Jake Fraley claims to be the same person he was last year, but circumstances have certainly changed for the LSU junior center fielder.
The most experienced position player on LSU’s 2016 roster has shifted from left field to center field during the off-season to fill the void left by second round draft pick Andrew Stevenson. Without Stevenson in center or ninth-round selection Mark Laird in right, Fraley is tasked with being the point man between one player with no experience and another player with only 20 total appearances.
Although Fraley may appear lightyears ahead of freshman right fielder Antoine Duplantis and sophomore left fielder Beau Jordan on paper, he has no doubt about his running mates’ capabilities.
“They’re unbelievable outfielders,” Fraley said. “Anybody who comes and has seen them play can attest to that. And then everyone who is going to come and see them is going to see that.”
For Fraley, the switch to center field hasn’t been much of a transition at all. The Middletown, Delaware native played center field his entire life prior to arriving in Baton Rouge and has been learning from Stevenson during the off-season. Shifting to center also allows him more room to track down balls without worrying about the wall in left field.
Still, Fraley is hoping he can be at least half the center fielder Stevenson was, he said.
“It’s the little things that you find out when you pick [Stevenson’s] brain a little bit, of what makes him great and what makes those plays that he makes so easy,” Fraley said.
While Fraley was hitting as well any player at end of last season by implementing “discrete” changes to his bat placement, LSU coach Paul Mainieri names Beau — along his twin brother and designated hitter, Bryce — as players he wants with the bat in his hands in pressurized situations.
Although he was just 7-of-32 at the plate last season, Mainieri has Beau slated to bat cleanup behind Fraley, which Mainieri has called “blind faith” after batting .227 in the summer for the Wisconsin Rapids Rafters in the Northwoods League in Wisconsin.
“Beau Jordan is just one of those guys, man, that you just want to see him up there in those clutch situations,” Mainieri said. “He’s going to compete as hard as anybody can possibly compete.”
Along with improving his reads off the bat, part of Beau’s development as an outfielder has been understanding the balls Fraley will get to, which spans from the Capital One sign in right center to the Campus Federal sign in left center at Alex Box Stadium.
The two communicate constantly, taking into account everything from a hitter’s tendencies to judging a ball in a cloudless sky, which has allowed Beau to improve his jumps.
“I play balls live, and it has actually helped me out tremendously,” Beau said. “Nothing gets you ready more than taking reps, reps and reps.”
The final piece of the outfield puzzle, is Duplantis, who Mainieri has likened to Laird as a center fielder playing right field. Though Duplantis said there are certain challenges with playing right field, including the sun and the spin of the ball, Mainieri said the Lafayette High School product’s speed is equal to both Laird and Stevenson, which makes him a prime candidate to bat at the top of the lineup.
Mainieri also said he has the pop at the plate to keep defenses honest, but Duplantis believes his offseason success didn’t happen overnight, requiring the tutelage of hitting coach Andy Cannizaro.
“At the beginning of the fall, I really felt like I didn’t know what I was doing,” Duplantis said. “I’d have great games, I’d have terrible games. Toward the end of the fall, I just really found a consistency and figured out what I was doing.”
You can reach James Bewers on Twitter @JamesBewers_TDR