I said this was the okayest team we ever had win a title. I think one thing they had going for them, though, was more versatility than some of our past good teams. It still makes me do a double-take to see an LSU team not only capably bunt, but be willing to do it, and call it at the right times. I'm not suggesting they were a small-ball team, but generally LSU moved from the era of gorilla-ball into a heavy "power hitting" team and they either bludgeoned you as much as the game still allowed, or they slumped. I think some of those teams that won titles or made the CWS were very good one-trick ponies. This team was kind of a doer of all, master of none. They still wanted to be a power team (and that fits Jay Johnson's m.o.), but they lacked the star power and just weren't as good at it, and he had them ready to do things other ways and be wiser with the base-running than some of the past teams. I didn't think a lot of that lineup through most of the year, but they kept finding ways to get things done. I'm just not used to seeing us do it that way.
The Friday and Saturday pitchers just improved over the season or else started better than I gave them credit for. They lacked any consistent relief or a closer, but yet somehow it was enough. CJJ seems to have had a much better intuition for pulling a pitcher or letting him ride this year than CPM ever had. I feel like he did more with less.
I wonder if I asked really nicely if I could convince them to add something hilarious to the 2025 flag they'll put up, something like "Meh. We were okay, but we won anyway."
Actually, it makes me happy to think we have a coach who can helm a more well-rounded ship. I'm still not used to small-ball for us, or at least being any good at it when we try. I hope we don't ever move away from the power-hitting identity, but that seems unlikely because CJJ tends to build his teams like that.
