LSU Baseball National Champ Ace Anthony Ranaudo Talks Pitching Woes On Tiger Rag Radio

April 29, 2026 Glenn Guilbeau Featured, LSU Baseball 0
Baseball pitcher in a yellow Tigers jersey (#23) shouting with his glove up, on the mound.
Former LSU pitcher Anthony Ranaudo was 12-3 with a 3.04 ERA and led the SEC in strikeouts with 159 as the Tigers' ace in the 2009 national championship season. (LSU photo).

By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor

Former LSU pitcher Anthony Ranaudo knows pitching.

He was 12-3 with a 3.04 ERA and led the Southeastern Conference in strikeouts in 2009 with 159 as the Tigers’ ace that year and helped lead the Tigers to the national championship.

A supplemental first round pick of the Boston Red Sox in 2010, Ranaudo pitched in Major League Baseball from 2014-16.

He now talks college baseball as a cohost of The Glue Guys podcast with Chris Phillips.

And he is on the SEC Unfiltered podcast.

Ranaudo was a guest on Tiger Rag Radio Tuesday night and didn’t hold back on what he thought of LSU’s struggling pitching staff. Tiger pitchers have set the school record with 74 wild pitches (was 69 in 1999 and 2018) this season and had the worst ERA in the SEC and No. 103 nationally at 5.35 going into Tuesday night’s 12-4 win over Southeastern Louisiana.

LSU also was a whopping 197th in the nation in walks per nine innings at 5.1 with 220 on the season after losing its school record ninth straight Southeastern Conference game on Sunday at Mississippi State. And the Tigers are third in the SEC in most hit batsman with 64.

LSU’s pitching problems have started at the top of the rotation as sophomore ace Casan Evans is 2-2 on the season with a 5.47 ERA with 26 walks, nine wild pitches and five hit batsmen while striking out 76. Sophomore No. 2 starter William Schmidt is 4-4 with a 4.17 ERA with nine home runs allowed along with nine wild pitches, five hit batsman and 25 walks against 72 strikeouts.

Both were highly recruited pitchers who could have made a lot of money had they entered the 2024 MLB Draft. Evans was the No. 26 freshman in the country overall by Perfect Game going into 2025, while Schmidt was the No. 4 freshman in the nation by Perfect Game. Evans answered his potential in his freshman season, going 5-1 with a 2.05 ERA and seven saves. So did Schmidt, who went 7-0 with a 4.73 ERA, though he struggled mightily in his brief SEC use.

Neither have taken the next step this season, nor has LSU sophomore reliever Mavrick Rizy (0-0, 3.86 ERA), who has walked 15 in 18 and two-thirds innings with six wild pitches and seven hit batsman.

And LSU sits at 25-21 overall and 6-15 in the SEC for 15th place out of 16 going into this weekend’s home series against South Carolina (22-24, 7-14 SEC).

“The sad part is when I first started analyzing this team over the first four non-conference weekends, I was thinking William Schmidt turned the page,” Ranaudo said. “And we’re talking about a top 10 pick next year. I thought his maturation was really impressive.”

But Schmidt has allowed 13 earned runs on 13 hits and four home runs with 11 walks over his last three starts in 13 innings for two losses. And he has not seen a seventh inning all season in SEC play with his longest outing five and two-thirds innings.

“Once SEC play started, I noticed a little difference in the fastball command with William,” Ranaudo said.
“He is lately just not commanding his fastball, and he’s throwing more sliders and curves, rather than that 96-98 mph heater. He was throwing his fastball 60 percent of the time and 70 percent for strikes. Now, he’s throwing it 40 percent of the time and 60 percent for strikes. These are the little things that are making a big difference.”

Evans has had similar issues.

“Casan struggled with command throughout the year, in my opinion,” Ranaudo said. “As a Friday night starter, you’ve got to be able to go six, seven innings each time out. And that means you’re getting ahead in counts, and you’re attacking guys.”

Evans pitched into the eighth only once in the SEC this season against Oklahoma on March 19. Since then, he has lasted five or six innings in his last four starts. And since the Oklahoma game, he has allowed 16 earned runs on 22 hits with four home runs and 13 walks through 22 and two-thirds innings in four starts.

“Casan has fallen behind a lot of guys this year and has to throw pitches over the plate,” Ranaudo said. “He’s been suffering through that process.”

LSU Baseball: Pitcher Casan Evans Completes Tiger Trilogy Of Injuries In Just Last 5 Days

CASAN EVANS IS HEALTHY NOW

Evans was scratched from his last start at Mississippi State with arm stiffness, but tests this week have revealed no arm injury, LSU coach Jay Johnson said after the Tigers’ win over Southeastern Louisiana on Tuesday night.

“We got all the imaging done, and Casan is 100 percent good to go,” he said. “He just didn’t feel good last week. I don’t know if he’ll pitch this weekend, because he hasn’t thrown for five days. We have to reboot the throwing program and see where that goes.”

Even when healthy, Evans and Schmidt have not been setting the table for the rest of the staff.

“When your starters aren’t commanding, that’s a big tone setter,” Ranaudo said. “And it’s been disappointing, because you were expecting those guys to take a big jump this year. We’ve seen William Schmidt and Casan Evans have some of the best secondary pitches in the league, but it’s really ineffective if you’re falling behind in counts and you’re not pitching off that fastball.”

Same with Rizy.

“I love Mavrick. I’ve met him and had conversations with him,” Ranaudo said. “So this is nothing personal. But I just don’t trust that he’s going to throw strikes.”

And the rest of LSU’s relievers have been shaky for the most part as well.

“You need your relievers to come and fill up the zone and set a tone and a presence in the late innings,” Ranaudo said. “When you don’t throw strikes out of the bullpen, it’s just really hard to set yourself up for success. I’ve seen that throughout the bullpen. The fastballs are electric, but they just don’t know where they’re going. And you can’t set up any other pitches to set yourself up for success. That’s what I’ve seen as a pattern this year.”

Ranaudo does not envy LSU pitching coach Nate Yeskie at the moment.

“I do feel for Nate a lot,” he said. “He knows what to do to win, and when your pitchers are walking guys and throwing wild pitches, they’re doing the things wrong that are in their control. He’s just got to start correcting things. When you don’t have a staff that can control the fastball, you’ve got to hit reset and find some guys who can.”

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