I think we are going to have a lot more speed this year, we are suppose to be playing more small ball so I would hope we have more speed.
"Small ball" is the way the college game has transformed. "Gorilla ball" ended with the aluminum bat restrictions a couple years back. Take Texas for example: They have a few position players with above average power, but the majority are "contact guys" with above average SPEED. LSU! got so caught up in hammering our way to CWS titles and appearances, that we almost fell behind (and did in some aspects) of the rest of the national contenders in that if we ran into a hot pitcher, we didn't have the tools to manufacter runs; hence, we would lose.
Well, for starters, we just signed 20 recruits (16 high school All-stars and 4 JUCO) for the '07 team. 10 are pitchers and 10 are position players. and in another article, Smoke has the #5 recruiting class in the country I think it's safe to say that at least for now, Smoke has assembled a solid group of guys that does nothing to make me think that we won't contend for a return trip to Omaha real soon.
Speaking of baseball. At the end of last season, a few people had stated their disappointment with the attendance this season--and that the "lull" that the team displayed in terms of their W-L record was a major indicator. While I was disappointed to hear that the crowds at "The Box" were lower than expected, I find it pretty amazing that we still lead the nation in attendance for a 10th-straight year. :thumb: Pretty impressive. Baseball Leads Nation in Attendance for 10th-Straight Year Courtesy: LSU Interactive Release: 11/15/2005 Courtesy: LSU Sports Information Alex Box Stadium BATON ROUGE -- LSU led the nation in baseball attendance for the 10th-straight season according to the 2005 attendance rankings released by the NCAA on Tuesday. The Tigers' 2005 total home attendance of 270,300 was No. 1 in the country, as was the Tigers' average attendance of 7,508 per game (36 games). LSU has finished first in the attendance survey each year since 1996. LSU's 2005 average attendance figure was the third-largest in school history, and the total attendance figure was No. 7 in school annals. Texas finished No. 2 behind LSU in the total attendance survey with a final figure of 204,414. The rest of the Top 10 included Mississippi State (203,276), Arkansas (200,378), Nebraska (174,435), Ole Miss (170,152), Florida State (163,029), Texas A&M (153,533), Tulane (145,084) and Wichita State (141,927). http://www.lsusports.net/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=27865&SPID=2173&DB_OEM_ID=5200&ATCLID=213302
Of course all those numbers are paid attendance. If you go by actual attendance, then we definitely didn't lead the nation.
? Why not? Aren't all of the statistics paid attendance? I'm sure there were plenty of no shows at all of those programs. I can't imagine we didn't lead in actual attendance if we had a 70,000 or 35% lead in "paid attendance".
As I've been saying for awhile, I'm very excited about this years team. Pitching is going to be awesome and we'll have a better mix of both "small-ball" and "gorrilla ball." Jason Ogata looks to be a very promising guy from Oregon. I think he will have a chance to step-in right away, and looks to complement Jackson's and Hollander's styles. Biggest question marks will be our defensive play and if our pitching can keep its momentum and live up to potential. It seems that most every year there is a pitcher who steps-it-up but another one that slips up (from previous seasons) and disappoints
But the big question is, how many of them will we lose to the draft? That's the damndest thing about baseball recruiting. If you're too good, you pay the price.
