Why was Jonathan Zeringue a star at LSU and a bust in the minors?

He did well at LSU but he struck out a lot
That’s the sacrifice for the power he produced
Mlb is a whole different animal
There have been a lot of very good LSU players that didn’t do well in pro ball
Plus the competition goes way up and you are competing with the Latin players
Around his time peds were still prevalent as well

He pitched against us in high school. Had a triple and a home run off of him. But he’s no pitcher and his fast ball was flat. Was hoping he’d make it big after he signed my home run ball. Cool guy.

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He did well at LSU but he struck out a lot
That’s the sacrifice for the power he produced

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Quote from another poster begins to explain it if you're looking for more than a general reason like "the competition get's fierce."
The strikeouts at college level tend to get worse as the pitching gets better. A key for all players that don't have elite bat to ball skills is the percentage of times they get production out of good pitches to hit. Extreme example: Dave Kingman wasn't excellent at it, but when successful he hit balls that should have had stewardesses on them. Kong would hit .220 but the 35 bombs from when he connected with a good pitch to hit produced runs.
Less power but Kevin Kouzmanoff comes to mind also. For every 12-15 pitcher's mistakes in the middle 1/3 of the plate, he'd get roughly 5 hits. Considerably higher than his .260 or so lifetime average but that skill got him (I think) 7 or 8 years of MLB service time.
Most guys---like Zeringue even in college---with big power swing and miss so much that they must produce when they get a pitch to hit much more than a guy who can handle the bat enough to foul off a tough pitch or two and increase his chances of the pitcher making a mistake and giving him a chance to hit a "cookie" that the power hitter would never see.
Watch any Dodgers game. Count the times guys foul off tough pitches with 2 strikes then get hits/smake solid contact on something in the middle 1/3 of the plate. Now watch Bellinger swing his arse off on every pitch. Who has more chances to produce hits/runs?
Z just wasn't able to do something run production wise with enough of the good pitches to hit that he saw.

Jonathan Zeringue once told me to never put pussy on a pedestal in Thibodaux at Last Call.

More interesting to me is why this question and why now

Agreed this is a little out of right field

He couldn't hit off speed. I was by no means a great pitcher, but I struck him out three times in an American Legion game.

The fourth time he hit a 400 foot bomb. That is the kind of player he was.

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He pitched against us in high school. Had a triple and a home run off of him. But he’s no pitcher and his fast ball was flat. Was hoping he’d make it big after he signed my home run ball. Cool guy.

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He rarely ever pitched. When he did, it was as a closer and he threw 93. You would have never batted twice off of him, and I seriously doubt you homered and tripled off someone throwing 93, who also was wild as hell. I don’t recall him ever starting a game, hell I can barely recall him ever pitching. The few times he did, he was just throwing as hard as he could for the scouts. I pitched 10xs more than he did. And if you did homer off of him, and got to bat again, he probably would have hit you.

Making it in baseball isn’t easy, at all. Most guys simply don’t have the patience or the love of the game to make it through the minors waiting for your chance to get to the pros. Look at how long it took Austin Nola. Most guys just arent going to deal with little pay and shitty accommodations while playing almost every single day without much of a life outside baseball.

Because hitting professional pitching isn't easy. It's like facing a Friday night SEC starter every night. He actually spent most of his time at AA. Pitchers at that level are a phone call away from the big leagues. He wasn't a bust. A bust would be a guy like a 1st round pick like Jeff Ledbetter from FSU who hit 42 HR's in his final college season that goes on to hit 43 in 5 minor league seasons. Teams will give up on you very quickly if your skills don't translate to the next level.

He pitched against us in high school, 2 complete games. I was 10-10, 8 hrs and 2 triples. Great pitcher I was just a greater hitter. Cool guy though told me I was best hitter he’d ever seen.