By Willie Nicklaus
The highly regarded Class of 2007 was touted as one of the best in recent years by the scouting community, major baseball publications, and all experts alike. Those that opted for college baseball are making the impact predicted by many, including our own Brian Foley, the head man here at the College Baseball Blog. We previewed the position players last week and that article is available by clicking here. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: ACC, Big East, California, CBB Column, GT, Miami (FL), Notre Dame, Ole Miss, Oregon State, Pac 10, SEC, Tennessee, UNC, University of San Diego, West Coast Conference

Junior/SS/University of Georgia

It is safe to say no player has earned more buzz that Gordon Beckham this year. The premier college middle infielder in this draft is shooting up draft boards. Here is the breakdown.

Career:

Freshman year: - Freshman All- American while playing in all 70 games at SS - hit .280 with 12 HR

Sophomore year: Hit 13 HR overall, while hitting .322 in SEC play

Cape Cod League: tied for league lead with 9 HR

Junior year: Up at the top of the list this year for college baseball’s best player. He has slowed down a bit, no doubt to being pitched around and seeing increased offspeed stuff. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 2008 Top Players, CBB Column, Georgia, MLB Draft, SEC

By: Willie Nicklaus
The highly regarded Class of 2007 was touted as one of the best in recent years by the scouting community, major baseball publications, and all experts alike. Those that opted for college baseball are making the impact predicted by many, including our own Brian Foley, the head man here at the College Baseball Blog. (Our Top Freshmen article from the Pre-season is available here.) Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 2008 Top Players, ACC, Arkansas, Atlantic 10, Auburn, Big 12, Big East, Boston College, Cal State Fullerton, CBB Column, Elon, Florida, Georgetown, GT, Kent State, LSU, MAC, Miami (FL), Middle Tennessee, Richmond, SEC, Southern Conference, Tennessee, Tennessee Tech, Texas, UNC, West Virginia

Georgia Tech at Maryland

#21 Georgia Tech (27-10, 9-9 ACC) continues its road swing as it travels north to College Park to take on the Maryland Terrapins (22-17, 5-13 ACC).

Georgia Tech enters the series coming off a 14-8 victory at Georgia Southern on Wednesday. Junior Luke Murton, who hit 2 home runs in the Georgia Southern game, leads the team with a .355 batting average. Freshman shortstop Derek Dietrich leads the team with 11 home runs and 39 RBI. Tech’s top three relievers, Andrew Robinson, Brad Rulon and Chris Hicks, have combined for 55 appearances, a 5-3 record with 12 saves, and a 3.66 ERA. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: ACC, ACC Weekend Preview, Boston College, CBB Column, Clemson, Duke, FSU, GT, Maryland, Miami (FL), NC State, UNC, UVA, VT, Wake Forest

(#1) Miami (FL) at (#2)Florida State

The Miami Hurricanes head to Tallahassee this weekend to take on the Florida State Seminoles in a battle between the number 1 and number 2 teams in the country in most polls. The Hurricanes enter with a 31-3 overall record and 15-1 in the conference. In my opinion, I consider them to have the best lineup in the country with Jemile Weeks, Blake Tekotte, Yonder Alonso, Dennis Raben, and Mark Soblewski leading the offense. Every single one of those hitters should be drafted in the top 2 rounds of the MLB draft either this season or next depending on their eligibility. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: ACC, ACC Weekend Preview, CBB Column, FSU, Miami (FL)

Smoak played high school ball along with Matt Weiters in Goose Creek, SC - about 5 miles from where I went to college.

I have been able to follow him since his senior year of high school and have seen him play at least once every year, so I feel like I have a good idea about his progression as a player.

Background/Career:

Out of high school, Smoak was drafted in the 16th round by the A’s. He wanted $1 million to sign, and the rumor was that the A’s held firm at $950,000 (ouch Oakland). Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 2008 Top Players, CBB Column, Justin Smoak, MLB Draft, South Carolina

Miami (FL) at Georgia Tech

#10 Georgia Tech enters the game coming off back-to-back victories over ranked teams (Sunday vs. #3 North Carolina and Wednesday vs. #11 Georgia). They host #1 Miami, which struggled in two mid-week games this week — Florida Gulf Coast took the Hurricanes to extra innings on Tuesday and Florida Atlantic upset the Hurricanes on Wednesday. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: ACC, ACC Weekend Preview, Boston College, CBB Column, Clemson, Duke, FSU, GT, Maryland, Miami (FL), NC State, UNC, UVA, VT, Wake Forest

The ACC has an interesting slate of games for the April 4th to 6th weekend, with three matchups between the conference’s 6 top teams: Virginia vs. Florida State, Georgia Tech vs. North Carolina, and Clemson vs. Miami.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: ACC, ACC Weekend Preview, Boston College, CBB Column, Clemson, Duke, FSU, GT, Maryland, Miami (FL), NC State, UNC, UVA, VT, Wake Forest

