re: Collegiate Baseball Ranks LSU #1 in Preseason Poll

TD Article on the Collegiate Baseball Pre-Season Ranking

Here's the Collegiate Baseball pre-season top 25:

Rank Team (2022 Final Record) Points
1. Louisiana St. (40-22) 498
2. Florida (42-24) 495
3. Stanford (47-18) 491
4. Texas A&M (44-20) 489
5. Tennessee (57-9) 485
6. Louisville (42-21-1) 482
7. Arkansas (46-21) 479
8. Miami, Fla. (40-20) 476
9. Vanderbilt (39-23) 475
10. Wake Forest (41-19-1) 472
11. North Carolina (44-22) 470
12. Oklahoma St. (42-22) 467
13. UCLA (40-24) 465
14. U.C. Santa Barbara (44-14) 463
15. Texas Christian (38-22) 460
16. Virginia (39-19) 457
17. Texas Tech. (39-22) 454
18. Southern Miss. (47-19) 452
19. Oregon (36-25) 450
20. East Carolina (46-21) 449
21. Maryland (48-14) 447
22. Mississippi St. (26-30) 444
23. Georgia Tech. (36-24) 440
24. Mississippi (42-23) 438
25. Texas (47-22) 435

Excerpt from the Collegiate Baseball Pre-Season Ranking Article

TIGERS LOADED WITH INCREDIBLE TALENT
"Louisiana St. is ranked No. 1 in Collegiate Baseball’s Fabulous 50 NCAA Div. I Pre-Season Poll presented by Big League Chew bubble gum.

The Tigers, winners of six national titles, will field its best ball club since capturing the College World Series in 2009 — 14 seasons ago.

The collection of talent is extraordinary with three first team CB pre-season All-Americans, including:

CF Dylan Crews (CB’s projected 2023 National Player of The Year, projected No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 MLB Draft, 2022 CB first team All-American in 2022, .349, 22 HR, 11 2B, 72 RBI).
RHP/DH Paul Skenes (transfer from Air Force, 1st team CB All-American in 2022, 100 mph FB, 10-3, 2.73 ERA, 96 K, 30 BB, .314 BA, 13 HR, 10 2B, 38 RBI).
3B Tommy White (transfer from N.C. State, 1st team CB All-American in 2022, .362, 27 HR, 74 RBI).
That’s just the start of the talent pool.

The Tigers return CB second team pre-season All-American 1B Tre’ Morgan (.324, 5 HR, 18 2B, 54 RBI), DH Brayden Jobert (.246, 18 HR, 10 2B, 58 RBI) and RHP Ty Floyd (5-4, 3.77 ERA, 70 K, 23 BB).

Last fall, LSU captured CB’s national recruiting championship for the sixth time.

LSU brought in a star-studded class that features 21 newcomers and includes 14 high school, five high-profile NCAA Div. I transfers and two junior college transfers.

The Tigers’ pitching staff is expected to be much stronger than last season.

Poll Note: The Southeastern Conference led all leagues with six teams in the top 10 and 12 teams in the top 50."

we heckin better be #1

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I posted the Collegiate Baseball top 25 pre-season list above.

Here's Baseball America's pre-season ranking, there are six SEC teams in the top 10!
Baseball America's Pre-Season Poll - LSU @ #1

Notes from the Baseball America Article...
"Projected key returners: RP Riley Cooper, OF Dylan Crews, OF Gavin Dugas, SP Ty Floyd, OF Braydon Jobert, SP Blake Money, 1B Tre’ Morgan, OF Josh Pearson, SS Jordan Thompson
Projected key departures: 3B Jacob Berry, 2B Cade Doughty, RP Paul Gervase, SP Ma’Khail Hillard, C Tyler McManus, RP Eric Reyzelman
Projected key newcomers: C Ethan Frey (No. 498), INF/RHP Gavin Guidry (No. 86), RHP Thatcher Hurd (UCLA), C Jared Jones (No. 215), OF Paxton Kling, RHP Christian Little (Vanderbilt), RHP Aiden Moffett (No. 495), C Brady Neal (No. 83), RHP Jaden Noot (No. 71), RHP Chase Shores (No. 90), RHP Adrian Siravo (No. 479), C/RHP Paul Skenes (Air Force), 3B Tommy White (North Carolina State)

No team has had a better start to the offseason than LSU. The Tigers have been very active in the transfer portal, picking up several impact talents, headlined by two-time first-team All-American Paul Skenes and Freshman of the Year Tommy White. They are bringing to campus what should be the top-ranked recruiting class in the country. Coach Jay Johnson was able to rebuild his staff on the fly after losing both his full-time assistants to Power Five head coaching positions. Hiring pitching coach Wes Johnson away from the Twins, where he held the same role, was especially loud, but bringing in Josh Jordan, the 2018 Assistant Coach of the Year, as recruiting coordinator was also a big move. And those are just the newcomers. LSU returns center fielder Dylan Crews, the co-SEC player of the year and early favorite to be the No. 1 pick in next year’s draft. Also back are first baseman Tre’ Morgan and righthander Ty Floyd, as well as a host of other talented players. Put it all together and LSU has made its lofty aspirations clear."

My point was that by mid April, your top 15 teams have separated themselves. And most of the Omaha teams come from that group. Baseball preseason poll is always the least accurate vs Basketball and football where the talent gaps are so large.

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Talk about starting out with murderer’s row, @A&M, Arkansas, Ten for the first three series.

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9-0.