College World Series Preview

The College World Series starts tomorrow and a couple of us around these parts have a vested interest in the outcome.  And because he won’t shut up about it longtime commenter and sometime friend, arkbadger, gave us a preview of each of the 8 teams remaining.

Oh, and for what it’s worth, this site predicts the smart money’s on the Sun Devils.  I think that site is smart.

Arizona State Sun Devils

Arizona State is 49-12 on the season and breezed through their regional and super regional, and were never really tested in either, which is impressive considering they had Clemson in the super regional. The longest losing streak they had all season was 2 games, and that only happened twice (at Arkansas and at Oregon St.). Arizona State’s pitching staff has the lowest era in the nation at 2.78, they are 9th in strikeouts/9 I.P with 9.3, and 3rd in hits/9 I.P. with 7.82. Mike Leake is the ace of the staff, and by ace I mean he is bad mo-fo. 16-1 with a 1.36 era, with 150 strikeouts and opponents bat .175 against him. He was the 8th overall pick in the first round by the Reds. Yeah, he’s pretty good. The SunDevils are no slouch at the plate either batting .305 as a team, average 8.0 runs a game, and have a .496 slugging average. What impresses me most about the Sun Devils at the plate is their patience with 358 walks on the year. Jason Kipnis is the top hitter for Arizona State with a .385 average, 16 homers and 71 RBI’s. He was taken by the Indians with the 63rd overall pick in the draft. Looking at those numbers it’s tough to pick against Arizona State, except that they have to play North Carolina in their first game, and if they survive that game, most likely Texas in the second game. Still, with the depth of pitching that they have, it would not surprise me in the least to see the Sun Devils in the championship round in Omaha.

Arkansas Razorbacks

My (that’s right, mine, I graduated from here and I am a season ticket holder) Arkansas Razorbacks are 39-22 on the season which on the surface isn’t that impressive, until you look at the non-conference schedule they played, along with the regular’s in the SEC, say it with me (spppppeeeeeeeedddddd). Arkansas was the definition of a roller coaster team this year starting off the season with a 24-6 record, including an 8-0 start in the SEC. They then finished the season on an 8 game losing skid in conference and limped into the conference tourney as the #7 seed where they went 2-2. Arkansas was the #2 seed in the Norman region, where they dominated the field going 3-0, beating #7 national seed Okrahoma twice by a combined score of 28-6. The Hogs made their way to Tallahassee for the super regional where they disposed of the mighty Seminoles in two games paving the way to Omaha for the 6th time in school history. Arkansas pitching staff was the one consistent throughout the season, led by Friday starter Dallas Keuchel with a 7-3 record and a 4.04 ERA. One thing that Arkansas lacks is the overpowering #1 starter, but what they lack in power pitching, they make up with in a solid bullpen, led by closer Stephen Richards who has a 6-1 record and 9 saves. Offense was not the strong point of the Hogs this season, they average 6.4 runs per game, had a .273 batting average and a .447 slugging average. Andy Wilkins is the most consistent hitter on the team with a .326 avg., 18 home runs and 52 RBI’s. Manager Dave Van Horn is known as a strategist and loves playing small ball, which doesn’t help the stats a whole lot, but gets the team victories and that’s all that matters right? Arkansas came from behind after the 8th inning in something like 15 wins this year, which is damn straight impressive. The Razorbacks definitely got in the weaker side of the bracket, facing Cal-State Fullerton in the first round, and the winner of Virginia-LSU in the second game. Arkansas is back on a roll after their late season struggles and baseball is all about momentum. If they can get by Fullerton in the first game (1:00 on Saturday on ESPN – channel 732 on your HD receiver in the great state of Arkansas) and get the first ever CWS victory for coach Van Horn (0-8 with Arkansas and Nebraska) look out for the Diamond Backs as they could easily be hoisting the national championship trophy for the first time ever come the third week of June.

