Jay Johnson talks Chase Shores, William Schmidt, shortstop on Hunt Palmer Show

LSU baseball started fall practice three weeks ago. The Tigers will travel to Biloxi on Sunday for a 21-inning scrimmage with Samford. Head coach Jay Johnson joined The Hunt Palmer Show on Thursday to update the team’s progress and preview Sunday’s action. Among the topics were Chase Shores’s recovery from injury, infield competition and freshman right-hander William Schmidt. Here’s everything Johnson had to say.

 On the catching situation…

“I think it’s been good. I like the group as a whole. I think Luis Hernandez, the transfer from Indiana State, has been really good on both sides of the ball. Been very reliable receiving and throwing. Offensively, obviously he has power with the 23 homers he hit last year. He seems to be the most seasoned, experienced on both sides of the ball. Cade Arrambide, another freshman, is doing a really good job offensively. Really good job throwing. Has plenty of talent. Just kind of learning this level of baseball, some of the nuances. Blaise Preister is off to a really good start. I think he has four or five homers already. Throws the ball extremely well. Kind of along the lines I talked about with Cade, just shoring up some of the finer things, but those three guys ae doing a really good job so far.”

On Jake Brown’s improvement entering his sophomore year…

“He’s doing a great job. He’s a terrific athlete. He’s added a lot of strength. He looks different in the uniform than he did as a freshman. And that’s showing I think with some confidence in his game. I think he got about 100 at bats last year. Have served him well. You combine that athleticism, increased strength, experience, the making of a really, really good player. And he’s kind of jumped to the top or the front of this thing as we’ve started fall baseball.”

Will LSU look at Brown pitching a little bit…

“Yeah, we are. We’re trying to manage that load correctly. What we do have is a little more unique than maybe some of the staffs previously. We feel like we have some right-handed pitching weapons that are going to be very successful against left-handed hitters, and so we don’t have to be as traditional with matchups maybe as we’ve been. We feel like we have a good template for what he needs to do as a pitcher. It’s just a big load that we’re probably asking for from him as a position player. The most important thing is keeping him healthy and available. So, we’re just kind of paying attention to that.”

On what he’s seen from Chase Shores returning from Tommy John surgery..

Arm strength is great, was up to 98 (mph) in his second inning the other day. Slider has been good. This last weekend was the first time we’ve kind of pushed him toward a third inning, and I think he was good up until the end, got a little bit tired. We’re full go. He’ll start us off in Biloxi on Sunday, and we’re really excited about that.

On LHP Conner Ware’s fall…

“We’re really excited about Conner. I’ll be very transparent, he had some injuries last year in junior college, and I think had he been healthy through the full season we might have had a hard time getting him through the major league draft. He’s healthy now, and as you saw Sunday, it’s been three Sundays that have been very good. I think I can actually say that’s been his least clean outing of the three, and I don’t think he gave up any runs. So, it’s been a real bright spot, and somebody we’re going to lean into and lean on in this pitching staff.”

On Willam Schmidt’s first fall…

“He’s been great. He’s grown up. He’s paying attention to detail the way that we want him to. He’s got a great background coming from Catholic, Coach (Brad) Bass, Coach (Tyler) Naquin did a great job with him in high school. So, on the field he’s more prepared on the field than your average freshman, and the talent is exceptional. I think he’s had a good run of three scrimmages here where it’s been really competitive. Obviously, given the profile, potential first round pick here in this past draft, I think some of the hitters’ eyes perk up when he gets out there. They’re competing and challenging well against him, and he’s competing right back. Very excited and feel very fortunate that we’ve got William here and exited that we’ll have him for three years.”

On shortstop competition…

“I think probably the most positive thing about it is we have some depth there. Obviously what Michael (Braswell) did for us particularly the last half of the season last year both offensively and defensively, he’s certainly a viable option at any one of the three infield spots. Daniel Dickinson, excited about him. Very unique player in terms of speed, solid hitting skills, has done a really good job defensively there as well. A different kind of player from Michael but another one that can play all three spots. We’re giving him every opportunity at shortstop. And a couple of young guys are very much ahead of the game, specifically defensively. Mikey Ryan has some really good skills defensively, and he’s got plenty of talent to hit. They’re just kind of going through that natural adjustment to transitioning from high school baseball in Louisiana to high level Division 1 baseball. And then David Hogg from the Dallas area, really good athlete, can really play all those spots. So, even if we had to throw Stevan Milam over there (at shortstop), I’m comfortable with him. He played a couple of games over there, so, we have some quality depth at short and just excited to keep getting all those guys better.”

On Milam’s second fall…

“He’s stronger. He had a foot injury at the end of last year that he played through in the SEC Tournament and the regional and played very well in both of those. And then tried to give it a go with Team USA and just wasn’t quite right. So, he spent the summer doing two things, getting that healthy and getting stronger, much like I talked about with Jake Brown. He looks better on the field, and obviously the game competitiveness is a great quality of his. Obviously plan on him being super impactful for our team.”

On what Sunday’s scrimmage in Biloxi versus Samford will be about…

“We’re playing 21 innings. You have the head coach at LSU to blame for that because he wants to stay on the field all day. Excited about that. We’ll break it up into three seven-inning segments. We’ll get a few pitchers out there for three innings, a bunch of them for two. And we’ll probably, honestly, spilt the day in two. We have 22 position players, I believe, and one group will play 10 innings, one group will play 11 innings and get a bunch of at bats. We’ll kind of see where we go from here with development and those types of things. So, really, really looking forward to it. Really looking forward to having all these players in the same dugout and trying to form our identity and form our pathway to winning. Very pleased through three weeks. You know, we obviously have a very tough schedule. We play all the best opponents in our league and in the entire country. But I think we’re off to a really good start right now.”