Pre-Season Baseball Polls

Unfortunately, Collegiate Baseball magazine has become somewhat of a joke in the college baseball community. I'm not sure where Ping falls.

I remember last year a few polls were ranking Penn State as a top tier program. When I mentioned that I didn't understand where all the Penn State infatuation was coming from in the PA forum, a poster there called me names and stated that the PA forum is more civil than that and implied that my opinions weren't welcome there.

Sometimes we take protection of feelings a bit too far here.

We'll have to see where LSU stands at the end of the season. There's already been a lot of criticism that Manieri pads the schedule with patsies.

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Well he doesn't want to go hungry!

Pre season polls can be a good motivator for a program and also a pain in the butt.
In 2005 son's school was not ranked, due to large influx of new players, the guys had a blast trying to prove themselves and ended up one game short of Omaha.
In 2007, after winning the ACC championship and going to Omaha in 2006, son's school went into most of the polls except for one as #1, didn't turn out that way, lots of pressure and lots of expectations.

Polls are fun to watch to see who remains on top, who moves down, who moves up. It sells subsriptions too.

LSU plays in the SEC, not too padded if I do say so myself.

Some teams benefit from being a "big name" school regardless of how succesful the baseball program actually is.

A school like Michigan gets a free pass by having a winning record. Then, when you disect the record, you see it's soft scheduling. Last year, a 46-14 record...but played 10 games against teams in top 100 (overall SOS of 106). Ten games! And,they managed to go 3-7. Still finished at 32 RPI.

Same with Notre Dame. 32-21 with a SOS of 157. Two games against opponents in top 50 (lost both) and 5-11 against teams ranked 51-100.

Yet, a school like NC State is left out of top 40. 42-22 record with a SOS of 10. Ten! 28 games against teams ranked 1-50 and another 23 games against teams ranked 51-100. They're clearly not running and hiding from anybody.

I know the list is a prediction for this year...base on returning players, schedule, etc.

But, Elon's another example. Finished 2008 at number 41 (5-11 against 1-50 and 12-4 against 51-100...at least they had the cajones to play teams like UNC, Clemson, Coastal, NC State, E Carolina, UNC Wilmington, etc). Lost one pitcher and two position players...returning the lineup which produced the 7th highest scoring offense in D1. Yet, ranked lower than last season's final poll. Small schools get little love on these types of polls.

Guys running this poll are clueless. It's easy to fall in love with big names (even if it is misguided).

quote:

There's already been a lot of criticism that Manieri pads the schedule with patsies.

Like alot of southern schools, they host alot of northern teams in February and March. They play 22 of the first 25 games at home. They play 4 weekend series on the road, all year. They like home cooking like everyone. They just get more than most.

wayback - I agree with your take on things. NC State and Elon both merit consideration and perhaps some of the named schools do not. NC State did lose some pitching but perhaps not enough to knock them out of the top 25. Michigan lost a ton of players and I don't care how good your recruiting class is, it takes time to replace them. I have no clue about Notre Dame other than Charlie Weiss lives to coach another day

I have always said it is nice to be recognized. For those teams that are not, it provides motivation against those who are. Even though they are flawed, it is still nice to at least have something to talk about when it is well below zero outside.

I don't see the logic in some of these rankings. Looking at just the Pac-10, they have the teams ranked as such:

Stanford
ASU
UCLA
USC
Arizona
OSU
California
***
NR: WSU, UW, Oregon


I was bored so I did my own "Power Rankings" for the Pac-10. Here's what I came up with.

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2009 Pac-10 Baseball Power Rankings

Arizona -- 148
California-- 142
UW-- 141
WSU-- 139
Stanford-- 131
ASU-- 128
UCLA-- 126
OSU-- 125
USC-- 101
Oregon-- 92


Power Rankings Mathematical Explanation

1) Referred to PG Crosschecker rankings for each freshman recruit. Each freshman recruit in the top 100 ranking gets 5 points. Each freshman in the top 300 ranking gets 4 points. Top 500 gets 3 points. Top 1000 gets 2 points. Top 1500 gets 1.

2) 10 points for each returning player (minimum Pac-10 at bats requirement) who batted over .300.

3) 15 points for each starting pitcher who had an ERA under 5.00.

4) 2 points for each "non-true freshman" on the roster. For example, a sophomore or redshirt freshman are non-true freshmen.

5) 1/2 point for each homerun produced the previous year by a returning player. 1/4 point for each double or triple produced the previous year by a returning player.

Special Note: Considering the 2009 Oregon team did not play last year, it was assigned an equal number (for HR, and 2B/3B) as the lowest Pac-10 team.

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I guess we'll have to wait until the 2009 season is over to see who's right.