re: Mainieri and late season surges

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the real question is if any team has ever been "deserving" but was not rewarded. the answer is obviously yes. every season

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Real solid argument right there.

So, every team who has made/won the CWS, that wasn't awarded a national seed was deserving of one?

Underwhelming last season? Winning regular season SEC and SEC Tour and Nat'l seed? Whats underwhelming about that?

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It's not that hard to figure out. Mainieri uses the season to figure out his team and improve as the year goes on. Much to the dismay of TR, he really care less about the mid-week games than the tinkering they offer as a way to try new things, new players to improve.

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What people from this board fail to remember (or maybe they weren't old enough at the time) is that this is the EXACT SAME 100 PERCENT WAY that Skip coached.

Skip gave 0 fricks about the regular season, and honestly, about the SEC Tournament. The entire regular season was about who he had and what role they would play. The SEC Tournament was used purely to set the pitching rotation, as the 8 team SEC tournament somewhat mimicked the 6 team regional and the 8 team CWS. It was all about getting them in line for NCAA play.

The difference between Skip and Paul is the talent gap between us and the other state schools is much closer now. Back in the late 80s and 90s, our talent was so much better and deeper, that we could play not to win, and still win. Now, if we don't play to win, we generally will not. And this will upset some people, but especially the mid week games, winning is not the number one motivator.

Go look back at some of the regional brackets from the 90s and compare to today. Yes, you have more 16 more teams now, but the mid-low majors have a lot more teams playing and competing.

The saddest part is that the kids who truly fell in love with LSU during the mid-90s from the championships and camps (speaking of growing the game locally) ended up having to play for Smoke for at least part of their tenure...

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So, every team who has made/won the CWS, that wasn't awarded a national seed was deserving of one?

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holy cow. could you have misunderstood what i said any more?

in any year, there are more than 8 teams who could make a case for a national seed. the committee has to use subjective criteria to determine the national seeds. they aren't earned. they're rewarded when the committee decides which criteria they like best for that year.

i can't believe we're having this conversation again because people are STILL confused about national seeds. elite programs don't hang their hats on a subjective reward.

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they underwhelmed in the regular season by winning the SEC regular season and tournament titles?

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the sect isn't in the regular season and perhaps you don't recall how upset everyone was. it was pretty rough around here. especially regarding the hitting

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they aren't head and shoulders better than LSU as a program.

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they most certainly are. go look up fla's cws record since 2010 or in the last 10 years. there's a pretty wide gap between them and lsu

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no, it's not

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yes it is. he's in charge. it's ultimately on him

When was the transition between what we saw when Skip was coaching to present Day college baseball? Can the game change that much in 12-15 years?

2008-2009 saw the roster caps, with 35 players, total, of which only 27 can get financial aid, which must be at least 1/3 of a full scholarship per kid.

Marginal kids who would choose a "book scholarship" at a major school, over a larger scholarship at a lesser school, no longer had that choice.

The more gradual changes have been schools investing more money in baseball facilities, and success breeding success. With the scholarship limitations, baseball is a sport that doesn't need a tremendous amount of money to be successful. A relatively small investment by a school can reap dividends.

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in any year, there are more than 8 teams who could make a case for a national seed. the committee has to use subjective criteria to determine the national seeds. they aren't earned. they're rewarded when the committee decides which criteria they like best for that year.

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So tell me, oh wise one, when did LSU get a national seed just because they had the name LSU?

Be sure to let me know which team was more deserving, with the numbers compared to LSU to back it up.

I'll wait here and listen, although you will not reply.

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The roster size and scholarship rules started changing in the mid 2000's and were fully implemented by the 2009 school year. The bats were deadened in several stages around those same times. I'm sure if you Google you can get the details.

I remember Smoke Laval when he was head coach at LSU complaining about the scholly and roster changes which changed how the program recruited. He said he used to be able to take a chance on a marginal player by offering him enough scholly money "to buy pencils" and some of those marginal recruits became starters and stars. The new rules were going to prohibit that.

The change in bats also changed the game....a lot.

And yes, the changes definitely changed the game mainly by spreading out talent to more teams thus increasing parity.

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agreed, cutting roster sizes down to 35 and 27 on scholarship with each player getting 1/4 of a scholarship, at minimum, is the single biggest reason for the increased parity we see. Add in managing drafted recruits, I don't envy the job a college baseball coach has trying to fill out a roster every year, especially with the signing deadline being too late to sign a formidable replacement.