Top 25 Chat

Teddy Cahill: Welcome to this week’s Top 25 chat. An exciting weekend of college baseball and a shakeup at the top of the rankings, as Miami moves to No. 1 for the first time since 2008. So let’s get to your questions.

Keith (Tallahassee): Obviously a tremendous statement made by a young and, often times, inconsistent FSU team taking 2 of 3 against Louisville this weekend. I know they won't meet until the end of the season, but if FSU were to play top-ranked Miami this weekend, do you think they would have what it takes to beat them or does Miami look to be a better team all around? (It's neat to see 3 Florida schools in the top 6 by the way). Also, will all of those cancelled games come back to haunt the Noles, or is it not as big of a deal as #11 seems to make it out to be?
Teddy Cahill: That was a big statement this weekend for Florida State, and I was especially impressed with the way the Seminoles did it – winning the two games started by McKay and Funkhouser. That FSU-Miami series looks like it will be a great one. Miami is obviously playing really well right now and you’d have to give the Canes the edge, I think, but Florida State would have a solid chance to win that series, particularly because it’s in Tallahassee. As for whether the missing games become a big issue later, I think it depends what you’re looking at. We talked about this on the podcast today (which will be up later this afternoon), but the committee should be able to look at that and understand what happened. So it shouldn’t harm them there. But if you’re really concerned about winning the Atlantic Division, I think Mike Martin has a point. It’s conceivable that Louisville will have more wins this season because it will have played more ACC games. But I don’t know that it will really hold Florida State back.

Tyler (Texas): Do you think Miami is going to stay a top 5 team all year? Playing on the road quite a bit in the future, just curious if their batting line up can continue to improve behind their quality pitching.
Teddy Cahill: The Hurricanes have the talent to stay there, but the schedule has meant they haven’t had to face these top-tier teams on the road. Miami has a series at Duke this weekend and trips to Georgia Tech and Florida State late in the season, and none of those will be easy. But the Hurricanes have been a freight train the last few weeks. It won’t be easy to knock them off no matter where the games are being played.

Brett (Jax, FL): With a 5/12, 2 home run and 6 RBI weekend against Louisville (bring a season total of .343/.600/.462 with 6 HR's and 31 RBI), where does Cal Raleigh slot in the Freshman of the Year category? And with the country's toughest SOS (and I don't think it's close), where does FSU fit in from a national seed perspective? The Noles can run hot and cold but when they're hot...well, just ask Louisville.
Teddy Cahill: It’s probably too early to really look at award races at this point. The ACC has had five conference weekends, but most teams around the country haven’t played anywhere near that many conference games. So, in large part, you’re evaluating what players did in nonconference action and a couple weeks of conference play. That said, Raleigh has been very impressive and has probably put himself on my hypothetical short list. There are a ton of really good freshmen out there this year. It’ll be fun to sort through Freshman of the Year and Freshmen All-Americans. As for national seed for Florida State, I think they’re building a strong case. There are a lot of really good wins on that resume already.

Chris (San Clemente): Another wild weekend in the Pac 12. Stanford and Utah continue to surprise people and Cal loses to a struggling Oregon? I'm optimistically thinking that there is jut a lot of parity in the league, not that it's just not that good of a year. Has Stanford played their way into top 25 consideration? And why is their RPI so darn low? What do you think?
Teddy Cahill: Well, I hate to burst your bubble, but I think what you’re seeing is that the Pac-12 just isn’t that good this year. A lot of those teams seem to be very mediocre. Stanford has been quietly playing very well since coming back from its finals break. They haven’t prominently been in the Top 25 discussion to this point, but the Cardinal are working their way into it. Stanford picked up a nice midweek win against Cal and then went out and won the series at UCLA. If it can build on that momentum and will another road series this week at Arizona, it’ll be in pretty good shape for the stretch run.

Tom (NC): What does Duke have to do this weekend to start getting some mentions? I know they dug quite a hole early in the ACC season, but they've now got back-to-back strong conference series wins (Ga Tech & Clemson) in addition to their early series win over Cal. If they beat Miami once or twice, are they in the top-25 discussion?
Teddy Cahill: Duke would have to win the series to be in the discussion this week. What the Blue Devils have done the last two weekends (winning at Georgia Tech and beating Clemson) has been impressive, but they still have four losing weekends and are only two games over .500 overall. That’s tough to overcome, but a series win against the top-ranked team in the country would be a big statement.

