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D1Baseball Weekly Chat: March 29
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Gamecock Kyle
12:38
How hard was it to choose between Arkansas & Vandy for #1? Imagine there had to have been some serious back and forth between the staff on that one. And how about them Gamecocks!
Kendall Rogers
12:38
Gamecock -- I'll go ahead and tackle the proverbial elephant in the room. Honestly, it was discussed, but we felt comfortable with Vanderbilt and Arkansas at 1 and 2, respectively. I think Vandy has the better starting pitching by a significant margin, and I think VU's offense is fine, too. When VU has needed to, it has dominated good competition. WTS -- it definitely stings to have to keep Arkansas at 2, because I thought it played the same way it did at Globe Life at MSU -- like the No. 1 team in college baseball. There is simply not a wrong answer between those two teams. I love them both.
HawkTalk
12:40
Jack Leiter is allowing 1.75 hits per 9 innings. What is your Over/Under on where that number is at the end of the regular season? And would you rather face Jack’s fastball or Kumar’s slider?
Kendall Rogers
12:40
Hawk -- Trying to answer that first question is impossible right now, but man, honestly, I think I'd rather face Jack's fastball. Worst case scenario, I could at least try to bunt for a hit. Kumar's slider, when on point, is damn near impossible to hit. You're bringing the heat with the tough questions! I love it.
Guest
12:42
What are your biggest concerns for the  razorbacks as we get further into the season?
Kendall Rogers
12:42
Guest -- same it was before the season. The Hogs are still trying to figure things out starting pitching wise. With that said, I was extremely encouraged by Patrick Wicklander's start against MSU. I thought he looked in total command, and he allowed a run in 5 IP. Lael Lockhart needs to give them more than 3.1 innings on Sunday too. That aspect of Arkansas' team concerns me -- but honestly, I think Matt Hobbs will have this unit fine-tuned as the season progresses.
Ricefan
12:44
What will it take for Rice to get rid of Matt Bragga at the end of the season?
Kendall Rogers
12:44
My hunch is that Bragga gets one more season to prove his worth there at Rice, but sometimes guys just aren't fits with certain programs. Matt was definitely an odd fit at Rice, but I do think he's a solid coach and a great man, and I also thought he made a terrific pitching coach hire in Corey Barton. I'm pretty perplexed at the fact Rice is so bad. My feeling when I saw Rice earlier this year was that it might've been the least talented Rice team I've ever seen (along with last year's club).
Ted
12:46
Is there still hope Dallas Baptist can host a regional?
Kendall Rogers
12:46
Pretty much a 1-2% shot at most right now. DBU has an RPI of 137 right now, and there just won't be enough opportunities in the MVC or midweek to get into hosting territory. I wouldn't want them in my regional, though.
LSU Fan
12:48
Similar question to Ricefan, what will it take for LSU to get rid of Mainieri at the end of the season?
Kendall Rogers
12:48
LSU -- I'm not really sure what LSU fans expect right now. Before the season, we had the Tigers ranked in the 10-15 range, and we were called LSU haters, etc, because we openly said when you're relying on so many young bats, your season is going to be filled with peaks and valleys. That has transpired. What also has transpired is that Jaden Hill is not even close to being the starting pitcher that we were expecting coming into the season. That is going to have to change if LSU wants to turn the tide.
Steven
12:49
What should realistic expectations be for a Longhorn fan this season? Super Regional?
Kendall Rogers
12:49
Steven -- At this point, with the start the Longhorns are off to, yes, a super regional should be the minimum expectation. This is the team that needs to make a big statement, because the roster construction looks much different for the 2022 campaign.
Rob
12:52
Texas Tech is on a roll. Are they still the class of the Big 12 or will Texas and OSU battle them for the top spot?
Kendall Rogers
12:52
Rob -- Texas Tech is undoubtedly on a roll, but it wouldn't shock me that much if Texas, TCU or Oklahoma State gave them a run in the standings. Tech is a very very good team, but outside of Patrick Monteverde and an improving Brandon Birdsell, it's not like it's a pitching staff that people are deathly afraid of.
Rudyy
12:54
West coast shortstops?
Kendall Rogers
12:54
Rudy -- Funny enough -- two of my favorite guys are Arizona State's Drew Swift and Pepperdine's Wyatt Young. Both are excellent defenders, and the two have taken a big step forward offensively this season, too. They're worth the price of admission!
Aaron Fitt
12:54
Hi everybody, sorry I'm late -- are they ever going to stop working on I-85, or are we just cursed to sit in traffic forever? Let's get after it.
cowtownBill
12:55
In the past I remember the committee looked at the sufficiency of facilities for teams to be able to host. For this year will the attendance restrictions in the different states and locales be a factor at all when choosing regional hosts?
Kendall Rogers
12:55
The NCAA has been pretty damn lenient in terms of regional host sites for a few years now. If you EARN it, they typically give one to you unless your facility is atrocious. There had been talk that baseball was considering going to all neutral-site regional sites -- but I've been told that is highly unlikely. I do think the potential is much more likely for softball, however.
