College Baseball Thread 2022

jholz · February 18, 2022

It's the first and best sign of Spring IMHO - College Baseball! I still greatly covet and miss the days when I could walk from my office to the ballpark and watch a game three or four times a week. Great players, good game structure, and just good, honest, fun. Screw the MLB IMHO.

But I digress...

The season starts today and my beloved Auburn Tigers already dropped their opener to Oklahoma at the State Farm College Baseball Showdown in Arlington, TX. I'm hoping for a better season than last year, but they've got a lot of new players and lost some key pitchers, so they need some help. Even though they lost, one of Auburn's new pitchers had a good outing - kid named Jordan Armstrong from Chattahoochee Valley Community College. Pitched 4 innings of shut out ball with 1 hit and 5 strikeouts. I'm gonna have to go back and watch his innings. Plus, if you have never heard of CVCC, nor ever seen the beautiful, idyllic Chattahoochee Valley, you just aren't living man.

Here's the preseason rankings, which I think are pretty reasonable, but will undoubtedly change a lot in the coming weeks:

1	Texas
2	Arkansas
3	Vanderbilt
4	Mississippi State
5	Ole Miss
6	Stanford
7	Oklahoma State
8	LSU
9	Florida
10	NC State
11	Florida State
12	East Carolina
13	Notre Dame
14	Texas Tech
15	Arizona
16	Georgia
17	TCU
18	Oregon State
19	Tennessee
20	UC Irvine
21	Georgia Tech
22	DBU
23	Duke
24	Long Beach State
25	Miami (Fla.)

In any event, most of the games are available to watch for free via the Watch ESPN app. If you want to see some good baseball, pick a game (preferably SEC) and give it a watch. Good stuff.

Edited February 18, 2022 by jholz

jholz · February 19, 2022

I'm watching Vanderbilt and Oklahoma State presently. I saw Vandy's starter tonight, Chris McElvain, pitch out of the bullpen last year and he always looked like a stud. Dude struck out 10 in 4 innings. Got a tail on his fastball and a killer change-up. Have to see how he does going forward.

jholz · February 19, 2022

Man, Vandy brings in a reliever with an amazing hook and running fastball - already struck out 6 in 2 innings.

deadsolid...shank · February 20, 2022

Boy, the racers don’t think much of the middle section (that’s not Tx or OK) of the country do they?

GHIN n Juice · February 21, 2022

College baseball is the best thing about living in Omaha. Coolest part is my son plays for a travel team with the best indoor facilities in Omaha, so many of the teams will practice at the building and the kids can go watch and get autographs etc.

deadsolid...shank · February 22, 2022

10 hours ago, GHIN n Juice said:

College baseball is the best thing about living in Omaha. Coolest part is my son plays for a travel team with the best indoor facilities in Omaha, so many of the teams will practice at the building and the kids can go watch and get autographs etc.

is there still a little dive bar somewhere around where Rosenblatt used to be? I think (and it’s been 35 years so the memory is sketchy at nest) it was called Paulie’s Cubs Club. The ESPN guys used to hang out there during the CWS. Neat little place.

GHIN n Juice · February 22, 2022

There’s not a ton left where Rosenblatt was located. Since they moved to the new stadium all of the CWS businesses moved with it. Unfortunately, the new stadium is near downtown and everything is much more expensive now.

deadsolid...shank · February 22, 2022

1 hour ago, GHIN n Juice said:

There’s not a ton left where Rosenblatt was located. Since they moved to the new stadium all of the CWS businesses moved with it. Unfortunately, the new stadium is near downtown and everything is much more expensive now.

Yeah, I thought they moved it quite a bit. I’ve never been in the new stadium.

deadsolid...shank · February 22, 2022

1 hour ago, GHIN n Juice said:

There’s not a ton left where Rosenblatt was located. Since they moved to the new stadium all of the CWS businesses moved with it. Unfortunately, the new stadium is near downtown and everything is much more expensive now.

I just googled it. Just Pauli’s. They’re in Aksarban Village now.

Im just glad my memory isn’t completely gone!

jholz · March 11, 2022

Well, I must admit that I've been a bit distracted by life and world events lately - to the extent that I mistakenly created two College Baseball threads this year. Yikes!

In any event, I continue to follow Auburn passively through stats at the moment. Haven't watched a game since early last week.

But, the Tigers are 12-2 and getting some good wins. Crushing some opponents, but some good comeback wins and a few tight games as well. Their offense is starting to get going and more players are contributing at this point. The pitching has been pretty darn good too. Lots of strikeouts, but still giving up too many hits. It's one of those things about baseball, the first two strikes always seem pretty easy. That third one is always difficult. I do wish they would let the hitters put the ball in play more often. That's a part of pitching too.

But, so far, I am encouraged. Much better than last season and all the bad luck they faced.

Middle Tennessee is coming in this weekend, and they are no slouch, really. We will have to see how it goes.

Then Kennesaw State midweek and opening SEC play vs. Ole Miss. Should be a great series of games.

jholz · March 18, 2022

Oh dear lord, I'm not sure if anyone else caught Auburn's SEC opener against #1 ranked Ole' Miss last night...

but, you can see why Ole Miss is so highly regarded and Auburn remains unranked. I had to turn it off after the 6th inning.

Both teams came into the game with similar records, but 5 errors (including two passed balls) led to a 13-6 drubbing for my poor Tigers.

Honestly, the scorers were being generous. Could have been 8 errors pretty easily. It's starting to look a bit like last season. So much talent. So close. But just can't get out of their own way.

Ultimately, games like that are one of the reasons that I love college baseball. It reminds you how hard the game actually is.

One other thing to note, offense and HR's have been ridiculous so far this year. Last year was a definite indicator that hitters have adjusted to the BBCOR bats and now have an advantage.

I'd like to see some raised stitches on the ball next year, or even a few more inches on the height of the mound. The game is starting to look like the late 2000's, and I'd love to see a bit more balance.

Additionally, it looks like more college players are making it to MLB these days. College players are sticking around longer and getting better deals out of college than guys going straight from HS. I have to think this is good for all levels of the game.

Now, if MLB could just produce a decent product, things would be ok.