Baseball America Top 25 Chat

Teddy Cahill: Welcome to this week’s Top 25 chat. Sorry I’m running a few minutes late, recording our podcast went a little long – but you can look forward to listening to that later today. Let’s get to your questions.

Daniel (DC): Would you say this is the best UF team under O'Sullivan? Where you rank them among past top ranked squads?
Teddy Cahill: Let’s start at the top with Florida. The Gators are having an incredible start to the season, as they’re 20-1 against a solid slate. They were one of two teams to sweep an SEC series this weekend and A.J. Puk had his best start of the season. It looks like this team is every bit as good as we thought it would be coming into the year. That said, I’m not ready to say this is O’Sullivan’s best. It is a long season and this group has a long way to go to reach the level that his best teams have. But they certainly have a chance to be right up there with them – or passing them – come June.

Caleb (Oregon): Do you think Oregon State will maintain it's early dominance through Pac-12 play?
Teddy Cahill: Another team off to a great start has been Oregon State. The Beavers swept Arizona State this weekend and looked good doing it. Oregon State faces its toughest challenge yet this weekend with a series at Cal. But I think the Beavers are for real and look like the team to beat out west. It’s a long conference season and even in what looks to be a slightly down year for the Pac-12 there are still several tricky series to come, but Oregon State has a well-rounded team that should be well-equipped to handle the rigors of conference play.

Jordon (Fort Worth, TX): With Texas A&M already having rotation questions dealing with youth, dismissals (Stubblefield), now that their bullpen has shown some cracks, does that cause some concerns that the offense won't be able to carry them? Especially in their upcoming series with LSU & Florida.
Teddy Cahill: Just to round out the discussion of the top three teams, let’s talk A&M. This weekend was not a great one for its pitching staff. But Auburn has some talented hitters and going on the road in the SEC is hard. It’s still early and I think the Aggies can get their pitching staff straightened out. But, as you note, they have to do it quickly because in the SEC there are no breathers. This weekend against LSU and next weekend in Gainesville will be good tests for this team. Will be interesting to see how they handle it.

Frank (Chicago): Were he draft eligible, about where would Seth Beer fit within the top 10 picks as of now? Insane start for him.
Teddy Cahill: Somewhere outside the top 10 picks. But Beer is having a fantastic start to his college career. The walkoff he hit yesterday to finish off a sweep of Boston College was a great moment. He’s clearly locked in at the plate right now and the Tigers are riding the hot bat. They’ll need him to keep it going this weekend in Miami, which will present some intriguing matchups for Beer. Two of the Hurricanes starters (Woodrey and Garcia) are lefthanders, so for the young lefthanded hitter this weekend will be a nice test. Just a little subplot to follow in what already looks like a great series.

earl (new orleans): Lsu hasn't won a championship since 2009, finishing in a top 10 recruiting class every year. Is it time to make a coaching change? Has Mainieri wore out his welcome? Around here it's what have you done for me lately
Teddy Cahill: It is not time for a coaching change. Paul Mainieri is one of the very best coaches in the country. I understand that fan base has incredibly high expectations, which is part of what makes LSU one of the best programs in the country. But winning a national championship is incredibly difficult, especially in an era of increased parity in college baseball. There have been a lot of changes to the sport since LSU won four national titles in seven years. This LSU team is one of the better teams in the country and should be contending for another CWS appearance by the time June comes around.

Chris (San clemente): Arizona seems to be following the same model as last year...big hitting, poor pitching, despite new coach Johnson. Is that just an Arizona "thing" or do you see Jay Johnson changing things around at all?
Teddy Cahill: Since we’re talking coaches…Jay Johnson has been at Arizona all of nine months and inherited a team that hadn’t made the NCAA Tournament since 2012. Maybe he deserves more than five weekends to get the program back to the point where it contends for national championships? Not to mention that Arizona is off to a nice 13-6 start. If anything, I think Arizona has thus far exceeded expectations for a team that was picked ninth by Pac-12 coaches in their preseason poll.

