{"id":14873,"date":"2018-05-29T13:48:34","date_gmt":"2018-05-29T17:48:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=14873"},"modified":"2018-06-01T20:16:18","modified_gmt":"2018-06-02T00:16:18","slug":"cws-2018-field-of-64-announced-with-regional-predictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=14873","title":{"rendered":"CWS 2018: Field of 64 announced with Regional predictions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CWS-2018_calendar-narrow\"<\/a><\/p>\n

First College Baseball post of the season!\u00a0 \u00a0And it comes with the announcement of the field of 64 for the 2018 tournament.<\/p>\n

Here’s a nice summary of the field<\/a> from d1baseball.com, including a conference breakdown.<\/p>\n

Quick summary of the field: No Miami, no UVA, no TCU in big surprises for big programs.\u00a0 The field is also missing perennial powers like Rice and Wichita State this year.\u00a0 Kentucky seems to be the biggest snub … but they were sub .500 in their league and was one-and-done in the SEC tournament.\u00a0 One win there and they’re probably in.\u00a0 Northeastern probably the most controversial at-large bid, having their one-bid conference slot “stolen” by UNC-W but not really having earned it on their season.\u00a0 There’s some sniffling at the national seeding of (in particular) the ACC teams, but otherwise most of the pundits I read think this is a pretty solid field.<\/p>\n

Here’s your National seeds:<\/p>\n

1. Florida
\n2. Stanford
\n3. Oregon State
\n4. Ole Miss
\n5. Arkansas
\n6. UNC
\n7. Florida State
\n8. Georgia<\/p>\n

That’s a solid SEC showing; four of the top 8 national seeds and 10 teams overall in the tourney.<\/p>\n

Next seeds<\/p>\n

9. Texas Tech
\n10. Clemson
\n11. Stetson
\n12. ECU
\n13. Texas
\n14. Minnesota
\n15. Coastal Carolina
\n16. NC State.<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

Quick predictions (here i’ve put in the teams by Super Regional match-up):<\/p>\n

1. Florida; cakewalk regional; their #2 is Jacksonville?\u00a0 See you in a couple weeks.
\n16. NC State: Get the seed over Auburn; if they save\u00a0their Ace NC State could be in the Loser’s bracket really quickly.\u00a0 I think Auburn advances here.<\/p>\n

2. Stanford: got no favors by getting the always-tough Cal State Fullerton team in their regional, but their #2 seed Baylor is manageable.
\n15. Coastal Carolina: gets UConn as their #2 seed and their tough arm\u00a0Tim Cate<\/strong>.\u00a0 Coastal has played tough down the stretch though and should advance.<\/p>\n

3. Oregon State; tough regional with LSU and San Diego State; Oregon State will have to earn this.\u00a0 Part of me hopes they go out early so the Heimlich stories die soon.
\n14. Minnesota; gets two west coast teams in UCLA and Gonzaga; i do not give Big10 baseball teams much credit … but they might be able to handle UCLA this year.<\/p>\n

4. Ole Miss; gets a tough Missouri State team (with top draft prospect\u00a0Jeremey Eierman<\/strong>), but i’m not sure they’re that scared of their #2 Tennessee Tech.
\n13. Texas: i’d be more scared of TAMU as a 3-seed than Indiana as a #2 seed this year.\u00a0 TAMU somehow is a #3 seed despite being a top 16 team by RPI and possibly being in the host discussion.\u00a0 Meanwhile Texas is not as strong as its #13 seed in this tournament looks … I smell an upset here.<\/p>\n

5. Arkansas: gets two traditional smaller-school baseball powers in Southern Miss and Dallas Baptist; does anyone ever know how these teams will fare?
\n12. ECU: gets a tough #2 in South Carolina; can they survive the SEC power?\u00a0 I’m not sure they can and think South Carolina advances.<\/p>\n

6. UNC: gets a manageable region thanks to a Big10 team as their #2 seed.
\n11. Stetson: two great arms in this region in Gilbert and McClanahan with USF … but Oklahoma State looms too.<\/p>\n

7. Florida State: A solid regional here with SEC and Big12 powers.\u00a0 Florida State is always a tough out though.
\n10. Clemson gets Vanderbilt again … which means one good team goes home early, again.<\/p>\n

8. Georgia: they should be able to get past Duke in this weaker regional.
\n9. Texas Tech has to face off against Louisville, who for the first time in a few years doesn’t have a top-10 draft pick leading their line.<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

