re: Baseball Talk, what’s your starting lineup?

Only Milazzo and Neal are capable of handling this pitching staff. Unless there is an injury, expect one of these two to start. Defensively, both players are excellent. During the fall, it was difficult to tell who was catching until they removed their headgear. The catcher position has improved dramatically since last year.

Milazzo has a more commanding presence due to his age and college experience. He is also more consistent in his play, and I would even say that he has a stronger arm. Compared to Milazzo, Neal shows more agility and quickness behind the plate due to his strong lower half. Neal presents very well in a more traditional stance. As a product of IMG, he's a lot more proficient at catching fundamentals than most college freshman. Milazzo has a slight edge when it comes to pitch framing, although both are considerably above average. Neal has a quick release, so expect plenty of pickoff attempts this year. Offensively, Neal will hit better at the beginning of the year, but both will wear down as the season progresses.

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I'm just not as fixated on Neal being a freshman. He's not a normal freshman. He wasn't supposed to make it to campus. He's obviously not the super freshman that Crews was, but Neal, Kling, and even Shores are special talents that don't normally get to campus. They're ahead of the curve and will develop quicker.

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Is Neal even 18 yet? I know he was 17 during the fall.

He will be 18y 130d when first pitch takes place.

LSU has had 3-4 Freshmen start at C this century. It's not all that rare. Neal is probably the highest rated C to make it to campus in a while. Milazzo has simply lowered the standard for an LSU catcher. He is a late inning replacement at best

Sorry elly

Got it thanks. Pitching staff is all proven they will be lights out. My bad.

Just met CJJ's best buddy and LB state coach. We talked for about a 1/2 hour about LSU, and baseball etc.. He's saying this team is absolutely set for a huge year, as we are hearing. Pretty cool to hear it from a good coach who knows Johnson and his capabilities intimately. Really excited to see this year get going.

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C - Milazzo/Travinski/Neal
1B - Morgan
2B - Dugas/Nippolt/Guidry/Merrifield
3B - White
SS - Thompson
RF - Pearson
CF - Crews
LF - Kling/Stevenson/Dugas
DH - Skenes/Jobert/Jones/Travinski/Dugas

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The possibility of a leadoff hitter with a career batting average of .157 is not a good idea.

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Yeah but Crews is a natural for the 7 hole so...

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Stopped reading when I saw the #1 hole. Have a nice day, inspector.

It's impossible to accurately predict the lineup, because we don't know who is going to hit.

If Dugas hits three home runs the first weekend, Jay Johnson will remember those 19 HRs, and you can bet he will start somewhere and have a long leash.

Can Stevenson hold off Kling? They can both play outfield. It depends on who is hitting.

We can pencil in Pearson and Crews in the outfield. We can pencil in Morgan and White for infield or DH. There is not another guaranteed spot - not even Jordan Thompson. Everybody better hit, and Thompson better not kick it around like he did last year.

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Gibbs

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That’s a good one. I just looked it up. Ty Ross started 46 games his freshman year also.