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The Easter Miracle in Knoxville · JustIN Time

0:07
Welcome back to another edition of the Justin Tom Podcast.
0:10
We are going to get right into it.
0:14
We had a Easter miracle happen. Tennessee just fell apart.
0:19
That's what they've been doing all year.
0:21
Because I mean, I don't know what happened.
0:24
We had four errors. They had as many hits as we had
0:27
errors and we're up five to five to 1/5 to nothing at one point
0:32
and it just slowly got out of hand for them.
0:38
And then they did their best LSU impression in the ninth with an
0:42
error that allowed us to tie the game up.
0:44
Feed off each other, brothers. Yeah, but we had a pretty good
0:48
weekend. We went two and one.
0:51
You added, you add yesterday. We went two and two.
0:54
But let's look at it week by week.
0:56
We went three and one over last week.
0:59
We got pushed back up to the top 2524.
1:03
Really. I think they just did that for
1:05
the match up for this weekend, you know?
1:07
Whoa, OK, so it's reconnecting. Guess I'm out here by myself for
1:14
a second. But yeah, we had some pretty
1:17
significant moments. We had some pretty significant
1:20
down moments. One of the huge moments was York
1:24
being set was a catalyst for us. I don't want to be harsh on a
1:32
guy. I bet him he's a good guy, but
1:36
he might be the worst first baseman in LSU history.
1:40
The media overhyped him, made us figure, made us feel like when
1:45
I, at least when I read it, made it felt like those 32 home runs
1:50
came in one season before the season started.
1:53
We have so many guys that are more reliable defensively, which
1:59
is saying something because in my opinion, we are terrible
2:01
defensively. Hey, yeah, I just kept going
2:06
talking about York. Yeah.
2:10
I think he's the worst first baseman in LSU recent history.
2:14
This is why I gave him the LVP for the week.
2:17
Yeah, I just like I was saying, I think the media overhyped him
2:23
didn't left out. I don't remember if I just I
2:26
just read it that way, but I read it as he hit 32 home runs
2:30
in a season last season, you know, in not 32 foul to saw 32
2:34
home runs over a course of three years at Grand Canyon.
2:37
I would have been like, wow, yeah, we really went out and got
2:40
this guy. But defensively, he's just as
2:43
big of a let down as he is offensively, you know, right?
2:47
Right. We have a catcher who, OK, they
2:53
put him to sleep on Sunday, which turned out to be a
2:56
blessing because all Eddie Yaman did come in and do was get on
2:59
base three times and be defensively sound behind the
3:03
plate. And I think that's you starting
3:05
catcher defensively. He's the best defensive catcher
3:08
we have. He can hit.
3:11
He's not a liability on offense. He can hit.
3:13
He got on base a lot last night and he got on base a lot as a
3:18
catcher on Sunday. What more can you ask for?
3:22
Yeah, Aaron BD, they just need to sharpie him in at DH and
3:26
leave him alone because. That's what's working right now,
3:29
man. If it's it wouldn't touch it.
3:32
That's the biggest, that's the big debate about just those
3:35
guys. You know, just keep him at DH in
3:38
York City for a while. That's really just been like the
3:41
last that's been the biggest dialogue one, at least one of
3:43
them the last several days. Yeah, and look, if you have to,
3:47
Jay, if you absolutely have to move Yaman moving to first base
3:52
and just rotate Serna and him and catcher in first base, give
3:55
him a break and let him rotate. You know, York is too much of A
3:58
liability at first base. He doesn't give you those
4:01
athletic abilities like Braun does.
4:03
What we got, just look at last night.
4:06
We had a out we that we reviewed.
4:08
They call it safe. Braun was able to reach out
4:12
there and pluck the ball before the kid got cross the basin.
4:16
I've never seen York do that, you know.
4:18
But even bigger headline for us is my own Got his first heir.
4:24
Yeah, I don't think it was and I don't think it was supposed to
4:26
be charged to him personally. You know, obviously how much,
4:31
you know, he's been flawless all year up to that point, you know,
4:34
at least from my advantage point when I was watching the play.
4:37
What like knows is though, incredibly wild through, you
4:41
know what I mean? So.
4:42
No, it was. But it's to.
4:45
Me, I'm like that too. I thought it should have been
4:48
charged to Dordor, correct? The ball hit him in the right in
4:52
the glove. I mean, it was a little bit of a
4:55
wild outside throw, but, you know, yeah.
4:59
It was the most was the most crisp throw in the world in the
5:01
world, but just it wasn't terrible.
5:03
It wasn't an air it passed so I just thought it was still no.
5:07
I would have given to Dordor, yes, yeah, You know, our batting
5:11
averages back to 288. Team batting average building
5:15
percentages down a tick to 963. Pitching though, other than last
5:22
night, our pitching wasn't our issue.
5:25
Yeah, pitching, pitching throughout this stretch was
5:28
really solid. Wasn't there any dominant
5:30
performance individually. But just when you look at the
5:32
collective on the mound, the mound did a really great job
5:35
considering the circumstance, you know, especially playing in
5:38
a small, you know, mess school to talk about.
5:40
He hates the Tennessee. He hates the Tennessee ballpark,
5:44
the the Biddy Ballpark is what he calls it.
