1.78 Beat Saber Expert Plus
Zee Palmer
College Baseball Preview Week heads east today, as we move on from the Pac-10 to the Big 12. We will be sure to catch you up on the Big West later, but in 2006, it only seems natural to segue from USC to Texas. Sorry, Rich.
Howdy, my name is Ryan and I been running a website called Texas A&M & Baseball In No Particular Order for about 3 years now. I won't bore you with my life story so I'll catch you up to speed really quickly....I love Aggie baseball and Bryan and Rich have kindly invited me to say a few words about the Big XII and the fast approaching season.
One last thing before I get into it....keep supporting collegiate baseball. It's a great thing and I'd love to see it continue to grow, so get out to the ballparks near you and watch it on TV (you can even play the video game now). Bryan & Rich do a great job keeping the college game on their minds and in their writing and I tip my cap to them for that.
Offensively, they're only returning 6 of 14 players with >10 ABs from last season but this wasn't a team that relied on hitting the tar out of the ball. They're also bringing in OFer Jordan Danks who is one of 9 true freshmen to be named to Baseball America's Preseason All-American team since 1983 (which was 3 years before Danks was even born).
Drew Stubbs is getting the most preseason hype but he got the same thing last preseason. He really reminds me of Vince Young heading into this past football season ... a freak of an athlete with a huge upside who has had a couple pretty good seasons but has yet to put it all together and earn his All-American hype. Head coach Augie Garrido has it right when he says that Stubbs is the best athlete he's ever coached but won't say he's the best baseball player he's ever coached. Stubbs hit .301/.372/.474 as a freshman & .311/.384/.527 as a sophomore with 8 & 11 HRs, respectively, in his career. Like I said, good but not Golden Spikes good.
One thing that always impresses me is that Texas has no problem scheduling strong opponents in non-conference play. They start the season in the Astros College Classic with games against Rice & Tulane. They have 3 game series with both Stanford and Long Beach State plus 2 more weeknight games with Rice and a single game against Arizona State.
After coming away with two rings on three consecutive trips to the championship game Garrido continues to build his legacy as one of the greatest collegiate baseball coaches ever. Looking into the future it doesn't appear things will drop off too terribly much. The horns continue to restock with talent and win with great fundamentals and great coaching.
In the end, pitching takes you to the postseason and this team certainly has that. On a side note, it will be interesting to keep an eye on their pitching staff after losing pitching coach Rob Childress who took over the head coach job for my Texas A&M Aggies.
On the offensive side of the ball, they're returning 10 of their 13 offensive players with 50 or more ABs but did lose their hands-down top offensive player, James Boone, who led the team in BA, RBIs, OBP, SLG, & SB. While the Tigers return Scherzer, Culp and Parker they only return two other arms from their 13 pitchers from last season. Regardless, starting pitching is king in college baseball and Scherzer/Culp should carry them through conference play and into the postseason. If another arm or two step forward this could be another great season for Tiger fans.
Finally, I am including my Aggies. Coming off of a Super Regional performance in 2004 the Ags suffered through a disapointing season in 2005 and are looking for a big improvement with new head coach Rob Childress. Childress was snatched up from Nebraska where he was the recruiting coordinator and the pitching coach. His arrival in Aggieland, quite simply, makes me giddy as I think about our future. Why shouldn't it? As the recruiting coordinator he brought the Huskers 4 of the last 5 Big XII Players of the Year in addition to 6 Freshmen All-American pitchers over the last 7 seasons.
Unlike OU, our coaching change resulted in a slight bit of attrition but I think we gained more than we lost. Childress will be picking up an offense that at .274/.347/.380 was almost as poor as Baylor's. Add to that the loss of our top two bats (including Cliff Pennington) and you get the feeling that the offense won't be the strong suit of this squad. However, we return 1B/DH Ryan Hill (.317/.386/.399) and catcher Craig Stinson (from a medical redshirt) and have brought in 4 D-I transfers to combine with a group of youngster who were wetting their feet last season. I think things will turn out better than many will expect.
Looking at the schedule we have games against 4 of the top 5 ranked preseason teams including a huge non-conference trip to Gainesville to take on the Gators in a 3 game set. We also have single non-conference games against Notre Dame & Rice.
