2015 Preseason Polls

[ShockerFever]

http://baseballnews.com/collegiate-baseball-div-poll-12-22-14/

#32 in Collegiate Baseball. Once again, continuous preseason love. Will they cash in on it?

3 top 10 teams on the schedule, a home series with #16, lots receiving votes. One thing is certain, we aren't taking the p***y way out. We'll know quickly how we fare against the elite.

[RoyalShock]

Picked 3rd in the MVC behind DBU and MSU.

http://mvc-sports.com/baseball/news/2014-15/7842/coaches-select-dallas-baptist-as-mvc-baseball-favorite/#.VMlHnGjF_Xo

[DUShock]

It's interesting to note the disparity between the MVC pre-season poll and the national poll. I hope the national guys know something the locals don't ;-)

Go Shocks!

[WuShock16]

At first, I was slightly annoyed but then realized that WSU was picked to win last year but finished fourth or fifth, I believe. Hopefully, we will have the opposite problem.

[1972Shocker]

Considering what we lost from last year -- 8 seniors completing eligibility, 4 juniors drafted (most predominantly Casey G) and a handful of other players leaving the program -- there are a ton of uncertainties around this year's team and being picked to finish 3rd is somewhat optimistic by the voters. Expecting to be picked much higher would seem to be betting on the come just a little too heavily.

Outside of Sam Tewes (who was injured during the Summer) and Daniel Kihle the Shocks really return no one you could point to as a dependable everyday player or a key pitcher.. HCTB is talking like Bob Arens may well start at catcher. I think Bob is probably a very good defensive catcher, but with all due respect, that prospect doesn't exactly get my juices flowing. Maybe Bob will pull off a Brett Bascue senior year performance.

This year is pretty much totally dependent on how the newcomers perform and predicting how that will go is not the easiest task in the world. Just look at the learning curve for the very highly touted men's basketball newcomers. I'm not saying we don't have the potential to finish better than 3rd but predicting that will happen is a total wild guess. Unfortunately, there is also a possibility we might underperform this preseason prediction.

The bottom line is we have pretty much a totally unproven team with a plethora of unknowns and unknowables going into the season.

[SHOCKvalue]

It's interesting to note the disparity between the MVC pre-season poll and the national poll. I hope the national guys know something the locals don't ;-)

Go Shocks!

As much as it's nice to see us in a poll, in all honesty WSU could cancel the baseball program, turn Eck into a parking lot, and CB would probably still put our baseball team in their preseason poll. I'm not sure the last time we have been left out of the CB preseason poll.

The BA poll is the legit one, and unfortunately our appearances there over the past 10-15 years (sans '06 and '07) are numbered much more infrequently than in the CB.

Still excited to see where HCTB takes the program though.

EDIT: I realized my post could be vague. The "national poll" you are referring to is Collegiate Baseball (CB), who generally runs second in the relevancy pecking order to Baseball America (BA). You probably know this, but I imagine a good chunk of SN does not.

[SB Shock]

WSU members on the MVC pre-season all-conference

Daniel Kihle, OF
Sam Tewes, SP