The long, long drive aside, I think that this trip has always been a favorite for the UGA fan base. I know that I've been looking forward to it for quite some time. Baseball is an event in Baton Rouge. They'll have 10,000+ on Friday and Saturday and if will have the biggest home field advantage that we'll see all year long. I'd be a lot more nervous about this if we hadn't already gone to Tallahassee, but that trip did serve to expose us to a hostile atmosphere and I honestly thought that we handled it pretty well overall.
From what I can determine, this isn't a "typical" LSU team. While Alex Bregman is probably the best hitter that we'll see in conference this year, they don't have that elite power threat like Mason Katz or Mikie Mahtook that they've had in the past. They can hit some home runs this year, but they're hardly a gorilla ball type of team. They're adequate defensively, but they're not elite in that category either. The left side of their infield is very good with the gloves, but their right side appears to be limited. Pitching wise, they're very deep in the bullpen and the guy that we'll see tomorrow night is as good as anyone in America.
Friday night brings Aaron Nola, a junior righty from Baton Rouge. Nola was LSU's Sunday starter when we played them in 2012. The book on him then was that he got a little too much of the plate and would give up some long balls. We tagged him for 10 hits that afternoon. Nola has developed extremely well over his time in Red Stick and one can certainly argue that he's the best college pitcher in the country right now. Tyler Beede probably has a slightly higher ceiling, but Nola is probably better on March 20th. I spent some time this afternoon reading some scouting reports and some scouting commentary on Nola, and the consensus seems to be there's probably not a pitcher with better location out there right now. Nola's fastball will get into the lower 90s and he typically throws it between 88-93, although he can run it up into the mid 90s. He works from a 3/4 slot and his fastball has some late bite on it, running inside on right handed hitters in a hurry. He throws a plus curve and good change up. He locates. He'll hit both corners of the plate. And we better be ready to swing the bats, because he will not walk anyone. This guy is going to throw strikes and that late movement on his fastball is going to make it look a lot faster than 92. On the year, he's 4-0 in 5 appearances, all starts. His 33 2/3 innings lead LSU's staff. He has a 0.27 ERA and the opposition is hitting .148 against him. He has a jaw dropping 48/4 K/BB. Of the 17 hits he's allowed this entire season, only 3 have gone for extra bases. He's given up 1 run all year long. Now, you can say, and you'd be correct, that LSU didn't really play anyone in the non-conference slate and that Nola's numbers were inflated on that basis. However, Nola went 6 2/3 innings last week against Vanderbilt and allowed 6 hits, his first run of the season, and had 2 walks with 12 strikeouts. Pretty good day against that lineup and I'd imagine it's been awhile since anyone carded 12 K's against Vanderbilt.
Saturday night, we're going to see a freshman in southpaw Jared Pouche'. The stocky native of Lutcher Louisiana was a very big for LSU in their recruiting class for this year and they haven't wasted any time plugging him into the rotation. There's not as detailed of a report out there on Poche' as there is on Nola, for obvious reasons, but it appears that Poche' throws in the upper 80s on his fastball and will hit 90 regularly. He has a big, sweeping curveball as well, which appears to be pretty advanced for a freshman. On the season, Poche' is 4-1 in 5 appearances, all starts, and has thrown 24 1/3 innings. He has a 2.22 ERA and an 18/7 K/BB. The opposition is hitting only .233 against him. Making his first SEC start and first road start last week, Poche' struggled a bit in Nashville, going 4 1/3 innings and allowing 5 hits, 4 runs, with 5 BBs (one of which was intentional) and 3 strikeouts. It looks like he was a fairly even mix of ground ball and fly ball outs last weekend.
