I’ll buy top 10 to start this season. But holy hell, the roster he lost this offseason is nuts. But also to be fair, I don’t know what any of the other teams looks like (other than TCU).
Killer bats are great but we can’t compete with LSU and the likes on pure talent. Got to get back to the Casey ways of building teams to win in Omaha. Just kind of sucks because the kind of team that can win there is the same kind of team that struggles to make it.
Personally. I love it. Top tier defending and pitching. Get the needed runs. I think we saw much more small ball out of our team last year also which I LOVED. again. That's just me. But I feel like our path back is very doable should we execute and see growth in the pitching staff.
Edit: and I agree with you. Save for the struggle to make it part. Maybe a little less room for error. But if you can win all weekend series, you can make it. Pitching and fielding gives you that. Midweek matchups can get dicey though to your point.
As a Golden Eagle who moved to Portland, I work with a lot of Beavs. We've been talking about our teams playing for years and it finally happens Feb 21. We open with UCSB at home so hopefully we're still ranked for that game.
Perfect game internal meeting:
"Well at least we learned our lesson from last year with Texas A&M, right?"
"Absolutely"
"So Tennessee is definitely not going to be ranked #1"
"Of course not"
The Arizona Wildcats baseball team had 10 players from their 2025 roster enter the transfer portal after the season ended.
azdesertswarm.com
This included a mix of pitchers and position players, such as pitchers Jack Berg (committed to Hawaii), Christian Coppola (committed to Saint Joseph's), Kenan Elarton, Karter Muck, and Bryce McKnight; infielders Richie Morales and TJ Adams; and catcher Kade Thompson.
azdesertswarm.com +2
Two others departed but weren't named in reports. While 10 departures out of a typical 40-player roster represents notable turnover (about 25%), the group as a whole had minimal on-field impact—combining for just 97 at-bats and 34.1 innings pitched during the 2025 season, with only two on the playoff roster.
azdesertswarm.com
In the portal era, this level of movement is fairly common and wasn't considered a major setback, especially since the Wildcats added eight incoming transfers to reload, including pitchers JT Drake (from Texas Tech), Luc Fladda (from Tulane), Corey Kling (from South Florida), Patrick Morris (from Western Kentucky), and Nolan Straniero, plus position players Tyler Bickers (from Milwaukee), Carson McEntire (from Oregon State), and Beau Sylvester (from Oklahoma State).
azdesertswarm.com +1
Overall, reports framed the net result as positive for the 2026 outlook, with additions outweighing the losses.
I have good feelings he will do well, but he needs at least a season to really develop the chemistry. I want to drink the cool aid on this first season, but baseball is a fickle lady.
After watching so many outstanding Arkansas teams come up short, I’ll always believe luck plays a major role.
Luck definitely plays a role. I don’t think at any point until Omaha was State the best team in ‘21. Then once we got there our pitching staff stepped up and the offense got hits when needed.
Southern has a super experienced team this year. Got a few 5th year guys in the field, and a lot of 4th years. We've lost some good pitching over the last two years but I believe in Oz. About to overdose on the hopium that this is the year we make it.
You sound a lot like us. Definitely an elite pitching staff, but I think we’re going to start off slowly on offense. We have some great transfers on paper, but the ACC is a lot different than the A Sun. Do you guys play ECU too?
As a dont fire Danny Hall truther i am in shambles. But will say its because we let him go at least publicly on his own terms as consolation for my ego.
Oregon at 13 is hilarious (as an oregon fan). We have to replace two starting pitchers, 1st base, 3rd base, center field, left field, probably more. We can't get out of regionals, and if we do we get embarrassed in the supers
Flair is acting weird, I'll have to get on my laptop to get it set up haha.
And yeah, oregon just isn't that good at baseball. I cheered for OSU baseball for several years and the difference in program leadership is astounding.
Oregon is (unfortunately) good to very good at most sports including baseball. I think your current coach has them on a great trajectory (again unfortunately)
I think both Irvine and poly will be dangerous again tbh. But we’re just too bottom heavy of a conference to justify more than a couple T25 at a time, especially in preseason.
That said, I once again petition a west coast baseball only conference featuring you guys, us, those two and maybe Fullerton. I just want filthy west coast baseball competition again.
Sac State/Utah Valley/CBU should shore up the middle of the pack. Don't care about UC Davis leaving. We're ok with those three replacing Hawaii/UCSD. At least UCSD will be in the conference one more season. UCR needs to do the conference a favor and drop sports. I wish we could dump Bakerfield too. Let CSUN's field be the field to pad everyone's HR stats.
