re: Q&A with LSU head baseball coach Paul Mainieri, Part 2 Position battles and pitching

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I don't expect Gio to walk much. He rarely did last yea

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He was 2nd on the team in BB% rate only to Chris Reid

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But when you're trying to win games now, polish plays.

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Yea, Im not arguing with you

Just stating we are going to constantly see posts wondering where Hampton is bc everyone knows he was a high round draft choice that came here, and thats it. Wasnt advocating for him to start, 1 for 24 isnt gonna cut it even if he can steal every base.

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They're still going to get him early opportunities as well. In the long run, we will be better with him on the field. But he's not going to start full time until he's proven that he's ready to start full time.

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Project, what impact do you see spring football having on Hampton's baseball development, if any? I know that may be hard to estimate without knowing how much time away from baseball he will be and without knowing what he looks like in a few weeks prior to football starting up. Just thought you may be able to give it a shot.

I read an article shortly after the NCG, around the time of Mainieri's opening press conference, that talked about how Busch won't make the DB meetings mandatory for Hampton because he's so advanced. He will still attend spring practices, from what I understand. But things may change with a new DC and new defense. I don't have a great answer for this.

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what impact do you see spring football having on Hampton's baseball development, if any? I know that may be hard to estimate without knowing how much time away from baseball he will be and without knowing what he looks like in a few weeks prior to football starting up.

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I don't think people account enough for how sport specific athletic adaptation occurs over the course of the season. Fast twitch vs slow twitch, muscle mass, bone adaptation, power/explosion of certain sport specific events, strength of certain combinations of tendons and ligaments. I've seen it first hand when an athlete needs to change from one sport to another, it's a huge transformation and contrary to conventional wisdom of cross training, dabbling back and forth between two high level sports can hinder performance in both. The goal is usually to switch completely and hope to peak by the time it really counts. That's why successful multi sport athletes are so uncommon at the D1 level.

Granted, the transition from football to baseball is not as big as from something like cross country to wrestling, but still it's a bigger factor than a lot of people think. And that's beyond the reps, technique, and mental aspects which are also very important.

Sure, Mo is apparently that special type of an athlete, but normal expectation would be for him to start slow and steadily improve throughout the season. Same once he jumps back to football.