2018 ACC Baseball

[GTNavyNuke]

Virginia starting outfielder Cameron Simmons (Royersford, Pa.) has a left shoulder injury that will require season-ending surgery.

A second team All-ACC selection as a sophomore, Simmons started all but three games for the Cavaliers in 2017. He was second on the team and fourth in the ACC with a .352 batting average. He compiled 14 doubles, nine home runs and drove in 57 runs for Virginia last season. In conference play, he hit .374, tops on the team and the third highest average in the league.

(I liked the information you provided, not that the kid is hurt.)

We have to realize that injuries are part of the game. However, this is a big loss for UVa. .374 in ACC play is pro-quality hitting.

 

[FredJacket]

Credit to these ACC teams hitting the road & putting themselves to the test opening weekend.

Duke @ Vandy (3 games)
ND @ LSU (3 games)
UVA v UCF (Fri) and Rice (Sun)

 

[GTNavyNuke]

Credit to these ACC teams hitting the road & putting themselves to the test opening weekend.

Duke @ Vandy (3 games)
ND @ LSU (3 games)
UVA v UCF (Fri) and Rice (Sun)

Left handed compliment to all three ACC teams who lost??

I was happy to see ND lose a close one. Hope they lose two more. Wish UVa had won. Fluke got pounded which was nice.

 

[Stinger90]

Left handed compliment to all three ACC teams who lost??

I was happy to see ND lose a close one. Hope they lose two more. Wish UVa had won. Fluke got pounded which was nice.

Speaking of pounding, FSU pounded Xavier 11-1 but had their ace pitcher (Tyler Holton) leave in the 4th what is described as a "tightness". He'll be evaluated after a MRI.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

Not an auspicious start for the ACC. 66-35 but better % than starting last weekend. Nolan Ryan has ACC up to #2 in RPI (Special Ed guys are #1). Need ACC to win all mid-week to get the individual team's RPI up.

D1 baseball in their Week 3 podcast loves Miami and extolled them in how they lost to Florida. Wish we could have that type of respect. Not a word about us as I expected.

UNC is just sloppy. Clemson and FSU and Louisville are still the ACC elites.

 

[FredJacket]

Not an auspicious start for the ACC. 66-35 but better % than starting last weekend. Nolan Ryan has ACC up to #2 in RPI (Special Ed guys are #1). Need ACC to win all mid-week to get the individual team's RPI up.

D1 baseball in their Week 3 podcast loves Miami and extolled them in how they lost to Florida. Wish we could have that type of respect. Not a word about us as I expected.

UNC is just sloppy. Clemson and FSU and Louisville are still the ACC elites.

Just like over on all of the Ga Tech dedicated threads... it is still pretty early to draw any conclusions. The biggest surprise (to me) is UNC. Perhaps ECU is really good (best college team in North Carolina?) which mitigates the surprise over UNC's bad start some. From there... it's UVA. So...both of those are Coastal teams under performing right now. The thought of Miami being the best in the Coastal is pretty irritating to me. I still suspect when the grind gets going, Miami will be joined by UNC and UVA in the Coastal. I hope we can show them we're one in a 4 or 5 team fight in a competitive Coastal... but that is more homer-ness than fact-based objective analysis... at this point.

As for the Atlantic... you are correct.. FSU, Louisville, Clemson (and even NCST) seem to be showing that division is clearly superior at this stage.

 

[FredJacket]

^^^That is NOT your run of the mill no-hitter.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

^^^That is NOT your run of the mill no-hitter.

UVa had 4 errors! And 7 walks and a HBP. Not good baseball! http://www.tribeathletics.com/boxscore.aspx?path=baseball&id=10533

After the ACC was undefeated on Tuesday, Miami lost to Florida Atlantic and Wake lost to UNC Greensboro last night. UVa tried to lose but beat W&M.

Miami has faced good teams - Florida and Florida Atlantic, but still starting 3-5 ...... with their heralded talent?

 

[FredJacket]

Below are the ACC records as of today (3/8)... entering conference play. Below that are the pre-season predictions (based on coaches votes, I think).