CBB Senior writer NYDore wrote up an extensive article (available here) about how certain players were snubbed from All-American teams especially how Ryan Flaherty was left off the NCBWA Pre-season All-American team while Derek Shunk of Villanova was named to the first team. He was only named to the third-team in the Big East last season. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Big East, CBB Column, Georgia, SEC, Vanderbilt, Villanova

Here is the Weekend Preview for the ACC for the weekend of March 28th through March 30th. The Florida State Seminoles have opened up a four game lead in the loss column in the Atlantic Division while Miami (FL) has a half game lead over the North Carolina Tar Heels. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: ACC, ACC Weekend Preview, Boston College, CBB Column, CBB Visit, Clemson, Duke, FSU, GT, Maryland, Miami (FL), NC State, UNC, UVA, VT, Wake Forest

The College Baseball Blog recently had a chance to ask Sawyer Carroll who is the top hitter on the Kentucky Wildcat baseball team and among the best players in the SEC. The Wildcats are currently 21-2 overall with a conference mark of 4-2 in the tough SEC. Carroll is leading the team in many offensive categories including a .481 average, seven homers, and 33 RBI. Carroll was an 18th round pick in the 2007 MLB Draft by the Washington Nationals but decided to return for his senior season which has been a great decision based on the numbers he has put up during the early portion of the season. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: CBB Column, CBB Interview, Interviews with Players, Kentucky, SEC

The College Baseball Blog and StatStud.com have teamed up this season to bring a weekly award for the top players in the last week. We will select one pitcher and hitter every week throughout the regular season. Grant Stoneburner of Clemson is our choice for Pitcher of the Week for a complete game victory against NC State on Sunday. Our hitter of the week is Gordon Beckham of Georgia who led the Dogs to a 4-1 week. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: ACC, CBB Column, CBB Players of the Week, Clemson, Georgia, Players of the Week, SEC

Results of the NAIA Coaches’ Poll for March 19, 2008. Comments below.

Rank	Feb. 27	School (Region)	Record	Total Points
1	1	Lewis-Clark State (ID) (I)	21-2	488
2	3	Lee (TN) (XIII)	29-1	480
3	4	Lubbock Christian (TX) (VI)	25-1	466
4	2	Azusa Pacific (CA) (II)	21-5	440
5	6	Oklahoma City University (VI)	29-3	422
6	10	Trevecca Nazarene U. (TN) (XI)	16-4	364
7	5	Spring Arbor University (MI) (VIII)	4-2	324
8	16	University of Mobile (AB) (XIII)	23-7	321
9 (tie)	12	Tennessee Wesleyan College (XII)	17-8	301
9 (tie)	15	Wayland Baptist University (TX) (VI)	25-4	301
11	11	Bellevue University (NE) (IV)	16-8	257
12	RV	Warner Southern College (FL) (XIV)	21-12	255
13 (tie)	22	Saint Ambrose University (IA) (VII)	9-2	245
13 (tie)	14	Ohio Dominican University (IX)	7-1	245
15	23	Fresno Pacific University (CA) (II)	14-6	213
16	17	Union College (KY) (XII)	19-4	206
17	NR	U. of the Cumberlands (KY) (XI)	18-3	197
18	RV	Bacone College (OK) (VI)	26-3	157
19	NR	Auburn-Montgomery (AL) (XIII)	21-8	154
20	18	Embry-Riddle (FL) (XIV)	18-8	149
21	21	Missouri Baptist U. (V)	11-5	127
22	7	Southern Polytechnic (GA) (XIII)	21-6	71
23	RV	Biola University (CA) (II)	15-8	65
24	RV	Bethany College (KS) (IV)	15-2	53
25	NR	Jamestown College (ND) (III)	10-4	30

First-place votes: Lewis-Clark State 11, Lee 7, Lubbock Christian 2
Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Azusa Pacific, Fresno Pacific, Lee, Lewis-Clark State, Lubbock Christian, Oklahoma City, Spring Arbor, Tennessee Wesleyan, Trevecca Nazarene, U. of Mobile, Wayland Baptist

The main reason why we saw the Uniform Start Date was that the Big Ten Conference really used their leverage to implement the new rule to level the playing field across the nation. The Big Ten this past weekend picked up some embarrassing losses with Ohio State losing to Air Force and Maine. The Michigan Wolverines picked up a loss to GA Southern on Friday with another bad loss earlier in the year to Portland. Both of these teams are supposed to be competing for the conference title shouldn’t they be representing the conference better? Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Big Ten, CBB Column, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio State, Purdue

The College Baseball Blog and StatStud.com have teamed up this season to bring a weekly award for the top players in the last week. We will select one pitcher and hitter every week throughout the regular season. Shooter Hunt of Tulane is our choice for Pitcher of the Week after a great performance against UC-Irvine. Mike Sheridan had a strong week as he led the William and Mary Tribe to a 4-1 record with the loss coming to North Carolina. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: CAA, CBB Column, CBB Players of the Week, Conference USA, Players of the Week, Tulane, William and Mary