2011 College Baseball Thread

[hifigator]

For the twelve of us on the planet who actually care, this past weekend kicked off the 2011 season.

Tiger, how is Clemson looking this year?

Austin, is Texas going to be back at the elite level?

SD, that Padre draft pick that turned down the big bucks is the real deal. I thank you from the Gator Nation for not offering more money. For those who don't know, Karston Whitson was the first pick of the San Diego Padres last summer and was the #9 overall pick. He turned down over 2 million signing bonus to come to campus. He started the thrid game of the series and pitched 5 innnings. He didn't allow a run and only allowed 1 hit and only walked 1 batter while striking out 9, including 5 in a row. That was some pretty impressive stuff, although South Florida isn't known for swinging big bats. We will see in 2 weeks when Miami comes to town.

RDF any knews on what the Hurricanes might bring to the plate this season?

[hoyainspirit]

I care. Look for LSU to bounce back from a subpar 2010 and challenge the Gators for supremacy in the SEC. Picked to win the West. Unlike the pitching last year, LSU's pitching this year should be much improved. LSU is young, but their freshman class was ranked as one of the best in the nation, for what baseball rankings are worth. Swept Wake this weekend. Geaux Tigers.

[hifigator]

their freshman class was ranked as one of the best in the nation

Just behind the Gators! hee hee hee

actually, that first weekend in Baton Rouge is going to be exciting. In case you haven't looked at the schedule yet, the conference season opens with Florida at LSU. I was thinking about trying to make that series, but I think we are leaning to MSU instead. It wasn't my decision. Starkville is a pretty crappy town, but they do have thge art of tailgatoring down to a science. And they have a casino that treats you like royalty only 35 miles away.

[hifigator]

here is the new baseball America top 25:

www.baseballamerica.com/today/college/top-25/2011/2611314.html

[hoyarooter]

Tailgating for a college baseball game? What do they have, five cars?

Looks like UCLA is going to be good again this season.

[hoyainspirit]

Rooter, you probably would be surprised how big baseball is down south. Alex Box, LSU's stadium, holds over 10,000. LSU led the nation in attendance in college baseball from 1996 to 2009.

Hifi, a trip to Starkville over Baton Rouge? You've got to be joking, right?

[hifigator]

Feb 23, 2011 15:10:17 GMT -5 hoyainspirit said:

Rooter, you probably would be surprised how big baseball is down south. Alex Box, LSU's stadium, holds over 10,000. LSU led the nation in attendance in college baseball from 1996 to 2009.

Hifi, a trip to Starkville over Baton Rouge? You've got to be joking, right?

Don't get me wrong. I love the LSU trip, but we go there every other year for football. But for me, much of the fun of that trip is stopping for a day in Biloxi and then having a night of revelry in New Orleans. For a baseball series that would be tough. Also, it's a pretty long trip to go all the way to Baton Rouge (Red Stick) as we like to call it, in one afternoon and absolutely brutal to drive all the way back in one day as well. For baseball, I can take off a halfday Friday and get to Starkville and maybe miss an inning or two. Then I can be at their casino 45 minutes after the game and gamble to my heart's content. The game the next day is only 45 minutes away on Saturday although that would be the tailgatoring day -- weather permitting. And yes rooter, they know how to tailgate. You would be surprised how big it is there. They have probably 100 motor homes outside the outfield fences. A lot of people never even go inside the stadium and they still draw 8000 people routinely. In fact, back in 2006, Cindy LaPorta got with us and encouraged us to put together a big tailgatoring for our MSU brethren. Apparently the year before they had so much fun tailgating with them all weekend and she wanted to try to return the favor. Given their tailgating, I doubt they were impressed, but it was a lot of fun.

And yes, UCLA looks to be pretty tough. Also, UNC starting with a 3 game sweep at Cal St. Fullerton is pretty damn impressive.

[hifigator]

Key early season matchup tomorrow night: #1 Florida(7-0) vs. #6 Florida St. (7-1) at Tampa -- Legends Stadium. They do a screwy thing for the UF-FSU "series." They play one game each in Tampa, Jacksonville, Gainesvill and Tallahassee and they are spread out over about 2 months. Still, the series winner always has a step up come regional host sites, not to mention Top 8 National Seed announcements. And the key there is that the Top 8 National Seeds are guaranteed to host through the Super-Regionals if they keep winning. In other words, the road to Omaha goes through their stadiums.


