D1Baseball Weekly Chat Transcript • D1Baseball
Another big week of college baseball action is in the books and our Kendall Rogers and Aaron Fitt answer your burning questions.
Nebraska and Big Ten mentions........
Josh: Thoughts on Nebraska's slow start. Seems to be the veteran starting pitchers and offensively they just can't get anything going/sustained?
Kendall Rogers: Josh -- Nebraska is definitely in a rut. The day I saw them against Sam Houston State, the starting pitching scuffled and the offense waited until the eighth inning to finally wake up. It looks like the offense didn't wake up much at all against a solid TCU team (especially on the mound). Nebraska was definitely underwhelming to me, and I'm not sure I see this team as having big-time potential offensively? Maybe I'm wrong, but I didn't see much in that lineup that would scare me.
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Yellmk: Happy Monday gents. Lupton Drinking Club was in full attendance at Globe Life this weekend to watch the TCU-Nebraska series. We came away encouraged by the outcome, but less impressed with the preseason #1 team in the Big Ten. Thoughts on the Huskers' rough start so far or whether they're still fine and the Frogs are just looking better than expected?
Aaron Fitt: I would say a little bit of both here; I definitely think TCU looks like a real contender, and I'm particularly encouraged by the way that rotation has performed so far. Good to see Riley Cornelio putting it together, and Brett Walker was great on Sunday. As for Nebraska -- clearly that team is not playing great baseball right now. I'm not necessarily ready to downgrade my long-term forceast for the Huskers, because sometimes teams just take a few weeks to gel, especially cold-weather teams. But I do think Maryland is for real, and for me, the Terps are the team to beat in the Big Ten right now.
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Terp in NC: Maryland's starting pitching has been tremendous thus far. How would you rank their weekend starters (Dean-Ramsey-Savacool) nationally? In the B1G?
Aaron Fitt: To follow up on my last answer, which touched on Maryland — I’m so impressed with the Terps so far. I was there Friday and thought Nick Dean was awesome — just a bulldog competitor who really locates his heater and has a devastating changeup. I’ve seen Ramsey and Savacool in the past and I like both quite a bit. For me that’s clearly the top rotation in the Big Ten, and potentially a top 15 rotation nationally, or maybe even better . There is not a ton of established starting pitching in college baseball this year, so it really stands out when a team has three workhorse guys with stuff and pitchability like Maryland does.
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Phil: Which team has exceeded expectations the most so far and who has disappointed the most?
Kendall Rogers: Phil -- Maryland on the positive side. We as a staff thought the Terps would be pretty solid, but to go 6-0 against Baylor AND Campbell on the road? That's really loud. That result surprised me a little. As for the biggest disappointment so far, it would have to be Nebraska. We strongly considered and struggled with the idea of not having the Huskers ranked coming into the season. But they've been dreadful if I'm being honest.
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Andy: Thoughts on Rutgers?
Kendall Rogers: Andy -- Rutgers was improved last season, and the Scarlet Knights are off to the best start in school history — at least I’m pretty sure RU tweeted that out the other day. Steve Owens is an outstanding coach, so it’s not surprising to see this program continue to make strides. Outscoring UNCW 14-5 in two games is pretty impressive. Richie Schiekofer, Nick Cimillo and Evan Sleight are off to fantastic starts. Schiekhofer in particular is hitting .520!
Aaron Fitt: I'll add this: heard reports this weekend that Rutgers' offense is the real deal. Watch out for these guys.
