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Episode 111: Midyear College Baseball Roundup · Dugout Dish Baseball Recruiting Podcast powered by EMD Baseball

• 0:00
  Speaker A: Foreign.
• 0:11
  Speaker B: Welcome to this week's edition of Dugout Dish Podcast. I'm Andy Kirakidis, joined by my wonderful co host, Keith Glasser. How we doing?
• 0:17
  Speaker C: Great. How are you?
• 0:19
  Speaker B: We're back at it with our college baseball roundup, if you will. We got our esteemed colleague, Mr. Jonathan Grasse with us. What's going on, guys?
• 0:28
  Speaker A: How are you?
• 0:29
  Speaker B: Excited to, to chop it up about college baseball. Here for the, you know, next 45 minutes or so, we'll see what we uncover before we get into surprises and disappointments and stuff. I, I think me and Jonathan have to come to terms with a couple bad picks that we made on the front, a couple bad statements that we made on the front of this thing. So I'm gonna go first. I had San Diego being a team to watch, coming off an awesome year last year, it just has not gone well. They played a super challenging schedule to start the season, and it has. They've yet to get up from the butt kicking that they received early on. Looks like you're starting to play a little bit better. But they are, they are not a tournament team unless they can win their conference tournament. So I'm gonna wear that one. Not looking good. Yeah. So, Jonathan, I know you gotta own up to, to one of your items, too.
• 1:35
  Speaker A: Going for everyone that's listening to the preview, it's the update that I had that Tennessee was gonna have a hangover unless they've kept drinking or something. They have not. They're not, they're not hungover. There's no hangover in that, in that building. TV's done a phenomenal job with a load of new players. They're not hungover. They're as good as ever. And I'll be honest, I think, and this is more of a credit to them and I, I'll, I'll wear one on the chin. I, I don't have a problem with that. I, you know, you're going to take that bad takes when you do this stuff. But I, I think the, the, the job he's done this year may be better than the job he's done the last two or three years, which is wild to say. You know, I mean, you know, three years ago or two years ago, they won when they lost Notre Dame in a super regional or number one overall seed. I think they were, they were 52 wins, 53 wins, something like that. Like, they obviously win a national championship. It's hard to top that. But like, the job that that staff has done this year may be more impressive than those other Two. I mean, it has been incredible to watch what they've done, and again, we'll. We'll get to this in a second, but it seems to be they're in a class, you know, with a few others in the sec. But, I mean, that staff has done an absolutely phenomenal job. I was. I was listening to the other night. I think they have seven new guys in the lineup, and that does include some freshmen. And I think it's all three on the weekend are all brand new, not in Tennessee Orange last year. And I have not. They have not missed a beat, man. So credit to them. Good job. I don't know what I'm talking about, obviously. So we'll move on to the next.
• 3:28
  Speaker B: Well, I think it's an interesting thing to discuss because, you know, we have. We're in this transfer portal era, and yeah, these guys can go out and, quote, unquote, buy really good players and do all that kind of stuff, but I think it's another thing to go get good players. I think it's a more impressive thing to go get these players and get them to fit into a system, fit into a culture and get them to play together. Because Tennessee is that classic. I think they're one of kind of the outliers, where they went and got a bunch of guys, or they're relying on freshmen, a lot of new faces, essentially, and they haven't missed a beat. There's a lot of programs out there that tried to do the same thing, and it ain't working. And I think it highlights the value of coaching, the value of culture, the value of getting guys to buy into what you are, what you believe in, the core tenets of your program. And obviously that's something that Tony's been able to do. I think LSU is another one, Texas another one. Like, they went out and there's new faces, there's transfers, but they've got them in a place where they're playing really well, really polished. And I think there's a lot to be said about that. There's a ton of talent running around college baseball, and there's a ton of talented rosters right now that are underachieving. And I think some of that has to do with that. You are kind of putting together teams versus building a program to a certain extent. And I'm glad you highlighted it because I think it's a lot more difficult than people would think on the outside. They're like, hey, we just go get a bunch of free agents who are really good, and we'll Put them together and they'll be awesome. Well, okay. Yeah. But what happens when you get into the SEC and it starts to get really tough because everybody else is really good? You don't just win because you're good in that conference. You have to do the little things. You got to be tough. You got to be able to travel. And that doesn't come just because of pure talent. It comes because you have a culture. You coach really well, you understand how to get the most out of your guys. And I think that's going to be something to keep an eye on for the next couple years is I think some of the really good coaches are going to separate themselves because they have the ability to win both ways. Right. Building a program and then also being able to supplement with transfers and, and whatnot. So, yeah. Interesting thing to think about off the top, that it's not as easy as it looks for the people who are watching. Just to have a bunch of talent doesn't mean that you get to win a lot of games. So some early takeaways here. Coach Glass. What do you got? Any surprises? Any disappointments? Any. Any leading thoughts? What's your, what's your opening statement for this evening?
• 6:16
  Speaker C: I think the, the two. My two disappointments thus far, and I think one is the obvious one. All three of us had them in Omaha is Texas A and M. We don't have to beat that drum too long because I think that's getting beaten all over Twitter. But they're obviously the leading, the leading candidate for one of the biggest disappointments this year. I mean, they opened up as preseason number one and it has not gone well for the Aggies. They did. They did have a big weekend last weekend against Tennessee, but overall it's been pretty tough. And I think the other one for me, you and I both had the Mandy and the going to Omaha is Oklahoma State, who hasn't really been what either of us kind of anticipated them doing this year. So those two, I would say, are probably the two biggest disappointments so far. I think the other thing and Jonathan had asked me to do this. I, I do find it interesting. You know, we, we talked on the, the pre. The preview of the season show, the, the amount of travel that some of these teams are going to be undertaking. The four that we highlighted were BC traveling 21,000 plus miles, Rutgers 22, almost 23,000, Stanford 24 and Washington 24 and a half and their records. Right. So, like, we haven't necessarily seen this type of travel in really ever in college baseball. So BC traveling 21,000 miles, they're 17 and 18 and 711 in the ACC. Rutgers traveling almost 23,000 miles is 17 and 26 and 9. Stanford 24,000 miles traveled, they're 19 and 14 and 6 and 12 in the ACC. In Washington, 24,500 is 18 and 19 and 9 and 6. You know, we can debate the merits of, you know, are these teams, you know, where they should be, where they were, you know, who knows. But I do think that it's, you know, it's with that amount of travel to be bordering around 500/, you know, above, you know, obviously the conference play in the ACC I think is a little bit tougher than, than the Big Ten and we'll probably get into that later, you know, but BC being 711 and the ACC and 17 and 18, you know, they're doing a phenomenal job there. And STANFORD, you know, 19 and 14, they're not having a great AC first run in the ACC. But you know, I don't think it's a coincidence that only one of those teams is above 500 conference wise and they're all bordering on 500. You know, Stanford's the only one five games above 500 overall. You know, I think this travel does take a toll on these kids, you know, especially when two of those schools are actually really high end academic schools in B.C. and Stanford that, you know, these kids actually have to go to class in, in some semblance of the word in 2025, you know. So I, I do think that that's playing a factor in, in, in some of the records that you see in those conferences there too. So those would be my three things that I'll open with tonight. And we're, we're going to get into a lot more. I, I have all the stuff that we did from the preview show, so we'll, we'll bring it up as we go.
• 9:35
  Speaker B: What are some of your hot takes, Jonathan?
