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

That probably plays into it, but in general the industry seems to be liking Doughty more and more.

Baseball America recently expanded their list from 100 to 200 and shuffled a bunch of guys. Doughty went from 42 to 24 on their list.

Kiley McDaniel of ESPN (formerly of FanGraphs) was the first guy that was heavy on Doughty. He had him ranked pretty high in his early rankings last year.

Here are the latest ranking based on Prospect Live. When going through the list I believe the reason it was updated was because of the draft age set. That is why Ty Floyd is now on the list. Seems like with that and also injuries/suspensions that went and adjusted the ranking from March 9th.

Player - (last rank) Updated Rank
Mikey Romero - (16) 15
Jacob Berry - (13) 18
Cade Doughty - (31) 24
Justin Crawford - (46) 41
Paxton Kling - (54) 57
Brady Neal - (57) 61
Jaden Noot - (66) 70
Gavin Guidry - (84) 82
Tucker Toman - (90) 88
Chase Shores - (98) 98
Michael Kennedy - (117) 115
Jacob Misiorowski - (198) 175
Ty Floyd – (NR) 176
Jared Jones - (181) 197
Aiden Moffett - (225) 243
Eric Reyzelman - (250) 271
Gavin Dugas - (276) 302
Brayden Jobert - (285) 311
Adrian Siravo - (356) 380
Kaleb Applebey - (373) 396
Robby Snelling - (380) NR

We recruited him (Travis Sykora) I think. He was committed to Baylor previously before reopening his commitment.

Project, I saw on another thread that you wanted LSU to hire Vitello. I was also on board with that because I love recruiting. I assume that was part of your thinking as well. My only problem with Vitello is he comes across as a douchebag in my opinion. I was thinking if only they can find a relentless recruiter that actually seemed more respectable. Then they dug up Johnson and I was all on board.

My question to you is, would you still prefer Vitello over Johnson?

Gavin Guidry with 7IP 13K 0 runs and 3 hits last night against a very good Sam Houston baseball team. Also went 2-3 at the plate. Getting that kid to campus would be huge.

Johnson talked about his visit to LSU accompanied by his family. Guidry and Kennedy are the two he mentioned that seemed really excited about coming to LSU. I think we have a shot.

I get burned by this every year I think some guys genuinely want to go to college, but at some point it just doesn’t make sense. I remember a few years ago Blayne Enlow took SR pics in Alex box stadium. He was dead set on going to LSU if he didn’t get a huge deal and ended up getting an overslot deal for the 1st pic in the second round.

Since the thread is getting a few more active participants, I wanted to start looking at this years class by position group and see if we can start assessing each group and what we're likely to get to campus overall. Since we're already on the subject of infielders, we may as well start there.

Gavin Guidry - SS/RHP. Can probably play 3rd as well. 6 ratings, average of 72.2. Highest ranking is 33, lowest is 102. Considered a rising prospect. Has family ties to LSU with his cousin being being a QB on the football team and there is some connection to Drost (I think he's dating Guidry's sister, but I don't know and that's more info than needs to be here). The feeling is that he wants to be at LSU. Relative to other prospects in his class (even at his own school) he committed late in the process. He would likely come in as a true two way player. Johnson has previously coached a high level two way guy at Arizona in Bobby Dalbec.

Tucker Toman - 3B. Can probably play 1st as well. 6 ratings, average of 61.3. The outsider feeling here is that he's a college lean because his dad is the head coach at Middle Tennessee. There are examples of college coach's kids signing out of high school (Matt Holliday, MJ Melendez, Brett Anderson). There isn't much to go on as far as his likelihood of getting to campus.

Mikey Romero - SS. Can also play 2B. 7 ratings, an average of 34.6. The first commit to Jay Johnson at LSU. Says the right things about getting to campus. Has seemingly built relationships with other guys in the class. Still a huge risk because there is still a chance the money is just going to be too much to pass up.

I don't think we have a high chance of getting all 3 to campus. I would be ecstatic if we got two of the three. I would be pretty happy if we held on to one of the three, especially if it's Guidry or Romero because they could play short. That's not a knock on Toman, shortstops are just harder to find.

I don't think we meet our positional needs if we only get 1 or 2 of them though and I think we will hit the portal for another infielder. I've mentioned previously an infielder that played with Reyzelman last year (Luke Keaschall). I noticed him a while back looking at summer stats and have kept an eye on him. Now, since they fired their coach, it's reasonable to think he will hit the portal to move to a higher profile school. Our California connections will have us in the mix for him.

We don't seem to be in on any JUCO infielders at the moment, but I need to check back on that. My guess is that any additional needs there will be addressed through the portal.

My comments aren't meant to be the end of the conversation on these guys, but the beginning. When I find time to put together thoughts on the other position groups I'll do that. I just can't promise when.

I assume you left off Catcher position to talk about them separately, which is fine with me.

I agree with everything you said in your post. I would add that I feel like Toman will be a 3b at the next level but from things I've read and videos I have seen I think he can also play 2b at the college level. Also 1b like you stated. Also think Guidry is like a Doughty type and can play 2b, ss, or 3b.

I'm not sure how confident I am getting 2 of 3 with these guys. Maybe 40% confidence level. I think it will be hard for Romero to pass on what he is offered. Also think Toman and Guidry will both be on the level of the draft that they will have a hard decision to think about. I think the edge of Guidry to get to campus is on LSU side with the ties you shared and also him wanting to be a true 2 way player. I feel like he will have a better opportunity to showcase that at LSU than if he goes in the draft. MLB team will likely not go the 2 way route. If he shows he is good enough to do it in college then maybe he gets a better opportunity to be 2 way in the MLB. That will still be difficult though. Louisville had a guy a few years back really good both ways (Brendan McKay; not sure spelling) and I believe he is no longer 2 way in MLB. If he is the last time I went look his stats were not that great.

Yes, his family values college from everything I can find. The only thing keeping him from projecting higher and probably staying in the bottom half of the 1st round is that he does not have the power in his swing right now. I think his body type will be able to get to produce power eventually, but that is the only knock on him from my research. He is more of a doubles type hitter that can spray it around the field like Tre Morgan. His situation will be interesting. If he falls out the first round for whatever reason I can see him making a decision like Bregman to come to school and he can work on the power potential and become a top half the first round draft pick later on.