I'm not advocating Guidry playing SS--or anywhere else for that matter--but I think you need to come off your Braswell take just a bit. I heard a clip of Jay from Saturday's post-game presser, and you could tell he was pretty fricking furious with Braswell despite not even mentioning his name.

I didn't hear the question, but I think it was about relief pitching, and Jay goes right into (paraphrasing) "We had a 9-0 lead Thursday, then we make an error, and instead of getting out of that inning, they score and get it to 9-6, and we have to use our best pitcher to close out that game instead of saving him for Friday." Strongly implied that that error fricked up the rest of the weekend and probably cost us Friday's game.

He then went on to say he doesn't know why we don't have another Herring, seemed to be some combination of frustrated, confused, disappointed, and pissed. Not sure if was aimed more at Ack and some of the other veteran guys he thought he'd be able to trust by now or Yeskie. Probably a combo. But, in the moment, and considering where we are with the pitching staff right now--it is what it is--it felt like he blamed a lot of Friday's loss on Braswell's error on Thursday leading to have to burn Herring.

And then he benched him Saturday after an error (and he also pulled a ground ball almost down the line and grounded out to 3rd with a runner on 2nd and no outs, when anything to the right side would have moved the runner to 3rd for Tommy with 1 out. I think the score was 5-1, so that would have been big run to make it 5-2. I know it's not easy for a right-handed hitter to hit the ball to the right side against a pitcher at that level, but he didn't even try. At all. Like he either didn't care or was simply unaware. Either is unacceptable for a 3rd-year SS hitting lead-off who should be one of the leaders of the team. If he doesn't care enough to do the little things, how can the freshmen be expected to?

And I think he's getting a little too much praise for his offense, too. Sure he's getting on base a lot. But I think he's playing over his head a bit at the plate and will eventually regress to his mean. He's better than he was at SC last year, but I'm not sure how much, actually. Hunt did a segment last week where he went over his preseason "bold predictions." One was that Braswel would have over 24 extra-base hits. He's got 6. Or did before this weekend--not sure if he had a double, but I don't remember it if he did.

That sucks for a 3rd year guy with his size (he's skinny, but tall and lanky with enough leverage that he should be able to barrel one up into the gap or down the line more than once every other week) who's been in the lineup every day. His OBP has got to be close to his SLG%. Maybe higher. Which is very Milazzo-esque, so maybe we don't throw too many stones at Milazzo if we're gonna be defending Braswell at staunchly as you have been recently. (Though I did and still do agree with you that he's likely our only realistic option there this year).

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Posted by Lester Earl

Member since Nov 2003

279216 posts

Posted on 4/8/24 at 12:38 pm to Hot Carl

Carl, my take on Braswell is he is an average defensive SEC SS. Anyone without any confirmation bias would agree with that. But lsu fans disliked him from the start.

There were at three instances from the weekend where runner was safe on plays Braswell was involved in, in which he had no play despite attempting the out & you would have thought he made 3 errors. I can’t & won’t engage in that irrationality, so forgive me.

In the end Errors that come from lack of focus are hard to defend. But also doesn’t take away the fact that he makes most of the plays an average SEC SS would.

quote:
and lanky with enough leverage that he should be able to barrel one up into the gap or down the line more than once every other week) who's been in the lineup every day. His OBP has got to be close to his SLG%. Maybe higher. Which is very Milazzo-esque, so maybe we don't throw too many stones at Milazzo if we're gonna be defending Braswell at staunchly as you have been recently. (Though I did and still do agree with you that he's likely our only realistic option there this year).

Just say you don’t like him Carl. You sound pretty dumb here.

His peripheral stats show a well adjust hitter. An even Bb:K, .287avg vs 333 babip.

If you need help understand inflated luck, Milazzo has a .458 babip (he’s hitting .324). He has 1 XBH. He K’s way more than Braswell. This is a shite comparison