NCAA Baseball Top 25 Rankings Chat (4/5/21)

Image credit: Oklahoma State LHP Parker Scott (Photo courtesy of Oklahoma State)

Teddy Cahill: Welcome to this week’s college baseball chat. It was another fun weekend of college baseball, so we’ve got a lot to talk about.

Gregory (Tustin, Ca):

 Scale of 1-10, how worried are you about the Bruins being able to make a run to Omaha?

Teddy Cahill: To use a 1-10 scale, we’d have to establish some sort of base line. That’s pretty hard to do when you consider that this is college baseball. The 2019 UCLA team sure seemed like an Omaha lock, for instance. Instead, it was bounced in super regionals. Setting aside the scale, I’m very skeptical of UCLA making a run to Omaha. UCLA is 4-3 in weekends this season with series losses to San Francisco, Cal Poly and Washington, which are a combined 34-39. To make it to Omaha, you need to win five games over back-to-back weekends against quality competition. I’m not seeing a lot of evidence that these Bruins have the consistency it takes to do that. There’s talent there, so I wouldn’t rule out them getting turned around in the second half of the season, but I wouldn’t make that prediction right now.

Keegan (Nebraska):

 Why does Michigan continue to drop in the rankings? Is it an indictment of the quality of the Big Ten? A cold streak? Unexpected depth in the conference? I can’t get a beat on how good Michigan is even within its own conference.

Teddy Cahill: Michigan has bounced between 19 and 24 in the Top 25, which has happened because it hasn’t had a standout weekend one way or the other since beating Iowa three out of four on opening weekend. It’s also been hampered a bit by playing Saturday-Monday weekends. The Wolverines might go out today and beat Maryland to go a pretty solid 3-1 this weekend against Northwestern and Maryland. But we can’t react to that. I feel confident saying that Michigan is a good team. But I think we’ll learn a lot more about the Wolverines this weekend when Ohio State shows up in Ann Arbor.

Thomas (NORTH CAROLINA):

 Will there be any change in the math used to get RPI’s now that some conferences like the AAC is not allowing any midweek games and having tough 4 games series in just 3 days with the same teams? Hard enough to win or sweep a 3 game series but 4 game ones? Does it put the AAC in a bad position for hosting and post season positioning. Don’t think it will put them in a bad position as far as being ready if needed to play post season ball though.

Teddy Cahill: No, there will be no change to the RPI this season. The committee evaluated that in the fall and decided not to make any adjustments. But I don’t think that really would matter for the AAC this season. The league did itself no favors in non-conference play this season. Aside from ECU (18-5), it went 76-79 in non-conference action. I know they collectively played a tough slate (they played series at Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Texas Tech and against Texas, for instance), but they just didn’t win enough of those games. ECU will be fine as long as it takes care of business. Everyone else (except maybe Wichita) has no one to blame but themselves for their postseason predicament.

Keegan (Nebraska):

 What does Nebraska have to do to crack the top 25?

Teddy Cahill: Pretty much what it has, it just needs to keep doing it. I don’t think the Huskers are far off the Top 25. It would be nice to see a real statement weekend at some point, but even without it, the longer they hang around at the top of the Big Ten standings, the more likely they are to push into the Top 25.

Anthony (CT):

 How quickly is Matt Mikulski jumping up the draft boards. Lefty up to 100 in consecutive starts, just dominating

Teddy Cahill: Mikulski has really been impressive lately for Fordham. 52 strikeouts in 30 innings is pretty loud. There are some impressive arms in the Northeast this year, but Mukulski is making a strong bid to put himself at the front of that list.

Teddy Cahill: That’ll do it for today. Thanks to everyone or the questions. Looking forward to what should be a very exciting slate this weekend!