Rankings 5/1/2023

[fryeguy93]

The SEC has nine teams in the RPI top-30 and six of the top-9


As every week- almost, I will update through the day.
If the Vols are not ranked in every poll then there should be a riot.
I'm giving "Collegiate Baseball" one more chance but I have little hope.

On 4/24/2023 the Vols were:
#24 in D1
Unranked in Baseball America
#26 in Collegiate Baseball
#8 in PerfectGame
#16 in USA Today Coaches Poll
#18 in NCBWA
#25 in RPI

Here's how the Top25 did this week. At least in the D1 Poll

Green- rising
Red- declining
White- meh

1. LSU 3-1 (lost midweek to Nicholls and swept Alabama)
2. Wake Forest 3-0 (Coastal Carolina, Wofford, High Point- off week in ACC)
3. South Carolina 1-2 (Lost twice to visiting Auburn)
4. Florida 4-0 (UNF, Mizzou)
5. Vanderbilt 3-0 (Kentucky)
6. Coastal Carolina 2-2 (L to WF, 2-1 @ Louisiana)
7. Arkansas 3-1 (L @ Mo State, Sweep aTm)
8. Stanford 3-1 (Cal, and 2-1 UCLA)
9. Campbell 0-2 ( Duke, @ Elon)
10. Uconn 3-0 (RI, 2 @ Nova)
11. Boston College 2-2 (UMass-Lowell, 1-2 vs Clemson)
12. ECU 2-2 (L at NCState, 2-1 Tulane)
13 Virginia 3-2 (W Liberty, W Towson, 1-2 Vs Duke)
14. TX Tech 1-2 (@ K State)
15. Kentucky 04-4 (Louisville and Vanderbilt)
16. Miami 3-1 (FAU, 2-1 @ Louisville)
17. AZ State 2-3 ( W CSF, 1-2 @ Oregon)
18. WVU 4-0 (Penn State, @ Baylor)
19. DBU 3-1 (L @ TCU, sweep @ Rice)
20. Duke 4-1 (W @ Campbell, W High Pt, 2-1 @ UVA)
21. Louisville 2-2 (@ KY, 1-2 Miami)
22. Oregon State 4-0 (@GCU, Vs Arizona x 3)
23. Oregon 4-1 (W Gonzaga, 2-1 AZ State)
24. Tennessee 4-0 (duh)
25. UTSA 3-1 (W Houston Christian, 2-1 @ UAB)

Kentucky will likely drop out of polls, but will get close. with their second terrible week in a row. Surely they'll fall behind Tennessee
I really think the publicity and the players names are keeping LSU ahead of Wake Forest. The Deacons have kind of accomplished more and been more consistent than LSU. They deserve to be #1 but have no chance getting there.
South Carolina should drop behind Florida and Vanderbilt who went unbeaten. They should not fall past #5. Arkansas and Stanford should move past Coastal Carolina.
Despite having a conference bye week, Campbell had 2 losses that should drop them out of top 10
Teams 10-15 bombed this week. BC lost series to surging Clemson
ECU did best out of the five. UVA feasted midweek but go exposed by red hot Duke team at home.
Because of 10-15, Look for Miami , West Virginia and Duke to make big leaps in polls.
I look for Tennessee to jump to around 16 or 17 in D1

 

[Special Ed]

Hard to make out the names when the chart is all black.

 

[OrngeJuiceJones]

I don't think Wake is better than LSU. Not sure about their schedule either. Don't think they've beaten anyone

 

[StarRaider]

I don't think Wake is better than LSU. Not sure about their schedule either. Don't think they've beaten anyone

WF plays BC this weekend. WF is (W/L RPI)
2-1 at Duke 8
3-0 vs Miami 14
3-0 at Clemson 12
2-0 vs NCSU 24
2-1 at Louisville 28
1-1 Coastal (home/home) 7

not bad but not an SEC grinder schedule.

