re: Don't look now, but Paxton Kling is above the Mendoza line...

The pitching is more concerning than the lineup. The lineup is pretty close to expected going into the season. The pitching staff on the other hand was expected to be much better than they have shown. Need some of those guys like Hurd, Ack, Loer, and Guidry to get it together and then guys like Moffett, Cam, and Kade Anderson to step up for us. Noot is just an extra at this point. Not sure what we will get from him going forward.

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It's crazy what reps can do.

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Kling has had plenty of game reps this year--that's not an excuse for his terrible stretch. He was pulling off everything and leaving himself vulnerable to fastballs on the outer half and anything off-speed from a RHP with the slightest glove-side run. He had a hard time just keeping his balance. And even with his hard hit balls last week, he was still heavily pull-side happy, mostly taking advantage of mistakes that were left up and caught too much of the plate on the inner half. But the fact that he was barreling mistakes was still encouraging, because he'd been missing them, and it was clear he was in his head.

That's why his double off the right-center wall last night was fricking awesome. It was up and out over the outer 3rd, close to the black. He had to recognize it, let it travel, stay back and balanced, keep his hands above the ball, and barreled it up. I said as soon as he hit it that that swing was the most important thing that had and would happen for the entire game. Jones had a great game, obviously, Anderson didn't walk anybody, Cam and Moffett both looked good, but that swing by Kling could have the biggest impact on the success of the team moving forward. Assuming he builds off of it.

But that came from hundreds (maybe thousands) of extra off-the-field reps, work in the cage, drills off the tee. Which leads me to this ridiculous and contradictory quote of yours:

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People want to attribute losing to this intangible buzzword called "leadership". Losing cause there is not enough "leadership"...

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I don't think anybody would trade talent for leadership, however it's defined. And I don't think anybody--or anybody we should take seriously--thinks a lack of leadership is the ONLY problem this team has or even one of the BIGGER problems this team has. But it doesn't take Sherlock fricking Holmes to see that it is A problem at the very least. Or at least to see that Jay thinks it is. We've heard more talk from him about consequences for and disappointment in lack of effort, focus, preparation, etc...in the past 2 weeks than we have the rest of the 2 and a half years he's been here combined.

He's taken cell phones, called guys out in the media (maybe not by name, but more aggressively than previously), and has literally benched the entrenched starters at the 3 most important defensive positions on a baseball team (Kling, Neal, Braswell). He's held guys he expected to count on from pitching, played about 10 different outfielders, used I think everybody by now on the roster that wasn't 100% redshirting, and run out a different lineup in probably 90% of our games. That's not just due to production, it screams that he either dislikes, or doesn't like enough, how some of these guys are going about their business every day.

Because he knows how talented they are, and he thinks if they prepare the right way, the production should come.(let me put a pen in this and circle back around to it) But more than that, the mental and physical "effort" mistakes won't show up as much. And "leadership" doesn't have to come from some huge pre-game "Rudy" speech. You don't need player's only meetings or a bunch of "rah rah" helmet slapping in-between innings to have leadership. But how many times in the past 2 years did Jay talk about Dylan Crews and how he prepares. Same with Paul and Bregman. When those 2 dudes are the 1st at the park and the last to leave, how can anybody else on the team do any less?

That's the kind of leadership this team needs. Maybe somebody to fire them up or keep them loose depending on the situation wouldn't hurt, but they need more guys to step up their effort and focus and how they come to prepare at the park. Not just some of the time, or most of the time, but all of the time. That is the LSU standard. We obviously don't see what goes on behind the scenes, but Jay has been not-so-subtly alluding to this being an issue that needs correcting.

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No, sorry. Just not enough production top to bottom.

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Wait, I thought you were a "process guy," Lessie? You know, do the right things and the production will take care of itself? Apparently some of their processes in preparation is preventing them from getting the opportunities to produce in games. And you DO care about the processes, right, Lessie? That's the kind of guy you are, no?

Just been hard to tell with how all over the place you are with Braswell, completely contradicting your "process guy" philosophy by excusing his terrible defense last weekend, because a few of the 4 plays that got him benched in the middle of Saturday's game--and kept him there last night--didn't result in official errors. The same exact plays were (not) made, no matter what they were scored. The process, exactly the same. But you've been hiding behind the result, judged by some nerd official scorer with mostly arbitrary criteria.

And I eagerly await you passive aggressively playing the race card by comparing Braswell to Milazzo. Maybe you'll have the balls to actually fricking say it this time, instead of dropping subtle little hints like a bitch. As if it's some wild-arse hot take to hold the LSU starting fricking short-stop to a higher standard than the 3rd-string catcher. All to create a straw man in order hide your silly hatred of Milazzo that you just can't seem to quit. Gotta keep shoehorning it in, even though he's basically a non-factor. Can't just not mention. You're like ell with Jobert or Gio. Just won't come off your original stance or allow yourself to simply let it go.