LSU=Champions

I can’t believe I wasted 9 minutes of my life watching Armstrong’s video trying to explain why the best defense SS in LSU baseball history was going to spend his senior year at a position other than SS. While Milam may get some days off in the field or even some “rehab” type games at 2B if truly recovering from a shoulder injury, there is no team-centric reason based in logic - at least in June of 2026 - for a decision to have been made and a plan set in place for Milam to start meaningful games at any other position in 2027.

He was unpitchable.

Shockingly, he started game 1 of the regional finals against Georgia Tech. Faced 3 batters, proceeded to go: BB, WP, 2R HR, HBP before getting yanked. Didn’t pitch again rest of postseason. His last appearance before that (and last out recorded) was in another atrocious start against Tenn on May 14.

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Evans, Schmidt, and Moore will be the starters until after tax day regardless of performance if fully healthy.

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While it’s certainly possible (though I wouldn’t say it’s even probable), making such a statement as a certainty is negligent at best. There are so many factors at play and your hypo only excludes 1 of many. Opening day is 8 months from now. LSU having the same starting rotation 2 months into the season is anything but etched into stone. We just brought in one of the best transfer pitcher in college baseball and there’s a host of returning arms as well as other new incoming arms who are ready to compete for any number of pitching roles. To act like Jay is giving these 3 guys guaranteed spots to start year and then thru the halfway mark of the regular season is contrary to the competitive nature Jay will need these players all offseason.

Another stellar thread. Keep up the good work.

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God any data on triples?

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Threads so bad AR got Josh asking for God.

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losing 8 players 2 years in a row would seem devastating considering looking at the other top 5 schools only lost 3 on average

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Not sure if it was purposeful, but this is such a disingenuous way to frame the way we recruit HS.

We purposely sign several highly ranked HS players knowing 99% chance that they’re going to go pro, in the hopes we get lucky with that 1%. Jay isn’t selling out for Logan Schmidt to make it onto campus. There’s no harm in this approach, especially when your class is 24 signees deep like our current one is. It implies large loss of top end players to MLB.

On “average” lol of course that’s true on average because there’s only so many top 100 HS players and there’s only so many selection slots in a given draft. While we’re on the high end here, it’s certainly not without context. Other schools lost a large number of HS signees to draft last year. Vandy lost 5, A&M lost 5, and Texas lost 4. Miami has 2 HS signees that rank in the top 8 of all draft eligible players in this year’s draft class. I can’t imagine they are selling out for those kids to somehow make it to campus, but they’re at least giving themselves a shot.

From what I can tell, he’s not following, and he’s not being followed by, any of the LSU staff. The same can’t be said for other teams. His followers and following list is heavy with Miss St and Georgia coaches and staff.

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I don't see how Jay would work hard to get Milam back and then not place him at SS when he has talked about him being the best defensive SS at LSU.

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The only legitimate reason where moving Milam moving from SS to 2B makes sense is if there’s truth to rumors about Milam’s health (rumblings about playing thru a labrum issue which may require surgery. I’m not saying this is established as fact).

I listened to Jason Armstrong’s video on this and neither point he tried to make is persuasive to me. They’re both easily debunked by simple baseball logic.

The first reason he cited is that Milam is protectable as a 2B in pro ball, not a SS. While I don’t disagree with that statement by itself, I find it hard to believe that such a fact being true is the reason or even a reason to move him from SS to 2B in college. First of all, Milam already played an entire year of college ball at 2B and did so at an elite level. Pro teams don’t need more “tape” on Milam playing 2B to know whether or not he could stick there in pro ball. That’s his natural landing spot on a professional field. Few, if any, pro teams are going to give him a look at SS due to his stature. Secondly, unlike SS, even if Milam had never played 2B in college, pro teams still do not need to see a player play at 2B in his senior year in order to project Milam at 2B, especially after he played back to back stellar years defensively at a much more difficult position in SS. This happens with countless players every year. Milam is already projected at 2B, likely universally, and has been pegged at 2B for quite some time now. More “work” at that position will not move the needle from a projectability standpoint.

The second reason he cited is because Park is a natural SS who also projects as a SS in pro ball. Again, I don’t disagree with that statement by itself. However, I find it hard to believe that it is a reason or the reason to (1) promise the SS position to a player transferring from a mid major program with a questionable off the field concern when you (2) already have an existing and returning player who is, at least at the collegiate level, objectively elite defensively at the SS position. While Park would not doubt stand to gain something personally to his professional projectables by playing SS at the power conference level, that reason doesn’t benefit the collective team of LSU. And I highly doubt Jay would do that as he is a team before me guy every day of the week. It flies against team-focused logical decision making.

This is all aside from the fact that Jay also has repeatedly stated Milam is the best defensive SS in LSU baseball history. The stats back that up. Jay would not cast that aside for the reasons cited by some of these social media pundits.

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The older I get the more I try to temper my expectations when it comes to almost everything in life but it’s getting hard to not be really excited about next years team.

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I identify with this so much :lol:

When I was younger, I would be very invested in college football recruiting and it became such a toxic interest. I completely withdrew from it about a decade before the portal/NIL era.

With that said, there’s only 1 thread I ever follow annually and it’s this LSU baseball recruitment/portal/draft thread in the summer months. It gets the baseball juices flowing. Reminds me of the feeling I’d have when I was younger being excited about getting a HS football commit which is next to meaningless these days.

64 Analytics has some proprietary algorithm they use to compute player rankings in the portal. From what I understand, the younger the player (and perhaps even the less experience the player has), the calculation weighs previous metrics (high school or junior college) heavier. Whereas, upperclassmen with multiple years of college experience have little to no weight in their statistics from previous stops at lower levels, be it HS or JC. I believe they’ve tweaked the formula multiple times over the years and did so even this past offseason (or maybe year prior, can’t remember), so it’s far from being established.

They’re also putting a lot into their marketed advanced metrics and data profiles for sale to colleges around the country. Like what 643 Charts has carved out, with 643 seemingly leading the pack in this niche.