Latest / JustIN Time / LSU Baseball: Turning the Tide with Fundamentals and Leadership
Transcript
- 0:07Welcome to another edition of the Just in Time podcast.
- 0:10I'm your host, Justin, and with me is Will back Bro, how you
- 0:14doing? I'm good, I'm back.
- 0:17I'm great. You good, you back.
- 0:19It's good to have you back. Man, listen, it wasn't like we
- 0:23had talked before we went on air this, you know, there's been a
- 0:27rough 7 days and some change. You know, like I was telling my
- 0:29telling my sister the other day, I said, listen, you know, I've
- 0:32been watching me watch a lot of games, but not as many as
- 0:34Justin, my other Co worker and many other people.
- 0:37But just I watched it left and this is like the worst I've ever
- 0:40seen them. You know, the northeast game two
- 0:42against northeast and I was like the worst game I've ever seen
- 0:44him played. This is like the worst stretch
- 0:46I've ever seen him have. It's a lot to it.
- 0:49You know, baseball, it's a, it's a, it's such a long season.
- 0:52But like I said, it's, it's a rough watch right now.
- 0:55It is. And you know, hopefully Jay got
- 1:00it figured out. Hopefully.
- 1:04But, and I mean, after he listened to his radio show last
- 1:07night, it sounds like he's got the pieces in place.
- 1:12You know, reading the articles from last week on Friday, he
- 1:16said it was his decision. He didn't set his team up for
- 1:20success early. He thought we were going to be
- 1:23good, but stacking those games and then with the NCAA's rest
- 1:28rule, having 5-6 games a week doesn't really didn't really
- 1:34play into his team success. Because when they were
- 1:35struggling, they didn't have those days to work it out at
- 1:40practice. And I mean, let's see, they
- 1:43played Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, then on Wednesday.
- 1:47Had to have that mandatory NCAA rest day on Tuesday that week.
- 1:53Yeah, so they went. They had practice before the No,
- 1:57they didn't have practice because they played at like 2:00
- 2:02against Nichols, then got on the plane, had practice on Thursday,
- 2:05went Friday, Saturday, Sunday, got on a plane Sunday night,
- 2:09flew back, had a game on Tuesday against Mcneice, then they had a
- 2:13rest. They look good against the first
- 2:15three games against Dartmouth Northeastern and Dartmouth again
- 2:20struggled highly on Monday, which played into struggling on
- 2:26Wednesday night, which led to them kind of getting it together
- 2:29on Friday, then struggle, struggle Saturday and Sunday.
- 2:33Yeah, you could kind of see the cracks even even in the winds,
- 2:36you know, during last weekend, you could kind of see the cracks
- 2:39a little bit even with like the struggle wins.
- 2:42As for Dartmouth and Northeastern, the first will go
- 2:44round and this you know, the picture was really holding them
- 2:48together. This didn't just happen this
- 2:52right, you know happen as a multitude of things and it just
- 2:59it didn't help them when they couldn't get those practices in
- 3:03to get the stuff together. But I think hitting wise because
- 3:08they're sure they're struggling at the plate when I getting
- 3:10hits. But one of the main things I saw
- 3:13is exit Velos in the hundreds long loud out there.
- 3:17And looking at it, Saturday's game didn't really conduce a lot
- 3:21of home run hitting. Neither did Sunday night's game,
- 3:24Neither did last Wednesday. And really neither did the
- 3:28Monday before that or the all weekend before that.
- 3:31I think weather played into a big factor.
- 3:34We had beautiful weather the first week of the season.
- 3:36We had beautiful weather in Jacksonville.
- 3:38Then the weather started kind of get stale.
- 3:41I guess the wind wasn't blowing. When your winds not blowing, you
- 3:44don't have that help to give that extra 10 feet to those
- 3:46balls that are on the border. I think this team has a tendency
- 3:53where they say we'll just win it all in one, one swing.
- 3:58Yeah. When we started putting it on,
- 4:01when we started putting it on the ground a little bit against
- 4:05SAC State, we started making things move.
- 4:07Yeah, and that's the thing. Like that's, you know, one thing
- 4:11I've noticed recently, like the trend with the offense is this,
- 4:15they're just pressing a little too much and guys are not
- 4:18playing. You know, Scone was saying was
- 4:20just not playing the team concept and also not playing to
- 4:24really your strengths. Like particularly when it comes
- 4:26to Curiel or Curiel. Just listen, I mean, you're not
- 4:29a power editor. You're an elite prospect.
- 4:31You're a great player, but just stay to your strengths.
- 4:34Like I know like he put on some weight going into the season.
- 4:37I know you know, he this is like a a draft year.
- 4:40So I know like he's trying to put on.
- 4:42So from that standpoint, I understand you want to just show
- 4:44what you got. But they normally say, you know,
- 4:46power is like the last thing to come as a as a baseball player.
- 4:50And The thing is, listen, like I look at this, I was thinking
- 4:53about this the other day, just like I don't care if you're Hank
- 4:57Aaron or Tony Gwinn, They're both in Cooperstown.
- 5:00One guy's known for hitting home runs all time home running
- 5:04hitter leader in MLB, Tony Gwynn was the greatest hitters.
- 5:07Like wouldn't like a power guy, but just they're both in the
- 5:09Hall of Fame. That doesn't play to your
- 5:11strengths. You don't have to go for like
- 5:13the long ball every time, you know?
- 5:14JJ said previously. Like hard not far, just get on
- 5:18base. And that's what some of them
- 5:21struggle to do. The worst thing that I saw, and
- 5:25I believe if we'd ahead, and I like him, I like him, is York.
- 5:29I think the worst thing that could have happened on Saturday
- 5:33was Zacky Wart getting up there with runners on in a one run
- 5:38game because he took three hacks that looked foolish, but he
- 5:45swung that bat with the intent of putting that ball in Tiger
- 5:49Stadium. Yeah.
- 5:52I mean, that's the yeah. And curveball.
- 5:56Curveball, high fastball that was nowhere near the strike
- 6:00zone, swing, swing, swing, and they have another approach.
- 6:09You got to keep it simple. You don't have to hit the ball
- 6:13at the park, Just keep it simple.
- 6:15And then a lot of guys, they're getting under the ball.
- 6:19Yes, elevated, but yes. That's the last.
- 6:23Several games. So many infield fly pop ups,
- 6:27infield fly outs, Some of them we got break, they missed it.
- 6:31The wind carried it back in when they missed it.
- 6:34But we've got to be better, a better offensive approach.
- 6:39Yeah, The thing is now granted to be somewhat fair to the
- 6:43offense. I know they have even when they
- 6:45did have real hard contact on the ball, a lot of these
- 6:48fielder, these infielders like make some incredible plays.
- 6:52But those were few. Those were still few and far
- 6:54between with from the overall approach.
- 6:56Because my thing is like even York, I could see Zach York
- 6:59striking out a lot because he's a power hitter.
- 7:01But my thing is what what impressed me about him when the
- 7:04season started was the fact that is he had elite play discipline.
- 7:07Right now you just press you just pressing.
- 7:09I mean, listen, brother, get on these.
- 7:11Yeah, and not as bad as you get. Get get the OB percentage up.
- 7:14Like just get back to your strengths.
- 7:16Yeah, the the kids don't come for it.
- 7:17I don't. I don't doubt that.
- 7:19But just makes make smart at bats, make the pitcher work like
- 7:24you've been like you started the year with make the pitcher.
- 7:26Work, yeah. I think when we're going to have
- 7:29a big take away, like a huge improvement and it's going to
- 7:35add some spark back in this lineup is when Chris Stanfield
- 7:38comes back. Man, that's you talk about an
- 7:40elite two way player that he's he's a massive player.
