re: What to expect from 2013 baseball

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How is programs like Florida and USCe getting these studs to make it to their campus?

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Alex Bregman brah.

This is what I posted in a thread on here about a week ago:

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Yeah, the ingredients for a legit national title contender with this team basically boils down to 3 things:

-- a third baseman
-- a 3rd outfielder
-- a 3rd starting pitcher


It's interesting all the different combinations that can work with Katz/Moore/Foster/Rhymes at 1B/OF/DH, but the key thing is to get 2 new guys in the lineup who can help produce runs, one of which has to be able to play 3B.

Finding a 3rd reliable starting pitcher might simply be a game of numbers. Just throw all the potential candidates out there until one of them finally clicks in that spot.

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No doubt, Gausman will be tough to replace, but I think most LSU fans really overestimate how good our starting 3 were last season. Despite their obvious talent, they did not perform quite as well as many here would have you believe.

Thus, while I think the pitching this season may be a little worse than last season, it wouldn't shock me at all if there were no drop off.

I do see this as a CWS caliber team that can win a national title. That being said, college baseball fortune is fickle, and nobody ever knows quite how well rookies will perform. In a lot of ways, guys like Bregman, Ibarra, McMullen, Laird, and all the new pitchers straight out of high school are virtual crap shoots. You win some, you lose some.

As for the conference, I think this is the best I have ever seen the SEC look. Don't be surprised if an SEC team finishes 5th or 6th in the conference, and then still manages to compete for a national title in Omaha. The SEC is just that damn good this year--8 great Top 20-caliber teams, 2 more Top 40-caliber teams (i.e., Georgia and Texas A&M), and then only 4 mediocre teams.

As I noted on my thread on the SEC Rant ( LINK), the conference has a whopping 23 preseason All-Americans playing for teams, and this is how they did in regular season conference games last year:

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Hitting
Rhymes (LS), .458, 3 HR
Gregor (VU), .345, 2 HR
Frazier (MS), .319, 0 HR
Cousino (KY), .302, 6 HR
Ficociello (AR), .301, 4 HR
Katz (LS), .299, 5 HR
Reed (KY), .289, 1 HR
Ross (LS), .287, 3 HR
Jones (LS), .282, 3 HR
Navin (VU), .270, 1 HR
Kemp (VU), .267, 0 HR
Greiner (SC), .258, 3 HR
Renfroe (MS), .254, 3 HR

Keep in mind that this is only over 30 conference games, so Couisno's 6 HR would be equivalent to about 32 for a 162-game MLB schedule.


Pitching
Wahl (OM), 2.30 ERA, 58.7 IP
Crawford (FL), 2.56 ERA, 38.7 IP
Littrell (KY), 2.93 ERA, 61.3 IP
Holmes (SC), 3.89 ERA, 39.3 IP
Stanek (AR), 3.91 ERA, 46.0 IP
Nola (LS), 4.78 ERA, 52.7 IP
Montgomery (SC), 4.89 ERA, 35.0 IP
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Holder (MS), 0.00 ERA, 11.7 IP
Suggs (AR), 1.37 ERA, 19.7 IP
Webb (SC), 3.06 ERA, 17.7 IP
Reed (KY), 3.38 ERA, 8.0 IP

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Did they ever complete that new baseball stadium up in Knoxville? It looked pretty from all the "artist's rendering" shots.

I personally do not think we have what it takes to make it to Omaha, and I have yet to see any evidence to the contrary. We lost arguably the best pitcher in the country, and while Nola is a great starting pitcher, he is no Gausman and definitely beatable if the offense doesnt step up. Eades will have to prove that he can stay consistent the whole year (which I don't think he will), and our 3rd pitcher is yet to even be named making me worried about his productivity. We lost our really good closer as well. The offense IMO will once again struggle. I will be very surprised if Rhymes has the type of season he did last year, it is just too hard to duplicate that many singles with no power or great speed. Katz and Jacoby Jones strike out wayyyy too much to be consistent hitters all year long. The lack of overall team speed will also hurt us getting runners in scoring position. The only way we finish the year better than last year is if majority of our hitters go on a hot streak all at the end of the year, or if an incoming hitters and pitchers are much better than expected.

we goin to da ship, we goin to da ship

Omaha!

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The last I saw of this team, we couldn't hit Stony Brook's below average Sunday starter

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That wasn't this team though...

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GeauxPack81

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You are a complete moron. No where in that rambling bullshite of an assessment did you even come close to making an accurate assessment.

:rimshot: