Alabama Baseball: Around the SEC│Baseball Edition

Well after weekend #2 things are becoming a little clearer now in the SEC. First a look at last weekends series: Alabama, of course, swept UGA on the road but then had a very disappointing loss to UAB on Tuesday so what can you say? Arky swept USCe on the road for a big series for the Hogs. LSU swept AU at home, but AU looks terrible. Vandy beat UF 2-1, UK beat MSU 2-1, aTm beat Mississippi 2-1 on the road (big series for the Aggies) and UT beat Mizzou 2-1.

The conclusion from all this is that LSU and Vandy are now emerging as the best in their respective divisions. In the West you have pretty much everybody, except for Auburn, looking like they could still contend. In the East UK is pretty close to Vandy. USCe is good but may not be as good as in the past. UGA, UT, Mizzou, & UF are all disappointing right now. (Although UT had a nice rebound after Alabama, I still see them as a below average team.)

As you are probably aware, only 12 of the 14 SEC teams make the SEC Tourney. Right now AU and UGA look to be good bets to be left. Neither team has won a conference game in 6 tries. Alabama was left out last year, but looks very much improved. I really can not see us being left out this year.

Currently 7 SEC teams are nationally ranked. LSU is #2, Vandy is #5, UK is #10, Mississippi is #11, Arky is #13, USCe is #14 and MSU is #16. The NCAA tourney is still several weeks away but it looks like the SEC should have at least these 7 and probably 1 or 2 more if Alabama, aTm, or even UF get hot. Needless to say there is still a lot baseball to be played and anything is still possible.

In personal stats, Stuart Turner from Missouri is leading the league in batting with an incredible .459. He is followed by Reynolds of aTm at .438, and Renfroe of Miss at .425. Brett Booth, Alabama's highest batter, is at .326 in 30^th place in the conference.

Mason Katz of LSU leads the league in the home run department with 10. Renfroe of Miss is second with 9. Boothe and Moore lead Alabama with 2 each.

On the pitching side, Tyler Beede of Vandy is pitching lights out with 0.70 ERA and a 6-0 record. Brandon Moore of Arky is at 1.09. Alabama's best pitcher thus far has been Joe Keller in 16^th place in the conference with a 2.71 ERA.

Alabama currently does have one statistical leader. Brett Booth leads the league by throwing out 19 runners trying to steal. Of course having a lot of runners on base helps you excel at that stat so it is not necessarily a positive sign. Nevertheless, a lot of credit to Booth for throwing out so many runners.

This weekend we get AU down on the plains. This is a great chance for us to win a 3^rd series. If you are in the area, come on out.

Finally, I will be out of the country next week in a place where I may not have internet access. So I'm not going to do an update next week but I should have an update sometime around April 11. Hopefully we will still be in the thick of it then.