BATON ROUGE — As the 2000 baseball season creeps closer and closer, LSUsports.net sat down with LSU head coach Skip Bertman for a two-part interview to get a glimpse of what the Team of the ’90s has to look forward to as the new millennium begins.
LSU begins practice Jan. 24 and opens the 2000 season Feb. 12 against Virginia.
Webmaster: How productive was the 1999 fall practice session?
Bertman: It was a strong fall because the weather was good. That’s a big factor. In the fall you’re allowed 30 days, and they have to be continuous. If it you get rained on at any time, you can’t make it up. We lost one weekend when the Florida game here was rained out, but other than that it was pretty good.
We grew a little in the fall, and here’s what we found out: Brian Tallet (Jr., P) was the best pitcher in the fall, but others really stepped it up like Bo Pettit (RS Fr., P) improved from a year ago and Weylin Guidry (So., P) improved over a year ago. There were others that pitched well such as Ben Saxon (Sr., P) and Jeremy Loftice (Sr., P), but I knew they would. New kids, not recruits but kids from last year, like Sam Taulli (RS Fr., P) and Shane Youman (So., P) stepped it up. So, in the pitching, which was the weakest portion of last year’s team, we seemed to get better and that was something I really wanted to happen in the fall more than anything else.
Webmaster: How good is the work ethic of this team versus the championship teams you’ve had in the past?
Bertman: The team had a strong chemistry. People use that, but it’s hard to get another word for it. What happened was that people liked one another quite a bit and played hard and well. There was a lot of mutual respect. It was a good team concept. The answer is good.
Webmaster: Are the veteran position players such as Brad Cresse and Blair Barbier going to have a major impact on this year’s team?
Bertman: We have a lot of veteran position players like Brad Cresse (Sr., C) behind the plate and Brad Hawpe (Jr., 1B/OF) at first base Those two had good falls and did a great job. Ryan Theriot (So., INF) moved from second base to shortstop. He, too, did a good job. Blair Barbier (Sr., INF) reset at third base. Cedric Harris (Sr., OF) had a lot of class conflicts this fall. He had a class almost everyday in the afternoon and virtually missed most of it — which happens. That caused some concern because I didn’t see Cedric get as much work as he needed, but naturally he’s a good one.
Webmaster: What impact will the newcomers have on this team?
Bertman: On the new player side, the biggest thing that happened to this team is Mike Fontenot (Fr., INF) from Slidell’s Salmen High School. He was a shortstop there and worked out at second base and left field for us. He’s going to play. He’s going to be in the starting lineup when we start at second base, left field or DH because he had the most prolific batting average and home run production. He had six homers in the fall. He’s a good second baseman, but we might have to play someone else there. He can run and play the outfield. He was drafted by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and offered money. He’s a talented guy who reminds me of Russ Johnson and Todd Walker when they came in as freshman. He’s very talented. That was a great thing for us. He’s super nice kid and a hard worker as well.
But there were others. One is David Raymer (Jr., OF), a left-handed batter and right-handed thrower from Sacramento City Community College. A very, very outstanding runner, like Mike Fontenot. He’s going to steal a lot of bases like Fontenot. Those two jumped right out at you, but there were others. Wally Pontiff (Fr., INF), a freshman from Jesuit High School in New Orleans, is nice kids and a good player who will play behind Blair Barbier, vying for the DH. Jeff Lapari (Jr., 1B) is returning and vying for first base behind Hawpe, but also looking to DH.
Webmaster: What is expected from the pitchers such as Ben Saxon who have been in the system, but haven’t seen much game time?
Bertman: What’s missing is pitchers that pitched and were successful. And, naturally, that’s the best barometer to judge your pitching staff, I guess. I wouldn’t conclude that because they haven’t done it they can’t. We just don’t know, yet we’re lucky enough to have eight guys, maybe 10, vying for four positions. And, they’re pretty good.
Something that can’t be understated is just being in the program. Last year, our kids got a little intimidated by the magnitude and expectations of our program. It’s scary. People expect us to win every game by a lot, and get to Omaha and win. There are only four teams in the history of college baseball that have won four World Series. There are only 13 in all America that have won it once. There’s nobody in Louisiana besides us. People think that for us it’s very commonplace (to win). Last year, with the newness of the players, we got caught up in that a bit. This year that’s not a problem. I can see that already.
Webmaster: How will the addition changes in the composition in the bats this year change your in-game philosophy?
Bertman: I think that the bats will be pretty much like they were last year. There will be different models. Last year, there were only two, but now they probably have six. We’re getting the same hitting exit speed as last year. More than that, the players themselves are dictating that we can run a bit more because, as I said before, Fontenot and Raymer are outstanding runners. But, so are Theriot and Harris. If four of your guys are outstanding runners, that puts you in the running category right now even if Cresse, Barbier and Hawpe aren’t in that category. If you have four or five guys, that’s a lot. I’ve gone without any steal threats.
The answer is that we’ll probably run a lot more than in the past, but once we start to play we’ll see how it works in the game itself. If Cresse and Hawpe and those who do have power have good years, then we’ll stick with it. We’ll have to see how it works out.