- 7:43Like and like I told you last in the offseason, I said, listen,
- 7:46when right after the last season ended, I said him being retained
- 7:50was a massive retain for us. Yeah, it was.
- 7:54And what I think is going to happen is tonight he might get
- 7:57some playing time later on in the game.
- 7:59I think Jay said he wasn't going to start him.
- 8:01He was going to be in a limited capacity this week.
- 8:03Right. But look, in that Vandy game,
- 8:07he's going to end up probably starting get in that lead off
- 8:11spot. If he's going to pump this
- 8:13offense up now, hopefully he stays healthy.
- 8:17He would be a big get because some runs that they scored over
- 8:21the last however many games since he's been out, probably
- 8:26with 12:00 and 5:00. So probably 15 games since he's
- 8:28been out or balls hit like that first run that SAC State scored
- 8:34on Saturday was a ball that I left fielded.
- 8:38I forgot who was in left field at that time, but took a
- 8:40terrible read on the ball and it went over his head.
- 8:45Stanfield, you could play at the wall and trust that he runs all
- 8:49the way up. Because he has the great speed
- 8:51and the brake. Exactly.
- 8:53And he's got to get up and go that most people don't have.
- 8:56He can change directions. He's like a receiver.
- 8:58He can change directions at a drop of a hat, you know.
- 9:03For sure. He'll come back, he'll give you
- 9:05a bit of life, but overall you just need to keep it simple.
- 9:10Yeah. All right, let me paint you a
- 9:12picture. Let me paint you a picture.
- 9:15Come on. Next couple months.
- 9:17You know This is why we're not worried.
- 9:20OK. You start wearing it three weeks
- 9:23down the road at the same little small stuff keeps happening.
- 9:27Then you worry. Yeah.
- 9:29At the moment. Let me paint you picture and for
- 9:33you, you LL fans, I'll use you as an example.
- 9:37You know, it's the first week of June 2026.
- 9:41You know, you just make a quick little drive out to Baton Rouge
- 9:44and you go sit and you wait and you have a couple rain delays,
- 9:47but you wait maybe till midnight some nights.
- 9:51But you're at Alex Box Stadium and it's big, bright, the lights
- 9:56are on and everybody's having a good time.
- 10:00And then LSU comes around and they do a little victory lap and
- 10:05they shake everybody's hand, all the fans hands.
- 10:08They give us high fives and this and that.
- 10:11And then you know what happens in about a week after that?
- 10:14They get on a plane and they go to Nebraska and they go sit in
- 10:18Omaha and we're going to have a good time.
- 10:21And you know what you ULL fans, little brother, they'll be doing
- 10:25in Lafayette? Watching us on teeth.
- 10:28Watching us on TV and your players are going to be going to
- 10:32their summer ball leagues or back home.
- 10:35Yep, come on. There's some of them to the
- 10:38Baton Rouge, Rougarou or whatever, the Lake Charles team
- 10:41he came up with. But that's why we're not
- 10:44panicked. Jay Johnson is the best coach in
- 10:47college baseball right now. A.
- 10:49Question. There is no panic.
- 10:51And if you listen to some of these former players when they
- 10:54talk, I'm not going to lie, this week I didn't really turn TuneIn
- 10:58Muskona or so I focused in because it's the former players
- 11:06and some of them former players like Makima took in them, played
- 11:10from Maneri, who after their national championship season and
- 11:14nine went through the same struggles.
- 11:16And I mean, I think it's 2011. They didn't even make a
- 11:20regional, you know, so they've been through these struggles.
- 11:25They know what it takes to get back on the right track.
- 11:28When they start panicking, then I'll start panicking.
- 11:31But as of right now, nobody's panicked.
- 11:34Matter of fact, the only people who are panic is people who want
- 11:37LSU fans. They see a drop from #2 to #13
- 11:40and think fraudulent behavior in, you know.
- 11:47Right. Way I look at it is I'd rather
- 11:51it happen now. Same here.
- 11:54In the first what we on week four, first four weeks of the
- 11:57season, then it we have a monumental collapse in May.
- 12:03Yes. Get knocked out the SEC
- 12:06tournament fast. Which?
- 12:10In my opinion, I mean, I love winning, but if we can go to the
- 12:13SEC tournament, play one or two games like we did last year,
- 12:18just enough to get our starting pitchers, you know, quick
- 12:23outing, a little tune up before the big show.
- 12:26Yes, Sir. Then that's fine by me.
- 12:31Yeah, that's just the future. That's what's going to happen.
- 12:34Yes, it's just The thing is like I'm what you dare, you know,
- 12:37think about when you when you play in a high profile, you
- 12:40know, college, you know, it doesn't any sport, you know,
- 12:42just I don't care. I'm not as invested outside of
- 12:46football because there's not many games, but just out.
- 12:48But other than that, just with baseball, basketball, I'm not
- 12:52too pressed about us winning a conference championship because
- 12:55like you said, give us some more rest and like you already have
- 12:58like the RP, the high RPI and stuff like that, the high
- 13:01quality wins because you're in the premier conference.
- 13:04So like I'm already have a lot of that to offer when when on
- 13:07the select for the selection committee that I might think is
- 13:10this and like and going back to the original points, just I know
- 13:14I get why people are concerned. You know, this is the first time
- 13:17we lost five games versus like a Nah P4 schools in the pre before
- 13:21the pre the before the conference.
- 13:23They sent to 2007 season, which was Paul Maneri's first season
- 13:26LSU. That was like the last time we
- 13:28missed the tournament all together, or at least one of
- 13:29them only two times in the last two decades where we missed the
- 13:32tournament. But like, even with five
- 13:35championships already to our name back then, you know, I
- 13:39could give them a pass because that pro the program wasn't
- 13:41where it is. Like they had like a downs bill
- 13:44in comparison to skip bourbon there, of course, But like we
- 13:47still have so much talent. And like I said, it's way too
- 13:50early. Like I like you, like you had
- 13:52said last week, I said wait till we get to like at least three
- 13:56weeks into the conference slate. And if you still see like a a
- 13:59still the same middling trend, then I could be a little more.
- 14:03I can start pressing the panic, but I'm not I'm concerned
- 14:06slightly, but because it's been a rough watch, but I mean, it's
- 14:09you still got a lot of time. So I mean, it's concerning
- 14:13defensively, yeah, when you see a catcher who can't catch the
- 14:17ball, yeah, consistently, you know, when you see a guy really
- 14:23struggle, you know, But you've got guys and I'm going to lay it
- 14:28out for you, OK? Yeah, go ahead, people.
- 14:30Worried about RPI from those games?
- 14:34Don't we got one? We got Vandy.
- 14:37That's a good RPI team. That's right.
- 14:40Oklahoma Tech is normally a good one.
- 14:44Kentucky, Tennessee, the theme. Cookman was a regional team last
- 14:49year. Ole Miss, Texas, A&L,
- 14:55Mississippi State, who's I think is #3 this week, yeah.
- 15:00South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.
- 15:02You know, we'll be fine. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
- 15:06I mean, you playing the best, I'm like you're going to get
- 15:09like if you get some wins, are you going to have the RP Like
- 15:12I'm not a two folk fixated on the conference championship and
- 15:15I and another thing is Jays won two natties and yet to win the
- 15:19conference. I said, listen, a program has
- 15:21built his legacy on national championship wins.
- 15:24I said having a a conference, having a natty is a great
- 15:28consolation prize to not winning the conference.
- 15:30Exactly. So I know about you guys.
- 15:34No, I'm fine with not winning. Yeah, I know you are conference.
- 15:38You, I mean, we have 8 national championships.
