Top 25 Tracker -- Virginia, South Carolina Tied For First; Clemson Makes Huge Leap

by KingJamesIV on May 3, 2011 10:00 AM EDT in Vanderbilt Commodores Baseball

The AOG Top 25 NCAA Baseball Tracker keeps track of the five main college baseball Top 25 polls. Teams are ranked based on composite score across the various polls. There are other composite rankings out there. Some of them only use four sources. This uses five and is thusly one louder. Four is for sissies and people who like ties. Having five sources helps break ties. No big deal.

Legend

Δ - Change in ranking from last week to this week (green is a positive jump - from 3rd to 1st; red is negative)
ESPN - ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll
BA - Baseball America
PG - Perfect Game
NCBWA - National Collegiate Baseball Writers of America
CB - Collegiate Baseball
Note: To be eligible for conclusion, a team must in the top 25 of at least one of the five polls. This list will vary in length depending solely on the deviation between the various polls.

Thoughts? Concerns? Questions? Share your comments below.

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Comments

I'll say one thing for Baseball America...

…at least they’re being consistent.

by doredarling on May 3, 2011 10:42 AM EDT reply actions

They also were ahead of the curve on liking OSU. They rank them too high, but everyone else bumped them up this week.

I’m not sure if Vandy people are more annoyed that they have OSU ahead of us, or more annoyed that they are ahead of us not because they are better, but because they haven’t lost a series.

Though Aaron Fitt did freak out on someone during their ranking chat this week and just throw out like 8 reasons why you could argue for OSU’s being ranked over us.

If he would have just done that last week instead of saying, “well they haven’t lost a series so they won’t drop” I don’t think people would be so annoyed.

by The Goche on May 3, 2011 11:11 AM EDT up reply actions

He couldn't do it last week

Because the post that questioned him last week had a bunch of points that blew his argument to shreds. This week he gave himself an echo chamber and frankly came off as a bit of a petulant crybaby.

The primary argument he keeps wanting to makes come down to Oregon St. having a better record against the Top 25 than Vandy. Setting aside the fact that they’re self-selecting the Top 25 in question, it’s an non-argument because it’s a meaningless cutoff. The #25 team in the NCAA Basketball Tournament is the best #7 seed. Does anyone think the best #7 seed and a #1 seed are equally likely to win the championship? Of course not, and neither are UCLA and South Carolina equally likely to win the CWS.

I think the real problem is that he’s harping on that to the exclusion of everything else. He’s ignoring the 18-0 loss to Arizona, plus losses to Wazzu, TAMU-CC, Long Beach State, UCSB (at home), and the luminous Seattle RedHawks (with their RPI of 227, and also at home). You may well argue Tennessee should’ve been a #1 seed in March for beating Nova and Pitt, while ignoring their losses to Oakland, Charleston and Charlotte.

He likes to bring up Vandy’s non-con strength of schedule too, but they’ve still got an SOS 20 places higher than Oregon State’s.

I’d go into statistical comparison, but I’m scared someone will pop up and go, “Sabermetrics! Reprobate!” and throw banana peels. Plus the Beavers have maybe the worst hitter’s park in the country, and I don’t have a way to adjust for that. But even then, Vandy’s pitching staff still has better numbers across the board than OSU’s, from ERA to WHIP, SLG, OBP, HR and OH NO NOT THE PEELS

by parlagi on May 3, 2011 2:15 PM EDT up reply actions

His comments were annoying but i think his main point is that they are both really good teams.

I also think you have a point though. How do you weigh good wins verse bad losses. He is cleary putting a premium on the good wins and ignoring the bad losses.

by GTwill on May 3, 2011 3:58 PM EDT up reply actions

I'll agree OSU is good

I agree that they haven’t done anything to be dropped in the rankings since they got moved up. I guess I just can’t get over how early BA moved them up and how the body of work at that time didn’t seem to support a ranking above VU. It is impressive that they haven’t dropped a series, but we’ve only dropped one series…to a team in the top three.

by doredarling on May 3, 2011 4:26 PM EDT up reply actions

BA got lucky I guess

or they found Marty’s book from Back to the Future II.

I live in the OC.
The one in OH.

by MattBen on May 3, 2011 7:36 PM EDT up reply actions

I read Aaron Fitt's chat yesterday

I think they have a legit case on OSU.

by GTwill on May 3, 2011 2:16 PM EDT up reply actions

Idk bout OSU

While it is impressive that they haven’t lost a series, they’ve still lost pretty badly to some teams that aren’t that good. I’m just not totally sold yet…

I live in the OC.
The one in OH.

by MattBen on May 3, 2011 2:41 PM EDT reply actions