re: LSU Softball 2018

Great season from the outside looking in but it was more of the same ole same ole if you follow the program closely.

Great pitching, bad defense, bad personnel choices and inconsistent on offense.

We should be better next year with the departure of Quinn. Leadership, heart and soul, plays the LSU way, blah, blah, blah, but she has been a below average player for 3 years that should have never seen the field other than possibly DP this season. Now, we will have to suffer through 2 more seasons of Sanchez. We cannot be as good as we possibly can be until Beth loses the loyalty to bad players and makes all players abide by the same performance standard. We need an attitude change and it has to start at the top.

How bad were we in the infield this season? 11 players in the SEC made more than 10 errors. 3 of them were in our line up everyday. That means of the other 12 teams, only 8 players in the entire SEC were as bad on defense as our entire infield. If that is not bad enough, out of these 11 defensive liabilities, only 3 hit below .290. Wanna take a guess at which 3 those were? Sanchez, Quinn and Serrett.

Sanchez posted one of the worst statistical seasons in SEC history this year and it was never considered to sit her. Quinn has now posted 3 consecutive seasons that are some of the SEC's worst, again, not even a hint of doing something different. Neither ever sat even though we had two Freshman Top 30 recruits sitting on the bench that never received an opportunity to play. Could those two have made us better? We will never know but there is no possibility we would have been worse and when in doubt you always play the Freshman.

Serrett has some upside to contribute and I believe you can justify playing her everyday but she has work to do. We wasted another 65 starts on Quinn this season and 65 starts on Sanchez. Neither Quinn nor Sanchez have the upside or ceiling to justify the amount of opportunity they were given. Both were far below average on offense and defense.

In 2018, we will have very little depth, if any, on the middle infield. Serrett is back, I expect Sanchez to move to 2nd. Dawson will never play for Beth other than pinch run and Cunningham, the other top 30 infielder/catcher, is certainly gone. The Quinn Syndrome ran off Bourg last year which was the beginning of our problems up the middle from a depth standpoint and who knows we could see more departures. The players aren't stupid, they can see the favoritism and double standards just like the fans can.

Expect some big shake ups, some good, some bad, in the next few weeks.

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posting idiotic shite

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Ya know what's idiotic? Using an Alter to blow your own horn and throw shite at Posters who dont agree with your "expertise".

My thing is yes we improved a lot since 2012, but my god the hitting before then was atrocious. Even though you improved, doesn't mean you should settle

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Serrett went completely backwards from her freshman year

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that type of regression is worrisome. i simply wanted to see if anything changed during the course of the season before claiming the offense was spinning its wheels now. It did not change for the better. we now have all the evidence we need.

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My thing is yes we improved a lot since 2012, but my god the hitting before then was atrocious. Even though you improved, doesn't mean you should settle

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i know. you are right.

I may have a slightly different take on the offense than what I am reading. Tell me what you think.

I know a few of the players and have run into a couple of them in passing and had the chance to ask about hitting/offensive approach. One of the players (I won't name but is right in the middle of this conversation) said her biggest obstacle was changing to many things. She said I could always just hit and when I got here I was made to make mechanical changes here and there that were extremely uncomfortable. I haven't felt comfortable since.

I am a believer in you can either hit or you can't for the most part. Yes, you can improve and polish but you usually know early if a player can swing it or can't. Could the offensive approach be to intrusive on some of the hitters that have really been good during their careers?

I don't believe in clone hitting, I believe in letting the horses run and adjusting if they struggle, not adjusting them just to adjust them. Any credence to this thought?

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Every position on the infield needs to be completely wide open this off season.

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Agree but it won't be. It wasn't this year. We had no competition for positions on the infield this season. If anything, Beth is very predictable when it comes to this. Serrett and Sanchez are penciled in stone and NOTHING will change this. Sanchez will be the new Quinn. I hate to say it but I 100% believe that.

New hitting coach direly needed.

Conditioning is not a huge problem on this team, but there are a few players who could use an overhaul. Springfield has immense power and lots of natural talent, but she looks like she's still in her high school body.... big kid who swings for the fences. She needs a swing overhaul and to hit the weight room. And she needs to play first base. She can knock in a ton of runs if she pulls it all together.

If Sanchez is going to play (and she will), she needs to play second base. And she needs a fitness makeover. I know she has been sick.

Doyle -- what an athlete. Should be playing third base. Needs an injection of attitude. A nasty Jaquish-type attitude. She plays a bit soft and timid. Needs to be more vocal, and a leader. She needs to own this team.

Serrett's bat came on late. I Ike her in the field. Needs a total batting makeover (common theme).

Andrews can play. Needs to hit the weight room. Griggs needs to go on the Jaquish diet plan. She looks slow.

Finally, I don't want to be viewed as sexist and indelicate, but all three of our pitchers need a good offseason conditioning program.

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She said I could always just hit and when I got here I was made to make mechanical changes here and there that were extremely uncomfortable. I haven't felt comfortable since.

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wow. this is a real tricky question and a great one. I for one do not know what howie has implemented or has not implemented. I am a stromg believer in sound mechanics, but as far as style i am good with whatever works best for that player IF it helps the team.

I have seen this problem with pitchers many times. Sure they all need the base mechanics but many finish and have their own style they are comfortable with. I am fine with it IF it works. I am seeing things at LSU that are NOT working. The questiojn is it the player's style that is failing on this level or intrusiveness of coaches? or lack of intrusiveness?

I do not believe in the square peg round hole theory, but i do believe in strong system hitting if girls are failing with their own. It is a slippery slope. Some schools may use clone hitting to coach up players who are not recruited at levels of other schools. It can help many girls or hurt them. it all depends what is best for that certain team at that time.

i agree change for the sake of change is bad. i have seen it mess up good pitchers.

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I agree somewhat but it seemed like earlier in the year even when we played ranked teams you could see a completely different hitter in Doyle and Springfield they started doing things a little different in the middle of SEC play, it's been downhill ever since.

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Nail meet hammer. Exactly what I was told. They were making changes to "get ready for SEC play and better pitching". Coincidence?