Mailbag: Five best baseball players and a hoops record prediction

Steven Branscombe-USA TODAY Sports

By Hunt Palmer

Action has slowed.

We’re still nearly two weeks from kickoff the of the Texas Bowl. The early signing period is over. The coaching carousel is grinding down. Baseball has broken for the semester, and hoops doesn’t play again until Friday.

So, how about a mail bag?

Top 5 LSU baseball players you have watched play at LSU?

— CajunGuy000 (@justin_ray8400) December 16, 2025

Let’s knock out the locks first. Dylan Crews is the best position player in the program’s history. He posted a three-year on base percentage of .498 and is top five in career home runs. He hit .426 as a junior and won the Golden Spikes Award. I never saw Joey Belle or Todd Walker. I’d compare Crews favorable with Brad Cresse who left LSU when I was 12.

Paul Skenes is the best pitcher in the program’s history. He’s now one of the two best pitchers in the world. In his one season, he set the SEC strikeout record that Ben McDonald had held since 1989. In the NCAA Tournament, he fired 32.1 innings and gave up four earned runs with 42 strikeouts and 3 walks. LSU was 16-3 when he started. One loss came in an SEC Tournament game he left in the fourth, and one came in a rain shortened start at South Carolina where he only threw three innings.

And then there’s Aaron Nola. He was the best pitcher I’d seen until Skenes took a flamethrower to college baseball. Nola was the National Pitcher of the Year in 2014 and SEC Pitcher of the year in 2013. In 2013, he fired four straight complete games in SEC play, allowing four runs in those 36 innings. His career strikeout to walk ratio was 344 to 52. LSU was 5-1 in his NCAA tournament starts, the loss being a 2-1 game against UCLA. Neither Bruin run was earned. LSU went 17-1 in his 18 regular season SEC starts in 2013 and 2014.

The last two spots are up for serious debate.

I’m going to give Brad Cresse the nod here. He played four years and hit .324 with 78 home runs and 257 runs driven in. He boasts two of the top five RBI seasons in LSU history, and as a senior hit .388 with 30 homers and 106 driven in.

I really struggled with this one, but I’m going with Mikie Mahtook. His last season was marred by LSU’s awful record, but he led the SEC in batting average (.383), slugging (.709), walks (41) and steals (29) as they were deadening the bats. He reached base the last 70 games of his career and waas the SEC Player of the year on a team that went 13-17 in league play. Plus, he was an elite centerfielder who provided a monster moment as a freshman with the game-winning hit against Texas in Game 1 of the championship series.

Shoutout to Alex Bregman, Kade Anderson, Blake Dean, Alex Lange, Kevin Gausman and others. I only had five slots to work with!

How many SEC wins does Men’s basketball get this season and does McMahon get fired if the aren’t above .500 in conference?

— BuckarooBanzai (@swampthing11b) December 16, 2025

I think LSU’s team is better this year than last. I also think the SEC is down a few notches. Miss St. is 5-5. Ole Miss is 6-4. Kentucky stumbled out of the blocks. A&M is clearly in transition.

The Tigers have defensive warts and need to shoot the ball more consistently from the perimeter, but I like the point guard and the offensive skill. I’ll pick LSU 8-10 in the SEC which would likely mean a 20-11 record headed to the SEC Tournament. I think that gives the Tigers a real shot to make the Field of 68. If LSU does worse than that, yes, there will be change.

@HuntPalmer88 Which 3 comprise the starting rotation once SEC play begins?

— Arthur Jaramillo (@ArtC_Jaramillo) December 16, 2025

Casan Evans is an obvious answer, and based on what I’m hearing, Cooper Moore is very likely a second option. I’m going to be ambitious here and slot William Schimdt in third. Schmidt’s emergence represents a ceiling for LSU. He’s just got more upside than Zac Cowan, Cooper Williams or Jaden Noot. Williams represents a left-handed option the staff would like to have in the rotation, but I’ll go Evans-Moore-Schmidt.

Do you think LSU has the hardest schedule in the SEC for next year?

— AP (@AJP413) December 16, 2025

This is an impossible question to answer because we don’t know who will play for anyone. It’s reasonable to suggest Clemson, Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Alabama, Texas and Tennessee are going to field strong teams, but we just don’t know. That schedule looks prohibitive to me, but when you introduce two power brands into a league that is already swimming with them, and then you make everyone play an extra game, there just isn’t enough Arkansas, Mississippi State and Kentucky to go around. They’re all hard.