Starting to worry about Baseball Tigers

Even though they are very close to last year's record at this point, I am starting to worry about their season. Mark Etheridge of SE Baseball was on a Knoxville Sports Radio Show yesterday saying that they just don't have the talent and that the rest of the league has caught up. On defense they catch what they get to they just can't get to much and they don't have the pitching to get back to Omaha. On offense they have good power but low averages which equals untimely hits.

He did say that coaches in BR are judged a little differently. It is more about post season success and that the two and outs in 2003 & 2004 CWS as well as SEC tourney 2004 does not sit well with Bertman who hand picked Laval to take over.

I'm asking you fans who are able to attend games if his analysis is accurate and what you think are our possibilities of getting to Omaha. I already have my tickets and the CWS sucks without LSU.

 

I've been to the last 2 Saturday games. The one 2 weeks ago against the Cocks was dismal. It didn't look like LSU baseball to me. In fact, SC beat us the way we used to beat other people with good pitching, timely hitting and solid defense. Last week against Ole Miss, it was a great ending with the walk off homer by one of the Harris boys. LSU played good defense, and it felt like LSU was in pretty good control until the wheels fell off and they got behind. I watched what I could of the Tulane fiasco Tuesday night. I'm going to reserve judgement until the year plays out, because I seem to remember some of Skip's teams looking like they had no shot in spells during the season only to flip the switch and make a run. I hope Smoke knows where the switch is because now would be a good time to flip it.

 

3 things:

First, we seldom won with great defense in the past. Maybe average or good defense. Mostly we won with good offense most of the time and solid pitching about half the time. By the way, we are tied for 4th in fielding percentage in the SEC and tied for 5th in Double plays, it's not like our defense is terrible.

Second,

This cracks me up. So the biggest problem with Smoke is he is not a shrink? The reason we don't get a lot of timely hits is due mostly to the fact that the last 5 batters in the order have been pretty bad this year. If they produced even close to as good as the top of the order we would be getting timely hits.

Third,

Yes.

 

I am a little worried about our boys right now but am not on suicide alert as some are that I know of.

I want to see if we can form a comeback of sorts as UGA did last year (with their ridiculous streak) and get into a Regional.

 

As assessment of the team and their chances for SEC and regional tourney play will be easier to make after Sunday. Arkansas is very good although two of their best players have been suspended and won't play this weekend. Will be tough to win 2 of 3 up there but I haven't given up on this team yet. Sure would like to see Mestepey return to his old form tonite and the bullpen find a way to hold the rope.

 

HOLD THE ROPE! That brings back very pleasant memories!

 

I'll just disagree with the mind playing part. Guys either hit or don't hit. Bobby Cox may be the best regular season manager in baseball history but the Braves entire outfield is hitting less than 200 for the first part of the season. Should Cox be fired because Andrew Jones is in an 0-28 slump? The Yankees are playing at or under 500 ball because their pitchers are not perfoming, the batters weren't getting "timely" hits, is that Torre's fault, nope. Nomar Garciapara has never been an outstanding SS, was it his manager's fault, nope. Tony Gwynn never went into an extended slump in his entire career, should the several managers he played under get credit, nope.

 

Whether or not Smoke is the right man for this program I have no idea, I am not qualified to answer that just like every other poster on this board. But to blame him for every little bad thing that happens and not give him any credit for any of the good things is just how people re-affirm their opinions. To look at the overall state of the program and form an opinion is fine. To say that the team is not reaching it's potential is fine. To think we haven't recruited properly and that we need better depth(which is my opinion) is fine. To think that we need another head coach is fine. To say that Smoke is not as good of a head coach/CEO as Skip is fine. I have no real strong conviction that Smoke is the right man for the job, but I do have a real strong conviction that Skip Bertman knows coaches more than any fan and he felt that way when he hired Smoke. I believe Skip loves LSU and especially the baseball program a heck of a lot and will make the correct decisions involving the program, whether it is to keep or fire him.

 

I like this post a lot, because it reflects very well most of the things that I think of when I try to analyze LSU baseball. My inability to closely follow the team this year makes me very tentative about making any firm conclusions.

 

first off, I can tell everyone this team is talented. very very talented from top to bottom. pitching depth is as solid as it has been, from determan to mestepey to faircloth.

hitting depth is solid from 1 through 12.


pitching has carried this team pretty far even though people have visions of geauxrillas in their heads.

The talent for hitting is there but has struggled overall. For those who say we need a new hitting coach is absurd. Turtle is as fine as they come and a character guy as well.

While FT and caj disagree on some points i think the answer may lie in the middle. While Smoke can't be held responsible for an individual's timely hitting, Skip did instill in his players the belief and will to succeed. He forever had them envision winning, mentally playing the game out in their heads being successful. The power of positive thinking rang true with Skip and it proved to be the difference when the game was on the line. Anyone who watched the CWS against stanford and really believed we could get a hit after the 4th inning off of justin wayne or jason young was either drunk or blair barbier. I was at that game and fighting sleep it was so boring.

My point is, I've always said Skip has a horesehoe up his behind. Ironically, the only time he failed to win when he should have was when he had his most dominant pitcher in Big Ben. Too bad blisters suck.


Skip's teams have never been based on fundamentals. the pitching has never been overly dominant even though we've had great, deep talent. Its just hard to get young pitchers to actually learn to pitch. Most can simply just throw. There's only so many Scotty Schultz's at age 19. Skip won with the old bats and the power of belief.

How another coach can adopt that belief system and actually relate it to today's players who will actually buy into it is beyond me. year after year he did this with success. So yes, Skip Bertman was more psychiatrist than coach imo. Maybe we can get Dr. Phil to be an assistant.


although 2nd guessing baseball is a futile task, I will say leaving a pitcher in who displayed the insane wildness that Nall did Tuesday by walking the bases loaded in a very important game, its insane to leave the guy in. I have no idea what Smoke was thinking in that situation. 4 wild pitches, a passed ball, a handful behind the batters. what more must a pitcher do to be removed?

english was warming in the 2nd.

ok i should just let it go. :hihi: :hihi: