KChill wrote: I'd much rather us be under the radar.

NCSUalum05 wrote: Nobody does preseason hype like the Pack!

Here are some links for the upcoming baseball season. Most haven’t started addressing the 2013 season.

http://www.warrennolan.com/

Warrennolan.com provides strength of schedule (SOS), RPI and other metrics on the season. Good site.

www.D1baseball.com

Great site to track all the D1 games going on during the season with links to conference and individual school web sites.

http://www.boydsworld.com/

Plenty of statistical analysis

http://www.collegebaseballinsider.com/

Other interesting college baseball sites:

http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/baseball

http://collegebaseball360.com/

http://www.collegebaseballdaily.com/

http://masseyratings.com/

http://www.theacc.com/sports/m...asebl-body.html

http://blogs.eastonbaseball.co...ebaseballtoday/

wolfpackernc wrote: Fire Avent!

Wait, never mind. Congrats to the team - hopefully they can live up to and even exceed those lofty expectations.

jlowder23 wrote: Unless Carolina has a ridiculous new class, I agree they're ranked too high.  FSU I understand.  Ramsey is crazy good and they have to replace him and Boyd from the middle of the lineup.  We lose Diaz and Ciencin ETA: forgot about Matthews big bat we have to replace.  I think we are ranked about right, but I think we really make a push this year for a national seed as long as we stay healthy.

dunlow66 wrote: Looks like a low ranking for Florida State also, they usually just reload and come back strong
last five seasons final ranking for FSU: # 7,9,6,6,4

pointwolf wrote: I think we are ranked about right......UNC is ranked too high and Clemson is ranked too low.

NCSUz71 wrote: Link to poll.

1. Arkansas
2. North Carolina
3. Vanderbilt
4. Louisiana State
5. UCLA
11. North Carolina State
17. Georgia Tech
19. Florida State
22. Louisville
27. Clemson
28. Miami, FL.
35. Virginia
37. East Carolina
38. Coastal Carolina

Other teams of interest receiving votes: Notre Dame, Florida Atlantic, New Mexico State, Appalachian State, Campbell, UNC-Wilmington

ncdoc wrote:

jlowder23 wrote: Unless Carolina has a ridiculous new class, I agree they're ranked too high.  FSU I understand.  Ramsey is crazy good and they have to replace him and Boyd from the middle of the lineup.  We lose Diaz and Ciencin ETA: forgot about Matthews big bat we have to replace.  I think we are ranked about right, but I think we really make a push this year for a national seed as long as we stay healthy.

I think Baseball America ranked UNC's incoming class as #5 in the country. I believe there are 6 or 7 returning starters from last year, the entire weekend pitching staff and a healthy Moran all play in to the ranking above.

jlowder23 wrote:

ncdoc wrote:

jlowder23 wrote: Unless Carolina has a ridiculous new class, I agree they're ranked too high.  FSU I understand.  Ramsey is crazy good and they have to replace him and Boyd from the middle of the lineup.  We lose Diaz and Ciencin ETA: forgot about Matthews big bat we have to replace.  I think we are ranked about right, but I think we really make a push this year for a national seed as long as we stay healthy.

I think Baseball America ranked UNC's incoming class as #5 in the country. I believe there are 6 or 7 returning starters from last year, the entire weekend pitching staff and a healthy Moran all play in to the ranking above.

My point about a good incoming class was that I wasn't really that impressed with what Carolina had last year.  Moran is a great player, but really the rest of the lineup wasn't very scary.  Returning pitching is what makes them dangerous along with whoever from the new class can step up in the lineup.  Didn't realize the rotation was fully back.  Ours is too, though.

wulfpackbaseball9 wrote:

jlowder23 wrote:

ncdoc wrote:

jlowder23 wrote: Unless Carolina has a ridiculous new class, I agree they're ranked too high.  FSU I understand.  Ramsey is crazy good and they have to replace him and Boyd from the middle of the lineup.  We lose Diaz and Ciencin ETA: forgot about Matthews big bat we have to replace.  I think we are ranked about right, but I think we really make a push this year for a national seed as long as we stay healthy.

I think Baseball America ranked UNC's incoming class as #5 in the country. I believe there are 6 or 7 returning starters from last year, the entire weekend pitching staff and a healthy Moran all play in to the ranking above.

My point about a good incoming class was that I wasn't really that impressed with what Carolina had last year.  Moran is a great player, but really the rest of the lineup wasn't very scary.  Returning pitching is what makes them dangerous along with whoever from the new class can step up in the lineup.  Didn't realize the rotation was fully back.  Ours is too, though.

unc-ch* has a few good younger players coming back, but they didn't hit well last year, and other than Moran, it's question marks offensively. Guys like Zolk and Russell showed good form at times, but had huge slumps to surround them.
Zengal is their 4th best avg coming back, but he struck out 19 times in 91 plate app. Atwood had a few good ABs, but struck out 9 times in 17 appearances.
The biggest thing is unc-ch* only hit 20 HRs all last year, and they lost 8 of them to draft. To show you how punchless their lineup was,...Tommy Coyle was 2nd on team with 4 HR.
Losing Stallings behind plate and as leader is going to be tough to fill, as is Coyle, who other than Stallings and Moran, was responsible for almost all their big hits.