Not that there's much to "conclude" from this when you factor in the disparity in levels of competition in these early season games; but the things that jump out at me...in no particular order:
- The Atlantic may have the best 3 or 4 teams in the conference (FSU, LOU, CLEM, NC State) comparing them to the Coastal.
- No team in the Coastal is a clear favorite. Only VT seems to be a sub-par team.
- No surprise Wake is down compared to last year... but how far "down" will they be?
- Is Miami as bad as they've been under Morris?... Coach Morris is retiring at end of season.
- Is Pitt a legit contender? So far...they are riding good pitching. Can that carry over against the ACC bats? I say no...Pitt and VT will be in basement of Coastal.

Atlantic
FSU 13-0
Louisville 12-0
Clemson 12-1
NC State 11-2
Notre Dame 6-4
Boston College 5-6
Wake Forest 5-8

Coastal
Duke 10-2
Pittsburgh 10-2
Georgia Tech 9-3
Virginia 9-4
North Carolina 7-5
Virginia Tech 6-7
Miami (FL) 5-7

PRESEASON ACC Predictions
ATLANTIC DIVISION POINTS
1. Florida State (13) 95
2. Louisville 78
3. Clemson 70
4. NC State 53
5. Wake Forest (1) 52
6. Boston College 25
7. Notre Dame 19
COASTAL DIVISION POINTS
1. North Carolina (12) 96
2. Virginia (2) 83
3. Duke 62
4. Miami 60
5. Georgia Tech 46
6. Virginia Tech 27
7. Pitt 18
(first-place votes)

 

[up state jacket]

I get men's and ladies basketball, but every other sport Duke should be licking our boots. Right now it's the freaking opposite and that sucks donkey balls.

 

[MWBATL]

I get men's and ladies basketball, but every other sport Duke should be licking our boots. Right now it's the freaking opposite and that sucks donkey balls.

Why? My guess is they spend a lot more money on their Olympic sports than GT does. I think they even spend more now on football than GT does.

 

[up state jacket]

You asking why is the exact reason. I know this is a different time and all things being equal, but I can't help but still put duke baseball and football in that turd bracket. Old standards are hard to break. The days of at least were not as bad as them are over. Hard pill to swallow.

 

[FredJacket]

Road teams were 6-15 this weekend. No road team won their respective series...that includes some highly touted teams (FSU, UVA, UNC). I looked at week 1 last year, and road teams were 5-16 last year. Limited data... but I think it is fair to say there is an advantage to playing at home in the 1st ACC series. The average the rest of the season (2017) for road team wins in a weekend across the conference is up around 9.5.

Oh well.. the season is still early and we've played one of the best teams in the conference. We have 15 home ACC games ahead of us and only 3 teams in the Coastal have 2 wins.. and none is unbeaten.

MIA: 2-1
DUKE: 2-1
VT: 2-1
PITT: 1-2
UNC: 1-2
UVA: 1-2

Yes.. trying to put as positive a spin on "the situation" as I can.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

Road teams were 6-15 this weekend. No road team won their respective series...that includes some highly touted teams (FSU, UVA, UNC). I looked at week 1 last year, and road teams were 5-16 last year. Limited data... but I think it is fair to say there is an advantage to playing at home in the 1st ACC series. The average the rest of the season (2017) for road team wins in a weekend across the conference is up around 9.5.

Oh well.. the season is still early and we've played one of the best teams in the conference. We have 15 home ACC games ahead of us and only 3 teams in the Coastal have 2 wins.. and none is unbeaten.

MIA: 2-1
DUKE: 2-1
VT: 2-1
PITT: 1-2
UNC: 1-2
UVA: 1-2

Yes.. trying to put as positive a spin on "the situation" as I can.

Great spin. Something has changed in the universe where the home team always wins (tic)

In any event, we MUST win this weekend and anything less than a sweep will seriously put us behind as VT is not supposed to be competitive and we have them at home.