I'm really anxious to see what immediate impact Childress will have on the pitching staff. Overall, I would conservatively say that this is a team that should finish in the middle of the pack and should be even fun to watch in 2007 & 2008.
Big thanks go out to Ryan for this fantastic preview. As with all our Designated Hitters, we urge you to support Ryan by reading his site, Texas A&M & Baseball In No Particular Order. You won't be disappointed.
When it comes to baseball, the Pacific-10 Conference is really a misnomer. The University of Oregon dropped baseball 25 years ago. Accordingly, for the purposes of baseball, the conference is really the Pac-9.
Baseball was Oregon's oldest athletic program (dating back to 1877), but it was eliminated from the school's athletic program in 1981 because of budget reductions in the aftermath of Title IX. Although it took awhile for Oregon State to pick up the slack, the Beavers made the state proud last year by winning the conference, hosting a Regional and Super Regional, and earning one of the eight spots in the College World Series.
OSU was joined in postseason play by fellow CWS participant Arizona State, Arizona, Stanford, and USC--making it the second straight year and fourth time overall that five Pacific-10 teams made the NCAA Tournament. The Pac-10 has produced a World Series participant each year since 1996 and has made it to Omaha 24 times overall since Arizona and Arizona State joined the league in 1979.
A "feel good" story last year, Oregon State now has to live up to the huge expectations placed upon the program. Picked by the coaches to finish eighth in the league before the year began, the Beavers surprised everyone by winning the conference with a school-record 46 wins and advancing to the College World Series for the first time since 1952.
Buck wasn't as sharp in the Cape Cod League as he was the summer before but is still expected to be no worse than a mid-first round selection in the June draft. Nickerson and Gunderson, meanwhile, pitched for Team USA last summer.
USC missed the College World Series last year by one game, falling in the rubber match to conference rival Oregon State in the Super Regionals at Corvallis. Coach Mike Gillespie, one of only two men (along with Arizona's Jerry Kindall) to both play for and coach an NCAA championship baseball team, loses Jeff Clement, the third overall pick in last year's draft, but returns junior right-hander Ian Kennedy, possibly the top hurler in the country.
Kennedy (12-3, 2.54 ERA, 12.2 K/9), who led the nation in strikeouts with 158, is a consensus first-team All-American. He was named Pac-10 Conference Pitcher of the Year and has pitched for Team USA with success in back-to-back summers, including last year when he allowed just 11 hits in 28 innings while striking out 35. Look for the 6-foot, 195-pound starter, possessor of a low-90s fastball and outstanding command of four pitches, to go in the top five next June unless Ian's advisor and agent-to-be Scott Boras scares off potential suitors.
Stanford, which failed to earn a Top 25 ranking by Baseball America for the first time since 1981, is coming off its poorest conference record (12-12) since 1993. The Cardinal could find the going tough this year, trying to replace a couple of first rounders (John Mayberry Jr. and Jed Lowrie) and its two best starting pitchers.
Three-time NCAA Coach of the Year Mark Marquess, however, is not without talent. Seven starters return on offense. Sophomore outfielder Michael Taylor (.289, 4 HR), selected the top prospect in the Alaska League last summer, is an emerging star. The 6-foot-5, 250-pound behemoth has the offensive and defensive tools, including surprising speed, to become one of the top picks in the 2007 draft.
Arizona State begins the year ranked in Baseball America's Top 25 for the 20th consecutive season, the longest streak in the country. The Sun Devils surprised host Cal State Fullerton in the Super Regionals last year, reaching the College World Series for the 19th time in school history.
After losing six starters, Coach Pat Murphy reloads with 20 letter winners plus the second-ranked recruiting class in the nation. The influx of talent includes five recruits who were drafted last year, yet opted to attend school in hopes of winning a sixth national championship during their stay at ASU.
Arizona lost more talent than any team in the conference. Four players were drafted in the first five rounds last June, including first rounder Trevor Crowe, the co-Pac-10 Player of the Year. All three weekend starters will need to be replaced as well.
Coach Andy Lopez, who guided Pepperdine to a national championship in 1992 and has twice been been named National Coach of the Year, will have just three regulars back from last year's squad. Fortunately, both middle infielders return. Shortstop Jason Donald (.288, 5 HR), a second-team preseason All-American, and second baseman Brad Boyer (.285, 3 HR) form the best double-play combo in the conference.
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