Latest / College Baseball Now / Weekend 13 Recap & Weekend 14 Preview: Upsets and Wars | Ep. 035

Transcript

Weekend 13 Recap & Weekend 14 Preview: Upsets and Wars | Ep. 035 · College Baseball Now

0:00
Speaker 1: We've got a full discussion of weekend thirteen results, including
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UCLA's last second w, Auburn's big one on the road,
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a coastal Carolina drop, and some craziness on Rocky Top.
0:11
Plus with a busy week ahead, we're picking week fourteen
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well in advance. Come and join us for this episode
0:17
of college baseball.
0:18
Speaker 2: Now, yeah, there ain't no problems, then no problems, don't want.
0:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, let me time say yet they know what was
0:35
gone for a minute? Hit to be out beat, didnt
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grab a couple wins with a bead? This even known
0:39
the kid I had to do a PAGs. We can
0:41
never beat average and they want.
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Speaker 3: To pull them with the point they don't know no status.
0:45
Speaker 1: I don't need so coach son run a week God,
0:46
I want to test that to the listening to control
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runs a game? Best to leave you signing.
0:51
Speaker 4: Ducks counting now my wins?
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Speaker 1: Yeah, I love it when they count me out and counting.
0:56
Speaker 2: Up the least sudden shame Why minted doubs leave I
1:00
run the game?
1:05
Speaker 4: Believe stand.
1:07
Speaker 2: Magic to leave out, skins that magic to leave outandly
1:16
don't want to.
1:17
Speaker 1: Stand back again in college baseball. Now thrilled to be
1:32
here with you to break down weekend thirteen and get
1:34
into talking about weekend fourteen, as well as a ton
1:37
of other stuff. Your hosting team is here, starting with
1:40
me and your friend, your host, your boy, Drew Wheeler,
1:42
director of amateur Scouting at Prospects Live. So happy to
1:45
be here with you and with my friends. Starting with
1:47
the gentleman in the middle, it is the freshly graduated
1:50
looking to me, the freshly shaven. Uh good shave on
1:53
that man, Josh, Call Josh, how are you, sir?
1:56
Speaker 3: Now?
1:56
Speaker 1: You got a little stub on you?
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Speaker 3: I save every single morning, so I guess, yeah, I
2:02
have to. I have to. I could. The fact that
2:04
I haven't shown you pictures of my beard by now
2:07
is criminal if I if I haven't actually done that,
2:09
I'll show you. I grew went up for about four
2:11
weeks last year and it was not as long as yours,
2:14
but impressive. Nonetheless, I didn't say that would happen pretty often.
2:20
I love that.
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Speaker 1: I love that, and Uh, go ahead, I'll show the Americans,
2:26
show show us and the American people on the far right.
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Coach Jake Bargery, coach uh tomorrow. A busy day, unfortunately,
2:35
one not for the Arcadian Knights won't be making the
2:38
tournament sadly, but selection day, I know you're gonna be
2:41
invested in that.
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Speaker 4: I am gonna be invested in it.
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Speaker 5: And unfortunately I'm only watching, uh you know, as a
2:47
as an outsider at this point. We just barely uh
2:50
missed the cut for for being included in that selection show.
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But it's gonna it's gonna be fine. Nonetheless, I'm gonna
2:55
be locked in to see, uh see who gets who
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ends up going where?
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Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely, Hey, Jake, I'm curious whout Josh is looking
3:02
for that. It's the longest beard you've ever had.
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Speaker 5: I can't really grow a super long beard like like
3:10
like this is. I can go a little bit longer
3:12
than this. I don't have to shave too often either.
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I guess that's kind of why it's kind of a
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good thing about it. Like there's certain parts of my
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face that like won't grow hair, Like I don't know.
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I can make it look like this, and I just
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like trim it a little bit, but it doesn't get
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too much longer.
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Speaker 1: Holy moly, look at this. Yeah, it almost looks like
3:32
AI can I see it one more time? It's a
3:36
little it's a little insane.
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Speaker 3: Honestly, hold on, I put it away. I'll bring it
3:41
back that thank you.
3:42
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, you're good.
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Speaker 3: There we go.
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Speaker 1: I mean, not a bad look.
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Speaker 3: I don't think it's terrible. I'll show you the I
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shaved it into a mustache for two days just for jokes. Yeah,
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I can pull that one up quickly. Give me a
3:57
second to be right here. Uh yeah, here it is.
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Speaker 4: Thoughts got to come one day.
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Speaker 3: Oh man, there's the thing. I keep wanting to bring
4:12
it back, just like I kind of enjoyed it, and
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it was such a thing that it was like every
4:17
guy I know was like that's awesome. Every girl I
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know besides a couple where like that's the worst thing ever,
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Please shave. But I want to do it again. But
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there's no circumstance in which I can go through that
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phase of like it's about a week into shaving it
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where I just look disgusting, and there's just no point
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in time in which I can do that like I
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did it last year. It was like the week before
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I went back to Auburn for the winter for the
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spring semester, and I could like I'm just sitting around
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my house here I can warrant that, but there's just
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no world in which I can do that now, having
4:49
a day job and traveling and stuff, so I don't
4:51
know when it would happen.
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Speaker 1: I enjoyed it. Congrats on the air, by the way,
4:56
on the new gig, well done, well done, Speed Running
5:01
Life graduates got his first job.
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Speaker 3: Job is about two minutes from the Hoover met so
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that's quite the spot to be in terms.
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Speaker 1: Of this pretty sweet, pretty sweet, Well, Josh will be
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close to the Hoover Met and we've learned a little
5:17
bit more about what teams will be closer to the
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weekend on the Hoover Met, at least in terms of
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the SEC tournament coming up this year. Learned a little
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bit more as well. I know that this weekend we
5:28
also learned quite a bit about UCLA. I think, as
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we alluded to on the last episode, guys, this would
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be almost the last opportunity for a Big ten team
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to really sock it to them, and if they were
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gonna take a loss, probably gonna be this weekend. Jake,
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I think it was you that said, if they're going
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to take a loss, it will be this weekend. And
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yet five run deficit today they have come back to
5:52
defeat Oregon and Josh you called it the Big Ten
5:55
series of the year. Curious to get your thoughts overall
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on what we learned most about UCLA this week.
6:02
Speaker 3: Even though they pulled it out today. I think we
6:04
learned that we they are immortal in some way. I mean,
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they finished twenty nine to one, probably in the Big Ten,
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so I mean they dropped one game. They're not gonna
6:14
hit the thirty and oh mark that no one else
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ever does, which you know was a high bar anyways,
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but we thought they could do it. I mean they're
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just resilient. They showed today they're resilient. They haven't faced
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a ton of adversity against really big team, and I mean, look,
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if we're being honest, hand up, I put in the
6:30
format that the top thing we were going to talk
6:33
about today was how they were proved they were mortal
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because Oregon beat them in a series. And sure enough,
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they just kept chipping away and chipping away. And I'm
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getting ready to do other stuff, and I'm watching the game,
6:42
and it was coming back and chipping away one or
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two and inning and then Dean West happened in the eighth,
6:48
So I don't know. It just proves that their big
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guys stepped up this weekend too. I mean, Rock Chilowski
6:55
had a great weekend five for thirteen, hit three home runs.
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Gasparino had four hits, three of which are doubles and
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one was a home run, all extra base hits. You
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love to see that from them. Also, Redaman still wasn't
7:09
back this weekend, and I think he might be next
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weekend if I remember correctly or if I saw that correctly.
7:15
But the guy that hasn't been starting all year for
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them but is now, Wilin Mall started on Friday this week,
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and I think he did last week too. He looked awesome.
7:24
Seven innings, only allowed one earned on three hits and
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nine strikeouts against the lineup like that. That's really good
7:30
to see. So when it comes to if they get
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down to a fourth day of a regional and they
7:34
need another arm like that, it's good to see that
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someone else can step up and be a reliable guy
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in that spot. Although they probably use him in a
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bullpen spot earlier in the week for being honest, but
7:44
still regardless, you can probably get three four good inning
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from him in the game seven if they were to
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need one, but at this point, with the competition they're
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facing in the regional, probably won't need one. But you know,
7:53
it's just nice to know.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's fair, Coach. When I think about
7:57
wild Moss, I think about you prepping him up. I
7:59
mean you guys, I think you talked about wild Moss
8:01
in the preseason as well, before the season even started,
8:04
kind of hyping him up. So yeah, it's good to
8:05
have that long term thread on college baseball. Now come
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back and form a nice piece of this sweater. Jake.
8:11
I want to take the opposite approach with you, though. Oregon,
8:14
I think and and I'm gonna hand up hand up here.
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I've thought Oregon was pretty fraudulent all season long, but
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now I've gotta say, I gotta put gotta put that
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to bed. They looked as good as any team has
8:27
looked against U c l A this season. What do
8:30
you think we most learned about Oregon this weekend.
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Speaker 5: Jack, I think we, I mean we learned that Oregon
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is not overrated. For one thing, We've been kind of
8:41
uh we We've talked about them before on here in
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that fashion talking about.
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Speaker 4: How they might be a little bit over hyped.
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Speaker 5: You know we're not the biggest Oregon, Like we didn't
8:49
jump on the Oregon bandwagons as quickly as some other
8:51
people did. But I mean they they got I mean
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they got a win against I guess the UCLA team
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that hasn't that hasn't lost the game in.
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Speaker 4: Big ten playet this year.
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Speaker 5: I mean, like we saw, you know, we saw a
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big home run from that I hope I'm saying his
9:06
name right, uh Nella val Milwaukee. I know I'm not
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saying that right, but like he had, he had a
9:11
big homer in that in that second game. Uh we
9:14
we got we got a Maddix Maloney siding uh in
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that in that second game as well. Uh, Tanner Bradley
9:20
was really good out of the pen for them, you
9:22
know that third game, like they they got up really
9:24
quick and in that third game as well, just you know,
9:26
the that UCLA offense just kept chipping away, chipping away,
9:29
and then they eventually obviously Dean West came away with
9:32
the big with the big hit there at the end.
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But like I think we learned that that you see,
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I mean that Oregon you know they can you know,
9:39
they can they can hang, they can hang with some
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of the best teams in the country. Obviously, they hung
9:43
with u c l A. They beat him once. Uh,
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Miles Gostelo was really good in today's game.
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Speaker 3: Uh.
9:48
Speaker 4: The bullpen was also solid. Devin Bell had a tough day.
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Speaker 5: But like, I think we learned that Oregon is better
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than we probably have been giving them credit for, even
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though we've had him ranked and they've kind of been
9:59
in our rankings for a little well. But like, I
10:01
think they're just better, better than what we have probably
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given them credit for.
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Speaker 1: I can't agree more. Dude. I think that is certainly
10:10
the lesson I took away is, DREI you're being too critical.
10:13
This is absolutely a team who deserves the spot they've
10:17
been in, and I think that it was nice to
10:19
see them prove it against obviously a top team in
10:22
the nation in UCLA. The big Big Ten series of
10:27
the year, Josh, you think Big Ten of the year.
10:31
Speaker 3: It's probably what people would consider to be the best
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two teams, even though the standings I don't know if
10:37
people are aware of that. The standings don't reflect that
10:41
we're gonna high for fourth in the Big Ten with Purdue.
10:47
I I'm in a weird spot with them because I
10:50
kind of went from the weekend feeling better. Honestly, I
10:52
have them at seven in my rankings last week. I'm
10:54
only dropping them to eighth this week. So I mean, look,
10:56
you take one on the road against the number one
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team in the country and almost the series like can't
11:02
dock and too much of that. I feel like this
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week proved to me that they should be a host,
11:07
but their resume is hasn't put in a spot where
11:10
they might not be after the results of this weekend,
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and that kind of sucks, but that's just how it is.
11:15
They're up to number twenty seven in the RPI, which
11:17
is still low, but it's up from where it was
11:20
just because taking one from UCLA was huge. Yeah, I
11:22
mean they they host u USC next week. You know,
11:26
we'll talk about later, but that could be another big
11:27
spot to boot their RPI and get them into a
11:29
host spot. But I think they probably will because they
11:32
deserve it at this point. And all the people that
11:34
were saying they were overrated, which was some of us
11:37
on this podcast, to be honest, yeah, exactly kind of
11:41
proven wrong in a sense, like Oregon heard all of it,
11:43
and the you know, the series Austin Michigan wasn't great
11:45
for him, but I think that I don't know, Big
11:47
ten series of the year, I don't know if like
11:48
the caliber of play was necessarily it might have been.
11:51
It was pretty close besides Friday's game, But in terms
11:54
of quality of team, it's one and two in my opinion,
11:56
so I'd say pretty easily.
11:58
Speaker 1: Or all right, Josh, want to stick with you to
12:03
talk about your Auburn Tigers locked up in National Sea.
12:07
I think that's pretty much beyond Yeah, rep it bro
12:10
beyond kind of argument at this point in my brain.
12:13
When they took a huge road series win in Starkville
12:19
over Mississippi State, and Buddy, I'll tell you you know,
12:23
we texted during the game. Starkville was raucous as ever,
12:28
and and how but yet Auburn managed to win that
12:33
game in this decisive fashion on Friday. And that's not
12:38
even getting into yesterday. Pal.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I think this team is It's proven
12:44
a lot over the past few weeks, for sure, but
12:46
one of it being they're not Phays on the road.
12:49
They won in College Station, they won in Starkville, they've
12:51
won in Gainesville. I mean, like it'll be nice to
12:54
have a regional and hopefully a super regional at home.
12:58
But if they were to go on the road, that
13:00
obviously does not fase this team because they're playing similar
13:03
level quality teams and going and win it to taking
13:06
two or three in all these series. I mean, there
13:09
were some there were some issues this we can sure
13:11
like Jake Marciano and Andreas Alvarez are starting to get
13:14
hit around just a little bit, which I felt like
13:16
the regression to the meme was gonna happen for them
13:19
at some point. Maybe not this drastically, because it is
13:21
kind of jarring at a certain point, but nonetheless they
13:24
could figure it out against some somewhat lesser competition because
13:27
Mississippi State A and M are some of the better
13:29
bats you'll see top to bottom. Just I mean, Petro
13:34
has still been doing really well week to week. Ryan
13:37
Hetzer slam the door yesterday. It came and looked really
13:39
good in the closing spot. I think the big storyline
13:42
here is the offense. Chase Frelek is nails. I mean,
13:45
that's that's the most reliable guy on this offense. That's
13:48
who I want stepping up to the plate in the
13:49
biggest moments. He's been on fire with the long ball,
13:52
recently had the game winning home run on yesterday. Yeah,
13:56
had the hame game wing home run yesterday, hit I
14:00
think six in the past couple of weeks. Even like,
14:03
it's the turnaround from this team that I saw. There
14:05
was in this stat They showed on the broadcast yesterday
14:10
that in Game one, the top three in the lineup,
14:13
Mason mccrane and Eric Guavara, Chase Freylik want to combined
14:16
zero for twelve with nine strikeouts. The second two games
14:20
they combined to go ten for twenty five with eight
14:23
RBI a home run in two doubles. So they turned
14:25
things around pretty well, I'd say. And I mean that's
14:27
not even yeah, no kidding, that's not even talking about
14:30
guys like like Ethan Binghaman that like Chris Rembert finally
14:33
looked good this weekend. It's overall this team is becoming
14:38
so well rounded and it's kind of hard to not
14:41
feel good about them if that no matter who they're playing. Besides,
14:45
you know, like you get to Omaha and you're facing
14:48
the UCLA's the Georgia Tech of the world, that's maybe different,
14:50
but in terms of the SEC, sure, they lost a
14:52
home series to Texas that was a month and a
14:54
half ago. This team is very different. It's hard to
14:56
not feel really good about them against anybody.