Cal-State Fullerton Titan’s

Cal-State Fullerton is 47-14 on the season, and much like their opponent in the first round Arkansas played a grueling non-conference schedule. Fullerton hosted both a regional and a super and breezed through both as the #2 national seed. They have a team ERA of 3.36 and give up under a hit per 9 I.P. At the plate the Titans average nearly 8 runs a game, bat .330 as a team and average almost 2 stolen bases a game. Fullerton’s pitching staff is led by Daniel Renken with a 11-2 record, 2.36 ERA and has given up only 87 hits in 118 innings. At the plate leadoff man short stop Christian Colon has .352 average and 78 runs scored, and 1B Jared Clark has a .363 average with 12 HR’s, 81 RBI’s and 14 SB’s. Fullerton is a solid team from top to bottom and has faced a non-conference schedule that easily prepared them for anyone they will face in Omaha. The Titans are another small ball team, with 76 sacrifices (third in the nation) and average less than 1 HR a game. Rosenblatt stadium is familiar ground for Fullerton as well, as they are seeking their 5th national championship in baseball. Unfortunately for them they are facing the red hot Arkansas Razorbacks in the first round, where they will most certainly be handed an opening round defeat. Fullerton is a well coached team, and have a famous alumni actor guy in Kevin Costner, who is known to show up and cheer the team on in Omaha.

LSU Tigers

Perennial powerhouse LSU enters Omaha with a 51-16 record and posted an undefeated 5-0 record in the Baton Rouge regional and super regional, beating a tough Rice team twice in the supers. LSU only lost consecutive games one time all season. They are good, despite the fact that the inbred Cajuns can’t spell a two letter work like GO. The Bayou Bengals rank in the top 15 nationally in ERA, K’/9 innings and Hits allowed/9 innings. Their pitching staff is good. They have two starters with over 10 wins, under 3.00 Era’s and over 100 K’s. LSU also has a deep bullpen, which is key in a double elimination style tournament like the college world series. Like always, LSU’s offense is choked full of hitters, with all but one starter having a batting average over .300. Ryan Schimpf leads the team with 19 HR’s and is second in RBI’s with 63. Jared Mitchell leads the team with 35 stolen bases. The Tigers are also patient at the plate, ranking 6th in the nation with 324 walks. The offense is good. LSU has a tough matchup in the first round facing Virginia who has travelled twice to win their regional and super, so they will not be intimidated. That being said, I see LSU winning the first game and going on to face Arkansas in the winner’s bracket. The Tigers took 2 of 3 from Arkansas earlier in the year, but those games don’t mater anymore because the weather sucked then and that was the start of Arkansas season ending skid.

North Carolina TarHeels

North Carolina is 47-16 heading into Omaha, and besides the fact that they have quite possibly the gayest colored uniforms in all of collegiate athletics, it doesn’t matter when you have a pitching staff like they do. UNC hosted both regional and super regional games and went 5-0 in the friendly confines of whatever stadium they play at in Chapel Hill. The tar heels pitching staff has a team ERA of 3.61, strike out over 10 batters a game and give up less than a hit an inning. Pitcher Alex White was taken in the first round of the MLB draft by the Indians with a 8-4 record and 4.13 ERA, he is also the #3 starter. Brian Moran leads the team with a 1.95 ERA and a 7-1 record. Offensively the Tar Heels are led by another first round MLB pick by the Mariners in Dustin Ackley. I saw this kid play a couple games on TV and he can rip the cover off the ball. His .412 batting average, 22 HR’s and 70 RBI all lead the team. He also only has 2 errors on the season. I would say that he is a pretty solid player. Carolina has to play Arizona State in their first game, which is a tough task, and should they win they will most likely play Texas. Arizona State played a much tougher non-conference schedule during the regular season which I see helping them in this game against the Heels, but either way, this will be the best game of the opening round of the CWS (not including Arkansas-Fullerton, which will be far superior than any baseball game this weekend) and all you aluminum bat haters should tune in and see what you are missing when you watch your gay ass Mariner’s – A’s games just because they use wood bats.

