Coach Jay Johnson is up first. Six players will follow, so I'll respond in this thread with notes from their pressers as they come up.
- This is the third year in a row with coaching changes, but he's very confident they have the right guys in the building to succeed.
- Has tried to figure out what can propel this team forward. Says it's hard to do better than last seasons team, but just wants to see them operate day-to-day at the highest level.
- Said he recruited Gage Jump extremely hard at Arizona. Said he's a very rare mixture of talent and character. Felt they built a good relationship in that process, which allowed him to recruit him in the portal. He missed the 2022 season, so they've built him up slowly. He threw 6 innings in the fall and will continue to throw 2ish inning outings heading into the season.
- He really believes in Paxton Kling's ability. Says he's made great strides in his development both physically and mentally. He had some injuries last year that forced him out of the lineup, but he had a very successful 100 at bats in his freshman season. Calls it "his time"
- Their thought process is "we're not defending anything." They want to make sure they're attacking this season instead of defending.
- Jake Brown was one of the top LHP in the 2023 class, but he loves what he's seen from him in the field as well. He'll play some outfield to start.
- Likes where they're at in the pitching staff. Said that was their main focus this offseason. Says baseball starts and ends on the mound. Said the next few weeks will tell them a lot about their staff.
- Says Thatcher Hurd, Gage Jump and Luke Holman will be the main guys. Says they have another layer with Nate Ackenhousen, says he trusts him with his life. Also highlights Griffen Herring as someone who will see some good work this year. Also says Justin Loer and Cam Johnson are players they'll go to a lot.
- Josh Pearson is moving to second base. Says he's one of those guys that you can ask to do anything and he'll find a way to do it. Says he can go back out to the outfield whenever they need him to.
- Hayden Travinski will see a lot of time at DH, thinks he can be one of the most dangerous hitters in all of college baseball this season. He had to work hard to get Travinski back. Says for some of the older guys it was time to go after last year, but for Hayden, he hadn't be healthy for a long stretch so he thought there was more on the table for him to improve on. Travinski thought the same and came back even though he probably would've been drafted and signed in the MLB Draft.
- Says they played their best ball last season in the playoffs and said "The Yankees weren't beating us in the Regional and Super Regional last season."
- Called Brady Neal's injury last season a "blow." Was very thankful he reclassified, because he feels he would be in the MLB right now if he stayed in high school one more year. Proud of his growth and development during his injury and thinks he'll be a huge part of this team the next two seasons.
- Jared Jones is "probably going to be the first baseman as of today." Thought he was more advanced than he thought, so they were comfortable putting him at first when Trey Morgan was hurt and was in the outfield.
- Thinks Kade Anderson would've been difficult to get to college without his injury. Says he's poised beyond his years and checks a lot of boxes of an experienced player. They're trying to slowly bring him along back from his injury because he's going to be a big part of LSU Baseball moving forward.
- He was recruiting while in Omaha - they got Michael Braswell and Kade Anderson while in Omaha and were setting the stage for Gage Jump and Luke Holman. Says he tried to stay up as late as he could that night to celebrate the championship, fell asleep at four and then went back to work pretty much the next day. He visited Luke Holman just a couple days after winning.
- Calls Tommy White a special dude. He's "something else" when he steps in the batters box and not many guys can deliver when you really need it like he did. He missed the entire fall after shoulder surgery, but says he took a huge step in leadership. He's 100% ready to go for the start of the season.
- Says Gavin Guidry is going to mainly focus on pitching over defense. Said he has no problem putting him in the field and at the plate, but they want to focus on his pitching. Excited for him to focus solely on pitching, because he didn't throw in the fall last season, he was playing in the field, so he feels there's some untapped potential.
- Called Michael Braswell as soon as he hit the transfer portal - which was right after the Kentucky Super Regional win. He was excited to hear from them and wanted to come down after Omaha, but Johnson told him to come down the next day. He called them in Omaha and told him that he was coming to LSU. They have a very high opinion of him, and when they played him last year, they really liked how he played.
- Said he's going to leave the fan amenities upgrades to the administration, but wants to head an indoor facility for the players. He's built a culture where players will show up early and work on their own, and they want to have an awesome facility for them to do that.
