LSU Baseball opens SEC play against #23 Mississippi St. in the Box Tonight

The opening series against Florida last year resulted in a slide that we never really recovered from until the final weeks of the season. This is a big one. We have to start the season on a positive note.

I haven't been able to watch any games yet. Hopefully ESPN3 will start carrying some more. It looks like we have already thrown 6 shutouts this season and have had quite a few big offensive games. For those who have been able to watch, how good is this team?

 

at the plate, we have 5 guys doing great: Rhymes, Katz, Ross, Hanover, and Nola the Older...all 5 are hitting above .333 (Rhymes #1 w .463), have on base percentages and slugging percentages above .400 (Katz #1 in both w .493 and .695), etc

Dozar, who only has half the at bats as those guys, is doing well too (.367 avg w .733 slugging %)

problem is everyone else is doing poor.

Jacoby Jones should come around, he's only hitting .258 but last year he hit .338


on the mound...

gone is Alsup, who was mediocre at best as our weekend starter last year (6-5 record, 4.66 ERA, .278 opposing batting avg)

our ace, Gausman, is widely projected to be in the discussion for best pitcher in the country and #1 pitcher taken in the Draft. he struggled some last year (5-6 record, 3.51 ERA... but did great with a .215 opposing batting avg, 86 Ks in 89 innings, and only 23 walks) ... while this year he has been phenomenal...4-0 record, 1.32 ERA, .198 opposing batting avg, 31 Ks in 27 innings and only 2 walks. just last week he almost threw a perfect game vs Michigan

Nola the Younger was high school Louisiana Player of the Year last year and Mainieri has said repeatedly that he is going to be one of the greatest pitchers in LSU history. he just had a masterful performance @ Tulane, who had #8 batting avg in NCAA at the time. this season, he has a 3-0 record, 1.80 ERA, a .169 opposing batting avg, 23 Ks in 20 innings pitched, and only 2 walks. the bad news is that freshmen have a hard time being consistently great (and he already struggled @ McNeese in his 1st start)

our other weekend starter is the talented Eades, who was drafted in 2010 by the Rockies. he sucked last year as our weekday starter (4.81 ERA, .292 opposing batting avg), but he got it together in the off season and won a spot as one of our weekend starters, and he is doing well: 3-1 record, 2.13 ERA, .220 opposing batting avg, 25 Ks in 25 innings and only 3 walks)

the bad news is that McCune, who was our best weekend starter last year (7-3 record, 3.31 ERA, .221 opposing batting avg) has been awful this season: 1-2 record, 5.40 ERA, .313 opposing batting avg)


as for our bullpen, which was supposed to be much improved this year, it is still struggling but has some bright spots:

Goody, who dominated Florida JUCO ball last year has been absolutely stellar for us: 0.00 ERA, .138 opposing batting avg, a whooping 13 Ks in 8 innings and no walks)

lefty Chris Cotton did great last year (#3 on team with .216 opposing batting avg and #4 on team with 3.38 ERA) and is doing even better this season (.174 opposing batting avg, 1.42 ERA)

Bourgeois, who was drafted in 2009 by the Braves and missed last season due to Tommy John surgery, is doing great this season too (.174 opposing batting avg, 1.17 ERA)

everybody else in our bullpen has been struggling

 

Game 1 of the series will be televised by Cox Sports Television. Game 2 will be televised by Comcast Sports Southeast, and it can be seen on Cox Cable Ch. 4 in Baton Rouge, New Orleans and Lafayette.

 

current SEC rankings

individual batting average
#1 in SEC - Raph Rhymes, LSU (.463)

team batting average
#4 in SEC - LSU (.316)
#6 in SEC - Miss State (.298)

team ERA
#3 in SEC - Miss State (2.60)
#8 in SEC - LSU (3.18)

 

Mainieri:

"This is the time of the year we've all been waiting for and our players are very excited to begin conference play," said LSU coach Paul Mainieri. "It feels great just to say it "'SEC.'" LSU and Mississippi State have a tremendous rivalry that was developed by (former LSU coach) Skip Bertman and (former MSU coach) Ron Polk beginning in the 1980s, and it means a lot to both programs. Mississippi State has a very talented club, so we're looking forward to a great challenge this weekend."

 

Great info, thanks. You can go far in college baseball with 2 elite starting pitchers.

 

yep. people are even debating whether our current weekend rotation is the greatest in LSU history

 

NCAA stats through games of March 11, 2012

Team ERA
1.56 -- #2 in NCAA -- South Carolina
2.28 -- #9 in NCAA -- Ole Miss
2.33 -- #11 in NCAA -- Arkansas
2.38 -- #15 in NCAA -- Georgia
2.41 -- #16 in NCAA -- Miss State
3.01 -- #45 in NCAA -- Florida
3.25 -- #62 in NCAA -- Kentucky
3.38 -- #71 in NCAA -- LSU
3.74 -- #99 in NCAA -- Auburn
3.80 -- #105 in NCAA -- Tennessee
4.67 -- #170 in NCAA -- Alabama
5.08 -- #192 in NCAA -- Vanderbilt

