You are viewing the chat in desktop mode. Click here to switch to mobile view.
X
Return toD1Baseball
D1Baseball's Weekly Chat: March 2
powered byJotCast
Aaron Fitt
1:02
Hey everybody, welcome to the week three chat. Let's dive in.
Windywave
1:05
Tulane finally has a decent team (knock on wood) after a few weak years but the American looks to be a bit down this year.  Will conference play ding Tulane's RPI leaving us outside looking in again come selection time?
Aaron Fitt
1:05
I'm not so sure about the American being down. You've got two AAC teams in the Top 25 right now, just not the teams most people expected. ECU is just outside the Top 25 and will be a solid regional club again. Memphis and Wichita are off to surprising starts, and I still believe Houston and UConn are capable of making some noise this year. I actually think the American has a real shot to send 3-4 teams to regionals this year.
Patrick
1:07
Two questions about west coast squads. Long Beach State and Oregon. First, how far can we see this Dirtbag team going this year? Conference title and a regional host potentially? As for Oregon, back-to-back home sweeps (albeit against Nevada and Milwaukee), but can they compete in the Pac12 this year?
Aaron Fitt
1:07
Right now, I think you have to make Long Beach the official new "favorite" to win the Big West -- and those are words I did not expect to type in 2020. But sweeping a Wake Forest team that I am still convinced is going to be very good, then winning two of three from a very good Mississippi State team, that's just loud. As for the Ducks, the jury is still out -- I need to see how they fare against better competition before declaring them legitimate contenders, but it's good to see Waz has them headed in the right direction, it appears.
Eric Simmons
1:07
Any word on Mississippi State pitcher JT Ginn?
Kendall Rogers
1:07
No word just yet. I don't expect him to be back anytime soon, though, barring a surprise.
Aggie Josh
1:08
Did we just see the real Texas A&M in Frisco?  Is this finally the end of Rob Childress, he's had a lot of slack in that rope.
Kendall Rogers
1:08
Josh -- First of all, no team is going to fire a coach after the first three weekends. And it's ridiculous to insinuate a coach should be fired for one bad weekend.

With that said, there's no doubt the Aggies played some brutally bad baseball (defensively and offensively) over the weekend. They were simply outclassed by a team like UCLA. I still feel great about the pitching staff, but the defense must get better and the offense now has something to prove yet again. There are concerns with A&M -- but ready to throw in the towel on them? Hardly.
Sherman
1:10
Does South Carolina have what it takes to go .500 in conference and sneak in the NCAA tournament?  The past two weekends have not been very encouraging.
Kendall Rogers
1:10
Sherman -- Aaron and myself debated this on the podcast last night. I do like some of the pieces the Gamecocks have with Carmen Mlodzinski, Brett Kerry and Thomas Farr, among others, but the road to the tournament is now much tougher. Two non-conference series losses now means the Gamecocks need to go .500 or better (IMO) to make the NCAA tourney. I'm not ready to say I expect that at this point. This looks like a 14-16, 13-17 type of club to me.
Aaron Fitt
1:11
I still think they find a way to go 14-16 or 15-15. And really, that's what they always needed to do to get into a regional, so in my opinion these two series losses changes absolutely nothing for them. Still gotta get to 14 SEC wins, and they'll be in.
Guest
1:11
How impressive is TTU's pitching staff. They just run out guy after guy pumping mid -90s.
Kendall Rogers
1:11
Guest -- Really impressive group, but it can be challenging as a coach. Tech has a lot of talented pitchers and throwers. That means you have a lot of guys who probably think they should be pitching. So don't take for granted the job that staff does in managing egos and innings.

