re: Objective look at Bianco and Gio on offense and defense

Johnson really doesn't know these guys yet. They've played 4 legit programs and are 1-3. You can't learn anything from squad games and the likes of UNO. They're trying to figure it out.

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Now, you’ve got Jobert out of the lineup. Non starter for me. Jobert in RF. Gio doesn’t give you enough defensively to make up for what you lose by taking Jobert out of the lineup. Besides, Gio doesn’t help with the specific defensive problems. It’s the infield and Berry. Berry to DH and Jobert to RF at least takes care of Berry being on the field. You want to give Gio some starts, give him some in LF. Dugas could sit a game a week or so.

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So you have a problem removing Jobert based on 12 games of action but no problem removing Dugas who was, arguably, LSU's best bat in the SEC last season.

Makes sense.

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Jobert wasn’t even a starter on day one.

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What the hell’s that to do with the price of tea in China? Have you seen him hit? You can tell he hits by the way he takes and misses pitches. If a pitcher gets through 1-4 (or 5 if it’s Thompson), you think he’s gonna wanna face Jobert or Gio? He’d “whew” all over the place if Gio walked up there. Jobert is a great hitter. Even at this level. It’s obvious. Over a game, he could go 0-5, but still have a positive cumulative effect that can’t be measured. Pitchers can’t relax when he’s up. All pitches to him are high leverage/stress. Pitchers are gonna have to exert more effort both physically by how hard they throw their fastball or slider and more mental effort knowing they can’t miss. Like I’ve said, whatever defensive advantage

Gio gives you over Jobert in the OF is nowhere near the gap in between how much more important Jobert is to the lineup than Gio, who is really good and would start most places. But not at LSU in 2022. Only way is to figure out a way for Berry to play 3B (i dont think that’s remotely possible now), Gio in RF, and Jobert at DH. But, it looks like JJ likes Pearson’s LH bat more than Gio’s. Which I get. Neither has a big enough sample size in season, but if you look at the fall and spring scrimmages, it’s pretty easy to see Pearson, even as a FR is a better hitter. He walks more, strikes out less, and has much more power. That’s why he was the 1st LH hitter off the bench against OU. The situation presented itself where he could have barreled up a pitch and given us a 1-run lead. Made sense. Didn’t work, like almost all baseball moves. But you can’t just on the result, you’ve got make a good decision based on reason. It’s a long season, if you make decisions based on the best logic every time, it will pay off and work more than it would going by “your gut.” (I am still old-school enough that I do think you have to know your players, know your team and how you think they’ll act on certain situations, and go with “the gut” rather than the equation. The best coaches/managers (besides the ones simply with the best players) have an innate talent/skill/real world understanding on when to use which and how to use both.

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So you have a problem removing Jobert based on 12 games of action but no problem removing Dugas who was, arguably, LSU's best bat in the SEC last season.

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1) Simply “yes.” I can watch Jobert bat and watch Dugas bat and tell pretty easily that Jobert is a better hitter.

2) I never said “remove Dugas” from the lineup—or didn’t mean to say it—I just meant if we play 4 games in a week, Gio starting 1 and Dugas the other 3 isn’t crazy. Especially since we have almost zero RH bats off the bench right now. Dugas could be great in that role once a week or so and come in with runners on base and do some damage. But,
He doesn’t get extra points from what he did last year. Those home runs don’t roll over. We know he can get hot. And he’s definitely a leader the team feeds off of. But Jay doesn’t give a shite he hit 19 home runs last year. Jobert is simply better right now. So, he’s in. Y’all fight over Gip and Dugas. But every RH starter I’ve got Jobert in RF and Berry at DH. (Crews shouldn’t move off CF for even an inning the rest of the next 2 years. That’s his spot, goddamnit.

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