The Offensive Philosophy of LSU Baseball Coach Jay Johnson
When Jay Johnson was hired as at the University of San Diego as an assistant coach, he was given two jobs. One was to recruit at the best of his ability.
The other was to learn offense and the ins and outs of getting hitters to be consistent at the plate. Hitting a baseball is one of the hardest things to do in sports and in 2021, the top half of the LSU order was among the best in the conference while the bottom half was rife with inconsistency.
That's one of the areas that Johnson plans to change as he expects to be hands on with the hitters and help with the development of each player's approach. It was through his time in San Diego where he developed his philosophy and picked up some strong offensive beliefs.
"I was afforded an opportunity to really figure out offensive baseball and then what does your team need to do and what it's rooted in," Johnsons said. "I have some very strong beliefs in terms of mechanics, in terms of vision, in terms of at-bats, in terms of what we call moving the offense, and every day of our practice sessions or I call it training sessions is geared towards players improving."
Dylan Crews, Tre Morgan and Cade Doughty all batted over .300 and will make up a third of the lineup in 2022. The trio accounted for 37 home runs and 139 RBI, combining for a third of the Tigers offensive production during the 2021 season.
Simply put, the purple and gold will need more from some of the other players on the roster like Jordan Thompson and Alex Milazzo, all of whom had moments but need more consistency at the plate. It's one of the reasons Johnson was brought in. Another slugger, Zach Arnold, entered the transfer portal but Johnson said there is a chance he could still be back with the program.
Being "warriors" in two strike situations and having great discipline at the plate are just a few of the practices Johnson's hitters have had over the years and led to success. Arizona led the Pac-12 in batting average, runs and on base percentage in multiple years under Johnson's leadership and most recently led the country in total runs with 537.
"Every team is different. In 2016 we led the country in sacrifice bunts. That's how the team was built. This year it wasn't going to happen a lot because somebody was going to walk and somebody was going to hit a double," Johnson said.
Figuring out what this team's strengths and weaknesses are will be the immediate attention for Johnson and the staff this fall. Which players from last year's roster stick around is still very much up in the air but Johnson figures to be very active in the transfer portal as well.
Arizona All-American freshman infielder Jacob Berry entered the transfer portal and it's been reported that reuniting with Johnson at LSU is in cards. Berry hit for .352, 17 home runs and 70 RBI during the 2021 season and would be a huge boost to a Tigers' offense looking for more consistency throughout the lineup.
"That's what I think we can do here and incorporate a little bit of everything," Johnson said. "Ultimately I want teams to hate to play us, and I think we accomplished that the last couple offensive teams that we had, and that's what I want to do at LSU."