Coach Mainieri , please hire Stony Brooks hitting coach ...

I have high expectations, too, and I don't like having to watch the CWS without LSU in it. There's just something not right about the CWS without LSU fans invading Omaha. We have a deal-if LSU slips backward next season, I will come back here and we can discuss it (though you'll have the advantage because I'll be in Afg).

 

well god bless you for defending our country,kudo's,and thank you for a nice reply,and being a season ticket holder for so long,yes i do expect high accomplishments, but it get's me upset when pm comes out and says hitting coach is overrated,and to say this team wasn't that talented but then i get letters from lsu for membership on the coaches committee,just proves im passionate about my team.

 

Thanks, bro, I appreciate it. I'm passionate about it, too. I don't want to be a Bruce Springsteen nastolgic, but I'd like to see LSU get back to the glory days myself. He made the change at pitching coach and it paid off; here's hoping he pushes the right buttons for hitting, as well. Thanks, again.

 

There is an article in the BR Morning Advocate that says Blake Dean is a graduate assistant for LSU and is helping coach the Tiger hitters. There you go.

 

you really are completely clueless. Mainieri's first season at LSU was mediocre with Smoke's recruits, so Maineri cleaned house and brought in his monster 18-man August 2007 recruiting class (8 of whom had been drafted before they signed with Mainieri), and that class was ranked #1 or #2 in the country by everybody, and that was the backbone our 2008 and 2009 CWS teams

Maineiri recruits on the 2009 national champion team included (asterick by the ones that pitched or started in the lineup vs Texas in the CWS)...

PITCHERS

*Anthony Ranaudo (our Friday night ace)

*Austin Ross (our Sunday starter, #3 on team with 83.1 innings pitched)

*Matty Ott (16 saves, tied #4 on team with 50.1 innings pitched, #1 on team with lowest ERA)

*Chad Jones (#2 on team with lowest ERA)

*Daniel Bradshaw (tied #4 on team with 50.1 innings pitched, tied #4 on team with lowest ERA)

Chris Matulis (#5 on team with 46.2 innings pitched)

Ben Alsup (29.1 innings pitched)

Jordan Nicholson (14.0 innings pitched)


HITTERS

*DJ LeMahieu (#1 on team in batting avg, started 70 games at 2B/SS, 2 at DH)
*Leon Landry (started 42 games at OF)
*Micah Gibbs (started 67 games at catcher, 1 at DH)
*Derek Helenihi (started 20 games at 3B, 7 at OF)
Tyler Hanover (started 53 games at 3B)
*Mikie Mahtook (started 49 games at OF)
*Austin Nola (started 36 games at SS)

as for the 2008 team, our best starting pitcher, Ryan Verdugo, was a Mainieri recruit, and so were 5 of our 9 starting hitters (Matt Clark, LeMahieu, Landry, Gibbs, Helenihi), including 3 of our best 4 hitters by batting avg (Clark, LeMahieu, Gibbs), and including the guy that was #1 in the NCAA in home runs (Matt Clark)

also remember Javi was our hitting/asst coach both in 2008 and 2009

 

Hmm, didn't he leave early too? If his pro career was so short, I wish he'd have just stayed all 4 years.

 

Dean was here all 4 years, it was big news that he returned after his junior year in 2009 considering he was First Team All-SEC and was taken in the 10th R. he finished #2 all time in LSU history in both hits and RBIs, #4 in home runs, #3 in doubles, etc

 

Dean on why he gave up on his pro career:

Blake Dean said professional baseball wasn’t any fun for him anymore, so he decided to return to where it had always been the most fun. That place is LSU
...
as Dean prepared for his third spring training a couple of months ago, he.pondered early retirement.
He had hit .302 with five home runs and 35 RBIs for the Dodgers’ rookie league team in Ogden, Utah, in 2010 and .237 with seven homers and 44 RBIs with Class A Great Lakes in 2011.
“It was an ongoing decision,” Dean said Thursday. “I never questioned my talent. I could hit. I just wasn’t enjoying it day in and day out.. I had accomplished so much at LSU. I had played in front of 30,000 fans (at the College World Series). I had made so many friends there and had so much fun. It wasn’t the same (professionally).”
...
Mainieri offered Dean an opportunity to be an undergraduate assistant
...
Dean said he was at Alex Box Stadium as the.Tigers swept through the Baton Rouge.Regional, then (played the super vs) Stony Brook
...
“Playing it (the game) every day got to be too much, but I’m happy to be back at a place I enjoyed so much.”

 

also, I'm not sure I'll be able to find the quote to confirm, but I remember Mainieri saying Dean is the most naturally gifted hitter he has ever seen

 

How many of those are in the pro's zero, How come they cannot hit now under the same hitting coach hmmmmm