• 9:39
  Speaker A: Big thing for me is that I think there's a huge gap right now in terms of like the top end, you know, and everybody else I think just watching and kind of, you know, talking to a lot of people. I think the days of the four seed getting out of regional were probably over. There's just, there's, it's just too hard for a lot of those mid majors to, you know, to, to be able to compete because of the portal, because of, you know, the nil stuff, because of all that stuff. Like I, I just feel like it's, it's gonna be very hard for those, those teams. And I think, honestly I think there's disparity in the leagues. Like I, I think, you know, I think the ACC is a perfect example. I think the ACC's got, you know, a couple of teams, you know, at the top. But I, you know, I don't know the, what the rest of the league looks like. And then you even go one step further, you go to the acc. I mean, I, I think there's a tier system in the ACC or the SEC too is, you know, I, I think you look at Texas, you look at Tennessee, you look at Arkansas, I think you and I know LSU didn't play great this last weekend, but I think you, you could put them potentially in that mix. Like, I think there's a clear cut top tier there and then there's everybody else. So I think that'll be interesting to kind of see how it plays out. And Obviously we're only 15 games in, you know, in the SEC and I think we're 18 in and the ACC depending on, you know, the final stuff with their, their buys. But I think you look at, you know, there's, there's really a tiered system here, you know, and, and the halves have it and have nots. Is everybody else in all reality, you know, and especially competing for a national championship. I think I, I'll put it this way. I don't think what we saw in basketball with four number one seeds is going to be much different than we're going to see in Omaha here in next, you know, whatever and a half months or so.
• 11:55
  Speaker B: Yeah, it's going to be really interesting to see how it plays out and, and the matchups for the super regionals and stuff will obviously dictate quite, dictate quite a bit of that. But I mean, I think you hit the nail on the head. I think there's a couple teams that are seemingly kind of in a class of their own right now. The one team that they just keep winning, they keep climbing the ladder. It's not a star studded group. They've got the Canarella kid playing center who's like a legit prospect. They got the Nat kid, they're gonna run out on Fridays every night and he can beat anybody in any day is Clemson. And they don't have a ton of like high end prospects like some of these other rosters. Like if you look at D1 baseball's like top 150, Canarella is the only guy in this year's draft class who's considered to be like a top three or four round type of talent, but they just keep winning. And I think it's clear that coach Backich is extremely good at what he does. You know, taking Michigan to a college World Series final. Clemson hasn't never been able to get over that hump. Right. The, the only ACC team to ever win a national championship is Virginia. Are they good enough? It's going to be really cool to see when they go head to head with some of these SEC teams that you know on paper and look like they're better to see if Clemson can match up with them. That's something I'm really looking forward to come tournament time. Is, is this Clemson team and I think they're a true definition of a team when you look at how they're winning games like it's, it's a long lineup, it's not superstar studded, but it's a lot of guys who are really good at playing baseball. They play really hard. They competed a super high level and their bullpen's really good. The team that I'm probably most disappointed in and I, I don't think they're getting in the tournament. They have an opportunity to because they have built in RPI being in the acc. But Virginia is probably one of the biggest disappointments for me in terms of what they've been able to do so far. I think they're 85 or 86 in the RPI right now. Couple road ACC wins can change that big time and they could get themselves into that top 50. And then you start to get in the conversation of being an at large. But I think when you look at the amount of talent that they're running out there offensively this year, I think they've been let down a little bit by the pitching, but they're probably one of my biggest disappointments. I think one of the cool surprises is we, we do have a couple mid major teams that are making some noise like this Western Kentucky team is pretty fun to watch and I'm curious to see if they're going to be able to keep riding it the way that they are being 30 and 5 and they got some athletes. I mean their center fielder is all kinds of tooled up and does some really impressive things on a baseball field. I'm really curious to see when they get in the tournament, which I think at this point is probably a lock for the most part to see if they can make some noise in a regional as a two or three seed. But I think to your point, Jonathan, it's gonna be a lot of chalk and I think that that four seed stuff's going to be tough. I'm not sure if we're going to see much of that moving forward because I do think that the gap has continued to grow pretty significantly and I think it made a big jump this year that that top echelon, top upper echelon of college baseball is really, really separated itself from some of the mid major programs that in the past have been able to go into regionals and make some noise. So I did a little bit of a breakdown, right, And I want to walk through this. I think it'd be good education for folks who don't maybe don't watch college baseball that much. But I went through every single conference, looked into the RPIs and I think the crux of this conversation comes around after we go through this how many ACC and how many SEC teams end up getting in, but we'll take it conference to conference here, right? You've got the American Athletic Texas. San Antonio is the only at large team in that conference right now. So that's like a prime candidate to steal a bid. The American east is a one bid league. The A10 is a one bid league. The Atlantic Sun's a one bid league. Right now Big 12 is looking like six. Big east is possibly a two bid league. Big south is one. I got the Big Ten penciled in for four. I think we might be able to discuss a little bit around that. The Big west is two, CAA is a one bid league. Conference USA is a two bid league. Horizon, Ivy League, Mac Mac, Missouri Valley, Mountain West, Northeast, Ohio Valley, they're all one bid leagues. SoCon's a one bid league. Southland's looking like a two bid league. Swack 1, Sunbelt, 3, Patriot League, Summit, West Coast Whack are all one bit leagues. Which leaves us with 21 potential at large between the ACC and the SEC. I think the biggest question mark is like how many of these SEC teams are going to get in. I think it's going to be 13. I just think there's so much depth in that conference that it's going to be hard to validate taking an at large, especially if a couple of these bids get stolen. But what are your thoughts this one, Keith?
• 17:45
  Speaker C: 13 is such a high number. Like and the wild part is, I don't know if I necessarily disagree.
• 17:57
  Speaker A: But.
• 17:58
  Speaker C: 13 just seems so dang high. Like I mean I think you can definitely make an argument for at the very least 10 to 11. I think obviously and I Don't want this to seem like a cop out answer. I think a decent amount of this is going to shake out. Obviously over the course of, you know, we're at the midway point. We still have another four or five weeks left, plus the tournament, what that looks like, you know, I think there's at least two teams in the SEC that have zero shot, you know, and then there's another three that I think are fringy and then three to four that are fringy. But I mean it's the SEC and I hate this narrative. But like, I think that it's becoming ever apparent that this is the premier best baseball conference in college baseball and you can't necessarily, you know, ding it, you know, and I think, you know, kind of the precedent was set last year. We, we sat on here multiple times asking why Florida was continually ranked and Florida shouldn't have gotten in. And then they go to Omaha and, and you know, have a really good playoff run, you know, and I think, you know, for us as coaches, when we talked about it, it was more like your body of work from the season didn't necessarily warrant the fact that you should have had that opportunity. Right. Like, there's no denying that there was talent all over that field and they were really good at baseball, but they hadn't necessarily done it on the field and wins and losses, you know. So I think it's interesting, like I don't, I could be way off. I just think 13 is incredibly high. The problem is, and we can probably discuss this further, is who's going to take other bids, you know what I mean? Like, and I mean that from the standpoint of like, are there like the mid majors I don't think are going to have enough. They're not going to have the rpi, they're not going to have the wins and losses to be able to overtake some of these, you know, the big dogs out of the sec, which I think, you know, by default puts more ACC SEC teams into the tournament. So I don't necessarily, like, I guess in, in summation, I don't think that there's good, like it could be 13. I don't know if the bottom three warrant actually being in, but I certainly think that they're better than other teams that might have a little bit of a better record but haven't necessarily beat anybody. Right. Like you go, you know, you go win 10, 11, 12 games in the SEC like you had a pretty good year.
