re: Manieri's uncomfortable interview in the Advocate

quote:

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We were still ranked 1 after the Mac departure. And are you saying losing Latz excuses Pm's comments here? One player?

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frick no, and you know it. I am saying losing both of those guys hurt the team disproportionately this year compared to teams with very high quality, deep pitching staffs, which is who wins at the CWS. PM's game day pitching management may put unneeded stress on guys who become mentally stunted by it, I have never said I agree with Jack Wholestaff which has been resorted to the past 2-3 seasons due to lack of quality starters and/or bulldog mindsets. The risk of using 5-8 pitchers in a game is ridiculous compared to having 3-4 guys who can repeatedly give quality starts or at least go 5 innings on Sunday. Just think if Nola had gotten hurt or chose to play elsewhere...

I also think he was trying to communicate that although the team had a lot of success stealing bases this season they could have been better and ran into too many dumb outs or didn't take bases that were there due to lack of concentration at a given moment. The past few years LSU has had a litany of baserunning blunders that are almost comical, I can't recall other teams doing that consistently. Then getting guys in from 3rd base, et al. Yes the coaching can improve, but sometimes it's on the players as well. How does a starter who is obviously a great athlete with excellent wheels and gap power totally have no clue how to bunt??