Where will Jacob Robson play when he comes back?

Jacob Robson has missed the last three SEC series, but MSU has done pretty well without him. Where does he fit in when he returns?

Center fielder Jacob Robson is the only player left from the 2013 College World Series team, and a captain for this year’s team. He’d be the only contributing senior but he was granted a redshirt for his injury plagued sophomore season.

Bottom line, Robson is the Bulldogs second-leading hitter at .372. The team’s leading hitter, however, is Jake Mangum at .422 – and he’s the guy currently patrolling center field.

Even without Robson available to play, John Cohen has a log-jam in the outfield.

Reid Humphreys has solidified himself in left field and has started every single game this year.

In right field, Cody Brown and Brent Rooker have been playing. Brown is the better defender and has a .422 OB% and Rooker a .333 batting average with 32 RBI.

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Rooker has been used frequently as a DH, but then Jack Kruger, who is hitting .333 as well has to be moved out of the lineup.

There’s no way Cohen can take Jake Mangum out of the lineup. He’s hitting at an Adam Frazier like rate and he’s a switch hitter.

So what can be done when Jacob Robson comes back? Including DH, there are five guys for three spots (CF, RF, DH): Jacob Robson, Jake Mangum, Brent Rooker, Cody Brown, Jack Kruger.

All of those players bring something to the table. Robson, Rooker, Kruger and Mangum are all hitting at least .333. Brown is a solid player as well, currently hitting .268, who is an on-base machine. We’re only a couple of weeks removed from his big grand slam vs. Florida.

The easy decision is to put Robson back in center field and move Mangum back to right field. But that means you’re swapping a power bat for speed because there’s no way to have Rooker and Kruger in the lineup at the same time.

Cody Brown would appear to be the odd-man out, relegated to a pinch hitting role, but he’s a lefty so he might be used at DH when facing some right-handed pitchers.

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The good news is, State has a lot of really good outfielders to choose from. Any way you dice it there is going to be two talented hitters on the bench when Robson comes back. Perhaps Cohen can keep them fresh platooning at DH, or Rooker playing RF when facing a lefty (sitting Robson).

Tough call for Coach Cohen, but he’s done pretty well in scouting each team to find who has the best opportunity to succeed.