LSU Baseball
By Hunt Palmer
The pre-conference slate is for learning about a team.
Some of the feedback will be negative. LSU still has problems defensively at a couple of spots, second base and catcher. LSU’s team ERA of 4.61 is a touch high for this time of year as the coaching staff evaluates a bevy of talented options that has produced mixed results.
LSU used 10 pitchers in the McNeese loss, eight in the Northeastern loss and eight more in Wednesday’s loss at ULL. Those games have been pitched poorly for the most part. The Tiger arms allowed 27 runs on 31 hits, 14 walks and seven hit batsmen over the three games. They did strike out 37.
With four pre-conference games left, Jay Johnson is ready to tighten the usage.
“What I do like is I like the guys that are going to (start) the next three games,” Johnson said. “I know the four guys I’m going to go to (out of the bullpen) now at this point in time. A little bit of an old Skip (Bertman) style, you have eight. It doesn’t mean we only have seven or eight, but I know where we’re headed, and I feel really good about it with that.”
Johnson should feel great about his starters. Casan Evans, Cooper Moore and William Schmidt have pitched to a 2.91 ERA with 73 strikeouts and 13 walks over 49.1 innings. It’s the “four” behind them that becomes the interesting story.
Very, very clearly, Gavin Guidry and Deven Sheerin have emerged as LSU’s top two relievers.
Sheerin hasn’t allowed a hit in 6.1 innings of work. He’s got 13 punch outs and two walks. Guidry’s strikeout-to-walk is 18-to-1, and his batting average against is .128. Those two are slam dunks.
Who else?
I would like to toss Jaden Noot‘s name in. Noot slammed the door on Sunday after Mavrick Rizy walked a pair to put the tying run in the batter’s box against Dartmouth. All he did Wednesday was throw 11 strikes and no balls in a perfect ninth with a strikeout. Noot is a veteran and strike thrower. I think he’s in the mix.
Rizy and Ethan Plog are my two likely candidates after that.
In 8.1 innings, Rizy has 12 strikeouts and only two hits allowed. He just has a tendency to spray the ball. The seven walks and four wild pitches indicate that. Still, he’s 6-foot-9 and throws 97 with a good slider.
Plog is someone the staff really liked in the fall, and his preseason outings were good. He’s missing bats in short stints. Six of the 10 outs he’s recorded have been strikeouts, and he didn’t walk anyone in 1.2 innings Wednesday night in Lafayette.
Cooper Williams was fantastic on Opening Day, but since he’s allowed six runs on six hits in 2.2 innings. Only three of those are earned, but he just hasn’t been as sharp. Williams will factor in this year, but I’m hesitant to lump him in with the most trust group right now.
Evans, Moore, Schmidt, Sheerin, Guidry, Rizy, Noot and Plog give LSU a baseline to work from. Others will have to step up in the midweek.
Reminder, LSU is 9-0 when their three weekend starters pitch.
The next 10 days represent what the majority of the schedule will look like moving forward. Friday, Saturday, Sunday series and a Tuesday midweek. Outside of the Oklahoma series and the final weekend of the regular season, that will be the cadence.
Expect Johnson to manage the weekend like an SEC series with extended pitch counts for starters and high leverage relievers when necessary. The time for experimenting is about over.
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