I'm thinking that we'll be seeing more Louisiana baseball talent avoiding LSU in favor of other SEC programs. These kids just can't see what a Treasure we have in Smoke as our Baseball Coach.
its not deficiency in recruiting. LSU can still outrecruit most schools and has yet its the most inexact science there is due to the draft and so many players. You want the 8th rounder who wants to play til he becomes a 1st rounder. Texas had 3 guys they knew for a fact would not be drafted high enough and were all but guaranteed spots til they played fall ball which caught the eyes of some scouts which bumped them up thus never making it to garrido land. But texas is unique being such a big state and tons of HS talent where half are bred to attend as a birth right. they will always have enough talent to compete whether they recruit well or not. the big problem is player development or the lack of. Ive discussed this many times over the years, specifically our pitching. When just 3 years ago Turtle and skip admitted that they had the most arms ever during either's tenure at LSU yet pitching was still the main problem. When your best pitcher happens to be a transfer 3 years later then that explains a lot. When asked if Smoke had to go before this season started my canned response was the pitching coach and all those involved have to go or be reassigned. thats where you have to start. This year we have a lot of very very good arms yet it seems they are not being coached either mentally, meaning they dont learn how to pitch or not being coached proper mechanics...or both. Im also of the belief they dont respect the coach and/or program as much as they should to do whats necessary on their own to not embarrass all involved but namely themselves. whatever the reasons, you can't win games consistently nowadays without development of pitchers but thats magnified x1000 when you try to play small ball. Small ball goes out the window in any form when you cant hold the opposition to single digit runs. there's a lot of talent on the field, especially young position players that will help this program recover sooner than later but its gonna take a change at the top where your player development starts to even begin. Either way, the onus is on smoke to have the right people in place much like miles has shown he could do. Actually I believe Smoke is more qulified as a coach for baseball than Les is for football if i was basing it on general knowledge of their sport but being a head coach is completely different. As HC you're more of a program runner and something I think Miles realizes is his strong point. Smoke chooses to lay low and thats fine if you're winning. Now you must face your demons when you are losing....badly.... like swept...by your ex-players....who also have better facilities....and better player development. this one's on skip who is responsible for all of the above. I've thought from day one smoke was a great assistant and he served that role best simply based on his demeanor but you never know til due time for sure no matter how you feel. Im thinking i was right.
:angry: :angryfire Evidently you don't go to the baseball games very often or else enjoy throwing money down the drain to watch a very poor product. When I was driving back to Baton Rouge today from Lake Charles, I had the radio on the Tony Robicheaux?(ULL baseball coach) and one of his statements that he made during the time I was driving through Lafayette was his seniors came up to him in the fall and TOLD him that they don't want to be referred to as being in a "rebuilding" mode. So he made the point of never once saying they were rebuilding despite losing like 9 players from the pitching staff and lineup from last year to just saying they were an inexperienced team that needed to jell. They started the year 16-12, but have since won all but 2 of their conference games. That is how a baseball team should rebuild. Likewise, Oklahoma in football last year had to rebuild. They struggled early in the year and even lost to TCU. However, as the year went on the team got better and better and soundly beat Oregon in their bowl game. If the fans could see progress getting made on the field, there wouldn't be so much outrage with having a poor season. This season LSU is probably only the 3rd best team in the state behind ULL and Tulane. ULL has 3 starting pitchers in the top 25 nationally in ERA and a solid ballclub that is starting to peak while Tulane the last few years has been a better team than LSU in baseball in regards to head to head competion. As a season ticket holder, I find it unacceptable that two inferior schools within this state have a better baseball program and a better baseball head coach than we have. :angryfire :angry:
