re: Looking Ahead to Next Year in Baseball

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Laird is like an 11-20 round type of guy.

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Even that is a stretch.

I love Laird, but the dude is a metal bat slap hitter with no arm.

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MLB.com has him listed as the #66 prospect for this year's draft. I'll be shocked if he comes back here.

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He was rated as one of the best sophomore-eligible guys last year by MLB.com, wasn't drafted at all. I wouldn't take much stock into that.

Expect a dropoff from this year however LSU will still be a top 6 SEC team and compete for the SEC West.

Assuming the worst...Chinea, Bregman, Laird, and Stevenson go pro LSU will return...

Infield-Bryd, Deichmann, Robertson, Zardon, and Br Jordan while adding Adams (JUCO), Freeman (JUCO), Lochridge, and Wofford to to name a few. Immense talent in the infield but with limited experience.

Outfield-Fraley, Be Jordan while adding Ducote (JUCO), and Duplantis. Not going to be deep at the position next year, don't be suprised to see a couple of the athletic guys in the infield tryout for a LF spot to get into the lineup.

Cather-Papierski with January adding depth.

Starting Pitching-Poche, Lange, Latz, Godfrey while adding McKay if he doesn't go pro. Honestly there won't be a better rotation in the nation besides A&M if they get all their guys healthy next year.

Bullpen-Bain, Bugg, Cartwright, Stallings, Norman, Reynolds, Newman, and Strall while adding Bush, Gilbert, and Breaux to name a few of the HS crop.

There will be attrition and there will also be 1-2 guys who are juniors who I would not be the least bit shocked to return as seniors, obviously Laird or Chinea would pose the best possibilities. Alan Dunn will have the deepest set of arms in the country which will be the main reason the Tigers will have a shot at Omaha in '16 even if the bats are well below average (devils advocate).

I was talking about Stevenson

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Well that's just false.

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I was talking about home run power specifically in that quote. I admitted that Stevenson has more power to the gaps but neither Laird nor Stevenson are going to hit many home runs.


Hell Stevenson has only hit two home runs in his whole career at LSU while Laird has hit 1. So Stevenson can't have much more home run power.


Edited to change Laird's hr total from 3 to 1. Typo

I'm fairly optimistic about next year. Pitching should real solid both in starters and bullpen. We lose a majority of our bats so we likely take a step back in that area but how far depends on how our young talent develops. Assuming everyone available leaves we've got a lot to fill.

Infield with Danny Z, KRob, Byrd, Deichmann and Pap catching could be real good but their hitting will be the factor on how good we will be.

Outfield with Fraley being the only returner needs help from our new class. We're bringing in a number of JUCO kids and you never know how they'll pan out. Not sure how the Jordan's fit in but they're supposed to be players.

The pitching may not need a lot if run support. We could be real good but there are a lot of questions to be answered. As always, it's gonna be interesting.

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Around the horn we got Diechmann, Byrd, KRob and Chinea. Paps catching with an OF of Fraley and the Twins IMO.

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I think the fact that Deichmann couldn't even beat out Bryce Jordan at third in the spring doesn't bode well for him as 3B next year. If he's not DHing next year, he'll either be at 2B or 1B.

You are forgetting about Adams.

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Hell Stevenson has only hit two home runs in his whole career at LSU while Laird has hit 1

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Im curious. Did any of these actually clear the fence?