How will LSU replace All-American shortstop Alex Bregman? Who fills the holes left by speedy outfielders Andrew Stevenson and Mark Laird?
In Part II of a Q&A with Paul Mainieri, the coach provides some insight to a massive rebuilding process he’ll undertake ahead of the 2016 season. Part I of the Q&A can be found here.
LSU loses seven position players from a squad that advanced to the College World Series and finished with the nation’s best record at 54-12. As many as four freshmen could be in the opening day starting lineup next season and a couple more junior college signees are poised to start as well.
Meanwhile, the new baseball isn’t changing Mainieri’s recruiting method – he’ll continue to focus his efforts on power pitchers.
Q: Alex Bregman. How do you replace him? Who are the guys you could see playing that position next year?
Mainieri: First of all, what an eight-year run this has been for me as the coach at LSU. The last eight years, we’ve had a shortstop by the name of DJ LeMahieu, Austin Nola or Alex Bregman. Three bonafide major leaguers. That’s a great run that we had, and I hope it would continue.
When Alex Bregman came here as a freshman, we didn’t know he was going to be that caliber of a shortstop. A lot of people thought catcher was the position he should play. In fact, the summer before he came to school here, he wasn’t even playing shortstop. He was catching. Only because I encouraged him to take groundballs every day and that I wanted to look at him at short first that he prepare himself to try to be the shortstop here.
You never know how it’s exactly going to work out. You just don’t know.
DJ LeMahieu, we sweated out him signing professionally until the day he showed up for school in August. Austin Nola I sweated out a little bit whether or not he would sign, though I had a good feeling. So at this point in the summer it’s rare to say, ‘This guy is going to be your shortstop and this is how good he’s going to be,’ because you just don’t know.
We were pretty surprised this junior college shortstop, Mitch Piatnik, signed professionally for $200,000. That was not the indication he had given to us of what his desires were. The opportunity to replace Alex Bregman at shortstop is also a great responsibility and how a player looks at that can be different from one player to another. Some players might be afraid of that. Others may embrace that opportunity. When I talk to (signee) Trey Dawson about the possibility of him replacing Alex Bregman, he’s excited about that. He’s not afraid. He turned down $650,000 signing bonus. Somebody would have taken him in the third round if he would have just said, ‘yes, I’ll sign for that amount.’
That in itself doesn’t tell you the guy’s going to be a great player, but obviously somebody thought highly of him. Several teams did at that point in the draft. I feel fortunate that Trey is coming to school. He’s a good athlete. Now, how does he handle it every day? Who knows. But I have a good feeling about him. Let me just put it that way.
We’re also going to look at O’Neal Lochridge, who played shortstop for St. Thomas More. In my mind, I had always thought of O’Neal more as a third baseman than a shortstop but, especially after Piatnik leaving, I think we have to do our due diligence and take a look at him at shortstop first. Regardless of whether O’Neal stays at short or slides over at third, both of those positions are going to be critical for us to replace. I’m not sure how the pieces of the puzzle will fit together at this point.
And then you have Grayson Byrd and Kramer Robertson who are returning from last year’s team will be right there in the mix.
Q: How do other returning guys fit in to replace seven of eight position players lost this season?
Mainieri: Of all the returning backup players, the guy that probably gives me the strongest feeling that he’s ready to play for us and play at a high level at least for the portion of the time is Michael Papierski behind the plate. I think he’s an excellent defensive catcher. Now, his hitting needs to improve by leaps and bounds. And I’m really excited about Jordan Romero, the LSU-Eunice catcher from Catholic High coming as well.
I think Bryce Jordan has made a lot of improvement, even though you haven’t seen it because it’s been mostly catching pitchers in the bullpen. I think between those three guys we’re going to have a nice core of catchers. I think of all of the returning backup players Michael Papierski shows he’s probably the most ready because it’s such a critical defensive position.
Next I think you’ve got to look at Kramer Robertson because I think he can play defense. Will he be a good enough offensive player? Has he matured in his knowledge of the game enough that he can be an instinctive player. He’s off to a good start in the Cape Cod League. Got three hits in his first game. He’ll be in the mix there.
Danny Zardon will be a third-year bat. I’m still concerned about where we play him defensively and he may just be a first baseman or a DH. I don’t know. Maybe an emergency infielder. I think the Jordan boys showed glimpses. I was extremely high on those boys last fall. When they didn’t get a chance to play regularly in the spring, they didn’t perform as well, but after playing this summer I’m hoping they’ll return to what they showed during fall practice and continue that when they get back here.
