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D1Baseball Weekly Chat: April 17
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Guest
12:48
Is there a path to Oregon State hosting?
Kendall Rogers
12:48
Would be tough. The Needs Report from BoydsWorld suggests the Beavs would have to go undefeated the rest of the way before the Pac 12 tournament to be in the Top 16. WTS -- getting in the vicinity is within reach, and a strong showing in the conference tourney could put the Beavs over the top.
Chapel Hill Greg
12:51
Not sure how to feel about North Carolina right now. Y'all have them ranked 18th but they're currently #39 in the RPI, 2-8 vs RPI Top 25, 2-4 in one-run games. Where are the wins against good teams??? This is clearly a talented team but the offense has hit a snag in recent weeks. The weekend starting pitching is up and down. As far as the bullpen, Kevin Eaise is excellent and Matt Poston has also been very good. The rest of the bullpen is wildly inconsistent. Can they still be a regional host or is the ceiling a regional #2 seed?
Aaron Fitt
12:51
Sure feels like a No. 2 seed, and you're right, they just haven't been able to finish the job and win series against the top teams they've faced, although they do have a solid series win against a Duke team that looks regional-caliber. It doesn't feel to me like UNC is that far off -- all three of those games this weekend were played on a razor's edge and could have gone either way. At some point, you have to imagine Vance Honeycutt will get hot again and that will change the complexion of that entire offense, because he's just such a difference maker when he's locked in (and he is a difference maker on defense even when his bat is struggling). I'm not in love with the rotation but I think they can mix and match enough in the bullpen to make it work. But this isn't close to an elite pitching staff; I think it's serviceable, and when the offense is cooking like it was down the stretch last year, the pitching is good enough. Still kinda feel like the Heels are going to make a run.
Gary
12:52
With Nebraska having such a bad RPI, do they need to win The Big Ten regular season to secure an at large bid?
Kendall Rogers
12:52
Gary -- Nebraska will pretty much need to win the Big Ten tournament at this rate to make the NCAA tournament. Unfortunate, but that's the situation right now.
Will
12:54
I know it’s a long shot for this to remotely happen, but if Ole Miss was to win enough remaining games to get to the range of 14-16 in conference play again, which is where they ended last season, can they make a regional? Or has too much damage already been done?
Kendall Rogers
12:54
Will -- if Ole Miss got to 14-15 wins in the league, I feel pretty confident the Rebels would probably get in. But man, at this rate, that pathway is outrageously difficult.
SCDevil
12:55
I'm sure Duke was in your discussion this week, as they now have 9 Quad1 wins despite key injuries. I'm curious how you see their resume compared to some of your top 25 teams. Texas Tech, for example, moved up 5 spots but it seems like if the season ended today, Duke is in a better position by most metrics and had a series win over a top 20 RPI team vs Tech's series win over an RPI 73 team this weekend.
Aaron Fitt
12:55
Yes, Duke was in our discussion this week, not too far out of the Top 25 -- just need to see a little more, because this was Duke's first series win against a regional-caliber team, something you know we value greatly. I am still a little nervous about how their pitching will hold up long term without Jonathan Santucci, but clearly Duke is a frisky bunch, and I love the young talent on the mound. If those young guns keep rising to the challenge, this team is very dangerous. Next two weeks will be telling: vs. Louisville, at UVa. If they win the series over the Cards, they'll be ranked. Tech, meanwhile, moved up this week mostly because they were already in the Top 25 there was absolute carnage in front of them in the rankings.
Ben Russell
12:57
If it was a Top 26, is DBU in?
Aaron Fitt
12:57
I believe so. I think DBU was our team 26 this week.
JB
12:58
Just wanted to get your thoughts on the ejection of Brandon Neely from Florida yesterday? He did gesture towards the UGA dugout with his celebration, but I saw a lot of the same type of stuff, if not worse, between UK & LSU, and nobody was ejected. IMO, I think a warning would have sufficed. Just seems like the umpires in the SEC have zero consistency in regards to celebrations and taunting.
Kendall Rogers
12:58
JB -- kicking Neely out of the game was the wrong move by the umpire. I get that he was emotional and what not, but I don't feel like that's a toss-worthy offense. The other thing about that situation is that he's now suspended for four games. A four-game suspension for something like just seems insane to me.
cool 1
Kirk L
12:59
Thoughts on NCAA baseball really clamping down on competitive banter? Same stuff happens in football we just don't get the camera angles to "see it".   As long as it doesn't spill over to clearing dugouts I say let them speak their minds in the heat of the moment. Embarrassingly, I'm a 50 yo man yelling at the TV for opposing players to sit the eff down or to suck it.  I can only imagine the will power these guys have to have to hold back.
Aaron Fitt
12:59
Yeah, I get that the umpires are tasked with maintaining order, and situations can escalate. But it feels like we have seen a number of examples of umpires being overzealous when it comes to penalizing kids for being emotional -- as KR just touched upon with the Neely ejection. It's a tricky balance, sure, but I wouldn't mind a little more leeway.
Aaron Fitt
12:59
OK folks, that's all for me today. Thanks for a great chat, see you next week!
Guest
12:59
What shot do u give UConn to host??
Kendall Rogers
12:59
Guest -- UCONN definitely has a shot, but does not have a huge margin for error. Why? The Huskies still have some terrible RPI opponents left on the board -- Georgetown (159), Villanova (264), Butler (245) and Creighton (114). Not good.
Matt
1:01
Do you think NC State makes back into the rankings with a 3-1 week with a series win against Clemson?
Kendall Rogers
1:01
Matt -- It's a definite possibility. We discussed NC State at length, but it was behind a few teams in our pecking order. With that said, a strong showing this week would help its case.
Kendall Rogers
1:01
That's all the time we have this week -- as always, you can use code SAVE30 to get 30% off ANY annual subscription at D1Baseball, here: http://www.d1baseball.com/subscribe
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