re: Guidry next year

quote:

---

Shortstop is a tough position to be a two way player at. It’s not ideal to have to take your starter at a premium position and put the backup there for a period of time while the starter is pitching.

Not saying it can’t be done or they won’t do it. It’s just not the best position for the team to be in.

---

Yeah, most coaches don’t want their starting short stops coming off that position to pitch. It’s too valuable a position. If you think of Guidry being used in a closer role, then you’ve got him on his feet for 8 innings, making all the long, in-game throws from the 6 hole, all the warm up throws in between innings, running the bases, then coming in to try to get future major leaguers out.

And you’re only using him in close games, so then you have to put an inferior player at the most important position on the field where 1 play could make the difference. Even if that guy may be a defensive specialist and Guidry’s got the gig because he’s the much better hitter, you’re still asking a guy to come in cold and to have the chemistry with the 2B to communicate with each other, turn a double play, etc…we’ll enough to not compromise your defense.

That juice is almost never worth the squeeze regardless. And I definitely don’t think Guidry is a good enough pitcher right now to justify. His demeanor plays over his stuff. I don’t think 70% 12-6 sliders is sustainable off a 91/92 mph fastball. The more SEC hitters see it, the better they’ll be able to recognize it. Now, most of the time it’s so filthy it doesn’t matter—they still can’t hit it. But there’s just so little room for error with that pitch. If he hangs it against good hitters, they’re gonna punish it. And if you throw it 70% of the time, you’re eventually gonna hang it. He got away with that earlier in the season and got a lot of high called strikes. But the more people saw him and as the competition got better, the less he was able to get away with it.

I think he’s good enough to either play MIF or pitch. Good news is he has the frame to add really good weight—I think his injury his SR year in high school prevented him from
really being able to focus on lifting the last couple of years. He should be able to add good weight pretty fast, and it will help with his hitting and adding some extra velo to his fastball. But I don’t think he’s good enough to do both at this level playing short. He’d have to either devote almost all of his time to hitting and fielding or adding a couple mphs to his fastball and developing it enough to actually using it for more than just a change in eye-level look.

I think he has the potential to be really good—or even great—at one or the other. But the bottom line is that he’s too far behind to be great at both. He may not want to, but he’s probably gonna have to choose. Or it may wind up being obvious and it gets chosen for him. And even though he wants to do both now, I don’t think that’s either in LSU’s or his best long term interests for success. I certainly would want to push that decision off as long as possible, but I think through fall is probably it. He’s likely gonna have to come back in January focused on one or the other.

My money would be him playing 2b. I think we will bring in a more consistent and experienced glove at SS. SS could be the move his junior year. He has Zach Watson type power and speed. Tools are there, he just needs to develop and pitching will only slow him down. Jay will bring in another closer if they're not already on the team.

Really hard to tell with as much movement as the roster will have between now and February. The middle infielders and catcher spots , in my opinion, will be the most difficult to project at this point.

quote:

---

every day SS =/= also pitch

---

I really don't see how this can be possible unless you are very rich in talent across the board - or extremely weak in talent across the board.

Guidry will be brought in to close some games next year. He is really good and will be needed in certain situations.

Teams have done it before, it's not out of the realm.

He's great as a closer, and I can believe he'll get a lot of save opportunities.

That two-run blast he gave up to Tennessee in the CWS was an exception, not the rule for Guidry. Really out of character pitch

quote:

---

there's only one person in the world that truly makes it work, and he is a giant from Japan

---

He's just about the only one who's been given a real opportunity to do it at the professional level, because he demanded it as a condition upon leaving Japan and signing. I wish more would get the opportunity, but everyone is scared of their guys getting injured. Even though pitchers are far more likely to get hurt by pitching than they are by batting, this continues to be an issue for anyone with two-way talent.

College two-way players have been able to make it work for years. It's not an issue to do both, if you have the talent. It's a matter of people in charge having irrational fear of the unknown, uncontrollable injury monster.

quote:

---

Why would he want to risk injuring his arm pitching, that would take him out of his fielding role when he wants to be an infielder

Guidry was an asset as a pitcher this year in a pinch. But I don’t think he is built like a pitcher and his fielding is elite so he needs to be in the field, weightroom to be a stronger hitter and taking BP as much as possible.

---

He would want to do it, because he wants to do it, I would presume. It's not really anything more than that.

As for not being built like a pitcher, he's a reliever. And he can stay a reliever, built like he is. He had the best numbers of anyone out of our bullpen, and had a high strikeout rate. He was a dominant pitcher in high school, as well. So I don't know what you mean by "in a pinch", as if he had never pitched before, and just came in and threw 10 innings the whole year. He was integral to our success.

If he could do that as a freshman, when they weren't really working with him at all in the offseason as a pitcher, imagine what he could do with a whole off-season of development, and having that year of experience under his belt now. I highly doubt they abandon the pitching side with him. We still don't know if he can hit at this level. He was not good at the plate in scrimmages, and then didn't get any real plate experience during the season.

He's not going to miss out on batting practice by being a pitcher. Two-way players are far from rare in college. I don't think he's going to be a starting pitcher, so his workload should be very manageable.

Dude needs to put on 10-15 lbs of muscle.