LSU Observations

HolyCow said:

Exactly right JoJo. We have no starters hitting .300 and our bench is worse. We have virtually no power either.

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Our leading hitter is Georgie Salem, whose .284 average ranks 53rd in the SEC.

Brett Booth is the team leader in on-base percentage at .372, 50th in the SEC.

Ben Moore is the only player with a slugging percentage over .400 (.403)...good for 41st in the conference.


Overall, the team ranks dead last in the conference in batting average, OBP, and slugging. The average SEC player is hitting .277/.367/.380.

13th in home runs with 10...which is fewer than three individual players, Mason Katz, Hunter Renfroe, and L.B. Dantzler, and tied with A.J. Reed.

A glance at the triple-slash numbers from the past three years...

2011: .276/.362/.378 (with terrible Nike bats)
2012: .259/.336/.347
2013: .245/.336/.311

That's not progress. Over the past three years we have been the worst hitting team in the conference - and it's not even close.


Your statement about the offensive future is pretty unnerving - have we really reached the point where we are concerned about losing three players who are hitting .268 (Booth), .248 (Roberts), and .216 (Miller)?

The one question that I would like to get some thoughts on is why Austin Smith gets sit down last midweek game because Brett Booth needed rest. If Booth needs rest dont take another player out of his position for him.The one thing that I wish CMG would do is get your lineup and go with it and quit jerking these boys around . If booth wants rest and he does need some obviousely , sit him out and get your backup some reps. Would have been nice to take 2 out of 3 from them and we should have. See them in hoover i hope.

I think for the most part CMG has done exactly that, put the boys in a lineup and let them be. 6 guys have started every game and 1 otehr has started all but 3.

Keep in mind that Booth was slated to play some 3b, 1b and possibly even some LF for the tide this year until Wass was hurt. So putting him there is no big deal.

Also moving catchers out from behind the plate to say 1b for a game is a lot like getting them some rest. It is done in the major leagues with guys like Posey and Mauer. And it is something that CJW did a lot with his catchers during his time at Alabama. I know that Jeremy Brown did not catch a lot of mid-week games and was moved to 1st or 3rd to allow him some rest while still keeping his bat in the order.

Im not sure how one can say CMG has jerked anyone around, he's rode some guys a lot longer than I would have. He's got guy hitting .216 starting every day, and another spot in the order sports a batting average under 200...

rolltydebb said:

Im not sure how one can say CMG has jerked anyone around, he's rode some guys a lot longer than I would have. He's got guy hitting .216 starting every day

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He's only recently become the everyday starter - he had to beat out the guy hitting .171.

I realize that was a tongue in cheek comment about the woe-fulness of our offense.

But the guy has played in 32 of the 42 games... thats about as everyday as it gets for a guy hitting .216

7 regulars you can pencil into the order every day, the other 2 spots have basically rotated b/t 3-4 guys give or take. To me that isn't jerking guys around. For the most part everyone has been given the opportunity to work through their struggles. I mean even Baxter was given about 10 games to prove he could play. At some point though, you have to cut bait.

It is sad, but we can only work with what we have. Need to recruit better players and better hitters, put a few more classes together like this freshman class and we'll be in good shape.

That's what's so sad - the guy hitting .216 is vastly superior to the other alternative that has started at the position. The fact that the freshman Goodson, at least in CMG's estimation, cannot outhit either of those two does not reflect well on his ability, and makes you wonder why he was even recruited in the first place.

You're right about needing to recruit better hitters, particularly those who can at least provide some semblance of power. Unfortunately, aside from possibly catcher Will Haynie, the incoming class does not include an immediate-impact bat with legitimate pop. CMG has a preference for "scrappy" singles hitters anyway.

Like I've said many times, without seeing practice is hard to say. However I do agree there has got to be someone on the roster that brings more to the table from an offensive standpoint than the people we are playing. If that is not the case, then that doesn't reflect well on anyone. Slice and Dice it anyway you want, but the LF position and the DH position are there for people that can hit, and neither position can.

People got on me for getting on Miller early in the season, I wasn't attacking Miller, I was more or less attacking the production we were getting out of the LF position.

Even now, I'd be for giving 4-5 people a shot to see if they could outproduce the 170 we have in the DH spot and the 216 we have in the LF spot. But it seems CMG has found his guys, and are riding them, and seems like in general we want to pitch and play defensive and scrap for runs here and there. At least we have a recipe this year.. if anything positive can be said

Agreed about recruiting as well, I'll wait til i see the finished product, but in general that is where this staff has failed and been put behind the 8-ball. We should be out pounding the pavement looking for the best hitters in the country right now, whether that be in JUCO or anywhere across the USA. Thats why many give Phillips a hard time due to his ability to coach hitting, I actually think he's a fine hitting coach, I question his ability to recruit, and his ability to evaluate what an SEC hitter should look like. In college baseball, its not about the X's and O's. Everyone at that level knows the Xs and O's. Its about players, go get the best players and you usual win games. You have to be good recruiters, and not sure how our staff stacks up against the rest.