Chris (San Clemente): Do you see Auburn being relevant in the SEC? Grier is the real deal, and some other good hitters but not sure about their pitching and defense...lots of football scores this year?
Teddy Cahill: I liked Auburn’s team a bit coming into the year. There are some intriguing pieces there, starting with Grier. Because of the timing of the coaching change, Butch Thompson and his staff were still learning some things about their team as the season started. The SEC is tough (I say for the hundredth time today alone), but the Tigers should be able to win some games in the league and make things interesting.

Jordan (Hattiesburg, MS): Where does Southern Miss stand? They blew out Alabama. Won the opening weekend series for conference. Swept a good tournament a few weeks ago as well as Northwestern state which has good wins. Tied with most wins in the top 50 rpi. I would believe Conference USA isn't a push over conference this year. I see a 3 team bid from C-usa
Teddy Cahill: Southern Mississippi was one of the teams we talked about bringing in this week. The Eagles have gotten off to a nice start to the season, winning all of their weekend series. CUSA does indeed look like it’ll be pretty competitive, with Old Dominion, Florida Atlantic and others starting the season well and Rice beginning to look like it’s got things figured out after a bit of slower start. It’s a good baseball league. Three bids probably isn’t out of the question, though there’s obviously a lot of baseball left to be played.

Patrick (Lake Forest, CA): My Anteaters are sitting at 14-6 right now, albeit without many quality wins thus far. They have midweek games coming up in the next 2 weeks vs. LMU and USD, but face Hawaii and UC Riverside as their next two weekend series. Will I have to wait until the following week when they play Long Beach before they could potentially get into the top 25?
Teddy Cahill: I liked Irvine coming into the year and its managed its typically ambitious schedule pretty well so far. But, you’re assumption is probably correct. We have two Big West teams (Long Beach and UCSB) in the rankings now, and Fullerton is lurking off the edge as well. And Northridge is off to a great start, albeit against less than stellar competition. It looks like a great year for the Big West, which is exciting.

Houston Frog (houston, TX): Any chance Texas puts up a fight against TCU in Austin this weekend?
Teddy Cahill: I’m sure they’ll be competitive. Texas doesn’t get blown out too often, especially at home, and has already taken some games off of some tough teams this year. But TCU is the best team it’s played this year. Not an easy draw to start Big 12 play for the Longhorns.

Bill (Springfield, MO): What's the skepticism surrounding Missouri State? Is it solely because of schedule?
Teddy Cahill: In large part, yes. As I said on the podcast today, it’s not like Missouri State set out to play an easy nonconference slate. Iowa made regionals last year. Memphis is a nice series to play on the road, Minnesota has a lot of tradition and the field in the Austin Peay Tournament would be fairly solid a lot of years. But none of those teams is playing particularly well to this point, so what you’re left with is a schedule that is ranked No. 244 on WarrenNolan.com. Maybe some of those wins will look better later on, but to this point, while Missouri State has a gaudy record of 17-2, it doesn’t have any sort of marquee win to hang its hat on. We talked about them at some length this week, but ultimately left them out of the rankings.

Jeremiah (Flint, MI): As of right now, who are the top 5 prospects in college baseball regardless of class?
Teddy Cahill: Without having given this a ton of thought, I’ll say Alex Faedo (Florida), Alex Lange (LSU), A.J. Puk (Florida), Corey Ray (Louisville), J.J. Schwarz (Florida) and Nick Senzel (Tennessee). And, yes, I know that’s six. I may feel differently about that answer when I inevitably give it more thought later.

Justin (Mississippi): I'm just wondering what your thoughts are on Ole Miss and their hot start and the series against South Carolina this coming week?
Teddy Cahill: Mississippi has been impressive to this point. That’s just a really good team, top to bottom. It’s got solid pitching, several players who can make an impact offensively and plays pretty well defensively. It doesn’t have the biggest names – Errol Robinson was its only Preseason All-American – but it’s a very solid team and one that is going to give any team trouble. This weekend’s series against South Carolina should be a good one.

Teddy Cahill: That’s it for today. Thanks to everyone for your questions. And if I didn’t get to yours, leave it in the comments and I’ll try to come back and answer it later.