REACTION: Auburn Baseball BLASTS Louisville, EPIC Weekend for Butch Thompson

0:00The Auburn Tigers cap off an incredible weekend of baseball. You are Lockdown Auburn, your daily podcast on the Auburn Tigers, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Yes, welcome on in the Lockdown Auburn, your daily Auburn Tigers podcast. I'm your host, Zach Blackerbie, and thank you so much for making Lockdown Auburn, your first listen every single day. Lindsey Crosby of the bar and Auburn.com, as well as a million other places covering baseball baseball's Lindsey Crosby, joining us Auburn Beats Louisville, 10 to 6, capping off a weekend where Lindsey, I said they'd sweep, that was my prediction, you didn't. And I mean, you couldn't ask for more, especially bouncing back after the disappointment of getting just plastered by Cincinnati. We said it'd be great for Auburn to bounce back. They did so time and time and time again, an incredible weekend, an incredible product

1:03that they put on the field in Arlington. Yeah, I mean, five to one on Friday, eight to five on Saturday, this one being 10 to six. I think the big thing, they've answered some questions about the elements, right? We were worried that through the first four games were low scoring affairs. They have answered a lot of those questions. Auburn, for the most part, has been able to find that crooked inning, right? Find that, you know, find that inning where they put up a three or a four, you know, it's not just single runs here and there. They've done that. The pitching, for the most part, when it matters, has continued to answer the question. You've seen in some of these blowouts, some runs late, like just now, we probably should have been recording 20 minutes ago, but, you know, some late runs there. MJ Kormier, but for the most part, it kind of feels like now you've found that, hey, we do have an offense. The pitching is better than we thought they would be at this point. Now the answers your answering are smaller, right?

2:05The questions you're answering are smaller, like we have to figure out the proper defense of alignment. We have to figure out who needs to play where to give us the best chance to put up a decent offense, like it's, it's about a piece here, a piece there and not do we have an offense in general. And that's a good place to be after just two weeks to already have narrowed down from big questions to small questions. Yeah. I mean, just to kind of continue the discussion about pitching Alex Petrovic today looked pretty good. Lindsay, and there's always kind of questions on that third starter. Doesn't matter how good of a team you have, there's always going to be questions about that third guy, small sample size, but the two outings we've seen so far from all of the starters, including Alex today. You said it before we click go live, but these guys, they're missing bats consistently. And they've had some quality starts, and you can't really ask for much more at this point.

3:06Yeah. Petrov gives up three runs today, which was a little, you know, like it was, it was fine, right? Five strikeout, six hits. The big thing for me, when you look at Alex Petrovic is the two things he's not doing. The first thing he's not doing is he's not walking guys. He's pitched 10 and he's, um, I'm trying to do the math in my head real quick. He's faced, um, just about a hundred batters. He's walked in none of them. Yeah. He's giving up. He has seven hits on the season, one double, one home run, all of the rest are sink. So he's not walking guys, and he's not giving up a ton of extra base hits. And so to me, that's the big deal. Uh, I would have loved to have seen him getting more swinging miss today, but he got enough, right? Yeah. Um, and again, it's a, it's a six pitch mix. He's got all three fast balls. He's got two breaking balls and a change up. And so he's mixing them not only two each individual batter, but as he gets into the

4:06second time through the order, doing something different than what he did the first time. So, and that's your number three starter. And I guess technically it's probably not because Griffin Graves has been out. You don't have Griffin graves. You don't have Chris Rembert and Auburn still goes to Reno this weekend. Yeah. Against two ranked teams. I can't imagine Louisville staying ranked. We'll see what happens with FSU funny enough. FSU is about to play Auburn's opponent this upcoming weekend, Nebraska on that very same field. Uh, I think if FSU wins, they'll probably stay ranked. Um, it looks great if they'll fall far enough to fall out because they did win on, on Friday. I think that they would, they might be closer to 25 if they lose. I don't know if they fall out completely Louisville. No, no, Florida State. Sorry. Okay. But Louisville is going to, I mean, there's no way Louisville's ranked, right? They've already lost, uh, they lost all three on the weekend. Yeah, they're going to fall out. Yeah. They're going to follow. They're ranked now because they were ranked in preseason.

