Welcome everyone to another edition of #TriplePlay! In this edition, we’ll be previewing the LSU Tigers baseball season.
Turn One: Solid Pitching Depth
The Tigers sure are happy they’ve retained a lot of their pitchers. They will be returning 12 of the 17 pitchers from last season that recorded innings. With pitchers like Alex Lange and Jared Poche expected to be the big weekend starters, it’ll be interesting to see if the Tigers will be using a Jack Wholestaff approach during those midweek games. But according to head coach Paul Mainieri, that kind of setup in the middle of the week will not be used. Is he bluffing? Maybe, but only time will tell.
Turn Two: Almost Brand New Everyday Lineup
The everyday lineup for the Tigers, unlike the pitching staff, is almost entirely new players. Losing some of their best players both offensively and defensively has made for an interesting fall. But it looks like this team has a lot of solid pieces replacing the old guard of Alex Bregman and Andrew Stevenson. A couple of guys to look out for is Antoine Duplantis, a freshman out of Lafayette High and Trey Dawson. But you might have to wait and see what the freshman shortstop out of West Virginia can do, as he has pink eye and he might not be playing opening night.
Turn Three: Is This A Rebuilding Year?
This LSU Baseball squad, at least to me, passes the eye test. You’ve got solid depth with your pitchers and good pieces to replace your players who headed to the majors. All of this leads to one question: can they replicate what they did in 2015? My answer is a resounding yes. As long as the new players can establish a team chemistry and avoid aome of the defensive miscues that cost them at the end of last season.
-Clint Domingue