- 15:42You know, what's going to need to happen is and look, I think
- 15:49this was a great wake up call. Nobody's told these kids how up
- 15:55they needed this to bring them back to reality.
- 15:57Some of them as much as they say they weren't, some of them were
- 16:00still riding lashes. National championship high in
- 16:03this little spect is bringing them back to Earth.
- 16:07Yeah. But let's talk about Jake Brown.
- 16:13There's only three times offensively this season I've
- 16:16seen him mess up. Yeah, and you, my personal
- 16:19opinion, you wouldn't know why he messed up because they told
- 16:23him to use his head when he don't think he's killing the
- 16:28ball. It's just what he's not
- 16:30thinking. You can see the look on his
- 16:32face. He's got that blank stare when
- 16:34he's up to bat. And in the three times he's
- 16:37really messed up is when Jay Johnson's called timeout and
- 16:40brought him in and had a over coached him a little bit on
- 16:44approach and it got him thinking and that's when he messed up.
- 16:47That's when right there, you messed up.
- 16:48As soon as you call a timeout with Jake Brown at the bat at
- 16:51the plate, you messed up because you had to give him time to
- 16:54think. When he gets up there and he's
- 16:56got that blank look on his face and he's blinking a whole lot,
- 16:59yeah, he's locked in. And that's when you get a home
- 17:03run the left field dead center in right center.
- 17:07Like touch, you touch the touch the whole stand.
- 17:11Yeah, on top of that, the cherry on top was a little single.
- 17:18Yep. Now my problem with that is one
- 17:21for seven after that. Yeah.
- 17:25You can't go be one for seven, you know, but.
- 17:28You know, I had mentioned the last two games of the SAC State
- 17:30series. Milan, Brown and Cario were
- 17:33combined 2 for 21. Yeah.
- 17:37Including on a walk. So just like you just can't have
- 17:41that from your big three. Yeah, And you know, look, I said
- 17:46it when we did the first podcast, when we did leading up
- 17:50to the season this year that get ready where we gave our first,
- 17:55we introduced the Powerhouse poll, we did all of that.
- 17:59Here's The funny thing about baseball.
- 18:01It's not football where if a team like ULL comes into Death
- 18:07Valley, you don't even need to watch the game to know the
- 18:10outcome. You know what I mean now?
- 18:14But you know, it's baseball. Everybody plays on the same 90
- 18:18feet. You know, you get the same
- 18:21chances, you get the same breaks in the game.
- 18:23Anybody can beat anybody on any given day.
- 18:26That's right. And that's what I love about
- 18:29baseball. That's why baseball is my first
- 18:32love and that's why we do the things we do.
- 18:34It's just, you know that it's perfect.
- 18:39It's a perfect game. It's a perfect sport all the way
- 18:42down to the thing. It's a very defensive game.
- 18:46Sometimes it could be an awesome offensive game.
- 18:50But look, two. What makes the box so special
- 18:55exactly? And I'm not dogging on any fans
- 18:59because that would be dogging on us.
- 19:00If my Uncle Chris doesn't get up there and start screaming, you
- 19:04can hear a pin drop in that stadium.
- 19:06We need to get out there, show these boys some support.
- 19:11Big time. They need it.
- 19:13Start screaming. And I get we played these
- 19:16little. We played a bunch of games,
- 19:18Yeah. And look, I didn't even go to
- 19:21every single game. I didn't make a single game this
- 19:23weekend because it's too early in the season for me to be
- 19:27sitting in a rain delay. And on Sunday, Sunday, the
- 19:32parking lot I normally park in was flooded.
- 19:34So. But we need to get out there.
- 19:36We need to cheer. We need to be loud.
- 19:38It should feel like a regional atmosphere every weekend that we
- 19:41play at the Box. That went $1.00 per cent, man.
- 19:45I mean, the box is literally built so we can be on top of the
- 19:49field, even more so now that they added those hundred seats
- 19:52down the foul lines. Yeah.
- 19:55We need to get out there, we need to be loud.
- 19:59We need to cheer these boys on, give them support.
- 20:01As much as you can't believe it, they feed off of our energy.
- 20:06People feed off of each other. Without question, yeah.
- 20:09And when they're sitting there and they're watching and you can
- 20:14hear a pin drop while they play, how are they going to feed off
- 20:17your energy when you can't, when you don't bring the energy?
- 20:20And what did? But, and here's the thing, it's
- 20:22a 2 fold thing because not only it takes energy away from the
- 20:26home team, it takes away from us.
- 20:28It feeds into the World Team. Exactly.
- 20:32If we snatched we, if we snatched the home amendment
- 20:34away, this is I'm on the road. I'm like, you know, especially
- 20:37if I'm a lower, I'm a lesser conference or I'm a from a
- 20:40lesser team, lesser conference, I'm not expecting to be good
- 20:43anyway. People don't expect this to be
- 20:45here anyway. So I'm going to just already go
- 20:47out and give my best shot and we take the momentum away from you.
- 20:50Listen, I'm playing with house money in this city.
- 20:52Exactly. But we need to go out there, we
- 20:55need to be rowdy. I mean, just go out there, do
- 21:00what we need to do, win some ball games, cheer these guys on.
- 21:05I mean, as much as you want to talk about they get paid
- 21:08nowadays and how all that, there's still 18/19/20 year old
- 21:15guys, they're still kids. You know, we need to get out
- 21:19there, cheer them on, pump them up.
- 21:22They'll feed off of that, they'll feed off of that.
- 21:24They'll be great. They're all talented, they're
- 21:27all going to do great things. But we need to get out there,
- 21:31get, you know, make that place feel packed.
- 21:36Even if it's just a few 2 or 3000 or few 100 people make that
- 21:43place sound packed at least. Yeah.
- 21:47And the thing like I'm, I'm glad you brought that up about just
- 21:50like the the paid, the paid, you know, the NIL stuff.
- 21:53I said, listen, I didn't hear any complaints about it when we
- 21:57were scorching and run ruling people to start the season.
- 22:01Yeah. So I mean, I'm not saying, I'm
- 22:03not saying people are complaining about that now.
- 22:05I'm just saying. No, yeah, no, I understand what
- 22:07you're saying. Yeah, just like I said, listen
- 22:09to young people. Yeah, you look at this nowadays
- 22:13and you look at how much they're getting paid and the first thing
- 22:16that people goes to is they're more professional athletes now.
- 22:20They're still 20 something year old kids, you know.
- 22:24But all that being said, pitching wise, which has been a
- 22:27struggle for us, what they need to do except for Case and Evans.
- 22:31Evans has found himself, his pace.
- 22:35He is getting the ball real quick and it's leaving his hand
- 22:40just as quickly. Same with Moore, he had a little
- 22:42bit of hiccups this weekend, but overall he was good.
- 22:46Same with Schmidt, they found all three of them, found their
- 22:50rhythm, their rotation. Schmidt, I think could stand
- 22:56this, maybe start from the stretch because he like so few
- 22:59bass runners on nowadays that when he has to change up his
- 23:04momentum in his routine and go from the stretch, it throws him
- 23:10off a bit. So I think he could stand to
- 23:12start from the stretch just so he's used to that timing because
- 23:18that first batter he faces after somebody gets on base is
- 23:20normally a four pitch walk or the first three.
- 23:23I'll give it to him, he didn't walk this weekend.
- 23:26He just, you know, started to count that strikeout count that
- 23:30I had that he started 3 and O and then worked his way up and
- 23:34got 2 strikes and got the strikeout.
- 23:37Start him in the stretch, get him comfortable from the
- 23:40stretch. He looks good, looks better than
- 23:42he's ever had at LSU. Yeah, this.