The Bayou Bengals have left things TBA for Sunday. Kyle Bouman, a heavy set lefty JC transfer has been in their weekend rotation all year and started the middle game in Nashville. Bouman's numbers on the year are actually a little better than Poche's. I don't know if Bouman is hurt or if LSU is looking to possibly use him out of the bullpen. Given our record against lefty starters this year, I believe I'd run Bouman out there if I was Paul Mainieri. Cody Glenn is the only other pitcher for LSU to start a game this year (other than Brady Domangue, but he's definetly pitching out of the bullpen this weekend). Glenn went 2 innings on Wednesday night and it was mixed bag for him. I'll be surprised if he gets the nod on Sunday, but you never know. Some of what I've seen indicates that it will be Bouman, and some says it's TBA. On the year, Bouman has a 2.20 ERA and a 3-1 record in 5 appearances, all starts, He's thrown 28 2/3 innings, has a 14/3 K/BB, and the opposition is hitting .220 against him.
Joe Broussard has emerged as LSU's closer. The junior righty from Gretna Louisiana is actually in his fourth year in Baton Rouge after redshirting following Tommy John surgery last year. Broussard has a perfect 0.00 ERA in 10 appearances, 9 innings pitched, and has 4 saves to his name. He has an 8/1 K/BB and the opponents are hitting .107 against him.
Parker Bugg is another A guy for LSU. At 6'6, 220 lbs, he's not built like a true freshman. The righty hails from San Diego. He's likely LSU's closer of the future, or perhaps their future Friday night guy. He has a 0.84 ERA in 10 2/3 innings and has collected 2 saves. He has 12 K's and has yet to allow a walk.
LSU will ride Nola as far as they can Friday night. They'll try to squeeze 5-6 out of Poche' and presumably Bouman over the next two days and piece it together with their bullpen after that. LSU has only allowed 10 runs all year long in the 7th inning and later.
I mentioned that Alex Bregman is probably the best hitter that we'll see this year. This guy burst onto the national scene last year, earning Freshman of the Year honors from several national publications as well as All American honors from several publications. He'll play SS. At 6'0, 190 lbs, he's built similarly to Gordon Beckham and like Beckham, Bregman is a right handed hitter. He hails from Albuquerque New Mexico, of all places, and had a slightly less successful 2013 than Walter White. On the year, Bregman is .359/.435/.474 with 1 HR and 6 doubles. He also leads LSU with 7 steals in 9 attempts. We'll see him in the 3 hole. Bregman is cocky. He's an elite player and he knows. We're going to have to be very careful with this guy.
Christian Ibarra is off to a very slow start for LSU as his .255 average is lowest among their regulars. He's hitting .255/.415/.373 with 1 HR. Don't let the numbers fool you, though. This guy can really swing the bat and he's going to be at .300 by the time the year is out. We should see him hitting 6th this weekend.
Kade Scivicque is LSU's leading hitter at .400/.486/.583 and his 2 HRs lead their squad. The 5'11 220 lb right handed hitter is a JC transfer who originally hails from Maurepas LA. We'll see him DHing, possibly catching some, and hitting 5th.
LSU has hit 9 HRs as a team this year, a somewhat modest total given their competition and their ballpark. They are 19/28 on the bases, so they steal just under 1 base per game. As an offense, they have drawn 83 walks to go with 88 strikeouts, a very respectable mixture. At an average of 4 strikeouts per game, that's a lot of balls going in play.
Baton Rouge has produced some unlikely heros for the University of Georgia, if you think back on it. I don't follow basketball enough to know, but in football Quincy Carter in 1998, Tyson Browning in 2003, and Daryl Gamble in 2008 all come to mind. None of those were the guys that you thought going into those football games were going to be such difference makers. In baseball, Derrick Smith in 2004, Robbie O'Bryan in 2008, and Justin Bryan and Earl Daniels in 2012 were all instrumental... Smith's 3 run HR kept us out of the sweep and ignited our 12 game SEC win streak, O'Bryan's blast on Sunday afternoon tied the game and kept us from from a loss down there, and Daniels and Bryan put their names all over the Sunday win in 2012 that kept us from a sweep and started a 4 game win streak in the league. You didn't go down to Baton Rouge expecting ANY of those guys at any of those times to be such pivotal guys, but that's exactly what happened. Maybe that continues this weekend. Maybe not. But just as Mississippi State started looking like a very winnable series, so too does LSU... If we play to our capability, take care of the baseball, throw strikes, and generate some action on the bases, we'll have an excellent chance of picking up the first SEC series win of the Scott Stricklin administration. I'm not suggesting that it's not a tall task. it is... but it's absolutely doable.
