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re: LSU Bats Getting Hot Baws

Posted on 4/22/18 at 11:04 am to
Posted by TheHarahanian
Actually not Harahan as of 6/2023
Member since May 2017
20461 posts
Posted on 4/22/18 at 11:04 am to
quote:

I love when people here try to have an "edgy take" and come off looking like dumbasses.


And I love when people start a pissing contest over something obvious and come off looking like argumentative douchebags.

We’ll do well against pitching from the bottom half of the conference, most of the time. Tennessee last week is an example, and what started this thread. But the bats will die against talented pitching, where other schools have better numbers against the same pitching.

That’s not good enough in the postseason, where pitching is better than we see on average. We play smaller schools that do better than we do at swinging at the right pitches and hitting gaps. Do you believe LSU is less talented? Of course not.
Posted by TigerLaw40
Member since Aug 2017
2789 posts
Posted on 4/22/18 at 11:21 am to
quote:

And the experts from last week have vanished.

You mean the same way that you and all the other trolls vanish when the team is performing well or not doing something to support your point of view?

You act as if they are supposed to be knocking the cover off the ball every game? It doesn’t work that way in baseball. Would be awesome if it did; but it doesn’t because there are too many variables. And while they certainly haven’t looked great at the plate, they still managed 8 hits and 4 runs yesterday. That typically gets you a win when one of your best pitchers is on the mound. It’s not the offense’s fault that Hilliard gave up 8 runs in the first 3 innings.

But I realized early on that this team, especially with the injuries they’ve had to endure, is likely not going very far this year; and I’ve made my peace with that. I’ll continue to support them anyway and I know they’ll be back next year. So you just keep being your miserable troll self if that is what makes you feel better.
This post was edited on 4/22/18 at 11:43 am
Posted by TigerLaw40
Member since Aug 2017
2789 posts
Posted on 4/22/18 at 11:27 am to
quote:

And I love when people start a pissing contest over something obvious and come off looking like argumentative douchebags.


I would say you are the one being an argumentative douchebag. You are taking one season where the bats have not been their best and applying it to the past 11 seasons of Mainieri’s career to say he just doesn’t put “enough emphasis” on hitting. When what we are saying is that the statistics do not bare that out, and you are completely false in that assertion.
Posted by LSUGrad9295
Baton Rouge
Member since May 2007
34338 posts
Posted on 4/22/18 at 11:28 am to
quote:

And I love when people start a pissing contest over something obvious and come off looking like argumentative douchebags.


I think you pretty accurately just described yourself here. And I'm sure I'll have the upvotes to prove it.

But I would still like to know what you mean about "point of emphasis".
Posted by LSURussian
Member since Feb 2005
128589 posts
Posted on 4/22/18 at 11:34 am to
quote:

You are taking one season where the bats have not been their best
The irony is this season's to-date team batting average is higher than it was last season.

We're struggling to get that "timely hit" that Skip used to preach about.

We just seem to fail too many times when we have runners in scoring position or when we get the lead off batter on base.
Posted by Paul Allen
Montauk, NY
Member since Nov 2007
76500 posts
Posted on 4/22/18 at 11:35 am to
At one point we were 0-12 with RISP. That ain’t gonna win at any level.
Posted by Thacian
USA
Member since Aug 2015
2173 posts
Posted on 4/22/18 at 11:41 am to
Take away mid week games and their stats are near .200

Garbage


Posted by TheHarahanian
Actually not Harahan as of 6/2023
Member since May 2017
20461 posts
Posted on 4/22/18 at 11:55 am to
quote:

You are taking one season where the bats have not been their best


This isn't a single-season issue.

quote:

0-12 with RISP

quote:

Take away mid week games and their stats are near .200


Actual stats, downvoted. Wow. I'm convinced.
Posted by LSUgrad08112
Member since May 2016
2925 posts
Posted on 4/22/18 at 12:22 pm to
Ignore the same 6 morons who autistically screech at anyone who even dares say something that isn’t overwhelmingly positive about baseball in every single baseball thread. No rational person or knowledgeable person would’ve watched the Tennessee (I.E. possibly the worst team in the SEC) series last weekend and said “welp, we’re BACK! Knew it all along!” Not sure why they can’t be objective about our opponents but great performances against a bunch of trash teams outweigh any comment that you can possibly have about the team’s struggles in their eyes.