 

[FredJacket]

It is too early to scoreboard watch... UNLESS... you cannot help yourself. Upcoming ACC schedule for "Week 2"

Va Tech (2-1) @ Ga Tech (not typing this): GT should have PLENTY of incentive to rebound. Ground can be made up quickly.
Miami (2-1) @ Duke (2-1): Perfect... one of these Coastal teams will only win 1 game max.
Pitt (1-2) @ UNC (1-2): Tech should be ahead of one of these teams in standings (Pitt) come Sunday.
BC (1-2) @ UVA (1-2): UVA (like Ga Tech) should be getting right at home this weekend.
NC State (2-1) @ Clemson (3-0): 2 really good teams. Big series for Atlantic race.
Notre Dame (1-2) @ FSU (1-2): FSU (like UVA & Ga Tech) should move up.
Louisville (2-1) @ Wake (2-1): WF opens ACC play with 2 home series in a row. FSU (last weekend) and Louisville here. If Wake can manage to be 3-3 (or better) after that... they have set themselves up pretty good.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

....
NC State (2-1) @ Clemson (3-0): 2 really good teams. Big series for Atlantic race.
........
Louisville (2-1) @ Wake (2-1): WF opens ACC play with 2 home series in a row. FSU (last weekend) and Louisville here. If Wake can manage to be 3-3 (or better) after that... they have set themselves up pretty good.

These are the most interesting games to me for the top of the ACC. Will Clemson clemson finally? (yes) Is Wake that good? (I hope so!) These questions may be answered this weekend.

I expect UVa and FSU to emasculate their opponents like Clemson did to us.

As for us, where we sit relative to other teams in interesting, but being in the middle of the pack as we hopefully will be (e.g. not at the bottom), the most important stat come NCAA time will probably be whether we are over 500 or not in the ACC. If we are, past years discussion of who should make the field indicate we'll get in. If we aren't 500 in ACC but have a winning record, we'll probably get a participation trophy.

 

[FredJacket]

As for us, where we sit relative to other teams in interesting, but being in the middle of the pack as we hopefully will be (e.g. not at the bottom), the most important stat come NCAA time will probably be whether we are over 500 or not in the ACC. If we are, past years discussion of who should make the field indicate we'll get in. If we aren't 500 in ACC but have a winning record, we'll probably get a participation trophy.

I agree... the formula is pretty simple. If you get to .500 in conference play, you'll be a middle pack ACC team (at worst) and IN the field. That means we need to go 15-12 (minimum) over the remaining 27 ACC games. I think we can... but my confidence is seriously damaged based on the last 4 games (with a nod toward signs of problems...that I dismissed... earlier in the season). If somehow... the combination of home field, a legit weaker opponent (compared to Clemson & Auburn) in Va Tech, and simple "improvement"... all come together, a reversal of this negative trend would be great!

FWIW... we've played 16 games and the last 4 (25%) have been against what appear to be outstanding/elite teams on the national level. It could help our case at the end of May if our SOS remains really high. It'll go down some for sure... but right now RPI says we've played the 2nd most difficult schedule so far. I would only feel good about that if we'd managed to win at least one game against superior teams. Unless or until we do that... we are mediocre. We still have plenty of really good teams we can beat.

 

[FredJacket]

Thru only 4 games:
-Everyone has at least one loss.
-No team has not won.
-1loss teams: Clem, NC St, Wake, Duke (So only 4 of 14 are over .500 in conference play).
-Check out this 1-3 list... some pretty good baseball teams here: FSU, UVA, GT, Pitt

 

[dawgbasher]

After 2 games at Clemson, NC State leads series 2-0. Tigers being exposed somewhat. NC State appears to be a very good club. They go for the sweep tomorrow.

 

[FredJacket]

After 2 games at Clemson, NC State leads series 2-0. Tigers being exposed somewhat. NC State appears to be a very good club. They go for the sweep tomorrow.

Yep... & I wouldn't recommend looking ahead to see who we play next weekend (at their place). ...& that's after playing Auburn (again) & Mercer midweek.