• 20:47
  Speaker A: I think the biggest thing too is just, I don't totally Disagree with you, Keith. I, I think, I think 12. I, I feel comfortable with 12 and right now I think their body of work plays that 12 play that. I'm, I'm cool with that. I think the interesting part is, is that you could potentially have Missouri go owing 30 in the SEC, which is wild number one. But and, and number two, like when you go through these schedules, you know in the past when the FTC had 14 teams for, for everybody that's watching this. Right. Like that doesn't follow super close like we do. The SDP had 14 teams for forever. You had to get to 13 wins and you were in basically if you were 13, I think it was 98. I think one team. I think Andy, you said that yesterday when we were on group chat. I think 13 wins basically got everybody in. 12 was like, I think it was like 50, 50 if you got the 12 wins depending. And most of those were depending on what you did in Hoover in the tournament. Well, the SEC now goes to 16 teams. You had Texas and Oklahoma with both seemingly at this point seem to be automatic and Texas is going to probably be a national seed. The SEC tournament though now is basically win in advance. Everybody gets in. All 16 get in and then win in advance. And the top four, I believe get two buys, top eight get one buy and then ever the, you know, nine to 16 get. They have to plan that Tuesday. What does the committee deem acceptable with now? 16 teams potentially a team going Owen 30 in that league, you know, because you get, let's say you get the 13 wins but you have three against Missouri, like and you lose opening round in the tournament. Like does that get you in? I mean on paper it should. But what about the 12 or 11 win team? I mean, I mean there's been teams in the past that have had 11 wins that have been very close to getting in in the sec. Like what does that look like now with the team that goes Owen 30 and you lose opening around in Hoover? You know, I, I think to say like, oh, there's gonna be 13 from the SEC or 14 from the SEC or even 12 from the SEC that get in. I, I think it has more to do with well, what's the, what are the records look like? And then what is the committee saying, hey, this is our new barometer in the SEC for teams to get in. You know, is it 12 wins, is it 13 wins? You know, like will they consider an 11 win team? You know, because that will determine more of how many they actually get in and how many they don't get in. Because I think just to say, hey, they're going to probably get 13. Okay, well, I'm comfortable, I'm comfortable right now. Today, 15 games into the SEC, turn into the SEC season with, you know, 12 very comfortably getting in. I don't think there's much of an argument for those top 12. I think the bottom four, I think you could play the 13th. I don't know who you would go with. I think it probably has to do with this Florida figure out a way to turn it on, you know. You know, I, I don't think Mississippi State or South Carolina is going to figure it out. But you know, you, you look at it that way and you say, all right, hey, like I think they can get 12 or 13, but you know, I still, like what, like if, if team 13 has 10 wins, you can't put team 13 in, right? Like you're gonna put a team at 10 and 20 in conference that loses on opening night in Hoover.
• 24:50
  Speaker C: No, I don't think so.
• 24:52
  Speaker A: So I think, I think that has more to do with it is like how many can get, how many get to 12? I think that's the way to look at is how many get to 12. Because if you get to 12, I think you have a really good argument and the committee can kind of stand on, well, you know, it's the sec, then you can put however many that is that, that get to that number.
• 25:12
  Speaker B: I mean, think about this, right? I'll play counterpoint to you. Florida is 4. Trying to do the math here they are 4 and 11 in the SEC right now. They're 30th in the RPI. And like that's where this gets squishy, is that you can be a bad SEC team and you're still. When you, when you do the math across the board because of the built in strength of schedule, in the fact that the out of conference, like Florida's 20 and 3 non conference with wins against Florida State and Miami, like so they're smashing these other schools, but they're not playing well on the weekends. Like, where do you pass your judgment? I think that's what we ran into last year when we were talking about them is like at the end of the day the body of work's not that impressive because ultimately you get judged by what you do in the sec. But is the SEC that much better than everybody else where it just kind of doesn't matter. And I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing, but it is Kind of telling that you can be 4 and 11 in that conference right now and you're. If you were to look at it today, RPI wise, like, it would be hard to argue that they shouldn't be in. But at the end of the day, they're one of the worst teams in the SEC right now. That's the tricky part about that conference. Right. I think it's less tricky with the ACC at this point, and I think that the conversation might end up coming down to. Right. Just say no major bids get stolen. Right? There'll be a couple, I'm sure. But say you get down to 19 spots for the ACC and the SEC. Are you taking the 13th best SEC team over the ninth best ACC team? Like, that's kind of what I think the conversation comes down to. And I don't know the exact answer, but I would probably side with the SEC in that. Like, I don't think the ACC is particularly strong this year. I think you have three really good teams. I think Clemson, Florida State and North Carolina are three really good baseball teams. I don't know if anybody else is really good. I think they're varying colors of good, but I don't think anybody's great.
• 27:40
  Speaker C: Georgia Tech's 29 and 7.
• 27:43
  Speaker A: Yeah. And Louisville, I mean, Louisville's played pretty damn good. They're. They played a pretty good schedule. I mean, they got Kentucky on, on the midweek, like.
• 27:52
  Speaker B: But if you, if you go, if you watch those guys, I don't know if they jump off the page, though. That's kind of what I'm getting at. And yeah, I understand what you're saying, and I, I don't disagree with you, but I also don't think that Louisville and Georgia Tech fall into that eight or nine spot in the acc. I think you're talking more about, you know, you're talking more about the Dukes, the Virginia Techs, the NC States.
• 28:15
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 28:16
  Speaker B: And the Wake Forest. Like, I mean, Wake Forest is another bad weekend away from in. Having to kind of climb back into this thing.
• 28:28
  Speaker C: Oh, without a doubt.
• 28:29
  Speaker A: I don't disagree with you. Like, and me and you had this conversation, I think about two weeks or a week and a half ago. Like, even, you know, even Clemson and, you know, in Florida State and North Carolina, like, you know, where do they shake out? If you, if you say, hey, let's just throw that in the sec. I mean, like, yeah, I mean, of course, I would say mid tier, four or five, somewhere in that range, six, you know, but we've seen, we've seen Teams in that tier win the whole thing too. So I think there's also something to be said about that. Like, you know, I mean Ole Miss backed their way in. They were, you know, seemingly Team 64 to get in, you know, a few years ago they won the whole thing. So like, I get that argument and I get that, you know, point. You know, it just feels like there's a four teams at the top and it just seems like to me there's everybody else. And I'm not saying that, that those four are the only four that can win the national championship because we know how this works. Like we've seen this. But right now when you watch them on, you know, every day and you know, a few times a week, there just seems to be a different class outside of those four, in my opinion.
• 30:02
  Speaker C: Yeah, I think the other thing too is, and I, you know, we talked about this probably two weeks ago or maybe even this week. I don't even know the, I feel like the acc, there's a top of the ACC and then everyone else is, is good but not great, which is why you're seeing the 500 records where like, because they're just beating each other up because they're, they're all in that same kind of mold of being a really good baseball team, but they're not great. Where the sec, I think you have, you know, a clear, you know, the, the top, the top five teams in the SEC don't haven't even gotten to double digit losses yet. Like LSU is the most losses and they're in Georgia and they have six like Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas all have five losses. You know, what are we doing? And Auburn, Oak, Alabama and Vandy are all like, they're having good years. I mean Alabama is single digit losses and they're in seventh or eighth in the conference, you know, so like, like that's why like I balk when we bring, you know, when, you know, do I think that Oklahoma should be in. Yeah, you know, but you get, you start Getting to below 5 like severely 3 games, 4 games below.500 at this point in the year is not the worst thing in the world, conference wise. But like I just wonder what, like what are they going to value when they get to the, the select. What is the selection committee value when you get to it? Like if you're you know, 12 and 18 in conference, like is that okay? Is that enough? And you know, I, if you, I have to make a decision today, like, I think that is enough. But I think that's why there's a disparity. Like I don't think, like, I think the ACC is way more top heavy and everyone else in the middle to the bottom is just like, is good, not great and just, you know, an average for the ACC baseball team. Right. Like, you know, I, because you take those teams and put them against some of the, you know, you've seen them play midweek against other teams. Like they're, you know, they're boat racing people left and right. You know. But you get into that conference, it's. It's tough sledding. You know, I just, that's how I feel about the acc. I mean, I could be dead wrong, but you know, I still think it's a really good conference. I just think the middle of it this year more than in years past is a lot more. They're all kind of the same team and that's why you're seeing 9 and 9, 9 and 9, 10 and 8, you know, all the way down for, you know, 7 and 11 because they're all kind of the same team. And you know, those games are all one run games. You know, you watch enough ACC baseball on the weekends. In SEC baseball, like they're tough game. I mean Arkansas, Georgia was a barn burner on Sunday night. What they go 12 or 13. Like what a great game to watch. You would like these games are battles and I think that those, I think that plays up when you get to selection time to like, yeah, Arkansas lost the series. But like, you know what, like that gave that third game was a legit coin flip that went 13 innings. Like you're not getting dinged for losing that series.