5:46
He went on a couple of rants. I was laughing because they said
5:50
they kept announcing largest crowd in Lindsay Nelson history
5:55
7000 and something I remember in 23, I went to that Tennessee
6:02
game and we had the capacity crowd at 12,318 I think it was
6:08
at that point. And then two years later we had
6:12
the next one. I think it was against Tennessee
6:14
again, the next largest crowd, yes.
6:17
So I was there for both largest crowds.
6:21
There you go, that's what. I'm talking about when that
6:25
place gets loud it just we're talking about the box, not
6:29
Lindsay Nelson when the box gets loud makes it tough for an
6:33
opposing team to play there. Of course you know, but last
6:37
night look coming back from you go back to Kentucky series, we
6:44
big comeback win against them, big comeback win against
6:47
Southern. Then I can come back win against
6:50
Tennessee on Friday night and a comeback win against Tennessee
6:53
on Sunday. That catches up with you.
6:57
You don't play solid ball all game long.
7:01
That's going to catch up with you.
7:02
Not to say that last night we didn't play solid ball all game
7:05
long. I thought we played solid ball.
7:08
I thought what got us in trouble is just like Jay said in his
7:12
post game, they came to play and was ready.
7:16
What got them was we couldn't find the strike zone on both
7:19
sides of the ball that 7th inning.
7:22
And what got me is, and you better have this fixed for
7:27
Friday, Saturday and Sunday this week because you're playing Ole
7:31
Miss at Ole Miss. And what you need to take care
7:36
of is when you have the bases juiced with 0 outs, you have to
7:40
capitalize. You have to get two across at
7:43
least. And that was the like the whole
7:45
7th in, it was just a 10 point of the game.
7:49
I mean, we get the bases loaded, no outs, no Milan struck out.
7:54
Yes. Jake Brown, strikeout, who was
7:59
who batted third last night. See this?
8:02
You know what? I could just go to Facebook
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because I shared it. Pearson.
8:05
Yeah. Pearson, three pitch strikeout.
8:08
That's the kind of stuff that can't happen to you.
8:10
That kid from Bethune Cookman. Bethune Cookman, whatever.
8:16
I thought he just had a really nice inning.
8:21
He came in and did what he needed to do.
8:22
They couldn't, they couldn't touch him.
8:25
Zambrano. Yeah, they couldn't touch him.
8:28
You got to tip your hat to him. But coming up at Ole Miss, we've
8:33
got to get better at taking those strides and getting those
8:37
runs across, capitalizing, not walking.
8:40
Four straight guys almost. Let's see, I'll pull it up.
8:43
They don't have the stats line out yet, like the actual books
8:47
for it. But I can still pull up inning
8:49
by inning I think on this. But what can't happen is I don't
8:53
know if Jay was just trying to, you know, hold his guys back,
8:59
try to save pitching for this weekend when we're going to need
9:02
it. But let's go.
9:04
I think it was the 7th. They scored all those runs.
9:06
Yeah. We put Rizzi in the pitch for
9:08
OK. We put Lock and Mire in the
9:11
pitch for Garcia. Hit by a pitch.
9:14
We take him out, put Rizzi in hit by a pitch, a fly out, a
9:21
walk in a walk. So they got two runs off of
9:24
walks, you know, and then they got to run off an error, a
9:28
fielding error. That kind of stuff can't happen.
9:32
We need to clean that up. We had two errors last night.
9:35
You know, we left 15 on 2 errors and got 11 hits.
9:39
You can't be doing that. And before that, that was, it
9:42
was a good game up until that 7th inning.
9:45
Yeah, you know, I was in it was funny.
9:47
Like it's it's disappoint how it ended because of like you, to
9:50
your point, I was very encouraged by the offensive
9:52
start because you know, they've had a big struggle starting off
9:55
quick in these games offensively.
9:58
So first hand in English, I understand the competition, but
10:00
I mean, but listen, you get 2 right away in the first, one in
10:04
the second, one in the third, one in the fourth, didn't score
10:08
in the 5th, but you have one in the 6th.
10:10
So you were steadily producing runs throughout the first
10:14
several innings. You just went cold.
10:16
Unfortunately, from the 4th, from the 4th in and on, he
10:19
scored two runs and one of those were in the bottom of the ninth.
10:22
So it was just it just went cold.
10:24
But I was really encouraged by the start of this the game.
10:28
Yeah, I was really encouraged. We got, you know, we went three
10:32
up, 3 down to start the first. We didn't commit an error.
10:36
We played solid baseball and then we just fell apart towards
10:41
the end, you know, defensively, the changes that we need to
10:45
make. You know, I like to move to
10:49
Braun at first. He's been a solid bat in the
10:51
lineup. Yeah, he had that one boneheaded
10:57
base running mistake. You know, I'll give it to him.
11:02
He's hit the ball. He's played solid up until that
11:05
point. We could leave him in at first
11:08
base. The Yaman played a solid
11:11
defensive game. Yeah, on Sunday.
11:17
I think he needs to be your starting catcher on Friday night
11:21
against Ole Miss. I think Aaron Beatty needs to be
11:23
your DH. You know, I don't think Zach
11:26
York needs to touch the field for a very long time.
11:30
You know, last night we've got a few worries, some incidents
11:34
coming from Sunday. Serna got a mild concussion
11:39
after being put to sleep on Sunday trying to go get a wild
11:44
throw. Jake Brown threw up the line.
