re: LSU Baseball 2024 (and beyond) Recruiting Thread OLD THREAD

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Got to think Kucherak had better offers than that, no? He's from Arizona and headed to a bad baseball school in Illinois...?

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My guess is his decision wasn’t all about baseball. Great school in a cool college town close to an iconic big league park. He’ll enjoy it up there.

JD Alexander committed to A&M

Did we end up having the #1 Recruiting clas? and #1 transfer class?


It's hard to find baseball stats and websites about recruiting.This is the only place I come to

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Are we not after this guy?

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Cant say on my end but he was the #1 2026 recruit in LA in Prep Baseball's rankings in the fall of last year and he fell all the way down to #5 in their rankings in their latest update after their sophomore seasons so he probably didnt progress much. I would say the #5 player in the state is very much a "maybe" in most cases as an LSU level recruit. Some years can be pretty decent, other years not so much or just a position we got better guys committed at from out of state probably. The #5 player in the state is almost never really a draft risk or ranked that particularly high nationally.

But 2026 is still a really far ways away, these guys will continue to be evaluated through their junior seasons and summer following that. Rankings can change a lot when talking going from freshman to sophomore to junior years. Some guys develop and others simply dont as much. Will Schmidt is a guy who went from maybe on the radar a little as a sophomore to "damn this kid is electric" as a junior, to "well looks like he'll be a first round pick for sure" as a senior; yet we got him to campus still. He made HUGE leaps.

We only ended up taking 3 kids from LA ultimately in the 2024 class after Victorian was cut out. Granted 1 of those was John Pearson which PG and PBR had him both at #6 in the state. Obviously family ties here and the pop in the bat is very real. He was one of many guys with pop in the bat we needed to add in this class with the power we were losing (ultimately didnt lose Bear but definitely will after next season though).

1 thing thats interesting is JD Alexander is from Barbe and his older teammate who is a fairly highly ranked 2025 recruit in Presley Courville recently decommitted from A&M during that coaching change.

I know very little about the kid, but I remember watching highlights of the '23 Barbe team and he looked like a future stud. Big frame and super projectible. Maybe that's why he was ranked no. 1 in the state. I'm assuming projection hasn't panned out like scouts wanted in the last 18 months which has caused him to drop.

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Are we not after this guy?

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we are looking at him...but prolly feel like we can slow play him some.

JD is very very Skill heavy but doesnt always show up in games so far. Really big kid and was hurt much of last year and struggled.

great kid though and tons and tons of potential. He prolly has more potential than Myles Ledoux but Myles is better player if that makes sense.

I am really happy for him as he is such a great kid.

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his older teammate who is a fairly highly ranked 2025 recruit in Presley Courville recently decommitted from A&M during that coaching change.

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really hoping he ends up at LSU but I do think UT wtih Schol is going to go hard at him. Same with both Oklahoma schools and he has former teammates at both. A&M will push too

overall i think he could make amazing middle infielder. kid works his arse off and is fast AF. I think LSU wants him more for that

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Decent chance JD is done as a pitcher. Or so I'm told

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well that is him talking. he is fine to pitch but he keeps hurting himself doing it because(like i mentioned) he needs to marry himself to training and lifting. he is weak AF for his arm speed. he also has played too many games overall imo.

but he also told me he was done when it was the middle of rehab so he was pissy about it.

but if he doesnt, he gonna just have to DH unless he learns to freaking field a position.

i love the kid so im not going to bash him and he is prolly the most talented kid from a pure physical ability standpoint in that '26 class but he is raw AF.

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Any rumors of a JUCO or portal transfer going somewhere else. I read Harden is delaying until 2026. There was talk of some possible attrition since more freshman decided to come to campus than expected, and Jones/Braswell returning.

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Harden is just going back to JUCO for 1 more year. This was agreed upon between him and the staff, just like Reaves. All the portal and JUCO guys are locked in to my knowledge. You may see 1 or 2 guys leave in the 2nd opening before the season though

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Is the 2nd opening before or after fall ball starts?

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After. Fall ball starts in 2 weeks or so when classes begin