On Edit: a couple of clarifications. Apparently, it isn't called "Legends" anymore and is "George Steinbrenner" Field. I have a feeling money was involved. Also, F$U is listed as 7-0 on some sites. I looked into it and they lost to the Philadelphia Phillies 8-0. Since that's an exhibition game, it isn't supposed to "count." But since I hate F$U with every fiber of my being, I'm counting it.

[AustinHoya03]

Looking forward to watching some CWS on the tube this weekend.

[hifigator]

Austin, we have a key matchup Saturday at 7pm. We'll have to be parting companies on this one.

[hifigator]

Looking back at some of the comments/questions from early in the season:

inspirit wrote:

Look for LSU to bounce back from a subpar 2010 and challenge the Gators for supremacy in the SEC. Picked to win the West. Unlike the pitching last year, LSU's pitching this year should be much improved. LSU is young, but their freshman class was ranked as one of the best in the nation, for what baseball rankings are worth. Swept Wake this weekend. Geaux Tigers.

Isn't it ironic how that ended up turning out. Florida started the conference season sweeping LSU in Baton Rouge. That looked like a really impressive feat, but by the end of the year, not so much so. LSU didn't even make the SEC tournament and was in most people's opinion, the team that got snubbed by the NCAA, not getting an at-large bid. But in fairness, I don't think you can finish tied for 10th in your conference and complain much. Still, an RPI in the 20's shouldn't get left out, especially instead of St. John's.

Tiger, how is Clemson looking this year?

THey ended up looking pretty good, but were upset by UConn in the regional, who in turn lost to the defending National Champion Gamecocks in the Super Regionals.



Austin, is Texas going to be back at the elite level?

Texas wasn't impressive on paper, but they are in the College World Series yet again, and face the Gators in the first game, Saturday and 7pm. Go Gators!


Rooter wrote:
Looks like UCLA is going to be good again this season.

Yeah, they were solid all year, but came up short in their regional. They also had the first and third overall picks in this year's MLB draft. People were asking how they could have those two pitchers and not win the regional.

Also, UNC starting with a 3 game sweep at Cal St. Fullerton is pretty damn impressive.

Actually, I think that was only a 2 game set, but yes, UNC had another strong season, and once again made it to Omaha and will play Vanderbilt Saturday at 2pm in their first CWS game.

[hoyarooter]

"Yeah, they were solid all year, but came up short in their regional. They also had the first and third overall picks in this year's MLB draft. People were asking how they could have those two pitchers and not win the regional."

Because they couldn't hit. Didn't hit all year, sort of like that team that plays in Dodger Stadium. Also, I don't think Irvine saw Bauer in the Regional.

[hifigator]

I'm not arguing with you rooter, but Texas has somehow made that formula work and Virginia too for that matter. Texas is is over 200th in the Nation in hitting and about 175th in scoring, but they are a different style of team. In fact, I made the point on the radio yesterday that they reminded me of last year's UCLA team.

This year, Texas hit 17 homers as a team. Florida's catcher, Mike Zunino, hit 18. Now if you hit for average, then power numbers can be offset, but Texas only has 2 players hitting over .305 and only 3 starting players hitting over .280. At least on paper, that doesn't sound very good or look very impressive. But when you have a pitcher like Jungman who at one point was 13-0 with an ERA under 1.00, you don't need to score many runs. And that's who Texas will be throwing at Florida on Saturday evening. If there's good news, it's that he's lost his last two starts and has looked human -- especially against Kent St., who knocked him around for 7 earned runs in the first inning.


On Edit: Rooter, that same UCIrvine team that took out the Bruins damn nearly took out National #1 seeded Virginia. I don't know if you saw any of that, but after taking the first game, Virginia dropped the second one to the AntEaters and were down to their last strike, with 2 outs and no one on base in the ninth inning trailing 2-1. The batter worked him to a full count and then singled up the middle. The next batter got a favorable count and then bounced one up the middle that probably would've fielded by the 2nd baseman to end the game, but instead it caromed off the pitcher's foot over towards third. The next batter worked a walk and then with the bases loaded, the batter hit yet another ground ball right back up the middle, plating the tying and winning runs. That was pretty exciting, but I was kind of pulling for UCIrvine.

[hoyarooter]

The Irvine loss got a pretty big write-up in SoCal. Definitely sucked for them. Heartbreaking way to lose, particularly when you consider that none of the UVA hits were hit very hard.