- 23:45He's been strong, man. Yeah, I get the need to put
- 23:50Dardar in for his bat, but I think you're going to face a
- 23:54thing like Braswell in Reeves last year where I think Rocker
- 24:00is going to end up being your defensive choice.
- 24:03Dardar is going to be your offensive choice.
- 24:06Right. Right now, personally at
- 24:10catcher, I would start Sona. Me too.
- 24:13Yeah, he. Has more success on the simple
- 24:16things like catching the ball. You know, I give you I give you
- 24:21a shout out on my notes. I want to just applaud you for,
- 24:24you know, catching that two weeks ago, you know, like
- 24:27because I had two weeks ago, I had charted, I tried to cater
- 24:30and beat him for first because like he had like multiple throw
- 24:33outs, but since then, like he was just like like missing like
- 24:37the missing the catches. I'm like man, it's just and
- 24:41listen, I never played catches. I I can't imagine what 100 miles
- 24:45an hour ball comes in at me. Looks like starting to not
- 24:48having a problem right now on the defensive side.
- 24:51So it's like. And you know, it was hard for me
- 24:55to tell because where my seats are at the games, I had to watch
- 25:00the start watching them on TVA little bit from where my seats
- 25:04are, it's hard for me to see the ball hit the MIT and him drop
- 25:10it. You know, there's too much going
- 25:13on. But now that I've watched the
- 25:16games on TV when I was in Jacksonville, I sat behind the
- 25:19plate and watched them. It's very evident to me now.
- 25:24He's stabbing at the ball instead of letting it come to
- 25:27him and catching it, he's stabbing at.
- 25:29It I can see because it's like you could see on the screen,
- 25:32like when I'm watching at home, it's like you barely grasp from
- 25:35the ball and it's like like you snatched like like you say he's
- 25:38in the trash grabber and instead of like just like letting it
- 25:43bend the meat first because you just even you supposed to say on
- 25:47the low on the way pitches, because I know it's not not
- 25:49every drop. I wouldn't put on the catcher
- 25:51because like some pitches are low on the way.
- 25:53But even still, if it's a little high enough, he's still not
- 25:57coming up with the plays. He's always hitting one of
- 25:59these. The ball could be this far
- 26:01outside. Yeah, trying to pitch frame, I
- 26:03said. Listen.
- 26:04Trying to frame the pitch. Yeah, just reel it in, brother.
- 26:07Like I know, I know. Pitch frame is the key part of
- 26:10catching on defense. I said, listen, you first got to
- 26:12secure it first secure the pitch.
- 26:15I mean that that's ultimate on the pitcher, just to put in the
- 26:17strike zone, that's ultimate. I mean, all of it to me is like,
- 26:23I'm OK if you drop a few, but we've only played 17 games.
- 26:28You shouldn't have 17 drops in a weekend, you know?
- 26:34I mean, I get it. The ball hits you in the wrong
- 26:36place in the mid. I was a catcher too when I
- 26:38played. So my dad.
- 26:42Back in middle school, I was a catcher and I understand when
- 26:45the ball hits that certain spot in the mid.
- 26:47It was hard. It's hard to hold on to it.
- 26:49But I mean, guess what? I didn't make it all the way to
- 26:53college to play catcher, so that's a little different from
- 26:57me playing Little League ball to a kid.
- 27:03That's right. Playing at a national
- 27:05championship caliber team was also rated the number one
- 27:09catcher in Texas in his high school draft.
- 27:11That's right. His high school class, we got to
- 27:13start catching the ball. I don't know if it's you admit
- 27:17and you missed the ball, you would.
- 27:19I didn't watch you in high school.
- 27:20I don't know if it's just you admit that Marucci met and you
- 27:24were using a submit, but figure it out.
- 27:27If this is the MIT, go back to the old MIT.
- 27:30Like that's, that's that's. I mean, just listen, I'm not I'm
- 27:34not here for the guys to be cute.
- 27:36You guys are unbelievably talented.
- 27:38I mean, the cute is going to show it at some point, but I'm
- 27:40like, bro, just get back like it's a game.
- 27:43Sports is 1 lost team sports is 1 lost on fundamentals or any
- 27:46sport really, instead of like the cute stuff.
- 27:49I mean, I, I know it makes it's great to see, but it's like,
- 27:53man, you just missing a lot. Like you said, I'm just with you
- 27:55with the, with the Serna on defense.
- 27:58And like, I know like Jay's philosophy is like putting,
- 28:01putting the offense, putting the bats and prioritizing the
- 28:04offense, which is fine with, I'm fine with that in general
- 28:06because it's a defensive sport. But like my thing is you got to
- 28:10get on base and you got to make routine plays.
- 28:12So if you put like a more like just I'm fine with prioritizing
- 28:16the offense in the defensive sport, but these guys got to get
- 28:19on base and make the simple routine defensive plays neither,
- 28:22which they're doing right now. Yeah, and I mean, Aaron Beatty
- 28:26had one on Sunday night that looking back at it when I first
- 28:30watched it, it looked like he got enough room, but you got to
- 28:37know where you're at on the field relative to where
- 28:40everything is. He lacked that on that one and
- 28:43it's the drop third strike where he hit the kid in the back of
- 28:47the helmet and they scored the second run On Sunday's game.
- 28:50He didn't get far enough out. He thought he did, but in
- 28:56reality, all he did was go around and get right behind the
- 28:59batter's box, the right-handed batter's box, and throw.
- 29:04He should have been more out in the grass to clear that running
- 29:07lane and have a clean throw. It's small stuff, you know?
- 29:10But overall, which is their approach just needs to be
- 29:13simple. And I've noticed a lot of them,
- 29:15just a few of them that are struggling or changing their
- 29:19actual swing because I've never seen any of them in the past
- 29:26under golf as many balls as they have and just get under as many
- 29:29balls as they had. I mean, everything is elevated
- 29:33right now. I'm like, yeah, that's if you're
- 29:35not striking out so. Believe it or not, we didn't
- 29:39have too many of those. I mean, we've had a few in.
- 29:44I'm not going to lie, if I was Jay Johnson on Saturday, I might
- 29:47have gotten thrown out that game.
- 29:48Our catcher Serna struck out on one and he has been sitting
- 29:54behind the plate catching all day and it was in that exact
- 29:58same spot. It was low, right below the
- 30:01kneecaps, borderline strike. But that man has not caught a
- 30:05single pitch for either team in that spot all game long.
- 30:11You mean to tell me you struck my catcher out on that on in
- 30:15such a pivotal part of the game at that point, you know, but you
- 30:20know, we're going to be fine. Like I said, a little bit
- 30:22further down the road in a few months, we could be kicking back
- 30:27watching him play that first game in Omaha.
- 30:29We're. Going to be right back here, I
- 30:30said, listen, Yeah, I remember, yeah, when I was panicking, I
- 30:34wasn't panicking. Yeah.
- 30:36And then a little further down the road in July, we will have a
- 30:41nice little championship celebration at the box, just
- 30:44like we did last year. But it all depends on them.
- 30:48You know, I think I said it in the last week's episode.
- 30:51You go to work and you work hard, and that's when the drops
- 30:57will start happening. You'll start hitting the ball
- 30:59and no man's land. You'll start hitting the ball in
- 31:02the gap. You know, hard work makes the
- 31:05thing fall, makes the ball fall. Keep it simple.
- 31:10Keep your approach simple. You know, something that pop.
- 31:12I used to say that I've never understood.
- 31:14We'd be watching these games and I was always the big, big hit,
- 31:18big home run, gorilla ball type of guy.
- 31:22I like to see big scores and this was back when they were
- 31:26struggling, I want to say in 2014.