Rob (Mobile, AL): Who has the better shot at hosting a regional, Southern Miss or South Alabama?
Teddy Cahill: At this point, I’d probably give the nod to South Alabama. The Jaguars have a slight edge in both RPI and SOS (on WarrenNolan.com), and beat the Eagles twice on the field. Conference USA is a stronger league than the Sun Belt, however, so Southern Miss has a chance to make up that ground in the second half of the season. But, right now, I think South Alabama is ahead.

Jake (Houston, Texas): With Texas Tech sweeping Oklahoma State this weekend and splitting with Florida State, how impressed are you with the Red Raiders? Still too early or do you think there will be Lubbock Regional?
Teddy Cahill: Never too early to be talking hosts. The way the Red Raiders are playing now, yes, I’d say they’re on track to be hosting this year. Texas Tech has been rather impressive. I saw them back in Week 2 at the Houston Classic, and they looked good then. They’ve rejiggered the rotation since then and the three freshmen they’re running out there right now have been very good so far. Obviously, it was a great week for the Red Raiders.

Bill (Collierville, TN): Under Corbin Vanderbilt has always had goo pitching, sound defense and run the bases aggressively. Recently however the defense has let them down along with untimely walks and wild pitches. Is this just a hiccup, or should Commodore fans be concerned?
Teddy Cahill: In some respects, I think this is kind of the team Vanderbilt is this year. Sheffield has had control issues throughout his college career. Hayden Stone is still working back from injury, and command is typically one of the last things to come back. The Commodores have some younger players out there, and young players are going to make some mistakes. Vanderbilt has the talent to overcome that, and I expect it will improve in those facets in the second half of the season, but this isn’t the same veteran team that it had the last couple years. So some growing pains are to be expected.

Greg smith (Starkville): Mississippi state is rolling right now. All the polls got them in the top 5 except for ESPN/coaches at 8th. Here's my question, that poll brings up questions, will they be punished for losing a few mid week games early in season even if they keep rolling? It's gotta balance out. Beat great teams 2/3 on a weekend and a couple of bad mid week losses to start the first month or so during mid week. Your opinion?
Teddy Cahill: Well, Mississippi State is No. 2 in our poll, so I think you can figure out how much stock we’re putting into those midweek losses. If you’re asking more about how the committee will evaluate it, those losses are data points that go into the RPI and everything else, but if Mississippi State keeps taking care of business in the SEC, all the rest of that stuff will work itself out.

Johnny Ray (New York): From the top 25 list, If #1 was based purely on pitching and defense, who would be your # 1 team right now.
Teddy Cahill: Probably Florida. The depth of the pitching staff is unmatched and, not only do the Gators rank fourth in the country in fielding percentage (.983), they’ve also got exceptional defenders all over the diamond. So it’s not an inflated fielding percentage. But I think Miami, South Carolina and Texas A&M are really strong in both those facets as well.

Catherine (Columbia, SC): What do you think is different about this year's South Carolina team from last years? Do you think they have a chance of hosting a regional?
Teddy Cahill: When I was in South Carolina for the start of SEC play, Chad Holbrook said this team has the kind of cocky, confident attitude that South Carolina’s best teams had. He said John Jones, Dom Thompson-Williams and Alex Destino have been a big part of that. So that’s probably a part of it. I also think the recruiting class South Carolina just brought in (which included Jones and DTW) has played a huge role. There are a lot of young players who are contributing in a big way this season for the Gamecocks. And, yes, I think South Carolina is in great shape to host a regional. You can probably start thinking about getting a national seed as well, but that competition will be fierce, especially in the SEC.

Steve (Little Rock): Dave Van Horn's Arkansas team misses the post season this year. Right or wrong?
Teddy Cahill: It is certainly trending that way. The Razorbacks have an unsightly RPI of 113 on WarrenNolan.com and are sitting at 20-12. Now, the good news is that because they play in the SEC they’ll have plenty of opportunities to prove themselves. Five of their final six weekends are against teams ranked in the top 20. The downside to that, of course, is that you have to beat some really good teams.

Matt W (Leesburg, VA): Love watching my Gamecocks get another sweep this weekend! On a different note, what is going on with Florida? They are head and shoulders more talented than any other team in college baseball but they are now 2-2 in their weekend conference series. Cause for concern down the stretch or will the young talent start playing more consistently?
Teddy Cahill: Teams lose series, especially in the SEC. I don’t think it’s a huge concern for Florida. I still am a big believer in the Gators and where they’ll be by the end of the year. It’s just really hard in college baseball to go wire-to-wire. Kevin O’Sullivan also seems to have a knack for getting his teams to peak in May and June. We’ll see if he’s able to pull that off again this year.

Teddy Cahill: Thanks for all the questions this week. I know I didn’t get to everyone’s so if I didn’t get yours, you can leave it in the comments and I’ll try to circle back and answer there.