Snubbed. The pollsters loathe the mountaineers. WVU wasn’t ranked in the preseason the last 3 years. They won the Big 12 and made supers 2/3 of those years…unranked even with JJ Wetherholt.
Eh, I wouldn't rank them purely on that. Pitching is what cost WVU last year and I think it should be improved, but not confidently enough to think they should be preseason Top 25. They have a chance to surprise us either direction.
A lot of roster turnover and had some holes last year already make me question this, but I’ll take it! I believe in the staff and the players. Excited to see what happens and a high ranking to start wont hurt
I haven’t been able to keep track as much this off season but seeing us at #25 has me anxious. Hopefully our momentum from the end of last season carries through the start this year.
Super excited for this season to get started. Lost a lot of talent to the draft, but with Alicea, Davis, Moore and Rose back and some good transfers incoming I like our lineup a lot. Hopefully, get some guys to take the next step to replace Biven and Forbes in the rotation.
I'm sure most people believe this about their team but we're not high enough.
We went game 3 of a Super and returned our best position players while vastly improving our iffy offensive positions from last year. Have experience coming back on the mound with some interesting transfers as well.
Clemson at 20 feels low, but I have absolutely zero reasons why we should be higher. Coming into the season I'd say we're a borderline Regional host but they'll need to show me some improvement for me to believe we'll make it to the Supers/Omaha.
I think its due to UCSB starting rotation but they have to play at cal poly and at irivine Cal poly will be up there if starting pitching improves on saturdays and sundays and how much production we get from 1b/C and dh
I don’t follow every other team like I do coastal, but 17 seems low for them. They just went to the cws final, they return most of the offense, Flukey is a bonafide ace and Hayden Johnson is primed to breakout as our Saturday guy. I would’ve thought at least top 12
Obviously I’m happy with being number 1, but I was not expecting GA Tech at number 2. Have they made a lot of noise this offseason? I know nothing about their program.
Two preseason first team all Americans (both of whom are top 10 MLB draft prospects). We might have one of the best offenses in college baseball, and if our pitching keeps up at even a reasonable clip, we are looking dangerous
ACC regular szn champs, ranked 18th, knocked out at the Oxford regional. Solid season. Huge pro is that most of our good players were underclassmen, so we’re keeping the vast majority for this szn
Just so we can have something to work toward? Not cause I think it’ll be bad. Recruiting went great and O’Connor seems like the guy to take us back to the CWS.
I'm kinda surprised we're at #1 here, tbh. We're replacing a lot. Yeah, we're replacing it with talent, but I think the first half of the year could be pretty up and down as guys grow and develop.
Unranked? I mean we lost a few guys sure but all of our biggest hitters + our ace are back. We finished last year top 20 and I have to think this year’s team is better.
How is the outlook for 2026? Last year was good, but the two previous were iffy. Didn't really follow the offseason much. I'm considering getting season tickets
I expected us to be around 12-15, but we are replacing 7 of the 9 guys in the lineup. We’re just as likely to be a fringe top 25 teams as we are to be a top 5 team until we see what the lineup can do
I agree with you, but remember, the year before, we replaced 6 of 9 players. Look at how we did last year. I think our transfer portal haul this year was better than last year even. I’m just excited for baseball season to get started up. February 13th seems so far away.
That’s got to be what it is. I thought we would be top 10, but it’s just pre-season. I honestly was shocked about GT being two. I also thought UCLA was a no brainer at number one.
No Ole Miss is interesting. We were a 1-seed last year and we return our ace and the bulk of our lineup, plus landed one of the top transfer classes. I have is more likely a Top 8 seed than out of the Top 25.
https://preview.redd.it/9h8k5e1vs5cg1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=80ad2b30b7b5a3e031a55d54b3c41fcf822079e1
Surprising, considering we lost most of our offense.
Our pitching staff is gonna get us a lot of wins. In the regular season at least
Inshallah
Little shocked at Arkansas being this high.
Van Horn has made the CWS 8 of 21 possible trips at Arkansas - no matter the roster turnover, he’s earned the benefit of the doubt.
I’ll buy top 10 to start this season. But holy hell, the roster he lost this offseason is nuts. But also to be fair, I don’t know what any of the other teams looks like (other than TCU).
Im surprised to be top 10. Realistically I think 12-18 will be our spot. If the offense can step up they'll be a top 5 team.
Kinda what I was thinking, but it's cool that we've earned the reputation to be given the benefit of the doubt.