• 33:17
  Speaker B: That's the, and that's the crazy thing about the SEC is that week in and week out, things can change so quick. Like A and M was hung out to dry two weeks ago, three weeks ago. Well, they win a series at Tennessee, they go and absolutely blow the doors off of South Carolina this weekend.
• 33:41
  Speaker A: They'Re.
• 33:41
  Speaker B: Going to be in the mix. It's crazy to think but like they might be this year's Florida where they figure it out and you. They're the last team you want to see come tournament time. But then you look at a team like Arkansas, they close out the season with Texas, LSU and Tennessee. They could play their butts off and go three and six to close out the season. It's just, it's such a wild conference and things can change so quick. And that's kind of the beauty of it. Right? But it also is the thing at the end of the year where is the goal to get the best 64 teams in? Or are you going to weigh how you stack up against your competition in your conference a little bit more heavy? Because if you're trying to get the best 64 teams in, then basically South Carolina and Missouri are the only two teams that shouldn't be in the tournament. I don't know if that's the spirit of it, but you know, obviously I.
• 34:50
  Speaker C: Think, I think that that's where we're going.
• 34:54
  Speaker B: Yeah, it's going to become, it's going to become so hard that unless mid majors really schedule really well and you go out and you really challenge yourself in the beginning of the year, you challenge yourself midweek, you're just not going to be able to keep up with what's needed in terms of what those wins and losses are. Like. We were going through it earlier. There's teams that are, there's really good ball clubs that are 30 and eight that they're one bad conference weekend away from having zero chance of getting in this thing because they just do not have enough built into their schedule to overcome one bad weekend. You can have four bad weekend SEC and you're good to go.
• 35:41
  Speaker C: Right. I think the other, the hard part, and we've talked about this before, I think the hard part is it's twofold. You have a lot of some schools that don't want to schedule those mid majors because there's no benefit if they beat them. You're supposed to, if you lose, it can ding you. I think the other thing is, is that if you start looking around the country at the mid majors and what you can do scheduling wise to boost your rpi, it gets pretty tough in, in a good portion of the country. Like if you're in the Northeast, the, there's only a select few schools that you can play midweek that are going to give you a boost from a strength of schedule standpoint, you know, and especially nowadays, like, you know, what are you going to do? Go travel 6, 7, 8, 9 hours to play a midweek game on a Wednesday? I mean, do I think it's out of the question in three, four or five years? No, I don't. But right now that's not in the cards for a lot of these schools. I mean, Kansas State flying in to play. Who are they playing? Northeastern and a couple other teams this weekend, you know, but I, I don't know that like, you know, it is, you know, 10 merit like Marist can't go travel down to North Carolina on a Tuesday to play UNC or name said school that they could go play. You know what I mean? Like, that's a 10, 11 hour trip for, you know, so I, I like you're bound geographically by what you can do and unfortunately that's going to ding you in the long run. But I also, like, I also think some people don't want to play those games and that's a bigger conversation that we're probably going to start seeing games get whacked here in the coming weeks. But I don't think people want, like, they don't want to schedule those games, especially later in the year because it's like, yo, if we're a borderline on the bubble team and we play this team like there's no benefit to us winning and there's a huge benefit, there's a huge detractor from us losing. So why, why even risk it? You know, I think you're.
• 37:47
  Speaker A: Because the other part too is that the teams are on the bubble like that. Like you make a great point. Teams that are on the bubble like that their budgets can handle just paying the fee to that school that, to back out of the contract. So it's like there's literally nothing, like, there's no, there's no repercussions for it. It's just, you just walk into your boss's office and you say, we're not playing this game because it could potentially cost us to get into the tournament. And last school has no problem writing that check for canceling that game for absolutely no reason. And you don't even need to do anything. You're just, we're not playing. Thanks anyway.
• 38:22
  Speaker C: Yeah, literally all you have to do, we'll pay you. Thanks. Not playing. And you know, you could say field conditions, you could say whatever the hell it is you want to say, but you know, it's. I think that's where under the current setup, I think that's where mid majors are taking it on the chin because they don't have. It's getting increasingly harder to schedule to increase your rpi and especially geographically, you know, and, and you know Jonathan's point about budgets. Like if you're, if you're a northeast New England school, I mean there's, you know, you can throw a dart at a map and find a school within an hour and a half to two hours that you can go play midweek wise. You know, where it gets a little bit more difficult in other parts of the country. Like it's built into your budget where you have to go travel four or five Six hours because there's not as many teams geographically for you to play midweek, you know, because probably with the closer schools are all conference games that you're not going to schedule midweek to play anyways, you know, and I think that that's where it gets a little bit more difficult, you know, and honestly, like, I don't know if it moves the needle, you know, I think it moves the needle in a caa, in a Conference usa, in the Sunbelt, things like that. Right? Like, I don't know if it's going to move the needle in the Mac, in the nec, in you know, the Patriot League. And it's not, it's not a, it's not a knock on those conferences by any stretch of the imagination. It's just, it's, it's not going to really move the needle. I mean the only Fairfield in my 20 plus years of following this, like Fairfield's the only the Mac was a two bit league once when Fairfield went like 42 and eight a couple years ago. But that like that's an outlier. That's not something that's going to happen year in and year out, you know, and I, I think that that's where, you know, I certainly think if people are willing to play you, it can, it can work to your benefit. But, but I think there comes a point in time where like they're not necessarily going to want to play you because at the end of the year your RPI is going to be dinged by the bottom end of your conference which if you beat them and win the series, it's going to hurt them in turn as it goes. So I, you know, I think that's the one thing that amongst a lot of things, but one of the things that I think works against the mid majors is, is that scheduling aspect of it where like you just don't have the opportunity that these other schools have to be like, you know, I mean, shoot, if you're Troy, I mean we haven't even touched about Troy. Troy, Troy's unbelievable this year. But look at their midweeks. You know, they played, they went up and played Virginia Tech before they played JMU in conference. They've played, they're playing Alabama twice. They played Auburn, played Mississippi State. Like that's not like schools in the Northeast don't necessarily have that opportunity to do that and play all those schools and boost their RPI and give themselves an opportunity to have that as part of their schedule. Right? So like, you know, I think that that's the one of the things, especially for the Big East, a CAA like those type schools where you don't necessarily get that opportunity and you know, unfortunately, it's just the way of the world when it comes to what we're doing in college baseball right now.
• 41:41
  Speaker B: I think you bring up some Northeast teams and you get into this conversation of. With Northeastern is kind of a prime example of if you're one of those teams who expects to be an outliers team, you don't really want to play Northeastern at the beginning of your year because they can go in and beat you. So I think it might even be hard for some of those schools that are in that category in the Northeast. You know, Yukon would be another one that like, you don't really want them rolling in week two because you might like it might not end well. And you know, Northeastern did that last year and obviously they slipped up in the conference tournament, which is, you know, part of the conversation. But, you know, they went out and played Arizona and played them nails out there. Like, you know, if you're one of those teams that they're kind. They're scary teams to play and being in that region makes it so tough because, you know, there's. If you're. Northeastern, BC and Yukon are really the only two teams that are going to move the needle for you midweek.
• 42:48
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 42:49
  Speaker B: Really that simple. Like, nobody else is moving the needle. Like, there's good programs. But if you're Northeastern, you're supposed to go and beat Fairfield. As good as Fairfield is, like, they're gonna hurt. It's gonna hurt your RPI if you lose to Fairfield.
• 43:02
  Speaker C: Yes. That's just, that's just the, the nature of the beast.
