By Hunt Palmer
LSU’s fall is nearing its end. Many of the top returning players have shut it down with eyes on January.
Not William Schmidt.
The talented right hander dominated Sunday’s action with a pair of scoreless innings and six strikeouts. The fastball was sitting in the mid 90s and topped out at 98. He used it to get a couple of strikeouts. The breaking ball looked good, as well. He got two swinging strikeouts with it.
I’ve now seen Schmidt two times this fall, and he’s missed a ton of bats in both outings. It’s worth mentioning that Steven Milam, Jake Brown, Derek Curiel, Chris Stanfield and others weren’t even dressed out on Sunday. Schmidt was mowing down the middle and bottom of the LSU roster, but it was still impressive.
It obvious that his talent gives him extreme upside. He’s also going to have to battle the likes of Zac Cowan, Cooper Moore, Cooper Williams, Deven Sheerin, Jaden Noot and others for a weekend slot behind Casan Evans.
The Schmidt I saw Sunday has a real chance to do just that.
LEVERAGE LEFTIES
Ethan Plog and Santiago Garcia both made appearances on Sunday.
Neither was spectacular, but based on the discussions I’ve had with some people in the program, both are expected to be key bullpen pieces for this team.
Plog is thin and wiry. He short arms the ball but still creates velocity around 92 mph. He’s just been a tough at bat for a lot of Tiger hitters this fall. His role feels like short stints and tough lefties. Garcia has a little bit better stuff without the obvious deception. He can be effective in that same type of role but could extend more, too.
I liked both guys on Sunday, and LSU’s staff does, too.
CATCHER COMPETITION
This is the same song and verse as last year at this point. LSU has options at catcher, and defense is going to be the priority.
Cade Arrambide is the favorite behind the plate, but Eddie Yamin and Omar Serna are competing. The ball found its way to the backstop too often on Sunday with Yamin and Serna behind the dish. Free bases won’t be tolerated.
Arrambide struggled last fall defensively but improved as the season went on. Josh Jordan spends a ton of time with the catchers working on defense, and they got really good play out of Luis Hernandez last year even though he hadn’t caught much in college.
Offensively, Arrambide has hit the ball hard all fall, and Serna has showed the light tower power he was known for as a prep standout.
The key will be defense, and Sunday was a little sloppy.
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