Southern Miss Golden Eagles

The fighting Favre’s out of Southern Miss are definitely the dark horse coming into Omaha with a 40-24 record out of the ever tough Conference USA. I will give them credit because they did beat Georgia Tech twice in the Atlanta regional, and then went to Gainsville for the super regional and swept Florida. Now the bad news, in their non-conference schedule they played Cal-Fullerton 3 times and lost badly giving up over 10 runs each game, and they were at home. Granted that baseball is all about who’s hot at the right time, and to the Favre’s credit they are the second (possibly third (super UVA teaser!!)) hottest team coming into the tournament behind Arkansas, they also have to play Texas in the first round, and then the loser of ASU-UNC, so they are pretty much two and done in their first ever CWS appearance. Statistically speaking Southern Miss has the worst pitching staff remaining, but that isn’t saying much considering that 6 of the top 10 pitching staffs in D-1 are in Omaha. They have a team ERA of 5.01 which isn’t all that good, but not horrible in college baseball. Todd McInnis is the Friday night starter with a 9-4 record and a 3.61 ERA. Other than him and closer Colin Cargill who has 13 saves the rest of the pitching staff looks mediocre at best. Offensively Bo Davis leads the team with a .371 batting average, 14 HR’s and is second on the team with 53 RBI’s. I honestly knew nothing about the Southern Miss Favre’s baseball team before looking up these few stats, and I don’t see them making a Fresno State like run from last year, but congrats anyways on making it to Omaha for the first time, now enjoy a good steak and go back to Hattiesburg and tell your alumni to shut up and retire.

Texas Longhorns

The Texas Longhorns used to be my least favorite college sports team eVaR, but have been replaced by Ole Miss, but not by much. That being said, the Longhorns have always had a solid baseball team and most of the hatred I have for them is in football and possibly basketball (Tom Pender’s tee hee hee). Augie (pass me another cold one) Garrido has been around since the dawn of time and is a damn good baseball coach, which is probably why he has the most wins in D-1 history. Granted that coaching at places like Cal-Fullerton and Texas you should have eleventy thousand wins, his achievements are quite impressive. Texas is the number 1 overall seed for a reason, much of it has to do with their pitching staff. They are second nationally in ERA at 2.84, first in hits allowed per 9 innings at 7.34, and strikeout 8 batters a game. Chance Ruffin leads the team with a 10-2 record and has an ERA of 3.02 and 101 K’s. He also has 2 saves, I guess he got those when Augie was drunk and making up his own bizzaro roster. Austin Wood is the everyday closer, he has 15 saves and an impressive 2.19 ERA. Uncharacteristically Texas does not have the hitters that they usually sport, with only 3 players batting over .300, and no one with more than 8 HR’s. They are in the lower 1/3 in most offensive categories nationally, but when you have a team full of pitchers that can pwn you at the plate, you can get by with scoring fewer runs. Brandon Belt leads the team with a .336 AVG and is also tied for the team lead with 40 RBI’s. If you want to know anything else about Texas ask clown, he may or may not have gone to a game or two this year. I’ve had the Gayhorn team page up for a couple minutes now and the color on my screen looks like someone defecated all over it and it is making me slightly ill. Texas shouldn’t have a problem with the fighting Favre’s in the first round, but will have a tough match-up regardless of who they play in the next round. If they can make it to the championship round to play Arkansas, look for some epic fights in the stands at Rosenblatt stadium, because most Arkansas fans hate Texas with every being in their heart even though they haven’t been in the same conference since 1992. That being said, Fuck Texas.

Virginia Cavaliers

Virginia is the team that the NCAA hates, and I’m not sure why. They were ranked in the top 15 most of the year, finished with a 48-13 record, won the ACC tournament, yet still had to play in probably the toughest Regional in Irvine where they beat San Diego State and some pitcher (who struck out 15) in the first round, then beat the home town Anteaters (top 5 mascot team name) twice to win the regional. How are they rewarded you ask, they have go to Ole Miss where they dispose of the racists in three games. Congrats on making it to Omaha UVA, you get LSU in the first round. The Cavalier pitching staff is lead by Danny Hultzen and Tyler Wilson who both had 9 wins and under a 3.00 ERA on the season. Kevin Arico led the team with 11 saves. Dan Grovatt and Jarrett Parker lead the team in hitting, with Parker slugging 16 HR’s and driving in 65. UVA also has 5 players with over 10 stolen bases, so they can get around the bases with the quickness as well. I think Virginia showed that they aren’t intimidated by a whole lot this year, especially this post season. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them beat LSU in the first game, but I don’t think they will do it anyways. I think they will be a little worn down from all the travel the past couple weeks, and it will show in the first game. I’ve always kind of liked UVA for some reason, maybe because they are usually completely irrelevant in football and basketball every year in the ACC and I like cheering for the underdog. I also applied to go to grad school there and didn’t get in, so fuck them, although their campus is the shit too.

My final unbiased prediction for the championship series: Arkansas in three games over Texas. And clown finally admits that BBQ pork >>>>>> BBQ cow.