Lot of variety with these today.
Longhorns, Bedlam, the ACC, and Arkansas: College Baseball’s Weekend Ahead
Something we’d love to get done over the next few weeks is to build a model for college baseball bracketology. We’ll see if it happens, but it’s on our radar, as is a college softball model. For those who don’t follow the college baseball season regularly, we’re about halfway through, or at the equivalent of early January in college basketball. Conference play has begun, but it hasn’t settled out yet. The bubble is vast and quick to change.
The series that jump out, then, aren’t the ones of the most postseason consequence. They’re those between the best teams. There are postseason consequences, sure, but the conference implications are big as well, and more than anything, they’re just the best games. In that vein, five weekend series of interest:
Arkansas @ Florida
We start in the SEC, where Arkansas, one of the best teams in the country, goes to Gainesville to face a tough Florida program off to a rocky start. The Gators are just 3-7 in conference (the Hogs are 8-2), and while it’s unclear if their 13-tournament Regional appearance streak is in any danger, they could use some wins. Their guests, meanwhile, are trying to both stay atop the West Division and make a case for one of the top two or three seeds nationally come season’s end. Games tonight (6:30 PM EDT, SEC Network) and tomorrow afternoon (1:00 PM EDT, SEC Network+). No game Sunday.
Virginia @ Miami
Elsewhere in the Sunshine State, Virginia and Miami meet for a three-game set that will determine momentary control of the Coastal. Miami leads, at 10-2, but Virginia’s just a game back, and the Cavaliers are the better team in the polls, for however much that’s worth (I don’t know how much the polls are worth in college baseball). There’s that division title in the mix, there are national seeding implications…it’s a big weekend. Games tonight (7:00 PM EDT, ACC Network), tomorrow (7:00 PM EDT, ACC Network), and Sunday (1:00 PM EDT, ACC Network X).
North Carolina @ Louisville
Staying in the ACC, Louisville’s looking to build on its Atlantic Division lead, and UNC’s trying to establish itself as a clear at-large bid. Games tonight (6:00 PM EDT, ACCNX), tomorrow (1:00 PM EDT, ACCNX), and Sunday (1:00 PM EDT, ACCNX).
TCU @ Texas
Moving to the Big 12, Texas hosts TCU in Austin. TCU has the wins lead in the Big 12, with six, but they’ve also played the most games. They trail Oklahoma State by half a game for the conference lead. Texas has started a little rusty, but has plenty of talent. Two teams that have their sights clearly set on Omaha. Games tonight (7:30 PM EDT, Longhorn Network), tomorrow (6:00 PM EDT, ESPNU), and Sunday (1:00 PM EDT, ESPNU).
Oklahoma @ Oklahoma State
Finally, Bedlam. Oklahoma’s looking like a bubble team, but Oklahoma State’s in the mix to host a Super Regional. It being college baseball, and it being a rivalry, this might pack the biggest punch in terms of raw fun. Games tonight (7:00 PM EDT, ESPN+), tomorrow (9:00 PM EDT, ESPNU), and Sunday (4:00 PM EDT, ESPN+).
The Cubs Are 1-0
The Cubs were postponed today, as we expected (great rotation management, guys—we knew you didn’t want Justin Steele starting that second game of the season), so we get to enjoy yesterday a bit longer. And there’s plenty to enjoy about yesterday.
It’s tempting to make too much out of single-game performances, but that’s more true of hitters and relievers than starting pitchers, so let’s take a moment and appreciate that Kyle Hendricks got it done. There are plenty of caveats—the Brewers’ lineup is not all that strong, it was a cold day, Hendricks was a bit wild—but it was a good note to start an uncertain season from a guy the Cubs really need to be an ace. That’s not to say Hendricks needs to be better than Marcus Stroman, but the two of them need to both be very, very good if the Cubs are going to compete in the division, and Hendricks is coming off a bad, bad year.
With today’s game rescheduled for Memorial Day, there are now only 21 games in April. Of those 21, the Cubs have won one, ten remain against the Pirates and Rockies, and ten remain against Milwaukee, Atlanta, and Tampa Bay. Splitting those twenty would make for a great month, and if the Cubs can grab this series—which they now lead 1-0, with Stroman pitching tomorrow—they could rather easily get away with going 3-5 the rest of the way against their three playoff-caliber opponents, while just needing six wins against the bottom dwellers. It’s just one game, but it’s a great win to have.
As a correction to that parenthetical earlier in this blurb, Steele is still evidently pitching the second game, which…I don’t get. He’ll go against Brandon Woodruff tomorrow. Stroman will pitch against Freddy Peralta on Sunday. I guess they want to do the right/left/right thing, but that then implies that they’re planning on using Steele for more innings than his usual two or three from the spring training starts? We’ll see. Should be a heavy load on the bullpen tomorrow, but everyone will be rested and there’s a day off on Monday, so not all bad.
One last note on the Cubs: We talked a few days ago about how we weren’t sure whether Michael Rucker or Alfonso Rivas would be the final spring training cut. Turned out, it’s Alec Mills, but only because of injury. He’s on the IL with a back injury we’re hoping is insignificant. With the start of the season so spread out, this may have been partially a roster management move. More to come next week.
Overreactions, Proper Reactions
It’s easier to not make too much of other people’s favorite teams’ Opening Day, which is why it’s easy to say that Atlanta’s fine and Adam Wainwright’s probably not that dominant. Really, though, it was a great outing from Wainwright, Atlanta is probably fine, San Diego’s bullpen is probably fine as well, and for as much as the Mets got chirped for sliding into having Tylor Megill as their Opening Day starter, he threw a good game in Washington. Performance of the night was Framber Valdez, whose Astros are in a similar spot to the Cubs in that they’re opening with a high-leverage series. If the Astros can hit the Angels in the mouth this weekend, that division’s going to look even more like it’s theirs for the taking.