They actively get enraged by the implication that our once-great program should be striving for more than what we’re getting. So sit there and be happy with zero national championships in almost 10 years and 1 championship in 18 years buddy, who needs those when our case is filled with national seed trophies?
Posted by TigerLaw40
Member since Aug 2017
2789 posts
Posted on 4/22/18 at 12:45 pm to
quote:

Ignore the same 6 morons who autistically screech at anyone who even dares say something that isn’t overwhelmingly positive about baseball in every single baseball thread.

Probably the same way we should ignore you morons that choose to take stats from a single game or series and apply them to a whole season, or better yet, to a coach’s whole career.

If you would have actually read or comprehended what I have said, I’m not trying to pump this season up and make it seem better than it is. I’ve already stated that I realized a long time ago that given the losses from last year, coupled with the injuries this year, we are not likely to go very far, THIS year.

But to take one season or series or game and make asinine comments like, “Mainieri doesn’t put enough emphasis on hitting,” is just stupid when there are facts to the contrary. And it is even more dumb to state that a coach, coaching in a different era of the collegiate game, is not getting it done when he has led the team to conference titles, tourney titles, multiple National seeds (including 6 in a row), a CWS appearance about every other year, and a national title, when no other coach has done any better than that, and only a couple others have even come close to duplicating it.

But we will ask again since you think we are settling for less. Name someone else with the proven track record that can come in and do it better?
Posted by LSUgrad08112
Member since May 2016
2925 posts
Posted on 4/22/18 at 1:07 pm to
quote:

coaching in a different era of the collegiate game

This is such a bullshite defeatist thing to say. Fun fact: college football had been in the same position for 30+ years as college baseball currently is (I.E. Miami was the only football team who had won more than 2 national championships in a 10 year span since about 1980) until Alabama showed up and starting winning it almost every year. “Parity” also implies that the door is open for a program to step up and be dominant, which is still completely possible in college baseball despite the evolution of the game FYI.
quote:

Name someone else with the proven track record that can come in and do it better?

Do you think that Mainieri is the best coach in the country? Serious question. I’m not a search committee and answering that isn’t my job, but I certainly don’t think that he’s the best coach in the country, or even close to it, given how he’s performed with our baseball program’s embarrassment of riches.

That being said, it would be a horrible move to fire him or even consider it, and that’s not what I’m saying since I’m sure you’re just patiently waiting for me to imply that so you can freak the frick out. I’m just here for the sake of discussion, I’m not really part of the TD crew who’s crusading for a change to be made.

I’m honestly just tired of our fan base accepting the constant “floating” given our resources. The ultimate goal, ESPECIALLY for baseball, should be an eventual return to dominance a la Alabama football. And if not that, we should certainly expect more than 1 national championship in 18 years. Just my opinion, fire away since it doesn’t imply that Mainieri is doing a perfect job and that we should feel lucky to have a guy who’s pulling 2 guys out of the bullpen to be starters at LSU.
Posted by upgrade
Member since Jul 2011
13500 posts
Posted on 4/22/18 at 1:13 pm to
quote:

They actively get enraged by the implication that our once-great program should be striving for more than what we’re getting. So sit there and be happy with zero national championships in almost 10 years and 1 championship in 18 years buddy, who needs those when our case is filled with national seed trophies?


