JotCast | D1Baseball Weekly Chat: Feb 21

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D1Baseball Weekly Chat: Feb 21

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Aaron Fitt

1:03

Hey guys, hope you all enjoyed Week One. Let's chat!

Dopt

1:06

How good is Maryland after the sweep of Baylor? What happened to the bears?

Aaron Fitt

1:06

I think Maryland is a legitimate contender. In fact, I recall watching them scrimmage vs. UVa this fall and walking away thinking that I like Maryland better (granted I did not see UVa's top arms that day, but I've seen them before). Anyway, these Terps are talented, experienced and balanced. Not many teams have a weekend rotation better than Ramsey-Dean-Savacool; my main question entering the year was about the Maryland bullpen, but between LoRusso, Heine and Belgrave, I think they've got some solid pieces to build it around. I'll probably see the Terps once or twice this weekend at Campbell, that should be a very neat matchup.

foozly

1:10

Is anyone from D1 going to be at the Round Rock Classic this weekend?

Kendall Rogers

1:10

I will be and am certainly looking forward to it. Arkansas bounced back from a loss, Stanford did as well against Fullerton and I'm ultra-intrigued to see Louisiana against elite competition. The Cajuns played really well at times against a good UCI club, so I'm interested to see if that level of play continues this weekend.

1:10

After opening weekend, how do you see each conference faring in terms of tournament teams? Any surprises/disappointments?

Aaron Fitt

1:10

I would say it's far too early to revise our projections about who is or is not a tournament team, but clearly there were some stock up/stock down first impressions. Up arrow teams for me would be Maryland, Liberty, Long Beach State, Louisiana, Sam Houston State, Nevada -- all teams that we projected as regional teams entering the year, but made very strong first impressions against good competition and might all wind up being even better than we thought. And a pretty good weekend for the ACC overall, especially teams like Clemson and UNC and Wake Forest that we regarded as kinda fringe NCAA tournament-caliber teams heading into the year. Louisville and Pitt were really the only two ACC teams that stumbled out of the chute.

CTbaseball

1:11

Does UConn have a shot at contending for the top 25 this year, despite a) losing so many to the draft, b) losing Crawford to TJ, and c) being in the Big East? Seems like Penders finds a way almost every year, against the odds, to be in the conversation, but this year feels more difficult than most.

Aaron Fitt

1:11

Yeah, even after losing Crawford, we still view UConn as the class of the Big East, and a team that has the talent and experience to wind up in the Top 25 at some point. Nice opening weekend against some good competition down in Tampa. The Huskies are on the Top 25 radar for us.

Tex

1:12

Texas A&M struggled a bit this weekend to sweep Fordham at home. How long til Schloss gets the aggies back near the top?

Kendall Rogers

1:12

TEX -- It's Opening Weekend and the Aggies went 3-0. If they're still edging bad teams in three weeks, then I will worry. With that said, I thought A&M pitched at a high level with Ryan Prager, Micah Dallas and Nathan Dettmer leading the way. Dettmer, I'm told, sat 91-94 with his FB, which is an improvement over last season. Most noticeable was Trevor Werner's weekend. He pounded the ball and showed strong defense at third base. Pretty impressive, but we'll see if that trend continues.

EagsBy10

1:13

The veteran filled USM lineup looked great over the weekend and the pitching staff is deeper than ever even after losing Powell, Stanley, and Och. What do you need to see out of them to start gaining Top 25 attention?

Aaron Fitt

1:13

Yep, great start against an overmatched opponent at home this weekend. USM entered the year as probably our unofficial 26th team (at least for me), but they got leapt this weekend by teams that made louder statements by winning series against better competition on the road (namely, Liberty winning a series at Florida and Maryland sweeping a road series at Baylor). But Southern Miss is still right there on the cusp of the rankings; I remain very very high on that club. As I've said before, I hated leaving them out of the preseason top 25, but we leaned toward waiting for their new-look pitching staff to establish itself. That seems to be happening quickly, and I definitely agree with you about the depth of that staff, as I wrote after seeing a boatload of their good arms in the fall.

foozly

1:16

The biggest question mark for Arkansas going into the season was their starting rotation. Noland, Smith, and Wiggins each went at least 5 innings and combined to only give up 3 ER. Does this weekend against Illinois State answer any questions about Hog's pitching? I can't wait to watch Hagen Smith pitch against Standford this weekend.

Aaron Fitt

1:16

I would say it was definitely a very encouraging start for that revamped rotation, yes. Even without Pallette, I still think that trio has a chance to be an upgrade over last year's rotation, which was essentially just Wicklander and then some guys in "opener" roles. I think Noland, Smith and Wiggins can all be innings-eaters, especially if Wiggins can throw enough strikes to get through the lineup two or three times. He did a good job with the zone on Sunday, it looked like. That's huge.

sta5150

1:17

How did Arizona look this last week.

Kendall Rogers

1:17

STA -- I am writing about this in What We Learned this week, but I was very encouraged by what I saw from the Wildcats over the weekend. U of A looked very strong top to bottom offensively, and that was without Tony Bullard in the offensive lineup. I also thought the front-line aspects of the pitching staff also impressed. TJ Nichols was electric outside of some mild command issues, and Dawson Netz was solid against Texas Tech to close out the tournament. I'm all-in on this Arizona team.

Drew

1:18

Tennessee didn't miss a beat this weekend without Blade Tidwell and Seth Halvorsen. I know it was one weekend and it was against Georgia Southern, but Chase Dollander and Chase Burns were electric. How good can this pitching staff be if everyone is healthy?