11:45
Then last night, I don't know if you saw it, but a couple of
11:49
weeks ago during the Florida State Duke game, they had the
11:52
kind of the same thing that happened with Dardar.
11:56
Dude slid into second base and his ankle was like this.
12:01
That is so I didn't, I didn't see that one, but I heard about
12:04
it today on Scone. Yeah, but like this because
12:07
like, it was like just watching that play last night, you know,
12:12
it looked awful. And we watched it in real time.
12:15
It was rough. It was like, man, that's that's
12:18
tough. I was like, that's a miracle.
12:20
But it's he was able to come up there.
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I was like, it didn't look so much worse than what it was.
12:25
Just thankfully that he was able to get up.
12:27
Exactly. It looked awful.
12:30
OK. I don't think they took Dardar
12:32
out. Reeves pinch hit for Dardar in
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the 8th, but Dardar played that inning, so.
12:37
Yeah, right. Realistically, I think he's OK.
12:42
You know? Realistically, I think Dardar is
12:44
OK. What scared me was when
12:46
Stanfield went to the wall for that ball in his left wrist was
12:52
like this on the wall. Yeah, that kind of scared me.
12:57
He was huge. The reason I think we've had
13:00
this stretch of run where we came, you know, where we're at
13:03
now, is because Stanfield's back in the lineup, was back in the
13:08
lineup. Hopefully they showed him
13:09
looking good yesterday in the dugout with ice on his wrist.
13:13
Right, right. I mean, you couldn't tell if it
13:15
was swollen or not, but it looked.
13:18
Because I was the same man he Andrew when he was sliding early
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in the season. So hopefully that doesn't mean
13:25
anything. Hopefully that's OK and he's
13:27
back in the lineup for Friday. Hopefully Dardars is nothing
13:30
because he's played a pretty solid second base for the most
13:32
part. Yeah, for sure.
13:34
Yeah, he's really. Double plays, yeah, as of late,
13:38
and we don't really have another guy.
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You got Caraway, but Caraway is 1/3 baseman.
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He doesn't really gel at second base.
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Losing Dardar's bat would be huge.
13:51
Yes, especially since he's come along so well in the last couple
13:54
weekends. Exactly.
13:56
Yeah, that's yeah. We haven't had a guy who can
14:00
play second base and hit and then you lost Simpson for the
14:04
rest of the I'm pretty sure for the rest of the season with a
14:06
broken thumb, you know. But a pause is I think this was
14:11
from last weekend or the a press conference before Jay said
14:15
Cooper Moore would be back the next with the following weekend.
14:20
And not as a starting five inning kind of guy, but as a
14:23
maybe a bullpen type of guy coming out the bullpen in some
14:27
capacity. That's a big bump.
14:31
I don't know if that deal stands today because you know how these
14:35
things can change. But as of I think it was last
14:39
Wednesday, I saw it as of last Wednesday.
14:42
It seems like it seems promising that we can get more back sooner
14:47
rather than later, which would be huge because he's a reliable
14:50
guy who throws strikes. I mean, if you look at our
14:55
powerhouse polls, he was on the powerhouse poles for a couple of
14:59
weeks in a row. Yeah, so I'm looking at it right
15:02
now. So he was he, he made it the
15:04
first each of the first four weeks like he he's currently has
15:09
seven total appearances, but with 21 points.
15:13
When you consider the fact he had missed the last three weeks,
15:15
I made this, you understand, 2-3 weeks or so, I should say, but
15:20
that's he was like the most steadiest until William Schmidt
15:24
start to really take take the next step.
15:26
He was the most steady starter for like the first several
15:29
stretches of the of the. Yeah, and you know, that's to
15:33
me. We need that back.
15:35
Yes. Because of what happened
15:39
specifically last night, even if he comes out to bullpen and
15:43
throws or if we pinch it, we put him in on to start on a Sunday
15:47
game because neither one of those two guys that have started
15:50
has made it longer than two or three innings.
15:55
Get us a clean two or three innings to start the game now.
15:59
Fat no, in my opinion. I think he did great on Sunday.
16:04
I think if we need him to go, we need to go longer.
16:08
You know, I'm confident that he can go the distance for us.
16:13
Think he only went 2. And third, yeah.
16:17
Yeah, he fell apart in the third inning, but but yeah, look at
16:21
Kyle. And he went, he gave up two runs
16:24
in four innings. That's a huge guy for us.
16:27
Right. Oh yeah, Paul, how he's turned
16:29
it on. We need guys like we've got
16:32
Sharon, we've got Cowen, Fat No comes out to bullpen.
16:36
If we get more back those three guys, then you got Guidry who
16:41
comes in and only looks good when he's got that adrenaline
16:44
rush coming off of. That's why he's not a starting
16:48
pitcher to me. He's just a guy coming out
16:51
bullpen. You got those four or five guys,
16:55
you got Garcia, you can throw in there and look good.
16:59
You got your three starting guys, those guys and then fat No
17:01
could be that 4th starter if you need it because he's really
17:04
good. You know, I was impressed
17:08
because we fell behind, but we didn't fall behind because of
17:13
pitching and walks. We fell behind because our first
17:17
baseman couldn't scoop a ball out the dirt.
17:20
We fell behind because we had Milan making his first error,
17:23
which originally I think is on Dordar.
