Monday, January 28, 2013

My predicted SEC finish

WEST

1. Arkansas
2. Miss State
3. L.S.U.
4. Texas A & M
5. Ole Miss
6. Auburn
7. Alabama

EAST

1. Vanderbilt
2. South Carolina
3. Kentucky
4. Florida
5. Georgia
6. Missouri
7. Tennessee

Thursday, January 24, 2013

How many college baseball polls are there?

How many times have I heard this question. For those that followed me last year, you remember I counted them and it was 7. But the only two I pay attention to are Collegiate Baseball and Baseball America. Both are well respected in the community and have been around a long time. Here are my rankings of the college baseball polls that I follow.
1) Baseball America: can't get any better than Aaron Fitt. Can break down teams to their shoelaces. Excellent analysis of each major component of a team.
2) Collegiate Baseball: has a different view than BA but still very respectable. Based in Arizona.
3) Perfect Game: My jury is still out with them. I don't think they dig into a team like BA and hit what it takes to win championships. They do have a lot of expertise in college baseball. Kendall Rogers is the man, he is very knowledgable about the game. A must follow on twitter.
4) NCBWA: Natl Coll Baseball Writers Assoc, does a decent job. Is in tune with what does on in the college baseball world.
5) USA Today Coaches: Seriously how many of the head coaches tells his assistants to fill this out and fax it or email it. It is like the football poll. Don't take it seriously. They don't.

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

My page descriptions

All important info for the rabid Miss State Baseball fan.

Roster--I have the roster broken down by position, you can't find that anywhere else. This is the roster MSU puts out on their website.  Also, after the July 15th deadline each year for signing drafted players, I will publish the tentative roster for the next year (by no means is this the final roster, I look on the MSU website for that).
Non-Conference Schedule--I have the opponents broken down by month with result of each game as it happens.
SEC Schedule--The 10 series are listed with location plus with results as it happens.
SEC Championship Race--The overall SEC Regular season championship is the big prize, so you can see where Miss State is in the standings plus who will make it to the SEC Tournament.
Players Honors--Pre and Post season honors in one place.
Commits/Signees--I have the commits listed out years in advance with capsules.
Professional Baseball--After a player leaves Miss State and starts playing pro baseball, he is listed here. You can see his progression to The Show here. The ultimate goal.
Other pages not yet added:
MLB Draft--I will list out the players/signees drafted with relevant info.
Statistics Page--Where does Miss State rank in the SEC and NCAA in key stats.

Friday, January 4, 2013

News from coaches convention

The ABCA (American Baseball Coaches Association) is having their annual meeting in Chicago. Some big news has come out that will affect Miss State baseball. 1) NCAA Regional host sites will now be announced Sunday night following the end of conference tournaments. This means, for instance, Miss State would have hosted a Regional in 2012 because they won the SEC Tournament. Obviously, this is big news for those teams "on the fence" of hosting a Regional. 2) More Regional games will be televised via ESPN platform. This is great news. There are some great post season baseball being played and it should be on TV. When Miss State is not hosting a Regional, they can be seen on TV throughtout the post season. SEC Tournament, Regional, Super and CWS are all on TV. 3) NCAA will not seed the top 16 instead stick with the top 8 National Seeds. They had doubts about seeding the 16, I guess.  4) NCAA is seriously thinking of letting HS/JC players be represented by an agent during MLB negotiations. I supposed, if it doesn't work out they can still go to college. They need to do this for Jr/elgible roster players too.  I believe basketball and football players can "test the waters" of pro sports and yet still be elgible if it doesn't work out. 5) And lastly, the coaches are thinking of changing the ball in college baseball, height of seams, size, etc. I suppose this will work. They did take a survey and the new BBCOR bats are very popular.