Rivals national baseball writer Kendall Rogers has put out his 2008 All-American Team which is led by Pedro Alvarez of Vanderbilt. Buster Posey of FSU is named to the first team catcher’s spot in only his second year behind the plate. Miami slugger Yonder Alonso beat out Justin Smoak for the first base position. Filling out the rest of the infield is 2B Blake Stouffer of Texas A&M, Ryan Flaherty and Pedro Alvarez of Vanderbilt. The outfield is Dominic de la Osa of Vanderbilt, Kyle Russell of Texas, and Tommy Baldridge of Coastal Carolina. Brett Wallace of Arizona State picks up the DH spot while Zach Putnam of Michigan is listed as the Utility player. The starting pitchers are Jacob Thompson of Virginia, Preston Guilmet of Arizona, Brian Matusz of San Diego and Lance Lynn of Ole Miss. The relief pitchers are led by switch-pitcher Pat Venditte of Creighton and Cole St. Clair of Rice. The full team with break downs on each player is available here.

Tags: 2008 Top Players, ACC, Arizona, Big 12, Big South, Big Ten, Coastal Carolina, Creighton, FSU, Miami (FL), Michigan, Missouri Valley, Ole Miss, Pac 10, SEC, Texas, University of San Diego, Vanderbilt, Virginia, West Coast Conference

Kendall Rogers has put out his ACC Preview for the 2008 season. He lists Florida State as the favorite in the Atlantic Division and Miami as the favorite in the Coastal Division. The full article is available here.

Tags: 2008 Conference Preview, ACC, Boston College, Clemson, Duke, FSU, GT, Maryland, Miami (FL), NC State, UNC, VT, Wake Forest

Rivals writer Kendall Rogers continues his Top 25 countdown with Miami (FL) coming in at Number 2. Miami made the NCAA Tourney getting knocked out in the Columbia Missouri regional by Louisville on their way to the CWS. Miami returns a solid hitting team led by Yonder Alonso, Mark Sobolewski, and Blake Tekotte. They will need to become a better team on the mound to make their triumphant return to the CWS. The full article is available here.

Tags: 2008 Preseason Poll, ACC, Miami (FL), Rivals

Kendall Rogers of Rivals continues his countdown on the top teams in the nation today with UCLA coming in at Number 3. UCLA had a solid 2007 season which saw them go 33-28 but return two key players in 2008. They return pre-season All-American candiates Brandon Crawford and Jermaine Curtis. The full article is available here.

Tags: 2008 Preseason Poll, Pac 10, Rivals, UCLA

Rice has been the model program for consistency, so it should come as no surprise that the Owls are back in the national title hunt.

After taking care of business in Regional and Super Regional action last season, the Owls suffered a familiar fate in Omaha — they dropped two-straight games to North Carolina.

The Owls hope to leave no doubt this season.

While uncertainty surrounds the offense, the pitching staff is in outstanding shape.

Ryan Berry, Matt Langwell and Cole St. Clair spearhead the weekend rotation, while Lucas Luetge and Chris Kelley will log significant innings.

Like most teams, the Owls enter the spring with some question marks. However, we fully expect the offense to be better than people think.

To Read the rest of the article go Here.

Tags: 2008 Preseason Poll, 2008 Season Preview, Rice, Rivals

FROM PRESS RELEASE
SAN DIEGO, Calif. - The University of San Diego baseball team has been ranked No. 5 in the Rivals.com preseason top-25 poll it was announced Monday morning. This marks the highest preseason ranking in the history of the program.

San Diego is coming off the heals of the best season in program history with a 43-18 record, the first 40-win season in the history of USD baseball. The Toreros won their third West Coast Conference championship, received a program-best No. 4 national ranking and a program-first No. 8 national seed in the NCAA Regionals. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Pre-Season Rankings, Rivals, University of San Diego, West Coast Conference

Kendall Rogers has continue with his reviews of this year top teams. He has done a very good job in talking to the coaches and doing his research on this year teams.

Coming in at # 6

Coming in at #7

Coming in at #8

Coming in at #9

Coming in at #10

Finally number #11

Tags: ACC, Arizona, Big 12, Oregon State, Pac 10, SEC, South Carolina, Texas, UNC, Vanderbilt

Kendall Rogers has continue his Top 25 countdown and checking at #12 is the Missouri Tigers of the Big 12. Missouri finish 2nd to Texas in the BIG 12 last year and they return a very talented pitching staff led by Aaron Crow. The weekend series with Texas traveling to Columbia will help determined the BIG 12 conference and national seedings. When they tangle April 11-13 the CBB will right here reporting on the first pitch until the final out on Sunday. Mizzou article available here.