I was very encouraged by the weekend at FSU. I thought Tech looked good but not great in Round Rock. But clearly the Tech team that showed up in Tally was the one I always expect to see. Same old Tech. Elite club.
Tyler
1:15
Is there any chance for Kentucky to make the tournament?
Aaron Fitt
1:15
They're not off to a real good start, that's for sure. And considering we picked them to finish last in the preseason, we certainly haven't seen anything to change that projection. But I'm still surprised at these early struggled, I thought Kentucky had at least a chance to surprise some people in the SEC. The pitching was always the big question mark for me, but I expected this team to be very offensive, and so far the bats have really struggled against quality pitching. It's still a small sample size though, and I think the bats will get going at some point. But as of right now, a regional feels like a long shot for this club.
Jeff
1:16
After 3 weeks, the SEC West looks wide open. Do you still think Arkansas is the team to beat despite their poor performance this weekend?
Kendall Rogers
1:16
Jeff -- I would have Arkansas or Ole Miss as the teams to beat in the West. I have concerns about State with JT Ginn out of commission and a potential long-term injury for Tanner Allen. I do think Arkansas will be fine -- it just had a really poor weekend in Houston. And Ole Miss' rotation has been rock solid, and there's plenty of offense present. After that, it gets pretty murky with MSU/LSU/A&M/Auburn all having some noticeable gaping holes.
Bull City Tiger
1:19
How close is Clemson to cracking the top 25? Arms certainly carrying the load and the bats seem to be coming alive a little bit. Another good week swinging the bats get the job done?
Aaron Fitt
1:19
I'd say Clemson was the unofficial Team No. 26 this week, and if they hadn't lost midweek to ETSU we probably would have brought them in. Definitely encouraged by Clemson's first three weeks, feels like they're going to be a Top 25 team very soon, and could be there to stay.
Dan
1:21
Any concerns you see with Tyler Brown’s early performances?
Kendall Rogers
1:21
Dan -- Certainly a cause for concern. He was a little shaky in his two outings out in Arizona, too, that I saw. It seemed like teams kind of knew what was coming with Brown. I'm not sure if he was tipping some of his pitches or what. WTS -- he's a premier talent and I think he'll have a dandy year. But it's certainly something to follow for the time being.
BMC
1:21
How does this Big 12 stack up to other conferences at this point in the season?  Only 3 ranked teams, but seems to have surprised many in Houston over the weekend, to go with TTU sweep in Tallahassee and TCU home sweep of Cal.
Aaron Fitt
1:21
We actually led off today's podcast with a discussion about the Big 12's strong start. The league definitely looks better than anticipated, and every team but one is above .500 after 3 weeks, which bodes well for the Big 12's RPI future once they start playing each other, boosting everybody's strength of schedule. Baylor appears better than we thought, TCU's newcomers have really clicked (which the Frogs really needed), and Texas is obviously much better than last year. Big 12 looks better than the Pac to me; I'd probably rank it the No. 3 conference, behind only SEC and ACC.
Jackson
1:22
Most disappointing team relative to expectations on the Gulf Coast so far this season: UH, ULL, or Rice?
Kendall Rogers
1:22
Jackson -- Hmm. Maybe lean UH. The Cougars lost Layne Looney and Sean Bretz right before the season and that has been a killer from a pitching perspective, but they should still be winning more games. Rice is another disappointed. I'm not seeing an improved team right now. And I'd have Louisiana after that. The Cajuns didn't look great on paper coming into the season, so I think it's going to take time to get back to "Deggs" ball.
Jeff
1:26
So I appreciate how much work you guys do in compiling the rankings, but...How is UCLA not number one?  They are 11-0, have trailed for a TOTAL of 3 innings this season, have a team ERA of 0.91 and allow opponents a team batting average of.126 while hitting .320 themselves.  And they've beaten good teams too including Texas A&M, OK St, Illinois and Pepperdine.  There are really five teams that you think are better than the Bruins? At this point in the season, no one has put together a better resume for #1.  Why don't you agree?  Thanks
Aaron Fitt
1:26
The Bruins are really, really good -- I just watched them for three utterly dominant days, and I couldn't stop raving about them on Twitter. We jumped them up as far as we could -- but yes, the five teams in front of them are also really, really good. What, you're gonna drop Georgia after they just dismantled a good Georgia Tech team in a three-game sweep? You're gonna drop Texas Tech after they went to Tallahassee and beat FSU twice and a solid FAU team once? You're going to move UCLA all the way up to No. 1 and drop Florida, a week after it went on the road and swept Miami? No, the rankings don't exist in a vacuum -- there are other good teams too. And as great as UCLA has been so far, there will be bumps in the road -- that team still has a whole lot fewer proven veteran players than the five teams ahead of it in the rankings.
TW
1:29
LA tourney appears to be huge crash course for the teams involved. Would love my frogs to go 3-0, but what are you most interested in seeing?
Aaron Fitt
1:29
Hooboy, Dodgertown looks awfully juice right now. Considering TCU and UCLA have gotten off to such strong starts, and Vandy is Vandy, and USC looks improved and is off to a nice 7-3 start, this field looks much more exciting than it did a month ago. I won't be in LA, but we'll have folks there, and they're gonna be in for a treat. I'm probably most interested to see how TCU and USC fare against the first truly elite competition they've seen yet.
AndrewG
1:30
Do you think Arkansas can climb out of the hole they dug themselves into over the weekend? 0-3 against Oklahoma, Texas, and Baylor...
Aaron Fitt
1:30
To quote the great American satirist Mark Etheridge, "Has any team ever made a regional after losing 3 games in a row? Hogs are donezo."

But seriously... it's March 2. And it's baseball. Arkansas will be just fine.
Hob
1:33
Michael Mcgreevy has been nothing but dominant pitching for UCSB, and so far this year he hasn't missed a beat after joining the starting rotation full-time. Are there any roadblocks keeping him out of consideration for the upper echelons of college pitching?
Aaron Fitt
1:33
Man, has he been good: 0.42 ERA, 23-4 K-BB mark in 21.2 IP... yep, that'll play. He's just a really polished college pitcher who stands out for outstanding command, good life and deception, which makes his rather pedestrian raw stuff play up. I doubt he'll be a big leaguer, but I do think he can be an elite college starting pitcher, a strong candidate for Big West pitcher of the year and All-America honors.
Dan L
1:34
Is the biggest surprise of the season LBSU?  Has to be, right?
Aaron Fitt
1:34
Yep. Open and shut.
Ryan M
1:38
From what you have seen so far, what teams do you think are out performing your expectations and what teams are under performing your expectations?  Would you make any changes to your predictions for Omaha yet?
Aaron Fitt
1:38
I don't think I made official Omaha predicitions since the summer, but the obvious change I would make is including UCLA. They're not gonna go 56-0 — at some point they're going to start giving up more than one run per game... but I love their team, and I think they are a legitimate national title contender -- which is amazing when you consider the fact that they lost their top two weekend starters, top setup man, their entire infield, two-thirds of their outfield and a 12-homer DH from last year.
HawkTalk
1:38
@Kendall, what is your favorite instance of being accused of bias by a fan?  And please do not allow this to turn into Aaron trying to hide his Oregon State Stan-dom.
Kendall Rogers
1:38
Hawk -- Probably TCU fans back when they played A&M in back to back super regionals. For whatever reason, people took it extremely personal that Aaron and myself picked A&M to beat the Frogs (both times, I believe). Fortunately, TCU fans who were mad at the time are now some of my most passionate followers (and a few are even friends). That was a pretty wild deal to be honest and went pretty deep.
Load More Messages
Connecting…