Kendall Rogers

1:18

Drew -- Tennessee will be elite if those guys can get healthy at the right time. I'm really interested to see what ultimately happens with Tidwell, frankly, while Halvorsen isn't as important of a potential commodity. I was encouraged by Chase Burns' start on Friday, though. Tennessee's sheer dominance over the weekend surprised me a little bit.

Dean

1:18

Is it too early to hit the panic button in Greenville NC? Especially with the unknowns surrounding Whisenhunt.

Aaron Fitt

1:18

Please take your hand off that button and back away slowly, do not make any sudden moves. Hey, it's one bad weekend. This coaching staff and this roster has too much track record to struggle for long, although they surely need Whisenhunt back. We'll see how long that situation lingers. But even without him, they're a lot better than they were this weekend. Of course, they could also have very easily won that series -- Saturday was a controversial extra-innings loss, and Sunday they lost in the ninth. Those games could have gone either way. ECU will be fine.

Kevin R

1:20

LSU broke the 1996 team's record for most runs scored in a 3 game series (51). What's your early thoughts on LSU? Good test this Wednesday @LaTech. Should be a fun one.

Aaron Fitt

1:20

Clearly Maine was overmatched, getting outside for the first time and facing an elite opponent... but LSU's offense is for real, no matter who the opponent. That's ridiculous star power -- I mean, they've got three first-team All-Americans, for Pete's sake, and there is no real letup in the lineup.

Jeff

1:22

More impressive series win: Liberty at Florida, or Long Beach at MSU? And why.

Aaron Fitt

1:22

I suppose I'd give a slight edge to Long Beach here, since Dudy Noble is a much more intimidating atmosphere for a visiting team. And the fact that Landon Sims was awesome in that first game -- but Long Beach beat him anyway, because Luis Ramirez was even better... I mean, that's a loud win. To follow it up with a blowout Saturday was a nice statement, even though the reigning champs salvaged the Sunday finale in pretty emphatic fashion.

James Charles

1:23

How close were Cajuns to cracking top 25

Aaron Fitt

1:23

They were right in the discussion. We went with the teams that won big series on the road, whereas UL played at home... but still, a nice series win against a Top 25 team, and we already had the Cajuns picked as the team to beat in the Sun Belt. They'd be right there with Southern Miss and some others on the cusp of the Top 25.

MCC

1:24

Anyone look at the 3 game Iowa cumulative pitching stats?

Kendall Rogers

1:24

MCC -- I did. Iowa definitely caught my attention over the weekend. Adam Mazur kind of led the way, while I got very good reviews on Brody Brecht, who apparently was up to 98-99 mph with his fastball over the weekend. Iowa looks like one of the top two or three teams in the Big Ten right now for sure.

Matt

1:25

Pitching and defense have always been staples of Oregon State baseball, but boy was their offense LOUD this weekend. Is their offense for real or was it a product of the competition in surprise?

Aaron Fitt

1:25

I think the offense will be very good -- I don't think it will be the 2017-18 offense, but I think it will be among the Pac 12's best this year. I was talking last night with Roons about this, he saw the Beavers this weekend and walked away very impressed. Very competitive lineup from top to bottom with some firepower too.

SECbaseball

1:26

Auburn wasn't the #1 storyline in the SEC going into the weekend but they probably had the best weekend. Thoughts on what the ceiling for that club is?

Kendall Rogers

1:26

Great question on Auburn. I think the most promising thing about Auburn to me is that the pitching held up the entire weekend. Joseph Gonzalez was terrific on Saturday, executing his pitches and commanding the zone extremely well, while Trace Bright and others threw well in the final game. AU finally got its offense going the final day of the tourney, but I didn't view this team as one that will ever be particularly 'offensive' this spring.

TWB Hogs

1:26

Seems like a lot of folks were impressed with Hagen Smith on Saturday. Do you think we could see a true freshman as the hogs Friday night guy come SEC play?

Aaron Fitt

1:26

Sure; he's the real deal. I've been talking him up since the fall, and I know our friends at PBR loved him in high school too (he threw a whole bunch of no-hitters, some ridiculous stat). He's also far more polished and poised than your typical freshman, even for a high-profile freshman.

Louie

1:28

What is the biggest worry with this Texas Tech team and what was the overall impression for this weekend?

Kendall Rogers

1:28

Louie -- I actually came away encouraged by a couple of pitching performances. Brendan Girton was sharp out of the bullpen earlier in the weekend, and Trendan Parish was strong out of the pen. But my concern with Tech right now is who outside Jace Jung really scares you in the lineup? I would argue that no one really does. Jace is going to need some help. Owen Washburn showed some flashes over the weekend, but that means you're relying on a true freshman to be the other big contributor outside of Jung. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't slightly concerned.

Steve

1:32

Hey gents, great to be back! Very general question; so early in the season, how do you recommend fans evaluate a teams performance against competition that is drastically superior or inferior? Or is it a feeble exercise to analyze such a small and non-representative sample size?

Aaron Fitt

1:32

I tend to lean toward reserving judgment early in the year; you can form some impressions, but just don't be afraid to revise them as you learn more. Avoid jumping to conclusions! Impressions are not the same as conclusions. But it's helpful to see how specific individual players who were question marks fare, particularly against better competition and on the road. For example, seeing Roman Phansalker deal for four innings on the road at Vandy was a very encouraging sign for me on Oklahoma State, because I knew he had exciting stuff but he had to prove himself in the crucible, and he did just that. Gives me reason to believe he'll be a huge piece of their bullpen this year.

Brandon

1:32

Kendall, when is your "Teams I hate" column gonna debut? But my real question, do you think the widespread availability of watching college baseball has led to the growth we've seen in parity? It's obviously led to a growth in popularity.

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