17:26
Yeah, I wouldn't. I don't charge that to Milan.
17:29
Yeah, and then a Grand Slam hit right there, you know, But then
17:35
you got us going back-to-back to back with home runs, which was
17:41
huge. And then a guy like Aaron BD,
17:44
you've got in the seventh, top of the seventh, you had Pearson
17:47
Homer, then you had Aaron BD Homer, and then you had Dardar
17:53
Homer, right back-to-back to back.
17:56
And that's what we needed, you know, that's what you needed.
18:00
And coincidentally, I think if you look at it, the time we
18:04
started picking it up with the bats, it's about the time I
18:08
think they took York out. To somebody mentioned it on
18:11
Reddit and they actually yes indeed remember correctly.
18:17
Yeah, No, they took York out. We did it.
18:20
Technically they did because they took him out in the ninth.
18:22
I think Broad pitch him for York in the ninth and then we play
18:27
solid. But let's just go on to
18:30
powerhouse post. All right, I'll let you go
18:34
first. Oh, really?
18:36
So this is what I got for the pitching.
18:40
Obviously I put a note just you know what a massive, you know,
18:43
performance, best performance. You know, this is our first
18:46
series win in Knoxville since 2016.
18:50
So there's some. So I was, I was the somewhere I
18:53
just got. I was the semester.
18:54
I just got my truck, my first truck.
18:57
Yeah, in awe, accidentally. I think that was before Vitello
19:01
went to Tennessee. Interesting.
19:04
Yeah. Always might have been his first
19:06
year. Yeah.
19:06
So that's either way they'll let you know how long it's been,
19:10
bottom line. But yeah, but, you know, start
19:13
off with the pitching. You know, my top three, I went
19:16
with William Schmidt, Gavin Guidry and Cason Evans.
19:18
And all my quick notes were just, you know, the Tennessee
19:21
series was a collective one on the mile.
19:23
Like I said earlier, you know, even though there wasn't an
19:25
individually dominant performance in my view, you
19:28
know, the pitching, the staff was just was perfectly good
19:31
enough for the team to win, you know, and they just did not get
19:35
any help for from the field, you know, field that was just awful
19:38
throughout this stretch. Man, it's it's like, my gosh,
19:41
it's like they were put in such terrible positions.
19:44
You know, but interesting though, I said, you know, the
19:48
balls were they were held to a combined eight hits the final
19:51
two games of the series. You know, game one that had nine
19:53
hits, but you know, couple of those were 8 by fielding errors.
19:56
But total the combined the last two games was 8.
19:59
You know, even though you know, so obviously William spent, you
20:03
know, he was a large part of them being held to well, I think
20:06
it was like 3 three hits on Saturday or something like that.
20:10
He was a massive part of that because he played the most of
20:13
the game. Injury, you know, even though he
20:15
had the blown save. At one point during his outing
20:19
on game three, he went three up, 3 down multiple times, including
20:22
the 9th inning. You know, to finish off game
20:24
you'd like just to push it to extras.
20:26
Yeah. And if you combine our errors
20:28
for the weekend, we had more errors than Tennessee had hits
20:35
in that stretch you were talking about.
20:37
Yeah, actually, no, we didn't. Sorry about that.
20:39
We had five errors on the weekend and we didn't have any
20:43
errors on Friday night, which was the 1st.
20:49
But even still, it was just like he just pitching did not get
20:53
pitching wasn't the reason they they struggled in this series.
20:56
You know, thankfully the office had a lot of carried a lot of
20:59
weight outside of Saturday, of course, but just.
21:01
But yeah, that's, that's my pitching.
21:04
Yeah, my pitching is. But no, like I said before, I
21:07
think he came in and did a tremendous job on Sunday.
21:11
He limited the damage. Just like with Schmidt, though,
21:14
what got us in trouble was our terrible defensive play, which
21:19
Schmidt On Saturday, York commits an error that gives him
21:25
two runs. You know, then Aaron BD.
21:30
The only reason he got named the Buster Posey Catcher of the week
21:33
is because he hit four home runs in a game.
21:35
It's not off of his defense, it's purely off of his offense.
21:41
Let's the ball go. Now give him one because Schmidt
21:44
burned through that MIT when they got the 4th run, which
21:49
ended up being a great insurance run for them, not that they
21:52
needed it. On Saturday he let one go to the
21:55
wall, which he should have caught.
21:56
But my number two guy was Guidry.
21:59
I think that was really after that week he had where he
22:02
started against Kentucky. He came back and threw, gave up
22:08
one inning through 5 and I think it was 5 and a third.
22:12
That's Saturday. The Gator was on.
22:16
Yeah, 5 and a third Gidry threw, and he only gave up two hits in
22:21
one run and he walked one, so you know, he looked good.
22:27
I gave it to him. And then Evans.
22:29
I thought Evans did a tremendous job keeping the game close and
22:32
keeping it in hand. Let's see, he gave up three
22:37
runs, went five and 2/3 and gave up six hits.
22:40
But he kept it in that realm of possibility for us to make that
22:43
comeback we did in the 7th. Absolutely right.
22:46
Or the 8th, I'm sorry, the 8th where we made that comeback in
22:50
the 8th and we just took over and Sharon got the save and
22:55
Garcia got the win and that's my top three for pitching Fat, no
23:00
Guidry and Evans. Papa.
