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D1Baseball Weekly Chat: Feb. 20
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CowboyUp
2:18
Why did Oklahoma State drop 6 spots after losing to 2 top 10 teams. While Tennessee only drops one spot after losing to two non top 25 teams?
Kendall Rogers
2:18
Cowboy  -- Oklahoma State can really hit, but there's zero doubt there are some serious question marks about the pitching after this weekend. Fix those issues and OSU is a Top 10 caliber club for me, but the drop was more than warranted, IMO. The way they lost two games was vastly different than the way Tennessee lost games.
Roberto
2:19
SBC went 32-11 opening weekend. Is there a chance the league can get 5 bids in the postseason?
Kendall Rogers
2:19
Absolutely. The Sun Belt will be one of the top 3 or 4 leagues in college baseball for the foreseeable future -- there's no doubt in my mind. We had four teams in the field this year with Coastal being barely out of the field. So, yes, five bids would not remotely surprise me.
cool 1
Jumbob
2:19
Who has been the most impressive freshman thus far? Also which team had the most impressive opening weekend?
Aaron Fitt
2:19
Grayson Saunier for Ole Miss lived up to his billing, and so did Jack O'Connor for UVa, just two freshman pitchers that are top of mind for me after this weekend.
cool 1
Kendall Rogers
2:20
I'll throw my man Jace LaViolette at Texas A&M into the mix, too. He hit two absolute bombs over the weekend. I believe Aaron took Grayson as his FOY and I took JLV. Both were strong over the weekend.
cool 1
Guest
2:23
Thoughts on the ECU Pirates after putting up big runs this weekend, headed into a week filled with big in state matchups.
Aaron Fitt
2:23
Always a good feeling to get those bats going right out of the chute, and ECU sure did that. Justin Wilcoxen was one of the obvious and important breakout candidates in that lineup heading into the year, and he was a wrecking ball this weekend -- hitting .714 with eight RBIs, two homers and three doubles. On the flip side, kind of lackluster debuts for Spivey and Grosz in the rotation, but they'll both be fine, those guys are good. Yesavage is ready to be a big star, I believe, and he got off to a great start.
Hog Fan 71
2:25
Did any of the teams in last weekend's Showdown tournament show any glaring weaknesses?
Kendall Rogers
2:25
Hog -- I'm hoping not to nitpick here ... for me, I'm curious to see how the Arkansas bullpen progresses, for Oklahoma State, I thought the pitching for the most part was rather iffy outside of a couple of guys. I'm skeptical that continues. TCU needs Cam Brown to be more consistent and Texas looked poor in several facets over the weekend. Vanderbilt looks iffy in the first game, but I really liked its overall vibe and look the rest of the weekend. Jonathan Vastine and RJ Austin are going to be very, very good.
Peyton
2:26
Where do you think Mizzou ranks right not? Obviously they’re not in the top 25 but fared really well against 3 top 25 teams this weekend
Aaron Fitt
2:26
You're right; that was a big weekend for Mizzou, and you could tell how much it meant to them by the way they leaned on Zach Franklin for three innings out of the bullpen Sunday, after he had already pitched 1.2 on Friday. They knew how big it was to walk away from that weekend with a couple of wins against Top 25 teams, really could be a springboard for their whole season. I'm reserving judgment for now, but they have my attention. They might have a better chance to compete in the SEC this year than we anticipated.
Guest
2:28
Duke pitchers looked good with freshman Tallon and Weaver flashing real potential. How much do you expect them to improve on last season?
Aaron Fitt
2:28
Gabriel Nard was good too; those three young arms all have very bright futures, and clearly Duke will be leaning on them in the present as well. I'm not quite sure what to make of Duke at this point, to be honest. Feels like a team with a wide range of outcomes -- they could be a solid regional team, maybe even a top-half of the ACC team fighting to make a regional, or they could be one of the bottom three teams again and miss out altogether. Lots of new faces still need to establish themselves, but I have to imagine that team will be considerably better than it was last year, which just felt like a perfect storm of bad circumstances.
BuckeyeBall
2:30
splitting with UConn feels good. How you feeling about the new look at OSU after their first series
Aaron Fitt
2:30
Yeah, nice win today for the Buckeyes to get that four-game split. I'm looking forward to seeing them at Frisco, and I'll have a lot more to say about this team after that weekend, but I'll just say that I really believe in that coaching staff -- that's an awesome group, and I would expect them to give this program a major jolt in a hurry. I have a feeling they will be very competitive this year.
Geaux
2:31
Kendall what did you think of Paul Skenes and Brady Neal?
Kendall Rogers
2:31
Geaux -- I was only able to watch a few innings of Skenes because of the games I was at, but he was as advertised. One of the big things the Tigers wanted to see from Paul was more refined secondary stuff, and it certainly seemed electric over the weekend, all while the fastball was explosive. Can't wait to see him pitch in Round Rock on Friday.
Kendall
2:32
Was the 14 homers this weekend something sc fans should get use to? Or a product of facing lesser competition?
Aaron Fitt
2:32
I think we're going to see a ton of home runs everywhere this year -- the homer totals are already way up from Week One last year. But South Carolina is certainly built to play that style of baseball. There are a lot of older, physically mature power hitters here now, with Gavin Casas and Will McGillis obviously leading the way after week one.
Sam
2:33
What was your favorite overall moment(s) from the college baseball showdown this week? Lots of great ones to choose from
Kendall Rogers
2:33
The game ended up being a blowout, but the atmosphere surrounding the Arkansas-TCU game was fantastic. That's about as good as it gets for an early-season college baseball game. Major kudos to both fan bases.
Bents
2:34
The Big Ten still struggled overall despite UMD's series win over USF, but did Penn State and Rutgers taking a win apiece over Miami and Campbell prove to you that the conference is better than last year?
Aaron Fitt
2:34
Too early to draw any real conclusions about the state of the Big Ten. It was good to see Rutgers bounce back and not get swept -- they really got outplayed in every facet the first two days, so it was encouraging to see them dominate that game Sunday. I do like the talent and experience on that Rutgers roster and still expect them to be a regional team, even though I got two pretty poor looks at them on Friday and Saturday. Penn State was one of the big surprises of the weekend for me -- did not expect them to take a game in Coral Gables, and they very nearly won the whole series. That's another team that has my attention, but let's see how it plays out.
BigDuck
2:35
Oregon's freshman arms combined for 23 innings and only 2 earned runs this weekend. Is this indicative of a pitching staff headed back in the right direction or just a weak offensive opponent in Xavier?
Aaron Fitt
2:35
We do like Oregon's freshman arms -- that was a top 20 recruiting class for us. We knew they were going to have to lean on those young arms heavily this year, but that's certainly a better start than I would have predicted. Awfully encouraging sign for the Ducks, who are going to score a ton of runs this year and play strong defense. It's all about the pitching for them; if the arms hold up, that could be an Omaha team.
Aaron Fitt
2:36
All right gang, that's all I have time for today, thanks for all the questions and see you next week!
Kendall Rogers
2:46
Have a great week, all!
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