re: Central Ark 0 @ LSU 2 Final

He'll have some growing pains. He's definitely on an upward trajectory, though. So many good options to look at, too. Larson hasn't even seen the field in that 2B/RF/1B rotation yet either. He has a huge upside.

Response makes sense in today’s society. Everything I said was factual and the truth. Oh!!! I forgot. You can’t do that today.

Great Win... Geaux Tigers

My point regarding Dutton is that I don't think Jay would have gone to him there if he didn't trust that would go out there and pound the zone and finish it off. That may not have been the initial plan, but once he found himself in a 2-run game in the 9th, he went to a guy he trusted. If he was auditioning guys, he would have gone with Moffett or some other unproven guy with closer stuff. He'd already seen Dutton Friday. But at that point, the win mattered more, and he wasn't wiling to sacrifice it.

Just like I'm not sure the plan going in to Friday's game was to use Jump in the 9th, but when he found himself in close game then, he went with the guy he was confident in to come in and finish it. If we had gotten out to 7-8 run leads in those games, he probably runs different guys out there in a different order. But this team needs to stack wins and can't afford to let ones like yesterday potentially slip away. Last year's team with so many veterans who had played so much together could have absorbed a mid-Feb. loss to Central Arkansas and bounced back, no big deal. This year's squad still needs to develop and grow as a team and learn how to win together. All the little things that young teams need to do early in the season to be in a position to compete for championships at the end of the season.

So I think it says something that Jay went to Dutton in that spot yesterday. Les said 90/91 with a flat fastball doesn't play against good teams, and while I agree with that, I think he's selling Dutton a little short. I think he's ticked up his velo and was sitting 93/94 most of the spring even if he might not have been yesterday. And I didn't see the game yesterday to confirm whether his fastball was flat or had a little run, but I think he can get outs at 93/94 if he's got great command paint the black on both sides of the plate.

However, while I think going to Dutton in the 9th yesterday says something good about how confident Jay is in him, I think it also says something about what I think is a current weakness of this team--the lack of quality RH relievers that Jay and Yeskie believe can come in in a close game and throw strikes. Right now I think it's Dutton, Ulloa, and Guidry and that's it. And I've got my doubts on how effective Guidry's slider will be against SEC hitters in their 2nd year seeing him when he's throwing it off of just a 90/91 mph fastball.

But even if Guidry replicates his freshman season and his big balls play over his actual stuff again, that's still not enough RH pen arms. Especially considering Ulloa is the only one with high velocity. I think a low-key big part of the potential success of this team might wind up being Little and Moffett developing into high leverage, late-inning guys that Jay can count on to come in and throw strikes and not shite down their legs. Or maybe a couple of other guys I'm not thinking of. Good thing is Yeskie is really good at his job, and they've got a couple of months to figure it out. I'm confident somebody will eventually step up and emerge.