Local rooting interests in the tournament: amazingly, zero DC\/MD\/VA colleges made this tournament.\u00a0 No UVA, no Maryland, no Liberty, no VCU or ODU or any of the CAA teams that sometimes sneak in.\u00a0 Here’s a quick peek at the DC\/MD\/VA players I could think of who will be playing:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • #12 Seed ECU has the former dominant LHP\u00a0Jake Agnos<\/strong>\u00a0(Battlefield HS in Haymarket) on their staff; he had 80 Ks in 60 innings split between starting and relief roles and stepped it up in the post-season tourney.<\/li>\n
  • LSU moved\u00a0Zach Hess<\/strong>\u00a0(Lynchburg\/Liberty Christian Academy) into the rotation this year and he was the saturday starter all spring; he went 7-5 with a 4.43 ERA and saw his draft stock drop significantly (he’s a draft-eligible sophomore this year).\u00a0 I wonder if he stays in school another year to rebuild value as a starter.<\/li>\n
  • #15 Coastal Carolina has several Virginia-natives in starting roles, including weekend starter\u00a0Zack Hopeck<\/strong>\u00a0(Heritage HS in Leesburg) and starting OF\u00a0Kieton Rivers\u00a0<\/strong>(Nansemond River HS in Suffolk).<\/li>\n
  • #16 NC State has three VA-natives on their pitching staff, including staff-ERA leading\u00a0Kent Klyman\u00a0<\/strong>(Jamestown HS in Williamsburg).<\/li>\n
  • South Carolina’s friday starter is\u00a0Cody Morris<\/strong>, who dominated Maryland prep for Reservoir HS in Laurel.\u00a0 They also feature a starting catcher\u00a0Hunter Taylor<\/strong> from Nandua HS in Onley VA.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Significant Draft picks from the top seeds worth noting: here’s some of the guys we’re hearing rumors about being 1st rounders in June:<\/p>\n

      \n
    • Florida; no wonder they’re #1: they may have three guys taken in the top 10 picks.\u00a0\u00a0Weekend starters Brady Singer, Jackson Kowar<\/strong> and clean-up hitter Jonathan India<\/strong> the players to watch, plus\u00a0Michael Byrne<\/strong> who was All American pre-season as their closer.<\/li>\n
    • Stanford:\u00a0paced by two top-end starters getting 1st round buzz in\u00a0Kris Bubic<\/strong> and\u00a0Tristan Beck<\/strong>.<\/li>\n
    • Oregon State:\u00a0Nick Madrigal<\/strong> may be a top 5 guy and be lightening fast to the majors.\u00a0 Ace is the highly controversial\u00a0Luke Heimlich<\/strong> (if you don’t know who he is … he was on the cover of Sports Illustrated a few weeks back; google it).\u00a0 OF\u00a0Trevor Larnach<\/strong> is getting some 1st round buzz too.<\/li>\n
    • Ole Miss; Ace starter\u00a0Ryan Rolison<\/strong> was the top prospect in the Cape Cod league last\u00a0 year.<\/li>\n
    • Florida State:\u00a0Tyler Holton<\/strong> was All-American last year and pre-season All American again this year.<\/li>\n
    • Auburn: likely 1-1\u00a0Casey Mize<\/strong> is their friday starter.<\/li>\n
    • Stetson: ace\u00a0Logan Gilbert\u00a0<\/strong>has seen his stock fall but is still likely a mid-1st rounder.<\/li>\n
    • South Florida’s ace\u00a0Shane McClanahan<\/strong> could go high.<\/li>\n
    • Duke’s\u00a0Griffin Conine<\/strong> has a famous pedigree and could be a 1st-day pick.<\/li>\n
    • Texas Tech’s starter\u00a0Steve Gingery<\/strong> has a long line of awards behind his name.<\/li>\n
    • Clemson’s\u00a0Seth Beer<\/strong> has been mashing ever since he arrived at school, winning the Dick Howser award as a freshman.\u00a0 He could be a sleeper pick late in the 1st round.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      First College Baseball post of the season!\u00a0 \u00a0And it comes with the announcement of the field of 64 for the 2018 tournament. Here’s a nice summary of the field from d1baseball.com, including a conference breakdown. Quick summary of the field: No Miami, no UVA, no TCU in big surprises for big programs.\u00a0 The field is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[3653,3696,2446,3698,2357,3767,2788,3764,3768,3766,3765,3769,3706,3559,3658,3697,3707,3174,3771,3772,3763,3773,3562,3770,3166,3212],"class_list":["post-14873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-college","tag-brady-singer","tag-casey-mize","tag-cody-morris","tag-griffin-conine","tag-hunter-taylor","tag-jackson-kowar","tag-jake-agnos","tag-jeremy-eierman","tag-jonathan-india","tag-kent-klyman","tag-kieton-rivers","tag-kris-bubie","tag-logan-gilbert","tag-luke-heimlich","tag-michael-byrne","tag-nick-madrigal","tag-ryan-rolison","tag-seth-beer","tag-shane-mcclanahan","tag-steve-gingery","tag-tim-cate","tag-trevor-larnach","tag-tristan-beck","tag-tyler-holton","tag-zach-hess","tag-zack-hopeck"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14873"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14962,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14873\/revisions\/14962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}