re: LSU Baseball 2022 (and beyond) Recruiting Thread (OLD THREAD, PLEASE STICKY NEW ONE)

I'll have my phone on me and post where I'm sitting. Be nice to put names to faces...plus see Berry and Crews rake!

I’m here now

First time I’d ever been able to go to a fall or spring scrimmage so I don’t know what is normal from a between innings standpoint, but I enjoyed seeing the drills being run between innings.

We look very physical. I feel like people may finally stop saying that we look small compared to other teams.

They were making loud contact today. It’s tough to worry about the pitching right now when you don’t know specifically what they’re working on and aren’t maxing out. But the hitters were definitely fun to watch.

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First time I’d ever been able to go to a fall or spring scrimmage so I don’t know what is normal from a between innings standpoint, but I enjoyed seeing the drills being run between innings.

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The drills are definitely new. Years past the team normally just did the typical between innings routine that’s done during a game. The bunting drill he does to start every inning is new too.

As was noted in one of the scrimmage threads he seems to also use a performance based scoring system as opposed to just keeping track of runs.

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It’s tough to worry about the pitching right now when you don’t know specifically what they’re working on and aren’t maxing out.

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Agreed. Also, today was the worst of the pitching this weekend. A good portion of pitchers the first 2 days looked good and there were barely any walks those days.

But the hitters do look very good. This will be a fun team to watch.

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I’ve speculated for a while that Mainieri’s approach to weight training was old school.

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Well they still have the same strength and conditioning coach they’ve been having; so I doubt a whole lot has changed with respect to that. I’d more see Johnson’s role in S&C as motivation and instilling a seriousness of purpose in the players to work harder and take more accountability thus maximizing the program.

But the thoughts of fans regarding the size of players under Mainieri was never really directed at the S&C program but more just the type of player brought in. Even though that was overblown by some and became a false narrative most fans latched on to.

I was reading an article today behind a paysite, so I won't link. It said that the 2022 and 2023 top players are mostly committed, half of 2024 and about 30 players for 2025.
The point of the article was that college coaches have to recruit freshmen in HS, which is not good for either party. Softball apparently had the same problem and so the instituted a rule that no coaching contact until junior year of HS.
As it pertains to LSU, Johnson won't have a big of influence on 2022 and 2023 as I would like. Many of those players were already signed with LSU before Johnson was hired.

After 2009 when the NCAA reined in the bats, schools had to adjust to the new style and of's were playing so far in and choking off any offense
They took the power out of the game so you needed defense and situational type hitters to counteract the new bats
PM placed more of an emphasis on pitching

When slight tweaks and changes were made again to add more offense, I don't think PM did a good enough job in changing back to a more offensive approach because he thought Omaha park necessitated defense and pitching over offense

PM failed to find that balance in recent seasons and the lineup he ran out there was what you got with a continued emphasis on pitching and defense

I like that Johnson seems to favor offense and a new approach was needed to counteract some of the other teams in the league that seemed to have passed LSU by

I always suspected naptime was one of the trainers. Lol

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Is there a noticeable difference in the returning players, or are you speaking just in general terms?

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I was thinking in general. Some returning guys look a little bigger, Cranford is one.