14:59
Speaker 1: It's fair. I mean, you you said it. And it's
15:02
not like I was an Auburn doubter by any means,
15:05
but Cohen into Mississippi State is just a stern assignment
15:09
for anybody. But I mean, I've seen a team who,
15:14
you know, bless my soul, I would have to say,
15:16
is probably worse than Auburn go in to Mississippi State
15:20
and do what they did, take wins.
15:23
Speaker 3: Probably all right, all right, look give me a break,
15:26
Josh got to talk about them and about like I.
15:33
Speaker 1: Know, the point is I think that it's it's obvious
15:36
that it could be done because it was done by
15:38
a team that has been lesser than Auburn this season
15:42
at times. And yet it's just it was a lot.
15:45
But seeing Auburn and the way they played, and I
15:47
mean we we talked about Alvarez and that was obviously
15:50
the game that I was there for in person and
15:52
I was locked in on looked awesome. I mean, I
15:55
think you said it best. Where there's the secondaries get
15:59
a little.
16:01
Speaker 3: But for two years at this point, Yeah, but.
16:05
Speaker 1: It was effective and he really did amazingly at working
16:09
out of trouble in that environment. Doubly impressive considering it
16:15
is so great it's just rockets. It can be crazy
16:19
either way. The bats looked good. I think it was
16:22
two pitchers on Saturday, so they did not over extend
16:24
the bullpen.
16:26
Speaker 4: Just really.
16:28
Speaker 1: Effortlessly efficient baseball. And particularly when we talk about yesterday's game, Josh,
16:34
I know you have to be thrilled, Jake. On the
16:37
other side of this equation, Mississippi State fans are are
16:40
probably a little shook. This season has not completely slipped
16:44
out of their fingers. I think that the likelihood of
16:47
still being a regional host, it's it's on the table
16:50
form Mississippi State and yet not not ideal for the Bulldogs,
16:57
not really.
16:58
Speaker 4: I mean, like last weekend or this weekend.
17:00
Speaker 5: I guess, like, you know, they got good pitching from
17:02
from Valencius and Jack Bauer in that first game, Brice Chance,
17:07
Greg Fry and Jacob Parker. You know, they came through
17:09
in some big spots. But like it's a little it's
17:12
a little bit concerning how quiet their bats kind of
17:15
went after a game one like Ace Reese was awesome.
17:19
Greg Fry had a really nice Game three, but like
17:21
that was like that was that was kind of it
17:23
for him. And then like they got to see Ryan
17:25
McPherson come back this weekend, which is nice for them.
17:28
You know, he went, he went thirty four pitches, battled through,
17:31
not being like the most effective, but he only allowed
17:33
one run, one earned in his outing. The bullpen in
17:37
that game was just horrendous though, Like everyone except everyone
17:40
except Tyler Pitzer who came in for the last two
17:43
outs of the game for him, gave up like two
17:45
or three runs.
17:46
Speaker 4: Just just just really bad pitching performance overall.
17:51
Speaker 5: And then just talking about you know, you're talking about
17:52
their their host bid and that kind of stuff. This
17:55
this does hurt their chances, especially at getting one of
17:58
those top eight seeds right now they're sitting. Last time
18:01
I checked, I don't I don't know if Josh has
18:03
an updated number. I think it was it like I
18:05
think it was like eleven last time I checked for
18:07
Mississippi State, Yeah, twelve, twelve, Yeah, which last time I checked,
18:17
there were just one spot separated from from A and M,
18:21
which you know they play next weekend. You know that's
18:24
gonna That just makes that that next weekend series just
18:27
become like that much more important. They could be, you know,
18:30
playing for that top eight seed, they could be playing
18:32
for just a host in general.
18:34
Speaker 4: You know, you don't know what it's gonna come down to.
18:36
Speaker 5: With arps and all that stuff, but this, this loss
18:39
does hurt their chances, especially against one of those national seats.
18:43
Speaker 3: I think those teams are both pretty like safely hosts
18:45
at this point. But with Kansas dropping the way they
18:47
did this week, that's a different discussion. But I feel
18:49
like those teams are probably those teams are probably fighting
18:56
for a top eight.
18:56
Speaker 1: If I were to say so, you're saying Josh winner
19:00
gets one, loser does not.
19:02
Speaker 3: But it's still likely a host probably.
19:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, Okay, just I'm just confirming I understood you and
19:08
not I would agree with that sentiment as well for sure.
19:11
All right, boys, Josh alluded to it just a minute ago.
19:13
Josh couldn't wait to talk about the Tennessee volunteers and
19:17
who could blame him? Uh? Not all, Jake, Jake, it's
19:24
hard not to be high to Josh. You want to
19:26
join us? Got a boy? Thank you? I did, now, Josh,
19:31
I didn't tell you this. I wanted to wait and
19:32
see your face on camera in Startville. I gave a
19:36
grudget but yet enthusiastic war Eagle. At the end of
19:39
the game, I put my life on the line to
19:42
shout into the abyss, just into the abyss.
19:46
Speaker 3: Okay, I respect it. I'll take it. I knew I
19:49
felt something tingled when you were at the game of
19:51
the night, like something I can tell something was going
19:53
on it because it's good to know that's what it was.
19:56
Speaker 1: That's what it was. Yeah, Yeah, the Auburn senses were tingled,
20:02
Like Jake, we had some tingly senses on Rocky Top
20:06
this weekend. Two wins over Texas pal I think it's
20:10
safe to say Tennessee over its last two and we
20:12
set this last weekend or before you know, predicting on
20:16
Wednesday they needed three wins of their last two series.
20:20
So between Texas and Oklahoma, we need three wins to
20:25
kind of cement a spot. I kind of thought, what
20:29
if we sneak one out for Texas. But it's like
20:31
I said, man, I'll be I'll be selfish and say
20:34
I want one. I'll go step further and say I
20:36
want to and the Lord above has blessed me yet again.
20:39
Two wins from Texas.
20:41
Speaker 5: Jake, Let's talk, Yeah, I mean, the the the Battle
20:47
of the UT's. You know, it just it ended up
20:49
just the way it was it was destined to. I mean,
20:51
Game one, Teagan Koons and I don't really want to
20:55
mention anyone else in that game. I mean, a career
20:57
high fifteen strikeouts, seven shutouts for Tennessee. I mean, and
21:02
he was seemingly just he was just getting stronger as
21:05
the game went on. It seemed like, you know, he
21:06
was throwing he was throwing first pitch strike seventy three
21:09
percent of the time. The fastball was fastball was insane,
21:12
just to flat out like just just a dominant performance
21:15
over one of the best lineups in the country. And
21:17
then Game two, it was it was kind of all
21:19
Tennessee as well, up until like that last inning where
21:21
it got a little bit a little bit weird when
21:23
when Appenzeller was trying to finish the game there. But uh,
21:26
you know, Tennessee put up they put up sixteen hits,
21:29
with eight of them going for extra bases. Uh, six
21:32
of them, uh, you know, being homers, Like I don't know,
21:35
every starting hitter besides Henry Ford, I guess came away
21:39
with a hit and this one Trent gren Linger four
21:41
for five, uh, kind of being the star of that one.
21:44
He was a triple shy of the cycle there that
21:48
this was just an absolute statement series win for Tennessee.
21:52
And I think this kind of like you, like you
21:53
alluded to this, This kind of all but guaranteed themselves
21:56
a spot interregional. You know, they were kind of on
21:59
the like a little bit leaning toward earning that spot already.
22:02
I know me and Josh has had them in the
22:03
last couple of times, but they really didn't have those
22:06
those that sec you know, win total to the point
22:09
where they needed it to. And then you know, they're
22:11
sitting there now with thirteen wins, and then they got
22:13
a series against Oklahoma coming up and the tournament coming up.
22:16
I think they're gonna be sitting sitting just fine.
22:18
Speaker 4: Come you know, Selection day.
22:21
Speaker 1: Sure, hope. So Josh, let's let's flip this script really
22:25
quickly to talk Texas because today, excuse me, Sunday, Mother's Day. Happy,
22:30
happy Mother's Day at home to all the mothers out there,
22:32
by the way, they're listening to this, you must love
22:35
your children and your husband very much, so Happy Mother's
22:39
Day to you, Josh. Texas really came alive today on
22:44
Mother's Day. Their offense looked insane. Brou I don't think
22:49
this is anything necessarily for Texas to be ashamed of.
22:52
Fannessee has shown all year to be a very talented,
22:56
if inc wholly inconsistent team, and yeah, you know, Texas
23:01
obviously wanted to win this series, the first one in
23:04
either home stadium for these teams.
23:07
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it's tough for them because only the
23:11
second series they've lost all year, obviously, but it's not
23:15
the worst loss in the world. They're still pretty solidify
23:19
as a top eight to me, which I know they
23:20
have higher standers in that they want to go higher
23:22
than that, but at the least you can at least
23:25
settle on that. I mean, they're gonna they won't have
23:28
a chance with the SEC anymore because Georgia locked it
23:30
up this weekend, but nonetheless, I still think they're in
23:35
a fine spot. Adrian Rodriguez Casey Borba looked really good today,
23:39
although a rod first couple of games did not look
23:41
good at all. He was one for nine with six strikeouts,
23:45
and that was kind of one of the big selling
23:47
points of what made I mean, there were a lot
23:48
of things that made this not go their way, the
23:50
first couple of gays because it was such a blowout
23:53
on was it yesterday? One of the games is the
23:55
blow and I forget. Regardless, I think you do have
24:01
some positives to take away from this, especially the way
24:03
their offense came back today, some of the starting pitching
24:08
besides I guess all the starting pitching besides Valantis. Kind
24:12
of concerning Luke Harrison did not look good yesterday, a
24:15
lot of four earned in three and two thirds. Rugu
24:18
Riojas has kind of looked rough and general lately, and
24:21
he really got touched up bad today in the first
24:23
stting kind of bounce back a little bit the next couple.
24:27
But regardless, I think that there's some there's something that
24:33
you can there's something you can hang your hat on today.
24:35
That's the way they bounce back. Even though you know
24:38
you lose two straight into post games at scenario doesn't
24:41
matter anymore. I'm still high on this team. I still
24:44
think they're a top five, top six team in the country.
24:47
It's not the worst team in the world to lose too. Obviously,
24:49
but I mean they've still they've won bigger series, so
24:52
you kind of you think that offsets. But the way
24:54
they looked recently kind of like I've said, I think
24:57
I said this in the preview, they don't really dominate teams.
25:02
They would kind of take two of three and just
25:03
kind of skim by with the series win. This week
25:07
they lost two of three, So it's not really anything
25:09
that's been dominant for a long time, and that's more
25:11
concerning besides against the starting rotation. But nonetheless, I still
25:15
think they'll be fine. Like that's a it's a very
25:17
Omaha caliber team. I think they're probably my they'd be
25:21
in my top four ish picks to win the National
25:23
championship probably. Still, I think the pitching can turn it around.
25:26
In the offense has the high up side that I
25:27
think they'll still be fine long term.
25:30
Speaker 1: I think so too. Uh, Josh Beyond Teak and Koons,
25:33
are there any Tennessee players that you want to shout out?
25:35
Is having a particularly good weekend?
25:39
Speaker 3: Reach Chapman lock really good?
25:40
Speaker 5: Uh.
25:41
Speaker 3: He went five for twelve, three home runs, eight RBI
25:44
this weekend. Pretty solid. Trent grienlager is, I don't really
25:48
need to talk about it. I think you'll all know
25:50
plenty of how good he is. What was the thing
25:52
you said the other day, Trent Grinds that all are
25:55
saying todays. Yeah, yeah, accurate. He's been a song hero
26:00
that I did not expect to have this kind of
26:03
role on the Tennessee team this year. But he's been
26:05
perfectly perfect, filling in spots when other guys are not
26:07
stepping up on certain games. So re chatman, Trent grin
26:10
Linker the obvious ones. Besides I mean teaking Kuns. That
26:13
goes without saying. At this point, I'm going to.
26:16
Speaker 1: Offer you a high five. Thank you for your support, GiB.
26:19
I appreciate that, all right, Jake, really quickly, if you
26:23
had to give an MVP of the weekend for Tennessee
26:26
and then a sentence as of why who'd you give
26:28
it to?
26:31
Speaker 4: I mean, I mean, I don't know teaking Koons. I
26:35
mean I don't.
26:35
Speaker 5: I mean you just talked about him. I talked about him.
26:38
He deserves to be talked about. After that performance he was.
26:41
He was awesome.
26:43
Speaker 1: You read don mind, Jake, I just we needed to
26:45
say it one more time. That was a masterful performance
26:47
and we were fortunate enough to kind of pass the
26:50
stats around. Thank you again, Josh on that game on
26:53
Friday night. But man, fastball shape alone, it just was ridiculous.
27:00
So that was one of the most dominating fastball performances.
27:04
I mean, I dare say since like gage Wood and
27:06
the Carlos World Series or the you know last season,
27:09
the nineteenth strikeout game where it was like ninety percent
27:12
fastballs thrown. It was just an insanely dominant pitch that night.
27:17
Speaker 3: I've been really hesitant to move him off on my
27:18
college board or really my overall board to that kind
27:21
of like first round range. I've been flirting with it,
27:24
and then after the metrics and everything that I saw
27:26
from the other day in the way he dominated Texas,
27:28
I finally broke down and did it because I think
27:30
he's worthy of it. Because if I'm now seeing it
27:32
that consistently in a starter role against lineups as good
27:35
as that, I think it's worthy. I love it.
27:38
Speaker 1: Glad to be here, and Jake, I agree with you.
27:40
Good pick for the MVP of the weekend. Guys. If
27:43
there's such a thing as like an anti MVP, I
27:45
guess that's like a LVBT least valuable team of the weekend?
27:51
Is it Coastal Carolina, a consistent top ten flirting team
27:56
for us and for many outlets. Coastal drops a terrifyingly
28:01
bad home series this weekend. I'm not gonna talk about it, Josh.
28:05
I'd love it if you could get into what Coastal
28:07
did or perhaps didn't do this weekend because and there's
28:11
plenty to talk about outside of just the chance in
28:13
this one too.
28:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's the pitching is where I'd probably
28:19
want to go to first, because there's I think there's
28:22
two names that really stand out. Cam Fluke had his
28:26
second start back from injury today and in two and
28:29
two thirds innings he allowed four runs. Granted only one
28:32
of them was earned, and that got changed. I think
28:34
after the game they got an error got switched in there,
28:37
but regardless, he allowed five fits four runs in two
28:40
and two thirds because e er, I think if I
28:43
remember correctly now, it's like above six on the year,
28:46
but before they switched those runs to being unearned, it
28:50
was like above eight, which I know, small sample size.
