Standings & Rankings May 13th

[fryeguy93]

Facts.

2024 SEC Baseball - Team Statistics

I normally look at those on Mondays but have been too busy

Vols are basically first in offense and second in pitching.

Yeah! But Kentucky's #1 RPI. Your eyes lie.

Kentucky is 5th hitting and 7th pitching

OFFENSE:
Vols have 103 more runs
98 more hits
17 more doubles
62 more HRs
294 more total bases
118 pts higher Slg%
29 more walks earned
7 fewer GDP
12 pt higher OB%

PITCHING:
.99 lower ERA
5 more winds
1 fewer loss
1 more complete games
20 fewer hits allowed
47 fewer runs allowed
40 fewer ER allowed
50 fewer walks allowed
68 more strikeouts earned
9 fewer HRs allowed
21 fewer wild pitches
34 fewer HBP
1 fewer balk

DEFENSE
Vols have 4th rated Defense Kentucky has 7th
2 pt higher Fielding% .979 - .977
2 fewer errors
4 more caught stealing
35 point better stolen base allowed percentage

The only difference between the teams is Kentucky played slightly better teams from crappy conferences than Tennessee did. Vols played 6th place team and UK played 2nd place team

Let's see if I can find stats the UK is better at:

UK has 9 triples to UT's 6
UK batters have been hit 91 times compared to UT's 55
UT has more strikeouts 459 to 365
UK has 32 Sac Bunts. UT has 3 !!!!!!
UK as 22 Sa Flies. T has 15
UK has 99 SBs to UT's 37 but has been caught stealing 26 times to UT 10

UK allows .235 avg to UT .239

Kentucky is the only SEC team to have not picked off a baserunner. Tenn is 2nd with 10

But when the D1 nerdcast comes out tonight. Kentucky will again be the #1 seed and Tennessee "may" be #2. Even though the stats and head-to-head favors UT at nearly metric

Tennessee has better record.
Tennessee has better head-to-head - on the road even.
Tennessee has better stats.
Tennessee has won 9 consecutive SEC series. Kentucky has won1
Tennessee has lost 1 series. Kentucky has lost 2. Three if you count Kennesaw
Tennessee gets opponents' best efforts? They hate UT. We still win.
Tennessee has better coaching
Tennessee has better talent
Tennessee has better fans
Tennessee has never played 'Baby Shark' and been enthused about it.
Tennessee has prettier women

 

[gohogs14]

Arkansas will probably get out of a regional due to their pitching but I don’t see them winning a Super Regional against a quality opponent. Their offense is one of the worst in the conference.

Oddly enough, the hitting seems to be picking up the last few weeks right when the pitching is taking a nose dive. Weird how that works sometimes.

 

[spyfish007]

I doubt Kentucky's pitching. They looked good against Arkansas because Arkansas has no offense.
Florida just left tons of runners on base.

Well they played us pretty well too. I am just thinking they are a bit more real than I previously gave them credit.

 

[VolPack22]

I doubt Kentucky's pitching. They looked good against Arkansas because Arkansas has no offense.
Florida just left tons of runners on base.

And Florida’s pitching is atrocious. They gave up 9 runs over the last 3 innings of Game 1 or else that would have been third series loss in the past 4 weeks for Kentucky. Kentucky is getting way too much credit imo. They have gotten extremely lucky.

 

[OrngeJuiceJones]

And Florida’s pitching is atrocious. They gave up 9 runs over the last 3 innings of Game 1 or else that would have been third series loss in the past 4 weeks for Kentucky. Kentucky is getting way too much credit imo. They have gotten extremely lucky.

I agree 100% on UK. They lucked out getting UGa at home cold as crap in March before UGa heated up.. then Missouri, Ole Miss, Auburn. Schedule set up perfectly for them early. They seem like smoke and mirrors don't they?

