Analyzing College Baseball Preseason Top 25

Rank	Team	2012 W-L	Conference	2012 rank
1.	North Carolina	46-16	Atlantic Coast	18
2.	Arkansas	46-22	Southeastern	5
3.	Vanderbilt	35-28	Southeastern	24
4.	Stanford	41-18	Pacific 12	13
5.	Louisiana State	47-18	Southeastern	11
6.	UCLA	48-16	Pacific 12	4
7.	Florida	47-20	Southeastern	6
8.	Oregon State	40-20	Pacific 12	23
9.	N.C. State	43-20	Atlantic Coast	12
10.	Oregon	46-19	Pacific 12	10
11.	South Carolina	49-20	Southeastern	2
12.	Georgia Tech	38-26	Atlantic Coast	NR
13.	Kentucky	45-18	Southeastern	21
14.	Texas Christian	40-22	Big 12	14
15.	Louisville	41-22	Big East	NR
16.	Mississippi State	40-24	Southeastern	22
17.	Florida State	50-17	Atlantic Coast	3
18.	San Diego	40-17	West Coast	NR
19.	Mississippi	37-26	Southeastern	NR
20.	Oklahoma	42-25	Big 12	15
21.	Rice	41-19	Conference USA	19
22.	Arizona	48-17	Pacific 12	1
23.	Cal State Fullerton	36-21	Big West	NR
24.	Texas	30-22	Big 12	NR
25.	Arizona State	36-20	Pacific 12	17

By Kelvin Read

College baseball season is quickly approaching and that means that it is time for pre-season rankings to predict how the season will unfold. While there will undoubtedly be surprises and changes in the final standings, pre-season rankings give us benchmarks to compare teams and prospects when considering the College World Series. 

The first official set of these rankings comes from Perfect Game, a scouting website for all levels of baseball. While this may not be as official as the AP or coaches poll that will both be released soon, this report gives us a nice ranking to analyze.

AP Photo/ Erik J. Perel

Most striking in this initial ranking is the dominance of the South Eastern Conference (SEC). The Top 25 is littered with eight teams from the SEC, but surprisingly excluding Texas A&M, who made it to Omaha last year. Arkansas leads the way for the conference, after finishing third in the final rankings last year. The Razorbacks return 10 pitchers from last year’s pitching staff that finished the season with a 2.83 team ERA, the second-lowest single-season ERA in program history.

However, the top spot belongs to North Carolina, one of four Atlantic Coast Conference  (ACC) teams to make the top 25. The Tar Heels return their top pitcher -- LHP Kent Emanuel, as well as position player Colin Moran. Emanuel is a talented left-handed pitcher who had a fantastic sophomore campaign for the Heels last season, going 8-4 with a 1.96 ERA in 110 innings. Moran hit .365 with 11 doubles, a home run, three homers and 35 RBIs.

Other teams to watch from the SEC and ACC are South Carolina, Vanderbilt, and Georgia Tech. South Carolina loses College World Series wonderkid Michael Roth, who set just about every Omaha pitching record possible. However, they are returning seven position players and the rest of their starting pitchers from a team that lost in the CWS finals to Arizona.

Vanderbilt returns All-American infielder Connor Gregor, along with nine other Commodores who started at least 10 games for the Vandy. Georgia Tech returns two preseason All-American seniors in Brandon Thomas, who led the team last year with a .360 average, and Buck Farmer, who pitched 106.1 innings with a 3.54 ERA and 100 strikeouts.

After winning the CWS last year, Arizona falls to 22^nd in the rankings with the loss of All-Americans Kurt Heyer and Rob Refsnyder. They’ll battle with Pac-12 perennial favorite UCLA and new powerhouse Oregon, who was just one out away from making it to Omaha.

Mid-Major powers Rice and Cal State Fullerton will look to have bounce back seasons after finishing last season unranked. A newcomer to the top 25 is San Diego. The enigmatic Toreros are lead by pre-season All-American Kris Bryant, who hit .367 last season, with 14 homeruns, which is an obscene number in the BBCOR bat era.

Finally, a team that is ranked high on the list because of their reputation as opposed to results is Texas, who had only one player hit over .300, and has a young and inexperienced pitching staff. Louisville is the lone team to represent the Big East. A team not currently ranked but could break out is Tulane. They will battle it out with Rice for Conference USA dominance.

Vanderbilt Lands Top Recruiting Class For Second Straight Year

By Kelvin Read

Division one college baseball recruiting is a very cyclical process.  Unlike football or basketball, which receive 85 and 13 full scholarships per year, which is almost enough to fill entire rosters with full scholarship athletes, college baseball only receives 11.7 scholarships a year.

With such limited scholarships, baseball programs go through cycles of high and low ranked recruiting classes. Teams cannot effectively function by giving full scholarships out to players, so they are forced to split their scholarships up between several players. If a large class comes in one year, it is likely that the school will bring in a smaller class, so as to not strain their scholarships thin.

AP Photo/ Karl B. DeBlaker

With that said, Vanderbilt University has become an anomaly these past two years, as they pulled in the top-ranked recruiting class for back-to-back years. Vanderbilt made no NCAA tournaments from 1981 to 2003, but broke into the big time of college baseball in 2005, with a class highlighted by current Pittsburgh Pirates third baseman, Pedro Alvarez.  The SEC is the deepest baseball conference in Division One, which makes it hard to compete year in and year out, but Vanderbilt has made the NCAA tournament every year since 2006.

Another factor affecting recruiting is that the MLB draft draws many of the top recruits away with lucrative pro contracts. Many times, players will commit to schools, only to be lured away by the minor leagues, the way that many baseball-lifers believe is a faster track to stardom. This year, Vanderbilt lost two signees to pro-contracts, but still managed to bring in the top recruiting class, showing the depth of their talent.

Four teams from California made the top 25 classes, along with three schools from Texas.

TOP 25 RECRUITING CLASSES

1. Vanderbilt

2. UCLA

3. Georgia

4. Alabama

5. North Carolina

6. Stanford

7. Texas

8. Arizona State

9. Auburn

10. Miami

11. Texas Christian

12. UC Santa Barbara

13. Clemson

14. Louisiana State

15. Texas A&M

16. South Carolina

17. Fresno State

18. Kentucky

19. Southern California

20. Tennessee

21. Arkansas

22. Florida

23. Cal State Fullerton

24. Missouri

25. Arizona

Rankings according to Baseball America