5:07This is, it's just kind of like football, right? They were ranked in preseason. So therefore, they came into this ranked, but they're on a four game losing streak now. So they're probably out. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Funny enough, FSU who Auburn B yesterday. It's about to play who you're hosting next weekend. Yeah. Nebraska. So maybe, uh, maybe continue watching that one. If you're, uh, if you're interested in that at all. So, um, Bristol Carter has been unbelievable. Yeah. I know Chris Remberts that dude, but like, you got to leave Bristol Carter at lead off at this point, right? With what he did this weekend, you can't touch that. You can't touch it. Yeah. We said it over the weekend on Friday night after that game, right? He's getting, finally, he's getting on base. And then when he gets on base, he's causing havoc. And so when you bring Remberts back, it does really feel like, yeah, you just bump everybody down the spot. You know, instead of having, um, Guevara bat second, he bats third instead of having fraylick bat third. He, you know, he cleans up right in the crane.

6:07If that's who you end up keeping, goes from fourth to fifth, Bob Tarell, where do you fit him in there? Because like today, he's two for five today and that it's, he steals a base also while he's out there. He doesn't strike out once, but the speed that he brings and just how it messes with the pitcher going forward, Auburn also did a lot of really interesting stuff on the base paths today to get Louisville to make mistakes. We kind of talked about that in the BUB Tarell, yeah, I was about to bring that up. Yeah. So, um, BUB Tarell gets thrown out on the base paths twice and I guarantee you he is not getting in trouble for that at all. This is a thing and I've kind of just because I'm a baseball nerd, I've been watching a lot of MLB teams not properly understand how to handle the situation of the runner on first and the runner on third. Bob was the guy in both situations Auburn put him into motion trying to bait Louisville to throw two second base. They did every time, Bob then got himself into a run down so the runner on third could

7:10score MLB teams can't get this right Louisville did it wrong the first time and then turned around and did it wrong again. So kudos to Auburn for either scouting and knowing that they would, they were not prepared to handle that play or having the the Hutz put to do it again to run at a second time in the game and get runs off of it and that kind of shows you how yes, the offense has picked up, but the coaching staff is still looking for every individual edge, every tiny little margin that they can find to get this team the win and kudos to them kudos to Bob for understanding and beat him wouldn't sacrifice his personal stats to get these runs across because he got marked for a caught stealing twice and in reality, not his fault. That was by design, right? Right. Do you think, do you think that's a Bob Tarell thing or do you think that's the situation in the game like he just has to be a coincidence that it was him both times.

8:14It had to have the coaches have had to be involved because the guy at third needs to know that you're doing it. It wasn't necessarily a situation where the runner at third was off when Bob was off, but the runner at third both times was well aware I need to get off the bag. I need to be closer to home and the minute that throw goes down, I need to take off. So they were aware of it. It had to be called by the coaching staff, but at the very least I'm sure Bob knew about it. I'm sure he used to find out if they practiced that if that's something they saw one film, or if they just said, hey, this is a thing we're going to try here. Yeah, it worked out. Glad they did it. It's kind of happened in that that final inning where I guess what in the final inning, what inning would that have been the seventh? That's where Auburn really kind of the beginning, yeah, I kind of felt like a dagger. I think that scored five runs in the seventh and that was the that was the fourth run. The only bad part about that is they get the fourth run of the inning on that. And then the very next batter, Ethan Bingham and Holmers. And so had you not run the play theoretically, you would have gotten, you know, an additional

9:19run out of the home run, but you can't bet on the home run. And I like that Auburn wasn't betting on this dude's going to give it the home run. It's weird. We've already scored three runs of sitting. We're going to keep trying to find ways to score and just get that kill shot and they got the kill shot. All right. So an interesting situation has now emerged as far as how you handle certain parts of the lineup. Let's jump into that and then also let's look ahead for this Auburn baseball team next right here, unlocked on Auburn today show brought to you by our friends at five hour energy. Welcome to the five hour energy flavor draft with 18 different flavors to choose from, including new options like confetti craze, fruity rainbow or cotton candy. There's something for everyone. The board is set. The flavors are ready. Number one, pick for the five hour energy flavor draft. I would take grape, Lindsey. What flavor of five hour energy would you take with the number one pick? Hawaiian breeze reminds me of having a drink on the beach, but also tons of energy.

10:20Yep. That's right. That's right. You can find your new favorite flavor of five hour energy shots available online at five hour energy.com or at Amazon. Today show also brought to you by our friends at Fandall ever wanted to experience the NBA finals live and in person. Fandall is giving you the chance to turn that dream into a reality with their NBA sweep six. Here's how it works. Use your profit boost on any NBA future and you'll automatically be entered for a shot to win an NBA finals trip for two. That's right. Flight tickets. The whole nine yards visit fandall.com to get started and use that profit boost. Bet on the thunder. Bet on the thunder to win it all play your game with fandall, the official sports betting partner of the NBA Lindsey Crosby early in the season, especially with how young this roster is. There's going to be surprises Bristol Carter, I think is partly a surprise. He was okay last year. He's been unbelievable to start the season. Hopefully that sustainable Ethan Bingham.

