College Top 25: Changing college landscape?

Not that I have anything against any of the schools /teams that are usually up there in the rankings but it is nice to see some different teams. I think thats good for college baseball. The most surprising part of the Louisiana-Lafayette season was there first game which was a loss to Eastern IL who is 11-24 on the season.

Louisiana-Lafayette leads D1 in home runs with 46.

And they have the coolest acronym in all of college sports.

ULaLa

Oooh - Laaa - Laaa!

I was skeptical when I saw Cal Poly at #3. I looked at their schedule. They're beating major conference teams in addition to those in their conference.

I'm not sure what to make of the rankings at this point.  Certainly the rankings would lead us to believe it is down year in the PAC-10, Big West, etc...   Could they be play opossum?  Is this an anomaly or is it truly changed.  I'm not buying it, yet.

I'm going to hold my thoughts and come back to it when the NCAA Regionals (Super Regionals and CWS) come around.  Rankings are a combination of conference and non-conference play and some level of winning margin.  The teams playing each other elected to play each other.   I want to see some results of teams that have had very good seasons and they are forced to play each other.   I think we'll get more answers about the West coast teams.  Not for a minute do I not think there is some West coast team capable of winning the CWS.  Every year they trot out some talented arms that shut down a lot of teams.

The Cajuns are for real this year. College teams are very cyclical and everything has fallen in place in Lafayette. They have a very balanced, extremely talented and hungry team. They lost their best position player to the KC Royals and still are killing the ball.

The pitching staff is strong with two projected (BA) top 5 round starters and 10 more significant contributors..very deep staff. The defense is VERY stingy.

Baseball America and Perfect Game both say they are a legit Omaha team and project them as a national seed. They have not lost a series and have 6 sweeps this year, while going 14-0 away from home. They are packing their ball park, 4,500 last Saturday night and are averaging about 3,500 per game.

I am so excited that my CalPoly Mustangs are where they are at. Will be very exciting to have a Regional in San Luis Obispo! 

Anyone see that VanderHook was suspended? Wonder what that is all about? 

The Vanderhook situation seems eerily similar to the Tereshuck situation, although some of Tereshuck's antics as reported were pretty much over the line.

CSUF has been a huge disappointment this year offensively and defensively, great pitching, but Hooky's huge beef is with the offensive tentativeness and the lack of accountability and leadership in the dugout.  A very "soft", un-Titan-like team.  The Titans have always been tough as nails

I think that the changes to the draft has changed the landscape as well. A lot of these programs sign big prospects as well as lose top players to the draft.

Most good programs rebuild and not reload.

JMO

We live near San Luis Obispo and Cal Poly is the only option within a few hours drive when it comes to D1 or pro sports.  Surprisingly, they usually hold their own in a baseball conference that includes Fullerton, Long Beach, Hawaii, UC Santa Barbara and UC Irvine but never quite come out on top.  The current run combined with their recent first-ever appearance in the NCAA basketball tourney has created quite the local buzz.  They brought in additional portable bleachers to handle the extra crowds.  To top it off for us, Cabbage has had the good fortune of playing with several of their contributing players on summer and scout ball teams not too long ago.  Brian Mundell is a beast!

I think I may have mentioned in a past thread...  It is interesting to see that Poly seemingly has a bit of a cookie-cutter approach to hitting.  Most players have the same simple set and load position with the bat on more of a flat to 45 degree angle instead of the currently-more-common straight up bat position.  Far fewer moving parts and changing planes.  I know it is a program thing because I saw many of these same hitters with a different set-up prior to playing for the Mustangs.  We noticed a similar pattern with their pitchers a few years back - each with a very similar distinct set position.  They seem to have relaxed on that aspect but both offense and pitching are red-hot and have been all year.