LSU Just Stole an Elite Pitcher from Ole Miss and Mississippi State

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Finally, some good news for LSU baseball, and it is a massive get we're talking about

it locked on LSU.

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Okay, let's get it.

It is locked on LSU, your team every day.

I'm your host, Matt Muscona.

The LSU baseball team mired in a nine game losing streak, the longest SEC, nine game

SEC losing streak, the longest losing streak in conference and program history.

Desperate for some good news, and Jay Johnson got it on a commitment and some good news

on the injury front that we'll get to.

Let's start with the commitment.

On Monday, it was first reported.

I'll always give attribution.

Prep baseball, Mississippi was the first to have it, 2026 right-handed pitcher, Colby

Stringer out of West Marion and Mississippi picked the Tigers.

He had previously been in a Pearl River Community College commitment.

He picked LSU over Mississippi State and Ole Miss.

Now, I understand, I understand fully that most fans are not locked into baseball recruiting.

I get that.

Football recruiting is at a certain scale.

It has become its own industry with several different platforms.

If it's rivals and 24-7 and ESPN and all of them and there's rankings and there's

camps and there's elite 11 and all the stuff and we understand the vernacular around

football recruiting because it's been so common for so long.

Not necessarily the case with baseball.

A lot of times we don't know baseball players, names in high school unless if they're local

and there's always the draft risk for the high school kids, which sort of mitigates some

of the excitement.

I need to tell you about Colby Stringer and why this is so significant, okay?

The Colby Stringer is from Mississippi.

LSU lost that game on Sunday to Mississippi State to be swept.

Jay Johnson didn't come home with the team.

Jay Johnson drove to Go See Colby Stringer.

Stringer by the way was at LSU on a visit the week prior for the Texas A&M series.

This is a guy who, if I run, just to illustrate how important he is, Jay Johnson didn't come

home with his team to instead go see Colby Stringer.

Fascinating part about this kid is he is self-made and what I mean is he didn't go to the

showcase events.

He didn't have pitching coaches.

He didn't go on the travel ball circuit.

He's a kid from a town that has one stop sign in it and he learned to pitch by watching

YouTube videos.

I was told Trevor Bauer was sort of like the guy would model after watching YouTube

videos of how to pitch.

So he taught himself how to pitch and to say that it ended up going well for Colby Stringer

would be an understatement.

He finished this year, his senior season, 12 and 0 with a 0.43 ERA.

In 65 and 2 thirds innings pitched, he gave up 19 hits, just five runs for earn.

He walked 20 and struck out 166, let me say this again.

In 65 and 2 thirds innings pitched.

He struck out 166 batters, the 9th and a lot for runs.

The 19 hits, he did not allow an extra base hit all season.

All 19 hits he gave up were singles.

He is the best high school pitching prospect in the region.

Now whenever we talk about a guy like this, generally speaking, there's the concern of,

well, he'll never show up on campus.

That's why Colby Stringer is different.

So this is a kid, as I just mentioned, from a tiny rural town in Mississippi.

And because he never went to the showcase events and never went on the circuit and never

went to Atlanta or Arizona or Miami to go to these giant events with all the college

coaches and all the pro scouts, his recruitment was slow.

And he was a late riser.

He was committed to Pearl River Community College.

That was his only offer was to go was to go community college.

And he had an offer from Southern Miss, but it wasn't going to be a full ride.

And so he was going to go to Pearl River.

So his parents didn't have to pay for his tuition at Southern Miss.

He was going to go pitch Juco for free.

So he could play for free.

Well, he ain't got to worry about that at LSU, obviously, he'll be going LSU for free.

But as I understand it, he also didn't take the biggest NIL deal.

I was told that was Ole Miss.

Among the three Ole Miss Mississippi State and LSU, Ole Miss, I was told offered the most.

He still picked LSU because as it was told to me, there's only one Jay Johnson.

And Jay remains the best recruiter in the country.

Maybe the best baseball recruiter we've ever seen.

And in this era, the NIL Rebshare era where money comes into play, the relational aspect

isn't going to be the first thing for every prospect, right?

There's some guys that are just going to take the biggest payday.

And that's okay.

For some, it's going to be maybe the tiebreaker.

