LSU Just Stole an Elite Pitcher from Ole Miss and Mississippi State

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Finally some good news for LSU baseball. And it is a massive get. We're talking about it. Locked on lsu. Here we go. You are Locked on lsu. Your daily podcast on the LSU Tigers. Part of the Locked On Podcast network. Your team every day. Okay, let's get it. It is Locked on lsu. Your team every day. I'm your host Matt Moscona. The LSU baseball team mired in a nine game losing streak. The longest sec, nine game SEC losing streak. The longest losing streak in conference in program history. Desperate for some good news and Jay Johnson got it on a commitment and some good news on the injury front that we'll get to. Let's start with the commitment On Monday it was first reported. I'll always give attribution prep baseball. Mississippi was the first to have it 2026. Right handed pitcher Colby Stringer out of West Marion in Mississippi picked the Tigers. He had previously been a Pearl River Community College commitment. He picked LSU over Mississippi State and Ole Miss. Now I understand, I understand fully that most fans are not locked into baseball recruiting. I get that football recruiting is at a certain scale. It has become its own industry with several different platforms. If It's Rivals and 247 and ESPN and all of them and there's rankings and there's camps and there's Elite 11 and all the stuff and we, and we, we understand the, the vernacular around football recruiting because it's been so common for so long. Not necessarily the case with baseball. A lot of times we don't know baseball players names in high school unless if they're local. And there's always the draft risk for the high school kids which sort of mitigates some of the excitement. I need to tell you about Colby Stringer and why this is so significant. Okay, so Colby Stringer is from Mississippi. LSU lost that game on Sunday to Mississippi State to be swept. Jay Johnson didn't come home with the team. Jay Johnson drove to go see Colby Stringer. Stringer, by the way, was at LSU on a visit the week prior. For the Texas A and M series. This is a guy who if I run. So just to illustrate how important he is, Jay Johnson didn't come home with his team to instead go see Colby Stringer. Fascinating part about this kid is he is self made. And what I mean is he didn't go to the showcase events, he didn't have pitching coaches, he didn't go on the travel ball circuit. He's a kid from a town that has one one stop sign in it. And he learned to pitch by watching YouTube videos. I was told Trevor Bauer was sort of like the, the, the guy who would model after watching YouTube videos of how to pitch. So he taught himself how to pitch. And to say that it ended up going well for Colby Stringer would be an understatement. He finished this year, his senior season 120 with a 0.43 ERA. In 65⅓ innings pitched, he gave up 19 hits, just 5 runs, 4 earned. He walked 20 and struck out 166. Let me say this again, in 65⅓ innings pitched, he struck out 166 batters the 9th and allowed 4 runs. The 19 hits. He did not allow an extra base hit all season. All 19 hits he gave up were singles. He is the best high school pitching prospect in the region. Now whenever we talk about a guy like this, generally speaking there's the concern of, well, he'll never show up on campus. That's why Colby Stringer is different. So this is a kid, as I just mentioned, from a tiny rural town in Mississippi. And because he never went to the showcase events and never went on the circuit and never went to Atlanta or Arizona or Miami to go to these giant events with all the college coaches and all the pro scouts. His recruitment was slow and he was a late riser. He was committed to Pearl River Community College. That was his only offer was to go was to go community college. And he had an offer from Southern Miss, but it wasn't going to be a full ride. And so he was going to go to Pearl river. So his parents didn't have to pay for his tuition at Southern Miss. He was going to go pitch juco for free so he could play for free. Well, he ain't got to worry about that at lsu. Obviously he'll, he'll be going to LSU for free. But as I understand it, he also didn't take the biggest nil deal. I was told that was Ole Miss. Among the three Ole Miss, Mississippi State and lsu. Ole Miss, I was told, offered the most. He still picked LSU because as it was told to me, there's only one Jay Johnson. And Jay remains the best recruiter in the country, maybe the best baseball recruiter we've ever seen. And in this era, the nil rev share era, where money comes into play, the relational aspect isn't going to be the first thing for every prospect, right? There are some guys that are just going to take the biggest payday and that's okay. For some it's going to be maybe the tiebreaker. For others it's going to be the thing maybe that's going to be for a lot of Louisiana kids who just want it would give their arm to wear the purple and gold. The fact of the matter is with Colby Stringer, this is just a different story of a country kid who is super honest, unmoved by the moment, a a dynamic arm talent and seems to have the right things prioritized. Now the draft, okay, everybody is concerned about the draft. Well, remember I told you he didn't go do the showcase events. He didn't go on the travel ball circuit. Well, because he wasn't at all of these things. The MLB scouts don't necessarily have a deep evaluation, a full thorough evaluation. And so when, when scouts and area scouts are making a determination and a recommendation around the draft to the big league club of what they would be willing or should be willing to pay a prospect in the draft out of the bonus pool, if you don't have a deep thorough evaluation, it's going to be hard to make a recommendation to pay this person top tier money. So the scouts that I've talked to about Colby Stringer say he's probably