February 27, 2020
LSU, SAINTS AND MUCH MORE
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THE WIZARDRY OF OS
Two weeks into the LSU baseball season and I must say that there have been few surprises, which is good and bad news.
The pitching has been good, but it needs to be even better. Henry, Marceaux, and Labas look like they will be as good as advertised as a weekend starting rotations. Jaden Hill has been dominant in his short stints. The bullpen has performed well at times, and most importantly held on to leads with Devin Fontenot leading the charge.
For this team to compete in the SEC and do something significant in the postseason, though, the pitching will need to be better. Eric Walker has yet to find the control he had as a freshman. Many of the pitchers out of the bullpen are walking a batter an inning.
Tiger fans shouldn’t be too worried though because it is early in the year. Pitchers are getting a feel for being back on the mound and the coaches are giving everyone a chance on the mound to see who is ready for the big stage. After last year, we should all appreciate that pitchers who had arm trouble last year have thrown well to this point.
The best case scenario would be if Jaden Hill is somehow able to extend and become a starter. That would push Labas to being the fourth starter or long relief when needed. Beck, Hilliard, Storz, Vietmeier from the right side with Hasty and Kaminer from the left side make a deep bullpen. LSU would still have Fontenot to close and other talented pitchers could come along as the year progresses.
Even if Hill stays in the bullpen, LSU’s pitching will keep them in many games, and having Hill on the back end with Fontenot would be formidable.
There is a lot of pressure on the pitching staff, though, because the offense is going to be a struggle. We expected Mathis, Beloso, Garza, and Cabrera to perform well this year and for the most part they have. Garza and Cabrera have dropped off recently, but that happens in baseball. Meanwhile, Alex Milazzo was supposed to be a great defensive catcher (and he has been), but the offensive production has exceeded expectations.
The hope was that LSU had enough talented players for the other positions that the odds were that a few of those players would produce enough to fill out the lineup. As of yet, that simply has not happened. But it is very early. For comparison, Patrick Queen was not considered a first or second round pick after the Texas game in the football season. We are at the equivalent point in the baseball season.
For now, the pitching staff has to keep games close even when the bats are silent. If the pitching and defense can keep the opponent under three runs, then usually a walk and one swing of the bat can tie a game late.
I don’t intend to make the situation sound dire. There are plenty of reasons for optimism. Maurice Hampton and Cade Doughty turned down a ton of money to come play baseball for LSU. Let’s check back in a month with them and see how Doughty is doing. Hampton’s situation is more complicated, since he also plays football. Spring football will most likely delay his progress, but he certainly has the chance to be an effective hitter in the bottom of the lineup.
LSU fans should also realize that the projected starter at shortstop is not yet healthy. Zach Arnold is a true freshman who had to have a rib removed. He should start playing again in a few weeks. It will be challenging for him to start his freshman year in the middle of SEC play, but not impossible.
There isn’t much room for error right now. LSU will need to lean on veterans to come up big in clutch situations as newcomers get experience and develop. Hopefully, that development will come sooner than later.
HEY REF
Let me clear the air and make a full apology to all those JV High School football coaches and players. Just a few weeks ago I compared the XFL style of “football” no better than a high school JV game. I didn’t mean to upset those high school coaches and players working hard at getting better by comparing their level of play to this new edition of so called professional football. It’s very plain to see for all those that expected to see football being played in the spring by the XFL that it ain’t gonna happen.
I did have a couple friends call and say that I should give the new league a chance at impressing me and they felt the caliber of play would get better as the season played out. Well, I told them after that first weekend of games there was one thing that the XFL did that made an impression on me and it was the inability of some players to succeed in making one of those Lambeau leaps made famous by the NFL’s Green Bay Packers. But I said I’d do as they asked and give the XFL a chance to show me they were indeed getting better.
Well, I tried the last two weekends to sit through a complete game but I can’t. The caliber of play is getting worse and not better. So, I told myself “Self you can do this” but I’d rather have a root canal than to sit and watch something less than playground competition. We’ve all heard that saying about putting lipstick on a pig and at the end of the day all you’ve got is a pig with lipstick. I just can’t understand how a bunch of wealthy people and supposed knowledgeable people can fail at getting their brand of professional football off the ground and do so after being given nearly ten years to get it right before their new launch.
Football doesn’t need a three ring circus style atmosphere to get people to watch it. Football doesn’t need rules that resemble a bingo party to have fans buying tickets. The reason I’m bringing this up is simple; NFL owners were waiting to see what WWE owner Vince McMahon had learned from his first failed attempt at fielding a professional football business and what he’d put on the field in 2020. The first launch of the XFL was nothing more than an extension of “Professional Wrestling” with all its craziness and stupidity. The WWE has been rightly called an entertainment business and NOT A SPORTING BUSINESS. It took a while but Vince and his circus employees finally admitted the outcome of the matches were known before anybody stepped into the ring.(As if we didn’t already know this) The WWE still sells out but the XFL will never be anything more than a cheap side show.
Getting back to the NFL owners, they’re trying their best to get a new CBA with the players signed as soon as humanly possible. They claim haste is waste but the players aren’t biting just yet. There has been labor peace among the owners and players for close to ten years now and the owners would love for that to continue. The thirty two owners want to keep peace among the players and have shown they’re ready to sign and sent a formal proposal to the NFLPA but the players have balked. The owners came up with an offer last spring and thought it was a fair offer but it calls for a seventeen game regular season while adding one more team to the playoff brackets.
The offer would allow rosters to include the addition of two more active players while teams would play one less preseason game (3) right now set at four games. The offer also includes the number of teams and games played abroad in England and Mexico. Some teams would give up a home game one year while playing overseas but would host an extra home game the next year.
Players don’t appreciate language the owners have used while trying to add one additional regular season game. As it stands right now the players are willing to walkout of any negotiations with the demand that the players add one more game. Owners have countered saying fans don’t come out to watch games that don’t matter in the playoff race. The owners have said they are just giving fans and franchises what they want and that is of course to be mentioned anytime the subject is whose still got a chance at qualifying for the playoffs.
But here is where I believe the players are missing a huge bargaining chip. Owners continue saying changes are needed to ensure teams and their fans stay involved in the hunt for a playoff spot since fans won’t buy tickets to games that don’t matter. The players should counter (if the owners believe fans won’t buy tickets to games that no longer matter) then once a team is removed from making the playoffs all remaining games should be cancelled. You can be assured the owners will change their stance on games that no longer matter since every game generates revenue. They just want the players to add another game since every game generates revenue!
Till next week…
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