Baseball America Top 25 Chat

Teddy Cahill: Welcome to Baseball America’s Top 25 chat, coming to you live this week from Houston, the site of the Shriners Hospitals for Children College Classic. Plenty of great action to talk about from last weekend, so let’s get to your questions.

Rick (Fayetteville): Teddy, the Hogs are swinging out of their shoes early in the season. Is this offensive output sustainable? Do you think the Hogs pitching staff keeps us out of Omaha this year?
Teddy Cahill: Let’s start with Arkansas, one of the teams I got to see this weekend in Houston. It was an impressive weekend for the Razorbacks, beating Rice, Houston and Texas Tech. The offense, particularly looked good and shortstop Michael Bernal was named MOP of the tournament thanks to his three home runs during the tournament. I liked Arkansas coming into the season, but I did not expect them to hit quite this much. So for them to be scoring runs like they have in the early going is very encouraging. The pitching was not exemplary this weekend after Friday night, but I think they’ll get it straightened out. Keaton McKinney has to be better than what he showed on Sunday, however.

Reed (Fort Worth): Two questions. Is Luken as big in person as he is on TV? And is this rebuild (or maybe reloaded) TCU team legit? Like can they make the CWS. Looks like a more balanced team this year than last year.
Teddy Cahill: Like Arkansas, Texas Christian also went undefeated this weekend in Houston, knocking off Louisiana-Lafayette and Houston. I came away very impressed. The Horned Frogs are legit. Coach Jim Schlossnagle said several times that this lineup is the deepest he’s had, and they’re playing without center fielder Nolan Brown right now. They pitched well this week, and they’re without righthander Mitchell Traver, who was slated to be the Opening Day starter before going down with an injury. The faces are new for TCU, but the results have pretty much stayed the same, which is a credit to Schlossnagle and recruiting coordinator Kirk Saarloos, as well as the players who have taken on larger roles this year. As for Luken Baker, he’s a big kid. He’s also really talented and is going to be a huge part of whatever TCU accomplishes for the next three years.

John (Columbia): Why isn't South Carolina ranked? There are teams ranked with losing records. Carolina is 8-0.
Teddy Cahill: South Carolina is a team that we considered this week, as we did last week and in the preseason. But at Baseball America, our rankings work on something of a sliding scale. At the start of the season, they are about where we project teams to finish. Then, as the season goes on, they become less about projection and more about results. This early in the season, we’re still operating with some projection in there. Winning eight games to start the season is solid, no matter the competition, and I’ll be looking forward to seeing how South Carolina plays against Clemson in the big rivalry series.

Matt G. (Westport CT): Who do you see giving Houston a run in the American this year?
Teddy Cahill: After East Carolina went into Virginia this weekend and won a series, it looks like the Pirates should be contenders again. Tulane and South Florida also look solid. All in all, the American looks like it’ll be a really good, competitive conference again this year.

Keith (Tallahassee): FSU had a tougher test this weekend with College of Charleston and managed to take 2 of 3. With Neiporte coming off his suspension, is this a team that seems capable of making it back to the Supers, or is the inexperience of the younger players going to rear it's head against stiffer competition?
Teddy Cahill: I think this weekend was a nice test for Florida State — that’s a good College of Charleston team that has a lot of postseason experience — and the Seminoles did well to come back and win the series after losing Friday night. I think FSU is definitely capable of getting back to super regionals. There are a lot of young players there, and that inexperience is something the Noles will have to deal with this season, but they’re also very talented players. By the end of the season they shouldn’t be playing like freshmen anymore and be ready to handle the rigors of postseason play.

Bill (Atlanta): I like what I see from the Yellow Jackets so far. Have you an opinion of them so early?
Teddy Cahill: I think Georgia Tech has started well. A couple good weekends to go with their midweek win against Georgia Southern. I think it’s all about getting the young players there ready for the opening of ACC play when Georgia Tech travels to Florida State. Jonathan Hughes, the unsigned second rounder, has looked very good, starting his college career without allowing an earned run in 12 innings.

Jennie C. (Berlin): Stanford has started the year by winning a series against Fullerton and splitting a four-game series at Texas. How far away is Stanford from breaking into the top 25?
Teddy Cahill: Stanford is a really interesting team to me and they’ve done well here at the outset of the season while facing some tough competition. The schedule has no let up, of course, and this week Vanderbilt is headed to Palo Alto. If Stanford wins that series, I think it’s safe to say it will move into the rankings. One other thing about Stanford – RHP Keith Weisenberg has gotten off to a nice start to the year (nine strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings out of the pen). If they have him on track, that’s another electric arm for the Cardinal.

