Okay, let's get it. It is Locked on lsu, your team every day. I'm your host, Matt Moscona. Comings and goings. LSU has a new outfield target from an SEC school we're going to talk about and Marcos Pa, the freshman righty entering the portal with just a few days to go before the portal closes. Looks like he's probably jumping to another SEC school. We'll get to pause. Let's start with Alec Blair, the Oklahoma freshman outfielder. But to talk about Blair, I first have to talk about Todd Butler. Now, if you're a college baseball fan, you may very well know who Todd Butler is. If you don't, that's okay. Deep ties to Louisiana. Played at McNeese before finishing his career actually at Oklahoma, but his coach at McNeese was an associate AD at McNeese and also has coached in the SECA places like Alabama and Arkansas. He's been all in. Now, Oklahoma has been all around. So on Monday of this week, Todd Butler won a national championship as an assistant on Skip Johnson's Oklahoma staff. He's the heading coach and the recruiting coordinator again with Louisiana ties. And a guy who has Jay Johnson has flirted with the idea of hiring multiple times. Actually, well, Todd Butler, right after winning the national championship with Oklahoma a few days later, leaves Skip Johnson's Sooner staff to join Kevin o' Sullivan staff In Gainesville, I'm told he got a pretty significant raise to go from one school to the other as an assistant and as assistant coach in baseball. It's not like you're making SEC football coordinator money. So when you can nearly double your salary, you're going to take it. And that's what happened with Todd Butler. And then also you're talking about being in the state of Florida where you have just a gigantic glut of players in Florida to recruit, whereas Oklahoma, the state of Oklahoma doesn't have a lot of talent. You have to go outside of your state borders to recruit. In any event, that preamble leads me to Alec Blair. So Alec Blair was recruited heavily by Todd Butler to Oklahoma. Let me give you a little bit of the background on Blair and I'll tie it together, how it fits potentially with LSU. So Alec Blair is a freak athlete. I had one scout tell me the comp is Sean Green, 666-A6 6 outfielder 6 6, 195. He's from California, went to De La as a, as a senior in high school he had 433 year starter in center field all state in California, Max preps, the whole deal. He's also a two sports star. So I was told like freak athlete at 66 who went to Oklahoma with the intention of playing both baseball and basketball. Like he was recruited to UCLA for basketball. So you're talking about a really high level elite athlete in Alec Blair who in one season at Oklahoma was a sort part time player. He played in 30 games with 24 starts primarily in right field. Now in those 20 in those 30 games played he had 247 couple of homers, 18 RBI. He slugged.376 on base, percentage of.320, not outstanding. But keeping in mind this is a guy who wasn't playing every day. One very good scout friend of mine told me about Alec Blair. Said that's the kind of guy that if you stepped on LSU's campus for this year, even with Beo Waters and Jason Walks and William Patrick, he would be the best athlete, best prospect of all of them. And if you gave him 40 games consecutive to play, by the end of those 40 games he'd be better than all of them and projects as a first round talent to the next level. So you're talking about again size frame, the things that scouts drool over. Scout size frame, easy power from the left side, 66, can run like a deer, great athlete, covers a ton of ground in the outfield. Check, check, check. Check, check. So this is someone that if you're LSU of course you'd love to have and it's also worth mentioning and you can see this on the thumbnail of this if you're on YouTube or go scroll Alec Blair's Instagram LSU recruited him out of high school and finished runner up to Oklahoma where Todd Butler got his commitment to play for Skip Johnson this year won a national championship and now after one season of being a part time player is entering the portal. So it now comes down to lsu, the school that recruited him and finished runner up to Oklahoma and Florida where the guy that recruited him, Todd Butler, now is the hitting coach and recruiting coordinator. I ear to ground think this is probably a Florida lean. I don't think Alec Blair had any intention of going into the Portal. Keep in mind we're just, you know, a few days before the portal window closing. But again, Oklahoma was playing for a national championship earlier this week. So I don't know that he had a real strong desire interest to go to the portal until Todd Butler left Oklahoma. And so Todd Butler going to, going to Florida certainly wants to bring Alec Blair with him to Florida. The question is, does Florida have the roster spot, the playing time, the financial ability to squeeze a guy like Blair into their roster again with a lot of the heavy lifting in the portal already done for most schools. So if Kevin o' Sullivan and Todd Butler can make it work, roster numbers, money, all that stuff, then I think Blair ends up at Florida. If not, then I think he ends up at LSU and then becomes your final outfielder. Remember there was a report earlier this week from Pete Nacos of ON3 that LSU was in the mix for Angel Leia, who's an outfielder from Oregon who hit the the transfer portal and LSU is in the mix there. So even though LSU's already added Beno Waters and Jason walks, it's two starting outfielders and they return William Patrick, who played about 20 games at the end of his freshman season after Jake Brown's injury. And and we've told you as well, if you're in every day or you've heard us talk about Nathaniel Davis, he's an incoming freshman from Orlando, he is a draft risk, but if he makes it through the draft, makes it to campus, you could see as I understand, Patrick and Davis maybe platooning in that third outfield spot to see which ultimately emerges and wins that everyday spot with Waters and Walks being your other starters. So keep an eye on what may happen here with Alec Blair. As I understand it, you'd expect a decision Monday, Tuesday at the latest, early next week. This isn't something that's going to drag. He went into the portal with some intentionality, so it should come to fruition here pretty soon with where Alec Blair lands. But that's a name that LSU fans need to keep an eye on because Tigers are in the mix, but Florida probably is the front runner. It's just a matter of if Florida can dot their I's, cross their T's. If not, I think LSU would be the landing spot, so that could be the final outfielder. We'll certainly let you know and we'll follow it here on Locked on lsu. Well, as LSU is targeting Alec Blair, Marcos Paz is leaving the LSU program. How did this happen? What does it mean for the pitching staff? We'll react to all that next. It's locked on lsu, your team Every day. The biggest stage in world soccer is here, and every match feels like it has the potential for a memorable moment. One goal can completely change the energy of a game, shift momentum and after the outcome in one instant. That's what makes tournament soccer so exciting. From the opening whistle to the final kick and now FanDuel is giving fans another reason to stay locked into every match. With every goal pays. It's easy. 