 

[fryeguy93]

EDITED - all major polls complete
Consensus #1 in all opinion polls
#6 RPI
#3 KPI

D1 Poll 5/13/24

..............Team.................Record....Last Wk.....Last
1...Tennessee..42-10..3-1.....1
2.........Kentucky.............37-11..........2-1..........4
3.........Arkansas.............42-10...........2-1..........5
4.........Clemson..............37-13..........1-3..........2
5.........Texas A&M.........42-10..........2-2..........3
6.........Oregon St...........39-12..........4-0..........7
7.........No Carolina........39-11..........4-0.........11
8.........Wake Forest.......38-16..........4-0.........12
9.........Georgia................38-12..........3-0.........15
10......Florida St..............37-12.........2-2..........8
11......Duke......................34-16..........2-2.........9
12......Oklahoma............32-17..........3-0.........18
13......East Carolina.......37-13..........0-4.........6
14......Arizona..................37-13.........4-0.........17
15......UC Irvine...............38-10.........1-3.........16
16......Miss State.............33-18.........1-2.........14
17......NC State................25-19.........3-1.........23
18......Virginia..................37-13.........1-3.........10
19......Oklahoma St.......34-16..........2-0.........19
20......Indiana St......./....36-11.........2-13.......20
21......Louisiana........./...37-13.........1-3..........22
22......UCSB......................35-12.........4-0..........25
23......Oregon..................34-16.........2-1..........24
24......So Carolina..........33-18..........1-3..........13
25......Texas......................32-20..........2-1..........NR

Dropped Out: Troy


NCBWA 5/13/2024

..............Team..................Last
1....Tennessee..1
2.........Arkansas..............4
3.........Kentucky..............5
4.........Texas A&M..........2
5.........No Carolina........10
6.........Oregon St............9
7.........Clemson...............3
8.........Wake Forest.......12
9........Georgia.................14
10......Florida St...............7
11......Duke......................11
12......Virginia..................8
13......UC Irvine..............16
14......East Carolina.......6
15......Oklahoma............18
16......Arizona.................19
17......Indiana St......./....17
18......Miss State............15
19......UCSB......................20
20.....Oklahoma St........21
21......NC State................22
22......Louisiana........../..NR
23......Oregon..................23
24......So Carolina..........13
25......Alabama...............NR

Dropped Out: Troy (24) Vanderbilt (25)

Baseball America 5/13/2024

..............Team................Last
1....Tennessee.1
2.........Kentucky...............6
3.........Arkansas...............3
4.........No Carolina.........8
5.........Texas A&M..........2
6.........Georgia................14
7.........Wake Forest.......15
8.........Oregon St...........11
9.........NC State..............13
10......Clemson................4
11......Florida St...............5
12......East Carolina........7
13......Duke.......................9
14......Virginia.................10
15......Miss State............12
16......Oklahoma............17
17......UC Irvine...............18
18......UCSB......................19
19......Oklahoma St........21
20......Oregon..................20
21......Arizona..................23
22......Louisiana.............NR
23......Indiana St.............24
24......Texas......................25
25......So Miss................NR


USA Today Coaches Poll 5/13/2024

..............Team.................Last
1....Tennessee..1
2.........Arkansas................3
3.........Kentucky...............5
4.........Texas A&M...........2
5.........No Carolina.........11
6.........Oregon St.............8
7.........Clemson................4
8.........Georgia................12
9.........Wake Forest.......13
10......Florida St...............7
11......Duke........................9
12......East Carolina........6
13......UC Irvine..............16
14......Virginia.................10
15......Oklahoma............17
16......Miss State............15
17......Oklahoma St.......20
18......NC State...... ........21
19......Arizona......... .......19
20......Indiana St..... ......18
21......UCSB............ .. .....23
22......Louisiana... .... ....NR
23......So Carolina.... ....14
24......Oregon.... ........ ..24
24......Alabama............. 25

All polls have been entered into single post above.

Consensus #1 in all opinion polls
#6 RPI
#3 KPI

The tourney projections will be coming out in coming days. I actually look for Tennessee to be the top seed in most of these.

