LSU's 2014 Baseball Regular Season in Review

Now that the SEC Tournament is upon us, we are the #3 seed, it will be fun to take a look back at the season, which a lot of fans seem to think was a bad one. (#SpoiledLSUFans)

2014 Regular Season
Record - 40-14-1
SEC - 17-11-1
Home - 29-5-1
Away - 10-9

2013 Players Leaving
Mason Katz
Raph Rhymes
Chris Cotton
Ty Ross
Jacoby Jones
Ryan Eades
Joey Bourgeois
Brent Bonvillian
Nick Rumbelow
Will LaMarche

That alone should have told the story of our future. The combination of all those bats leaving the lineup was going to be a huge impact, and it was, on our scoring.

Jones, Katz, Rhymes, Ross Combined Stats from 2013
.307 BA, 278 Hits, 29 HR, 180 RBI, 43 2B, 4 3B, 121 R, .326 BARISP

Look at those numbers...Wow, that sucked to lose them.

Incoming 2013 HS Recruits that made the roster
Jake Fraley - OF
Parker Bugg - RHP - 34th Round MLB Draft Pick
Jared Poche - LHP
Alden Cartwright - RHP
Kramer Robertson - 2B
Danny Zardon - 3B
Jarrett DeHart - OF - Leaving LSU
Dakota Dean - IF - Leaving LSU
Christian Pelaez - LHP
Cade Stone - OF

Incoming 2013 JUCO Transfers
Kade Scivicque - C
Connor Hale - IF
Brady Domangue - RHP
Zac Person - LHP

As funny as it now looks, the questions weren't about our scoring, it was just assumed Bregman, McMullen, and Ibarra would step up. The real questions were around pitching and depth. It didn't take long to see that LSU suffered in 2014 from inconsistency on the mound.

Outside of Nola and Poche, the third weekend starting role was up for anyone who could do it that weekend. Sometimes it worked, and sometimes it didn't. But when the pitching was not having a good night, our hitting wasn't there to back us up.

LSU losses
UL-Lafayette - 1-4 (Only 6 innings due to rain)
Yale - 7-8
Vanderbilt - 3-5
Vanderbilt - 3-9
Tulane - 2-3 (11)
Florida - 1-2
Florida - 2-6
Florida - 7-11
Arkansas - 4-10
Ole Miss - 1-5
Tennessee - 3-6
Texas A&M - 2-3
Texas A&M - 3-4
Alabama - 1-5

Total Runs in Losses
LSU - 40
Opponents - 81

Losses by One Run - 5
Losses by Three Runs or Less - 9
Sunday Losses - 5

LSU was 10 runs away from a 45-9 Regular season. Wow. Outstanding.

Regular Season Team Awards

MVP
Aaron Nola - 9-1, 1.42 ERA, 2 CG, 120 K, 23 BB, 16 ER, 60 H, .172 OPP BA

He might not be responsible for putting up runs for LSU but he was amazing at keeping the other team from scoring. He pitched 28 consecutive innings to start the season without finally giving up a run to Vanderbilt in the second inning of their first game of the series. He gave up a solo HR in the Bottom of the 9th with two outs against Florida to get his only loss of the season. LSU won every game he started this season besides the Florida game because he shut teams down.

Offensive Player of the Year
Andrew Stevenson - .341 BA, 6 2B, 5 3B, 38 R, 31 RBI, 8 SB, .407 OBP

He doesn't win this award because he has the best batting average or the most triples or highest on-base percentage. He wins it because he stepped up in 2014. He finished 2013 with a .193 BA, .289 OBP, 14 RBI, and smaller numbers across the board. He is a Sophomore but at times, looked like the leader of this team. He went from being a liability at the plate to an asset and he did it in one offseason.

Defensive Player of the Year
Joe Broussard - 3-1, 0.92 ERA, 29.1 IP, 29 K, 14 BB, 3 ER, 16 H, 8 SV, .162 OPP BA

Starting off his career as a weekend starter but then having to go through season ending surgery only to bounce back and become the closer LSU needs, that is defensive POY material folks.

Surprising Player of the Year
Andrew Stevenson - See Above, duh!

Comeback Player of the Year
Joe Broussard - Again, see above

The Drake Award (Player that Started from the Bench but now he is here)
Tyler Moore - .298 BA, 3 HR, 28 RBI, 25 R, 9 2B, .382 OBP (And in 36 starts, 124 ABs)

Freshmen of the Year
Jake Fraley - .372 BA, 35 H, 3 HR, 27 RBI, 7 2B, 3B, 26 R, 4 SB, .430 OBP

Biggest Asset Moving Forward
Jared Poche - 8-3, 2.29 ERA, 48 K, 24 BB, 20 ER, .214 OPP BA

Overall, LSU found a way to win. Fans might not like it all the time but CPM has found a way to get as much talent out of some of these guys as possible. At one point, the lineup had 5 guys starting that were wearing an LSU uniform for the first time. To win 40 games with a team that started multiple true freshmen, including a starting pitcher (Poche), he deserves more love.

If LSU can make a run at the SEC Tournament title, we will host a regional. We might even sneak our way into a National Seed. Do not be shocked if we continue to hit like this, steam roll the SEC tourney, and end up a top 8 seed. The committee loves watching a team get hot down the stretch. Especially LSU and its' amazing Baseball facilities.