 

[OrngeJuiceJones]

@StarRaider Im just not totally sold the ACC is anywhere near as good as the SEC but idk. Not saying Wake isn't good, they clearly are, but how good?

 

[@1RBFjr]

Hard to make out the names when the chart is all black.

Scroll to the right to see the first poll out. As different polls start coming out, @fryeguy93 adds them in.

 

[fryeguy93]

BA first out
Tennessee at #21 from being unranked last week
Duke is the big mover as they jump 7 spots to #9 after series win at Virginia. Blue Devils went 15-3 in April and are first place in their division.
Kentucky falls completely out of the pol l from #15 last week,

 

[fryeguy93]

D1 has UT up 6 spots to #18
Kentucky out.
This leaves 6 SEC teams ranked in both rankings so far.
9 in RPI

Duke, Miami, West Virginia and Oregon State are all big movers as well
Neither ranking has dropped South Carolina like I expected

 

[TheMookieMonster]

18 in D1 ain’t bad. Go 3-1 this week and we’ll be back in the Top 15 by next Monday.

 

[fryeguy93]

As I posted before the season, LSU's schedule softened up significantly after the first four series

2-1 against UK
3-0 @ Ole Miss
3-0 Alabama
____________________________
@ Auburn
Mississippi State
@ Georgia

In fact, LSU had a very favorable schedule as they hosted Arkansas and Tennessee and the only stiff opponent they faced on road was South Carolina, and the last game of that series was cancelled.
The East teams in running have far less favorable schedules, so I expect LSU to back into top seed.

 

[StarRaider]

@StarRaider Im just not totally sold the ACC is anywhere near as good as the SEC but idk. Not saying Wake isn't good, they clearly are, but how good?

I don't know either since I have not watched any a-sis-see games except when BC played in Knoxville.... WF plays BC this weekend, may watch some depending on what else is going on.

 

[TheMookieMonster]

As I posted before the season, LSU's schedule softened up significantly after the first four series

2-1 against UK
3-0 @ Ole Miss
3-0 Alabama
____________________________
@ Auburn
Mississippi State
@ Georgia

In fact, LSU had a very favorable schedule as they hosted Arkansas and Tennessee and the only stiff opponent they faced on road was South Carolina, and the last game of that series was cancelled.
The East teams in running have far less favorable schedules, so I expect LSU to back into top seed.

And we push for the 16-seed and send the overrated Tigers home in the Supers.

 

[chuckiepoo]

And we push for the 16-seed and send the overrated Tigers home in the Supers.

 

[ThreatLevelOrange]

Need to win at least 4 over the next 2 weeks vs GA and UK. Then just try to get 1 vs SC.

Kentucky was doing well…til they got to tie teeth of their schedule.

 

[txbo]

WF plays BC this weekend. WF is (W/L RPI)
2-1 at Duke 8
3-0 vs Miami 14
3-0 at Clemson 12
2-0 vs NCSU 24
2-1 at Louisville 28
1-1 Coastal (home/home) 7

not bad but not an SEC grinder schedule.

I watched a bit of WF this weekend. They have some impressive looking athletes.

 

[fryeguy93]

Collegiate Baseball gets a reprieve.
It's in better shape than it was last week as Arizona State and Fullerton were dropped back and Kentucky was dropped completely from the poll after being #10 last week

However, the CB guys are still going to ride-and-die with the Gauchos of UC-Santa Barbara at #9 where they are unranked by anyone else- so far, including RPI.
I researched and the Gauchos sit at 32 in RPI with a 57 SOS and 45 NC SOS. They have 3 games against 1-25 and are 3-0. and 2-5 against 2-5..
That just screams top-10

Those three 1-25 games were at Oregon in February where the mashed the ducks pretty well 6-2, 4-1, and 10-0

 

[CAVPUT]

I like being the copperhead in the leaves. Let everyone overlook us. I'm fine being off the radar.

 

[fryeguy93]

From the NCAA website:
https://www.ncaa.com/news/baseball/...ball-questions-be-answered-seasons-last-month


Tennessee's late-season surge: Real or not?