23:02
No, I like it. Yeah.
23:04
Let you go ahead and do your offense.
23:06
So offense, I have start off with Kate Aaron, BD #2 I got
23:11
Derrick Curio and Ladder's edition from I think earlier
23:14
this morning I put Steven Mylan. So number one was this.
23:20
You can really make a compelling argument for Curiel just because
23:23
like he was so steady throughout the stretch, you know, just
23:25
really just been on fire recently.
23:28
But just I just I just kept it with Kate because I became the
23:31
1st player in LSU history of the history, the luxurious history
23:35
of this program. This is a program with eight
23:38
national championships and it's like nobody else with all the
23:42
home run hitters. First one ever do four in a
23:44
game. Yeah, he's only the 4th in the
23:48
conference to do it. That's right, they.
23:52
Said that last night, No. Yeah, I think the closest one
23:58
was this season with Jake Brown, three in one game and then I
24:03
think a couple, I think maybe a year or two ago was Jones had
24:07
three in a game, you know? So that comes that goes without
24:13
saying just like in that and really what really helped me
24:16
push over the edge for him. You know, I just put in the
24:18
rubber match. You know, this is an all time
24:20
clutch performance. I think so far to see that's the
24:23
the most clutch individual performance of the year given
24:25
that spot given like a conference rival on the road in
24:29
the rubber match I did. I just think that's the most
24:31
clutch performance to this point at least.
24:34
You know, obviously with Curio second, you know, he finished
24:37
the Tennessee series with seven hits and five RBIs.
24:40
You know, he, he hit 571 in those three games he went, he
24:44
hit 571. Then I think last night he had a
24:48
three hit game. Yeah, Yeah, he did.
24:51
Yeah, he's just, he's he comes alive.
24:55
And like they said last week that they wouldn't be surprised
24:59
by the end of this season, Curiel and Brown swap places.
25:04
Yeah, definitely as team leader. Yeah, my offense stayed the same
25:10
as yours. Yeah, but real quick with Steven
25:13
Mylam, just I put him like I was teetering for that last spot.
25:16
But Steven Mylam just I feel like he was just a tad more
25:18
steady because I was looking at Stanfield stat.
25:21
I look at other couple other people, but Steven Martin was
25:24
more steady. He had like a three hit 3 ribby
25:26
game in the rubber match. So I just gave him a slight
25:29
edge. And I mean, if you look at it
25:32
too, he flirted with a home run and got robbed.
25:36
You know, I went Aaron BD, the four home runs was a huge and I
25:40
think he got a double or a single in there.
25:43
He went four for 5:00 on Sunday. You know, he looked really good.
25:48
He looked good last night. He continued, picked up right
25:50
where he left off. That Grand Slam is what
25:54
eventually took us over the edge on Sunday.
25:57
So he's #1 Curiel just had a solid, had a solid last couple
26:02
weeks. Yeah, absolutely.
26:03
You know, he is going to get right.
26:06
He's picking up right where we said he needed to be.
26:09
He's coming back. He's playing his game.
26:12
And then I went with Stanfield because on that Friday game,
26:18
that solo home run really gave us an edge and he puts a spark
26:22
in it. And.
26:24
That's my offensive guys. You know, I'll let you go,
26:28
Defense. Yeah, this real quick guy with
26:31
the office like this, I'm with like it was like him and between
26:35
Mallam and Stanfield, you know, just I wanted to give a shot.
26:38
Just, you know, I just can't. You can't say enough about like
26:43
how they're they perform. And like Aaron Beatty was so
26:47
robbed in that strike alcohol. It was outrageous.
26:50
Like woefully bad. I was like, Oh my gosh, that's
26:54
why Jay got tossed. And like, I don't blame him.
26:56
That's when that is when I wish we had the A/B, S, A/B, O.
27:00
I said it during the, I said it during the game.
27:02
I said this is long overdue, man.
27:05
You, you cannot, you cannot wait any longer without ABS.
27:09
No, in college you cannot wait any longer.
27:12
You look at it and it's not like we don't have the Trackman data
27:17
because they can come out and tell you how fast we hit, how
27:20
what the exit velocity was. They can tell you what the pitch
27:25
is. A lot of that is from a lot of
27:28
these commentators are former baseball players, you know, but
27:34
they can tell you what the pitch is.
27:35
They know it's, we know we got everything.
27:39
Just do it, you know? But you got to do it differently
27:41
from for LSU to at least succeed, you got to do it
27:44
differently from MLB. You can't let that be on the
27:48
catcher and the pitcher or the batter, because a guy like Jake
27:52
Brown will sit. A guy like Jake Brown will get
27:54
up there and he'll sit there and do this the whole time, every
27:57
pitch. You know, they just like my
28:02
thing is the fact that was crazy about like the IT was the call
28:06
was so delayed. I'm like, but like he sat there
28:10
and then put I said no, you got to be kidding me.
28:13
Got to. Be and look, I'm not making I'm
28:15
not making fun of Jake Brown just to make fun of Jake Brown.
28:17
I'm making fun of Jake Brown because statistically he is the
28:21
one who whines the most about he could be clearly out like when
28:25
that Southern game when that kid hit the ball, caught that ball.
28:29
I don't know if he just wanted to see him catch it again in
28:31
slow motion or what on that replay, but he was out.