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Great organizations win because operations matter and that's why you should get Odoo Try for free today@odoo.com lockedon that's O D O O.com locked on. When a player who just finished his freshman season makes it through 26 days of the portal being open and with four days before the portal closing decides to enter his name, generally speaking, there's a little funny business there so as to say that player probably already has their destination known. We'll see if that's the case for Marcos Pause. A really disappointing day. No doubt Marcos Pause has entered the transfer portal and as I was told immediately upon pause entering the portal that Texas A and M is the likely destination. Again, it's so worth mentioning this because nothing is ever done until it's done and Paz goes into the portal. Even if his agent was having conversations with other schools about playing time and nil and all that stuff, which I do believe has happened. And I believe A M is the most likely landing spot when a player formally enters his name in the portal. If he's in without a do not contact tag then anyone can reach out and who knows what school might have a higher nil budget, more of an opportunity that could attract Marcos Paz. But I do think as of now the trend is seems like it's going to be toward Texas A and M for Marcos Paz. Michael Early's the head coach and remember former LSU pitcher Nolan Kane just left Texas for Texas A and M to go back from whence he came and would be recruiting. Pause presumably to to College Station. The quick rundown on pause if you don't remember he's out of the state of Texas. He missed. He's 622-28-Big dude runs it up there, upper 90s Big Power right handed pitcher and missed his senior year of high school due to Tommy John. Even in spite of his Tommy John he was still ranked the number 22 right handed pitcher in the country by perfect game. That's coming off of Tommy John. So you're talking about any elite level prospect that without Tommy John probably never steps foot on campus. Paz is a guy that Jay Johnson has raved about, says like he's going to be a weekend starter for us and even after the season talked about PAWS factoring in potentially to be in the rotation for this coming season. So this is not something that Jay Johnson and this LSU staff expected at the start of the portal, meaning paws going into the portal. Clearly something has transpired. And while LSU has added Landon Hood from Gonzaga, who's a power right handed pitcher, Landon Hood's bullpen arm at Gonzaga, who likely factor, we've talked about him here. He likely factors into a bullpen role at LSU unless he just has an incredible fall and and wins a job. But remember, you've got William Schmidt returning, case in Evans returning, Cooper Moore said on my radio show. He anticipates returning. And then you've got Reagan Ricken as well, who just finished his freshman season at lsu, who had some starts in the midweek and at the end of the season in in conference play. That's four starters. Pause would have been one of five vying for the three weekend rotation spots. And then you throw in Landon Hood from Gonzaga. That would have been six. Now if you're Jay Johnson and Nate, yes, key you had a pitching staff this year that was dead last in the SEC and staff era. So while you have incumbents returning, nothing should feel like a given. So Pause would have had an opportunity to compete for a starting job. But the reality is with Pause, the power stuff was really good. The command is not and that's what cost him. Paz had seven, made 17 appearances with six starts. He threw 29 and a third innings. In those 29 and the third innings he struck out 40. So again 40 strikeouts and 29 and a third innings pitch. So more than a strikeout running pitch. But he walked 27. That was nearly a walk per inning pitched. He gave up five homers. He hit four more batters. Like so many other LSU pitchers this season, command was the issue for paws. The stuff is undeniable. I mean the kid runs it up upper 90s. I mean he might be a power righty throwing a hundred one day before it's all said and done. And this is a guy you undeniably wanted to have back and watch him grow and develop. But I can kind of understand from Paz's perspective if there's a team who is looking for, who has a clearer path to the weekend rotation, who is willing to pay more than the team you're currently with Those are the types of things that good agents are searching for for their client. And my guess is that's what's going to happen here with Marcos Paz. I don't think his intention ever was to leave lsu. I think an opportunistic team, potentially A and M. We'll see if it's someone else is going to be willing to pay him and give him a better opportunity to get mound time instead of coming to LSU and battling for a spot in 2027 for maybe less money. So Marcos Paz is out. He becomes the sixth LSU Tiger, the seventh, excuse me, LSU Tiger to enter the transfer portal. Tigers have six additions so far in their portal class, but again we're keeping an eye on a couple of outfielders and then a couple of pitchers as we've talked about as well. If you're an everydayer, we talked about Thomas Allen from Louisiana Tech. Seems like that is, as I understand, down to Mississippi State and Arkansas. So we'll see where Thomas Allen lands. And then also Shane Brenham, the left handed pitcher for who just finished his freshman season at Michigan that LSU's in the mix for as well. So we'll see if Jay Johnson can add anyone else to this transfer portal class. But for now, another Tiger departing Marcos pause after one season in Baton Rouge as the portal class continues to unfold, develop the roster, take shape. We'll be talking about it right here on Lockdown lsu. So do me a favor. Please subscribe on your favorite podcast app. Rad us. 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 here every single day for Locked on lsu. It's your team every day.
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