The hottest teams in country right now are

Tennessee (8 consecutive series wins. 20-5 (.800) in last 25 games
Georgia (8 wins in row. 2 consecutive sweeps over likely tourney teams)
North Carolina (6 consecutive wins. 10 of 11. 3 game lead in strong ACC
Wake Forest (9 wins in a row- 5th in ACC though. Won first series against top tier ACC team. Bad series loss to ND)

I wish the team could take the week off next week instead of going to an increasingly meaningless SEC tournament. However, there a more teams than normal trying to get to the 13 or 14 win target. Ole Miss, LSU, Florida that will be wanting to get to Hoover to get a win or or. There's nothing to gain for the good teams (Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas A&M, Georgia. Kentucky) and a chance to lose national seeding.

 

[StarRaider]

UK has 32 Sac Bunts. UT has 3 !!!!!!

and that is 3 too many for some folks here

 

[fryeguy93]

and that is 3 too many for some folks here

Simply put, with our offense, sac bunts and stolen base attempts should be corporal offenses.

Every time Blake Burke attempts a steal with Billy and Kevarus with the bat in their hands, it makes my skin crawl. Just because you can does not mean you should.

 

[txbo]

Simply put, with our offense, sac bunts and stolen base attempts should be corporal offenses.

Every time Blake Burke attempts a steal with Billy and Kevarus with the bat in their hands, it makes my skin crawl. Just because you can does not mean you should.

Preach the good word, brother.

 

[VolPack22]

I agree 100% on UK. They lucked out getting UGa at home cold as crap in March before UGa heated up.. then Missouri, Ole Miss, Auburn. Schedule set up perfectly for them early. They seem like smoke and mirrors don't they?

I mean they are a good team and definitely deserving of a national seed. But whenever you start out 14-1 in the conference and are currently 6-6 (4 of those wins by 2 runs or less, 4 of the losses by 5 runs or more) since then, and you were on the verge of a 3rd series loss in 4 weeks this late in the season then you are not deserving of the #1 seed imo.

 

[chuckiepoo]

and that is 3 too many for some folks here

Ya damn, skippy!

 

[hatingbamaisawayoflife]

so we gonna be 2 or 3.. trying to get my tickets and all together for next week

 

[fryeguy93]

so we gonna be 2 or 3.. trying to get my tickets and all together for next week

We hold the tiebreaker over Kentucky so we only have to tie them to cinch no wore than a 2 seed.
Arkansas has to play at a suddenly desperate A&M team whose fighting for their national seed.
I'm not sure if Vanderbilt has the offense to beat UK on road.

 

[fryeguy93]

Of the top 4 seeds; the best time wise are #3 and #1

As a #3 and #1 you will know what times you will play. The #3 seed would play early on Wednesday thought 10:30 god's time but at least you can schedule and be read. The #1 seed will play at 5:30 God's time. Win or lose those games, you know you will play at 10:30 if you lose and 4:30 if you win on Thursday. On Friday, if win that loser's bracket game- you know you play at 4:00 against the loser of the Thursday winner's bracket game. The winner of that game will have some uncertainty and will play after the 4:00 game.

 

[wtmvol]

If Kentucky is 1, can we even be 2? Or does the other SEC division winner automatically become the 2?

 

[txbo]

If Kentucky is 1, can we even be 2? Or does the other SEC division winner automatically become the 2?

You are correct. Division leaders get 1 and 2. If we don't get 1 we will be 3.

 

[txbo]

We hold the tiebreaker over Kentucky so we only have to tie them to cinch no wore than a 2 seed.
Arkansas has to play at a suddenly desperate A&M team whose fighting for their national seed.
I'm not sure if Vanderbilt has the offense to beat UK on road.

Division winners get 1 and 2 regardless of record for the rest.

 

[StarRaider]

Let's just sweep sc-jr and see where the chips fall

 

[fryeguy93]

Watching the D1 Nerdcast as they still has Kentucky as the top seed.
The only point they make is the Quad 1 wins.

