BASEBALL PREVIEW: Fall in Review

Tigers worked through, around injuries

By CARL DUBOIS
Tiger Rag Associate Editor

If one needed an icon to represent fall baseball practice at LSU before the 2010 season, the red cross on a first-aid kid might do the trick. The Tigers had to improvise much of the who, what, where, when and why because of lingering injuries, flu and other medical problems.

They came through it with the answers to most of the questions the coaches had when practice began.

“Our depth in our position players will not be the same as it was last year, so I think it’s going to be imperative that we stay healthy,” coach Paul Mainieri said. “We have a couple of extra players that I think can step in and do a very good job, but we’re just not going to have as deep a team as we had last year coming out of fall practice.

“I do think that the starting nine will be able to compete with anybody.”

That was an opinion shared by pitching coach and associate head coach David Grewe.

“We’re not as deep, but this year’s team has a lot of great players,” Grewe said. “We’ve got some talent back. Our core group is talented.”

LSU started and finished fall practice later than usual.

“We had four players who had summer surgeries and needed to recover,” Mainieri said, “and so we delayed the start of practice until Oct. 13, which means we didn’t finish until Nov. 20. There were a couple of other reasons we started late that I don’t need to allude to, but those players are all doing great and should be ready to go because they all participated by the end of fall practice.”

Most of LSU’s basic needs were identified and addressed - Blake Dean at first base, Wet Delatte at third base and Tyler Hanover at second base. Minus a few other concerns, such as gauging the depth of the pitching staff, that left the coaches with a longer look at the reserves.

Coming out of the fall of 2008 before the 2009 national championship season, the likes of Buzzy Haydel, Chris McGhee, Austin Nola and Hanover were backup infielders.

“We just don’t have that caliber of players waiting in the wings,” Mainieri said.

Grant Dozar didn’t win the third base job, so he reverted to catcher, where he will be the backup to Micah Gibbs. Beau Didier is a dependable sub in the middle infield.

“After that, we’ve got a lot of one-dimensional guys,” Mainieri said. “We brought in some guys this year hoping that they could provide some sock for us with the bat, but they don’t have a lot of versatility defensively, and so consequently we don’t have a lot of depth with versatility of our everyday players.”

He and his coaches saw that through four weeks of makeshift lineups in October and November.

“It was a very unique fall practice,” Mainieri said, “because we had so many guys hurt. It was very difficult to have the quality of intrasquad games that we’re used to having during the fall because there were times when we had five or six position players, including our best players, out of the games. But we battled through it. We had a lot of good things happen. The questions we needed to have answered got answered, for the most part.”

Intrasquad games began with pitchers who weren’t allowed to throw breaking balls - only fastballs and change-ups - and threw just one inning in a day.

In the first scrimmage, Gibbs stroked a one-hopper that scooter by a flinching Mason Katz on his glove side at second base for an RBI single.

“Welcome to college baseball, Katz,” Mainieri said.

Dean, whose summer surgery repaired a torn labrum in his left shoulder, couldn’t throw in the fall but practiced at first base.

“I think he looks great over there,” Mainieri said. “I think he’s going to be a tremendous first baseman. I already know what he can do with the bat.”

The intrasquad games in the fall of 2008 were akin to SEC weekend series, LSU coaches said. With Hanover, Nola and Mikie Mahtook on their way to earning starting jobs during the 2009 season, the lineup of backup players was impressive and competitive.

“You could get a great read on where your pitchers were,” Mainieri said.

That wasn’t the case last fall. LSU had to divide less talent over two lineups and two batting orders because of the missing players, thinning out the offense.

“The pitchers aren’t challenged as much,” Grewe said.

Not only did Dean have surgery on his throwing shoulder, but he also underwent an emergency appendectomy. He didn’t hit in a game until LSU was well into the fall.

Hanover missed most of the fall with a groin pull and the swine flu. Mahtook missed a week with an injury. Leon Landry missed essentially the entire fall with what coaches initially described as a broken toe but was closer in nature to an arthritic condition.

Junior college transfer Mike Lowery, who was expected to compete for the job at third base, is out for year with back trouble. Others missed practices for various reasons.

Matt Fury, a walk-on from Rummel High School in Metairie, earned a spot on the roster because of his play in the fall. He got extra time at shortstop in Lowery’s absence and made the most of it during practices and scrimmages.

Fury is also a potential backup catcher.

Before one intrasquad game, Grewe retrieved an old injury report crumpled up in his office garbage can, counting 15 names - with ailments ranging from cold and flu to staph infection to Landry’s toe. Nine names were on an injury report a few days later.

“It made it tough to play games,” Grewe said.

Landry underwent surgery in November. He said the procedure shaved some bone, scoped the joint and alleviated conditions that caused pain in his toe and foot.

He said was frustrated but would be ready for 100 percent participation in eight weeks, meaning there were no worries about him playing the full 2010 season.

The coaches had their own frustrations.

“You have to judge the pitchers by your eye instead of the results,” Mainieri said.

That could mean the quest for answers to two of the most pressing questions from the fall - has Austin Ross taken it to another level, and who will be the second starting pitcher? - will be a work in progress.

Despite the personnel problems, Grewe said he liked most of what he saw in fall practice.

“I think we commanded the strike zone better after Week 1 and Week 2,” Grewe said. “I think we threw too many off-speed pitches this fall, but that’s part of catchers calling games and pitchers wanting to get outs vs. trying to locate a good fastball.”

Mainieri managed to enjoy it despite a hectic schedule.

“It was the first fall semester that I’d ever had the pleasure of having following a national championship,” Mainieri said. “It did create a lot of extra work for me. I hate to call it work. It was really a lot of fun. I went out and spoke to a lot of groups, was invited to a lot of events.

“Now our focus is on the 2010 season.”

Read more from the 2010 Baseball Preview:

MAINIERI PROFILE: Year 3 continued amazing run

DUBOIS COLUMN: Turning the page fun for us, essential for Tigers

Carl Dubois is Tiger Rag’s lead LSU baseball writer. Contact him at carl@tigerrag.com.