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.