For others, it's going to be the thing.

Maybe that's going to be for a lot of Louisiana kids who just want to give their arm to

wear the purple and gold.

The fact of the matter is with Colby Stranger, this is just a different story of a country

kid who is super honest, unmoved by the moment, a dynamic arm talent and seems to have the

right things prioritized.

Now, the draft, okay?

Everybody is concerned about the draft.

Well, remember I told you he didn't go do the showcase events.

He didn't go on the travel ball circuit.

Well, because he wasn't at all of these things, the MLB scouts don't necessarily have a

deep evaluation, a thorough evaluation.

And so when scouts and area scouts are making a determination and a recommendation around

the draft to the big league club of what they would be willing or should be willing to

pay a prospect in the draft out of the bonus pool, if you don't have a deep thorough evaluation,

it's going to be hard to make a recommendation to pay this person top to your money.

So the scouts that I've talked to about Colby Stranger say he's probably somewhere in

round five six is where he may be targeted.

You could have a team after this interest may be off from a little bit more, but you're

still talking about with the bonus slot pool values, likely not enough money that would

get Colby Stranger away from LSU and passing on the opportunity to go pitching college

and improve and potentially one day becoming a first rounder.

Remember, when we talk about the MLB draft and the slot values, as we've talked about

this plenty of year and every day, you've heard us talk about this.

So all the teams in the top 10 rounds have a bonus pool of money that they can spend,

right?

Pirates have the most at 19.1, the raise or next at 19.0 million, the white socks have 17.5.

So all their picks in the top 10 rounds, they can spend that amount of money and each

pick has a corresponding slot value.

So the first pick of the draft, the white socks have that pick, it's 11.35, that's the slot value.

The raise have the second pick at 10.5, it generally decreases by a million as you go along.

Well, if you're looking in round five, for example, the first pick of round five is $553,000

by the Rockies. LSU could make a compelling case to Colby Stranger.

Why would you take half a million tax deductible dollars and then go ride a bus and

enable or instead come to school for free, will pay you NIL money, you'll pitch in the SEC for

three years, big crowds get better and then go be potentially a first round draft pick.

It's hard to make the argument for guys that are projected first round guys coming out of high

school that are offered two and three million dollars to pass on that money.

I mean, Cam Johnson is the cautionary tale is he got to pass on three million bucks to come

to LSU. He's not going to get anywhere near that when he goes into the draft. This is different

because you're talking about a guy that right now is projecting as a fifth, sixth round pick

that could come to campus and potentially be a top of the first round guy who makes a 10X

on that number he would make if you went to the draft right now. So because of all of that,

the risk reward for MLB teams, it sounds like it's probably an 80, 20 proposition that Stranger

ends up on campus. So if Colby Stranger ends up pitching at LSU next year, the very likely

possibility keeping in mind that you're talking about a guy who, you know, a team next year that'll

have, you know, William Schmidt returning, case in Evans returning, Cooper Moore returning,

Markler's pause, a lot of talented arms. This would be a guy that, as a freshman, is in the mix

for the number three pitcher role, if not there in the mix for the midweek starting role,

and at the very worst, a key bullpen arm as a true freshman who continues to evolve into being

a front of the rotation guy in the SEC by the time his LSU career is over. This is a massive,

massive get because it's an elite, elite, elite arm talent that is not necessarily a giant

draft risk. So needing a team, a team needing arms, especially strikeout pitchers who throw strikes,

which this team desperately needs. They got the best one in the region committed now,

and you got them away from Mississippi State and Ole Miss. Gigantic get for Jay Johnson with Colby

Stranger picking the Tigers. Now, I mentioned there was other good news. Jay Johnson updated

case in Evans who was scratched from his start on Friday against Ole Miss. You'll hear from Jay

with that update when we continue. It's locked on LSU, your team every day.

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So LSU was swept this past weekend at Mississippi State. And a large part of it was because

Case in Evans was scratched on Friday. It's not the suggested LSU would have won the series

otherwise. But the Tigers did lead in all three games by multiple runs. And they blew those

leads because you asked your bullpen to try to get 23 innings pitched for you. William Schmidt

was your only regular starter who was available. Of course, we know Cooper Moore is done for the

year. And then Case in Evans was scratched on Friday. When the Tigers went all in on Friday with

a lead through their best bullpen arms, it was going to be darn near impossible to find a way

to navigate that lineup with a bunch of bullpen arms and a bullpen that hasn't been very good.

