Beavs up to #4 in D1 Baseball poll

And up to #3 in Baseball America poll

www.baseballamerica.com/college/college-top-25-feb-29/

No ASU or UA.  No Stanford.  Most polls without USC either.  My how times have changed in the PAC.

Polls schmolls... lets just win the Pac12 and we'll get the respect we deserve and that counts the most. Coaches poll or not I saw UCLA as the more experienced favorite (although they are struggling at the plate and currently 3-4)... OSU, TSDS, CAL seem to have the upper echelon teams. OSU has the edge in tradition/coaching getting the most out its players. The pitching improved the first two weeks, but other than Max the others don;t pass the eye test of what we've needed to win this conference. I'm hoping they improve, but one or two of the 'others' yet to see action are indeed weekend starters.

I think the top four can/will beat up on one another. It will come down to to which team does not drop a series to a middle/bottom tier team(s).

We need to get in every game possible to solidify roles on this staff... and I like that we're hosting a "down" ASU before heading to CAL.

Pretty much agree with lll's analysis. The strength of schedule for noncon games will hurt the Beavs without a strong conference showing.

As for pitching, Drew looked fine and will be fine. Thompson was strong in his second start against a weak pitching but decent pitching team. Jake has always had good stuff, but the command hasn't been there. Against K-State, the quality of his strikes, particularly the quality of his strikes in tough situations was good. Can he do that consistently and against tough Pac12 teams? Eckert's second performance was good and his velocity was very good. Casey and Yeskie were constantly drilling him about focus and not giving up the big hit on a bad strike. We will see. Heimlich hit 90 which is much better and makes his other stuff better. We will see.

The bullpen sucks right now except Max and surfer dude Fehmel. We will eventually see if Fehmel can get really good clubs out with his breaking stuff. He is at least close to the plate. Serious, serious command issues with the rest of the pen. Hopefully, we see some of the new guys improve before conference.

I agree with the above analysis and I haven't had the chance to watch the team live yet. I'm still holding out hope that they are going to get the pen straightened out.

So, if we can get Hickey healthy that would help the bull pen. Just from watching on line, it also seems like Church is still a solid option early in the game for an RP.

When the starters are "on", you really only need 2-3 guys out of the pen to hold down the lead.

I too feel like we are ranked a little high but I also see some other teams ranked high..... it will all shake out as the season progresses.

Go Beavs!

Personally I've always liked us ranked a little lower and perceived as the "chip on the shoulder" team - seems to fit PC's persona, but either way, deserved or not, it's fun to be ranked among the elite and a testament to the program he's built. We are truly in an era of reload > rebuild.

Still very worried about our pitching - can Drew hold his own on Friday night once league starts?, can we get some consistency out of Thompson/Eckert and the pen has been discussed numerous times. Might be a few more 8-7 type scores this year. I'm not sure I'll be able to handle that.