From what I can determine, this isn't a "typical" LSU team. While Alex Bregman is probably the best hitter that we'll see in conference this year, they don't have that elite power threat like Mason Katz or Mikie Mahtook that they've had in the past. They can hit some home runs this year, but they're hardly a gorilla ball type of team. They're adequate defensively, but they're not elite in that category either. The left side of their infield is very good with the gloves, but their right side appears to be limited. Pitching wise, they're very deep in the bullpen and the guy that we'll see tomorrow night is as good as anyone in America.
Friday night brings Aaron Nola, a junior righty from Baton Rouge. Nola was LSU's Sunday starter when we played them in 2012. The book on him then was that he got a little too much of the plate and would give up some long balls. We tagged him for 10 hits that afternoon. Nola has developed extremely well over his time in Red Stick and one can certainly argue that he's the best college pitcher in the country right now. Tyler Beede probably has a slightly higher ceiling, but Nola is probably better on March 20th. I spent some time this afternoon reading some scouting reports and some scouting commentary on Nola, and the consensus seems to be there's probably not a pitcher with better location out there right now. Nola's fastball will get into the lower 90s and he typically throws it between 88-93, although he can run it up into the mid 90s. He works from a 3/4 slot and his fastball has some late bite on it, running inside on right handed hitters in a hurry. He throws a plus curve and good change up. He locates. He'll hit both corners of the plate. And we better be ready to swing the bats, because he will not walk anyone. This guy is going to throw strikes and that late movement on his fastball is going to make it look a lot faster than 92. On the year, he's 4-0 in 5 appearances, all starts. His 33 2/3 innings lead LSU's staff. He has a 0.27 ERA and the opposition is hitting .148 against him. He has a jaw dropping 48/4 K/BB. Of the 17 hits he's allowed this entire season, only 3 have gone for extra bases. He's given up 1 run all year long. Now, you can say, and you'd be correct, that LSU didn't really play anyone in the non-conference slate and that Nola's numbers were inflated on that basis. However, Nola went 6 2/3 innings last week against Vanderbilt and allowed 6 hits, his first run of the season, and had 2 walks with 12 strikeouts. Pretty good day against that lineup and I'd imagine it's been awhile since anyone carded 12 K's against Vanderbilt.
Saturday night, we're going to see a freshman in southpaw Jared Pouche'. The stocky native of Lutcher Louisiana was a very big for LSU in their recruiting class for this year and they haven't wasted any time plugging him into the rotation. There's not as detailed of a report out there on Poche' as there is on Nola, for obvious reasons, but it appears that Poche' throws in the upper 80s on his fastball and will hit 90 regularly. He has a big, sweeping curveball as well, which appears to be pretty advanced for a freshman. On the season, Poche' is 4-1 in 5 appearances, all starts, and has thrown 24 1/3 innings. He has a 2.22 ERA and an 18/7 K/BB. The opposition is hitting only .233 against him. Making his first SEC start and first road start last week, Poche' struggled a bit in Nashville, going 4 1/3 innings and allowing 5 hits, 4 runs, with 5 BBs (one of which was intentional) and 3 strikeouts. It looks like he was a fairly even mix of ground ball and fly ball outs last weekend.
The Bayou Bengals have left things TBA for Sunday. Kyle Bouman, a heavy set lefty JC transfer has been in their weekend rotation all year and started the middle game in Nashville. Bouman's numbers on the year are actually a little better than Poche's. I don't know if Bouman is hurt or if LSU is looking to possibly use him out of the bullpen. Given our record against lefty starters this year, I believe I'd run Bouman out there if I was Paul Mainieri. Cody Glenn is the only other pitcher for LSU to start a game this year (other than Brady Domangue, but he's definetly pitching out of the bullpen this weekend). Glenn went 2 innings on Wednesday night and it was mixed bag for him. I'll be surprised if he gets the nod on Sunday, but you never know. Some of what I've seen indicates that it will be Bouman, and some says it's TBA. On the year, Bouman has a 2.20 ERA and a 3-1 record in 5 appearances, all starts, He's thrown 28 2/3 innings, has a 14/3 K/BB, and the opposition is hitting .220 against him.