Pitching? They have two very good to excellent starters in Emanuel and Moss, and I guess Hobbs Johnson is in line for #3 starter, but they lost Orlan and Morin from the pen, and that is going to be devastating. They pitched 115 innings in relief with ERAs of 2.21 and 1.40.
Johnson was the 3rd man from pen when he didn't start, so basically, they have 3 starters, and a lot of holes.

Munnelly is on the outs from what I saw last year, which leaves a few guys that pitched less than 100 innings combined to fill every gap (not including recruits).

I don't see them being top 5, and if Emanuel or Moss gets injured for any stretch, this team doesn't score anywhere near enough runs to beat good teams.

ncsuwolfpack13 wrote: If we don't make Omaha this year Avent will probably face some heat.

WolfpackSportsman wrote:

ncsuwolfpack13 wrote: If we don't make Omaha this year Avent will probably face some heat.

You sure about that? This is a program that should crap its pants if we get a national seed.

WolfpackSportsman wrote:

ncsuwolfpack13 wrote: If we don't make Omaha this year Avent will probably face some heat.

You sure about that? This is a program that should crap its pants if we get a national seed.

wolfer79 wrote:

WolfpackSportsman wrote:

ncsuwolfpack13 wrote: If we don't make Omaha this year Avent will probably face some heat.

You sure about that? This is a program that should crap its pants if we get a national seed.

Avent seems to always be under some heat from some posters all the time.

It is the one thing I hate about any baseball thread. It really gets old. 

WolfpackSportsman wrote:

wolfer79 wrote:

WolfpackSportsman wrote:

ncsuwolfpack13 wrote: If we don't make Omaha this year Avent will probably face some heat.

You sure about that? This is a program that should crap its pants if we get a national seed.

Avent seems to always be under some heat from some posters all the time.

It is the one thing I hate about any baseball thread. It really gets old. 

wolfer79 wrote: from Boston College series

I love the Pack, but if this is the 18th best team in the country this is a really down year in college baseball.

from Clemson series topic

Any descent coach would have bunted Austin......Avent is BAD!!!!!

They really need to take a look at the whole roster as far as the offense and open it up....sit Ciencin and the rest of thCe nonperformers and try someone else.....can't do any worse....dang shame another great pitching performance is being thrown away.....ya got Duke and BC after the Tigers get done with the sweep......try something new!!!!

This team will be a 2 seed somewhere....hopefully...and with the youth of the team....not bad....but man, now 2-5 on road in ACC...and be lucky to leave here 3-6. Not good

If NCSU doesn't have enough money to get rid on a non revenue coach we need to shut down the Athletic Dept.

ncsuwolfpack13 wrote: If we don't make Omaha this year Avent will probably face some heat.

wulfpackbaseball9 wrote:

WolfpackSportsman wrote:

ncsuwolfpack13 wrote: If we don't make Omaha this year Avent will probably face some heat.

You sure about that? This is a program that should crap its pants if we get a national seed.

I don't think either of those things are true. If we didn't make the tourney as a fairly high seed, or win a regional I'd think we had a subpar year, but there won't be heat.

We came close to earning a national seed last year with a 9-11 RPI depending on who ya asked.
I'd think this team expects to be one of the top 10 teams in nation this year. If they don't think that, then I've overestimated their competitive drive, because there was great disappointment we didn't beat Florida in the Super Reg.

NCSUz71 wrote:

ncsuwolfpack13 wrote: If we don't make Omaha this year Avent will probably face some heat.

+1

With all the money and fan support we put into baseball, anything short of Omaha is a letdown. Avent is a descent coach, but if we don't make it this year, he has to go!!

jlowder23 wrote:

NCSUz71 wrote:

ncsuwolfpack13 wrote: If we don't make Omaha this year Avent will probably face some heat.

+1

With all the money and fan support we put into baseball, anything short of Omaha is a letdown. Avent is a descent coach, but if we don't make it this year, he has to go!!

So you're really patriots and you trolled us all year last year?  Bravo.

hahaha

jds0881 wrote:

---------------------------------------------
--- wolfman82 wrote:

Question for those in the know...are the Pack 9 deserving of such a lofty ranking at the time? I know we've got the stud freshmen coming back...but I also know we lost some senior bats. What say ye?

---------------------------------------------

We are going to win a lot of games this year. The only bat we are looking to replace is Matthews and Diaz. There are plenty of guys ready to take over for them.

NCSUz71 wrote: ^ ??

jlowder23 wrote:

NCSUz71 wrote: ^ ??

Noticed he didn't play in the fall series.  Was hoping it was nothing big.

Pack11 please elaborate if you can.  Or a pm if you don't mind.

jds0881 wrote:

---------------------------------------------
--- wolfman82 wrote:

Question for those in the know...are the Pack 9 deserving of such a lofty ranking at the time? I know we've got the stud freshmen coming back...but I also know we lost some senior bats. What say ye?

---------------------------------------------

We are going to win a lot of games this year. The only bat we are looking to replace is Matthews and Diaz. There are plenty of guys ready to take over for them.