Baseball mid season stock report

Taking stock of general summaries before diving deep into specifics.

The good:

-LSU has played the hardest schedule out of the west teams thus far and has the easiest remaining schedule in the division based on current records.

-Despite having two weekend rotation starters from opening day pitch 0 innings of SEC play LSU is only 1 game out of first place in the SEC West.

-LSU is winning close games, they are 8-2 in one run games.

-The bullpen outside of a few instances has been very good and Mainieri is learning to let the hot arm go for 2-3 innings to close out a game if needed.

The bad:

-Arm injuries have absolutely killed any type of momentum LSU is able to keep from week to week on the mound. The weekday starters have been in complete fluctuation throughout the year as they are trying to piece together week by week.

-The hitting game has shown no signs of consistency and it's starting from what many think are LSU's two best hitters. I have not been a fan at all of the hitting approach thus far meaning there is little to no approach at all being shown in specific instances.

-The bottom of LSU's lineup has gotten to a point where its no longer a couple of easy outs but an entire easy inning where the opposing pitcher has time to calm down so to speak.


Now some general thoughts on why I think LSU is struggling and what they can do to fix them. Please share yours as well.

1. Duplantis and Cabrera have not been hitting the ball to the opposite field with regularity. Both are on pace to greatly exceed their strikeout totals from 2018. Both are taking homerun hacks on two strike pitches with men on base.

Fix - They know they don't need to be jumping out of their shoes on every swing but they're still maturing, coaching needs to step up here.

2. Garza and Bianco combined have 85 plate appearances and have struck out 31 times. That means they are striking out a little less than every other time they step to the plate which is an ugly stat.

Fix - There's not a lot you can do to fix at this point, Ochinko's approach for certain hitters has been to swing early but we've seen LSU run themselves out of some quick innings this way. Also at this point I feel much better with CJ Willis going up against a lefty than any of these options.

3. Jaden Hill has not played since week two. Nick Storz is just starting to get into regular bullpens.

Fix - Hope he can get back as soon as possible. Mainieri does a good job of protecting arms but at some point they need to let Jaden increase his work load. Having Storz back by the end of April as a setup piece would be very nice.

4. Playing at Missouri

Fix - Hope to not play there for a very very long time. I don't know if LSU will see any of Hess, Watson, or Reid this weekend...(maybe Reid) so it's going to be another piece together weekend.