11:23How is he not a key part of this lineup moving forward and how do you kind of see them shaping this lineup now because he has to be a part of it? I think the two things you've learned is that Ethan Bingham and has to be a part of the lineup and Brandon McCrayon has to be part of the lineup and so sure it feels like the default. The cool thing about Bingham and is he can I remember what you're talking about this. He can play a lot of different places. He can beat a lot of different spots. They haven't at first base right now, but it feels like Bingham and there and then McCrayon at second is kind of the default for right now. When Rimbert gets back, then the question is, do you put McCrayon at third in place of Todd play and put Gavaret short Todd plays really having a tough start of the season? Bingham and can play some corner outfield as well, so they could always do something where they have him in the corner outfield, while you have Cades a little banged up, kind of

12:25feels like perpetually a little banged up. You can have Bub, you can have Bristol Carter and you can have Bingham in as your three outfielders, a lot of flexibility, but it feels like you have to keep Bristol lead off right now and then you got to find a way to keep Bingham and McCrayon's bats in the lineup every day. I don't love the shortstop defense if you use Gavara at short or if you use McCrayon at short. I do think Ryan Farber is the much better defensive shortstop, but Butch told me right before the season, he is more open to sacrificing a little bit of defense to get the best offensive lineup on the field. And that's not always been his thing because he's a pitching minded coach. He's one of the best defense possible. He's kind of adjusted the way that he thinks about this in recent, you know, like I come into this season because other SEC teams have successfully made that trade off and it's not really hurt him that much. So I wonder do you maybe see McCrayon at short, Gavara at short, I do think that might be

13:27a continuing thing with the other one at third and maybe giving Todd Clay a little bit of a break. I mean, how do you handle a cold start like this if you're butch dealing with Todd Clay, over is it over 15? I believe he's over, yes, he is over, over 15 on the season. He does have two walks, but he has eight strikeouts and I think that's the big thing. It's not just that he doesn't have a lot of hits Lucas steals two for 15, but Lucas steals also drawn five walks, right? He's got the sacrifice and got runners in Todd Clay is over 15 with each strikeouts. I do think there's probably one, it's a little bit of we need to like just check into the mechanics, is it, I mean, is it timing, is it, you know, mechanically, is he out of sorts? Honestly, I've seen this happen in MLB sometimes, give him a vision test. You'd be surprised how many guys find out they have, they've all of a sudden developed

14:27a vision issue because they have a lot of like goggles, right? I don't know if they're prescription and I assume they are, maybe that's just him adjusting to them, but I don't know, but you've got that and you also by the way, that was nice. And then you also have the personality, right? Like he's a senior, he's a transfer in, you feel a little better about going to a senior and saying, hey, this has been, it's been tough right now. We're going to, you know, like we're going to kind of maybe back off a little bit on the weekend. We're going to let you play some mid weeks. We're going to let you come in for defense and stuff. We're going to keep you involved, but we've got to prioritize the lineup that will win us a game. It's different if it's a freshman, right? Because you can kind of go to a freshman and say, hey, man, it's fine. That's on us. You know, we're going to go ahead and do some of their stuff. The senior, you're a little bit more, butch is a little more understanding of this is probably his last chance to play organized baseball, right?

15:27And so we're going to find ways to get him involved. When he's on, Todd Clay is fantastic. The big dude, we can hit bombs and steel bases, but right now he's incredibly cold and you've got to find a way to get him out of that while not sacrificing the team's chances of winning to do it. All right. And before we look ahead to what's next for this team, Lindsay, anything else from either today's game or this weekend that we need to kind of drop a few more notes on? Auburn's kind of been successful with their plan of not going too deep into the pitching staff, right? They put L.J. Cormier in today because it was a blowout and they had to come back with Garrett Brewer to get the save and get a strikeout. But for the most part, they've been able to get through these games with only three or four starters. And by comparison, in that, I think it was the, we said it was the 17th inning, the five run 17th inning, Louisville used three pitchers in that inning alone. So Auburn's the pitching plan is working and it makes you feel good about one, the workloads

16:29of some of these guys, both being able to build up as starters and also not burning out some of your relief arms early in the year because the guys have short outings because you're able to piggyback successfully. So credit there to our pitching coach and what he's tried to do here this year. Yeah. Shut up. Yeah. And so let's kind of now pivot to what's going to happen next for the Auburn Tigers. And they host West Georgia on Wednesday night. That'll be a six o'clock first pitch from Plainsville Park Wednesday. Everybody not Tuesday just heads up on that. It's a, I believe that's a basketball adjustment because basketball plays on Tuesday. So they're trying to keep them separate for television reasons. But because it's Wednesday, that means you get the camel back. It's hump day and the camel will be at Plainsville Park again. I forget what that is, but the camel's back. Yeah.