somewhere in round five. Six is where he may be targeted. You could have a team after this interest, maybe offer him a little bit more. But you're still talking about with the bonus slot pool values likely not enough money that would get Colby Stringer away from LSU and passing on the opportunity to go pitch in college and and improve and potentially one day becoming a first rounder. Remember when we talk about the MLB draft and the slot values, as we've talked about this plenty, if you're an everyday or you've heard us talk about this. So all the teams in the top 10 rounds have a bonus pool of money that they can spend, right? So the Pirates have the most at 19.1. The Rays are next at 19.0 million. The White Sox have 17.5. So all their picks in the top 10 rounds, they can spend that amount of money and each pick has a corresponding Slot value. So the first pick of the draft, the White Sox have that pick, it's 11.35. That's the slot value. The Rays have the second pick at 10.5. It generally decreases by a million as you go along. Well, if you're Looking in round five, for example, the first pick of round five is $553,000 by the Rockies. LSU could make a compelling case to Colby Stringer. Why would you take half a million tax deductible dollars and then go ride a bus in a ball or instead come to school for free? Will pay you nil money. You'll pitch in the SEC for three years, big crowds, get better and then go be potentially a first round draft pick. It's hard to make the argument for guys that are projected first round guys coming out of high school that are offered two and three million dollars to pass on that money. And McCam Johnson's the cautionary tale. He's got to pass on three million bucks to come to LSU. He's not going to get anywhere near that when he goes into the draft. This is different because you're talking about a guy that right now is projecting as a fifth six round pick that could come to campus and potentially be a top of the first round guy who makes a 10x on that number he would make if he went to the draft right now. So because of all of that, the risk reward for MLB teams, it sounds like it's probably an 8020 proposition that Stringer ends up on campus. So if Colby Stringer ends up pitching at LSU next year, the the very likely possibility, keeping in mind that you're talking about a guy who, you know, a team next year that'll have you know, William Schmidt returning, Case and Evans returning, Cooper Moore returning, Marcos Paz, a lot of talented arms. This would be a guy that as a freshman is in the mix for the number three pitcher role. If not there in the mix for the the midweek starting role and at the very worst a key bullpen arm as a true freshman who continues to evolve into being a front the rotation guy in the SEC by the time his LSU career is over. This is a massive, massive get because it's an elite, elite elite arm. Talent that is not necessary necessarily a giant draft risk. So needing a team need a team needing arms, especially strikeout pitchers who throw strikes which this team desperately needs. They got the best one in the region committed. Now you got him away from Mississippi State and Ole Miss. Gigantic get for Jay Johnson with Colby Stringer picking the Tigers. Now I mentioned. There was other good news. Jay Johnson updated Kason Evans, who was scratched from his start on Friday against Ole Miss. You'll hear from Jay with that update when we continue. It's locked on lsu, your team Every day. The NBA playoffs are here, where every possession matters, every matchup is magnified, and every game can swing a series. And right now, now fanduel is giving new customers a great way to get in on the action. Here's what I like about it. Bet just $5 and get 250 in bonus bets if your first bet wins. And the app makes it easy to follow the action with player stats, trends and matchups all in one place. And during the playoffs, that extra insight really matters when you're looking at stars or role players, key moments. It makes the entire playoff experience more engaging from start to finish. So head to FanDuel.com to get started. You want to bet on the NBA playoffs? Here's your shot. 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So LSU was swept this past weekend at Mississippi State and in large part it was because Casen Evans was scratched on Friday. It's not to suggest that LSU would have won the series otherwise. But the Tigers did lead in all three games by multiple runs, and they blew those leads because you asked your bullpen to Try to get 23 innings pitched for you. William Schmidt was your only regular starter who was available. Of course, we know Cooper Moore is done for the year. And then Casen Evans was scratched on Friday. When the Tigers went all in on Friday with a lead through their best bullpen arms, it was going to be darn near impossible to find a way to navigate that lineup with a bunch of bullpen arms from a bullpen that hasn't been very good. It is highly unlikely that LSU at this point, 6 and 15 in the conference, makes the postseason. You got South Carolina this weekend, you've got a road trip to Georgia, who's leading the conference, and then you've got a home series against Florida, who's in the mix to host. It's unlikely that you're going to get to the 13 win mark, which really is sort of that benchmark where you feel like you got to get to, you know, to get into the postseason from the sec. But it's completely impossible if you don't have Case in Evans. The only way it might be even remotely possible is if Evans and Schmidt are available and they're able to get you a couple of wins in the next three series each. You know, that would put you at least in the conversation. Going to Hoover for the possibility, again, not likely. And I do not think it's going to happen. But it certainly doesn't happen without Case and Evans. And on his radio show on Monday, Jay Johnson gave an update on Casey Evans.

