By Hunt Palmer
As fruitful as the transfer portal has been for LSU baseball, Jason Giambi isn’t available.
He wasn’t to the 2002 Oakland Athletics, either, and the movie Moneyball famously recounts how the A’s tried to replicate his production. By using three players with different strengths, the effort was to, as Brad Pitt says in the film, ‘replace Giambi in the aggregate.’
LSU isn’t replacing an American League MVP, but the combination of Jake Brown, Ethan Frey and Josh Pearson in right field and at designated hitter has very much followed the Moneyball blueprint.
“Those three, and I said this beginning of the year, throw Ashton Larson into this, too,” head coach Jay Johnson said. “What I said was, one all-American player out of two players and one all-conference player out of two players, and we’ve absolutely gotten that.”
On just raw numbers, Johnson may be right. That trio has combined to hit .327 for the season with 12 home runs and 66 RBI. That’s a carbon copy of Steven Milam (.333, 6HR, 32RBI) if divided by two considering those three take two spots in the lineup each game.
Milam is very much in consideration to be an all-American.
The production is one thing. The mental side of the equation is different altogether. Brown, Frey and Pearson have all been productive enough to be everyday players. Unlike Milam, Jared Jones and Daniel Dickinson, they are not.
“The players have done a good job with it,” Johnson said. “There’s a little more peace of mind, but we’re grinding through it. Josh Pearson on Friday is a perfect example. He hasn’t started for three games. We’re facing a left-handed pitcher. He’s in there. Boom. Two homers. I think he would be fine against anybody, but there’s still those decisions to be made.”
Pearson has handled platoon for four years at LSU. As a freshman he worked his way into the everyday lineup toward the middle of the season. As a sophomore he platooned with Brayden Jobert, Tre Morgan during his outfield stint and Paxton Kling. Last season Mac Bingham and Kling played significant roles. Pearson never flinched.
The same can be said for Frey now in his first season as a significant contributor.
“I said something to Ethan in one of the last games he wasn’t in the lineup, and he was like, ‘coach you don’t even have to explain anything to me,’” Johnson said. “I think the trust level, coach-player, their confidence. They don’t get shook by small or surface level things. You really have confidence when small things don’t bother you, and that’s those guys.”
Players mature at different rates. Some professionals refuse to come off the bench, demanding trades and making a public scene. This group of young adults has handled everything in stride and produced when their numbers have been called.
Johnson looks for that in recruiting.
“This is the hallmark of it, all come from great families,” Johnson said. “So, they’re not just about themselves. They’re all from Louisiana. So, playing at LSU really means something to them. So, there’s a little bit of a root in that. But they all come from good families with good values. And to me, good values start with selfless or team-first attitude, and they all know what they’re capable of doing.”
While that trio plays at an all-American level, the LSU offense is humming. The Tigers ranks second in the SEC in batting average, third in on base percentage, fourth in runs per game and first in doubles. Only two SEC teams strike out more infrequently, as well.
It’s a lineup rooted more in depth than in star power.
“What we’re doing at the bottom of the order is a big reason this team has been really successful, even in the SEC,” Johnson said. “Even at times in ’23 in Omaha, I remember in the Wake game, we needed one more inning to get Dylan (Crews) and Tommy (White) back up. I don’t feel that way at all. I feel like this team can score two in every inning.”
A college season in a 56-game journey that LSU hopes will result in another trip to Omaha. Over the course of that journey there are ups and downs, hot streaks and cold spells. Depth can help mitigate against that. Sometimes nine players emerge. Sometimes it’s 11.
Johnson feels like the latter is more likely at LSU.
“With the exception of Hayden Travinski getting hurt in Omaha (in 2023), we literally played the same order the whole postseason that year,” Johnson said. “I think when you get to your best teams, that happens sometimes. Nick Mingione at Kentucky is one of my best friends. We had a conversation before the season started or maybe early in the season, and that’s what Kentucky was last year which was an Omaha team—these nine guys, left, right. I’ve always believed, if you’re at a place like (LSU), you’re going to have more than nine good players. I don’t ever want to short-circuit what getting to our best team looks like, so I’m a little hesitant to say, ‘hey, this is what we’re doing.’ I think we’ve done a good job as a coaching staff of identifying a good spot for a few guys.”