Thinking more 10 years ago Beavs. Pitching/ defense. Last few years have flipped our tradition with having killer bats!
Killer bats are great but we can’t compete with LSU and the likes on pure talent. Got to get back to the Casey ways of building teams to win in Omaha. Just kind of sucks because the kind of team that can win there is the same kind of team that struggles to make it.
Personally. I love it. Top tier defending and pitching. Get the needed runs. I think we saw much more small ball out of our team last year also which I LOVED. again. That's just me. But I feel like our path back is very doable should we execute and see growth in the pitching staff.
Edit: and I agree with you. Save for the struggle to make it part. Maybe a little less room for error. But if you can win all weekend series, you can make it. Pitching and fielding gives you that. Midweek matchups can get dicey though to your point.
As a Golden Eagle who moved to Portland, I work with a lot of Beavs. We've been talking about our teams playing for years and it finally happens Feb 21. We open with UCSB at home so hopefully we're still ranked for that game.
No one is going to be able to hit us
I feel the same way about our pitching staff. Should be a fun year!
Bring it. 😉
Perfect game internal meeting: "Well at least we learned our lesson from last year with Texas A&M, right?" "Absolutely" "So Tennessee is definitely not going to be ranked #1" "Of course not"
Hopefully we can live up to the hype without the man who built this
We 100% have the talent, just have to see how well Elander can steer the ship
I'm honestly surprised we are #3. I figured we'd take a hit in all of the preseason rankings with Vitello gone.
[deleted]
You don’t believe this.
He can't😂
I can't fuckin wait for the season
If Jay Johnson pulls off a Bertman-like run I will be so insufferable when we pass up USC for most championships
lol as you should tho! That would be a historic accomplishment!
Lol agreed
I’ve always said PG has the best rankings
Holy shit gtfo. I was really excited about Tech this season and bought season tickets.
This is my last season as a student so I can’t wait to go to games for free lol
I have season tickets to Tech basketball, please tell the students to show up!! lol
To both men's and women's ganes!
which Tech? Flair up!
Wow, just realized that TCU is the only Big12 school:
Did Arizona have a lot of people leave?
From AI:
The Arizona Wildcats baseball team had 10 players from their 2025 roster enter the transfer portal after the season ended.
azdesertswarm.com
This included a mix of pitchers and position players, such as pitchers Jack Berg (committed to Hawaii), Christian Coppola (committed to Saint Joseph's), Kenan Elarton, Karter Muck, and Bryce McKnight; infielders Richie Morales and TJ Adams; and catcher Kade Thompson.
azdesertswarm.com +2
Two others departed but weren't named in reports. While 10 departures out of a typical 40-player roster represents notable turnover (about 25%), the group as a whole had minimal on-field impact—combining for just 97 at-bats and 34.1 innings pitched during the 2025 season, with only two on the playoff roster.
azdesertswarm.com
In the portal era, this level of movement is fairly common and wasn't considered a major setback, especially since the Wildcats added eight incoming transfers to reload, including pitchers JT Drake (from Texas Tech), Luc Fladda (from Tulane), Corey Kling (from South Florida), Patrick Morris (from Western Kentucky), and Nolan Straniero, plus position players Tyler Bickers (from Milwaukee), Carson McEntire (from Oregon State), and Beau Sylvester (from Oklahoma State).
azdesertswarm.com +1
Overall, reports framed the net result as positive for the 2026 outlook, with additions outweighing the losses.
They are still incredibly dangerous. I'd wager they'll be in the top 25 by Week 4 if not sooner.
Look at that! Two B1G schools! See! The B1G is a baseball conference!
please ignore prior conference affiliation
I’m really curious to see how MSU does with O’Connor at the helm. I think they’re going to become a thorn in our side almost immediately
I have good feelings he will do well, but he needs at least a season to really develop the chemistry. I want to drink the cool aid on this first season, but baseball is a fickle lady.
After watching so many outstanding Arkansas teams come up short, I’ll always believe luck plays a major role.
Luck definitely plays a role. I don’t think at any point until Omaha was State the best team in ‘21. Then once we got there our pitching staff stepped up and the offense got hits when needed.
LSU flair?
Yes, didn’t realize it wasn’t set
State plays weekend series with 4 of the Top 10 and 6 of the Top 19. Also have a single game versus UCLA & 2 versus Southern Miss.
CAN'T WAIT!!!!
Southern has a super experienced team this year. Got a few 5th year guys in the field, and a lot of 4th years. We've lost some good pitching over the last two years but I believe in Oz. About to overdose on the hopium that this is the year we make it.
