- January 13th, 2008, 2:58 pm
#145586
Coastal is #1 -- far and away. Not only do they return most key members of last years team -- their recruiting class could be one of the best in their history. They added 3-4 arms that could come in and compete for the weekend rotation spot that opened up, and also added some phenomenal athletes in the field.
Winthrop might be BAD this year. I honestly don't know a lot about who they brought...But they lost Their top 2 pitchers (Alex Wilson #1 transfered, and #2 Fransblaugh who many would argue was the better pitcher of the two) both going into their junior year. Not to mention Carey and several other contributors that they lost. The additions to their facility will help with recruiting but Hudak really lost that team last year and the players turned on him at the end of the year. The transfers are evidence of this and it may really hurt them this year.
VMI may have arms but they don't have any experienced bats! Van Ess is gone and while the pitching is good they can't score with Coastal, Liberty, or even High point.
High Point lost a lot of arms but I still think with their lineup they have the potential to be ahead of Winthrop and maybe VMI.
If you look at what some of Asheville's guys did over the summer its hard to pick them 6th. But, the same could be said for last year -- and mattison, arrington, DeRatt and others had sub-par seasons. Asheville may also lose some guys from grades or other reasons come spring... They have talent but always under-achieve.
Liberty returns the most (outside of Coastal) the coaches will make a huge difference Schnabel was a great hire as was Jackson. They didn't add a lot but had some nice pickups and everyone is back. I guess in summary I'd rank them this way (for now).
1-Coastal (regular season and tourny)
2-Liberty
3-High Point
4-VMI
5-UNC Asheville
6-Winthrop
7-Charleston Southern
8-Radford
--Fumble (1961-2009), RIP
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