28:53
He's pitched in like three four games this year and
28:56
he's been injured. I get that, but still like that's
28:58
your guy, Like, that's who you want, like who you
29:00
need in these big games, and it's little rough coming
29:03
back from injury. Also, I think what's probably considered to
29:08
be their best reliever, Darren Horn, looked really bad today.
29:12
Well the box score at least did. He looked fine
29:14
for a little bit. Pitch five innings a lot four,
29:17
earned seven hits, only struck out two guys. It's just
29:21
like like against Old Dominion two. It's really concerning. Overall,
29:26
their RPI dropped ten spots on the week. They're twenty
29:29
seven in RPI. Now, they really might have knocked themselves
29:33
out of a host spot, which is sounds crazy to say,
29:35
but I mean they have eight quad three and four
29:38
losses combined. They only have seven quad one wins, which,
29:41
besides USC, is seemingly lower than about everybody else in
29:45
that range in Oregon State.
29:46
Speaker 1: I guess.
29:48
Speaker 3: They have a chance bout back against Louisiana next week,
29:51
but regardless, I like, it's really concerning to see from
29:56
a team that made such a deep run last year
29:58
one twenty six straight going in the postseason. Yeah, and
30:01
now when you think that you're rebuilding and it kind
30:04
of seems all you're like all right, we're a top
30:06
ten team again, then you just tank a home series
30:08
like this. And they were one bag coaching decision away
30:12
from dropping a home series to South Alabama two, So
30:14
you know, it's possible. Like even if they did host
30:18
and they were at home, the homefield advantag doesn't mean
30:20
everything against these high caliber teams this year. And that's
30:22
a kind of concerning thing. If I was a Coastal fan,
30:25
I love.
30:26
Speaker 1: The statement you know it's possible because I mean it's
30:28
just factual. I mean you they could have happened. It
30:31
could have. Yeah, you're right, Jake. Let's flip the script here, man,
30:35
Oh do you we got to put some respect on
30:37
these boys. Olpen Menu come in and took two over
30:39
Coastal Like, hats off to them who who shown them
30:42
this weekend?
30:43
Speaker 3: For them?
30:45
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean they had they had big performances at
30:47
the plate, Will Johnson mcadd and Ephyn Morales where there
30:51
were they're big were They're big hitters, especially in the
30:54
in the second and third games of this series.
30:58
Speaker 3: J J.
30:58
Speaker 5: Gatty looked looked pretty good in his start four innings
31:02
only I did it. He did give up three runs,
31:03
but he's you know, he struck out six, was keeping
31:05
him off the bases. Ben Tanton was awesome out of
31:07
the bullpen in that one. Five innings, seven strikeouts, no
31:11
runs in that one. And then in the third game, Jackson.
31:14
Speaker 4: A Conkwo did what he was supposed to do, went
31:16
sixty pitches, four innings, no runs.
31:19
Speaker 5: And then just the rest of the guys there, Patrick Johnson, Bailey, Mattila,
31:22
Nick Silpizio, they all kind of just just finished the
31:25
game out for Old Dominion, and you know they they
31:28
are in the series win there, and I don't think
31:30
anyone needs to take anything away from them. I don't
31:32
think you can just say Coastal played a bad series.
31:35
Old Dominion played a good series, and then they are
31:37
in the recognition.
31:39
Speaker 1: They sure did so. Piska looked really good. I tuned
31:41
in for a little bit of him pitching. He didn't
31:43
look bad at all. I was in press mist Piso
31:45
specifically shout out to him, No totally, and Jake just
31:50
to kind of piggyback off what Josh was saying a
31:52
minute ago. Ten spots. The drop in the RPI for
31:58
Coastal is just gut wrenching for them at this point.
32:03
I mean, you could have knocked yourself out of having
32:04
a Conway regional. That's that's stern business man.
32:09
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, that that it. That is tough.
32:11
Speaker 5: I mean they're they're still you know, they're still at
32:13
the top of the Sun Belt standings by just by
32:16
just a game at this point. But you know, they
32:17
dropped to twenty seven, like Josh said, and like you
32:20
know that that number simply just you know, it just
32:22
might not end up being good enough. I mean, they
32:24
do play Louisiana, which they take three from Louisiana. I
32:27
don't know what that's going to really get them to
32:29
in terms of the teams ahead of them.
32:31
Speaker 4: Somebody's gonna have.
32:31
Speaker 5: To lose, I think also, Uh but you know, you
32:34
know they they them losing that host is is it
32:39
kind of it's it's not good for him, and you know,
32:41
despite whatever else they might have going for them, uh,
32:44
resume wise, just that RPI number being as low as is,
32:47
it's gonna have to get up into that, you know,
32:48
top twenty range for us to start having this conversation
32:51
again about them hosting. And you know, I don't know,
32:54
none of the r p I is weird, the formula
32:56
is weird. Becauld they could get there, but uh, twenty
32:59
seven is not definitely not where they want to be.
33:01
Speaker 1: No, certain yeah, certainly not. Joshu'm curious. Jake brought up
33:07
something interesting and I'd just love to pick your brain
33:09
on it super quickly, if that's possible. He said, Coastal
33:13
would have to hope that some guys, some teams ahead
33:16
of them would lose as well as taking three over Louisiana.
33:20
Are there any teams that jump out of you Josh
33:22
and Jake feel free to look as well for after
33:23
Josh answers who could be kind of candidates for that?
33:27
For Coastal to be not only out there handling business themselves,
33:30
but almost rooting for a loss from maybe these couple teams.
33:35
Speaker 3: I would say, off the top of my head, the
33:37
team that come to mind would be Oleness goes to
33:39
Bama this weekend. They're right in that range. If they
33:42
drop two, especially they drop three, they'd probably get put
33:44
out of that range. Even with how they looked this weekend.
33:49
Oregon mentioned it earlier too, if they dropped the series
33:51
of USC they could be knocked out of that range. Nebraska,
33:56
I forget who Nebraska plays this upcoming weekend trying to
34:01
think who else is in that exact Southern Miss. Honestly,
34:04
they could get up I mean they'd have to get
34:05
upset big time, but they're in that thirteen to I
34:11
don't know, like eighteen ish range. Those are probably the
34:14
teams they'd be rooting for to lose, although they could,
34:17
I mean, Coastal could handle Southern Miss themselves in the
34:19
subout tournament. They could, you know, control their own destiny there.
34:23
But if like say, for example, I think Ole Miss
34:28
is a host right now, but if they were to
34:30
get swept by Bama, that would put them in a
34:34
spot where they're probably playing one of Miszoo, South Carolina
34:38
or like LSU in the first game of the SEC tournament,
34:42
and if they lost that, then that those four losses
34:46
could knock them out. So it's probably not it's not probable,
34:49
but it's possible. Coastal still could be a host as
34:53
they are now. I don't know what that's gonna look like.
34:55
We well, you know we're gonna be doing the bracketa
35:00
to show live here on Wednesdays, so we'll look at
35:02
it together. I haven't fully dove it into what that
35:06
will look like for Coastal right now compared to what
35:08
it was in the past. But I would venture to
35:10
say they're just on the outside looking at Jake Kenny.
35:13
Speaker 1: Thought's kind of piggybacking off with Josh Saider at there
35:15
about coastal. Who could they be maybe rooting against.
35:19
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean you have Oklahoma a couple spots ahead
35:23
of them at twenty. You know they're they're they're playing
35:26
Tennessee this weekend. You don't know how that's gonna go
35:28
for them. Another one is, uh is Oregon State they
35:32
get they not that they're necessarily written form to lose,
35:36
but like you know, the the scheduling thing for Oregon State.
35:39
They play Portland and then they have their final weekend
35:43
series against air Force, which those are our ps number one,
35:45
eighteen and one fifty nine. Like, naturally, just playing those
35:49
teams at home, it's not gonna do Oregon State too
35:51
many favors. I don't know how it's gonna work if
35:53
they do win all four of those games, which is
35:55
probably expected to be the case. But like, just playing
35:57
those teams is not gonna it's not gonna boost Oregon State.
36:00
I don't know if it would end up dropping them
36:02
or not. But that's definitely a team that, Uh, Coastal's
36:04
probably got their own. If they were to drop one
36:06
of those games, Oregon state that like you know that
36:09
that would that would most certainly take them for a tumble.
36:13
Speaker 1: I think so too.
36:14
Speaker 3: Also, I just looked at Nebraska and goes to Minnesota
36:17
this weekend, which is not unreasonable. They can drop that.
36:21
I mean, Michigan drop one Minnesota this week Uh, I
36:25
don't dropping two is probably rough, but I mean that's
36:27
what they would need. It's not the worst thing in
36:29
the world. Minnesota is not bad. So just putting that
36:31
on record, it's everything is like somewhat within reason, there's
36:36
a there's.
36:37
Speaker 1: Enough options where if one, if maybe two of these
36:39
things happened, Coastal is still pretty well in play, is
36:42
what you're saying, right right?
36:44
Speaker 3: Okay?
36:45
Speaker 1: Word love it, love it, love it. Uh. We kind
36:47
of really dalied around these two teams, so I know
36:50
that we probably won't have a whole time to speak
36:52
about with them. Specifically the ole miss h really big
36:55
series win for them against Texas A and M looks
36:58
like they are probably gonna be in a cap bird
37:00
seat to host. Now, a little bit of destiny in
37:04
the hands of the rebels. Josh, what do you think.
37:09
Speaker 3: I mean, yeah, I mean the destiny's in their own hands.
37:11
You just said it yourself. There's no reason not to
37:14
believe in the starting rotation at this point. Hunter Elliott
37:16
looked really good this weekend. Punched out eleven guys in
37:18
six innings. Taylor Raid punched out fourteen guys in six innings.
37:23
All his earn runs came in the fourth ending. He
37:25
looked really good in the other five that he pitched in.
37:28
Kate Townsend is Kate Townsend. He didn't look great on Saturday, granted,
37:31
but we still know what he is. We're not really
37:33
concerned about that. I think the offense is kind of
37:37
where the struggles come in. Guys like Dom Deck or
37:40
Austin Fowley looks pretty good this weekend. We're not really
37:43
concerned about, you know, Tristan Bassetta, Judd, Petermark. I think
37:48
those guys will be good enough in like a postseason
37:50
play and in post season play in some way. They's
37:53
gotta be good enough this weekend against Obama, Like we
37:55
just kind of hinted at, that's their whole season at
37:58
this point. I think lose that series, they could still host,
38:03
but it really does seem like it all is reliant.
38:06
Obviously what they do in Hoover matters too, because that's
38:08
been shown in the past that really does matter. But
38:11
you could say it's a do where you die against
38:13
Bama this weekend for them. But in general I have
38:15
faith in this team. I don't know about like a
38:17
long run, but the rotation has showed me they're definitely
38:20
good enough to win a regional, get two or three
38:23
dominant starts and let the offense carry the way the
38:25
rest of the way out and then just you know,
38:27
see what happens in a super hope for the best.
38:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think so for sure. Jake with A and
38:34
M not certainly not the idea that they they's not
38:38
their ideal result here. And yet they're kind of in
38:43
the same boat with Ole Miss where I mean, what
38:45
really did you lose? I mean, you drop a couple
38:47
of spots in terms of our PI, but things are
38:50
still looking pretty peachy for College Station as well.
38:55
Speaker 4: Yeah, it is.
38:56
Speaker 5: I mean when we talked about it earlier, with where
38:58
they are in terms of in terms of URPI, where
39:01
they're you know, just a couple of spots ahead of
39:03
Mississippi State and that too. They play this weekend, so
39:06
they could be you know, playing each other for one
39:08
of those one of those hosts. But uh, you know,
39:11
for A and M, I think, I mean, it just
39:12
kind of keeps proving itself each weekend. But like they did, so, yeah,
39:17
they lost this weekend, but like the Bats are just
39:20
still like legit, Like in that second game, like they
39:23
had eighteen they scored eighteen runs in the second game,
39:26
you know, Cayden Surrell, Bear, Harrison, Blake, Behinder Up, Hukopian, Royal,
39:31
I mean they had they had a ton of home runs,
39:33
Hukopian and Royo going deep twice.
39:36
Speaker 4: Like that whole lineup just meant business. And like you know,
39:39
they even you know, they they.
39:41
Speaker 5: Showed some resilience in that second that third game as well,
39:44
just didn't come away with the win there at the end.
39:45
I don't for for A and M, I just think,
39:48
you know, it's it's they're gonna kind of live and die.
39:50
I mean, as much as you can say they're gonna
39:52
live and die by their lineup, it's also they're very
39:55
dependent on what type of pitching they get that day,
39:57
because like the deeper we get into the season. I mean,
39:59
we're at the end of it now, but like the
40:02
pitching is gonna it's gonna matter, and you know, it's
40:04
gonna catch up to it at some point, as it
40:06
kind of did this weekend a little bit where Oh Miss,
40:08
you know, outpitched A and M and they came away
40:11
with the series win.
40:11
Speaker 4: So I mean it kind of showed up here.
40:13
Speaker 5: And then you know, the deeper we get into tournament
40:15
play and all that kind of stuff, we'll see, we'll
40:18
see how much it catches up to him again.
40:20
Speaker 4: But uh, I mean, the bats are real. We just
40:22
gotta see if they can pitch it up.
40:25
Speaker 1: I think you you hit the nail on the head
40:27
because A and M's pitching has is going to have
40:30
to meet at least some symbols of the level that
40:32
their offense is hitting for A and M to really
40:34
reach their truest potential, because at times this year guys
40:37
A and M has looked like one of the best
40:39
teams in the country. I don't think that they're far
40:41
from it, even with A even with a series lost
40:44
to Ole Miss, and that certainly would that'd be underselling
40:47
Ole Miss, who was also incredibly talented. Josh I did
40:50
hear a magic word, a trigger, a trigger phrase. I
40:53
need one sentence from you. I heard Chris Hacobean two
40:57
home runs and not just Josh, the bells are going
40:59
off that brings forth to you.
41:03
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, he's flirted with injuries all year in
41:06
various ways, and so it's really good to see that
41:08
he's able to bounce back from this weekend. Have five hits,
41:11
two har runs, four behind a double. Pretty solid against
41:14
the rotation that I just kind of harped on about
41:16
for thirty seconds. It goes without saying what I think
41:20
about him long term. We've had plenty of conversations about that,
41:23
but yeah, it is really promising to see that he
41:25
is doing way better while battling little nitpicky injury things
41:29
here and there than other people around the country. So
41:31
it's just it's good to see in terms of this
41:34
season if something were to happen to him again and
41:37
long term for a pro org that's looking at him.
41:40
Speaker 1: Josh, if you had to say one thing to the
41:41
Hacopean haters, what would that be?
41:46
Speaker 3: Well, the Ucopean haters aren't gonna be on this podcast
41:49
for like three more weeks because they're in Europe right now.