UK is 18-6 (24 games) and UT is 13-9 (22 games)
All of UK's Q1 games in conference | UT has an additional Q1 game against Oklahoma
Tennessee has only 1 Q1 series loss (Alabama) | Kentucky has 2 Q1 series losses (Tenn and SC)
Kentucky has played 12 Q1 games at home (50%) 3,4,6,11 at home and 12 on the road 19,24,30,45 (you'll not that the entire top half was at home)
Tennessee has played 6 Q1 games at home (27.2%) 3 and 24 and 1,11,28,30,45 on the road (16 games) and 1 game on neutral site (#16)
Kentucky lost a Q1 series at home; Tennessee has not
Tennessee beat the #1 RPI team, on the road.
Kentucky has 2 Q2 losses | Tennessee has 0
Kentucky gets credit for Missouri as a Q2 team but Tennessee gets credit for Missouri as a Q4 team even thought MU sucked just as hard at home as on road.
Kentucky has 2 Q3 losses | Tennessee has 0 (UK actually lost a series to Q3 team -Kennesaw)

Average RPI
Kentucky
Wins: 79
Losses: 59

Tennessee
Wins: 104
Losses: 38

A look this resume shows- like everything else with Kentucky- shows the resume is just smoke and mirrors.

 

[fryeguy93]

Watching the D1 Nerdcast as they still has Kentucky as the top seed.
The only point they make is the Quad 1 wins.

UK is 18-6 (24 games) and UT is 13-9 (22 games)
All of UK's Q1 games in conference | UT has an additional Q1 game against Oklahoma
Tennessee has only 1 Q1 series loss (Alabama) | Kentucky has 2 Q1 series losses (Tenn and SC)
Kentucky has played 12 Q1 games at home (50%) 3,4,6,11 at home and 12 on the road 19,24,30,45 (you'll not that the entire top half was at home)
Tennessee has played 6 Q1 games at home (27.2%) 3 and 24 and 1,11,28,30,45 on the road (16 games) and 1 game on neutral site (#16)
Kentucky lost a Q1 series at home; Tennessee has not
Tennessee beat the #1 RPI team, on the road.
Kentucky has 2 Q2 losses | Tennessee has 0
Kentucky gets credit for Missouri as a Q2 team but Tennessee gets credit for Missouri as a Q4 team even thought MU sucked just as hard at home as on road.
Kentucky has 2 Q3 losses | Tennessee has 0 (UK actually lost a series to Q3 team -Kennesaw)

Average RPI
Kentucky
Wins: 79
Losses: 59

Tennessee
Wins: 104
Losses: 38

A look this resume shows- like everything else with Kentucky- shows the resume is just smoke and mirrors.

This is what I’m talking about.

Here is Kentucky’s Q1 chart.

The entire top half is green (home games) and the entire bottom half is road. Vanderbilt this weekend will break this pattern as they are RPI 28. This would be the only home series in the bottom half of their Q1 games and would squeeze in between Ole Miss and Florida

 

[fryeguy93]

And this is Tennessee’s chart where the top half (11 games) includes only 4 home games, 1 neutral and 6 road hand



South Carolina is currently RPI 19 and would give Tennessee 25 Q1 games. Half would be 12.5. That would mean Vols will have 5.5 home games in the top half; 6 road games and 1 neutral.

 

[fryeguy93]

There were no huge changes in the RPI after Tuesday games:
Wake Forest ((new #8) did pass Florida State (#9) after FSU lost to a RPI #114 hat. Deacs home game vs. #115 Liberty was cancelled

UCSB gained three spots to 15 as their RPI took a hit with a woeful RPI conference opponent. (@76- Cal St Bakersfield) but got some of those losses back with win over #99 Saint Mary's College

Mississippi State's win over #280 North Alabama cost them 2 spots. (#18)
Ole Miss (#24) did not lose a spot with loss to #29 Applebee's Tech in Hattiesburg.

 

[volplaya8]

Time to start looking at the teams ranked 12-20…we will matchup with one of those for supers…rest aren’t going to matter until Omaha!