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He saw the doctor day they came into my office. We feel like we have a good plan of getting him back on track. His response to that plan will kind of dictate the timing. I would not rule out that he could pitch this weekend, potentially. That's obviously what we're hoping for. But you're talking about, you know, one of the most important players in, in the program and has a bright future in baseball. So we're going to be diligent in how we do this. So not a ton to share. We're getting a little more information, but I think I'm feeling very optimistic about that and literally to the point, like he could possibly pitch, you know, this weekend.

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Okay, now the caveat is always Jay Johnson is not someone who's very forthcoming with injuries. Last Monday on his coaches show, he had the opportunity, he confirmed Cooper Moore's injury, had the opportunity to confirm Jake Brown did not. We ended up Breaking that story the following day on Tuesday. We, we joke a lot. You know, last year with, with, with Gavin Guidry at the beginning of the season Jay was talking about how Gavin could be back soon. He ends up missing the entire season with, with back surgery when, you know, when I, I'm just thinking through a lot of the injuries. When Chase Shores as a freshman had the UCL injury which required Tommy John, it was a good four to six weeks before Jay even acknowledged the fact that Chase Shores was shut down and had Tommy John. So take Jay's injury update with a grain of salt. But he did say he's not going to be very forthcoming with with much more than that. But he's optimistic that Evans could pitch maybe even this weekend. I'll remind you when Cooper Moore got hurt it was going to be a four week injury and now he shut down for the year. So it's, I get it. It's also very difficult with arm injuries to know how a pitcher is going to progress through an arm injury. To try to predict a timeline, all you can go by is what the doctors tell you and then you see how a player reacts as they start throwing again. So we'll see what happens here with Case and Evans. But I want to say this again if you're an everyday or you heard me say it before, shutting down Case in Evans on Friday was 100% the right decision. Because when you're talking about prospects, guys with a huge baseball future, which Case Kason Evans has, college coaches are watched for how they handle arm care and routines with these elite level prospects. Because if you get the reputation for not handling these pitchers with care to try to win games in college instead of thinking of, or I should say putting them at risk to win games in college without consideration of their future, that's the fastest way to make sure you never get prospects on your campus again. Jay Johnson is among the best. He's among the best when it comes to this. He will never put a player in harm's way. He always does right by his players. It's why so many guys want to come play. It's part of the reason why so many guys want to come play for Jay Johnson. He has their best interest and heart to win games in college. But also you know what, get them on their path to what their future is going to be in pro ball. So hopeful. Fingers crossed, Case in Evans is available. This is a winnable series this weekend against South Carolina. Missouri's at the bottom of the league. LSU and South Carolina are are next at the second and third from the bottom. So this is a home series against a bad team. It's a winnable series, but it's only winnable if you have Casey Evans available. If you have to go whole staff again, you just don't have enough arms to get you through a weekend. We saw it this past weekend, so here's hoping Case and Evans is available. Maybe the Tigers can get back to their winning ways this weekend and start their unlikely push, but a March maybe nonetheless toward an improbable, unlikely postseason birth. But as long as they got games to play and it's mathematically possible, we'll continue talking about it. All right, it's gonna do it for us here on this bonus episode of Locked on lsu. Do me a favor. Please subscribe on your favorite podcast app Radis. Leave a review if you're on YouTube, smash that like button, subscribe to the channel. Hit the bell so you're notified whenever we post a new video and let a friend know if they love the Tigers. We got you Every single day. It's locked on LSU, your team every day.

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