41:52
So if he even listens to this, you know, well,
41:56
if he how about this to see if he listens
41:58
to our podcast or not. We'll see if he takes
42:00
me about this and see if he gets to this
42:01
mark in the podcast, text me and tell me that
42:03
you heard this. No one else sent it to him.
42:05
I just want to see if he I just want
42:06
to see if he listens.
42:08
Speaker 1: The challenge has been laid out. We'll see how it goes.
42:11
It's gonna be a tough one because we're gonna have
42:13
to deal with the splendor of Europe. But I like
42:17
to think we'll stand up pretty well against it. Jake,
42:20
want to go to you here, because, Man, another team
42:22
we've talked about all season long, and I don't think
42:25
we've really given them kind of their due as almost
42:28
being the you know, the the jekylin Hyde, the Robis
42:32
Robert Lewis Stevenson, you know analog we've used all season long.
42:37
I mean, Virginia drop below five hundred in the ACC
42:42
losing it home to Cal to Cal. I think on
42:46
a good day, the three of us and Jay, maybe
42:48
I could beat Cal. I mean the disrespect could not
42:55
beat Cal. I mean.
42:58
Speaker 5: Probably yeah, I mean this this one, I mean it
43:02
was it was unexpected, to say the least. I mean,
43:05
just speaking on some good for Virginia. John Paone was
43:07
great in game two, uh seven and two thirds, one walk,
43:11
nine strikeouts, two hits, one earn. Besides that, zat Kowski
43:15
was just okay in his outing. Lucas Hartman had a
43:18
really hard time out of the bullpen in Game three.
43:21
But on the bright side for the bats, Kyle Johnson
43:23
had a big grand slam in the first game, and
43:25
then Joe Tiroli it went went crazy in game three,
43:29
four for four three jacks, but you know, neither neither
43:32
were big enough to give their team a win in
43:35
those games, which is which is concerning for Virginia, and
43:39
just this loss in general really stings for him. You know,
43:41
like you mentioned, they dropped, They dropped them below five
43:43
hundred n acc play their r p I. When I
43:46
was taking my notes here, I assume it's still the
43:48
same it was at like twenty three, which is obviously
43:51
fine if that's the same number as it is now,
43:54
but that that does kind of that this this loss does,
43:58
you know, take them out of host contention. They weren't
44:00
really in contention too much before this weekend. But this,
44:04
this kind of really stings more so just in the
44:06
in the momentum department for Virginia. You know, they're one
44:10
in five in their last two ACC series and they
44:13
have to go on the road next weekend to Louisville
44:16
to finish the regular season. Shout out, shout out Take
44:18
Davis by the way, thirty three homers, ninety one RBIs
44:21
take take that, JB. But but the with the end
44:25
of the Virginia, the end of the year for them
44:29
has not really gone as planned. Uh, this is part
44:32
of the year where you want to be heating up,
44:33
not not not cooling down necessarily.
44:37
Speaker 3: I love the JB hate this is awesome.
44:40
Speaker 1: Jake's receipts are my one of my favorite things about
44:43
this podcast. He brings up Jake. Jake keeps receipts very well.
44:46
I'll say that so I don't disagree with coach too
44:49
often because I know he's gonna get me whenever I'm wrong. Josh.
44:54
Because our favorite ACC fan is is not here, I'm
44:58
going to defer to you the the North Carolina supporter,
45:03
and I'm curious man, just speaking in terms of ACC
45:07
play Virginia has been wildly inconsistent. I don't think there's
45:13
any even any real reason to say true or false.
45:15
I guess my question to you, pal is would you
45:18
put them kind of in that same bipolar, inconsistent Jecko
45:24
and Hyde conversation that we've had with many teams, including
45:28
you know, the most notable of the East Florida.
45:32
Speaker 3: I mean, the thing with Virginia is not that they're
45:35
really even Jecko and High has just kind of been
45:40
bad for a long time, ever since North Carolina, though
45:43
it could be real, like I remember we had conversations
45:48
earlier this year how we were higher on Virginia than
45:50
most anybody else, and it was kind of it took
45:53
people a while to come around. They had that series
45:55
when it gets to North Carolina and we're taking victory
45:58
laps on here, and since then it has just been steady, steady,
46:03
straight down hill. I mean, they have series wins against
46:06
Wake and I think who is I think Notre Dame
46:09
is the other big one. Besides that, they've lost series
46:12
to Cow, they got swept at Pitt, They've lost other
46:16
big teams Florida State, Boston College, go on. It's just
46:21
underwhelming as a whole. I know we've in terms of
46:24
bracketology've been higher on them, kept them pretty high as
46:27
a two seed, if not a host for a while.
46:29
This is gonna dock them to a three seed in
46:31
a lot of people's eyes. Like I said earlier, I
46:33
have fully doven into it, dove dove into it. So
46:36
I don't really know, but I would imagine that they're
46:39
probably still in that two seed three seed bubble. Also,
46:44
on top of that, they're tied for seventh in the
46:46
ACC with three other teams, so I don't know how
46:49
the tie breakers work, but they could beat the ninth
46:51
seed in that, which personally I'm fine with because I'm
46:55
going to that tournament and if on that first day
46:57
I get to watch Virginia play, that's a win for me.
47:00
Speaker 1: Nothing I want.
47:02
Speaker 3: I wanted to kind of bring this up, y'all, so
47:04
I didn't even mean to do this, but I just
47:05
naturally let himTo it. Virginia, I know we think. I
47:09
don't know if you want to say highly of them anymore,
47:11
but we we've seen potential with him for a while.
47:16
Tell me right now, either of you, both of you
47:19
besides a j Grossia obviously, is there one thing about
47:24
Virginia that makes you believe in them that they could
47:26
like win a regional like either side of the ball,
47:28
any specific thing, Is there anything.
47:31
Speaker 1: At all you didn't mention Eric Becker?
47:35
Speaker 3: Okay, true, I probably should have. I walked into that one.
47:38
Speaker 1: But that's that's my that's I mean, I'll say that.
47:40
I mean to really be Becker, Becker and Grossia are
47:46
professional players. I think when you put two of that guy,
47:50
two of that quality guy on any team, it's it's
47:55
hard to really just pitch posh them and you know,
47:57
sweep them off into the eth or. But at the
47:59
same time, your point really does stand beyond even even still,
48:03
if we said that, we rewind five seconds and you say,
48:06
beyond Grossi and Becker, what have they got that really
48:08
gives you confidence in this being a region winning team.
48:11
I'm gonna sit here on my hands for a minute
48:13
and hope Jake's Jake comes up with something really smart. So, Jake,
48:16
what do you got?
48:18
Speaker 4: I mean, I'm kind of I mean, I guess I'm
48:20
kind of right there with you.
48:21
Speaker 5: There's just not much. There's just not much. There's not
48:23
much consistency to this team. And we use that word
48:26
a lot on here, and I try to keep myself
48:27
from using it too much, but it is true. Like
48:30
like Paone, like I mentioned, he was good this weekend,
48:34
but like he's been up and down. Zat Kowski, you know,
48:36
he's he's hit or miss sometimes Kyle Johnson's hit or
48:39
miss on the mound.
48:40
Speaker 4: Like the pitching isn't something that.
48:42
Speaker 5: You can feel like great about going against anybody necessarily,
48:46
and you hit on their two hitters, and like, if
48:48
those two guys aren't going, you know, who can you
48:51
count on. It's just kind of a coin flip for
48:52
who's gonna hit that day. I don't, I don't know,
48:54
I kind of I'm kind of right there with both
48:56
of you.
48:56
Speaker 3: I mean, seems like afore but sorry, I'll I'll go quickly.
49:01
Even before this weekend, if you would have asked me
49:03
the same question, something I probably would have said is
49:05
Lucas Hartman has been one of their more reliable relievers.
49:08
Speaker 1: This weekend.
49:09
Speaker 3: He had two different outings, he faced twelve batters, only
49:11
got four outs, allowed six or runs and five hits.
49:14
So I don't really feel the same way about him anymore.
49:16
If this is happening two games in a row against
49:18
Cal you know what I'm saying. Like even Sam Harris
49:21
has been pretty good this year. Like Sam Harris, Eric Becker,
49:25
a j Grossie together, those guys hit for average pretty well.
49:27
They don't strike out a ton. I feel good about that.
49:30
It's just the other still in the blank number of
49:33
players in that team.
49:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, you make a great point. Don't need to be
49:38
any part of Sam Harris erasure. That's right, that's really true.
49:42
Great point. H Two things, just to kind of dip
49:46
on what you guys said before we move on. Jake,
49:48
You're right, we talk about inconsistency and consistency a lot,
49:53
but I think it's because it's very important. It's difficult
49:56
to proga, you know, to you know, analyze the team
50:00
or think about what a team is whenever they're not
50:02
showing you consistently who they are. Anybody can look amazing
50:05
on any given day. I mean, we've seen crazy things
50:08
happen this season. I mean, you guys name one. We've
50:11
seen some wild results where teams just look great in
50:13
a single giving game and that's just kind of the
50:15
beauty of baseball. But who are they consistently? That's what
50:19
we are in the business of doing. That's what we're
50:21
here to do. And when Virginia has looked to your point, Josh,
50:25
you said, it's not really Jekyll and Hyde. Whenever it's
50:27
not been, you know, mister doctor Virginia and mister Calves,
50:31
it's just mister Caves. It's just hide. There's no Jeckyll here.
50:34
It's just hide. With Virginia lately, it's bad. So if
50:39
you're interested to see where Virginia ends up in some bracketology,
50:43
as Josh alluded to a minute ago, we're gonna be
50:45
dovening into that this Wednesday. I will have more information
50:49
on that as well. Yeah, to give a little more
50:56
insight into that. Though I know we're going to talk
50:58
about the bubble, I didn't want to throw out real
50:59
quick because we're gonna get into pick him, and I
51:02
know we got to go be quick because we've got
51:03
quite a bit left on the show. West Virginia. Huge humongous,
51:09
humongous series win in Lawrence over Kansas, Uh, three to zero,
51:14
just just a dominant performance from the Mountaineers. And as
51:18
I predicted, well, I can't I can't say, Jake, you
51:20
called it. You called it Jake up top to you, bro,
51:24
good call. Uh and yet I gotta give myself just
51:27
a quick two on the back because Max Yale really
51:30
did tear those Jayhawks up. Son. I mean looked looked
51:35
lethal out there. The slider was just popping, fastball was
51:39
going to velostity, wasn't quite where I wanted it to be,
51:42
at least in the ninth, But I the man pitched
51:44
a complete game right there. You can drop a couple
51:46
couple in pH and I'm not gonna dock him too much.
51:50
A big, big day for the rebel Yales or the
51:53
Yale's Rebels whatever we're gonna call the Max Shale supporters,
51:56
uh of the world, Josh, really quickly, I'm gonna let
52:00
you lead us through kind of bubble talk. I don't
52:02
want let's not give too much away because we want
52:04
the people to tune in this Wednesday to the live stream. Though.
52:10
Speaker 3: I mean like there's a lot of ways you can
52:12
go with this. I think the big takeaway from this
52:15
weekend is we knew coming into this the bubble is bad.
52:20
We just we determined this last week when Jake and
52:23
I were doing the bracketology. We're texting y'all are doing it,
52:26
like guys, the bubble is bad. It got even worse
52:30
this weekend, like it truly as if it couldn't get worse,
52:33
it got worse. Just to name afe you, these are
52:36
some teams that I pegged that were just in or
52:40
just out, and their weekend it got really it got
52:43
way worse for them. South Alabama was our last team in.
52:47
They lost two of three at Troy. UH somehow their
52:50
RPI rose, which I don't know how that works, but
52:53
the RPI is stupid anyway. NC State lost two of
52:58
three at Stanford. Are RPI dropped five spots, and they're
53:01
hosting North Carolina next weekend, so it's really not looking
53:04
too promising for them. It just gets worse from her.
53:07
East Carolina lost two of three versus Rice. Their RPI
53:11
dropped twelve spots to fifty two. UTSA lost two of
53:14
three at Memphis. Their RPI dropped ten spots to forty eight,
53:18
which I think they're probably still in, but they probably
53:22
shouldn't be as comfortable as I'm thinking in my mind.
53:25
I mean the bigger ones I haven't even really gotten
53:27
to yet, Like UAB dropped seventeen spots after losing two
53:30
of three versus Charlotte at home, who had been bad recently,
53:35
Vandy Vandy. I didn't really think they had a shot anyways,
53:38
but people have been talking about it. They lost in Missoo,
53:41
Like who loses series in Miszoo in twenty twenty six,
53:44
Like that doesn't happen. And I mean, they don't even
53:46
get to start it on how that Friday game ended.
53:48
But I think if you, if you're watching this podcast,
53:50
you probably saw what happened at the end of the
53:52
Vandy Miszoo games. I don't need to talk about it. Regardless,
53:56
they host South Carolina this week might not matter like
53:59
it came. You came into these couple of weeks saying
54:01
Missoo in South Carolina, two good series. You could go
54:05
six to oh five and one against do Well and
54:07
Hoover and you're in. They now need to win in Hoover.
54:10
So I think this is like I don't know, like
54:13
LSU got swept by Georgia, Arkansas State got swept by
54:15
Texas State. There's a lot of bubble teams that just
54:18
lost the weekend. If you if you're asking me, like
54:20
if we were to do like I watched College Football
54:23
podcast and the fall, and people will be like who won,
54:25
who lost? The weekend. Whatever. If you were to ask
54:27
me who lost the weekend, I would just say the
54:29
Bubble as a whole. It's really bad. We need to
54:32
go down to fifty six teams in this tournament, just
54:34
for this year specifically, because it is rough. Take that
54:38
where you want, Jake, I don't know, it's just that's
54:40
my big take.
54:41
Speaker 4: No, No, I mean you're you're right.
54:43
Speaker 5: But you know, now that you've mentioned all the all
54:47
the badness of the Bubble, I'd like to kind of
54:51
I'll add a trio of some Belt teams about that
54:54
to the bubble. Troy, first of all, you talked about them.
54:56
You know, they took two or three from South Alabama.
54:58
They're they're at number fifty four in terms of the
55:01
RPI right now, which is kind of which is really
55:03
kind of on the outside.
55:04
Speaker 4: Looking in a little bit.
55:05
Speaker 5: But they finished the year with a midweek at UAB,
55:08
which you know, you just talked about how they lost,
55:10
but their numbers still in a good spot, and a
55:12
series on the road at ULM, which they're not the
55:15
highest ranked team either, but going on the road taking
55:17
the series, if they're able to sweep, you know, who
55:19
knows what that number can get to for Troy. Also Louisiana.
55:24
You know, they took two out of three from app
55:25
State on the road. They're at number forty five right now,
55:28
and they finished the year hosting Coastal, So there's there's
55:30
a big opportunity there to get get some quality wins.
55:33
And you know, if they get into that top you know, forty,
55:35
you know, even like you know, even even higher than that,
55:38
you know, who knows what the committee's going to look
55:40
at there. And then for the other one it will
55:42
be Texas State. They've been kind of creeping up here recently.