28:35
The ball never hit the ground and he turned to that dugout and
28:38
quickly went, you know, I'm. Like brother, this is clear
28:41
brother, that call was. Clear.
28:42
It was clear. Yeah, there was a couple of them
28:45
that were clear, but you got to rein it in.
28:47
You got these young guys who are just think they're always, you
28:51
know, a guy like Derek Curriel where he knows he's got great
28:56
plate discipline and stuff like that.
28:58
And he could tell, you know, if he doesn't swing, it's not a
29:01
straight up strike. You know, a guy like him, it'd
29:05
be useful for him if our catchers could catch the ball.
29:09
It would be useful to our catchers for sure.
29:11
But, you know, we just got to get it going and.
29:17
Speaking of like was like last quick thing on the office.
29:21
I just want to give a shout out to Jake brown for that, you
29:24
know, just for that clutch game time, RBI and the and the ribby
29:28
single in the night to extend the game.
29:30
Game was over without that yet. So I just want to even though I
29:33
didn't make out lit. I just, I want to give him that
29:35
quick shout out because that was a major hit.
29:36
Yeah, yeah. So I'll let you go with your
29:39
defense. So with the defense, obviously,
29:41
you know, if Steven Milo #1 like I said, you know, Sharpie
29:45
Steven, you know, he's just going to be pencil Sharpie in.
29:48
And that the number one spy race for 2nd place #2 is, I mean,
29:51
this point, at this point, he's a runaway.
29:53
At this point we can just, we can just stop and go with #2 and
29:58
3. Then I don't think we even need
30:01
to. I don't even think we need to
30:03
say that. I think we just need to start at
30:05
2:00 and 3:00. That's what's got.
30:08
Korea 2 and Jake Jane Brown at 3.
30:11
The same as last week. Both I was the same as last
30:13
week. Yeah, I got it.
30:15
Mine's the same as you and I gave Brown that extra edge just
30:20
because that play in right field.
30:23
Yeah, like the foul, like the two I put and they both had
30:26
great web gym plays, you know, Brown's foul, foul territory
30:30
catching Game 2. And Curia had the incredible,
30:33
had multiple incredible wall hidden outs.
30:35
Like he just lay his body out. Just really sane.
30:38
Really. It was most most notably the
30:40
when Guidry's on the mound at the end of the game we got with
30:43
Cheney, He was, I don't know if it was 10th or 11th, but it was
30:45
like that deep shot. And that's what I thought it was
30:48
like the deep shot. He like I was like, man, that's
30:52
that game's over without that hit.
30:54
Yeah. And you know, I was looking at
30:55
it and I mean, I got kind of worried at one point because we
31:00
had the game going and then somebody had their phone on the
31:03
thing and it was a little ahead and all I could hear was this
31:05
frame and I thought they had walked us off and I was like,
31:09
they can't do that again. But like I said, my guys are the
31:14
same. I got Curiel and Brown coming in
31:17
at 2nd and 3rd. Milan the obvious first.
31:20
They were talking about last night between Lynn Rollins and
31:24
Ronnie Rantz. Can you just go ahead and say
31:27
that Milam is the best defensive shortstop we've ever had at LSU?
31:31
Listen, listen, I, I think you'd be hard pressed to find somebody
31:35
better at this point. The guys, I mean, automatic is
31:39
automatic can be like don't tell that to so and so on Reddit.
31:43
So I saw some the other day he had deleted the post though.
31:45
But I, I don't know, I don't think he's LSU fan, but you just
31:48
saw more like how was Milam a top 100 prospect and stuff like
31:52
that? He said he he's the average like
31:55
he you know he's a source short guy, He's avid arm like he's
31:59
live, bit like he makes errors. I said brother respectfully,
32:03
like if you think if you use an errors as a metric you just
32:06
simply haven't watched the games like that's.
32:08
His, maybe he made a couple, though.
32:11
He made a couple in his first two years, but he's been solid,
32:14
you know, least valuable player. I think we said it already, Zach
32:17
York, he's just terrible. I mean, I don't know if there's
32:22
another first baseman we've had that's coming in as a true first
32:27
baseman who has been as bad as him fielding wise.
32:31
And I don't remember who I had this discussion with.
32:35
He'll come around offensively. Offensively, it's different.
32:39
You can come out of a slump defensively.
32:43
I don't see you coming out of that slump defensively.
32:45
That's just skill level. And I don't think he's got it
32:48
skill wise to be in the SEC, first baseman in the SEC.
32:53
You know, it's it's it's a tough watch right now because like he
32:56
has such a strong start to the season.
32:58
You know, I just The thing is, like I said, you, I can live
33:02
with you. It'll be one thing if you were
33:05
just been unbelievably dominant offensively.
33:09
I can like cope with like the defensive miscues, even though
33:14
this is defensive sport by structure, as I always say.
33:17
But just like if you are producing offensively, I mean,
33:23
it would it would be easier to stomach like what you're is it
33:26
#1 hundreds in a conference play right now.
33:29
Yeah. Or if you're like Braswell was
33:32
last year, where you elite defensively, where it's not
33:39
elite defensively and you're not letting in more than you're
33:42
bringing in. Yeah, you know, I'm fine with
33:46
that. But you are doing terrible on
33:49
all facets of the game. And to me, that's where you just
33:56
need to sit on the bench for a little while.