Team Scoring (runs per game)
9.2 -- #5 in NCAA -- Kentucky
8.3 -- #13 in NCAA -- LSU
8.3 -- #13 in NCAA -- Ole Miss
7.6 -- #29 in NCAA -- Florida
7.1 -- #46 in NCAA -- Arkansas
6.8 -- #54 in NCAA -- Auburn
6.1 -- #86 in NCAA -- Tennessee
5.9 -- #96 in NCAA -- Miss State
5.7 -- #105 in NCAA -- Vanderbilt
5.2 -- #149 in NCAA -- South Carolina
4.8 -- #183 in NCAA -- Alabama
4.7 -- #193 in NCAA -- Georgia

Team Batting Average
.348 -- #5 in NCAA -- Kentucky
.326 -- #15 in NCAA -- Ole Miss
.319 -- #22 in NCAA -- Auburn
.316 -- #24 in NCAA -- LSU
.311 -- #32 in NCAA -- Florida
.304 -- #47 in NCAA -- Arkansas
.299 -- #57 in NCAA -- Miss State
.278 -- #114 in NCAA -- South Carolina
.276 -- #124 in NCAA -- Tennessee
.264 -- #168 in NCAA -- Georgia
.260 -- #177 in NCAA -- Vanderbilt
.259 -- #179 in NCAA -- Alabama

 

SEC Overall Statistics (as of Mar 15, 2012)

Team Era
1.73 -- South Carolina
2.18 -- Arkansas
2.60 -- Miss State
2.67 -- Georgia
2.74 -- Ole Miss
2.89 -- Florida
3.00 -- Kentucky
3.18 -- LSU
3.74 -- Auburn
3.81 -- Tennessee
4.59 -- Alabama
4.93 -- Vanderbilt

Batters struck out
1. Kentucky............ 178
2. Mississippi State... 176
3. South Carolina...... 162
4. LSU................. 157
5. Arkansas............ 150
6. Ole Miss............ 143
7. Florida............. 136
8. Georgia............. 135
9. Vanderbilt.......... 126
10.Auburn.............. 118
11.Alabama............. 117
12.Tennessee........... 115

Opposing Batting Average
.163 -- South Carolina
.207 -- Arkansas
.221 -- Ole Miss
.226 -- Kentucky
.228 -- Georgia
.232 -- Miss State
.240 -- LSU
.243 -- Florida
.246 -- Tennessee
.257 -- Auburn
.258 -- Vanderbilt
.286 -- Alabama


Team Batting Average
.343 -- Kentucky
.334 -- Ole Miss
.319 -- Auburn
.316 -- LSU
.312 -- Florida
.298 -- Miss State
.292 -- Arkansas
.280 -- South Carolina
.279 -- Georgia
.273 -- Vanderbilt
.271 -- Tennessee
.250 -- Alabama

RBI
1. Kentucky............ 147
2. LSU................. 134
2. Ole Miss............ 134
4. Florida............. 120
5. Arkansas............ 112
6. Auburn.............. 102
7. Georgia............. 97
8. Vanderbilt.......... 96
9. Mississippi State... 93
10.Alabama............. 78
11.Tennessee........... 76

Doubles
1. Kentucky............ 43
2. LSU................. 42
3. Mississippi State... 38
4. Georgia............. 37
5. Ole Miss............ 35
6. Florida............. 31
7. Vanderbilt.......... 30
8. Auburn.............. 29
Arkansas............ 29
10.Tennessee........... 26
Alabama............. 26
12.South Carolina...... 24

Triples
1. LSU................. 8
2. Auburn.............. 7
3. Alabama............. 6
4. Vanderbilt.......... 5
South Carolina...... 5
6. Florida............. 4
Ole Miss............ 4
Georgia............. 4
9. Tennessee........... 3
Kentucky............ 3
11.Mississippi State... 1
Arkansas............ 1



Fielding pct
1. Florida............. .983
2. Kentucky............ .978
3. LSU................. .978
4. South Carolina...... .977
5. Georgia............. .976
6. Ole Miss............ .975
7. Tennessee........... .968
8. Mississippi State... .965
9. Arkansas............ .965
10.Alabama............. .965
11.Auburn.............. .960
12.Vanderbilt.......... .953

Errors
1. Vanderbilt.......... 30
2. Mississippi State... 27
3. Auburn.............. 26
4. Arkansas............ 25
5. Alabama............. 23
6. Tennessee........... 21
7. Georgia............. 17
8. Ole Miss............ 16
9. Kentucky............ 15
10.LSU................. 14
11.South Carolina...... 13
12.Florida............. 11

 

SEC in the national rankings, Perfect Game has Miss State at #13, Collegiate Baseball has LSU at #10

#1/1/1/1/1 Florida (16-1)
#2/3/3/3/3 South Carolina (15-1)
#4/5/5/5/7 Arkansas (16-2)
#10/13/13/16/19 LSU (14-3)
#12/15/15/16/NR Ole Miss (14-3)
#13/21/22/NR/NR Miss State (14-5)
#16/20/24/NR/NR Kentucky (18-0)
#18/18/19/22/23 Georgia (13-5)
NR -- Tennessee (10-6)
NR -- Auburn (10-7)
NR -- Alabama (8-9)
NR -- Vanderbilt (7-10)