55:45
You know, they just swept Arkansas State on the road
55:47
and there right now RPI number forty two, and they
55:50
finished the year with a midweek at UTSA. That's going
55:54
to be a huge one to watch there. And then
55:57
they get a home series versus Marshalls. They take care
56:00
of business there. I think they're gonna end up in
56:02
a fine spot. And then just a couple others, like
56:06
you mentioned LSU, I think they're like fifty six, fifty
56:12
seven something like that, So you know they're out of
56:14
the they're out of the traditional bubble range. But like
56:18
you know, they host Florida, so there is an opportunity
56:22
to do some damage. You never know what kind of
56:23
Florida team you're gonna get. And then you know they
56:25
might get one or two wins in the tournament there.
56:29
There's a chance they could get those much needed SEC
56:31
wins that they need once they get into the tournament there.
56:34
And then also a team we already talked about is
56:37
cal Cal. They finished the year hosting Stanford. They're right
56:41
there with LSU in terms of the RPI. You know,
56:44
if they sweep Stanford, they get to thirteen and seventeen
56:49
in ACC play, they'll have a chance in the ACC tournament.
56:51
You know you talked about just a few minutes ago,
56:53
where the standings are there, they could get a favorable
56:56
matchup in one or two games, they'll get a couple
56:58
more wins.
56:58
Speaker 4: Who knows what the number UH might get to.
57:02
Speaker 5: But yeah, you you hit the nail on the hit
57:04
though with the with the with the bubble kind of
57:07
kind of weakening a little bit. ECU losing to Rice
57:10
is tough. NC State also lost. They were kind of
57:12
one of our last teams in a really tough series,
57:15
lost to Stanford.
57:16
Speaker 4: That knocked them down a little bit. They'll probably still
57:18
end up being in for US.
57:19
Speaker 5: So maybe when it's all said and done, I don't know,
57:22
but that's tough loss for them as well. Then you
57:25
got like the UABS that are probably gonna need like
57:27
a conference tournament win at this point, uh to get
57:31
in e c U Miami Ohio is another one that's
57:34
taking care of business in the MAC. But you know
57:35
there r is not going to improve the more MAC
57:38
teams they keep playing, so uh, it is weakening. But
57:42
just to highlight a few teams it's that's doing good
57:44
at least, I think that's kind of we're taking note of.
57:47
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think the biggest part of this, like just
57:50
to go to show you how bad the rest of
57:51
it was. I would say a big winner on the
57:53
bubble that we haven't mentioned or I don't think you mentioned,
57:56
was Purdue. We've talked about them some in this range.
57:59
And even though like it wasn't a big series, when
58:02
they swept Indiana, they did what they needed to. But
58:04
because everyone around them moved by default, they moved up.
58:08
I think their RPI rose to forty six. So I mean, like,
58:12
I think it just goes to show you what kind
58:14
of weekend this was a team like that was really helped.
58:16
I mean, even Virginia Tech they split with U and
58:18
CG in a two game series this weekend and that
58:21
dropped their RPI. So it's just it's really sad overall.
58:24
I'm really I'm genuinely curious to see where we land
58:26
on Wednesday. I can the one prediction I'm certain of
58:30
I will be frustrated, and so will the two of you,
58:33
probably because it's not gonna be fun. But I don't
58:36
know how it's gonna end up.
58:39
Speaker 5: It's not gonna it's not gonna be It's not gonna
58:42
be easy. No, I mean, I know it's probably what
58:43
you're gonna say. It's gonna be fun, but it's gonna
58:45
be It's gonna be a a monnoming task at points,
58:49
probably trying to decide between some of these teams.
58:55
Speaker 1: Who in the world would subject themselves to this. Josh,
58:58
if you had to sell the people at home on
59:00
why to tune in on Wednesday, what would you tell.
59:03
Speaker 3: Me you might see me crash out? It's entertainment, Jake.
59:10
Speaker 1: If you had to sell the people at home on
59:12
why they just tune in, what would you say.
59:15
Speaker 5: You might see, Josh crash out? I mean that's definitely
59:18
a thing that could happen. I'm gonna try to keep
59:21
the levelhead, but Josh might not be able to handle it.
59:23
Speaker 3: I get so frustrated every single week. It's just the
59:26
thing at this point, and it's not necessarily crash out
59:29
like mad, but you'll see me throw with my hand
59:31
in my face like oh my God the entire time.
59:34
So we'll get plenty.
59:35
Speaker 5: We're probably gonna sit there with the same three or
59:38
four teams on our screens and just you know, flipping
59:41
back and forth to schedules. Who's gonna win this one
59:43
or where are they gonna see it in the tournament?
59:45
Who's gonna get wins? And in the end, none of
59:49
those four teams are gonna make it in. It's gonna
59:51
be somebody else.
59:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm excited for you guys to let me in
59:57
in your world of bracketology, but I'm not sure that
59:59
this is the thing want. This is a new level
1:00:02
of pain that you guys have subjected yourselves to, and
1:00:07
I love hearing about it because you guys do a
1:00:09
lot of great work, But thinking about what kind of
1:00:11
person I'm gonna be on the other side is a
1:00:13
little scary.
1:00:15
Speaker 3: For a reference, Jake and I had a whole debate
1:00:18
for literally, I kid you not ten to fifteen minute's
1:00:21
about I guess it was three weeks ago at this
1:00:23
point between who should be our last team in between
1:00:26
Buyu and LSU, and now neither of them are sniffing
1:00:29
the bubble like not a what.
1:00:33
Speaker 1: It's gonna be fun but either way, be sure to
1:00:35
tune into this Wednesday for sure, But we've got plenty
1:00:38
more to do on this episode. We are gonna have
1:00:39
to put the foot on the accelerator a little bit
1:00:42
because we are gonna have to talk pick them. Because
1:00:44
we're doing bracketology live on Wednesday, We're not gonna be
1:00:48
able to pick Weekend fourteen. Thankfully, Josh went ahead selected
1:00:52
this upcoming weekend series and we are going to get
1:00:56
those picks. In one note, before Josh walks us through
1:00:59
the results of last weekend, wanted to let you know,
1:01:02
as of right now, our friend JB. Sfastiano has not
1:01:05
gotten his picks us, but we will have them. He
1:01:07
will have his picks with us. Josh is right, he
1:01:11
will have his picks to us by the time that
1:01:14
our graphic goes live, so we will of course have
1:01:16
him in the mix as always, Josh, let's hear about
1:01:20
what happened last weekend before we get into the first series.
1:01:24
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, we got a fun situation on our hands.
1:01:26
We're coming in on the last week of the Pick them.
1:01:29
Jake is trying to cut back late. Jake went five
1:01:32
and three last week, and the other three of us
1:01:34
all went three and five, not good weeks for the standings.
1:01:38
We have an interesting situation. I'm fifty eight and forty five.
1:01:43
I have a two game lead on Drew, who has
1:01:45
a two game lead on Jake, who has a two
1:01:48
game lead on JB. So two games separate us all.
1:01:51
I could be super boring this week and I could
1:01:54
just pick the same games as Drew for everything, and
1:01:57
I could just coast to it when but that's not
1:02:00
the spirit of the game in my opinion. I think
1:02:03
I'm gonna I'm gonna pick how I truly feel, and
1:02:05
we're gonna hope for the best. We don't have a
1:02:07
tie breaker laid out, so I don't know how that
1:02:09
would work out, but regardless, I'm in a situation because
1:02:13
I don't I don't know how I'm gonna do this
1:02:15
because I I feel like there's gonna be a couple
1:02:17
of sweeps this week anyway. But I could be super
1:02:19
boring and I could guarantee myself a whim, but I'm
1:02:21
not gonna do that, because you know, what's the fun
1:02:22
in that.
1:02:23
Speaker 1: So you're also assuming that you're gonna get to picked
1:02:26
before me, which I hardly ever let you do.
1:02:30
Speaker 3: You make an unfortunately really good point, Uh.
1:02:33
Speaker 1: Jake, you have a question. I would I would love
1:02:35
for you to ask it for the folks at home.
1:02:38
Speaker 5: I do, but before we get into these before we
1:02:41
get into these picks, because there could be some some
1:02:44
game in game in the game a little bit on
1:02:46
my end trying to trying to get some points. Are
1:02:49
conference tournament's not gonna be involved in the pick them standings?
1:02:53
Because that that could play a factor. If we're gonna
1:02:54
pick tournaments, it could be it could be tough. I
1:02:57
just wanted to clarify it before.
1:02:58
Speaker 4: We went in here.
1:02:59
Speaker 3: I feel like, I mean like maybe I feel like
1:03:02
the scoring system would be like considering it's like instead
1:03:06
of instead of choosing one of two teams, would be
1:03:08
choosing one of like sixteen, And if you pick that right,
1:03:11
I feel like it should be worth more points, you know.
1:03:13
Speaker 1: I maybe what we do then is and sorry, this
1:03:17
is incredibly interesting interesting for you at home. But maybe
1:03:20
what we do is we each pick two to win,
1:03:23
and then if your first place wins, you get X points.
1:03:26
Your second place wins you get you know, less points,
1:03:29
but still points. I don't know how that would even go, though.
1:03:33
Speaker 3: We can figure that out, all air. Maybe I figured
1:03:36
we would, like we'll have some kind of like obviously
1:03:38
like a regional pick them thing that'll be its own thing,
1:03:40
but like right regular season, we can figure it out,
1:03:43
all air. I kind of figured it would be regular
1:03:44
season then, like there's maybe a scoring system way to
1:03:48
I don't know. That's a conversation for later that people
1:03:50
don't care enough about that to hear that right now,
1:03:52
we'll haven't figured out fair.
1:03:54
Speaker 5: Enough for what we're but for what we're assuming we're
1:03:57
picking these games and this is the end of it season,
1:04:00
I think.
1:04:01
Speaker 1: So yeah, all right, well, all guts, all glory for Drew. Today.
1:04:07
We'll see if Josh, we'll see how we'll see how
1:04:09
similar Josh and I are, if I can find any
1:04:12
interesting ways to maybe make up some pointage in here.
1:04:17
All right, of course, as we mentioned as well, nothing
1:04:19
from JB. But it will be on Twitter, So go
1:04:22
and check the Twitter machine. Generally Josh will post it,
1:04:26
or the Prospects Live account will post it. We will
1:04:28
all retweet it, so if you're not following all of us,
1:04:30
you'll see it on one of our accounts. It'll be there.
1:04:33
All right, let's get to it, Josh, Georgia and Auburn.
1:04:36
George has already got the SEC wrapped up, unfortunately, but
1:04:39
Auburn at home, Auburn on the road. Auburn's a kind
1:04:43
of an animal right now. I don't know that any
1:04:45
team really wants to tangle with Auburn, and yet the
1:04:50
Georgia Bulldogs are, unfortunately, the team who have signed up
1:04:52
to do that in this final week of the regular season.
1:04:56
What's gonna be the major X factor in this series?
1:05:00
And then please lead us off with your very obvious.
1:05:02
Speaker 3: Selection major X factor. I would say the pitching for
1:05:10
both teams, but if we're getting really specific, I would
1:05:13
say Alburns. Well, every series this week is Thursday through
1:05:16
Saturday for reference, but Alburn's Thursday and Friday starters and
1:05:21
Georgia's Saturday starter. I think it's the fun way to
1:05:23
look at this because Marciano and alb Res have been
1:05:25
struggling lately a little bit.
1:05:27
Speaker 4: This is.
1:05:30
Speaker 3: I don't want to say indisputably okay. How about this
1:05:32
indisputably top three offense in the country. No doubt this
1:05:36
is not a really good get right spot for them,
1:05:39
but it's gonna have to be the same thing goes
1:05:42
for Georgia k and Naoki is kind of slid into
1:05:44
that game three ye role that they were looking for
1:05:46
someone to fill for a while. Aoki's looked really good
1:05:49
in that role in the past couple of weeks. This
1:05:51
past week he went five innings, allowing one earned, struck
1:05:54
out seven guys. Seem to be better than anything they've
1:05:56
had this year at that point. That's probably believe the
1:06:00
biggest X factor that Auburn still is an elite elite
1:06:02
rotation leads the countries and walks leads the country and
1:06:05
walks for nine teams won six straight series, tied with
1:06:09
Bama for fourth and the SEC right now only a
1:06:12
half game back from second. They beat A and M,
1:06:14
who's ahead of them tied for that second spot, and
1:06:16
they lost to Texas, so that TIEBREAKERD situation could be fun.
1:06:19
Getting that double bye would be really really promising for them.
1:06:23
They're tied with Bama that they're losing the tiebreakerd Tobama
1:06:25
right now, so that sucks. But this could be a
1:06:28
big series in terms of that. You would love that
1:06:30
double buy and Hoover so you don't have to waste arms.
1:06:34
I mean, like, yeah, if we were just talking about
1:06:36
how you think my picture are gonna go, this is
1:06:38
the most obvious one on the board. I'm taking Auburn.
1:06:41
Probably gonna be a top five series, like two top
1:06:45
five teams tomorrow. I don't know how far Texas is
1:06:48
gonna fall, but it's more likely gonna be a top
1:06:51
five series. It'll be super fun. It'll be the series
1:06:54
of the weekend. Very clearly. I'm picking this team. I
1:06:58
mean that they've rolled recently one sixth straight. Let's make
1:07:01
it a seventh. We're at home. It's a rival might
1:07:03
as well.
1:07:04
Speaker 1: Night as well. Jake, what are you leaning in this one?
1:07:07
Speaker 5: Man?
1:07:07
Speaker 1: If you've got a sentence or two with your thoughts,
1:07:09
we'd love to have them.
1:07:12
Speaker 4: Yeah. So yeah.
1:07:14
Speaker 5: For Georgia, the pitching it was a little bit shaky
1:07:17
until the third game where Kadaneoki and the boys kind
1:07:19
of kind of settled everything down for him, but the
1:07:22
ball was still just flying off their baths. They had
1:07:24
a ton of homers again, they hit They hit for
1:07:27
a three eighty two average against LSU on the weekend,
1:07:32
and a guy that you know, every time we talk
1:07:33
about Georgia, we talk about Daniel Jackson, but it still
1:07:36
just kind of feels like we say, oh, Daniel Jackson
1:07:38
did good again, but like he is having just an
1:07:42
insane season. He's up to twenty five homers, seventy four
1:07:45
r because he's even twenty four, twenty five stolen base attempts.
1:07:49
He's just he's an animal right now and he's absolutely
1:07:52
dominating SEC pitching. And then just as a whole, if
1:07:55
there's a team that can challenge the Auburn pitching staff,
1:07:59
I think it's gonna be the Georgia team.
1:08:01
Speaker 4: So I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go with Georgia, U.
1:08:05
Speaker 3: G A, and UH.
1:08:07
Speaker 1: I'd be curious to see where JB goes, But I
1:08:09
think this is gonna be a pretty easy distinguishing point
1:08:13
from me and Josh. I think it's as much as
1:08:15
I love Auburn and I love Auburn at home especially,
1:08:18
I think I've gotta go Georgia here because this is
1:08:20
a likely one of the more likely points I think
1:08:23
we will diverge that I can make up some ground.