33:58
You can get some garbage time. You can get some meaningful reps
34:01
in in the midweek, even though we need to start winning those
34:04
midweek games. But in conference play, Brian
34:06
can hit the ball. He's shown it.
34:08
He's was the number one first baseman in whatever state we
34:12
pulled him from. I'm good with that.
34:14
Indiana, yeah. Yeah, he was the first number
34:17
one rated first baseman in Indiana.
34:19
He's from South Man. Yeah, I mean, I like it.
34:24
You know, I like the people of Louisiana coming together and
34:26
get more NIM money for these guys starting auctions and all
34:30
kind of this stuff. You know, I think that's huge,
34:35
but I'm going to let you go ahead and give you a tone
34:38
setting, Tiger of the Week, the tone setting.
34:41
Tiger for from yours truly, I got fielding, man.
34:44
Just you simply have to make the routine plays.
34:47
It's a defensive sport by structure.
34:49
Listen, listen, I never played. So I'm not going to sit here and
34:52
say like, I'm I can coach these guys.
34:54
But it's like a lot of people, lot of people who play the game,
34:57
they could tell you, you got to clean that stuff up.
34:58
So that's what I'm saying. Yeah.
35:00
But like, just it's a route. It's called a routine place for
35:03
a reason. Does the meet date, the miscues
35:06
that have extended extended innings and they put the
35:09
pitchers in tough spots. So like, thank God, the offense
35:12
really largely showed up against Tennessee and the pitching just
35:15
stayed firm because like, we would have got swept otherwise
35:18
because the fielding was a so rough.
35:20
You know, like, and granted, to be fair to fielding, you know,
35:22
neither. The pitching and offense has
35:23
been elite and special all year, especially on a consistent
35:27
basis, because they've been, they've been great at spurts,
35:29
but not consistently. But at least they collectively
35:31
showed up in Knoxville. Fielding has to be better point
35:34
blank. Yeah, And look, like they said
35:38
last night, you look at this pitching staff and sure we're
35:40
down, but we lead the SEC and strikeouts.
35:43
That's right, pitching staff does, you know.
35:47
My. Tone setting tiger of the week
35:50
is the head man in charge of Jay Johnson and it's.
35:53
He did it last night OK, he did it last night.
35:57
I thought he think he needs to really take a hard look at two
36:01
positions, one being first base and one being catcher and then
36:05
look at it and see that he has two guys in Eddie Yaman and
36:11
Mason Braun or Sarna that you could plug in at first.
36:16
But, you know, at one point I heard somebody say this weekend
36:21
they could play drinking game with how many times our catches
36:23
actually catch the ball and take a shot, for how many times they
36:27
catch the ball and still be sober, you know, and I mean,
36:30
that's the ugly truth. And Eddie Yaman actually catches
36:33
the ball. He feels the position and he
36:35
does his job. You know, you can't ask for
36:40
anymore. Plus, he hits.
36:43
Plus, he's a steady bat in the lineup, you know?
36:46
But he produced, he produces. We get the last stress for sure.
36:50
Exactly. So it's not hurting you, he's
36:53
helping you. And same thing with first base,
36:57
a more athletic guy over there, Mason Braun.
37:00
You want to put Garcia in the catch for a little while and put
37:05
Yaman at first or you want to put just defensive changes,
37:09
slight defensive changes. The to be made going forward to
37:12
have a successful time for the rest of the season.
37:15
But I'll give out my player of the week offensively was just
37:19
Aaron Beatty. You can't beat him.
37:21
You can't beat it. He was solid.
37:23
He's one of the sparks that that want us to game.
37:27
And that's my guy. You know, we're going to have to
37:31
you're not just going to walk into Ole Miss and it's going to
37:33
be easy. Old Miss is just like you, you
37:36
know, But I think if I'm not wrong, let's see, it's going to
37:41
be the same thing as it was this weekend with conference.
37:46
Conference play wise, yeah, Conference play wise, you've got
37:49
you're six and six in conference in Ole Miss is five and seven.
37:53
You have to take two or three from them.
37:55
You have to stay ahead of at least them going forward.
38:01
You know, you're so close to getting that automatic regional
38:04
bid. I think you with the way this is
38:07
shaken up in the SEC this year, which only three teams have
38:12
actually pulled forward ahead and that being Georgia at 10 and
38:15
two, Texas at 9:00 and 3:00 and Alabama at 8:00 and 4:00.
38:21
The way the rest of this conference shakes up and how we
38:24
keep beating up on each other in conference play, I think, you
38:27
know, you get in with ten wins in the SEC, but you're locked at
38:32
1415 wins and at six wins and what we've got left, I can see
38:36
us getting those wins that we need, you know?
38:41
Yeah, just like, like I said, you know, just they're they're
38:44
still going to be played for, you know, just I just want these
38:48
guys to be consistent, man. Just you're not going to be
38:50
perfect by any means. But just like just if you even
38:54
like when you lose these mid week games, obviously they will
38:57
never carry the weight as a conference opponent, but just
39:00
you got to take something. You got to take two out of three
39:04
in these series to counteract that cause at least with the
39:07
conference series is going to you're going to carry a lot of
39:09
the weight for your for your status.
