lovepurplelivegold14

For me its not even the topic at hand. Its the fact that LSU, who’s 8-0, was leading 5-0 against a ranked team and the first thing mentioned is something about how a freshman, two weeks into her first year will transfer… Instead of us talking good about the team, its a post that has no real insight or anything. Jones will get her chances. Last time I checked 2B and DP are both wide open. The people getting chances first are the ones who waited last season. Also in the preseason you heard the coaches talking about Walker and Laneaux, so it makes sense they’re getting first chance.

Sometimes the softball discussion on this forum gets real negative hating on the coaches and the team. Instead of actual productive discussions about the team. That’s probably why we never can get an actual LSU softball thread that sticks.

Morgan Smith is a talented player. But if I remember correctly, at the end of the season (her freshman year), Smith was getting consistent ABs and then decided to enter the transfer portal. Also remember the Big10 is nowhere near as good of a softball conference as the SEC. The Big10 had a whopping ZERO top 16 seeds. Not one team made it out of regionals. Rutgers hasn’t made the tournament in years. Its a step down in competition for sure. But glad Morgan Smith was successful in her senior year of softball.

[PITCHERS]

INFIELD

LSU returns its entire starting infield, Georgia Clark did have starts at first base, but ended last season as LSU's DH. LSU's infield has a great dynamic between veteran starters and young talent that may not get starts this year but will be a part of the future lineups.

First Base (last year stats AVG/HR/OPS)

1.) Raeleen Gutierrez SR (.285/1HR/.715)
2.) Tori Edwards FR
3.) Kelley Lynch SR (WASHINGTON .276/3HR/.729)

Raeleen Gutierrez is the returning starter for LSU and had a pretty solid year for LSU. She doesn't have your prototypical first-basemen numbers, but she was solid. Only 14 strikeouts in 54 GS. She is seen as a defensive first player, but she had 7 errors last season, which came in second on the team. What sticks out about Gutierrez is her .227AVG and.546OPS in SEC play. Only 1 error in SEC play so you can see her defense got better throughout the season but her hitting left a lot to be desired. Torina usually likes to role with her vets early in the year so I can see Gutierrez getting the start somewhere lower in the lineup. Tori Edwards has been a big talk in the off-season, from her 405 lb deadlift, to Torina mentioning her as a freshman to watch in a podcast. Edwards was highly recruited out of high school and was named to the high school All-American game back in the summer. She provides more power than Gutierrez and I am intrigued how this battle plays out. All I know is that Edwards will get opportunities to hit and work her way into the lineup. Kelley Lynch is a grad transfer from Washington where she pitched and played some first base. Lynch is a solid all around player, her offense does not stick out but she is an experienced bat who will probably fight for playing time both in the circle and the lineup.

Second Base

1.) Karli Petty SR (.287/4HR/.765)
2.) Sydney Peterson SO (Out for the 2023 season)
3.) McKaela Walker SO (6 GS, .267/0HR/.876)

Karli Petty is the returning starter and she produced in her first year as a tiger. Finished the year third on the team in RBIs. Karli is in a position where LSU has needed some stability over the last few years. She was consistent but tended to strike out too much. She led the team in strikeouts. However, I think she a hold on the position for now. Sydney Peterson was the starter in 2022, but last year suffered a season-ending injury. She is more of a defensive-leaning player, and she provides good depth at the position. Mckaela Walker was an early enrollee at LSU last year. She is a talented player who has gotten some at bats, interested to see what her role will be this year.

Shortstop

1.) Taylor Pleasants SR (.346/8HR/.984)
2.) Sierra Daniel FR
3.) Maddox McKee FR

Taylor Pleasants is the incumbent and that will not change. One of the leaders of this team and their best offensive player. Last year she dealt with an injury and was forced to slap hit for a good portion of SEC play. Hopefully, Pleasants will have a fully healthy year and compete for SEC Player of the Year. She'll be right in the three hole where she's been most of her career. Sierra Daniel and Maddox McKee are both very talented freshmen. We probably won't see much of them this year with Pleasants holding down shortstop, but in the future, I would not be surprised to see them getting opportunities at second and shortstop.

Third Base
1.) Danieca Coffey SR (.392/2HR/.969)
2.) Abigail Savoy SO
3.) Madyson Manning FR

Danieca Coffey returns at third base and atop LSU's lineup. She has become a great player for LSU and is a lock at third base. She led the tigers in stolen bases, triples, and was second in walks. She has also gotten so much better defensively at third base. She is one of the cogs in the machine, an excellent player. Abigail Savoy and Madyson Manning will both provide good depth in the infield, but I don't think they will see much time on the field this year.