Yes we want more. Strive for more. You can even say "expect" more. But some of y'all act like unrealistic babies about it. Florida finally won a natty. After how many great teams they've had? They could win another this year. Their team is even better. But they probably won't. That's how baseball works. No one is going to do what Skip did ever again. Even Skip would not be as successful in today's game. That's what some of y'all don't get. Let's fire Mainieri so we can get the coach O equivalent for baseball.
Posted by latigerfan2
covington, la
Member since Jan 2005
1925 posts
Posted on 4/22/18 at 1:21 pm to
Isn’t that the same argument we heard about Alabama when Bear Bryant stopped coaching? “No one will ever win titles like that again at Alabama”
Posted by latigerfan2
covington, la
Member since Jan 2005
1925 posts
Posted on 4/22/18 at 1:26 pm to
Has Aleva lowered the expectations of our fanbase this much now that we are just content with being good, but not exceptional at anything anymore?
Posted by upgrade
Member since Jul 2011
13500 posts
Posted on 4/22/18 at 1:27 pm to
quote:

Isn’t that the same argument we heard about Alabama when Bear Bryant stopped coaching? “No one will ever win titles like that again at Alabama”



I don't know, I was just a baby when Bear retired.


I could be proven wrong about baseball. I don't think I will be, though.
Baseball is not football anyway.
This post was edited on 4/22/18 at 1:28 pm
Posted by upgrade
Member since Jul 2011
13500 posts
Posted on 4/22/18 at 1:30 pm to
quote:

Has Aleva lowered the expectations of our fanbase this much now that we are just content with being good, but not exceptional at anything anymore?


No. Many more schools actually care about baseball now. It is not the same game.
This post was edited on 4/22/18 at 1:31 pm
Posted by latigerfan2
covington, la
Member since Jan 2005
1925 posts
Posted on 4/22/18 at 1:34 pm to
I just wish our administration was as passionate about winning as our fanbase is. We have all the resources to be elite in football and baseball, but I think Aleva and F. King are satisfied with just being competitive.
Posted by TigerLaw40
Member since Aug 2017
2789 posts
Posted on 4/22/18 at 2:37 pm to
quote:

This is such a bull shite defeatist thing to say.

Please, tell me how it is "defeatist?" It is reality. Here are the reasons for why it is fact that this is a different era:
1. The attention college baseball receives is more now than just 20-25 years ago; in large part thanks to coaches like Skip and what he did at LSU.
2. More schools are investing way more in their program than ever before. LSU use to be way ahead of the curve over most programs with respect to this. One place where this is evident is the fact that Alex Box would probably be hard pressed, under an unbiased comparison, to still rank in the top 5 of facilities in the SEC alone. Two schools (A&M and Vandy) spend more on baseball than LSU, and all the rest spend right at the same amount or slightly less in comparison. And that is just the SEC.
3. Youth player development. This is an overlooked thing, but baseball at the youth level continues to grow across the country. With that, there is a larger pool of better and more developed players for other programs to also find good players to compete with.
4. Equipment changes. This gets harped on a lot, but also overlooked as to the impact. The changes to the bats has moved the college game to way more of an advantage to the pitching side. This means that the strategy of teams (a la Florida) has had to shift to creating dominant pitching staffs. And anyone who knows anything about baseball, knows that good pitching beats good hitting just about every time.
5. SCHOLARSHIPS. I put in all caps because it is the biggest impact on changing baseball at the collegiate level. Skip never dealt with the 11.7 scholarship limitations that are dealt with now. Unlike football, where you can have 85 scholarship players and essentially recruit a whole new first string offense and defense each year, baseball does not have that luxury. That is how a coach/program in football can step up and just dominate the way Alabama has. In baseball you have 9 position players counting the pitcher. If you use 9 scholarships on those positions, you are left with 2.7 more to recruit at least 2 more starters for your weekend rotation, a DH, and at least 5-7 solid to great arms for your bullpen. In case you haven't kept up with the simple math, that is 11.7 scholarships to get 17-19 players needed to round out your roster and field a competitive (or by LSU fan standards, a championship) team. And God forbid you have injuries, because you have no scholarships left to add quality depth to even your position players, let alone your pitching staff.
6. Recruiting - See #5 (Scholarships) and #3 (youth development) above. Many of our fans think because we are LSU then we should automatically get the best players in the country every year, and then other schools get the scraps. However, it is not that simple. Do we still carry the cache and brand recognition from the Skip years? Yes, we do. But a lot of other schools have also made a name for themselves and also recruit in talent rich areas of the country. But more importantly, due to the scholarship restrictions, how do you ask an elite player to come from out of state to play for you when the most you can offer him is a 1/3 to a 1/2 of a total scholarship because you also need to get all these other elite players and another school can offer him 3/4 to maybe a full scholarship because they have more room to do so? I don't think you telling him, "we are LSU, that makes up for you paying that extra couple thousand or so out of your pocket to come here," will work. That is why things like TOPS has helped us out in so many ways over the years; but LA is no longer one of the only states to have a program like TOPS. Also, Mainieri usually does have a top 3 recruiting class (and many times #1) every year - BEFORE THE DRAFT. However, LSU seems to just about always get hit hard by the draft and we lose many of those elite players you were able to convince to come here, which ends up leaving us with an average of about the 6th best recruiting class each year under Mainieri. If you want to make an argument for how they maybe need to do a better job of evaluating players relative to the likelihood of them making it to campus, then I could probably get on board with you there.
This post was edited on 4/22/18 at 3:00 pm
Posted by TigerLaw40
Member since Aug 2017
2789 posts
Posted on 4/22/18 at 2:57 pm to
quote:

Do you think that Mainieri is the best coach in the country?


Do I think he is "THE" best? I don't know. Maybe not, possibly not; but I know there is no other coach in the country in comparison to the production/results of Mainieri that I can say is the best either.

What I can say I believe is that Mainieri is certainly in the top tier of coaches, along with the likes of O'Sullivan, Corbin, Casey, Martin (who has no championship), and O'Connor (who, btw, is from the Mainieri coaching tree). And none of these coaches have done anything to prove themselves clearly better than the job Mainieri has done. The only one that could possibly be argued is Pat Casey who has 2 championships and has done it at a program and in area of the country that never had much success before him. But he has also failed to produce consistently at times with talented teams.

quote:

ultimate goal, ESPECIALLY for baseball, should be an eventual return to dominance a la Alabama football. And if not that, we should certainly expect more than 1 national championship in 18 years.


I could be wrong. It is just my opinion. But based on all the reasons I gave in my previous post, I don't think you will ever see dominance in college baseball again like what Skip did or like what Saban is doing at Alabama in football. Maybe O'Sullivan is about to do it at Florida, but I can guarantee you that he is probably one weekend starting pitcher injury away from not even winning again this year. Unless something changes to scholarship limitations, it will remain unlikely to see one dominant program.

And Mainieri is just now in his 12th season. Not his fault that Smoke wasted 6 years of what Skip had built and allowed other programs to catch up. Maybe if LSU keeps their foot on the throat of college baseball in those years, then we are looking at a different story now. But as much as you can credit Skip for building what he did, you can also fault him for hiring Smoke and taking that proverbial foot off the throat.

But I don't believe Mainieri is perfect. Never have argued that he is. In fact, he constantly does things and makes decisions that infuriate me. But as I have stated many times over, it is hard to argue with his results in comparison to other coaches/programs in the modern day of college baseball.
This post was edited on 4/22/18 at 3:07 pm
Posted by LSUgrad08112
Member since May 2016
2925 posts
Posted on 4/22/18 at 3:29 pm to
I played baseball for 20 years and have been a fan for a dozen more, I’m aware of the rule changes. And even if I wasn’t, you people spew them all over every single thread that doesn’t paint Mainieri in a squarely positive light like your lives depend on it.

Most of your points apply to other collegiate sports (1-3 and arguably 4) and Duke basketball and Alabama football are chugging along just fine. The 5th point is valid, but LSU still gives a recruit more reasons than any other school to take the college route and there’s absolutely no reason that our program shouldn’t be in as good or better of a position than Florida’s.

I really don’t understand why you people are so dead set on convincing yourselves that we can never be great again. I’m not asking for a Bertman-level run. That’s unrealistic. But I think every LSU baseball fan should expect more success than the next best baseball program over a 10 year period, and we’re not getting that right now. Hopefully the next guy can take care of business consistently without the constant excuses after Mainieri retires
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