Vanderbilt Baseball Mail Bag #7: Call For Submissions

The Diamond Dores swept through the SEC’s collective slump-buster, the Missourah (spits) Tigers of the Big XII, by a collective score of 10-2. We got two of the three phases of the game—pitching and defense—humming, and are waiting on the bats…

…which we will need as we travel down to Baton Rouge. We’re 23-6 on the year (6-3 SEC), but are 0-3 on the road (though 4-3 if you count neutral sight games as road games, I suppose). We will need to bring our A game down to Gumbo Town, as even though the Gumbo Bengals have lost all three of their SEC series, and are fresh off a sweep at the hands of Arky, they will likely be the toughest opponent we’ve faced thus far. They’re not last year’s LSU team—no one in ‘24 is—but they can still (checks SEC Team Stats)… umm… wow… I was not expecting them to be so middle of the pack in everything. They’re #2 in getting hit by pitches. Hey, would you look at that. And #1 in… caught stealing. Can’t steal if you don’t run, I guess. And also #1 in most strike outs looking, which… there’s just no way to sugar coat that one. They have played two of the toughest SEC teams, though, in The Jorts and Arky. They also played whatever Clanga is this year. I guess what I’m saying is it’s always tough to go on the road in the SEC, no matter which type of LSU squad we’ll be facing.

Anyway, I assume you have questions.

Here are the rules of the mail bag:

1. This is a BASEBALL mailbag, so limit your questions to Vanderbilt baseball, SEC baseball, college baseball, or Vanderbilt baseball alums in the pros like Tony Kemp.
2. Post your questions here in the comments and I’ll answer them in a post on this week.
3. I will collate the best of said emails/questions in the comments, and cull ones that deal with the same topic (so we don’t have to repeat ourselves multiple times weekly).
4. All Anchor of Gold community guidelines apply to the questions. Our basic rule is “don’t be the worst.” Chuggers fans violate this like it’s their birth right.
5. Mike Papi, Luke Smith, and Ton “The Calf” Vitello are human garbage.

…and that’s it.

*Note: Questions about other SEC baseball teams are welcome, too. I just won’t know as much about them, and will likely respond with juvenile, biased trash talk.