Thomas (North Carolina): What are your thoughts regarding UNCW? They are putting up a lot of runs but seem to not be receiving any praise around the country.
Teddy Cahill: Our Jim Shonerd was in Wilmington on opening weekend and was impressed with UNCW. You can check out his story here, which is full of praise: https://www.baseballamerica.com/college/seahawks-soar-opening-weekend/

Patrick (Lake Forest, Ca): I know it is early in the year, but as a Braves fan with an early pick this year, should I be worried about the lack of quality starts by the two top pitching prospects (particularly Puk and Hasnen)? Given their slow starts and lack of track records, should we start looking to position players?
Teddy Cahill: First of all, yes, it is very early. But if the Braves don’t draft a college pitcher, they’ll probably delve into the high school ranks. Only twice in the history of the draft have the Braves drafted a college position player in the first round, most recently in 1991. But, again, it’s early. The draft has plenty of time to shake out.

nick n (NJ): Cardinals in more recent times tend to favor selecting older-college senior pitchers (Wacha, Gonzales) with more than their fair share of its higher draft picks. Besides facing potential forfeiture of future high draft picks as a result of the hacking scandal, what is also extraordinary for St. Louis right now is having 3 high end picks (#23, 33 and 34) in the June 2016 draft. Regardless if the Cards hear their fate from the commissioner's office by the upcoming June MLB draft or not, do you for see the Red Birds shifting to perhaps having a bigger appetite to investing extra money in signing high school -younger hitters that possess more favorable (talent) ceilings, but who run a greater chance of never really materializing on the big stage for whatever reason (injury, peaking out early, etc) either?
Teddy Cahill: The Cardinals made the change in strategy last year, really. Their top three picks were all high school players, two of them hitters with high ceilings. The Cardinals obviously have a new scouting director running the draft this year, but it would not be a surprise if they went upside again in this draft. Again, though, it is way early.

Tucker (Raleigh): How good will that Wright St series W for NC State look in May? Raiders looked solid.
Teddy Cahill: I think it’ll be good. There should be some nice RPI points to be had from that series for the Wolfpack, but obviously what NC State does in ACC play is going to hold much more weight. Wright State has been impressive in the early going. After making a regional championship game last year, the Raiders have kept rolling this season. They’ve got another tough opponent next weekend, as they head down to Georgia.

Matt (Mississippi): What are your thoughts on C-USA thus far? Rice is struggling a bit, but they always come around and are a solid team. With Southern Miss, FAU, WKU, La. Tech and ODU all doing pretty well, could this be a 3-4 bid conference this year?
Teddy Cahill: I don’t know how many bids CUSA ends up with, but the conference has had a good start. Florida Atlantic is undefeated, Old Dominion has made some noise and those other teams you mentioned have solid clubs. Rice, however, hast not looked good. The Owls will need to figure some things out before conference play or else they’ll be in trouble. Conference USA is pretty deep this season.

Chuck (Omaha): The Gators took 2 of 3 in Miami this weekend. They haven't looked particularly sharp on defense thus far with 8 errors...is that a concern moving forward? Any concerns after A.J. Puk's first two starts?
Teddy Cahill: I wouldn’t be overly concerned about the defense. Dalton Guthrie will settle in at shortstop and freshmen infielders Jonathan India and Deacon Liput will get better as they get used to college baseball. Buddy Reed may be the best defender in college baseball and Mike Rivera is great behind the plate. It should be a good defensive team. As for Puk, no real concerns there either. Coach Kevin O’Sullivan said his stuff was good this weekend, and he has 11 strikeouts in 6 2/3 innings. Florida will never extend its pitchers, so Puk has had a couple shorter starts here at the outset. But he’ll get it going.

Jim (Houston, TX): What type of scheduling do you see as more beneficial: challenging your team with stronger non-conference opponents or beating up on cupcakes?
Teddy Cahill: I think this depends on what kind of team you have. If you’re trying to break in a younger team, it can be beneficial to build their confidence early in the season with some winnable games at home. If you have a veteran team that’s capable of winning your conference and making a postseason run, I think you want to get out and challenge yourself early on. But there are a lot of factors when it comes to scheduling and there’s no one size fits all strategy.

Tom (Austin, Texas): Two weeks in, which do you think is the best team in the upcoming Dodger Stadium Classic? Which is the worst?
Teddy Cahill: Next weekend has another loaded slate for college baseball, with the Dodger Stadium Classic one of the best tournaments, bringing together Mississippi State, Oklahoma, Southern California and UCLA. The best team looks to be UCLA. They’re the highest ranked team, and were coming into the year. Oklahoma has been the most disappointing to this point. The Sooners were swept at Sam Houston State over the weekend, and the competition is only going to get tougher this weekend in LA. Will be very interesting to see how they respond.

Teddy Cahill: Thanks to everyone for your questions today. As always, if I didn’t get to your question, feel free to leave it in the comments and I’ll try to come back and answer there.