1:08:26
So I'm gonna go Georgia. It's gonna, as Josh said,
1:08:28
be the series of the weekend, I'm pretty certain. So well,
1:08:33
we'll have our eyes on that one for sure. And
1:08:36
just I'm not gonna do this for everyone, but I
1:08:38
thought it would be funny to say. And JB said
1:08:40
he's taken Georgia. Wow, three of them against Josh crazy
1:08:44
And JB said he's taken Auburn. Okay, so what's the graphic?
1:08:47
Very interesting, just use which everyone says. Right Anyway, Jay,
1:08:50
gonna go to you now talking about Big ten USC
1:08:53
and Oregon, two teams that at various points of this
1:08:55
season we've said clearly the second fiddle to U C
1:08:58
l A. And now we're to see of the two,
1:09:01
who's the top squad. What do you think is gonna
1:09:03
be the major story coming into this one, Jake, And
1:09:05
who's your pick?
1:09:09
Speaker 4: Yeah?
1:09:09
Speaker 5: I think, just just something to watch for for Oregon.
1:09:13
I guess you know we talked earlier about their their
1:09:15
series against U C l A. Uh something I want
1:09:18
to see more from Oregon. Is one just Will Sanmford
1:09:21
needs to bounce back after his tough start. He's a
1:09:23
guy that they need to go on Friday. They need
1:09:26
him to do well. They need him to go and.
1:09:28
Speaker 4: Pitch well against Mason Edwards.
1:09:30
Speaker 1: Uh.
1:09:30
Speaker 5: And then two of their big bats need to just
1:09:32
continue performing. Ryan Cooney, Drew Smith, Braden Jack saying July,
1:09:37
they've all they've been kind of the the force that
1:09:40
that kind of drives that offense, and they're gonna they're
1:09:43
gonna need them to get going.
1:09:45
Speaker 1: Uh.
1:09:46
Speaker 5: But if I'm gonna, if I'm gonna make my pick,
1:09:49
I'm gonna pick USC uh simply because I need to
1:09:54
get points on you guys, and you guys are not
1:09:56
gonna pick USC Uh. So I'm gonna take USC and
1:09:59
ride the right the pitchers again like we did earlier
1:10:02
in the year, and I think I'm gonna hope that
1:10:04
they carry them to a series victory over Oregon.
1:10:08
Speaker 1: Josh didn't see that coming here.
1:10:16
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm leaning Organ, especially after how this past
1:10:19
weekend went. I mean, USC still doesn't have a quad
1:10:22
one win. It's hard to predict them to take two
1:10:25
of three and one weekend with that being their track
1:10:27
record at this point, although they have won eleven of
1:10:29
the past twelve, so they're kind of hot right now.
1:10:33
I will I'm gonna take Oregon. I do want to
1:10:36
mention for a USC they the pitching has still been electric.
1:10:41
We haven't talked about it in a while on here,
1:10:43
just because they haven't played high level competition. But I'm
1:10:45
just gonna I'm gonna read some stats. Mason Edwards still
1:10:49
he's pitched seventy eight and the third night this year
1:10:51
has a one to six one ERA, striking out forty
1:10:54
five percent of batters. That leads the country. That is
1:10:58
that it's nuts. Grant Go though, this pitch eighty innings
1:11:01
has a two five to nine ERA, only walking three
1:11:04
percent of guys those two. That's that's good of a
1:11:07
one two punch in the country. As there is also
1:11:10
off topic, but not really. I just kind of want
1:11:12
to put this out here so I have my face
1:11:13
attached to a video with this on it two years
1:11:17
from now. There's a bullpen guy that I really like
1:11:19
from USC. His name is Adam Troy. He has a
1:11:22
three seven one ERA this year, ninety four mile hour fastball.
1:11:25
Good ride to it. I just want to put my
1:11:26
face attached to a video and put it on record
1:11:28
that like I like him in terms of draft. A
1:11:30
couple of years from now, we'll see how this ages it.
1:11:33
People will forget about it if it doesn't age well,
1:11:35
but I have it to come back to if an
1:11:37
age as well. So anyway, I think Oregon is probably
1:11:42
the better team here overall. They got a bounce back
1:11:45
from a heartbreaker this weekend. Like we've been talking about
1:11:48
their number nineteen in the RPI, they're right on that borderline.
1:11:52
They need guys like Drew Smith, Ryan Cooney Andelia to
1:11:54
step up like they have been recently. It seems like,
1:11:57
like Jake mentioned, Will Sandford has to pick it back
1:12:01
up and going up against Mason Edwards is, you know,
1:12:02
not the easiest task. But even if they lose that
1:12:06
Friday game or Thursday game, I guess they can still
1:12:10
win Friday Saturday. And I still feel pretty confident that
1:12:12
USC might get their first squad one win this year
1:12:15
this weekend, but we're gonna probably get two more.
1:12:21
Speaker 1: This is wicked work, just by the way, making me
1:12:24
choose between teams I have all year set or overrated.
1:12:27
Whenever our pick of is on the line. Josh, that's truly, truly, What.
1:12:30
Speaker 3: Do you mean, it's a huge God forbid they play
1:12:34
each other.
1:12:34
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah, I just I love your
1:12:38
manipulation of the Big Ten schedule, is all I'm saying.
1:12:40
Speaker 3: Yeah, I know you, I know you did.
1:12:43
Speaker 4: I know this.
1:12:44
Speaker 1: I've read the script. Uh oh, Jake, I really want
1:12:48
to go USC, But man, I've dogged them so bad
1:12:51
and I can't hang my hat on looking at the
1:12:56
rest of the way. I'm trying to see where Josh
1:12:58
and I are going to distinguish ourselves. That way, I
1:13:00
could make some ground up.
1:13:03
Speaker 3: I see one spot.
1:13:04
Speaker 1: I see too, don't you You're I'm not gonna let
1:13:08
you get under my skin right now. I'll take USC
1:13:10
because I've said Oregon is Oregon has been testy. I
1:13:16
just you may have sold me on Mason Edwards being
1:13:19
able to get one. I just need that offense to
1:13:22
show up.
1:13:23
Speaker 5: If they're gonna do it, do it now the US
1:13:26
see they I mean, just a little bit more defense
1:13:29
for the pick. You know, they played Nevada last weekend.
1:13:32
Speaker 4: They yeah, they hit.
1:13:34
Speaker 5: They hit eleven home runs in the series against Nevada.
1:13:36
Now I know the pitching for Nevada. You can say
1:13:39
what you want to about it, but like this, this
1:13:40
could yeah, this could just be you know, a tune up.
1:13:43
This could just be what they need to get the
1:13:45
bats rolling against, no matter who they were playing against,
1:13:47
you know, knowing that they were getting ready to play
1:13:49
against Oregon. So, uh, I would expect a little maybe
1:13:52
a little bit more from the bats than what we've
1:13:55
you know, seen the rest of the year from USC.
1:13:58
Speaker 3: Maybe my trick all along with to try and hype
1:14:00
up the USC pitching staff.
1:14:02
Speaker 1: Just I'm starting to think it starting maybe that was
1:14:04
a trick and it worked. I'm starting to think it was.
1:14:09
And so I'll say this because you brought up how
1:14:11
Edwards is still leading the league in strike counp percentage
1:14:13
and that's super awesome. I'm gonna shout out Quinn Quinn,
1:14:16
a friend of the podcast. Quinn has done some excellent
1:14:19
work Big ten Daily Sheet this year and actually said
1:14:22
the other day and he makes a great point. Greg
1:14:24
Ovell has really I think furthered his case and his
1:14:28
draft stock by becoming so much more of a well
1:14:30
rounded pitcher as the year has gone on. And I
1:14:32
think that that's correlated with the fact that he has
1:14:34
been punched and has rebounded, has shown himself to be
1:14:37
able to make adjustments on the fly in the season,
1:14:40
and that's a professional quality to have. So and I
1:14:43
don't doubt I do not doubt these starters. It's just
1:14:46
I very badly need the offense to show up. So
1:14:49
we'll see if this is the one that breaks the
1:14:51
camel's back for old drew Alas. We won't know until
1:14:56
next Sunday, though, Josh, I do want to stick with
1:14:59
you here because we've got a no the major, major SEC.
1:15:02
We talked about it in a minute ago. R P
1:15:04
I on the line, Pride on the line. Two heavyweight
1:15:07
offenses are gonna be punching each other in the face
1:15:10
quite a bit. Mississippi State, Texas A and M. What's
1:15:13
the story of that game? And who's your pick?
1:15:16
Speaker 3: Of course, you're gonna keep it with me because you
1:15:17
want to see me go first and all of these
1:15:19
I see how it is.
1:15:21
Speaker 1: I'm back. That's what I always do. Yeah, yeah, I'm
1:15:26
gonna picks. I already knew what I already knewho I
1:15:30
was picking off the Trump Missippi State. It's on the record.
1:15:32
Speaker 3: Go ahead, Josh, Well fair enough. I was taking an
1:15:35
M anyway, so fair enough. Well, I'd rather take State
1:15:40
for the sake of the game. We need to we
1:15:42
need a line. For my sake, I don't need to
1:15:43
go different than you.
1:15:45
Speaker 1: We haven't picked up, we haven't picked said yeh, Josh,
1:15:48
this is crazy work. We're really we're really tasting God
1:15:51
right now. We're doing so crazy.
1:15:54
Speaker 3: Well, you remember what happened a couple of weeks ago
1:15:56
when JB and I had six different picks. Then we
1:15:59
went three and three though, So that's probably what's gonna
1:16:01
happen here. For being honest, regardless, we've been here for
1:16:05
three hours already. We probably need to get going. Small
1:16:08
storyline for this game is I think, or for my
1:16:13
reasoning for picking A and M. Mississippi State's offense tends
1:16:16
to take off like plenty of games in a row
1:16:19
for whatever reason, not necessarily like intentionally obviously, but they
1:16:22
tend to have off games like frequently, and I still
1:16:26
trust A and M's offense after this past weekend. State's
1:16:29
pitching staff is definitely more reliable, but Aidan Simms has
1:16:34
really picked it up this recently, and I don't think
1:16:37
that McPherson is going to be back in that game
1:16:39
one spot. So if Valentius or everyone knows the debate
1:16:45
that has been going on about the last name of
1:16:47
theirs this week, but valencias Valentius whatever.
1:16:50
Speaker 1: So yeah, I think it's just a matter of pronunciation.
1:16:54
Speaker 3: Yeah. So they were on the broadcast talking and Tomas
1:16:57
and Vitas pronounce it differently, and they're mom pronounces it
1:17:00
a third different way. I think Thomas is like Valentius
1:17:05
and vet Us fight us is so in this getting
1:17:11
back to my point, in this case, Tomas Valentius would
1:17:14
be going game one. They'll take that probably, but aiden
1:17:18
Sims can take over game two and then game three's
1:17:20
are typically where offense is shine anyway, So I'll take
1:17:22
A and M's over state in that case. That's just
1:17:24
the logic behind them.
1:17:26
Speaker 1: I think, just to piggyback off you before we give
1:17:28
it to Jake, because I'm curious whe Jake's gonna go
1:17:30
to kind of break the tie on air. At least
1:17:32
I know we won't see JB's until the graphic comes out,
1:17:34
and that's all. That's fine. I like that what you said,
1:17:36
But I think if we're really gonna say we know
1:17:39
McPherson's pitchick and then we've got Charlie Foster, who, again
1:17:42
when he's right for Mississippi State, has been solid. I mean,
1:17:47
it's just I like, I like the ideal of having
1:17:50
two guys you can rely on. And I mean, how
1:17:53
much McPherson are you gonna get is gonna be the
1:17:55
real test here, Josh. And that's that's assuming that it
1:17:59
sticks with you know, Valencious Dukestone. And then I guess McPherson,
1:18:05
that's assuming that we don't move in big Peerson and
1:18:07
then have Stone on day. But I'm with you, though,
1:18:11
and I think that I'm just gonna lean on that
1:18:13
pitching because I don't know that A and M can
1:18:16
put their third the third game start. I just I
1:18:19
don't know that's gonna be. And I know we said
1:18:22
earlier George Auburn is gonna be the series of the weekend.
1:18:25
It probably will, but man, do not take a sleep
1:18:28
on State and A and Um, that's gonna be a
1:18:31
really really good series, Jake, break the top. Hel I'm
1:18:36
curious what you're leaning here. Josh and I have already
1:18:38
duked it out, and I think we've hugged each other
1:18:40
and just accepted our lives are gonna be what it is.
1:18:42
So where are you leading?
1:18:45
Speaker 4: Yeah?
1:18:45
Speaker 5: I mean, you guys really just broke it down. So
1:18:47
I'm gonna I'll go. I'll go quick. I'm gonna go
1:18:50
a and m uh there. I think their bats are
1:18:52
gonna get going at home. I don't know if Mississippi
1:18:56
State is gonna be able to outslog them when they
1:18:58
get back to their home park. Also, they're twenty five
1:19:01
and five at home. That's their home record. I don't
1:19:03
really want to bet against that. So I'm gonna I'm
1:19:05
gonna go with Texas.
1:19:06
Speaker 1: And I'll tell you another thing. Mississippi State's used to
1:19:10
playing in some crazy environments, but they're always in their
1:19:14
favor more likely than not. College Station can get rowdy too. Man,
1:19:18
that's gonna be a very compelling test for the Bulldogs. Man,
1:19:23
that's good. That's gonna be a series that's gonna be
1:19:25
a really good one. Jake gonna bounce back to you here.
1:19:28
Georgia Tech Boston College. I'm curious, man, in this acc battle.
1:19:33
Two teams that have been very impressive for I think
1:19:36
all of us universally this year. We've all put the
1:19:38
exception of JB and his kind of issues with Georgia
1:19:41
Tech earlier in the season. I think we've all been
1:19:44
on the trains of Georgia tack and then BC's come around,
1:19:46
and I think all this have been supporters of the
1:19:48
old the old bird ball proponents as well. So where
1:19:52
are you leading in this one? What's the story of
1:19:54
this one?
1:19:56
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean these are kind of two teams right
1:19:58
now that are that are kind of head in different directions.
1:20:02
Georgia Tech's obviously not not falling off. They have it
1:20:04
slowed down at all. They had another really strong weekend
1:20:07
against Duke. They kind of dealt with a close one
1:20:09
there in Game one, but it was you know, it
1:20:12
was Drew Burris who came through it with a walk
1:20:14
off sackfly to get that one, and then they just
1:20:16
kind of rolled after that, you know, fifteen to two,
1:20:19
fourteen to one, got the sweep over Duke. Ton of
1:20:21
big offensive performances there. The pitching was really good in
1:20:24
those last two games. Carson Baller, Jackson Blakely and all
1:20:29
the bullpen guys, they really did their job.
1:20:31
Speaker 4: Just just a really good weekend of baseball for Georgia Tech.