Top 25 Countdown: No. 13 Michigan

Top 25 Countdown: No. 14 Virginia

Top 25 Countdown: No. 15 Mississippi

Top 25 Countdown: No. 16 Cal State Fullerton

Top 25 Countdown: No. 17 Long Beach State

Top 25 Countdown: No. 18 Wichita State

Top 25 Countdown: No. 19 Mississippi St.

Tags: ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Big West, Cal State Fullerton, Long Beach State, Michigan, Mississippi State, Missouri, Missouri Valley, Ole Miss, SEC, UVA

Mark Etheridge runs the SEbaseball.com and has been doing a preview of top teams in the South East.

During the best of times, Tim Corbin takes setbacks hard. Last year’s Regional final loss to Michigan had to raise that bar a bit. Despite an SEC regular season championship, an in-your-face run through the losers bracket to win the SEC Tournament, and a number one National seed as a host in last summer’s Regional, Vanderbilt had to feel like their season lacked something. It ended prematurely.

To read the rest click here.

Tags: SEC, Vanderbilt

Kendall Rogers has started doing his Top 25 countdown. He checks in with the bottom five this week.

25. St. John’s
24. Texas AM
23. UC-Irvine
22. Louisville
21. Florida State

Tags: ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big West, FSU, Louisville, Preseason Rankings, Rivals, Texas AM, UC-Irvine

Kendall Rogers of Rivals has finished his preview of the Big 12;

Competitiveness is consistent in the Big 12.

Sure, Texas is often the leader atop the conference standings. However, others such as Missouri, Baylor and Oklahoma State have staked their claims in recent years.

With the return of outfielders Kyle Russell and Jordan Danks, among others, the Longhorns are the league favorite. Meanwhile, Missouri hopes to rise to the occasion with Aaron Crow in charge.

Baylor, Texas A&M, Oklahoma State and Nebraska should compete for postseason berths, while Kansas State could be a pleasant surprise.

To read the rest of the article click here.

Tags: Baylor, Big 12, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas AM, Texas Tech

Our good friend Kendall Rogers of Rivals.com has started doing previews of conferences for the 2008 season.He is one of the top college baseball writers in the country with the depth of his knowledge about the players and coaches across the country. The previews are brief but informative especially the lower level conferences. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 2008 Conference Preview, Atlantic Sun, Big East, Big South, Big Ten, Big West, Conference USA, Horizon League, Ivy League, MAC, Mountain West, Pac 10, Patriot League, Rivals, Southern Conference, Summit League, WAC, West Coast Conference

So why is it that the fellow posters on the CBB have had full inboxes since the NCBWA All America team was released? It all comes down to snubs… one in particular, but four have gotten me jazzed up.

It’s no secret to my fellow publishers at the CBB that this Commodore has a favorite player who goes by the name of Flash. Ryan Flaherty is the consummate John Olerud clone at the plate, lacing singles and doubles all over the field. He is the undisputed top bat at Short Stop (according to CBB partner StatStud.com) when looking at statistical measures and is riding an SEC record 35 game hitting streak into 2008. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: All-American, CBB Column, Pre-season All-Americans, SEC, Top Players, Vanderbilt

As a follow-up to his Top 5 Storylines of 2008, Rivals.com baseball editor Kendall Rogers has revealed five predictions for 2008. The full article can be read here.

First, Kendall picks UCLA to be the team to step up their game the most. Conversely, he sees Clemson falling flat in the new year.

Kendall’s “Most Important” players? Pitcher Jacob Thompson of UVA tows the rubber, while Vanderbilt Third baseman Pedro Alvarez is the king of the batter’s box.

And Kendall’s early take on national title contenders? It all starts with Arizona State, but Kendall says that Miami, UCLA, Rice, San Diego, Texas and Vanderbilt should be in the mix for some hardware.

In separate blogging news, congratulations go out from this Commodore fan to Vandy’s All-American RHP commitment Sonny Gray, who, as QB, led Smyrna High School (Smyrna, TN) to its second straight state football title. Gray’s legend continues to grow in Tennessee and we’ll have to wait until August 15 to see if BA’s #6 rated HS prospect will take his 96MPH fastball and back breaking curve to the Hawk.

Tags: Arizona State, Big 12, Clemson, Rice, SEC, Texas, UCLA, University of San Diego, Vanderbilt, Virginia, West Coast Conference

Kendall Rogers, baseball editor for Rivals.com, kicks off his top storylines of 2008. Prime among those are OSU’s efforts to produce the coveted Three-Peat.

Also featured are the Pac-10 race between ASU, UCLA and OSU; the Longhorns efforts to make it back to Omaha; Vanderbilt’s high octane offense and Miami’s charge in the ACC.

The full article may be read here.

Tags: Arizona State, Big 12, Miami (FL), Oregon State, SEC, Texas, UCLA, Vanderbilt