It has been stated on this forum that Vandy has been rated as high as #3 in the national polls. Really? I think our pitching is going to be excellent. And I think that our pitching alone will make us a good, even a very good team. Our defense, which was poor at the beginning of the year, gradually improved to the point where it was adequate, but nothing to write home about. Our offense last year was mediocre. We had some problems scoring runs. Compared to the rest of the league, we lacked power. Our overall team BA was .268, and we lost our #1 average hitter. What is going to change, particularly from an offensive perspective, this year to an extent that would justify a pre-season ranking of #3? Are the incoming frosh hitters THAT good? We can hopefully expect our returning starters, particularly Harrell, to improve upon last year's numbers. But by enough to make us #3?

I think we will be very good, but does anyone else think that the #3 pre-season ranking is a little high?

Yeah, what FRG said.  By the end of the year, we were a top 15 team that simply ran out of gas (thanks in large part to the efforts of #McRib -- who recently announced he was leaving NCState).  We were a train wreck at the beginning of the year... and we lacked leadership.  Offense, defense and pitching do not exist in vacuums and I think you start with a whopping return of something like 10% of the innings pitched from 2011 to 2012. 

This year, you return about 70% of the innings... and you do so with a starting three of TJ, Z and Ty that can be every bit as outstanding as Sonny, Grayson and Taylor if all three reach their potential. Do I expect us to have a 2.44 team ERA?  No, but we're going to take a big step forward.

Another big part of this is infield defense.  We're going to be much, much better here.  Spencer is excellent behind the plate, but our opening day infield defense was pretty atrocious.  Gregor has made great strides at first over the last 18 months and should stand to be better.  Kemp is a phenomenal defensive second baseman (if he moves back to left, both Dansby and Campbell are solid defenders).  Although Gomer was a good defensive SS with a solid arm, he wasn't blessed with range and had a weak start to the year, so McKeithan or Swanson could actually be an upgrade at D there.  And at third, regardless of whether Conde 2013 or Xavier starts, the defense will be far superior to Conde 2012 (even by the end of the year, his footwork had improved to the point that he was a serviceable glove with a big arm). 

When you are constantly pressing to catch up from behind, offensive output suffers.  Further, there were a few black holes in the lineup that shouldn't be as much of an issue this year.  While we did lose Gomer and his high BA, there shouldn't be too much of a drop in OPS from the SS position because for all of GoGo's clutch, his lack of patience was palpable.  His intangibles are what we might miss on this year's squad, but leadership all around was a problem last year.  With YAZ, Connor and juniors like Navin, Gregor and Kemp ready to step up, I don't worry as much about it.

In other words, I think a #3 rank is very justified.

Still, I'd have liked to see the rankings come out lower and then 'earn' our way up.  I think that gives people a greater feeling of accomplishment.  However, it's not up to me and I think the kids will do fine regardless of what the rankings say.

Me too FRG, but the problem with that is that it is much harder to climb the polls in baseball than in the other sports. Not many teams come out of nowhere and end up highly ranked it seems. I hope we justify our lofty status, but in this league we will definitely earn it if we do maintain that ranking.
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--- FRGVandy81 wrote:

Still, I'd have liked to see the rankings come out lower and then 'earn' our way up.  I think that gives people a greater feeling of accomplishment.  However, it's not up to me and I think the kids will do fine regardless of what the rankings say.

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this season pitching should a strength and not a weakness,so this team has the potential to go a lot further than last years team.we might not play like the 3rd ranked team to start off the season but we should be playing like that by april and may.