Its like Saban.. Saban will tell you he doesnt know more about football than the next guy, but what he excels at is evaluating talent, recruiting, and getting the best players here. Without the best players, its hard to win.

The reason that I and many other people defend playing Andrew is because he can field, he can throw, he can bunt, and he can work a count. For some reason his high school power completely disappeared in Tuscaloosa, and at times it looked like he was miserable playing the game with a bat in his hands, but he seems to understand now his role and I think that he is the best alternative we've got out there right now.

rtr

rolltydebb said:

Like I've said many times, without seeing practice is hard to say. However I do agree there has got to be someone on the roster that brings more to the table from an offensive standpoint than the people we are playing. If that is not the case, then that doesn't reflect well on anyone. Slice and Dice it anyway you want, but the LF position and the DH position are there for people that can hit, and neither position can.

People got on me for getting on Miller early in the season, I wasn't attacking Miller, I was more or less attacking the production we were getting out of the LF position.

Even now, I'd be for giving 4-5 people a shot to see if they could outproduce the 170 we have in the DH spot and the 216 we have in the LF spot. But it seems CMG has found his guys, and are riding them, and seems like in general we want to pitch and play defensive and scrap for runs here and there. At least we have a recipe this year.. if anything positive can be said

Agreed about recruiting as well, I'll wait til i see the finished product, but in general that is where this staff has failed and been put behind the 8-ball. We should be out pounding the pavement looking for the best hitters in the country right now, whether that be in JUCO or anywhere across the USA. Thats why many give Phillips a hard time due to his ability to coach hitting, I actually think he's a fine hitting coach, I question his ability to recruit, and his ability to evaluate what an SEC hitter should look like. In college baseball, its not about the X's and O's. Everyone at that level knows the Xs and O's. Its about players, go get the best players and you usual win games. You have to be good recruiters, and not sure how our staff stacks up against the rest.

Its like Saban.. Saban will tell you he doesnt know more about football than the next guy, but what he excels at is evaluating talent, recruiting, and getting the best players here. Without the best players, its hard to win.

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Baxter and blanchard batting average came against very very average pitching and it is still very low. You have to remember all these starters early in the year put up huge averages against the same pitching. Since the SEC there averages have fallen drastically . The 216 couldn't because he was hurt and was being held out. The .216 hitters average is just a piece of what he means to this team make no mistake he is the guy these young kids respect whether he bats .100 they play hard with him in the line up. I have said before batting is only part of the game. Leadership is what cost us last year as stated earlier in this topic. We will never be able to swing it like LSU as long as Phillips is here we need to face it. It is not your players the kids on this team had offers from SEC schools including LSU they have the talent and past numbers in high school and early in there careers to prove it.


Jojo has been around the program for a while he has seen us before and now he will agree that these kids can play it is the attitude of our coaches more than our kids. Bill battle we review it and make the hard choices he will pressure Gaspard to make the move to improve the hitting.he doesn't know Andy the way Mal did so he will improve it.

big jim said:

Bill battle we review it and make the hard choices he will pressure Gaspard to make the move to improve the hitting.he doesn't know Andy the way Mal did so he will improve it.

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He made the call on Wendell Hudson. Hoping he will do the same with baseball.
CMG is in his 4th year. It is inexcusable to not have one starter that is hitting over .300. Tired of hearing this team is young. Only 3 freshmen start.
Look at the Bregman kid at LSU. He is a freshman and leading the team. What has happened to Moore? He tore up the Northwoods league this past summer. MVP of the league. Using a wood bat. Hit 16 bombs. What will the excuse be next year?

Debb , you sure are quick to chop the leader of this team off at the knees . I do believe he is one of the few if not the only hitter to raise his average against SEC pitching. Correct me if i am wrong but did i hear saturday night that Booth does not have a single sacrifice all year .

First I agree to this point he has shown to be the best player for the job but again I say he wouldn't be playing or starting for many sec teams bc 216 batting averages don't play in left field. We should want more from the position and the fact we have no one better is bad for the state of the program

The kids are expected to play hard regardless. If you think they play hard or harder bc miller is in the lineup then this entire program has major issues. They owe it to themselves the team and all their teammates to play hard every game regardless of who is or isn't in the lineup. If someone isn't doing that they need to be removed from the program.

Totally disagree that this teams issue is leadership. This teams issue is talent. We don't have enough of it. And over half this team didn't have tons of offers, none were blue chip recruits, that's simple to go back and look up. White has probably been the highest rated prospect to come to bama in a while. Again it's simple ask yourself how many ppl or our team would start for the elite teams of the sec.... The answer is not many if any at all

I'm not chopping anyone down at the knees. If he is truly the team leader, that's great. But just bc you are. Senior doesn't mean your the leader. I've agreed that to date he earned the starting job.... But in no way should we be satisfied with a senior that has played for 3 seasons hitting 216 nor should we think that is acceptable for our starting left fielder. Left field is not a position that is a defense first position like ss is. Most games aren't won or lost by great defense by your left firlder. I hope miller plays well down the stretch and succeeds in life, and next year I hope he is replaced by a guy that can At least hit 270 with some power or the ability to steal bases, so when that spot in the order comes up we don't have to hope whomever it is can lay a sac bunt down or work the count. I'll trade the supposed leadership that is being brought to the table by someone that can provide an sec average slash line or better at the plate and not think twice about it.

