There are several polls out there for college baseball and two of them have come out with their preseason polls with D1Baseball being the most recent of the two. They are only giving love to Maryland out of the B1G and have them ranked No. 13, while College Baseball Newspaper published a preseason poll of the Top 50 and they had Maryland at No. 21, Rutgers at No. 29, and Michigan at No. 44. While IU, Illinois, and Iowa received votes, they were not included in the Top 50. It's no surprise that Maryland and Rutgers are getting all of the preseason love considering they had the two best overall records in the B1G and were 1-2 in the conference standings with Rutgers tying Iowa and Illinois for the 2nd spot, although Rutgers was given the No. 2 seed in the tournament. I really haven't looked much at the preseason write-ups on teams outside of IU, so I don't know much as to what Maryland and Rutgers have coming back, but it's probably enough to get some preseason attention. With the influx of transfers everywhere, I guess we will just have to wait and see how the season pans out.
FWIW, a couple of preseason polls have come out....
- Thread starter ptrich
- Start date
With the transfer portal preseason projections are more dubious than ever although if they all get along LSU should play well into June.
Based on the D1 baseball fall reports and a sprinkling of transfer portal changes in the B1G Maryland and Rutgers are logical choices to be in the upper tier and IMHO the 3 I’s will be the closest to them, with Nebraska, O$U, and Michigan completing the tourney field. Nothing earthshaking there, and of the rest I would only set Northwestern aside even though I think they made a good hire, as they lost a lot from last year’s team.
FWIW based on reading & my 5 inning glimpse of the Hoosiers I would put Devin Taylor as a standout freshman who presents a challenge to coach Mercer as to where to play him. A natural outfielder, in an already crowded position, he played a lot of first base in the fall, while Tibbitts worked at catcher. This sounds crazy but I think IU has too many good position players and getting innings for all of them will be a challenge. This challenge of course secondary to pitching. The reveal begins in 30 days.
Based on the D1 baseball fall reports and a sprinkling of transfer portal changes in the B1G Maryland and Rutgers are logical choices to be in the upper tier and IMHO the 3 I’s will be the closest to them, with Nebraska, O$U, and Michigan completing the tourney field. Nothing earthshaking there, and of the rest I would only set Northwestern aside even though I think they made a good hire, as they lost a lot from last year’s team.
FWIW based on reading & my 5 inning glimpse of the Hoosiers I would put Devin Taylor as a standout freshman who presents a challenge to coach Mercer as to where to play him. A natural outfielder, in an already crowded position, he played a lot of first base in the fall, while Tibbitts worked at catcher. This sounds crazy but I think IU has too many good position players and getting innings for all of them will be a challenge. This challenge of course secondary to pitching. The reveal begins in 30 days.
Underscoring your point and undercutting my response I offer this quote from the D1 Baseball site in their follow up article on Maryland (Preseason #13 in D1 ranking): “With all due respect to the rest of the Big Ten, Maryland goes into the season as the runaway favorite to win the conference title, and if it comes close to reaching its ceiling as a team, the final standings might not be close.”
The D1 top 25 starts with LSU & includes 9 SEC teams, with a glaring omission of Mississippi State, despite several solid returners plus high rankings for their transfer and freshman recruiting classes. Of course last year the D1 preseason poll had Hail State 4 and ironically the final Warren Nolan RPI had them 1 slot below IU and dead last in the conference. So much for preseason polls.
FWIW, the Huskers were the favorite to win the regular season last year by a polling of B1G coaches and they were getting all of the love in the preseason polls. The Huskers finished in a tie with IU and NW at 10-14 in the conference, and didn't make the conference tourney, so as they always like to say, that's why they play the games.
Mississippi State lost their Friday and Saturday starters before league play last year. Also lost Fri/Sat/Sun starters to draft after the 2021 Championship. The SEC confrence isn’t very forgiving when that happens.
State still has lots of question marks in those spots, but flush with young talent. One freshman getting rave reviews who looks be a weekend starter is Jurrangelo Cijntje who is a switch pitcher. Apparently he’s 93-96 Left handed, 90-93 right handed.
Pfffftt!!! Who can't do that?
BTW, how does that work exactly? If he gets behind in the count, can he switch gloves and go from the other side? Can he alternate between hitters? Maybe even pitches? Damn, that'd be a mess to hit off of.
Can change before each hitter. Can’t change in middle of the at bat.Pfffftt!!! Who can't do that?
BTW, how does that work exactly? If he gets behind in the count, can he switch gloves and go from the other side? Can he alternate between hitters? Maybe even pitches? Damn, that'd be a mess to hit off of.
Hmmm...if a hitter is changed in the middle of an at bat, I guess he could change too in that case? It would be really fun to watch him pitch.
The rule states “not permitted to pitch with the other hand until the batter is retired, becomes a baserunner or is removed for a pinch-hitter”. So yes, he can switch if the batter is switched mid at bat.
Also, if he injures one arm. He can switch mid at bat, but cannot go back to the injured arm for the rest of his appearance in the game.
Latest posts
-
-
In scathing Gallup poll Biden with least popular president in 70 YEARS Uggghhh- Latest: TheOriginalHappyGoat
-
Big Ten Announces 2024-25 Men’s Basketball Conference Opponents- Latest: Aloha Hoosier
