re: If we get a weak 4, which we should, start Money and roll with the HRs he'll give up

You don't waste Skenes in a 1-4 matchup, plain and simple.

Let's step back and consider the regional lineup, for a moment:
LSU (and any other national seed) at 1

2 seed will be decent, but fairly weak. If you're strong enough to be considered a regional host, but fall to the 2 slot, you're going to be paired with a similar team that did get a regional. Meaning, 17-24 should be the #2's at the 9-16 regionals, not the top 8.
In other words, teams like Tennessee, Alabama, South Carolina, Kentucky etc are not going to be #2 seeds at the top 8 regionals, they will either host, or be at a lesser regional. *I think that eliminates a team like Southern Miss from coming to BR, they're too good right now.

At the top 8 regionals, the 3 seed should match up well with the 2.

The 4 seed, especially at the top regionals, should be auto-bid cannon fodder.

All that considered, it means LSU should face someone they can squash pretty easily in a 1-4 matchup, and the 2 seed will need to throw their ace against the 3 (and vice-versa) to have any advantage. If they have a solid rotation, their 2nd guy will be the one they throw at us in the Winners Bracket game... and Skenes makes that basically an auto-win.
The loser then goes with their 3rd pitcher, against the survivor of the loser's game (who will have burned their 2nd pitcher in that game), also likely tossing their 3rd pitcher (really small chance they flip the order, if the 4 seed is completely terrible after game 1).

Whoever survives that would face the winner's bracket 3rd pitcher, with bullpen/midweek guys. In our case, that's Coleman + bullpen, vs a midweek dude.

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Also, for the sake of this conversation:

Blake Money in SEC games: 8.1 IP over 6 appearances. 0 HR allowed.

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Wow I didn’t realize that. That’s encouraging af. Thanks.

Nah you will see him in the SEC tournament or mop up duty in regional play against a 4 seed if it gets out of hand. He just needs a lot of space and what I mean by space is we have to be up by quite a bit.

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If I’m Jay, Christian Little has thrown his last pitch at LSU.

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I expect we'll see him in the SEC tourney.

I honestly don't think it's all control, I think it's a mental thing. He can probably throw strikes warming up, and he's so on edge about placement that he's missing.

I think the tighter strike zone, combined with the lack of garbage time missed in those run-rule games, has fricked with the heads of a lot of our bullpen. They either throw balls, or meatballs. Nobody can throw a strike that will consistently get just a ground ball that your infielders have 75% chance of fielding.

I think that was the game plan all along. Start skenes g2 and Hurd g3.

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Midweek opponents don't start their number 1 guy against us.

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I’m curious whether a 4-seed would actually start their ace against Skenes in a non-elimination game.

I know tournament play is different and all, but it seems like saving their ace for game 2 might actually be the smart play if Skenes starts game 1. The bigger underdog they are vs. Skenes, the more it makes sense to hold their #1 guy. Of course, that assumes they feel they have a deep enough staff to win 4 games in the loser’s bracket.

Still I wonder if it might be a scenario where you either start Skenes against a 4-seed team’s #3 guy, or start someone else against their ace.

I don’t think we start Skenes in game 1 regardless. Better question is whether we go with Floyd or the wholestaff approach.