The only reason LSU is ranked in the top 5 (was ranked in the top 5) is because of respect. If you actually think this team is a top 5 team you are nuts.
I have been saying that all this time. Again, I was never a big fan of smoke lavall, but Skip did have every right to pick the next hc. But giving my opinion gave my some bad rep points so I opt not to bloviate on the subject.
First off, LSU is not on top of the college baseball world, some insiders say that LSU is slowly slipping away from the top 5. Obviously you did not attend LSU in the mid 1990's like I did when this program was clearly on a different level. They have several problems from fundamentals which that has a been a problem for years, lack of good gameday coaching and lack of developing good talent. How many times do I have to hear that this year will be the best year for pitching. From the goose egg at Rice, to going 0-2 in the last CWS is signs that this program lacks good coaching.
Yep ,it wa sSmoke's fault that we loaded the bases several times and couldn't get the key hit. It's Smoke's fault when he leaves Hariis in and he strikes out and when he plays Mayer and he strikes out. It's Smoke's fault when we lose a 13 inning game that the players were ion a position to win several times and couldn't come up with a key hit. It's Smoke's fault that Gill bunted the ball right back to the pitcher and Bama turned a double play. It's Smoke's fault that even though LSU practices the fundamentals as hard as any team in the country but the players make errors or are thrwon out. Some you guys are such alarmist it is frightening. I've seen a hundred posts over the last 2 years about bunting guys into position to score and than when he doies it he gets crucified for that as well. He bunted these guys yesterday because it was the right thing to do in a one run or tied game in very late or extra innings. If Bama's right fielder doesnt make an excellent catch on Stavi's hit deep to right LSU wins. Smoke made several great moves yesterday, especially the way he handled the pithcing staff, which was what most of the complaints were last year.
As for him saying he doesn't have a great feel for what this team is up and down the lineup yet, well excuse him for being honest. Maybe, just maybe it is because so many guys are so inconsistent right now at the plate. Guys like Mayer, Stewart, Sprowl, Weaver, Hebert and especially Harris are all having a hard time hitting the ball after killing it all fall. How the hell is he supposed to have a great feel for this team when guys who were being counted on to produce are in the slumps of their lives. Remember, a Major Leaguer can go into a 25 game hitting slump and it's a blip on the radar screen, a college player gets into a slump like that and the season is half way over. It's baseball, it's not scheme vs scheme. It's hitting vs pitching and pitching vs hitting. It's the ball dropping into a hole or being nailed right at somebody. When a players drills a line drive into the gap, the manager looks good. When that same player drills one over the head of the right fielder but the fielder makes a great play on it, he looks bad.
People complain about him using Hebert when a contact hitter is called for even though the guy he is pitch hitting for is o-3 with 3 strikeouts. Then if he lwere to leave Mayer in when an extra base hit is needed and he fails he is blasted for that as well. Cracks me up how so many detractors use their own arguements both ways against him. Imbeciles.
With all due respect to your posts, I feel that most of this could be corrected with good coaching during practice, but I guess I could be wrong.
So you don't think we have good coaches and that they in turn don't coach the fundamentals in practice? Have you been to any of their practices? I have. I've also been to many of their clinics and seen how they interact with both their kids and high school kids. And I've seen infielders take hundred's of ground balls with a coach standing next to them giving advice. I've seen 25 players lined up against the outfield fence doing bunting drills using hards balls and wiffle balls. I've seen all of the batters have to lay down 5 perfectly executed bunts every time they stepped in the box before being allowed to swing away. I've seen them lining the players up at first base, second base and third and doing running drills over and over again. I've seen the pitching coaches working with the pitchers on their mechanics, hitting coaches working with the hitters over and over again on their mechanics and pitch selection.
And I guess all of the successes we have had had everything to do with the players and nothing to do with the coaches while all of the failures have to do with the coaching only. The way many of you think, I guess the 200 or so teams that finish below LSU must all have even worse coaching, but no in their case it's the players fault and the coaches are limited by their players abilities. Because God knows we are LSU and we are the only ones who get great players.
Well CajDav, since you so damn smart, what is the problem? And dont say nothing because its obvious that there is a problem.