[hifigator]

Yeah, I agree, but I think there is another way to look at it. The UVa hitters were did a good job of putting the ball in play that inning and not trying to do too much. While that is always a good strategy, it still takes a lot of luck for three straight batted balls to find the hole up the middle. Still, you have to give them some credit for staying patient and you have to blame the eater pitcher for getting a little nervous at a very inopportune time. All of a sudden, once he got the second out and realized that he was only 1 out away from Omaha he "nutted up," to use the expression.

[hifigator]

It's certainly not over yet, but it looks like we can learn something from the way the postseason has pllayed out thusfar. The state of Texas was given 2 National seeds, Texas and Rice. In the National tournament, those two Texas teams went 6-6 and have been eliminated. Texas did struggle its way through to the College World Series, but were bounced in 2 games scoring a total of 1 earned run in the 2 games. Meanwhile, the SEC earned 3 of the National seeds. In fact, the 6 team SEC East division earned those 3 National Seeds. During the national tournament, those 3 SEC east teams are a combined 20-2, and both lossed have come to SEC opponents. Not surprisingly, all 3 teams are still very much alive for the National title. For those who haven't been paying attention, USCe and Florida are a perfect 2-0 at the CWS and are each in the driver's seat to make the Championship series. Vanderbilt, who has only lost 1 game in the entire tournament thusfar, plays UNC in an elimination game tonight, with the winner advancing to play Florida for the right to advance to the Championship series. I know I'm a Gator fan, but this goes beyond that. The dominance of the SEC east is just amazing this year. Having seen all three teams play numerous times, they are clearly the best 3 teams top to bottom. There are a lot of quality teams out there. Everyone loves the darling Cinderella story of Cal and a good friend of mine was quick to point out that tomorrow's contest between Cal and Va. will pit the #1 and #2 public academic institutions against one another. Everyone who doesn't have a dog in the fight, will likely jump on the Cal bandwagon, and there's no denying their endearing story. But from my eyes, the best three teams in College baseball are clearly Florida, Vanderbilt and South Carolina. And for those three teams to not only come from one conference, but from the same division, is simply amazing.

That being said ... yes, I have to ... Go Gators!

[hoyarooter]

Jun 22, 2011 10:35:08 GMT -5 hifigator said:

It's certainly not over yet, but it looks like we can learn something from the way the postseason has pllayed out thusfar. The state of Texas was given 2 National seeds, Texas and Rice. In the National tournament, those two Texas teams went 6-6 and have been eliminated. Texas did struggle its way through to the College World Series, but were bounced in 2 games scoring a total of 1 earned run in the 2 games. Meanwhile, the SEC earned 3 of the National seeds. In fact, the 6 team SEC East division earned those 3 National Seeds. During the national tournament, those 3 SEC east teams are a combined 20-2, and both lossed have come to SEC opponents. Not surprisingly, all 3 teams are still very much alive for the National title. For those who haven't been paying attention, USCe and Florida are a perfect 2-0 at the CWS and are each in the driver's seat to make the Championship series. Vanderbilt, who has only lost 1 game in the entire tournament thusfar, plays UNC in an elimination game tonight, with the winner advancing to play Florida for the right to advance to the Championship series. I know I'm a Gator fan, but this goes beyond that. The dominance of the SEC east is just amazing this year. Having seen all three teams play numerous times, they are clearly the best 3 teams top to bottom. There are a lot of quality teams out there. Everyone loves the darling Cinderella story of Cal and a good friend of mine was quick to point out that tomorrow's contest between Cal and Va. will pit the #1 and #2 public academic institutions against one another. Everyone who doesn't have a dog in the fight, will likely jump on the Cal bandwagon, and there's no denying their endearing story. But from my eyes, the best three teams in College baseball are clearly Florida, Vanderbilt and South Carolina. And for those three teams to not only come from one conference, but from the same division, is simply amazing.

That being said ... yes, I have to ... Go Gators!

Have to agree, though. I didn't realize that Florida, South Carolina and Vandy all came out of the $EC East. That is quite impressive.

[HometownHoya]

I think the most compelling story of this CBB story is if this thread will make it to two pages and more then 10 contributors.


Ok but now that I am here, I was thinking yesterday that I would enjoy seeing the "Sports Science" guy to an investigation into the differences between the old bats and new bats in CBB. Its obvious there is one and I am sure Brinkus (sp?) would dissect it perfectly.

[Boz]

I'm all for a compelling story. ;D

They still play baseball in college?

[SFHoya99]

They already had a sciency detailed feature on the bats earlier in the CWS. They may reshow it.