• 43:09
  Speaker B: Now speak. Speaking of mid majors. Right. We got a couple of them that are. They're making some noise. Right. I'll. I'll throw some names out there. And let me know if any of these intrigue you in terms of being able to make some noise come tournament time is, you know, you got Cal Poly, who if you were to cut it right now, like they're probably getting a host, like there's a decent chance that they could host. There's 17 in the RPI. I think you probably get a little bit more host activity out west with UCLA and Oregon and Oregon State in the mix to kind of do that kind of stuff. You got Cal Poly, you got Dallas Baptist, you got Texas, San Antonio, you got Irvine McNeese, Troy, Western Kentucky. All of those teams I just rattled off are in the top 32 in RPI right now. Did any of those guys stand a chance to make it? You know, any of those teams got a chance to be super team?
• 44:16
  Speaker A: I think it's true. I just kind of what Keith hit on with, you know, their, their midweek, like you're going to be so battle tested in the Sunbelt, plus you throw in that midweek's, you know, group of scheduling that they have Southern Miss, twice, Alabama, I think twice Auburn ones like went up to Virginia Tech. Like, I mean they're groomed to win a regional. Like that's, that's what that schedule does for you. You know, the, the Sunbelt, you know, on the weekends plus that midweek. I mean, you know, maybe you have some cupcakes early on, you know that they're pretty easy wins for them. But I, I just think when you test yourself like that on the midweek plus you have that Sunbelt schedule and you can say whatever you want about the Sunbelt. I mean some of them might be down a touch this year compared in years past, but not much, you know, I mean they're the sixth ranked RPI in terms of conferences. Like you, you look at it and you say, you know, they, they have really done a good job of testing themselves and going into regional type atmospheres and you know, the committee won't do them any favors. They'll be a two seed and they'll have to go to like Auburn or somewhere, LSU or somewhere ridiculous. But you know, you play that in the midweek, you've done your job in the Sunbelt, in my opinion, you're going to be poised to win. I think their biggest thing is it's just going to be geographically there. It's going to be tough because they're going to put that somewhere as a 2 seed that's going to probably be in the SEC.
• 45:53
  Speaker B: I think that's really curious to see if any of these west coast teams, specifically Irvine and Poly, you get them in a regional, they both have a chance to host. Can, can they get out of it? Right? Because last year we had four ACC and four SEC teams in the College World Series. Are we gonna break that streak? Like, if you're gonna ask me again right now to revamp it, you never know how it's going to line up. Like you don't know who's gonna match up in the supers and stuff. But like it's probably five SEC teams and three ACC teams that are there. Who are some teams that might be able to break that trend of it basically being an ACC SEC battle for the title like there any Big 12 teams? Oregon State maybe?
• 46:45
  Speaker C: I think, I think Oregon State can get there.
• 46:48
  Speaker A: Yeah, I agree with that. I think you could see somebody in the Big 12. I mean, I know I've been on this train, you know, and we were joking about it, you know, earlier this week. But I think of West Virginia, I mean, Western is 25 and 9 or something like that, or 29 and 5. I'm sorry, there's somebody. I, I think the Big 12 is. I don't think we're just gonna see an acc, sec, you know, Omaha this year. I don't know, I could be wrong, but I, I think you're gonna get somebody. Oregon state, a Big 12. I don't know.
• 47:30
  Speaker C: Not to cut you off. TCU has been playing well lately. I wouldn't be shocked if TCU made a run. I mean, there's. They're 28 and 9. Like, I wouldn't be shot. Like that's a team that. Like those, like them in West Virginia, I think out of the Big 12, you know, at Oregon State, you know, I mean, I would suppose if we're talking about the Big Ten, like maybe a former Pac12 team makes a run, but I don't think anyone traditionally from the Big ten this year. Right. Like, I mean, I could be wrong, but doesn't seem that way. I mean, I think Cal Poly is, is super interesting because they, you know, they had Hawaii at home and took two out of three and Hawaii was rolling. I certainly think they can host. I don't necessarily know if they, they get out of a super. If they get matched with an SEC school. But I think the other thing, like, you know, the same like the acc, you know, I said it before. It's, you know, they just, they're beating up on each other. Like, what does that look like come tournament time? Like, are they go like, does that, does beating up on each other actually prepare you for that type of tournament setting or is it just going to be another, you know, maybe they get beat by whoever the hell it is they're matched up with. But I don't, I don't think we're seeing sec. I'm with Jonathan. I don't think we're seeing sec, acc, all Omaha this year.
• 49:10
  Speaker B: We, you know, we're talking about Troy and they won the series versus Coastal, which is 100%. That's meaningful. But Coastal sitting eight RPI right now. Can you think about this? Can you come in second in your conference and host over the first place team? Is there a scenario where Coastal Finished second in the Sunbelt. But because of what they've done outside of their Sunbelt, could they host with Troy not hosting? Because right now, Postal would host.
• 49:53
  Speaker C: Great question. I think I. I think that they probably could, given the disparity in RPI. Like Coastal's 8 in Troy is what, in the 30s, 32, 33, 32. Somewhere in there. I lead.
• 50:07
  Speaker A: I think. I think, yes. I think, yes, that the answer is yes.
• 50:11
  Speaker B: Coastal would be an electric regional host, by the way, for those.
• 50:14
  Speaker A: The thing with Coastal is that. And. And similar to Troy. I know you guys will agree with me on this. Similar to Troy, their midweeks are legit. They're playing South Carolina, they're playing Clemson, they're playing, you know, Wilmington, they're playing College of Charleston. Like, they're not playing, you know, these cupcakes on the. On a Tuesday where you can, you know, justify saying, well, you know, Troy's. And nothing against Troy schedule. I just complimented on what they did with their schedule. But Coastal is playing a similar type of schedule, and if you just look at it, and the way the RPI shapes out is that Coastal's higher even though they're in second place. I don't have any problem with Coastal hosting. I don't think coastal, even at 8, right now, they're at 8. I don't think they're a national seat because I think you would. I think when you shook it all out, I think you would probably rank Oregon State and LSU higher than them, even though I know the RPI doesn't tell you that. And I think part of that also is that if they don't win, you know, the Sunbelt, that you have to also account for that. But I have no problem being. With them being a host and Troy being a, you know, two seed. I would love if Troy got a two seed and didn't have to go to, you know, a national seed, you know, if Auburn's a national seed or LSU's, and, you know, LSU won't be a national c. But if LSU's a national seed, even Georgia, like, I would prefer them, you know, to not put Troy with that and put them with, you know, maybe that 11 to 16 range as the two seed, but, you know, and there's only so many one seeds you can hand out. There's only so many two seeds you can hand out.
• 51:56
  Speaker B: I mean, you talk about the schedule, and I want to make another point after this, but, like, postal, two wins against Kansas State, a win against Washington, who. Yeah, they're 19 and 18 but they're top four in the Big Ten right now. They go play Alabama. They beat NC State. They play Wilmington. They sweep Rutgers. They play North Carolina. They take two or three from ecu. They play Wake. They play Campbell midweek. They play Clemson midweek. They gotta win there. They play in Wilmington. They're going to play Wake Forest again. They're going to play who play in Wake Forest right now? You know, they play Charleston. Like there's no, there's very few cakewalk non conference games that they have on their schedule. Right. They're probably the worst team that they played midweek on their schedule right now. Looking at it real quick is St. Joseph's and St. Joseph's is the best team in the A10. They. There's no cake there.
• 53:04
  Speaker C: No. And I think it lends itself to. I think Jonathan was talking about earlier like the tears within even Division 1 college baseball. Like the Sunbelt is a phenomenal baseball conference in college baseball. But I also think like, I mean Coastal wanted Natty nine the not too distant past, you know, but like there's goes to kind of what I was talking about earlier. Like Coastal is also in a unique spot where they can play all of these teams midweek. And they are really good. They're in a really good conference and everyone knows that they're. If you. They're in that unique spot because they're in that upper tier of what we would consider a mid major school. Like, I don't even know if I like from a.
• 53:52
  Speaker A: Sure.
