LSU baseball still way’s away; lack arms to make deep run

I came into the season with low expectations for the LSU baseball team.

I was prepared. I did all of the math. I accepted fate, these guys weren’t going to be very good.

After all, how could they be? They lost in just the NCAA Regionals last season and didn’t have very many effective pitchers, fielding one of the worst ERAs in the Southeastern Conference.

To make it worse, most of those already weak pitchers graduated, went pro, or transferred, meaning the team was starting from scratch with a group of freshmen on the mound.

Freshmen pitchers usually spell trouble in the SEC and I understand that, so I didn’t expect much from the Tigers this time around.

Then the season started and things changed, the Tigers sucked me in.

LSU opened the season with a 16-1 record, which included a three-game sweep of national power Cal State Fullerton, who entered Alex Box Stadium as the No. 6 team in the country.

They did so with steady pitching from their new faces, but mostly dominant offense, wowing their opponents to the tune of 10+ runs virtually every game.

I was all-in and all-aboard the LSU bandwagon and I was fully resigned to the fact that my original prediction was wrong and that LSU was destined for another Omaha run.

It turns out the only thing that was wrong was my decision to change my stance.

The LSU baseball team still isn’t very good. My first instinct was right all along.

Since sweeping Cal State Fullerton, LSU has moved on to SEC play and were swept at home by Florida. Sure, Florida is the No. 1 team in the country and all of the games were fairly close, but what happened the next weekend is inexcusable.

The Tigers lost two of three games to bottom feeding Georgia on the road. This is the same Georgia team that had only beaten the Tigers in a three-game series just once in the history of their program.

While I was correct about the team’s struggles, I was wrong about the reasons why.

To my chagrin, LSU’s starters aren’t bad, a three-man brigade led by dynamite freshman Kurt McCune, who allowed just seven runs in his first 40 career innings, including a complete game win against Georgia last Friday.

Backing the freshman up are fellow freshman Kevin Gausman and senior Ben Alsup, who combined have an ERA just below 4 and are both very steady on the hill.

The starters are OK, it’s what happens when they leave the game that is the problem.

LSU’s bullpen is bad.

Really, really bad.

Like probably one of the poorest in the SEC bad.

We’re talking rotten shrimp on a 108 degree August day bad.

Sure, there’s Matty Ott, the LSU freshman hero for his heroics as the team’s closer in their 2009 National Championship.

The problem is Ott hasn’t gotten a meaningful out since 2009 and was belted last year as a sophomore, blowing a half-dozen saves. Some fans said it was just hard luck, but the only thing hard about Ott’s performance is the way teams are hitting his pitches, as he’s been belted again in his junior campaign.

Against Florida, Ott blew a two-run lead in the ninth inning of the Friday game, which cost LSU the game and ultimately cost him his spot at LSU’s closer.

The kid’s pretty much done. A scout told me at their recent game against Nicholls that he was successful as a freshman because his outpitch broke outside of the strike zone, making it virtually impossible to hit.

Now teams are promptly not swinging at it and are making him come back over the plate with a straighter pitch and are thus pounding him.

But the problem for LSU’s bullpen runs deeper than Ott. Because despite how bad Ott has been, is there someone better the team can turn to?

Will Chris Cotton be able to get outs in the ninth inning? I don’t think so, he’s just a situational lefty.

Will Jimmy Dykstra be able to? Perhaps, but he allowed three home runs in his first 18 innings, even with the NCAA’s new watered down bats.

How about Ryan Eades, the guy with probably the best stuff of everyone on the team? Eades is a guy who looks the part on the mound, but as a true freshman, he’s still too raw and walks too many batters.

The answer will probably end up being Kevin Berry, who is LSU’s best reliever, but even with the ninth inning out of the way, the team is still forced to choose from the above problems for the 7th and 8th innings.

That’s bad news, news that usually results in blown leads and ultimately losses.

That’s not good when you’re trying to win in the most competitive conference in all of college baseball.

Sure, there are a few months left in the season and even Tigers coach Paul Mainieri predicted that LSU would be a better team in May than they are in March.

But I don’t think I’m getting suckered in again.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

These guys are still a year away, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Until they win a big series against a ranked SEC opponent, that is, then I’m sure I’ll jump ship again.