I think Grayson (Byrd) has made enormous improvements from the fall to the spring. Now, whether or not he improves enough that would warrant him to be an everyday player, time will tell.
I think Greg Deichmann still has a lot of room for improvement. I’m trying to figure out where defensively he can play in a positive way. And will he hit consistently enough? His first 22 games of the Northwoods League has been kind of a mixed bag. I don’t think he’s hitting .200 right now after 100 at-bats and no home runs and striking out one out one of every three at-bats. He’s not off to a great start there. Hopefully it will get better.
Q: You have two outfield spots to fill, too, right?
Mainieri: Beau (Jordan) is an outfielder, but Beau’s not a speed demon out there either. It was nice having some fast guys. We’ve got some good freshmen coming in and junior college transfers coming in. Cody Ducote is a kid I’m excited about seeing. He was the best hitter at Delgado for the last two years. His coaches made comparisons to Sean McMullen and Mason Katz to me. If he can hit like either one of those guys consistently, he’s going to have a good chance to play here.
The two kids out of Lafayette, I’m extremely excited about – Brennan Breaux, who follows in Andrew Stevenson’s footsteps as the center fielder from St. Thomas More, and Antoine Duplantis is a player that I’ve really taken a liking to. He can run. He can hit. His brother just finished his career here as a pole vaulter on our track team. His mom and dad were track athletes at LSU as well. So he comes from a family of signifianct athletic ability and he can run. He’s kind of cut out of the same mold as Laird and Stevenson. I think he’s going to be a pretty good hitter too.
Breaux and Duplantis, I think, have a chance. There’s a kid from Georgia we recruited named Brody Wofford that we think is going to be a pretty good hitter. We’re not sure he’s going to be a corner infielder or corner outfielder yet. We’ll kind of let the process happen throughout the fall. It’s hard to say of the returning players which ones have the inside track on playing because we’ve got all of these new guys coming.
Kid named Cole Freeman, a second baseman from Delgado, can really run. He hit real well at Delgado this year. Is he going to be better than Kramer? We’re going to line them up and see. Bryce Adams, a kid out of Dunham who went to Delgado. He’s a big, strong home-run hitting first baseman.
Q: Your opening day starting lineup in 2016 could include five true freshmen?
Mainieri: I think so. Three to four maybe. Five might be an extension.
Q: Does that scare you – going from such a veteran lineup to that?
Mainieri: I don’t know if scare is the right word. I think it’s exciting. I’ve played freshmen before. In 2013, we went to Omaha with three freshmen in our starting lineup. Laird, Stevenson and Bregman. My first year here we played four freshmen every day.
Some freshman, just like in pitching, will adapt quicker than others.
Q: The new ball. Have you seen enough from it this year to change anything you do as a coach or a recruiter?
Mainieri: I think the ball helped a little bit. I thought it helped about the level I thought it would – maybe 25 percent better. I don’t think you can build a team just based on hitting home runs. I don’t think you want to anyway if you want to win in Omaha. I’m glad to see a little bit more life into the ball, which translates into a little bit more offense, but I think there’s more they could do. Wish we would go to the minor league ball. Has a different core. Wish bats were a little more lively, but they’re not so you just deal with it.
There’s no question … UCLA showed the model back in 2013. They hit .240 as a team and won the national championship because they dominated on the mound. You just don’t see teams winning anymore unless they dominate on the mound. That’s what we’re going to continue to try to do.
We need Alex Lange to pitch at the high level like he did this year. I hope somebody will develop enough to pass Jared Poché in the rotation. If we had a rotation of Lange and another super stud dominating guy and Jared Poché was your third-best starter, that’d be a pretty good staff.
Q: Lange. It’s tough to follow a freshman season like that, but what do you expect from him?
Mainieri: It is really scary. Aaron Nola had a season like this his sophomore year and I remember going into his junior year and the draft was lurking and everything else and I told Aaron, ‘Look, don’t worry about matching the numbers of last season. Just go out there every day and do the best you can and work hard with (Alan Dunn), prepare and pitch to win. Just try to help your team win.’
It worked well for him. He just kept his focus on being a team oriented guy and he had a tremendous year as a junior following a phenomenal sophomore year. I’ll probably give Alex the same advice, but Alex is a very similar kid to Aaron Nola. They’re very humble, very hard-working, very respectful, very team-oriented. So I really don’t see an issue with Alex Lange at all. I don’t think he’ll put any added pressure on him. I think he’s just going to go out there and try to be the best teammate he can.
Via- Ross Dellenger, the advocate