39:11
In the full season, and you know, we talk a lot about RPI,
39:14
losing the Bethune Cookman didn't hurt you as bad as RPI,
39:19
as bad as you think, because they were.
39:21
They're 10 and two in conference play and they're 23 and 10
39:24
overall. After last night, you know,
39:28
they're a pretty good team and that's why Jay Pence with him
39:30
and he was looking for an RPI boost, you know?
39:33
Yep, so. Yeah, You know, it shocks me
39:38
looking at the conference. OK, Arkansas, 5:00 and 7:00.
39:43
Yeah. Man, Oklahoma, with as good as
39:45
they've been all set they were at the beginning of the season,
39:47
is five and seven. And then, you know, it's not
39:49
surprising. The top guys except for Alabama.
39:51
I'm kind of shocked. Alabama is 8 and 4, but as good
39:54
as they were going in in Auburn at six and six kind of shocks me
39:58
too, you know? Yeah, we're trying to find a
40:00
way. The conference is really up for
40:02
grabs. There's nobody, you know, LSU
40:05
does his job against Georgia and later on this year, you know, I
40:08
mean it just there's nobody that's really setting the world
40:11
on fire except for Georgia and Texas at the moment, you know,
40:15
right. It's just and the Speaking of
40:17
Jordan, Georgia had like 20 runs like yesterday.
40:22
Yeah, like when they brought it up on the pregame show, they
40:24
said Kirby Smart and the boys showed up and put up 4
40:27
touchdowns, you know? But see, I didn't take really
40:31
any notes for this series, but like I said, it was an Easter
40:35
miracle in Knoxville. We've got to get better.
40:37
I think we will get better. Last night was kind of a step
40:40
back for us instead of a step forward pitching wise.
40:45
I think fight wise we still got a lot of fight in US.
40:49
Yeah. You know, again, somebody said
40:51
the difference between this year's team and 24's team is
40:56
when 2014 was losing, they just lost.
40:59
Yeah, this year's team, when they losing, they'll at least
41:02
put some fight in it and give you a fight.
41:04
They won't go down. They'll go down swinging.
41:07
They won't go down just to go down.
41:10
Yeah, that's what I do. That's what I do on Mars so far.
41:16
Yeah, but these guys just need to come out and they just need
41:20
to find that energy and they we need, we need to have more along
41:26
the lines of energy wise because it's just not fun to go out and
41:30
watch them this year, you know? But that'll do it for me.
41:35
Any closing thoughts? You know, just like you know,
41:37
brother, like Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ has risen.
41:42
Biggest miracle of all, man, just it was a beautiful weekend.
41:45
You know, that's first and foremost start with that.
41:48
And just, you know, obviously in my Tigers, the Lord blessed with
41:51
us that that second miracle. That's just because I think
41:55
we've gone with, you know, how do you, it's crazy that you go
41:57
from, you know, the way we started, you beat A-Team by ten
42:03
runs in extra innings. That's like going from 6:00 to
42:07
1:00. Well, six to nothing that we all
42:09
scored on 16 to 1 the rest of the way as a miracle in the
42:12
South. Brothers, it's a miracle, you
42:15
know, shout out to the gymnastics team for making the I
42:18
guess it's the semi finals, just making it to nationals, you
42:22
know, shout out to them. I went to those meets when they
42:25
had the regionals. It's a good atmosphere, a good
42:28
time, you know, But we've got that going on, we've got
42:34
baseball going on and I don't know what's wrong with softball
42:37
that they're winning, but that doesn't say much.
42:41
There's a reason why we don't cover them as much or at all.
42:45
You know we sweet women's basket women's basketball team, we got
42:49
a commitment. Caroline Bradley commits to us.
42:52
I was that broke yesterday 1 premiere.
42:55
Yeah. Young ladies, five star recruit,
42:58
you know, one of the top players in the country.
43:01
You know, that's huge. Oak Grove, LA.
43:04
Yes, that's big time. Yeah.
43:06
So yeah, shout out to the program.
43:09
I listened a little bit of Lane Kiffin's press conference
43:11
yesterday and he said at the moment this is going to be a
43:14
defensive team. And like he said, it's because
43:17
those guys know the system. We've got a lot coming back, you
43:21
know, He said. We are going to take it
43:24
personally. He needs to get the run game
43:26
going because that's how he's offensive runs.
43:29
But speaking the offense in defense, my closing thoughts are
43:34
we just need to be better defensively.
43:36
Clean up those errors, those mental mistakes, then continue
43:40
where you left off on the Tennessee series last three
43:44
innings. Pick up where you left off
43:46
offensively there. But that carry that, that
43:49
momentum, carry you into the seas the rest of the season and
43:53
you'll be fine. You'll be at least a regional
43:55
team, maybe a super regional team at the moment.
43:57
I can't push you into my Omaha 8 just because not yet.
44:01
You too inconsistent. You need to be more consistent.
44:05
But yeah, but love you guys. Please like follow, comment,
44:12
subscribe, do all the things that need to be done.
44:19
You know, I always have my links in the YouTube video and I put
44:23
the links on the Spotify for the social other socials.
44:26
But yeah, for anybody on spring break like I am, have a great
44:30
rest of your spring break and that'll do it from us.
44:32
Have a great day, a great week, great morning, night, whatever
44:35
you have, just make it a great one.
44:37
That'll do it from us later. Later.