Let’s discuss the biggest issue with this team

Can you provide the stats that substantiate your position versus other teams? I would contend that LSU is about the same as everyone else. Perhaps even better since their ERA is so low.

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Can you provide the stats that substantiate your position versus other teams?

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No I cannot. That’s why I said discuss it.

It seems every game the commentator says “the last 6 of 7 lead off guys got on base”

We are towards the bottom of the SEC in walks. Also at the top of the league in era and strikeouts. Our staff has elite stuff just need to stop walking people.

Being 9th in runs scored in SEC play is the problem. This team just doesn’t produce enough at the plate.

Even though Cowan got shelled, holding SCe to 6 runs should be enough given they have the second worst pitching staff in the conference. LSU just sucks at the plate, especially on the road.

Nah, biggest issue is our top guys being unable to hit SEC pitching consistently. Period.

Oh, and the fact that IF they get on base, their base running IQ is on par with a herd of cats. I've seen t-ball teams with better baserunning IQ.

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LSU just sucks at the plate, especially on the road.

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That has been true in plenty of road games, but we had 12 hits last night. The issue was the base running mistakes killing two great opportunities to blow the game open before USC had shown any real life.

Add in Ware walking the bases loaded to give USC an easy early run, a couple of misplayed balls in the field and a wild pitch, and you have the real reasons we lost this one.

There were more than enough hits and opportunities for this to be an easy 7 or 8 to 3 game with 0 drama at the end.

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Truth is we are elite in a few areas but extremely deficient in several others. Not a good recipe for a deep run.

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The same exact things were said about the 23 team at this exact same time of the year. The pen was in shambles, they were mediocre at best defensively and they dropped a couple of series late and had an early exit from the SECT.

Our inability to score runs on the road is our biggest issue by far

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No I cannot. That’s why I said discuss it.

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Then there's nothing to discuss.

Fundamentals. They don't throw enough strikes, which is fundamental. Defensively, our outfielders cannot be trusted to track and catch fly balls that have anything above medium difficulty. We are a bad base running team. Don't make great reads, take unnecessary risks, over slide, or in Curiel's case last night, didn't slide. They don't bunt well. Sure, they've gotten some down, but there have been a ton of failed attempts. Don't hit with runners in scoring position, and struggle to even get the ball out of the infield with a runner at 3rd and less than two outs.

It's all fundamental stuff. They manage to win because they have a couple of horses on the mound, and when the offense is on, they hit enough home runs to make up for the lack of situational hitting. When the ball isn't flying out, we are struggling to do anything.