We should also want and expect more from the dh position

Not to bash the kid, but simply to prove points about the comments above.

Miller is hitting 204 in conference play, that doesn't raise his average. Both white and Salem hit better in sec play than outside of it, no one else

Miller during conference play as the worst fielding percentage of the regulars, and he's made two of the three outfield errors

The team is 13-13 when miller starts, 11-5 when he doesn't.

So draw your own conclusions. I don't buy the team plays harder for him or with him. His defense clearly isn't winning us games and he's hitting 204 in conference play which is only better than Vincent and Blanchard.

I'm not bashing the kid. Simply proving some of the above posts are not very accurate

Looking back i see where the above mentioned player was heavily recruited by every program in the sec , and no if he was on one of those teams he probably would be hitting alot higher than he is under our hitting coach. You obviousely dont like him and that is probably ok with him but the last time we were relevant he almost put us in the college world series.

The last time we were revelant Ross Wilson, josh Rutledge, jake smith, clay jones, kilcrease, Morgan, Nelson nearly put us in the World Series

I give up. It's obvious by looking at your posting history that you are related to miller. If he did have offers, which I must say I doubt, to all the other sec schools then he obviously made a bad decision by going to Alabama since the Alabama coaching staff is the reason he hasn't succeed. I mean all they did was give the kid 400 plus at bats over the course of four years.... And continue to put him in the lineup night after night even though..... Ahh forget it

Blame someone else always the easy way out..... Problem with this world... Never your fault always someone else's..Philips, gaspRd and Dax are the reason a kid hits 216

I heard we hit better on SAT and SUN (and probably tonight) because the guys just quit listening to Andy Phillips and started mashing. Andy can't coach worth a damn and we can't bring in great players because our facilities suck and we don't have a lottery, but we should never be at the point where we're having to play walk-ons who didn't start for their own JUCO teams (like we did in whatever position Tullidge played and LF last year).

Mitch may know baseball but he's like Shula - terrible game manager and won't fire his buddies. Dax has actually been our team's saving grace, whether that's noticed or not. Andy must go and if Mitch won't do it, then Mitch needs to go too. But I'm hoping we can keep playing well over the last few weeks and get into a regional as a 3 seed. If we get a light-hitting 2, Sullivan can shut them down and I like Turnbull to give us a chance against anyone.

Debb , you are the one that brought miller up, not me. I simply stated that austin smith should not have been sit out last week so booth could get rest and i do really believe we win 2 out of 3 if he plays austin at first base against lsu. All of our hitters regress instead of progress and we need to correct it. the other posters give the kid some credit for a good series and you steady bash him.We all want to win and these coaches dont put us in that situation , the kids dont show favoritism , the coaches do. My hat hat is off to DAX for some great pitching of late , i think he really has done a good job this year.

And that is where we disagree....

Like I said I've figured it out through post history, you are likely the kids father or close relAtive. I've said the kid has earned the playing time he's getting, I've given the kid credit, but my point is that a player like that or the dh position, I'll call those guys out too if you'd like, Vincent and Blanchard, should not be playing. They simply aren't good enough and are not producing enough.could give two rips about leadership or whatever else... 216 and 170 shouldn't be given everyday at bats period... We can agree to disagree

About coaches not giving kids Chances to win...... Agree but disagree with the reason as to it. With the current roster we have, we Re actually over achieving. I mean we are in the midst of the sec race, with a strong rpi, and two weeks of good baseball away from going to a regional. All this with what is likely not one player that will make the all-sec teams or would likely even start at some other places in the sec

The reason why we are losing games is players plain and simple. Our best players are our fresh and sophs. And it's hard to win in the sec relying on fresh and sophs carrying the load. Fresh and sophs can be good individual players, but usually the better teams of the sec are jr and sr heavy. Our jr and sr classes aren't very good, and its not bc they didn't develop, but its bc they aren't sec level players. The came in during Dax first season as A recruiter and while Philips was figuring out the gig as well. I realize this is hard to accept because your son, close family member, etc is part of those classes.....but that's the fact and we can just disagree about it

Will the both of you enjoy our team playing as well as anytime in 2 years. Heathco please do not debate with Debb she has a thorn for certain players I Ask her earlier to leave kids out of her vendetta. I mention some average and a opinion of the kids but I know the coach in question is a major problem. Our kids are finally playing with confidence so let it be and hope we continue on this path. If we do we have a shot at a regional if not we will not have a player batting .270 Debb and that I'm sure will not be the lack of a hitting instructor. Yes I will complain about a coach but not a kid even yours.

In my own humble opinion, bringing in an established hitting coach with a track record of success is absolutely the key to this program surviving, or not. With good pitching you can win with 8-10 singles a game. Just making contact can win you games, and anyone on our team can make contact.

rtr