Scooter Hobbs column: Not your prototypical first baseman

Published 6:04 am Sunday, July 9, 2023

The Major League Baseball draft figures to have a little more interest for LSU fans Sunday and Monday.

Never mind it doesn’t get the hype of its brethren in football and basketball.

The scuttlebutt is that either Tigers centerfielder Dylan Crews or LSU pitcher Paul Skenes, will be the first pick this season, followed by the other at No 2.

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A high school player known only to draft junkies could sneak in there. Probably not.

But, either way, Skenes and Crews are about to become rich young men and it couldn’t happen to better people.

That’s fine, Celebrate with them, vicariously.

But me?

I really want to see where LSU’s Tre’ Morgan ends up.

Few believe it will be first round.

And that’s OK.

But, believe this — maybe not even a guarantee to reach the Bigs — but he’s the Most Interesting Player in the Draft.

The peroxide-topped defensive whiz kid already has the best hands, the best eyes, the best feet and surely the best hair in the draft. Shouldn’t that count for something?

Hear me out here.

You can make the argument that Dylan Crews is the best offensive player in LSU history. I’d go a step further and declare him the best Tigers’ defensive outfielder, athough that’s dicier.

Meanwhile, if Paul Skenes isn’t the best pitcher in LSU (and SEC) history, he’s on the very short list. Maybe Ben McDonald is in there, perhaps Aaron Nola can get in the conversation.

McDonald, now an ESPN commentator, seems content to recuse himself from that discusion.

Mainly, though, you can at least imagine another LSU player coming along who — recency bias or not — would seem to push either one of them aside. Won’t be easy, but it could happen.

But I will tell you this and I will die on this hill. For the last three years LSU has had the honor to watch the greatest, smoothest, make-it-look-easy defensive first baseman the SEC has ever seen and will ever see. The contest is over. I hesitate to throw more superlatives at the dugout wall only because there are a few college games I’ve missed over the years.

If Morgan had played more leftfield — as he did in a pinch — it’s possible he’d be right there among LSU’s best all-time defensive outfielders. He looked that good in cameo apperances.

But it’s so, so much more fun to watch him play first base, normally a pedestrian outpost on the diamond.

First base is where you normally park players just before coverting to DH.

Morgan is different. He was probably the best athlete on the LSU team. Watch him play first base and it’s hard to imagine a sports he couldn’t shine in, let alone a baseball position.

Don’t forget that if he doesn’t make the signature defensive play of the CWS — the charge, snatch and toss on that bunt — LSU doesn’t even reach the championshionship round.

Maybe the MLB guys were paying attention.

The problem is, the Major Leagues have preconceived notions of what each position player — say, first base — is supposed to look like.

In this case, at first base, think Boog Powell. Younger fans can take a gander at Cecil/Prince Fielder. Worst case scenario: John Kruk.

But they’ll stick just about anybody there.

Morgan, on the other hand, although his nickname eventually seems to have morphed into “Captain Morgan” – get it? —arrived on campus answering to the nickname “Gumby.”

Gumby?  Sure. Morgan is more theatrical and entertaining taking “ball one” than most players are legging out a triple.

Only “Honey Badger” was more perfect among LSU nicknames.