It is highly unlikely that LSU at this point six and 15 in the conference makes the postseason.

You got South Carolina this weekend, you got a road trip to Georgia who's leading the conference

and then you've got a home series against Florida who's in the mix to host. It's unlikely

that you're going to get to the 13 win mark, which really is sort of that benchmark where you feel

like you got to get to get into the postseason from the SEC. But it's completely impossible

if you don't have Case in Evans. The only way it might be even remotely possible is if Evans

and Schmidt are available and they're able to get you a couple of wins in the next three series each.

You know, that would put you at least in the conversation going to Hoover for the possibility.

Again, not likely and I do not think it's going to happen, but it certainly doesn't happen

without Case in Evans. In honor's radio show on Monday, Jay Johnson gave an update on Case in

Evans. He saw the doctor today and they came into my office. We feel like we have a good plan

of getting him back on track. His response to that plan will kind of dictate the timing.

I would not rule out that he could pitch this weekend potentially. That's obviously what we're

hoping for. But you're talking about, you know, one of the most important players in the program and

has a bright future in baseball. So we're going to be diligent in how we do this. So not a ton to

share. We're getting a little more information. But I think I'm feeling very optimistic about that.

And literally to the point like he could possibly pitch, you know, this weekend.

Okay. Now the caveat is always Jay Johnson is not someone who's very forthcoming with injuries.

Last Monday on his coach's show, he had the opportunity to confirm Jake Brown did not. We

ended up breaking that story the following day on Tuesday. We joke a lot. You know, last year

with Gavin Gidry at the beginning of the season, Jay was talking about how Gavin could be back

soon. He ends up missing the entire season with back surgery. When, you know, when I'm just thinking

through a lot of the injuries, when chase shores as a freshman had the UCL injury, which required

Tommy John, it was good four to six weeks before J even acknowledged the fact that chase shores

were shut down in that Tommy John. So take Jay's injury update with the grain of salt. But he did say he's

not going to be very forthcoming with much more than that. But he's optimistic that Evans could

pitch maybe even this weekend. I'll remind you when Cooper Moore got hurt, it was going to be a four

week injury and now we shut down for the year. So it's I get it. It's also very difficult with

arm injuries to know how a pitcher is going to progress through an arm injury to try to predict

a timeline. All you can go by is with the doctors tell you and then you see how a player reacts

as they start throwing again. So we'll see what happens here with case in Evans. But I want to say

this again, if you're in every day or you heard me say it before, shutting down case in Evans

on Friday, it was 100% the right decision. Because when you're talking about prospects,

guys with a huge baseball future, which case in Evans has, college coaches are watched for how

they handle arm care and routines with these elite level prospects. Because if you get the

reputation for not handling these pitchers with care to try to win games and college instead of

thinking of or I should say putting them at risk to win games and college without consideration of

their future, that's the fastest way to make sure you never get prospects on your campus again.

Jay Johnson is among the best. He's among the best when it comes to this. He will never put a

player in harm's way. He always does right by his players. It's why so many guys want to come play.

It's part of the reason why so many guys want to come play for Jay Johnson. He has their best

interest in heart to win games in college, but also what get them on their path to what their

future is going to be in Pro Ball. So hopeful fingers crossed case in Evans is available. This is

a winnable series this weekend against South Carolina. Missouri is at the bottom of the league.

LSU and South Carolina are next at the second and third from the bottom. So this is a home series

against a bad team. It's a winnable series, but it's only winnable if you have case in Evans

available. If you have to go whole staff again, you just don't have enough arms to get you through

a weekend and we saw it this past weekend. So here's open case in Evans is available. Maybe the

Tigers can get back to their winning ways this weekend and start their unlikely push, but a March,

maybe nonetheless toward an improbable unlikely postseason birth. But as long as they got games to

play in, it's mathematically possible. We'll continue talking about it. All right,

it's going to do it for us here on this bonus episode of Locked on LSU. Do me favor,

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