• 53:52
  Speaker C: From a budget standpoint they are but you know, they do everything first class there and they're really good.
• 54:00
  Speaker A: Right.
• 54:01
  Speaker C: So like I, it's, you go play Coastal, you schedule a midweek. Like, you know, no matter what, it's not going to hurt you win, win or lose. Because they schedule super tough. They're having a really good year. If they, you know, you beat them at home, awesome. You go into their place and beat them even better. But if you lose, like, hey, you know what? Not the worst loss in the world. They're 8th in RPI and they have 30 wins already. Like not terrible, you know, and, but like those types of teams, the Troy's, the Alabamas, the Cal Poly's, like they like they're not, they're the outliers to all of this. You know, I think Coastal because of recency, like they're not necessarily considered and I wouldn't necessarily consider them an outlier because they do this year in and year out. But every year we have these type, these mid majors that schedule, super tough, have a really good year. And then we're talking about them at the end of the year of like, hey, you know, Indiana State for two years, right? Like, they were at the top end. They scheduled pretty tough and were, you know, had pretty good. Had really high RPIs and had pretty good, you know, postseason runs, you know, But I don't. I think Coastal is uniquely positioned because they can play all these people and everyone's willing to play them because they know it's not. It's not a negative to win or lose. Like, it's a positive to win against them, but if you lose, it's not a negative because they're just as good. They just happen to be in the Sunbelt, not in the ACC or sec. I think.
• 55:29
  Speaker A: I actually think they're better positioned geographically to schedule than even like a Troy, because I think the ACC needs to do a little bit more with the midweeks than the SEC does. So, like, going to Coastal of your wake is a big deal to win. Like, going, you know, beating North Carolina on a neutral site is a big deal, or North Carolina beating Coastal on a neutral site is a big deal. And I think the ACC sometimes needs more help, especially when you get into. Not necessarily to get into the tournament.
• 56:06
  Speaker B: That's.
• 56:06
  Speaker A: That's. That's not what I'm talking right here. To host, to be a national seed, they need more help in the ACC than not then more so than the sec, so they can position themselves to play Coastal on the road, in a neutral site, even at home, because they know that that's going to help them. Whereas it's even harder for Troy because Auburn, Alabama, lsu, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, like all of them had, like, oh, well, it's the sec. Like, doesn't matter what we do on a Tuesday because we're going to, you know, insert other schools here this weekend, and our RPI is going to go up, you know, eight spots no matter what we do.
• 56:54
  Speaker B: Yeah, Like, Wake is playing Coastal right now, and they're up 95 in the eighth. That wind moves the needle for Wake Forest. It sounds crazy, but that win could be the difference between weight, being a two and a three seed, like playing that game. So it's interesting. The other thing I want to bring up a friend, a good friend of ours brought this up is. And this is complete guesswork, but I think there's going to be more west coast teams in this year then we've seen in recent years. Like we talked about, a Poly, Irvine, UCLA is going to be in A position to potentially host Oregon, Oregon State. You know, those are all teams that look like, you know, firmly and, you know, you got Grand Canyon, you got Arizona, you got Arizona State. Call them west coast, even though, you know, obviously they're not on the actual coast, but we'll call them in that Western region. Like, there's more teams in that region this year that I think are definitely going to get in the tournament. Is the committee going to get lazy again and just not really seated out A true. Like, 1 through 64 and try to make the brackets as competitive as they can be, or you get rewarded for being really good. Right. If you're the. Say UCLA ends up as a. Say they just roll the Big Ten and they end up as a national seed somehow. Are you gonna. Are you gonna be lazy and not reward them and just throw Arizona and Arizona State in their regional? Because it's convenient. I really hope that that doesn't happen, and I hope that they get to the point where. Because it'd be kind of hypocritical to say, oh, well, Stanford can fly across the country three times to play or four times to play ACC teams, but we're not going to travel them for the NCAA tournament because it's more convenient. How do we feel about that? Is that something that we think is going to happen again?
• 59:04
  Speaker A: So for everyone that has watched this show, and if you watch the last few years, you know, my very, very, very honest opinion on teams west of the Texas line, we'll just call it. And I think. I think those west teams have done a phenomenal job. You know, they. They've had a phenomenal year. UCLA's had a great year. Oregon's done a great job. Like, Arizona's done a great job. You know, obviously, we talked about Cal Poly. My hope is, is that we are, and I think that we are, because, you know, I watched. You know, I watch a ton of college baseball, but, you know, the. When I wake up in the morning, the first thing I do is pop up my app and I'm like, all right, who can I watch it, you know, at the earliest time possible and turn it on and, you know, and get it cranked up. But what I've noticed in the last few weeks is, you know, when you're watching normal tv, just regular tv, not the ESPN app, there's a ton of games on tv. And I think if the NCAA does that, what we. What you just said, Andy, and just basically geographically puts Arizona, ucla, Arizona State, you know, and then insert wack team here. Sorry, I just had an issue. I think it'd be a huge disservice to the entire tournament. You know, we got teams flying. Kansas State's flying to Boston to play on Tuesday or Wednesday. Everybody can fly. Like, we're good. This has gotten to the point where there's enough money being made. There's enough games on tv. I mean. I mean, you see games on Sundays. There are some games on Sundays on ESPN. Not even ESPN2, ESPN, just regular ESPN. There's games on. On Sunday. The SEC network has games on all the time. Like, we've gotten to the point where we can do that. Seed it the right way, seat it one through 64 the whole way, straight down the list. One goes here, you know, 17 is, you know, is. Is. Is, you know, the 17th seed is going to play this, you know, in that is the two seed in the 16th bracket, like, seated the whole way. But, you know, and if you want to get convenient with some of it, you know, like, I have no problem with the four seeds if you want to, like, you know, make it a little bit more geographically easy. But at least 1 through 32, at least 1 through 32, let's just see that the way it's supposed to be seated. Because it's such a big deal. It's. And it's. It's so special that don't like just sitting there, just being like, oh, yeah. Well, it's easy because Cal Poly can draw it to ucla. Well, we know that Cal Poly can drive to ucla, but is that. Is Cal Poly the equivalent of the 2 seed with their resume to UCLA? And if not, then fly in the Clemson or fly into work, you know, wherever I insert, you know, place here. But at least 1 through 32, let's just see that the right way. And again, I don't have an issue. I know it's not. We're not, you know, men's basketball, we're not football. Three and four seeds. If you want to make it a little bit more geographic and it makes sense, do it that way. But at least 1 through 32, we gotta see straight through the line because it's just not fair to those teams that are in that 1 through 32 range to not see it the right way.
• 1:02:59
  Speaker B: I agree 100%. I mean, to your point, like, you could have a team like Troy having to go to LSU's regional because it's convenient, you know, you play your asses off all year and you get into a regional that your backs against the Wall from game one, you know, not that, you know, playing the 16 seed is going to be a ton easier. But as we mentioned, like, it's a lot harder to when at a place like LSU than it is, you know, to go and travel and play at, you know, ucla. You're not talking the same atmosphere, you're not talking the same home field advantage. Like, that's part of the big thing of being able to host is that, you know, especially these SEC schools, like, if you get to host, the advantage isn't just in the seating. The advantage is, is that you're LSU and you get to play in front of 12,000 people that are all rooting for. For you. I mean, that's a, It's a wild advantage to have.
• 1:03:57
  Speaker A: And I just think, like, the amount of money and nil stuff and, you know, with the budgets, like, you know, and we've hit on all this stuff tonight, everyone has spent enough money that I'm okay. All right, you want to say, hey, we, you know, we can't afford to seed one through 64. That's fine. But we got to see one through 32. It's not fair. It's just not fair. Those teams have had such good years. If you're one of the 32 best teams in the country, you have to be rewarded for that. And just to just say, hey, you know, Cal Poly, you know, you're going to have to go to UCLA because it makes sense, because you can drive there. That's. We're not, we're not getting any closer to really advancing this sport if that's the way we're going to continue to do things. And I know people would argue that we should do one through 64, and I, I am one of those people that I think we should see 1 through 64. But I also understand, you know, the budgets, all that other nonsense. We got to see 1 through 32.