Sam Smith
12:56
What’s more surprising LSU starting out 1-5 in SEC play or Kentucky starting out 5-1
Kendall Rogers
12:56
Sam -- Honestly, probably LSU 1-5, but it's close. I honestly expected UK to struggle mightily this year, and it has played really well lying in the weeds. Sweeping Auburn ON THE ROAD is not an easy task by any means. Ming's boys have my attention, that's for sure.
Harry
12:56
Saw that Texas was boosted to the top 5 despite not sweeping either Big 12 opponent yet. Do you think that's because Baylor and Oklahoma are both quality teams that have just ran into good opponents so far? From watching each series vs. Texas, it looks like both teams are regional at-large quality. Is 7/9 teams from the Big 12 making regionals still attainable?
Aaron Fitt
12:56
I think Oklahoma is regional-caliber, but I'm not sold on Baylor. Honestly the biggest reason Texas moved up this week is that a couple teams ahead lost and somebody had to move up. Texas took care of business -- it wasn't some dazzling display, but when teams above you lose and you take care of business, you move up.
KT
12:57
Is the one time transfer for D1 baseball still being voted on next week at the Final Four? If so, what are your thoughts on how that vote turns out?
Kendall Rogers
12:57
KT -- I give it a 99.9% chance the one-time transfer rule is coming back to college baseball. All indications are that it'll happen. Of course .... there's a one in a million chance it doesn't, so there's a ... chance.
Ray
12:58
What do you think is South Carolina’s ceiling? (Regionals, Supers, CWS)
Aaron Fitt
12:58
I've always though South Carolina's ceiling is Omaha -- they've got enough power arms to do it, especially if their power bats are hot at the right time. Now, likelihood of reaching that ceiling is different than ceiling; I'm still not necessarily betting on the Gamecocks to go to Omaha -- I do think some of their flaws were exposed over the previous two weeks, albeit against very stout competition — but I remain convinced that they are a legitimate hosting candidate. And if you host, your chances to get to the CWS improve dramatically, honestly.
Bailey Black
1:00
What your thoughts on Clemson’s recent series wins? Beating a good VA Tech team and sweeping BC. Are they close to turning the page on the season or do we still need to see some more games?
Kendall Rogers
1:00
Bailey --  Aaron has seen Clemson, so I'd like for him to weigh in on this one. But what's really impressive about the last two weeks for the Tigers is that this past weekend, for instance, they didn't have Clarke, Anglin OR Sharpe against BC. Sweeping the Eagles in spite of that is very impressive.
Aaron Fitt
1:03
Yeah I think Clemson has clearly turned the corner. I may not be in love with this particular Clemson edition, but I always thought they were better than they showed in the first month, and I figured Monte Lee was too good a coach for them to struggle that bad forever. Great job by that staff getting that club back on track. Are they a regional team? I'm still not sure, but you've got to feel a lot better about their chances now than you did two weeks ago. And as KR pointed out, doing it without a few of their best guys is really loud. I think it's fair to worry about BC right now; that pitching staff just feels light.
JFK
1:01
Does anyone in the Big 10, outside Michigan, pass the smell test? Having no non-conf games really hurts. Indiana, Northwestern & Nebraska look good on paper, but are they?
Aaron Fitt
1:01
Indiana has always been my personal pick to win the league (I differed from our Midwest team, Patrick and Burke, as well as Kendall I believe). I like Michigan too, but I really like Indiana's overall pitching staff more, and I also think the lineup is intriguing. Nothing that's happened so far this spring has changed my opinion on that. I also have thought since the winter that Nebraska was the most intriguing darkhorse in the league, and now I feel even more strongly about that. Kudos to Spencer Allen and Northwestern on a strong start, but I'm not buying them as a regional team yet.
Tom Savage
1:02
Is the AAC a 1 bid league this year?
Kendall Rogers
1:02
Probably a one-bid league unless someone like UCF gets on a furious run, or unless someone not named East Carolina wins the conference tournament. Really weird year for that league, to say the least.
Tanner
1:08
Another great weekend for La Tech in Hattiesburg. The bulldogs are on fire right now but should Tech fans be worried about the team peaking too early? Still a long way to go in the season so can they keep up this level of play through May and into June?
Aaron Fitt
1:08
Yeah, great weekend is right. I never worry about the "peak too early" stuff when it's March -- every team is going to have peaks and valleys between now and June. La Tech will not sustain its current peak all the way to the end, that's just the nature of a long baseball season -- almost nobody wins every one of their series. But I think it's obvious La Tech is a real contender, an intriguing candidate to host a regional even. What a neat story that would be after the destruction of the old stadium.
WestCoastFan
1:10
How close are Stanford and San Diego State to the top 25?
Kendall Rogers
1:10
I can tell you that both of those teams, along with USD, were heavily in our discussion for the Top 25 this week. I've been impressed Stanford so far (particularly winning 3/4 against UC Irvine), but I want to see the Cardinal get a marquee series win first.
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