PALMER: Preseason predictions revisited

By Hunt Palmer

It’s over.

You can call it the most disappointing. You can call it the worst. You can call it a let down. I’m not going to police how fans judge the 2026 season. It just wasn’t a lot of fun.

LSU finished two games over .500 and didn’t reach regional play. I didn’t predict that. I did, however, make five preseason predictions that I’ll have to answer for now.

Full disclosure, I didn’t check this column over the last three weeks when it felt like we were headed this direction. I held off and figured I would be way off with all five considering the disastrous nature of the year. Turns out, I didn’t do so badly.

Let’s review.

1. LSU pitching leads the SEC in strikeouts through the regional round AND doesn’t have an individual pitcher in the top three in the league in Ks

Nate Yeskie is 2-for-2 in leading the SEC in strikeouts as LSU’s pitching coach. He did it on the backs on Luke Holman, Gage Jump and Griffin Herring two years ago and did the same with Kade Anderson and Anthony Eyanson last year.

The difference in this prediction is that the depth of the staff does it this time while the starters don’t quite emerge to that level. I think key bullpen pieces like Zac Cowan, Ethan Plog, Mavrick Rizy, Deven Sheerin, Gavin Guidry and Marcos Paz among others, help the starting rotation climb to that number by eating up more innings. Will Casan Evans, Cooper Moore, Cooper Williams and William Schmidt strike a bunch of guys out, too? Absolutely.

I will technically have to wait a week before this grade is official, but I’m going to take a victory lap in the meantime. LSU currently leads the SEC in strikeouts and doesn’t have an individual pitcher in the top 15.

The Tiger pitching staff was awful in so many departments, but strikeouts wasn’t one of them. Ole Miss (32 short) and Mississippi State (51 short) are in striking distance, but my concept here was correct, whether they catch LSU next week or not.

  2. Four pitchers earn multiple saves

LSU actually pulled this one off last year, but it took some extenuating circumstances to do it. Cowan and Evans blew by two saves, and Chase Shores came on late to do it. The fourth was Eyanson who saved an SEC Tournament win and the regional final to send LSU on to the Supers. I think this team will have four guys just step in over the course of the season and do it out of the bullpen.

Three did. Deven Sheerin finished with five. Grant Fontenot had three. Santiago Garcia had two. I was surprised to see Gavin Guidry finish with just one. The bullpen never really materialized the way I thought it would. Frankly, the team didn’t win enough games, either. Can’t rack up saves in losses.

I was close here, but my suggestion the bullpen would be a strength was way off.

3. Cooper Moore will make 10 SEC starts

Moore is the most proven power league starter on the roster after he fronted Kansas’s rotation at times in 2025. He’s had a really strong preseason and feels like the highest floor on the staff as a starter. I don’t think he becomes LSU’s Friday night starter, and I think the preference might be that he works on Sundays. Either way, I think the coaching staff trusts him to go get 15-to-18 outs in an SEC weekend. I think he’ll do that all season long.

He didn’t. He got hurt, I thought Cooper Moore had the highest floor on the pitching staff. He’s a veteran strike thrower. I just thought LSU would be able to count on him for 15 outs every SEC weekend, even if it was on Sunday.

Keep in mind, these predictions were made before a lineup or rotation had been released. This sounds like an easy call now, but it was purely based off of preseason scrimmages. I think my read was correct, but injury derailed it. 

  4. LSU will not have a 20-home run player, but six guys will hit 10

There’s no Jared Jones here. No Tommy White or Dylan Crews. But there are some guys who can jump the yard. And they will. Cade Arrambide, Zach Yorke, Steven Milam, Derek Curiel and Jake Brown are all reasonably likely to hit close to 1o homers. That’s five and doesn’t include second base. That where Brayden Simpson, who hit 22 at High Point last year, will play some. So will Seth Dardar who clubbed 13 at Kansas State a season ago. Tanner Reaves also has pop from the left side. The designated hitter spot will give those platoon players addition at bats. In short, Chris Stanfield is the only starter I feel confident won’t hit 10.

Last year only four Tigers hit 10, and the team played until the end. I think LSU tops that number this year.

This was a whiff. Jake Brown would have gotten 20 homers if he hadn’t gotten hurt. He finished with 16 and missed the last 16 games. Also, only three guys got to 10. Brown, Arrambide and Milam got there. No one else did. I would have penciled Yorke, Dardar and Curiel in for 10 in January. That didn’t happen. 

Serna got to nine, and Pearson got to eight. I didn’t see those coming. Plus, this team was shorted probably five or seven games based on postseason expectations.

I missed here. No question.

5. Mason Braun will get more than three postseason at bats

Braun has become a preseason favorite because he’s crushing the ball in scrimmages. At publishing, it’s about 30 hours before Johnson turns in his initial lineup card, and I still don’t think Braun will be in it. If he is, the boldness on this prediction really takes a hit. However, LSU’s got a super mature lineup that doesn’t force Braun to the field. I do think he’s got a chance to become a left-handed bench bullet on this team, so four-plus at bats there would make sense even if he doesn’t start.

This looks obvious now, but it wasn’t a week before the opener. When I wrote “postseason” I was talking NCAA Tournament. Braun didn’t get four in that regard, but he did in the SEC Tournament. I just thought, on a team that looked to have a veteran core, Braun had a good chance to break in based on preseason scrimmages. He turned into one of LSU’s best hitters and a pillar of the program moving forward. 

Does the SEC Tournament count toward this projection even though it wasn’t my intention? That’s your call.