- 31:29We would watch him and they would hit the ball up.
- 31:34My Papa would say put the ball on the ground.
- 31:38When you put the ball on the ground, good things will happen.
- 31:40Play the small ball, put the things on, put the ball on the
- 31:42ground. You'll find a hole and I was
- 31:45like, that don't make sense. You put the ball on the ground
- 31:48and they go, you know, look at this weekend for example.
- 31:53They put the ball on the ground, they put it in play.
- 31:55Routine ground ball to shortstop who should have made it easy out
- 31:59at first base, puts it in our dugout and we get a runner in
- 32:01scoring position. That's right.
- 32:04Then we But what when we do that you if you're going to be an
- 32:09out, you got to be a productive out.
- 32:10You got to put it in a place in the park where the runner is
- 32:13second with less than one out. No outs can get from 2nd to 3rd
- 32:20and have a guy on with less than two outs that could just a pop
- 32:24fly out field and we score on. So yeah.
- 32:30You know, if you're going to be an out, you got to be a
- 32:32productive out. You got to help the team, you
- 32:33got to find a way to contribute. And that's not what that's not
- 32:36is happening right now. But hopefully in these couple of
- 32:39games this week that not week, but like because they play
- 32:43tonight, but in this little span they have where they have off,
- 32:47they just get it together and they come together as a team and
- 32:50they figure their stuff out. And we'll be sitting back
- 32:52watching them in Omaha. I mean, when things go good,
- 32:55they go good. Let's see, you got Jake Brown
- 32:59hitting three home runs. You know, Derek Curio get his
- 33:03first home run, Milam getting his first home run.
- 33:05You know, we had Brown getting 3, Aaron BD getting 1.
- 33:11So we had Curio 1, Brown 3-4, Milam 6, and Aaron BD-4.
- 33:20I mean, they're RBD 7. We had seven home runs for six
- 33:24home runs. Yeah, six home runs in one game,
- 33:27you're going to have nights like that where the ball flies.
- 33:29But Speaking of Brown's three home runs, think that's a
- 33:32perfect segue into our powerhouse poles for the week.
- 33:36Copy that. Yes, Sir.
- 33:38I will give you and let you go first.
- 33:41Well, just, you know, my philosophy is always on the
- 33:44mound because it's a defensive sport.
- 33:46You know, like I'm an offensive person in sports.
- 33:48But the baseball is different because the structure is based
- 33:52on the defense. I'm going to start off like with
- 33:54the pit, with the mound, no pitch and I got all the
- 33:57starters. You know, number one, I got Case
- 33:59in Evans. I got William Schmidt at 2 and
- 34:01Cooper more rounds at the top three.
- 34:03You know, I wrote that, you know, Evans dominated on Friday,
- 34:05you know, produced 9 strikeouts to only three walks while being
- 34:09perfect through 4 innings. You know, just now the offense
- 34:12based on the offensive star was previously, you know, the
- 34:14offense of Onshot overshadowed him a bit, but he had his best
- 34:17out of the year so far. You know, Schmidt and more
- 34:21combined for 12 KS and three walks the last two games.
- 34:24And although neither of them had their best stuff this past
- 34:27weekend against SAC State, they both did more than enough to put
- 34:29the office in position to win. You know, like Moore has cooled
- 34:33off the last, you know, when we start our first power poles with
- 34:37the pitching, we both had Cooper Moore first.
- 34:40You know, the last two weeks we both we had them in 2nd and in
- 34:42this, this was technically his his worst week because we both
- 34:46had them at 3rd. But I'm I'm going to let you get
- 34:48expound on yours in a little bit.
- 34:50But they did, they both did simply did enough and the last
- 34:53two games for us to win. They just got let down by the
- 34:55offense. Yeah, I'm going to go with Evans
- 34:58at 1. He just looked lights out on
- 35:01Friday. I mean it helps when your team
- 35:02gives you a big of a lead early. Sure, without question.
- 35:06Then Schmidt at 2, even though they scratched you, I think for
- 35:13let's see, let's see what we got here, how many runs he gave up
- 35:17four runs, three on runs, even though they, you know, they
- 35:21scratched you for four runs. You still had your best stuff.
- 35:25You were still going out there in something big to me that he
- 35:29did this weekend that he didn't do last year.
- 35:32And it shows growth and how much you can grow in a year.
- 35:35Yeah. He gave up those runs, they had
- 35:38those errors, no panic. Right.
- 35:41Yeah. He just got out there, looked
- 35:44in. Then, like you said, Moore
- 35:46didn't have his best stuff, but he was still the best pitcher we
- 35:48had out there on Saturday. He kept the game close, did what
- 35:52we needed to do. We just couldn't do what we
- 35:54needed to do, you know? Then I'll go ahead and just get
- 35:58my offense while we talking. Brown, Curiel and Milan, in that
- 36:03order. Brown.
- 36:04It's hard to pass up a guy who said not had three home runs in
- 36:08one game. Yeah.
- 36:12Then Turiel had a great night on Friday night and had some, you
- 36:19know, the ball in play and then got his first knock of the
- 36:22season. Same with Mylan, did the same
- 36:24thing. Just Turiel had a few more hits
- 36:27and few more. Just good looks for me to put
- 36:31him at first. Yeah, him in second.
- 36:33I mean, yeah, yeah. So what you got?
- 36:36Yeah, I'll say it like I got Jake at one obvious, obvious
- 36:38choice even like going back to quickly to the ULL game.
- 36:41He had two games in that, two hits in that game before going
- 36:44score surf on Friday, the tie the program record in the game.
- 36:48It's just they do three home runs on four hits with six
- 36:51ribbies. You know, it's just the guy was
- 36:53incredible on Friday. You know, he's still a bit like
- 36:57on he's only had one hit the last two games, but even still,
- 37:01he's been the most consistent offensive player for the team.
- 37:03You know, Curio has seven hits over the last four games
- 37:06combined, including his first former like you brought up on
- 37:09Friday and then Milo. And he's only played that really
- 37:11somewhat contributed, which is somewhat of an indictment
- 37:15because like the the the overall team has struggled miserably on
- 37:20offense. Like I said earlier, there's
- 37:22still 2 for 21. But Duke, the big three were
- 37:24just like the best contributors by default because after Friday,
- 37:28they just went back to the to the freezer on offense.
- 37:31Yeah. And then I'll let you start off
- 37:33with defense. So defense I have for Stephen
- 37:37Milam at one, followed by Derek Curiel and Omar Sterner Junior
- 37:41as the backup Center for #3 you know, Milo made, you know,
- 37:44Curiel was extremely active in the outfield.
- 37:46You know, he like I tried that. He made some incredible diving
- 37:49catches when I got the link save.
- 37:51That's so maybe we do like play Play of the year, Defensive
- 37:54Player of the year candidates. But I just I keep I'm going to
- 37:57try to keep track of that. But, you know, but I gave Milo
- 38:01the narrow edge for the top spot because you know, Milo still has
- 38:03been perfect on defense, still making incredible plays time and
- 38:07plays on defense from the short side position.
- 38:09Even dating back to like several days ago where he was radically
- 38:12shifted to the second base. I mean, they just regardless of
- 38:15where he's at, he's been perfect on defense.
- 38:17You know, Serna made several throw outs in Game 2 versus SAC
- 38:20State and like he just a major defensive upgrade over Aaron BD
- 38:23at the catch a spot. And like I put like shout out to
- 38:26you. I'm a shout out, shout you out
- 38:27again, man. You called it two weeks ago.
- 38:30Like you, you saw it from a different lens.
- 38:32I just looked at like the throw outs, but recently just with the
- 38:35drops and stuff, a great he's a great contributor offense when
- 38:39he's on, but this defense, he's just a liability.
