New Southern Pigskin Article; Baseball Notes

 SOUTHERN PIGSKIN

I've got a new piece up on Southern Pigskin regarding the hot start in recruiting for both LSU and Alabama. 

You can check it out here.

BASEBALL

LSU defeated Tulane on Wednesday night by a score of 10-4.   Mikie Mahtook was the star of the game, going 3 for 4 with 1 HR and 3 RBI.   Tyler Hanover also had three hits, and every Tiger starter had at least one hit on the night. 

Joey Bourgeois started for the Tigers  and gave up three runs in his only inning of work.  LSU's pitching then settled down and only gave up one run for the rest of the night. 

LSU is now 27-6 and faces Alabama this weekend. 

RECRUITING

In a bit of baseball recruiting news, Delino Deshields Jr. has committed to play baseball at LSU.   Deshields is the son of former Major Leaguer Delino Deshields. 

Deshields is a center fielder and is one of the top prospects in the nation. 

Deshields is expected to be drafted this June, and he's very open to going pro rather than attending college.  But if he comes to LSU, the Tigers may add a key contributor to next year's team.  Deshields is also a standout football player though he isn't expected to play football in college.

Revised State Recruiting Rankings; Baseball Loses Series at Auburn

RECRUITING

I have revised my state recruiting rankings and shuffled a few players around.  A few people have asked me what criteria I use when ranking players.  I look at three things:

1) First, I watch highlight films and use my own eyes to determine how I think a prospect projects at the college level. 

2) I look at what schools have offered a prospect.  I'm not a professional talent scout or evaluator.  However, coaches of major college programs are.  So I put a lot of stock into what they think. 

3) Lastly, I take into consideration the recruiting services such as Rivals, Scout, and ESPN. 

Right now, my rankings only go up to #17; however, I have a watch list of other in-state prospects that are on the radar.  I've also added a list of offers for each prospect along with links to video where available.  It's still early in the recruiting process, and schools will be doing a great deal of evaluating during the spring period and the summer camp circuit.  We'll see a lot of new prospects emerge and a lot of new offers get issued. 

Here are the rankings. 

BASEBALL

LSU ran into a very good hitting team and lost two games this weekend to Auburn.  On Friday, LSU had the game well in hand before the bullpen allowed Auburn to make it interesting in the end. 

On Saturday, Chris Matulis had his first poor outing of the season allowing six runs in five innings.  LSU was never able to recover even though they scored seven runs. 

Sunday saw a close game where Auburn got one more big hit than LSU. 

LSU is now second in the SEC West with an 8-4 record, one game behind Arkansas.  The Tigers play Tulane on Wednesday before hosting Alabama next weekend. 

New Commitment; Football and Baseball Notes

RECRUITING


LSU picked up their 10th commitment of the Class of 2011 on Monday when Breaux Bridge defensive lineman Quentin Thomas gave his pledge to Les Miles.   Thomas is 6'4" and a very lean looking 260 pounds.  While most sites have him listed as a defensive tackle, Thomas stated that LSU wants him as a defensive end.

I've only seen a very small amount of film on Thomas, but he looks the part of a big, quick, strong defensive lineman.  He also had an offer from Texas A&M.

I've currently got him ranked #13 in my state rankings, but I hope to update those this week.

FOOTBALL


With spring football over, we won't hear much football news until the fall.  For the most part, no news is good news.  This is the time of year that I like to call "Jackass Season" when players are most likely to find trouble.

LSU will also suffer attrition this summer, in some form or fashion.  By my count, LSU will be at 91 scholarship players when all the freshman report in the fall.  However, LSU can only have 85 scholarship players on the team, so something will have to happen in order to make room for the freshmen.  That could mean that a current player leaves the team for some reason or that an incoming freshman fails to qualify academically.

It appears that the first domino to fall may be sophomore receiver John Williams who apparently has some medical issues that will prevent him from continuing his career.  I haven't heard any other possible names at this point.

BASEBALL


LSU won the series against Georgia by taking two of three games, and they now sit atop the SEC standings with a 7-2 record, tied with South Carolina.  The Tigers are in great shape and with Anthony Ranaudo re-joining the team on a full-time basis, they are poised to start playing their best baseball of the season.

However, we're still going to see some changes this week.

First, Austin Ross is moving to the bullpen after suffering another poor outing on Saturday.  Similar to last year, Ross has shown that he can be awfully good but he just can't find any consistency.  It looks like the starting rotation will be Ranaudo on Fridays, Chris Matulis (pictured) on Saturdays, and Joey Bourgeois on Sundays.   Matulis continues to be one of the biggest surprises of the season.  He's now 5-0 with a 2.57 ERA.

We're also going to see a change at third base.  Neither Wet Delatte or Beau Didier were able to produce at the plate, so the coaches are going to give Kyle Koeneman a shot.  Koeneman came to LSU as a power hitting first baseman out of junior college.  He had some injury issues in the fall, and it looked like he was heading for a redshirt season.  I can only assume that he's been performing well at practice since he's earned an opportunity to win a starting job.  Grant Dozar may also be in the mix.  He started the Sunday game at third.

Unfortunately, left fielder Trey Watkins suffered a dislocated elbow on Friday night while diving for a ball.  His timetable is uncertain, but he'll be out for at least a month.  In the meantime, Johnny Dishon will play left field while Mikie Mahtook will bat leadoff.  Dishon is more than capable to fill in for Watkins.

LSU has Alcorn State on Tuesday night and Southern Miss at Zephyr Field on Wednesday night.  As of now, it's unclear how LSU will manage their pitching for these two mid-week games.