17:30Love that. And then like we mentioned earlier, the team that is about to take the field right where Auburn just won Nebraska comes to Plainsville Park. They have not looked good. They won their first three games of the year. And then they lost their, their final game and the MLB desert invitational again, Stanford after beating you cotton, Northeastern and Grand Canyon. And then they're at the same event that we're at. They lost the Louisville, lost the Kansas State. And then they play FSU. So funny enough, both Auburn and Nebraska playing the same teams. And then Nebraska comes to Auburn, which may have been why they did that is because Nebraska was already on the schedule for Auburn. I'm not sure. Yeah. It would make sense. It would make sense to play him in Arlington, then to play him in Auburn a few days later. But I mean, transit of property only means so much. But if you're looking at that and you subscribe to that, Auburn is in a much better spot than Nebraska this weekend. Yeah. Nebraska's really struggled from the mound.

18:32They've only had two guys who were able to make starts on both weekends so far. And outside of Carson, Carson Jaza, it's hard to say his name. Outside of him, none of these pitchers are really good at getting swing and miss. Right. They've already, they have one of their relievers. They've already thrown, you know, like three times, like five, it's almost six innings, four strikeouts, you know, a lot of their other starters are not really clearing one strike out and inning, things like that. And then from the, from the position player side, they're also like, I think they've attempted two stolen bases as a team. They're really kind of reliant on the home run. They've hit a grand total of four this year. So part of the reason they have the issues there, they're not running the bases really well. The speed isn't really there. And they just got a bunch of guys who were hitting, you know, 222, 158, 091, even like a 269, which in non-conplay is not necessarily great. So again, three and three, we'll see what they do today, but probably, you know, probably

19:36a legit three and three. And it's, it's not a bad draw. If you're playing a power conference opponent in week three for Auburn, it's not a bad draw to get a really Nebraska team versus somebody who could be hot, like a Stanford or something. Right. Yeah. I mean, this team certainly seems goodable. I'm almost more intrigued for the midweek, just because I want to see if there are approaches that much different because clearly, clearly, since and that is going to be more equipped to handle Auburn than, than West Georgia is, but I want to see like a noticeable difference just because last week was so brutal for this team and it sounds like butch got after them. I want to see if they have a different approach. If there's more spirit, more energy tied to what they, what they're going to do in the midweek. Yeah. I imagine they'll be a little more, they'll keep up the creativity they showed in Arlington as far as finding ways to manufacture offense, whether it's surprise bonds, whether it's

20:37the first and third running play, things like that. Andreas Alvarez is probably going to get the midweek started again. So I imagine they're going to try to let him go and I, I probably take the lineup and give some of the guys who have been struggling a little bit, probably give them an opportunity in this game and then understanding you can always sub them out later, right? Like you might see Todd Clay start at third base or first base in this one. You might see Lucas Steele being in the game because he's only got a couple hits and just give them a chance to get out of this outside of when you play Alabama State. This is probably one of your easier midweeks. So they probably give some of these struggling guys a chance to get out there and break the skid and get back into a good, a good hitting state before you head in a brass, or before you take on a brass cover the weekend. So we should be live after that. We'll also be live after all of that basketball. Tuesday, so a lot of live stuff happening throughout the week, this week, and we should

21:37be able to probably live after Friday and Sunday this upcoming weekend. We got to look at the schedules and see what all that looks like. So Lindsay, how can you, how can you, how can folks, how can folks check out, law, words, how can folks check out everything you've got going on? I'm on social media at crossby baseball, the Auburn baseball coverage. Obviously, one here to the barn Auburn dot com. We had a huge threat over the weekend, all the notes. I dropped the links to the stat cast pages from MLB for this series. That was fun and then the baseball show and the one of Brave's coverage, Bravesoday.com and the Bravesoday podcast. Yep. Please like the video. Please subscribe and we will see you guys next time. This has been locked on Auburn.