The Red Sox and Yankees are underway today, along with a handful of other teams. That and Houston-Anaheim are the weekend’s best series, though Miami-San Francisco and Texas-Toronto provide a lot of interest as well, with the former featuring a sleeper and a curiosity and the latter featuring a lot of new, fun faces. Gametimes and broadcasts below in the weekend viewing schedule.
Daniyal Robinson to Cleveland State
We’re late on mentioning this, but longtime Iowa State men’s basketball assistant Daniyal Robinson is taking over the Cleveland State program. Good for him, he’ll be missed. Assistants at the college level are intriguing characters—it’s hard to know their importance while they’re on staff, but looking back, you can see some were a huge deal when they’re gone.
What Kind of Coach Does Saint Peter’s Hire?
On that note, Jonas Hayes did take the Georgia State job. Seems like a great hire for the Panthers, but recent memories remain fresh and probably overweighted, so we’ll see. In not-at-all-recent memory land, Steve Lavin is rejoining the coaching ranks, taking over at San Diego. He last coached St. John’s in 2015, and he took a similar gap to this past one between UCLA and that job.
Still open is the Saint Peter’s gig, and that’s arguably the most interesting job out there, in terms of pure curiosity. What kind of coach do you go after if you’re a previously completely unknown low-major who just made an historic run? And what kind of coach do you have to be to take the job? You’d think resources will be on the rise there, but you don’t know how significant that rise will be, and thanks to Rick Pitino and a very open tournament format, the MAAC is hard to dominate right now. One to watch.
Follow Your Man
Another fascination regarding Saint Peter’s is where its stars land out of the current transfer portal. Five Peacocks are currently exploring other options, and on the one hand, they just beat Kentucky, Murray State, and Purdue, but on the other, they couldn’t win the MAAC regular season title. The Drame brothers, the most recent entries, weren’t listed on EvanMiya when I last checked, but Doug Edert and the others are only marked as three-star transfers. Will power conference programs want them? If so, in what roles? They aren’t really the eighth-best team-carriers in the country.
Elsewhere in transfer land, Dwon Odom is following Hayes from Xavier to Georgia State, and Trae Hannibal is following Matt McMahon from Murray State to LSU. Makhi Mitchell is the other EvanMiya five-star to have confirmed his destination, going with his twin brother Makhel, a four-star transfer, from Rhode Island to Arkansas. Arkansas currently ranks as the most successful program in the portal on EvanMiya, but it’s got a long way to go. Ten Murray State players entered the portal, with four-star Justice Hill making the same LSU move as Hannibal while five-star K.J. Williams remains undecided. It’s a tough start for old friend Steve Prohm, who’s got a whole program to suddenly rebuild amidst high expectations.
On the Iowa State note, George Conditt has signed with a professional team in Puerto Rico. Good for him.
Packers Draft Targets Out Wide
Scrolling through a few mock drafts today, with the knowledge the Packers pick 22nd and 28th overall and are currently set to start both Amari Rodgers and Randall Cobb in three-wide formations, here are the wide receiver names we saw:
- Treylon Burks (Arkansas)
- Chris Olave (Ohio State)
- Drake London (USC)
- Jahan Dotson (Penn State)
- Christian Watson (North Dakota State)
Of those five, London grades the highest on PFF’s big board, Olave is the most memorable from college, Dotson’s a slot guy, and Watson’s a physical specimen with hands questions. Burks, the most common Packers mock receiver pick, is big, fast, and generally a solid player. Would be hard to be unhappy with Treylon Burks.
On Wheels
All three racing series of interest (to us) are in action this weekend, with NASCAR racing at Martinsville tomorrow night, F1 in Australia overnight tomorrow into Sunday, and IndyCar on the streets of Long Beach on Sunday afternoon. With NASCAR, eyes should be on whether Martin Truex Jr. can grab another short track win for Joe Gibbs Racing, and whether JGR and the other Toyotas can build on last week’s strength at Richmond to claw some space back from the Chevrolets. With Formula 1, Mercedes is still struggling, so for now it likely remains Red Bull vs. Ferrari at the front, with a lot of season left. In IndyCar, it’s still so early and the breaks are so long between races that there isn’t anything hyper-specific to watch. If you like your street courses surrounded by palm trees, it should be a good viewing experience.
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Weekend TV schedule, with occasional use of a second screen and heavy use of MLB TV:
Friday
- 1:05 PM EDT – Boston @ New York (AL) (regional television)
- 4:10 PM EDT – Seattle @ Minnesota (regional television) – two fringe playoff candidates, each uncertain and therefore interesting
- 7:07 PM EDT – Texas @ Toronto (regional television)
- 9:38 PM EDT – Houston @ Anaheim (regional television or Apple TV+)
Saturday
- 2:20 PM EDT – Milwaukee @ Cubs (regional TV)
- 4:05 PM EDT – Boston @ New York (AL) (FS1)
- 7:30 PM EDT – NASCAR Cup Series at Martinsville (FS1)
- 9:07 PM EDT – Houston @ Anaheim (regional television) – Verlander vs. Syndergaard
Sunday
- 1:00 AM EDT – Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix (ESPN)
- 1:00 PM EDT – TCU @ Texas (ESPNU)
- 2:20 PM EDT – Milwaukee @ Cubs (regional TV)
- Masters (CBS, starting at 2:00 PM EDT)
- NBA Regular Season Finales (various channels, various times)
- 7:00 PM EDT – Boston @ New York (AL) (ESPN)