• 1:05:09
  Speaker C: Well, the wonder is, with the, the amount of money that's coming in baseball, is that something that is feasible in the next three? Is it feasible now? Is it feasible in three, four or five years of legitimately doing one through 64? Like, I would prefer one through 64, but you know what I mean? Like, why is it. There's a lot of money that's being generated through baseball now? I mean, you just said it's on the SEC network. There's a rumor flying around that Sunday night baseball is gone and it's going to, you know, they're going to take over and do college next year on ESPN instead of Sunday night night baseball, which would be electric, you know, but what is there going to. Like, is that feasible in the next three, four, five years? Like, it's got. I think it's got to be like. And ultimately, like, what? I mean, I could see you splitting hairs regionally on four seeds, but, you know, at the end of the day, like, why can't. Why can't you fly Team 64 to Oregon State if they're the 1 seed? You know what I mean? Like, they've already. They've already done stuff like that. I mean, Columbia went out to Corvallis to, you know, three or four years ago. They've already done it. Like, what's to say you can't take Team 64 and fly them to the west coast or down to Texas or LSU or Arkansas, like, mom, it's not that big of a deal. Now, logistically, I know what that looks like. However, I'm just saying, from a money standpoint, you know, 1 through 64, like, then we have a. As true a tournament as we're going to get, which is what I think as fans, everyone would really like, right? Like, you get to actually see the best. You know, we. We can legitimately be like, all right, it's 1 through 64. It's seated. This is what it looks like. Go. Instead of sometimes where, like, you get those fringe two seeds like you're talking about, and it's like, damn, they're up again. Like, they should have been a two seed, like they were a borderline host. They should have been a two seed in the 16 regional instead of the three because it was convenient for them flying or driving wise to go there and that, you know, they were up against it from that standpoint where, like, maybe they, as a two seed, they sneak out of that 16 regional, and now all of a sudden they can go play the. I mean, you're going to play in the one, but what are you going to do now?
• 1:07:36
  Speaker A: I mean, I think you're 100% right. You know, I mean, the three of us know, we've. We've worked in athletic departments and have an idea of, you know, some of the answers. You know, I don't disagree with anything you just said. I'm 100% on board with it. I. I just hope we can start maybe with one through, you know, 32 and, you know, and the fact that we went. We went from, you know, not knowing to 1 to 16, I think it's a good. It's a good starting point, right? Like, we, you know, we went to that two years Ago or last? Two years ago and. Yeah, two years ago. And like, I think, you know, now I think it's time, like, all right, like, let's, you know, ease our way into 1 to 32 and, you know, and then we, you know, and then again, I don't think anyone's saying that you're wrong. The way to feed this whole thing is 1 to 64. It's very simple. There's no if, ands or buts. I don't think anyone that really watches college baseball would argue against that.
• 1:08:39
  Speaker B: Couldn't agree more. Any closing thoughts? Anything to keep an eye on here.
• 1:08:49
  Speaker A: I think for me, like, and I'm a little bit of an SEC junkie, I've kind of turned into that, like, in the last few years, you know, how many teams get to 13 wins? You know, kind of what we talked about earlier, you know, when me and Keith went back and forth with it, you know, how many teams can get to, you know, 13. I think. I think Texas A and M is a really cool story. You know, it's funny, you know, they get no hit and run rules, you know, on Friday or Thursday night, I think it was against Tennessee. And they're. I mean, they're all left for dead. I mean, I would say that most people that are Texas A supporters were probably keeping a close eye to Friday to see if Michael early was going to lose his job mid year. I mean, I think that was. I think that was a. That was. That was a very realistic, you know, thing. If they go and get their doors blown off twice against Tennessee, there's a possibility that he gets off the plane if he doesn't have a job, like, and that's crazy, you know, and it's crazy because I think it's a really, really, really good thing for our sport. Shows the support, it shows the level of importance to win. I'm not saying I would agree with that because I coached and I did this for a living for a long time. And I would never want someone to lose their job based off of, you know, 30 games into a season or 35 games into a season. But I think at that level, there was a realistic possibility that he was getting off the plane back in Texas and he was not gonna have a job. If they got pounded twice and they do the opposite and they give it to Tennessee twice. They pound Mississippi State three times, scoring eight runs in the. In the ninth on Sunday, and they're right back in the mix. I mean, they are. They couldn't be more squarely in a Mix. I'll put it that way.
• 1:10:55
  Speaker B: So I think they're scary right now.
• 1:10:59
  Speaker A: I mean, you don't want to play them.
• 1:11:03
  Speaker B: They look like the number one team the last seven games they played.
• 1:11:08
  Speaker A: The crazy part with them, too, is. And I know we talked about this a few weeks ago with another one of our good friends, they had the. They. Their offense was always what they were going to live on, but they pitched it like. And you remember this better than me. I think they were like, what were they, third or fourth in the SEC through, like, the first month of the SEC play. And pitching.
• 1:11:33
  Speaker B: Yeah, they're starting pitchers. They were off of the food chain.
• 1:11:38
  Speaker C: They were. Yeah, they were super high. They. They couldn't hit themselves out of a wet paperback.
• 1:11:43
  Speaker A: And all. Everyone. All we talked about all off season was, you know, while we at, like. Like go through the list, like, Early's a hitting guy. Like, they're just. They're gonna mash, mash, mash, mash, mash. And it was like, nah, that we actually can't. You know, we can pitch. We can hit. And now it's like, oh, we might have figured this thing out. And there's six and nine. Basically, all they have to do is. And we talked about this earlier, all they have to do is just be the same team they were the first half, and they're probably in. And the team that we thought we were getting and the team that played the first half was garbage, and they just got to do that again. Yeah, I mean, I need to make.
• 1:12:38
  Speaker C: Well, I opened with it being my biggest disappointment and not, like, more or less for these reasons. Like, you can. At least in my mind, like, they're not mutually exclusive. Like, you could be a big disappointment at this point, starting as the number one overall team that we all raved about and being in this position, but, like, they're still in a position right now where they can go out and make a legit run at this. It'll lessen the disappointment, obviously, but I think this is. This is also why we love this game and why baseball is so cool. Like, I mean, I don't know. Michael early, he seems like a phenomenal human being, but, like, they were calling for that guy's head. You're 100% right. Like, if they got their doors blown off in Tennessee, like, it was going to be like in Shrek when they show up at the. With the pitchforks and the. Just looking to run them out of town, and they turn around like, they won that game. And in our group chat, it was like, yo, they just saved his job. And then they win. And then they win. They blow the doors off of South Carolina. It's like, yo, this, this is not terrible. This is the team that we were expecting. And I like, it's. I just, like, I think, you know, the sec, you know, I've become a little bit less of a junkie than you are. But like, I just think, like Andy talked about earlier, like, the swings in that conference can be so wild. Like you, you have one or two bad weekends and all of a sudden you're like, holy, like, holy crap. We were sitting in third and now we're in ninth because we had two bad weekends. And it, like, ultimately it doesn't, it doesn't ding you from the, the opportunity of getting into the tournament. But like, when you start talking hosting a regional or hosting being a national seat and hosting supers like that, that's a huge swing. You know, I just think, I think it's impressive what they've done done. You know, I think the, I'm interested to see what happens in the, what plays out in the Big 12 because I think West Virginia is, has done a really good job. Obviously at this point they're 30 and 4. TCU has been playing great baseball. Arizona is having, you know, another good year. So I'm interested to see what, what kind of shakes out in that conference. You know, the Big Ten again. I don't, I don't know what to expect. I think it's just like Pac12 went west in the Big Ten, which is a bizarre thing to think about. My sneaky pick in Penn State's not having a terrible year. You know, they're, they're 22 and 12, 10 and 8 in conference, like sit in the middle of the pack. So interested to see how that conference continues to shake out. But, you know, I think the one thing, and I'd be remiss to not bring this up as a, a former high end academic coach, the dude from Yale who's leading the country in ERA with like a.19, it's a freshman, is absolutely absurd at this point in the year. Like, I don't care what conference you're playing in, where you're pitching, what you're doing. Like, if you have a.19 ERA right now and leading the country, you are shoving it every time you go out there. And I, like, I just think that they're like, I would be remiss not to at least mention something of the nature from an academic standpoint, but just from a We talked a lot more about teams and not people tonight. But that is an absurd stat on April 15th that you're pitching at a.
