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Baseball America 2019 rankings: Preseason Top 25 takeaways

By Ethan Lee

June 23, 2014: The batting helmets for the two teams Virginia and Vanderbilt during the first game of the finals of the College World Series at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Nebraska. (Photo by John S. Peterson/Icon SMI/Corbis via Getty Images)
June 23, 2014: The batting helmets for the two teams Virginia and Vanderbilt during the first game of the finals of the College World Series at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Nebraska. (Photo by John S. Peterson/Icon SMI/Corbis via Getty Images) /
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Baseball America has broken out their 2019 college baseball preseason rankings! Let’s take a look through them and break them down a bit.

It wasn’t that long ago that the folks over at D1Baseball unveiled their collective top 25 preseason rankings for the 2019 college baseball season. Now, Baseball America is jumping right in as well and their writers have put together their 2019 preseason rankings.

Unsurprisingly, Vanderbilt is at the top of this one too. The Commodores, after hosting their own Super Regional in Nashville last season, are ranked as the preseason No. 1 team in the country coming into 2019. It makes sense. Vanderbilt has a stacked roster and will be getting plenty of attention throughout the upcoming season.

The LSU Tigers followed closely behind Vandy at No. 2. UCLA comes in and rounds out the top three in the country in these rankings after that.

Here’s the full college baseball preseason poll from Baseball America:

  1. Vanderbilt
  2. LSU
  3. UCLA
  4. Florida
  5. North Carolina
  6. Florida State
  7. Stanford
  8. Texas Tech
  9. Mississippi State
  10. Oregon State
  11. Louisville
  12. East Carolina
  13. Ole Miss
  14. Clemson
  15. Georgia
  16. Baylor
  17. Auburn
  18. Arkansas
  19. Texas
  20. Michigan
  21. Southern Miss
  22. Duke
  23. Coastal Carolina
  24. Minnesota
  25. UC Irvine

Three college baseball teams that are overrated:

  1. UC Irvine– UC Irvine didn’t make it to a regional last season and had a difficult time getting more than 30 wins last season. It did just that, but UC Irvine hasn’t really proven itself to be the 25th best team in the nation right now.
  2. Clemson– The Clemson Tigers lost some serious star power in Seth Beer and there are just a few too many questions for this team to be the No. 14 ranked team in the country going into this season. The Tigers will likely make things interested in the ACC this year, but this team should be ranked just a couple of spots lower. No serious movement is needed here. It’s just a slight overrating that occurred.
  3. Florida State– The Florida State Seminoles, according to D1Baseball, are the 13th best team in the country. That’s a pretty big difference from Baseball America putting the Seminoles as their 6th best team heading into 2019. This ranking is a bit of a head-scratcher.

Three college baseball teams that deserve more respect:

  1. Duke– During the 2018 season, the Blue Devils took a series from both North Carolina and Florida State during the regular season. They followed that up by beating Georgia twice in a Regional and then challenged Texas Tech in a Super Regional that went to three games. They’ve got a D1Baseball preseason All-American and, though the Blue Devils have to replace some bats, should be a few spots higher than 22.
  2. Texas A&M– I’m not convinced that the Texas A&M Aggies are going to go out and do amazing things like conquering the Southeastern Conference this season. However, I am convinced that a team as talented as A&M at least deserves to be in the top 25. D1Baseball did the same thing as Baseball America did not rank the Aggies and I’m really not sure I understand why this team isn’t ranked around the 20-25 range.
  3. Arkansas– The Razorbacks are last year’s runner-up and lost the College World Series to a controversial Oregon State team after being one out away from winning a national title. If Arkansas’ talented roster can come together, then this team could theoretically make some noise in a loaded SEC this season. There are still some uncertainties surrounding this team though. It deserves some more respect, but it shouldn’t be moved higher than say No. 15.

Final college baseball preseason takeaways:

Mississippi State cracking the top 10 is interesting to me. The Bulldogs have some serious top end potential, but they’ve also shown that they can bottom out pretty hard. Plus, there’s a brand new coaching staff in Starkville. I think this will be a pretty good team this year, but it’s hard to tell exactly what we’ll see this season. This team should be ranked higher than No. 14, which is where D1Baseball had it, but I’m not sold just yet on the Bulldogs being a top 10 type team.

Sticking with SEC baseball teams for a second, I would be thoroughly entertained by the possibility of the LSU Tigers and the Vanderbilt Commodores battling it out in Hoover for the SEC Title and then meeting again in the NCAA Tournament or even the College World Series.

Similarly, I’d love to see those sort of meetings this season with ACC teams such as Louisville, Duke, Florida State, North Carolina, and Clemson. The Cardinals, Blue Devils, Seminoles, Tar Heels, and Tigers will all be intriguing to watch.

For the heck of it, go ahead and throw East Carolina and Coastal Carolina in there as well. Both are in the same region as that ACC grouping and both could be a blast to keep up with this season.

2019 D1Baseball preseason rankings: Top 25 takeaways. dark. Next