolina won 2 of 3 on the weekend losing the championship game of its tournament to Kentucky (3-0 on the weekend) as the Wildcats pushed a run across in the top of the 9th to win 3-2.

#22 Southern Miss won 2 of 3 on the weekend as they dropped the rubber match 7-5 to Northwestern St.

#24 San Diego took 3 of 4 from Indiana droppings Sunday’s finale 7-5.

#26 Georgia won 2 and lost 2 in the Waco tournament losing to Duke and the host Baylor Bears.

 

**Every other Nationally-ranked team swept their season-opening series.

 

Around the SEC:

#2 LSU: 3-0 against Centenary

#10 Florida: 3-0 against North Florida (overcame a 6-3 deficit in the bottom of the 9th in Sunday’s game)

#15 Arkansas: 2-1 against Ball St.

#20 Ole Miss: 2-1 against UL Monroe

#21 South Carolina: 3-0 against Duquesne (Duquesne is discontinuing their baseball program at the end of the year)

#26 Georgia: 2-2 with wins against Baylor and Duke and losses also to Baylor and Duke

#29 Vanderbilt: 3-0 against Niagara

Alabama: 2-0 against South Alabama

Mississippi St: 3-0 against Rhode Island

Auburn: 2-1 against Southeast Missouri St

Tennessee:  3-0 against Xavier outscoring them 40 - 13

 

Pre-season All-Americans' lines:

Ranaudo, LSU:  0.00 ERA, 5 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 6 K

Pomeranz, Ole Miss: 2.25 ERA, 4 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 K

Eibner, Ark: 0.00 ERA, 3 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 5 K

Gray, Vandy: 0.00 ERA, 8 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 8 K

Armstrong, Vandy: 5.40 ERA, 5 IP, 9 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 3 K