re: Ryan Kucherak to portal

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the transfer portal is the ruination of college sports

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I agree winning on the backs of Burrow (hesiman/NC), Daniels (Heisman), Skenes (NC), White (NC), Reese (NC) has totally sucked.

I think this is just what it's going to be from now on. Like building a basketball team. Guys who dont play transfer. Nobody's going to wait their turn anymore.

Does it suck? Yes. Will it happen regardless of how I feel about it? Yes.

I think we have the right man in place to handle the new era of baseball (unlike some other sports).

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I think this is just what it's going to be from now on.

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No doubt about it. The ones who stay and develop will be the exception, not the norm. If kids come in and don't contribute, nor see a clear path to playing time in year 2 will bolt. Luckily for us, LSU is an attractive spot to top players looking to transfer as well. It just is what it is now.

Outside of Neal, who left that had a clear path to playing time? And even with Neal, I don't think JJ would turn down a high caliber catcher just because Neal was on the team. He hasn't shown an ability to stay healthy.

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I would think this has less to do with playing time last year, and more to do about playing time going forward.

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I don't really care about losing any of the guys who've hit the portal this off-season, but this is something Jay is going to have to figure out how to balance moving forward. As are all coaches. I think, like Brian Kelly, would prefer to build his team his teams from high school players that he can develop over a couple of years and then add a handful of portal sprinkles to fill in holes or for absolute studs that you just have to take if you can get them. But baseball is not like football for guys that have professional aspirations. Their clock starts ticking faster as their draft year where they have the most leverage is their 3rd season (or 2nd for the draft-eligible sophomores). So if they don't see a path to regular playing time by their 2nd season, they need to start thinking about their futures.

Some may get to LSU and realize they don't have much of a professional future and are willing to stick around as "program guys" willing to do anything to hopefully be a part of a championship team (think Ben Nippolt or Jack Merifield). Others may realize they don't have much of a professional future and would rather spend the last 2-3 years of their baseball careers actually playing baseball instead of just practicing it. Football players can afford to redshirt and wait until their 3rd/4th/5th years to become starters and it won't affect their draft position. Again, the clock on baseball players is much different.

And those will typically be end of roster guys that shouldn't have a huge effect on the overall talent level of the team and can be replaced by incoming freshmen and some less highly touted portal guys. Where Jay might run into problems is if he grabs stud portal guys to come in and replace guys who think next season is "their year." And if he's having to give big NIL deals to get those guys here, that obviously could cause some friction with the guys who came here without those big bags. He's a great recruiter/salesman and tells guys how great they are, how he can develop them, and what his vision for them is. And I doubt that vision he's selling them is "come to LSU, redshirt, and you may become the next Jack Merifield or Ben Nippolt by your 4th year."

This is the ramifications of hitting the portal as hard as LSU has. Don’t produce immediately? You have to assume you are going to be replaced by the next shiny transfer portal toy.

And I know what comes next, “They should fight for it.” But they need reps to get better and you can’t blame them for trying to find those reps

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This is the ramifications of hitting the portal as hard as LSU has.

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We had 2 and sometimes 3 portal starting position players last year.

We had 1 the year prior.

The degree to which LSU has hit the portal is overblown due to the names we've pulled. Kentucky, Arkansas, A&M, and Georgia have been much more active in the portal than LSU.

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Outside of Neal, who left that had a clear path to playing time? And even with Neal, I don't think JJ would turn down a high caliber catcher just because Neal was on the team. He hasn't shown an ability to stay healthy.

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I think the reason Neal left was he didnt have a clear path to starting he thought he had and thats what he was wanting assurances on. The Josh Jordan tweet about wanting promises instead of competing and such came out right as Neal hit the portal and I dont think that was by mistake.

This all despite every catcher leaving besides him, clearly Jay and Co. dont know if he can be an every day catcher even with Priester and Arrambide coming in. They dont want to make promises that potentially hurts the team in the long run.

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We had 2 and sometimes 3 portal starting position players last year.

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No need to apologize for that. But we also had Holman and Jump. You absolutely HAVE to take those guys, but I doubt Griffin Herring expected to still be coming out of the pen this year, even if he was the best reliever in the SEC. Obviously, I wasn't privy to their conversations, but I'm sure Jay's vision for Herring out of high school was that he'd be in the weekend rotation by his draft-eligible SO season. Now, we NEEDED him there this year, so no need to apologize for that either.

But if Herring signs (I don't think he will, I think he comes back), it could be because he's not 100% sure he does wind up in the '25 weekend rotation, no matter what Jay is telling him now. Jay may have every intention of Herring being the Friday night guy right now. But he had every intention of Hurd being the Friday night guy last year, too. If Anderson takes the huge jump I think he will and becomes a weekend guy, Shores comes back better than ever and is able to extend as a starter and becomes another weekend guy.

And maybe a portal guy proves to have more pitches that allows him to get through the lineup and extend more than Herring is able to, and HE becomes that 3rd weekend guy, then Herring winds up being in the same role next year as this. That may be what's in the best interest of the '25 LSU baseball team--which is where Jay's obligation has to prioritize--but it probably wouldn't be in Griffin Herring's best interest. If he is just going to have the same role, he might as well have signed this year.

Again, I am not criticizing Jay at all, and think he will figure out the right balance. I think the fear is that he is such a dynamic recruiter and pumps guys up so much to get them here, that what he's telling them out of high school, JUCO, or even at LSU to retain them, might not line up with the reality of how it winds up playing out. Which is normal and happens every year to every coach and team. I just don't want him to get the rep in recruiting circles that he doesn't follow through on his promises. And that fear may be completely unfounded--maybe every recruit and their family these days are more savvy and know how the game is played. I'm just not plugged into that part of the game, so I have no idea.

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agree winning on the backs of Burrow (hesiman/NC), Daniels (Heisman), Skenes (NC), White (NC), Reese (NC) has totally sucked.

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Thought Burrow was a grad transfer; not a conventional portal type?

Is anyone else worried about hitting?

I was for sure lsu would bring in at least one maybe 2 big known bats.

And I'm a fan of yamin.