1:20:34
Speaker 5: And then you know, for Boston College. They're they're not
1:20:38
necessarily heading in the right direction. They actually dropped one
1:20:41
this weekend to nj T, which is which is a
1:20:45
not a great look, and that came following a series
1:20:48
lost to Clemson, a really tough start for Brady Miller
1:20:51
in Game one of their doubleheader today against nj T.
1:20:55
But you know, Colarusso, Tyler Mudd and the and the
1:20:58
rest of those guys did their thing in game who
1:21:01
I was really hoping for a Boston College reason all
1:21:04
this year. That would have been fun have one up
1:21:05
here in my neck of the woods, But those recent
1:21:08
losses don't don't look too great for that case. They
1:21:10
obviously have a huge opportunity this weekend against Georgia Tech,
1:21:14
and a series win would surely get them into that
1:21:17
conversation again, I would think. But they're gonna have to
1:21:20
They're gonna have to get going down the stretcher if
1:21:22
they want to achieve anything higher than what I think.
1:21:24
They're firmly submitted as a as a two seed right now.
1:21:29
I guess if I'm gonna make my pick, I'm gonna
1:21:33
pick Boston.
1:21:34
Speaker 4: College to win.
1:21:37
Speaker 5: I trust, look a J Calarusso. AJ Calarusso is a
1:21:40
dog when he's on the mound. He's gonna pitch this weekend.
1:21:43
He's gonna pitch. Well, I know Georgia Tech's offense is good.
1:21:46
He can give him a chance in his game. They
1:21:49
just got to pull out one of the other two.
1:21:50
I'm going Boston College.
1:21:53
Speaker 1: Oh, Jake, I love it, I really love it. I
1:21:57
love it, Josh, what are you leaning here?
1:22:01
Speaker 3: I mean, obviously I'm leaning in Tech. Jake has to
1:22:05
make up ground, so I don't blame him for that.
1:22:07
I mean, Boston College is They're nineteen and four at home.
1:22:10
They're a really good home team. The offense has struggled
1:22:14
a bit lately, like guys like Nick Wang, Jack Toomey,
1:22:17
Julio Solier haven't been really bad. But besides that, it's
1:22:21
been kind of yah lately. It's just hard to not
1:22:24
pick Georgia teching the spot. They've been so good. They
1:22:26
have a two game lead on the ACC, So really
1:22:29
all they need is one of these and they'll be
1:22:31
good and they'll win the a SEC regular season for
1:22:33
the second year in a row. They've want to love
1:22:36
him the last twelve, twenty four, the last twenty seven.
1:22:38
They're just rolling right now. I am kind of concerned
1:22:41
about they seem to not have a definitive Game two starter.
1:22:46
Jackson Blakely is slotted in for the game three slot,
1:22:49
and Take mcke's obviously been in Game one for them
1:22:51
all year, but they've kind of been like ify week
1:22:53
to weekend that game two spot. So I'll be interested
1:22:56
to see if down the road they can figure out
1:22:58
something for that in terms of the postseason, because there
1:23:01
were some teams that struggled with that last year and
1:23:03
it kind of really came to buy them in the butt,
1:23:05
like in the you know, Super Regionals, whatever it may be,
1:23:08
when you're facing good offenses every single game. So I
1:23:12
mean for this weekend of specific, I think the pitching
1:23:15
will be good enough to go up against the Boston
1:23:17
College offense that's been you know, spluttering lately. So I'll
1:23:20
take I'll take the ollow Jackets.
1:23:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm with you. I think that, man, Jake. I
1:23:28
love that swing and I just can't bring myself to
1:23:30
do it. And I feel like I've been making swings
1:23:32
thus far, and anybody can respect just the games, the
1:23:35
games that the three of us all have to play
1:23:37
with regards to this, and then incorporating Yeah, I gotta
1:23:41
go Tech. I just BC's offense has been not what
1:23:46
you want right now, going into a series with one
1:23:48
of the most overloaded offenses in the country, I'm gonna
1:23:53
take Tech, and I feel pretty solid about making that
1:23:56
pick as well. So of course we'll see what JB
1:23:59
does there. I could see jbgo in Boston College just
1:24:02
to upset the Apple cart, So I'm curious to see
1:24:04
what he does. Jake, Uh, do want to stick with you? Ole?
1:24:08
Miss Alabama? Another big SEC series with a lot of
1:24:13
RPI implications. Potentially some things go awry for one of
1:24:17
these teams. We may be uh maybe slipping them out
1:24:20
of some some region hosting gig.
1:24:22
Speaker 4: Eh maybe I mean looking at looking at Alabama.
1:24:29
Speaker 5: Uh, you know, just they had they had a nice
1:24:31
clean sweep over over South Carolina, uh last weekend. You know,
1:24:36
kind of what you'd expect him to do at this
1:24:37
point in the year. It's a bit worrisome though, with
1:24:40
Lebron and uh, you know, Brady and Neo both going
1:24:42
down to concussions in this series. Those are obviously serious,
1:24:46
serious injuries and not the type that you want your
1:24:48
best players to to to try to rush back from. Uh.
1:24:53
They got some really good pitching last weekend, especially from
1:24:56
Tyler Fay Miles up Church. Jojo Williamson picked up his
1:25:00
first home run filling in for Lebron. Eric Hans played
1:25:03
well in their absence. We'll just obviously have to see
1:25:06
how long how long this this kind of takes takes
1:25:10
them out for Yeah, it.
1:25:13
Speaker 1: Is gonna be tricky, man, And I'm with you because
1:25:15
certainly Lebron and we've we've criticized him, but that team,
1:25:22
a spark plug like very few others can be in
1:25:26
the country is Lebron, and so for him to have
1:25:28
taken that kind of shot to the head and face
1:25:30
and it was rough. Man. I mean, you don't want
1:25:34
to see any athlete take that, but especially one with
1:25:36
as much raw talent as Lebron.
1:25:38
Speaker 4: It is rough.
1:25:39
Speaker 3: Jake.
1:25:39
Speaker 1: I'm curious though, that's that series. Where are you gonna
1:25:42
go with this one? Man? You've you've been making some swings.
1:25:44
I'm curious what you're thinking here.
1:25:47
Speaker 5: Yeah, by my calculations, I'm trying to keep track of everything.
1:25:56
I'll pick Alabama. I'll pick Alabama. They pitched it well,
1:26:01
Fan up Church, test the momentum going. I'm hoping, you know,
1:26:05
I haven't seen an update on Lebron or Brady Neil.
1:26:07
Speaker 4: You know I don't. I don't want to.
1:26:10
Speaker 5: I don't want to try to predict what's going on
1:26:12
with them. I'm gonna go Alabama. I think they I
1:26:15
think they could get it done with their pitching.
1:26:20
Speaker 1: I love it. Play that game, buddy, Josh, you're gonna
1:26:23
go Alabama too, surely.
1:26:25
Speaker 3: I want to hear your pick on this one first
1:26:27
because I know my pick, but I just know listen,
1:26:29
listen like like hand on the Bible, like I know
1:26:32
my pick on this and I'm not gonna switch it.
1:26:33
I just want to hear where you go first because
1:26:35
I don't want my pick to sway yours. I'm just
1:26:38
very curious to see what makes you go a certain
1:26:40
direction here.
1:26:42
Speaker 1: Jake said he thinks that the pitching for Alabama can
1:26:44
get it done. I think that old Missus pitching is
1:26:46
going to handle business here, because especially when you consider
1:26:49
what Lebron does badly, it's at the plate whenever he
1:26:53
looks lost at the plate. And I think old Missus
1:26:55
pitchers can excuse me, I think Old Missus starting pitchers
1:26:59
specifically can victimize that. And if they're victimizing the best
1:27:02
player on the team. It's gonna take other guys stepping up.
1:27:05
It can happen, but I think I'm gonna take ole
1:27:07
Miss fairly confidently with this one.
1:27:10
Speaker 3: All right, Well, for the sake of you trying to
1:27:13
come back in the game, you're gonna be happy to
1:27:15
hear my pick. I am against all odds. I am
1:27:18
going to take those folks. I'm not gonna say their name,
1:27:21
but I'm going to take them pretty much. Sam Analysis
1:27:25
as a jake. Bama's pitching has been lethal lately, and
1:27:29
ole Miss's offenses seemed to hit a lull in a
1:27:32
sense compared at least what they had been doing, and
1:27:36
bamins to solidify a host spot. They're tied for six
1:27:39
in the RPI, so they're probably fine for being honest,
1:27:42
but they have they've swept two straight series if they're
1:27:46
losing three straight, so they seem to be kind of
1:27:49
putting things together at the right time. Hot cold hot,
1:27:52
I sure hope not. I don't want that to apply
1:27:54
to them, but it might. Ole Miss is night in
1:27:57
the SEC right now. They need to avoid playing on
1:27:59
Tuesday Hoover if they'd like to, But it might seem
1:28:02
to be like that way in my opinion, So against
1:28:04
my better judgment, I'm going to choose not almost.
1:28:09
Speaker 1: I love it.
1:28:10
Speaker 3: I won't even say it respect respect honestly, and I'm
1:28:13
gonna look the logo is gonna beside my name on
1:28:15
the graphic. That's bad enough for me. I'm just not
1:28:17
gonna verbally say that I am picking those individuals.
1:28:21
Speaker 1: I get that. And again, mad respect, Bro, you do
1:28:24
what you gotta do when I hope you don't do
1:28:27
what you gotta do.
1:28:27
Speaker 3: Honestly, I'd be fine if I don't. I'd be cool
1:28:30
with losing this one, all right.
1:28:32
Speaker 1: I'm glad to know that you're with me in spirit. Then, Josh,
1:28:36
I'm gonna stick with you. Here U A B and UTSA.
1:28:41
A little bit of mid major magic could go down here.
1:28:44
We've got two of I guess I would say the
1:28:47
mid major squads I've had kind of the most faith
1:28:50
in this season squaring off with each other. Jake's gonna
1:28:53
be able to give us his breakdown from the most
1:28:55
recent mid major rankings. But I am curious, Josh, where
1:28:58
you're leading on this one.
1:29:01
Speaker 3: Wolf is all I have to say about this series.
1:29:03
I mean, it looked way better last week than it
1:29:05
does now. UTSA dropping the series the Memphis might have
1:29:10
killed them, but at the same time, UAB dropping the
1:29:13
series to Charlotte might have killed them too, So it's
1:29:17
a really weird spot for them. I mean, utsa's offense
1:29:20
has dropped off a bit recently, but you know, guys
1:29:22
like Drew Detliffson and Caden Miller and Lane Hayworth have
1:29:25
still been good enough recently that they probably can carry
1:29:28
the load. Pitching is f but UAV doesn't really have
1:29:32
much to hang their hat on. I mean, they're they're
1:29:36
kind of in a free fall right now. The three
1:29:38
games back in the AAC, they've lost six of their
1:29:41
last seven games. And listen to this. In those six losses,
1:29:44
they've lost by an average of eleven point three to
1:29:47
four point three. That's the scores. So they've been getting
1:29:50
killed in the games that they've lost too, So it's
1:29:52
really not promising for them. John Fallhead is the one
1:29:55
good thing they have gone for. Mason Steele is pretty
1:29:57
good on the mound. Oh, I don't want to take
1:30:04
either of these teams right now. I guess I'll take UTSA.
1:30:06
They're at home of the better team, but like dropping
1:30:09
a series to Memphis makes you lose all all hope
1:30:13
in a team. But then again, you can take the
1:30:14
same thing about Charlotte. So I'll just I'll take UTSA
1:30:17
against my better judgment.
1:30:20
Speaker 1: Jake cares where you're gonna go before you pick. I
1:30:23
do want to hear where you have. These two teams
1:30:24
are your most recent mid major update, and then I'd
1:30:27
love to get your selections.
1:30:31
Speaker 5: Yeah, so I haven't updated it following this most recent
1:30:35
weekends for the game. Coming into this weekend, UTSA was three,
1:30:39
UAB was at thirteen. They're both gonna drop a little
1:30:42
bit of UTSA not as much. UAB is probably gonna
1:30:45
take a little bit of a tumble there. Uh, just
1:30:48
with the just the the stretch that they're on right now.
1:30:53
I gotta pick UTSA two just simply because I I
1:30:59
don't know, I don't I don't really know what I
1:31:01
can count on with with u A B at this
1:31:03
point right now, the way that they're playing. I say
1:31:05
that that sounds really harsh to say, but they're you know,
1:31:07
they're one and six in their last seven games. They've
1:31:10
lost series to to Rice and Charlotte. That game won
1:31:13
last weekend was just a complete disaster of twenty to
1:31:16
two loss. I have to I have to go with
1:31:20
you TSA at home. I trust them bouncing back more
1:31:23
than I do U A B at this point, So
1:31:26
that's gonna be my pick.
1:31:29
Speaker 1: We have not I think that's the first reference we've
1:31:32
made to Rice all season. I got to shout out
1:31:34
coach Pierce. Rice has been not off, not off.
1:31:39
Speaker 3: Shout out a once proud program. It is so sad
1:31:42
that the bar is so low that we're talking about
1:31:44
them by just saying the bar is not off a
1:31:48
once proud program, that is sad.
1:31:50
Speaker 1: They could be proud in the future.
1:31:52
Speaker 3: I'm not saying they won't be. I'm just saying they
1:31:54
won national championships in my lifetime without a doubt.
1:31:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, things could happen, things could have great coach, Yeah,
1:32:03
great coach. We'll see, Uh, we'll see what happens. So
1:32:06
uh yeah, I'm gonna go UTSA as well. I was
1:32:09
gonna lead up to it and be silly and say
1:32:10
I'm gonna take a team with you and an A
1:32:12
and make some dumb comment that UTSA is where I
1:32:15
need to go. And I mean, honestly, at this point,
1:32:18
I have to stick with you guys too. I've I've
1:32:20
taken my swings, and I honestly didn't expect Josh to
1:32:24
take Alabama. So that's kind of really gonna separate it
1:32:27
pretty significantly. We're just gonna go pure out with this one. Jake,
1:32:31
want to start with you because obviously we're gonna talk
1:32:34
about a series close and near and dear to our
1:32:37
hearts and our homes, Tennessee traveling to Norman taking on Oklahoma.
1:32:42
The Valls did a lot of their lifting this week,
1:32:44
yet we think that we could project one more sec
1:32:48
win is gonna make them look real solid heading into Hoover.
1:32:51
And yet what would it look like if the Valls
1:32:54
could manage two, if not three, wins against these Sooners. Jake,
1:32:59
what's the major story in this matchup? Who's your pick?
1:33:04
Speaker 4: Yeah?
1:33:05
Speaker 5: So we already we already talked about, you know, Tennessee
1:33:08
earlier in their highlight was obviously taking Koons, and another
1:33:10
performance even even close to that would be very.
1:33:13
Speaker 4: Welcomed by Tennessee fans.
1:33:15
Speaker 5: But you know, if there's one thing to kind of
1:33:17
nitpick off of this past weekend against Texas, even though
1:33:20
I really don't want to do it, because just winning
1:33:22
in a series against Texas is extremely impressive. But if
1:33:25
there's one thing I have to point out, it's that
1:33:28
Henry Ford was just one for thirteen on the weekend.