- 38:41I just I'm with you when it comes to defense.
- 38:44I'd rather see Serno and Catcher moving forward.
- 38:48Yeah. So I went a little differently.
- 38:53And when I say a little differently, I mean ever so
- 38:55slightly. Milan is good.
- 38:58Take this he's going to take the powerhouse pole for the season
- 39:02because he's going to be up here every week because he just he
- 39:06makes it look like so easy. How do I how do I put this this
- 39:11week? He makes it look like I could go
- 39:13out there with no experience in shortstop in field.
- 39:16These 107 mile an hour ground balls hit directly at me and
- 39:21just lob it to first base like he does.
- 39:25You know, he just makes it look simple.
- 39:30Yes. So I'll put Curiel at first as
- 39:32he made a couple of key diving catches.
- 39:35Yeah, they kept us in these ball games.
- 39:38I went milem at 2:00 just because it's mile.
- 39:40He's always going to be on the list, and he wanted to.
- 39:43Somebody's got to do something pretty spectacular to get him.
- 39:45But just because I had a feeling he was going to put Curiel and
- 39:49Mile and then you're going to put Mile at first.
- 39:52You know, I'd be a little different.
- 39:54Yeah. You know, I got then I got
- 39:56Serna. I mean, he just looked great
- 39:59behind the plate in realistically at the current
- 40:03moment, offensively, it's not that much, but it's not as all a
- 40:07step back from Aaron Beatty at the current moment, right?
- 40:12You know it may be putting Cerner in and getting in some
- 40:15ABS. Yeah.
- 40:17Will light a spark in offense and that'll be the spark we need
- 40:20to catch fire again, you know, But yeah, I figured you was
- 40:23going to put my limit one and have Curiel at 2:00, so I just
- 40:28went ahead and. This was this was no easy.
- 40:31I was like, because originally I was putting Curiel like Curiel
- 40:34for for one, because those diving plays were incredible,
- 40:37man. He and that's not including all
- 40:40the other fly outs he got throughout this four-game
- 40:42stretch. It was like, but Milo has been
- 40:45so perfect on defense. It's just because I remember
- 40:48even on Friday, like he Curiel had kind of missed like the deep
- 40:51shot to center. Yeah, I remember that.
- 40:54And so I was like, yeah, and I know I'm nitpicking because he
- 40:57made some incredible play. I'm.
- 40:58I know. I'm no, you're not nitpicking
- 41:00because I almost held it. I almost held him back, but then
- 41:05I thought it was a little strange that they had him
- 41:07playing so far in. Yeah, yeah.
- 41:10You know, especially our outfield, it's minus left field
- 41:13right now. Yeah, I mean they can cover.
- 41:15Some guys, they can cover so much ground, they could play at
- 41:19the warning track and still almost cover the ground they
- 41:24need and always run up on the ball instead of having to go
- 41:26back. You know, I think I was talking
- 41:29to my dad this week. If Stanfield will be out for
- 41:32much longer, Jake Brown's fast enough he could cover from right
- 41:36to right center. Derek Curiel proved last year he
- 41:39can cover from left center to the foul line.
- 41:44Put our slowest guy in center field at this moment in time and
- 41:49let the right fielder in, the left fielder, Jake Brown and
- 41:52Derek Curiel, contribute and push your way in, you know, in
- 42:00the let them cover it. Just Stanfield gets back and
- 42:04then you can shove Curiel back and center where he belongs.
- 42:08Input Stanfield back. But we're missing way too many
- 42:12on that left field corner because our guys are playing.
- 42:16They don't have the speed and frankly, every single one of
- 42:20those guys for the majority except for Bron or our strong
- 42:24bats that we don't know what to do with because only one of them
- 42:27can play second base. So we found a way to put them in
- 42:30the field and throw them into left field for right now, yeah.
- 42:34You know, they've been trying to make dudes as much as they can
- 42:38and normally that's like the strength of having like a not to
- 42:40start off season 9 conference. That's really a time to
- 42:43experiment anyway. But just, you know, it really
- 42:46has been more out of necessity recently because like, it's, you
- 42:49know, Chris Stanfield's left such a void.
- 42:52Like, I know and Granite, like I know just some of the guys
- 42:55playing out of position, but, you know, just got to make out.
- 42:58It's out of necessity right now. But yeah.
- 43:03But the tone setting, Tiger of the week, man, what you got?
- 43:09Everyone no, but just you know, let's just like starting
- 43:13pitching to a lesser degree, because I know they they've
- 43:15carried this team the last week plus.
- 43:17I mean this I will I will still say I will still add them
- 43:20because this this team desperately needs them to really
- 43:23stay up, stay the course, because the way the office has
- 43:26been playing and they're not even getting help from much help
- 43:29from the fielding outside of milem in in the infield.
- 43:32So it's just but like if they can just stay the course, man,
- 43:35that's that's such major boost for the for this team all
- 43:38together. Offenses goes without saying,
- 43:41even the big three struggle 2 for 21 the last two games.
- 43:44It's not going to cut it for anybody.
- 43:47Defense. You got to make routine plays.
- 43:49It's a defensive sport. I know I'm a broken record with
- 43:51that. It's a defensive sport by
- 43:52structure. It is make the routine play.
- 43:56We have tripled the errors that we had in want to say 57 games
- 44:04last. Year and.
- 44:07In the 1st 17 we've almost tripled the amount of errors we.
- 44:11Had all season long. We need to clean it up, but so
- 44:18I'd hardly ever do this. Over the last couple stretches
- 44:21of games I've listened to what Jay had to say on the post game
- 44:29conferences and everything else. I'm going to say Jay Johnson as
- 44:33my tongue set in. Tiger of the Week, the head guy
- 44:35in charge. How do you bounce back?
- 44:38How do you get your team to bounce back from these losses to
- 44:40face a team in Vandy who just won their series with two run
- 44:45rules. Now they drop game three, but
- 44:48two games they won were run rules.
- 44:50Their offense is hitting on cylinders.
- 44:53Our offense needs to hit on cylinders.
- 44:55But one couple of things that I love that Jay Johnson said this
- 44:58weekend, you know, historically we don't have much adversity
- 45:01around LSU baseball. We don't have much, you know,
- 45:05like what he said when he think he when he said, I think he when
- 45:07he took over in Nevada, he was coming from a guy who won maybe
- 45:1020 game, a team that won 20 games that season and had to
- 45:15start from like scratch. You know, then Arizona, he had a
- 45:18little rough spots. You know, he didn't have that.
- 45:22So when we facing this adversity now, it's hard.
- 45:25But one of the things that strikes me that why Brian Kelly
- 45:29isn't an elite coach and why Jay Johnson is.
- 45:33I know it's been a while since I brought him up, but everybody
- 45:38was talking about how Brian Kelly's was this elite football
- 45:41coach and this and that. Let me teach you people
- 45:44something on what makes a coach elite and what makes him just
- 45:47semi great. Go ahead.
- 45:50Brian Kelly blamed in tough losses last year, blamed before
- 45:55he got to Cannes, blamed his players and his other coaching
- 45:59staff. And when asked how they were
- 46:01going to handle it, he gave this lie to him when he was going to
- 46:04do this, this and this at practice.
- 46:07Yeah. Jay Johnson gets asked a similar
- 46:10question to that. He says, look, I know if I was a
- 46:15player and my coach told the media before you guys first,
- 46:19with all due respect, you guys first, I wouldn't be too happy.
- 46:25So with all due respect, I'm going to go tell my team what
- 46:28we're going to do to get better and handle that internally with
- 46:32them instead of externally putting it out there to you guys
- 46:35with the media. And like he said, with all due
- 46:37respect, he just carries himself in a different way.
