By Hunt Palmer
The 56-game grind is long, but it can pale in comparison to the wait from June to February.
Baseball is back.
Jay Johnson is confident in the team he’s built. It’s the product of his program being solidified atop the sport. LSU begins the season as a unanimous top two team with eyes on Omaha. You have to take care of your business first, and this team has said all the right things. Now, it’s about action.
It starts with a three-game series with Milwaukee and leads directly into a Monday afternoon tilt with Kent State for four games in four days.
We’ll stick to Milwaukee here as we have the Tiger starting rotation and a good idea of the position players who will be used.
Milwaukee comes to Baton Rouge off a 24-35 season that featured a 16-13 conference record and a heartbreaking pair of losses to Wright State to finish the season in the Horizon League Tournament. Milwaukee needed to win one of two against Wright State and dropped the second game 2-0 which would have put them in the NCAA Tournament.
DEFENSIVE DECISIONS
LSU fielded .981 last year, the best mark in school history.
It doesn’t appear that the Tigers are perfectly equipped to replace Daniel Dickinson or Michael Braswell at second and third base respectively. Trent Caraway, Seth Dardar, Tanner Reaves and Brayden Simpson are the candidates. Caraway appears to be the best defender of the group, and he made 12 errors at Oregon State last year.
The other three have to be better than they have been defensively. Does the defense determine who plays, or will it be a platoon based on the handedness of the opposing pitcher? Expect to see all four play throughout the weekend.
LSU has to catch the ball on the infield.
STRIKES FROM SOPHOMORES
Casan Evans and William Schmidt will start in the weekend rotation. They’ll pitch Friday and Sunday respectively.
No one is going to mistake this Milwaukee team for Arkansas. Six of their top eight hitters from last year are gone, and they probably haven’t practiced outside yet. So, neither sophomore starter is going to prove his worth as and SEC rotation piece in week one. However, throwing strikes translates.
Evans really struggled with command in two of his three SEC starts last year, and Schmidt was nowhere near the zone in his two SEC innings. If those two can pop the mitt consistently over the plate, that’ll be mission accomplished in their debuts.
POWER POTENTIAL
The lack of a true thumper is a concern for some.
I think LSU has a solid chance of recreating that in the aggregate, to quote Brad Pitt/Billy Beane. I’ve been to plenty of opening weekends at The Box where the longball didn’t factor in. Temps can be in the 40s. Wind comes out of the north. That’s not the case this week. Baton Rouge highs are in the 70s, and the wind will come from the south at times.
LSU has been facing power arms since September. This will be something of a respite.
Gavin Theis is the Milwaukee ace. He was Horizon League Pitcher of the Year last season when he posted a 7-0 conference record. The Panthers went 14-4 when he started, but he only posted 74 strikeouts in 88.1.
The Tiger should be able to play some longball this weekend to open the season.
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