I'd be far from the first person to point out that the Vols have endured a less-than-spectacular 2023 as a whole. A team that won over 50 games last season and looked to have retooled to run it back sputtered out of the gates and even dropped out of the D1Baseball top 25 as recently as mid-April.

Yet the past two weekends have seen Tennessee go on its best run of wins since its relatively easy non-conference schedule. Seven wins in a row that included sweeps of No. 4 Vanderbilt and Mississippi State. The Vols scored over 10 runs in five of those games while the pitching staff has looked much more the part of late. It's the arms that Tennessee was meant to lean on this season more than the bats — so are we seeing their fortunes finally turn around for good?

Maybe Tennessee is getting hot at the right time and finding its groove ahead of the SEC Tournament down in Hoover, Alabama. We will learn a lot more about the Vols down the stretch, first when they finally hit the road again for a series against Georgia next weekend — the same Bulldogs that swept No. 5 Arkansas the last time they played at home — before they host No. 15 Kentucky and face an ominous trip to Columbia to take on No. 3 South Carolina.

Perhaps the run to Omaha the program was favored to make last season will come to fruition in 2023, or will it be a second year watching from Rocky Top?

 

[TheMookieMonster]

Need to win at least 4 over the next 2 weeks vs GA and UK. Then just try to get 1 vs SC.

Kentucky was doing well…til they got to tie teeth of their schedule.

Kentucky may have fallen out of the traditional rankings but they still have a very high RPI which is more important. Wins against UK will help us get our RPI up some to better position ourselves to host, even if they aren’t ranked wins.

 

[fryeguy93]

God bless Perfect Games;' faith in UT (#6) but that's likely a little ahead of schedule.


The are also the only rankings that still have Kentucky holding on by a thread.

PG has SEC as 6 of 10.
Has Vanderbilt at #10 (Ha!)
Has DBU far higher than anyone else.

 

[fryeguy93]

Kentucky may have fallen out of the traditional rankings but they still have a very high RPI which is more important. Wins against UK will help us get our RPI up some to better position ourselves to host, even if they aren’t ranked wins.

The RPI is a mental exercise anyway. The Selection Committees in all sports supposedly don't look at the RPI anymore because they are inaccurate. Kentucky's SOS is ranked high but really have only started to play good opponents in last few weeks and have been found wanting so far. However, this tougher schedule is making their SOS ranking even higher. They are good on paper but not that great on grass.

Their Q1 games include Indiana State, Indiana, Alabama Georgia, Missouri, Texas A&M and Mississippi State. I' not sure any of those are "top tier" teams
Now they played LSU and Vanderbilt as well and are 1-5. But all those games are on road.

Those "faux" Q1 games are why they are so high. They are 11-3 at home and 44-8 on road in Q1

they have done better than most in Q3 and Q4 as they are undefeated in 9 games

They have series against RPI #2 South Carolina, # 21 Tennessee and #9 Florida to go with only Tennessee on road.
I'm sure they're praying for crappy weather for those six home games.

 

[fryeguy93]

Unchanged at #16 in Coaches poll.
that is also the average ranking for the vols in the five rankings so far as well.
Last week, the baseball writers had the Vols at #18, so I suspect they'll have the Vols around 16 as well.

 

[NorCalVol67]

God bless Perfect Games;' faith in UT (#6) but that's likely a little ahead of schedule.


The are also the only rankings that still have Kentucky holding on by a thread.

PG has SEC as 6 of 10.
Has Vanderbilt at #10 (Ha!)
Has DBU far higher than anyone else.

I’ve always liked the Perfect Game Rankings the best.

This week anyway.

 

[Tnphil]

I’ve always liked the Perfect Game Rankings the best.

This week anyway.

I always go with the one that has us ranked the highest....I do that with football recruiting rankings too.

 

[TennEddie]

2 teams that we swept are a dozen spots ahead of us.
Yea, that sure makes a lot of sense. NOT !