- 46:40You look at the coaches who won championships at LSU that are
- 46:44current right now. Kim Mulkey, she carries her way
- 46:47self in a different way. You know, Jay Clark, he carries
- 46:50himself in a different way. Jay Johnson carries himself in a
- 46:53different way. Nobody is blaming anybody.
- 46:56Nobody says Oh well, this player right here, they need to be
- 46:59better. They had the reason why this and
- 47:01that. That's why my tone setting Tiger
- 47:03for this week is the head guy in charge.
- 47:05Jay Johnson eager to see how he gets this team to turn around.
- 47:10I know he can. You know he can do it, he said.
- 47:14Is this is his baby? Yeah.
- 47:17He's going to take care of it. You know, he just this week, he
- 47:21impressed me. He was one of the greats.
- 47:23And then it impressed me. And then I was watching clips
- 47:27and I came across a clip. It was a thing.
- 47:28It was a podcast clip with Ronnie Rance and some of the
- 47:33other guys and they were talking about when they were hiring Jay
- 47:35Johnson and Skip Bertman told them, now this is allegedly, I
- 47:40don't know if this is true or not.
- 47:41They said it on there knowing them it is true, but when they
- 47:44went to hire Jay, Skip told them you can't lose this guy.
- 47:49He's better than I ever thought I would would be better than
- 47:53Skip Bertman, 5 national champions in a decade, one of
- 47:57the greatest college baseball coaches of all time saying Jay
- 48:01Johnson was better than he ever thought he would be, you know?
- 48:03Oh, say, even better. Exactly.
- 48:07And I mean, I've got him getting this team together.
- 48:11They've gone through some rough patches before, but nothing
- 48:13like. This yeah, it's it's, it's been
- 48:15a tough watch, man. It, it remind me about because I
- 48:18back in the 24 season, it was there was a rough foot in the
- 48:21field as well. But you know, like especially
- 48:24they started 3 and 12 that year in conference and they just
- 48:26turned it around. Granted, the season was look,
- 48:29the the conference rate of the second-half was a little
- 48:31lighter, but you still got to win at the end of the day, which
- 48:34they did. I still think to this point is
- 48:36the 2014 was his greatest coaching job.
- 48:39Consider how it started. May as will be seen this year
- 48:43because it's it's pretty rough in pre conference.
- 48:45Yeah, but see, that's the thing. People aren't talking about the
- 48:4924 season. Yeah, because as a bad stretch
- 48:53because it was conference play. Yeah, that's right.
- 48:56We are in a bad stretch in non conference.
- 48:58Exactly. And it seems on the outside
- 49:02worse, but when you look at where those SEC teams that we
- 49:06played, what their records were in the amount of talent they had
- 49:11back in 24, it's in how close we were to winning some of those
- 49:16games. It's two different, totally
- 49:18different situations. It's two totally different
- 49:20teams, even 2 totally different coaching Staffs.
- 49:23Yeah, for sure. You know, no, not really.
- 49:25I think everybody on that staff from 24 was on that staff.
- 49:29Yeah, doesn't matter. But you know, you want to talk.
- 49:33Let's give these people some wins since we're talking about
- 49:38so many negative things. Our pitching staff is still
- 49:45ranked #2 in the country in strikeouts.
- 49:48Listen, I mean like these. Number one in the conference #2
- 49:51in the country, that's right, Cooper Moore is still, I think,
- 49:55ranked #5IN strikeouts in the country.
- 49:57So there are bright spots. We do have bright spots, you
- 50:00know, and it'll come. But the message here is we don't
- 50:04need to hit the panic button, no just yet.
- 50:08I'm not there yet neither. Nobody should be firing coaches.
- 50:13Nobody should be doing this and doing that.
- 50:15Jay is overrated. You know we are going to be OK.
- 50:20Like I said, let's look down the road to June in the future.
- 50:24Everything goes right, body goes and they cheer on the Tigers.
- 50:28Everybody does this. All the Tigers do their job.
- 50:33We will be posted up at Rocco's bar in Omaha watching them,
- 50:38getting jello shots and watching them play, you know?
- 50:41It's just that's the way it is, is talking fans.
- 50:44That's what we expect that's going to happen.
- 50:46We need to go through the, you need to go through the rough
- 50:49patch. It's just like everything else
- 50:50in life. Baseball is like life.
- 50:53You go through the rough patches to get to the good patches.
- 50:55You got to experience the bad to experience the good, you know?
- 51:01Yeah, it's it's like, you know, we talked about the ebbs and
- 51:03flows of a season, like it's just, you know, you know,
- 51:06whenever I listen to message was gonna you know, he always brings
- 51:09up the fact, you know, too many people, too many fans, they look
- 51:13they look at it, they to have a football mindset when applying
- 51:17it to baseball. I said, listen, I could kind of
- 51:19see it. You only got some a finite
- 51:21amount of games in football. Some of it I understand, but
- 51:24basically you playing 56 games before you even get to the
- 51:27tournament. But even due to the whole season
- 51:30like this, like you said, if we deeper in the conference play
- 51:34and it's still struggling like this, then I then that's a whole
- 51:37other story. But I mean, I just got to see
- 51:39more for me to really get to that point.
- 51:43Yeah, and I will do you one better, OK.
- 51:46We just think, because I'm looking at the Seven
- 51:48Championship, the sports page for that year right now, there
- 51:55was a time in 2023 where we went and Paul Skins was our only
- 52:01pitcher. You didn't have faith in nobody
- 52:05else on the mound except for Paul Skins.
- 52:07We split a series that we might have lost to South Carolina
- 52:11because of rain. We got beat by Auburn 2 out of
- 52:15three. Now, a lot of that because Butch
- 52:19Thompson does some shady stuff pitching wise.
- 52:23I'll never forget that game where they threw out the wrong
- 52:27guy. I don't know if you remember
- 52:28that they threw somebody out during the LSU Auburn game.
- 52:32OK, he leaves. Todd Floyd gets another
- 52:35strikeout. Butch Thompson comes off the
- 52:37bench. That's Auburn's coach for people
- 52:39who don't know, goes to the umpire and says you threw out
- 52:43the wrong guy. So the umpire, this is a total
- 52:463045 minute deal or deal where the umpires are looking into the
- 52:52LSU dugout, trying to figure out who they threw out and who's
- 52:56still in there and why are you still here?
- 52:58I threw you out. You know, we dropped two games
- 53:04in that series. You know, we had rough patches
- 53:07in that 23 season. We got swept by, I think we got
- 53:11swept by Texas last year at Texas.
- 53:13Yeah, in games we should have won, you know, we got, we
- 53:19dropped two out of three to Texas, eight and four.
- 53:21Shout out to the colt. We lost two out of three to them
- 53:24last year and looked terrible doing it too, you know.
- 53:29So even in championship seasons, we have those rough stretches
- 53:34where we go flat. Yeah.
- 53:36But one thing about Jay Johnson's team is they're always
- 53:40going to fight. They're always going to come
- 53:43back and look good in, give us something to watch and entertain
- 53:48ourselves. You know, I don't know if it's
- 53:51just because we don't have a Major League Baseball team here
- 53:53and the closest one is in Houston or what, but I always
- 53:58did like college baseball and as long as you can go into July,
- 54:05that just gives me two months to that gives me two months to sit
- 54:08there with nothing to do besides come over.
- 54:10That's so small here and yap it y'all.
- 54:12That's that's a lecture, man, but but you know, we need you to
- 54:15yap at us because you need people need.