:angryfire EVIDENTLY YOU DON'T READ WELL!! What a ull coach says to, about or whatever with his team has NOTHING TO DO WITH LSU OR THE TOPIC QUESSTION I POSED. I go to most home games, atleast 80% of weekday and 90% of weekend. I have been going to games regurarly since Jack LaMabe was the coach. Do some research and figure out who that is youngin. You don't remember the bad times do you since you were just a seed in your poppa's sack at that time. How about the 76 team, I attended those games. HA! I also bet you are clueless about why i mention the 76 team. All you know is the bertman era eh youngin. That also has nothing to do with my topic question but it answers your whine. Now instead of trying to make the thread question into something else why not just read the thread question posed and answer it. From the sound of it you are a closet ull jock sniffer and not a true LSU fan anyway. Your whining disgusts me sniffer boy. You are just another typical bandwagon, only when they win type LSU fan. You suck, your attitude sucks. I didn't want to have to tell you that but hey you started spewing your BS so it's your time to understand just what you really are as is comes to fans. I am sure you also rant about brady being fired and you also were on saban after the uab loss or other stumbles. Yes smoke is more than stumbling but you get my point. If you don't here it is again douchey. YOU ARE A PITIFUL FAN. If the losing is too much for you STOP GOING TO THE GAMES. DON'T WATCH THE END OF THE SEASON GAMES ON TV. If you think smoke is gone after this season you are sadly mistaken. if you think whining here will get him fired you are mistaken. The only thing at this point coming from the fanbase that will hurt him will be season ticket renewals. I don't see that falling off to the extent needed though becasue the TRUE LOYAL FANS will hold their seats in hopes of a brighter future and or the new stadium if it sees light. I bet I am at more games than you are yet you whine the loudest, you pitiful, pitiful LSU fan. You deserve ULL you cajun jock sniffer.:angryfire :angry: p.s the emoticons are for your benifit, mocking you if you will. Now this last ones are directly to you:rofl: :rofl: :thumb: :hihi: :rofl: :rofl: :tigbas: :tigbas: :tigbas:
Interesting post, I wasn't aware that the baseball team had to ever rebuild since 1991. It seems to me that LSU baseball would've been the easiest sport to maintain out of football, baseball and basketball. When I say this I'm talking about a number of years and not just 4 or 5. How times have changed. Well, At least Skip appointed him to his "baby" meaning he was the baseball program so it will probably be up to him to rebuild and repair damages but you never know, Smoke may win it all next year if he's still around. After all, even Mack Brown finally won a championship and Brady got close so theres always next year! Btw The BS about sports teams being young to win is just that, Bullchit, nothing but a cop out. Like I've always said, there are plenty of young teams, young players that win, and win championships on all levels of sports.
Hey Dumb@$$, I'm not the one asking why fans are ticked off over a 6-12 conference record after a pathetic nonconference schedule. I simply pointed out how two different BASEBALL programs compared the same type of situation in regards to having young teams and the expectations each expected for this season. If everyone around you including your coaches are talkign about how bad the team will be this year and how last year's team was so much better, guess what players will start to believe that. They'll figure the coach doesn't expect much from us so why should we. Instead of saying after the season that this year was going to be a "rebuilding team", Smoke and others should've just said business as usual and gave the team the same expectations that a LSU baseball team should ALWAYS have which is to WIN the SEC West, WIN the SEC, and finally to WIN the National Title. Well give yourself a cookie over going to 90% of the games on the weekend and 80% of the weekday games. I'm sure that you're one of the under 3,000 that showed up tonight at the ball game. Oh yes, I'm such a closet ULL jocksniffer that I have had season tickets and attended most LSU baseball, football, and basketball games since 1986. By simply stating that there is no reason in hell Tulane and ULL should ever have a better baseball team than LSU I get this type of reply. Hell, OliVENICEdog looks like a genious compared to you for not understanding the simple concept of LSU baseball fans don't like the direction that the baseball team is heading. In regards to Smoke being fired this year, he should be. I don't expect him to be though. I expect to see some changes to the coaching staff this year, and if the team has another piss poor year next year under Smoke for him to get axed. As far as you going to more baseball games than I do, I'll agree with that as I work out of Lake Charles and have better stuff to do than to go watch this baseball team lose 2 out of 3 each weekend this year. In prior years, it would've been close though as I would make about 80-90% of the baseball games for those teams. I'll keep an eye out for you in the white wife beater shirt on the highlights for the game or will you be wearing the overalls on top of the wifebeater shirt so I can identify your dumb@$$ on the tv?
