re: The state of LSU baseball is....

I said before the season started that this team looked really thin in the batting order, and that it looked like the team's fortunes rested on hoping that Yocom, Fields, Powell, & Moore all came through (or at least 3 out of 4) as big time recruits.

I haven't had a chance to watch much of the games, or any of them in person, so I don't want to say much in the way of specific analysis. However, at the SEC level of play, I know that you can't count on players like Katz, Dozar, Hanover, Slaid, & Snikeris, to be your bedrock starters in the lineup. I've got no problem with scrappy players, and it's always a feel good story to have a couple in the lineup (like Katz & Hanover) so long as there are big guns elsewhere to help pick up the slack, but let's face it, LSU's hitting lineup seems to be lacking in talent lately.

For the last 3 seasons I've been harping on the need for LSU to recruit better hitting talent at the corner positions (LF, RF, 3B, 1B, & DH), and although I don't want to jump to any premature conclusions, given the quality of opponents so far, this is one of the worst-looking starts of a baseball season at LSU over the last few decades.

Looking forward, I think the Tigers really need for Foster & Moore to have surprisingly good seasons, and to have either Fields or Powell emerge as a big contributor in time for the meat of the conference schedule.

Again, most of this is just from knowledge of past seasons and looking at this season's stat lines, but damn, things are looking bad when the team can't score runs and Slaid has 5 starts in LF.

Starts by Position LINK
C -- Ross (5); Moore (2)
1B -- Katz (5); Moore (1); Dozar (1)
2B -- Yocom (7)
3B -- Hanover (7)
SS -- Nola (7)
LF -- Slaid (5); Rhymes (2)
CF -- Jones (6); Sciambra (1)
RF -- Rhymes (5); Katz (2)
DH -- Snikeris (1); Dozar (2); Foster (3)

Players with at Least One Start LINK
(Name, H-AB, BA)
Ross, 6-15, .400
Foster, 5-14, .357
Katz, 7-21, .333
Rhymes, 7-23, .304
Hanover, 7-24, .292
Slaid, 6-22, .273
Yocom, 6-23, .261
Nola, 5-20, .250
Dozar, 2-9, .222
Moore, 3-14, .214
Jones, 3-20, .150
Sciambra, 1-8, .125
Snikeris, 0-5, .000

Arby Fields, 1-4, .250
Evan Powell, 1-4, .250


From 2011 Season LINK
(Name, GS, HR, BA, SLG, OBP)
Rhymes, 56, 3, .360, .486, .424
Jones, 56, 4, .338, .467, .395
Katz, 50, 4, .337, .532, .371
Hanover, 56, 0, .311, .337, .407
Nola, 56, 2, .296, .413, .378
Snikeris, 7, 0, .259, .259, .333
Dozar, 17, 2, .250, .403, .341
Ross, 46, 1, .223, .277, .295
Slaid, 0, 0, .167, .333, .167