- 54:16To talk. I yap all day, I I yap all day
- 54:21them kids from my job and then I come over here and yap at y'all.
- 54:25As a listen, no, you're old brother.
- 54:26I love it. Do your job.
- 54:28Yeah, but I mean, I love having and in college football season
- 54:34is getting pushed back so much. LSU football does so good, as
- 54:37good as we think they're going to do.
- 54:39We go have three weeks and then not even 3 weeks.
- 54:42Yeah, three weeks. And then we'll be on the
- 54:43baseball season next year. LSU baseball does their job.
- 54:48We'll go and picks it back up. We'll end in the end of June,
- 54:52beginning of July because that's when the championship
- 54:55celebration normally is. Then we'll have two months where
- 54:58we hit on football and all the stuff that's going on and then
- 55:03we'll be covering football and then we'll be right back with
- 55:06baseball. And then hopefully in between
- 55:08there somewhere, you know, pretty soon gymnastics picks it
- 55:11up. We can talk about a gymnastics
- 55:12national championship. Women's basketball picks it up,
- 55:15they win another natty. We could talk about them.
- 55:18And then, if a miracle happens, men's basketball next year will
- 55:23be in in the mix. Man listen like people climbing
- 55:29for Will Wade, brother. I mean, I can see it happening,
- 55:32yeah. I mean, Verge is good friends
- 55:35with him. And then his president that was
- 55:38with him at Mcniece is now at LSU as the president.
- 55:42Yeah, I just I. Can see it.
- 55:43Yeah, just like do they want to pay McMahon's buyout, You know,
- 55:48just at the fire much is his. Buyout.
- 55:51I think it's. I'll let you look that up.
- 55:53Let's see, because it can't be more.
- 55:55He's the most underpaid coach in the the SEC for basketball,
- 55:58men's basketball. But up to 11,000,000 for his
- 56:01staff included. That's Trump change.
- 56:04Yeah, so you got to compare the new coach and new staff.
- 56:08So like I said, do they want to do that after what they've done
- 56:12with football? But I do, I get with football
- 56:14because that's the baby of the school as far as like the
- 56:17probably that's the cash cow of the university and it's not a
- 56:19basketball school. Yeah, but two, if you look at
- 56:24it, OK, who is one of our biggest stars to come out of
- 56:28LSU? We got Miss on the mid side, you
- 56:31got Shaq. That's all.
- 56:33That's all you need to say with Shaq.
- 56:35I mean, we've got, we don't have got star athletes that come out
- 56:39of football, but we don't have personalities like Shaq.
- 56:42Yeah, he's he's one of the one with personality.
- 56:47Yeah, we don't have those personalities that come out of
- 56:49there like Shaq. So I can see them wanting to
- 56:52spend and to the building, that big arena, the new arena, you
- 56:56know, I can see them wanting to put out a product that can
- 57:01compete. When they're spending that much,
- 57:03let's be honest, it's spending. At the current moment, they're
- 57:05spending that much on an arena for women's basketball.
- 57:08It's not for men's basketball. It might be for women's
- 57:11basketball in a little bit of gymnastics.
- 57:14There's nothing. Of course.
- 57:18But you know, baseball, they're going to be just fine.
- 57:21There's no reason to hit the panic button.
- 57:23Unlike all those other guys that do this.
- 57:26You can trust us to tell you if you need to hit the panic
- 57:29button. As much LSU baseball as I watch
- 57:32growing up and as much as I watch now.
- 57:34We watched enough. When you look at it and you look
- 57:37at Jay Johnson, he just looks like a man with the plan and
- 57:40he's not pulling his hair out like pulmonary was at times.
- 57:44You want to see where the state of your program is and the
- 57:46confidence level you should have.
- 57:47And if you need to hit the panic button, watch your head coaching
- 57:49and dugout during the games and that'll tell you exactly what
- 57:53you need to know. That's it.
- 57:54But like I was saying before, this is just life.
- 57:58Baseball and following LSU sports, it's life, OK?
- 58:02To be happy, you got to experience some sadness, You
- 58:06know, to win a championship, you got to experience a downtime.
- 58:10Life is about the experiences you get and.
- 58:13But you learn with it. You learn with the experiences
- 58:17you can't get. No great story or no heroic
- 58:20story starts out with it saying it was easy.
- 58:24There's always trials, there's always this, there's always that
- 58:27that the hero of the team has to go through to get to where
- 58:31they're going. And this is that time.
- 58:34This little two weeks spanned is that time.
- 58:38This is the adversity that those guys are going to have to face
- 58:42and they're going to have to come out of it, figure out a way
- 58:44to get out of it, to get to where they need to be.
- 58:46I believe they have the talent, the mental fortitude to do that.
- 58:52They just have to believe in themselves and us as fans have
- 58:55to go out there every home game and cheer them on and let them
- 59:00know we're behind them. And that's all I've got today.
- 59:04What you got? You got any closing thoughts?
- 59:05Like I said, you know this, like Jess said real quick, you know,
- 59:10I'm not, we're not there the panic and stuff yet.
- 59:13It's fair to be concerned, but I'm just, I'm not there.
- 59:16Like I've just seen too much LSU baseball.
- 59:18They just have a they just have too much history where they're
- 59:21they're so that you can depend on them to turn things around
- 59:25more times than not. But yeah, that's all we got to
- 59:27say. Yeah, we're going to be.
- 59:28I feel like we're going to be in good shape.
- 59:31Yeah. And you know, here's another
- 59:33thing, another quote that I came across the other day and I
- 59:36decided to write down, you know, there's no such thing as a
- 59:41painless lesson. You know, they just don't exist.
- 59:43But you can gain stuff without. You got to gain.
- 59:46You got to be able to gain stuff.
- 59:48You know, you do the sacrifice to get the gain in the long run.
- 59:52And that's what they're doing. That's.
- 59:55Right. Painful lesson for us as fans,
- 59:58but it's even more of a painful lesson for them as the players.
- 1:00:01Without question. Because I mean, you don't,
- 1:00:06they're not planning to go out there and have a / 5 day.
- 1:00:09They're not planning to go up there and throw balls in Mr.
- 1:00:15strike zone by a batter's box. And K Darren, BD is not going
- 1:00:20out there and with the intent on missing these balls.
- 1:00:26They prepare just like we go out there and prepare.
- 1:00:30You know, they played a lot of ball in the last couple weeks
- 1:00:33without no doubt. I will give them the break now
- 1:00:36to these last couple games, this mishaps, fatigue, you know.
- 1:00:41Yeah, I will give that to them. That just comes with the game.
- 1:00:45When you have a sport where you play a lot of games, that's just
- 1:00:48what happens. So I'm going to sign off here.
- 1:00:51Yes, Sir. Like I said last video, please
- 1:00:53like subscribe, share it out to people and you know, if you got
- 1:00:58any questions and you think we can answer them, feel free to
- 1:01:00drop a question. We'll try our best to answer.
- 1:01:05You might not like our answers, you might give us stupid
- 1:01:08questions, but I'll try my best to answer it.
- 1:01:10You know, keep in mind, also keep in mind that we're just
- 1:01:14fans. So when you do do these
- 1:01:16questions and everything else, keep it respectful.
- 1:01:21But like, comment, subscribe, share.
- 1:01:25Do you think other people like to hear us?
- 1:01:26Yeah, share it out to them. That's right.
- 1:01:30We enjoy doing this. It's been a fun man.
- 1:01:34It's been a great time. So with that being said, have a
- 1:01:38great day, great night. Go Tigers and come cheer them
- 1:01:42on. Let's get this going.
- 1:01:45Let's start this climb back to #1.
- 1:01:47But you know and also links for all the socials in the
- 1:01:53description below.