1:33:31
Like I know, the rest of the offense was was
1:33:33
good for the most part, but you know, that's you.
1:33:36
That's your three hitter, and that's a guy that you
1:33:39
know when when you're hitting right there. It's certainly one
1:33:41
that the team trust to produce.
1:33:43
Speaker 4: And I know he wants to have a better.
1:33:44
Speaker 5: Weekend than he had against Texas because he was kind
1:33:46
of the only one that didn't get in on the
1:33:48
fun there. But if I had to pick one guy
1:33:51
to kind of that, I would really want to point
1:33:53
out that needs to have a bounce back series, it's
1:33:55
going to be him. Also, Landon Mack would be a
1:33:57
good one to have back this weekend. I haven't seen
1:34:00
an update there, but he would be a good one
1:34:02
to have. For my pick, I'm gonna pick Tennessee. I
1:34:09
want to put an asterisk by my pick because if
1:34:13
Josh takes Tennessee, I will be picking Oklahoma.
1:34:17
Speaker 1: Oh all right, Josh, I guess that's as good a
1:34:21
lead in to you as we can ever ask.
1:34:23
Speaker 3: For I don't know what to do in this series
1:34:27
actually because I I you know what Jake can have Oklahoma,
1:34:34
I'll take Tennessee. I came into this podcast thinking I
1:34:37
was I didn't look. I came into this podcast thinking
1:34:42
I was gonna take Oklahoma because I think they're a
1:34:44
good team in there at home. But there, it is
1:34:47
hard to have any faith in this pitching staff right
1:34:50
now for Oklahoma and Tennessee looks so good this past weekend,
1:34:53
like the offense and tikankoons have caught fire lately. They
1:34:56
got to get their way out of plan on Tuesday
1:34:58
on Hoover, they got to keep their way to to
1:35:00
see like they need this so bad. I just can't.
1:35:03
I know, I feel bad. I'm sorry. At a certain point,
1:35:06
I'm trying to win.
1:35:07
Speaker 1: And I just can't.
1:35:08
Speaker 4: You were attempted to do it. Why didn't you just
1:35:10
do it?
1:35:11
Speaker 3: Because everything I just said, I just can't pick. I
1:35:14
just cannot pick the Oklahoma pitching staff right now. Against
1:35:17
Tennessee's offense, the way they've played, I don't care where
1:35:19
the games are being played. Well, Drew, we're gonna have
1:35:26
to align because I know you cannot have next your name.
1:35:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I'm picking. I'm picking Tennessee. I just
1:35:38
I feel so bad for Jake because I know that
1:35:39
he wants Tennessee here, but it's in the It's in
1:35:43
the best atters of his game with pick them and
1:35:46
this is up. Let me ask. I'll just say this
1:35:49
you at home, if you have listened to us picked consistently,
1:35:52
let us know what a comment. Would you rather us
1:35:54
pick what we genuinely think or do you want us
1:35:56
to play the game like this, going for for for
1:35:58
next season, for whatever? Because I like it both ways.
1:36:02
I liked that we were really having to play this
1:36:04
game and be strategic about it. But at the same time,
1:36:08
it just makes this there's wrinkles to it all.
1:36:11
Speaker 3: I think there's a strat because not once this entire
1:36:14
year have I played the game. I've just picked who
1:36:16
I think was gonna win, and I'm up by two
1:36:19
games right now, so if I can do it this week,
1:36:22
I don't think unless I've already forgotten what I've picked,
1:36:25
I don't think I'm playing the game at all. I'm
1:36:27
just purely going what I think is gonna happen. Tennessee.
1:36:30
Isn't me playing the game. I just like switched my
1:36:32
mind in the past five minutes.
1:36:35
Speaker 1: Must have been your beautiful company you've kept in the
1:36:38
last five minutes.
1:36:38
Speaker 3: Probably the orange is just always in my face, just blaring.
1:36:42
I just can't not see it now.
1:36:43
Speaker 1: Where the hell is orange on either of our screens?
1:36:45
That's right now.
1:36:46
Speaker 3: You wore a Tennessee shirt last podcast.
1:36:49
Speaker 1: What are you wearing right now? Chief?
1:36:51
Speaker 3: I'm just taking after you, right, that's fair.
1:36:55
Speaker 1: I'm picking Tennessee. Josh. Can you come up with any
1:36:57
three letters to maybe explain my pick?
1:37:01
Speaker 3: Wde let's go, come on. I'm not saying it. I'm
1:37:03
thinking your team. That's good enough for me.
1:37:06
Speaker 1: Fine, Jake, I feel for you, buddy. I'm not gonna
1:37:10
say I hope Oklahoma wins. I hope they lose all three.
1:37:13
But if that would be the smallest speckle of silver
1:37:17
lining in that horrible ring cloud, is that Jake would
1:37:21
get a point out? All right? And finally, Josh, I'm
1:37:25
gonna let you lead the way on this one. Another
1:37:28
mid major battle Jacksonville State DBU A little bit of
1:37:32
an interesting one for you, Josh. You've kind a champion
1:37:34
DBU all season long, and yet Jacksonville State, from your
1:37:37
home state curious. What are you leaning in this one, sir.
1:37:43
Speaker 3: I'm leaning Jacksonville State just because, like, I don't know,
1:37:47
I think even though they're on the road, they truly
1:37:50
have one of the best pitching staffs in America. They're
1:37:52
only allowing three point three runs per game in the
1:37:54
last thirteen games. All three of their starters have sub
1:37:57
three e ras. Bo Bryant's sixty one percent ground ball rate,
1:38:01
that's pretty ridiculous. I trust that pitching staff against Dallas Baptist,
1:38:05
even though they're Dallas Baptist's offense is supposed to be
1:38:09
the big thing for them and they haven't even been
1:38:10
phenomenal lately. Dallas Baptist needs this. They're tied for fourth
1:38:14
in the Conference USA, and getting top four is huge
1:38:16
there because of the pod system the way it works.
1:38:19
But I don't think they can do it. I think
1:38:20
Jacksonville State's just been too good this year.
1:38:23
Speaker 1: I've been pretty impressive, Jake. I would love to get
1:38:26
your your kind of last your last update on your
1:38:30
mid major rankings for both of these squads, kind of
1:38:32
your thoughts on what you're gonna do with them going forward,
1:38:35
and then i'd love your pick as well.
1:38:37
Speaker 5: Yeah, they were both they were both top seven teams
1:38:40
heading into the weekend. For me, Dallas Baptist was at seven,
1:38:44
Jack State at five. I don't know what I'm gonna
1:38:49
do with Dallas Baptist yet. Not much is gonna happen
1:38:52
with with Jack State. You know, they had a big,
1:38:54
a big, a big weekend against Kennesall but Dallas Baptist
1:38:58
they did lose to Western Kentucky.
1:39:00
Speaker 4: I don't. I don't in terms of the rankings, I
1:39:01
don't know what it's gonna be.
1:39:02
Speaker 5: But you know, been trying Luke Pettitt, Jake Bennett, you know,
1:39:07
they all had homers today, but you know they didn't
1:39:09
have just the strongest weekend as a whole. And those
1:39:12
are the guys on that offense that you know you
1:39:14
would really want to get going if you're gonna if
1:39:16
you're gonna root for them, I'm gonna pick I'm gonna
1:39:21
pick Dallas Baptists. Not it's not just because it's the game.
1:39:25
I have done that obviously a lot this episode. I
1:39:27
haven't done it a ton on the season, I don't
1:39:29
think at least uh but you know this episode, obviously
1:39:31
I'm picking against Josh and you for for different reasons,
1:39:34
but uh, I do like this Dallas Baptist team. Uh,
1:39:37
even though they did just lose to Western Kentucky. They're
1:39:39
coming back home. They're a good team at home. They
1:39:42
and you know, if their bats are gonna get going.
1:39:44
This is not the easiest pitching matchup for them to
1:39:46
get going against, for sure, but they're coming back home.
1:39:48
They're they're gonna be They're gonna be comfortable. They get
1:39:51
to finish the season in their home park before they
1:39:54
head into conference tournament.
1:39:55
Speaker 4: So uh, I'll go Dallas Baptist. I think the bats
1:39:57
are gonna get going.
1:40:00
Speaker 1: I like that pick. Josh has kind of sold me
1:40:02
on DBU as the year has gone along, and it's, man,
1:40:05
it's just so ironic to me that DBU and I
1:40:08
think of them historically, I think of just excellent pitching,
1:40:11
and yet this year it has been the offense. It's
1:40:13
been your try On and Pettit and all these dudes
1:40:16
who are just really really looking excellent. But as of late,
1:40:21
just I don't know. Jake. I love the pick because
1:40:24
I want to go with you, but I just Pillsbury's
1:40:27
looks so good. Cash has looked so good, Brian's has
1:40:31
looked so good, and like you said, dude, I just
1:40:33
don't know that this is the pitching staff to do
1:40:35
it with. And I'll take Jack State. I want to
1:40:41
go DBU. But again, in the interest of transparency with
1:40:44
all of you and with you guys at home, I
1:40:45
knew I wanted to separate from Josh with three games.
1:40:49
I didn't expect four. But the four games I thought
1:40:52
we may separate on were the ones that we ended
1:40:54
up being separate. So it's gonna be interesting, very curious
1:40:58
to see where JB alive on some of these selections,
1:41:01
because that will really kind of shake out our final
1:41:04
end season standings. This was fun, guys. I think we
1:41:08
really a lot of good discussion and obviously the game
1:41:12
was played. I can't wait to see what comes to
1:41:16
with that graphic. Is gonna be an interesting one. There's
1:41:18
a lot of bizarre things on that graphic. The seventh
1:41:23
series Tennessee Oklahoma, Jake, You're gonna have a bizarre logo there,
1:41:26
and then Ole Miss Alabama, Josha, truly strange logo next
1:41:31
to your name in that one. It's gonna be interesting,
1:41:33
for sure, but fun episode. Nonetheless, a little bit of
1:41:37
a jumbo size episode breaking down two full weekends. So
1:41:39
we hope that you guys have enjoyed that at home.
1:41:42
But Jake, I want to give you the opportunity to
1:41:44
tell the folks at home what you're working on and
1:41:46
where they can find you on social media between our
1:41:48
episodes of college Baseball.
1:41:52
Speaker 5: You can follow me on Twitter at Jake Barge. A
1:41:54
lot of the same stuff going on there. I got
1:41:56
the Me and Josh's bractologies has been coming out. We
1:42:00
have the episode coming up which is gonna be so
1:42:02
much fun. I can't wait for that.
1:42:04
Speaker 1: Uh.
1:42:04
Speaker 5: The mid major rankings are obviously over there, and then
1:42:07
the I might have I might have one more live
1:42:10
looks coming out by the end of the year. I'm
1:42:12
gonna get U. I went to I went to Saint
1:42:14
Joe's UH the other day. A lot of fun, huge
1:42:17
game from from Drew's guy on on Saint Joe's UH.
1:42:23
Duke McCarron really good on the mound for them as well.
1:42:25
It was just it was a lot of fun, uh
1:42:27
going to watch that, And I think I think this
1:42:29
upcoming weekend I may go down to Delaware. They get
1:42:32
Western Kentucky UH to finish their season, so might have
1:42:36
might have a little combo a love looks there, so uh,
1:42:38
don't look up for that.
1:42:39
Speaker 1: I guess mix it up a little bit. I like it.
1:42:41
And by the way, Primrose is our guy, Jake. I
1:42:43
can't tell you that's that's that's a Druid Jake guy
1:42:46
for sure. Oh yes, love that. Looking forward to seeing
1:42:50
that article and hearing your thoughts on the road as well. Josh,
1:42:53
what are you working on? Where can people find you
1:42:55
between our episodes? Buddy?
1:42:56
Speaker 3: You can find me on Twitter at Josh Cantler three.
1:42:58
I'll have my rankings out by the time and this
1:43:00
is posted. I have to make that graphic after this.
1:43:03
It was not fun this week. I think teams seven
1:43:06
through eleven of my rankings last week all alall series
1:43:09
this week, so it wasn't really fun to come up with.
1:43:12
But regardless, Yeah, I've got that. I've got some more
1:43:16
list stuff I'm dropping soon. I'm trying to refine on
1:43:18
my list and another one of those come out soon.
1:43:19
I'll get some a SEC tournament content in about a
1:43:22
week or so. So yeah, follow me if you want
1:43:25
to be part of all that.
1:43:27
Speaker 1: You got a lot of stuff coming to People need
1:43:29
to be following you on Twitter for all that great content.
1:43:32
It is always great you guys both are doing great
1:43:34
work on the Twitter machine. Speaking of great work, there's
1:43:37
tons of it. At prospects Live dot com. Membership starts
1:43:40
a low with seven dollars a month. You can get
1:43:41
all kinds of stuff, including the college daily sheet that's
1:43:44
keeping on rolling along the minor league and major league
1:43:47
daily sheets, as well as well as rankings, tips, tricks, tools, lists,
1:43:52
all kinds of articles, podcasts, and things for your baseball fandom,
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whether that's fantasy baseball, your major league team, your college,
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college team, draft hype, your card hobby, all kinds of things.
1:44:03
At prospects Live dot com we can see and provide
1:44:06
you with at a low rate for the best content
1:44:09
in baseball on the internet. If you're interested in following me,
1:44:13
you may do so on the Twitter Machine, on Instagram,
1:44:15
on Blue Sky at Drew is okay. Lots of work
1:44:18
coming out. We've got a mock draft coming out this week,
1:44:21
Mock Draft three point zero. We have top two hundred
1:44:23
and CAA is finally reaching its its conclusion after much hype,
1:44:28
much delay. Drew's got some live looks I'm looking at,
1:44:32
got a ton of articles that they need to be
1:44:34
getting to, including a live looks from Jake, live looks
1:44:37
from Will Dodge. We've got the April team of the month,
1:44:40
all kinds of great stuff on there as well, and
1:44:43
just looking forward to being back at the park as
1:44:45
soon as that can be. Whether that's Hoover or potentially
1:44:48
a startful regional, it's gonna be a lot of fun.
1:44:51
Can't wait to do it, and can't wait for our
1:44:53
next episode of College Baseball. Now Wednesday, we encourage you
1:44:58
tune in at nine p Central Standard time, ten pm Eastern.
1:45:02
We're going live with Bracketology. It could be about this
1:45:05
length of episode, maybe a little bit longer. We encourage
1:45:09
you to join in comment because we're gonna have comments
1:45:12
from you all, obviously, as we're breaking down the teams.
1:45:15
As we're setting up the most recent edition of Bracketology
1:45:18
between Josh and Jake, I will likely have a couple
1:45:21
of tidbits here and there, and we'll throw some Drew
1:45:24
spice into the mix. God only knows what that's gonna
1:45:27
look like. We'll have a good time doing at then.
1:45:29
But until next time, for Josh, for Jake, for JB,
1:45:33
who is currently over the Atlantic, ocean. I'm Drew and
1:45:36
we will see you next time on college baseball. Now
1:45:39
take care,