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

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Neal ranked 10th in the portal

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I appreciate what 64analytics is trying to do with the baseball portal, but thats a pretty laughable ranking for Neal.

I get he's toolsy with very notable pop, but he was downright awful behind the plate this past season and still couldnt hit SEC pitching. He went 9 for 53 (.170) against SEC teams and in the postseason this year with 2 XBH total.

He really shouldnt be in the Top 100 or so.

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ALL of it that based on potential, like it or not

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Fixed

Definitely true about how much is his injuries holding him back. He was never healthy here so tough to know if he ever would have been either.

I remember going into the season Jay was very adamant that Neal couldnt catch most games simply due to whatever lingering issues he had.

You could very easily argue we should have Travinski catch those games because Neal was pretty rough behind the plate with 6 PB and 5 errors in only like 20 starts

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Not really, his offensive ability is better than you are giving him credit for

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Being toolsy doesnt mean you're producing, Kling and Neal are prime examples of that.

Sure, Neal has great pop in his bat, what did that do for him this season?

He hit 9 for 53 (.170) against SEC/postseason pitching with 2 total XBH.

2 homers, 0 doubles/triples in 53 AB against good competition isnt anything to get excited about. At least his OBP was just over .300 which isnt terrible, we just had much better overall. Milazzo hit .270 against the same competition and while he obviously not known for any sort of power had slugging slightly higher than Neals against same competition.

Nobody is going to mistake Milazzo as a better offensive looking player than Neal but he was without a doubt much better than Neal at the plate this past season against the teams that mattered. Its hard to start giving credit to the guy offensively who hit 100 points lower and similar slugging than Milazzo, just saying.

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the problem is we don’t have a wave of catchers.

We have 2 and hopefully one makes it to campus.

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You're right, and we'll probably grab one in the portal, and it's always possible Jones/Frey slide back to catcher as well. There's options.

I felt like Neal was immature as a player. He had a short attention span as a catcher. He'd look fine for awhile then lose focus. I think the same could be said of him at the plate. He would show flashes then take multiple bad swings in plus counts.

As a disclaimer, I will say that the immaturity that I referenced could actually be rust. If he was not healthy, he may have gotten tired behind the plate. If he was not healthy, he may not have gotten the practice reps that he needed to stay sharp.

I'm not altogether sure Jay is done with catcher if Neal truly walks.

Random thoughts...

Losing your top 3 catchers is a big concern of mine. Was not impressed with Priester's defense first time around. Maybe he has improved there.

LSU really needs Arrambide to slide a bit and end up in BR. He would be the best defensive catcher on the team as a true freshman IMO. I would expect growing pains at the plate however.

I'm not expecting Curiel to hit .330 with 10 HRs as a freshman. He will likely need some time to adjust to SEC pitching, but I think he will be the team's best defensive option in center fielder. I expect less strike outs and a better batting average than Kling. If Jay grabs someone more proven out of the portal to play center I would have to re-evaluate.

The pop from the line up likely needs to come from 1B, 3B, at least one corner outfield spot, Catcher, and DH. I expect Milam to hit 10 HR from 2nd base next year.

End of random thoughts

I'm not worried about Curiel being skinny or lacking power. He will fill in quickly, which will almost immediately translate to more pop.

I really like Brown in the OF and at the plate, but a Curiel may give Brown the opportunity to go back to the mound. We are suddenly light on LHP. Brown was a dude on the mound in high school and USA ball, and his body has developed even more.

Well thats just ridiculous