Joe Broussard has emerged as LSU's closer. The junior righty from Gretna Louisiana is actually in his fourth year in Baton Rouge after redshirting following Tommy John surgery last year. Broussard has a perfect 0.00 ERA in 10 appearances, 9 innings pitched, and has 4 saves to his name. He has an 8/1 K/BB and the opponents are hitting .107 against him.
Parker Bugg is another A guy for LSU. At 6'6, 220 lbs, he's not built like a true freshman. The righty hails from San Diego. He's likely LSU's closer of the future, or perhaps their future Friday night guy. He has a 0.84 ERA in 10 2/3 innings and has collected 2 saves. He has 12 K's and has yet to allow a walk.
LSU will ride Nola as far as they can Friday night. They'll try to squeeze 5-6 out of Poche' and presumably Bouman over the next two days and piece it together with their bullpen after that. LSU has only allowed 10 runs all year long in the 7th inning and later.
I mentioned that Alex Bregman is probably the best hitter that we'll see this year. This guy burst onto the national scene last year, earning Freshman of the Year honors from several national publications as well as All American honors from several publications. He'll play SS. At 6'0, 190 lbs, he's built similarly to Gordon Beckham and like Beckham, Bregman is a right handed hitter. He hails from Albuquerque New Mexico, of all places, and had a slightly less successful 2013 than Walter White. On the year, Bregman is .359/.435/.474 with 1 HR and 6 doubles. He also leads LSU with 7 steals in 9 attempts. We'll see him in the 3 hole. Bregman is cocky. He's an elite player and he knows. We're going to have to be very careful with this guy.
Christian Ibarra is off to a very slow start for LSU as his .255 average is lowest among their regulars. He's hitting .255/.415/.373 with 1 HR. Don't let the numbers fool you, though. This guy can really swing the bat and he's going to be at .300 by the time the year is out. We should see him hitting 6th this weekend.
Kade Scivicque is LSU's leading hitter at .400/.486/.583 and his 2 HRs lead their squad. The 5'11 220 lb right handed hitter is a JC transfer who originally hails from Maurepas LA. We'll see him DHing, possibly catching some, and hitting 5th.
LSU has hit 9 HRs as a team this year, a somewhat modest total given their competition and their ballpark. They are 19/28 on the bases, so they steal just under 1 base per game. As an offense, they have drawn 83 walks to go with 88 strikeouts, a very respectable mixture. At an average of 4 strikeouts per game, that's a lot of balls going in play.
Baton Rouge has produced some unlikely heros for the University of Georgia, if you think back on it. I don't follow basketball enough to know, but in football Quincy Carter in 1998, Tyson Browning in 2003, and Daryl Gamble in 2008 all come to mind. None of those were the guys that you thought going into those football games were going to be such difference makers. In baseball, Derrick Smith in 2004, Robbie O'Bryan in 2008, and Justin Bryan and Earl Daniels in 2012 were all instrumental... Smith's 3 run HR kept us out of the sweep and ignited our 12 game SEC win streak, O'Bryan's blast on Sunday afternoon tied the game and kept us from from a loss down there, and Daniels and Bryan put their names all over the Sunday win in 2012 that kept us from a sweep and started a 4 game win streak in the league. You didn't go down to Baton Rouge expecting ANY of those guys at any of those times to be such pivotal guys, but that's exactly what happened. Maybe that continues this weekend. Maybe not. But just as Mississippi State started looking like a very winnable series, so too does LSU... If we play to our capability, take care of the baseball, throw strikes, and generate some action on the bases, we'll have an excellent chance of picking up the first SEC series win of the Scott Stricklin administration. I'm not suggesting that it's not a tall task. it is... but it's absolutely doable.
