After Injury Riddled Year, LSU Baseball Pitching Staff Expects to Be One of the Best in 2020

Tigers hoping new technology will keep pitching staff fresh and healthy the whole season

Anyway you slice it, the big problem for the 2019 LSU baseball pitching staff was it's inability to stay healthy. Whether it was freshmen Jaden Hill, Cole Henry, Landon Marceaux or sophomore Nick Storz, the list went on and on. Most of the Tiger projected starters entering the season missed time at some point due to "arm soreness."

"Last year we had our top three starters on the field for the same weekend one time during the year," coach Paul Mainieri said. 

That phrase "arm soreness" was thrown around so much by Mainieri that even he got tired of using it as the season wore on. Mainieri and baseball trainer Cory Couture knew a change needed to be made in how they approach the pitchers' throwing routine.

Couture has monitored the amount of throwing each individual pitcher does on a day-to-day basis through the utilization of modern technology. The pitchers throw with a sleeve called "Motus" that has a mechanism built in that can gage the stress on a pitcher's elbow.

Every morning the results are recorded by Couture and sent to Mainieri and pitching coach Alan Dunn. As part of the results,  Couture puts his personal recommendations on how many pitches a pitcher should be allowed to throw that day based off of the results from the previous day's work.

"Some days he'll send it to us and it'll say AJ Labas shouldn't pick up a baseball today," Mainieri said. "So I think we're learning more and more about the importance of recovery, just pure rest and we're giving them more days off of throwing then we ever have before and I think it's a positive thing."

Mainieri said during the fall practices, the velocities were up on all of the pitchers, there were no injuries and the team still pitched well. Sophomore pitcher Cole Henry, who missed time last year with soreness, said the new technology has helped him and the rest of the pitchers stay fresh and healthy all fall and into spring.

"It's been great so far and I think everybody on the staff loves it," Henry said. "It's really helped limit what we do everyday. If we've thrown a little bit too much and Cory sees it, then he'll say just take the day off or take a light day. I think it's going to help us in the long run and it's been a great addition for us moving forward in staying fresh."

Because everyone on the pitching staff is so healthy, LSU comes in with a problem that is really good to have. The Tigers have four pitchers competing for the weekend rotation--sophomores Henry, AJ Labas and Landon Marceaux as well as senior Eric Walker. 

Mainieri said Henry has asserted himself as the Friday starter, leaving the Saturday and Sunday starts between Marceaux, Labas and Walker. Mainieri also revealed that Labas and Marceaux are slightly ahead of Walker at the moment but there are still three weeks remaining until opening day.

"I'm pretty sure Cole Henry will be our Friday night starter," Mainieri said. "He's got the opportunity to be one of those special guys that we've ever had here, an Alex Lange type. He's got the stuff but he's just got to stay healthy. I think you're talking about a kid that's a first round draft choice and an All-American type pitcher."

As far as the bullpen, Devin Fontenot, Ma'Khail Hilliard, Trent Vietmeier and Matthew Beck are all returning for another season with the program. Fontenot in particular is coming off a Super Regional performance that had LSU won, would be talked about for years to come. 

In a game two loss to Florida State last year, Fontenot set career highs in innings pitched (6.1), strikeouts (11) and pitches (97) as LSU would fall 5-4 in Alex Box to end its 2019 season. That memory of kneeling on the ground in utter exhaustion and defeat still sticks with the now senior pitcher.

"That was obviously the highlight of my career, especially in college and I think my whole life," Fontenot said. "But finishing it the way we did, losing the game, that right there always leaves you with that thought of 'I did what I did but it's a team sport and we didn't come out on top.' It kind of mentally makes me stronger and next time I go out there I'm going to have that experience of what it's like to be in that situation so I can prepare myself for a different outcome."

"These guys are good pitchers, they've all had rough moments but they've also done some really outstanding things for us," Mainieri added. "One of our goals is to keep the guys healthy and instead of pushing a starter one more inning, it's a good feeling knowing you can bring in a guy that's a veteran pitcher that's pitched well in the past and saves the arm of your starter." 

There are two pitchers that Mainieri called "wild cards" coming out of the bullpen for LSU in 2020 and those two are the ones that were injured pretty much all of last year, Hill and Storz. As a freshman, Hill was viewed as a weekend starter and he delivered, for two starts. In what would be his only two starts of the year, Hill allowed six hits and two earned runs with 11 strikeouts in 10 innings of action, a 1.80 ERA.

Elbow issues would keep Hill out the rest of his freshman season while Storz missed his second straight year. After three surgeries in those two years, Mainieri said Storz is finally healthy and ready to contribute.

"He finally looks like he's ready to compete for us," Mainieri said of Storz. "He's thrown in two inter squad games and looked pretty good. If he can stay healthy, and I think he will, if Hill can stay healthy, and I think he will, all of the sudden you're adding two pretty good arms to replace [Zack] Hess and [Todd] Peterson who left after last year."

Since coming back from his elbow and collarbone injuries, Hill is back up to 97 mph on his fastball according to Mainieri, adding another dynamic arm to that bullpen from the start.

"He's got the second best arm on our staff, he's got the most velocity, he throws strikes, has a tremendous changeup and he's a great competitor," Mainieri said of Hill. "The temptation is to throw him right into the rotation but I think the key is we have to keep him healthy. If that means taking baby steps along the way, I think we've got to be smart and prudent with how we use him."

The next three weeks before the regular season are critical to decipher  what the weekend rotation will look like come Feb. 14 against Indiana. But regardless of which three win the starting jobs on the weekend, the depth of the bullpen will make LSU one of the elite pitching staffs in all of college baseball, if they can stay healthy.