• 1:16:19
  Speaker A: Point or five assistant to stop hitting them up. Not going anywhere.
• 1:16:27
  Speaker B: Nope.
• 1:16:28
  Speaker A: But like that, like I have insider information. He ain't going anywhere. Stop hitting him up. Don't waste your time. You're all good.
• 1:16:34
  Speaker C: It's absurd. Think about that. 0.19 like that. That's literally. And this is the coach's dream, like, you just take the baseball and you hand it to him and you're like, hey, we'll see a see after the game, head to the office. I'm just gonna go hang out in the third base box and let me.
• 1:16:55
  Speaker A: Know if you need anything. I'll be in my office.
• 1:17:00
  Speaker C: That kid's absurd. You know, but I, I, again, like, I, I think some of the things like, you know, the mid major stuff, like, I'm sure we'll cover as we get towards the end of the year, but, you know, I think there are some good teams in the big, you know, St. John's is having a really good year. You know, UConn and Xavier is having a great year. The Patriot League seems to be a little bit more like that's they're all equal this year, which I think is an interesting thing for that league, you know, so. And our Fighting Red Foxes are sitting middle of the pack here, Andy. So we'll see what we can do the back half of this year for the Mighty Foxes. But those would be my takeaways going into the, at the midway point. I'm excited to kind of see what shakes out over the next four or five weeks because, like, this is meaningful baseball. And I feel like if you, if you haven't watched college baseball yet, like, now's the time to dial in because, like every weekend from here on in matters in a lot of these conferences. So dial in and see some serious baseball being played over the course of the next couple weeks.
• 1:18:02
  Speaker A: Yeah, I'm gonna go one more. Can I go one more?
• 1:18:06
  Speaker B: Yeah, go ahead.
• 1:18:08
  Speaker A: If you're, if you're an AD or you're just listening to this podcast and you're watching, don't be scared of hiring a stud assistant coach. Don't be scared of it. I think one of the things we've seen and we talked about a little bit earlier, and these guys are rock stars that are head coaches. Tony's a rock star. You know, Wes Johnson, rock star. Like, Schloss is phenomenal. Like, these guys are awesome. Like, don't Be scared to hire the assistant. Like these guys are such good coaches. It means more now to be a really, really, really good coach because of these, the portal, because of the culture that you can establish. It means even more now than it did 10 years ago when we were, all three of us were doing this. To be a freaking stud of a head coach. And so many guys get overlooked because they don't have quote unquote head coaching experience. They don't have know whatever pro experience. If somebody rocks your world in an interview, hire them because the odds are that dude's gonna turn your program into a star. And in this landscape more than anything, players, if you're listening, go, go play for a dude that's a stud. Just if somebody wows you so much in, you know, on your visit on the phone, go do it because it's so important right now. And Andy hit on this earlier. We've seen it. All these guys, you just go through the list. You, we can just go. We just roll down right down the RPI list. They're all studs. They all been stud assistants. Go do it.
• 1:20:02
  Speaker B: Yeah. 100 and we're gonna see guarantee you you're gonna see somebody try to hire a big name head coach. You know, they either were retired or they're going to try to go to pro ball. And it ain't gonna work when you've got super talented, hungry assistants that are proven in terms of finding players, establishing culture and no, I agree with you. Quick note on the omen kid and I'm glad you brought him up, Keith, because it's a, it's awesome in so many ways. I think it's worth noting that it's not bells and whistles. Like it's power stuff. It's 92 to 96. It's a breaking ball, it's composure, it's fastball, up, down, in, out. I mean I watched him throw against Columbia. And anybody who knows anything about college baseball knows that Columbia on every single weekend is a bear to handle offensively. Incredibly well coached, talented offensive players, they have a plan, they're tough, they grind out at bats. And this kid was just beyond impressive. It's really cool to see a kid with that kind of talent playing in the Ivy League. And I think it speaks to kind of what you're saying, Jonathan, about go where you feel really good about the people. Because if you shine and you're really good, it doesn't really matter what uniform you have on. It doesn't matter in the long run. Like you need to go Somewhere where you can play, you need to go somewhere where you can pee and if you do it with good people. So yeah, I think you guys kind of covered most of what I was going to get at. I'm just excited to see how this is going to play out. Like, I think you have some mid major teams that I hope they're able to keep up what they're doing. You know, the UTSAs, the Western Kentucky's, like, I want to see those teams in the tournament. I think they're fun to watch. I think they've got some personality, I think they've got some serious talent and I want to see them in that regional setting. So I hope that some of those mid majors are able to keep it going. And yeah, it's going to be a good stretch here for the, for the last five or six weeks. Excited to watch some baseball and we'll will definitely bring this group back together before the conference tournament starts and maybe we'll, we'll make, make a fleeting effort at picking who we think is going to end up in Omaha this time. I'm not sure how well we did the first time around.
• 1:22:30
  Speaker A: Keith's got the records. I don't have any records. Keith's got all the records for us, so he's going to hold us accountable.
• 1:22:37
  Speaker C: We're, to be completely honest, we're. There's only one, two. There's really the, I mean A M. All three of us had A M.
• 1:22:54
  Speaker A: Yeah, I wouldn't count right now.
• 1:22:56
  Speaker C: No, no, I'm, I'm just saying from, like if he picks A and M just right today, A M is an if he pick by all three of us. Andy and I had wake, which is iffy right now. Andy and I are uva.
• 1:23:13
  Speaker B: That one kills me.
• 1:23:15
  Speaker C: Oklahoma State and the only other one is Duke that Andy had. But the rest are all, I mean Arkansas, Tennessee, Florida State, Georgia, lsu, Florida. I mean Arizona's on there, but Arizona, I mean they're having a good year. Like that's not out of the way.
• 1:23:36
  Speaker A: Category because I think, I mean, right.
• 1:23:41
  Speaker C: You had Florida, but.
• 1:23:48
  Speaker A: Too much to drink last year.
• 1:23:51
  Speaker C: But I don't, I, I, I don't think.
• 1:23:54
  Speaker A: What are you gonna listen to me?
• 1:23:55
  Speaker C: Like, come on to our point earlier though, like, I like Florida. I wouldn't be shocked if we look up in three weeks and Florida's, you know, back in the conversation of being a host and all of a sudden it's like, okay, like this, you know, right now. Yeah, I'll give you iffy, but I, I don't like. I don't think it's, you know, it's. I don't think I wouldn't put them in the same as, like, Oklahoma State.
• 1:24:20
  Speaker A: Yeah. That's all fair enough.
• 1:24:26
  Speaker B: All right, well, we'll do this again soon. Jonathan, you're the man. Thank you for coming, everybody. Thank you for listening.
• 1:24:34
  Speaker A: Let me get on here and chop it up with you. So.
• 1:24:37
  Speaker B: Hell yeah. Welcome anytime. We'll have you back soon. Thanks, everybody, for listening. Tune in next week. Thank you for listening this week. If you're watching on YouTube, go ahead and hit that subscribe button and smash that like button for us. Check us out on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcast as well as Spotify. You can follow us on Twitter and Instagram MDBaseball. If you want to find out what me and Keith do to help families and players navigate the recruiting process, go ahead and check us out on emdbaseball.com take a few minutes to check out our new online academy. I promise you'll get some good information out of that. Thanks again for listening. Check in with you next week.