Catcher
1.) Hannah Carson SR
2.) Maci Bergeron SO (.214/1HR/.609)

Hannah Carson is returning as LSU's starting catcher. She started at the beginning of the year before having a season-ending injury, but she is now back and I think she will be the starting catcher in most games. She's a veteran player and I think she will be solid behind the plate. Maci Bergeron took over as the primary catcher with Carson out and had an up-and-down freshman year. I think the talent is there for Bergeron but for now, she is in a better role as the backup catcher. She'll still get starts here and there, but I think next year is the year where she'll have an impact on this offense. With both Carson and Bergeron back, it will allow for Newland to fully focus on playing the outfield.

The lack of rebounding is an on going problem with us and thats why the Pistons are still in this game

Lindsey Leftwich is taking the head coaching job at NC State congrats to her for getting a head coaching gig. So LSU will be getting a new coach in the staff.

Funniest thing about this comment is if you look at what Haener did in college and compare it to these guys, Haener is by far the best. With a poor oline and while injured Haener had a completion percentage of 72%. He played in a pro style offense, and he has the ability to move around and still have accuracy on his throws. In both of his years fully starting he had a completion percentage over 69%. Im sorry you just don’t get that consistency from college QBs. No one is saying he starts day 1 or even year 2. But there is value in this QB. I think the Saints traded up for him because they were surprised he was even there. They probably thought he would be gone by day 2 and they had other needs they wanted to address. But when he fell to day 3 they knew they had to go get him.

The only negatives to his game is his size and deep throwing ability, but thats what they say about every smaller QB. If you notice, there has not been anything bad said about his ability to deliver a good ball, make good decisions, presence in the pocket etc. so his two “cons” are things totally out of hand for him. And as a defensive coach, Haener is your dream QB. Someone you can trust to move the chains, be accurate, and not turn the ball over. And he’s ready to play day 1. He doesn’t have to, but he’s better day 1 than Richardson and Levis and Hooker, etc. I liked him during the 2021 season and he was more accurate this past season.

The difference is the Kings may have been the HEALTHIEST team in the NBA this season. 10 players with over 65 games played. The top 6 in their rotation all played over 72 games. That makes such a huge difference. In this age of the NBA, those games played give you a huge advantage. And then the way they RUN and play fast. That synergy is so hard to contain. Which is why they were the best offense in the league.

All we know is if we got that amount of games played from our players, we would be an absolutely different team.

I think the Pelicans should want the Suns and Warriors to win out. Get those teams away from them. Then they want the Lakers and Clippers to lose. I think the goal of the Pelicans is firstly the 6 seed, and at worst the 7 seed. If the Pelicans can handle business and win out, that sets them up perfectly.

6 and 7 seed matches you up versus 3 and 2. Those spots are held by Memphis and Sacramento. That means a route to the conference finals would be vers those teo teams. I would take that in a heart beat over having to play the Lakers, Nuggets, Warriors, or Suns in a 7 game series. All very veteran teams.

Tanking isn’t the way you win in football. Tanking ends up with your team searching for years. If you draft well your roster will always give you a chance to win games. Seattle didn’t have to tank to change their team.

I am optimistic about our team, only because we have so many players trying to “prove” things combined with our talent. We have our stars. Jordan, Davis, Lattimore, Kamara, Ramczyk, Olave. But we also have vets trying to prove people wrong. Carr, Thomas, Williams Peat, Mathieu, Maye. My problem with the Saints was we were far too top heavy. We really lacked depth the last two years and it showed because we were so injury prone. You are starting to see us gain that depth in Werner, Taylor, Ruiz, Penning, etc.

Like it or not, last year was a transition year. Allen and Carmichael were trying to figure out how to run their own ship, rather than keep Payton’s ship afloat. Now after this year if you don’t like the offense, we struggle to win 8 games, THEN you can officially say “ehhhh this won’t work”. Because let’s be real how was last year REALLY different than Sean’s last year? Bunch of injuries, revolving door at QB, no WR depth, iffy o line, struggling to run the ball, good defense but iffy at times, 7-10. But people were like “wow look what Sean did with THIS team” vs “Allen and Carmichael look horrible”.

I think the overall feel for this team is that we got better this offseason. Imagine we win 11 games and win 1 playoff game and lose in the divisional? And now Thomas and Peat deal end snd you have next offseason to build even more. A great draft changes a team so much which is why the Draft is so important. Let’s see what we can do. The Saints aren’t tanking because the team isn’t bad enough to only win 3 games. They would be where the Panthers/Falcons are at. Bad, but nit bad enough to really be in that contention for the number 1 pick unless they trade a bunch of future picks and a young star. Like great! They may get stroud, but now they have zero top tier offensive skill players. And now they don’t have the top picks to go get them. Especially with Stroud who thrived with talent around him at the skill position. Now he won’t really have any. No number 1 receiver, No number 1 TE, no number 1 RB. It took them 2-3 years to even do SOMETHING to change script. We would be in the position of the Rams which is not good because they aren’t bad enough to only win 3 games, but aren’t good enough to make playoffs.