Not sure how I feel about us being ranked preseason. We usually have to work our way in. Hope this isn't some sort of voodoo jinx.
This is arguably Jay’s most talented team in his 5 years here. Doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll win in the end of course.
Season is almost here ladies and gents!
I think 22 is just about right. We're going to have an elite pitching staff, but the offense will be a work in progress.
So damn pumped for the season!
You sound a lot like us. Definitely an elite pitching staff, but I think we’re going to start off slowly on offense. We have some great transfers on paper, but the ACC is a lot different than the A Sun. Do you guys play ECU too?
ECU and NCSU play two midweeks, a game in Raleigh and a game in Greenville, this year.
Respect to UNC’s staff for committing to the traveling series with ECU. Great for the programs and the state.
Unranked? Omaha, here we come.
Ikr
It’s going to happen.
We just needed to fire DHall!!!!
Hall made it to Omaha his first season. Would be cool if Ramsey did the same thing
As a dont fire Danny Hall truther i am in shambles. But will say its because we let him go at least publicly on his own terms as consolation for my ego.
I'll take 8. The season can't get here quick enough.
Agreed
I'm shocked Troy didn't sneak in. TCU has a great shot at Omaha.
I really need baseball to live up to expectations after football 😩😩
Same
Same
It’s really all we have.
Well, that and Women’s basketball. Won 6 in a row!
Top 10 in the Country and 6th in the SEC
We are so fucking back boys
Oregon at 13 is hilarious (as an oregon fan). We have to replace two starting pitchers, 1st base, 3rd base, center field, left field, probably more. We can't get out of regionals, and if we do we get embarrassed in the supers
I was thinking the same thing, but obviously I’m biased. Thanks for confirming my bias. Also, flair up my guy!
Flair is acting weird, I'll have to get on my laptop to get it set up haha.
And yeah, oregon just isn't that good at baseball. I cheered for OSU baseball for several years and the difference in program leadership is astounding.
Oregon is (unfortunately) good to very good at most sports including baseball. I think your current coach has them on a great trajectory (again unfortunately)
Where are UC Irvine and Cal Poly? Go Gauchos tho!
I think both Irvine and poly will be dangerous again tbh. But we’re just too bottom heavy of a conference to justify more than a couple T25 at a time, especially in preseason.
That said, I once again petition a west coast baseball only conference featuring you guys, us, those two and maybe Fullerton. I just want filthy west coast baseball competition again.
Sac State/Utah Valley/CBU should shore up the middle of the pack. Don't care about UC Davis leaving. We're ok with those three replacing Hawaii/UCSD. At least UCSD will be in the conference one more season. UCR needs to do the conference a favor and drop sports. I wish we could dump Bakerfield too. Let CSUN's field be the field to pad everyone's HR stats.
I wonder how far West Virginia is off the list. High ranked recruiting class and transfer portal class coming off a Super Regional appearance.
Snubbed. The pollsters loathe the mountaineers. WVU wasn’t ranked in the preseason the last 3 years. They won the Big 12 and made supers 2/3 of those years…unranked even with JJ Wetherholt.
Eh, I wouldn't rank them purely on that. Pitching is what cost WVU last year and I think it should be improved, but not confidently enough to think they should be preseason Top 25. They have a chance to surprise us either direction.
To The Top
A lot of roster turnover and had some holes last year already make me question this, but I’ll take it! I believe in the staff and the players. Excited to see what happens and a high ranking to start wont hurt
It’s about that time of year folks
Damn. Big 12 almost nonexistent. Thank you, Horned Frogs.
Idk why people give any notion to Perfect Game. It's a totally greedy garbage organization
I haven’t been able to keep track as much this off season but seeing us at #25 has me anxious. Hopefully our momentum from the end of last season carries through the start this year.
Super excited for this season to get started. Lost a lot of talent to the draft, but with Alicea, Davis, Moore and Rose back and some good transfers incoming I like our lineup a lot. Hopefully, get some guys to take the next step to replace Biven and Forbes in the rotation.
I'm sure most people believe this about their team but we're not high enough.
We went game 3 of a Super and returned our best position players while vastly improving our iffy offensive positions from last year. Have experience coming back on the mound with some interesting transfers as well.
Thank you for the article.
We run this shit until further notice
Clemson at 20 feels low, but I have absolutely zero reasons why we should be higher. Coming into the season I'd say we're a borderline Regional host but they'll need to show me some improvement for me to believe we'll make it to the Supers/Omaha.
Northeastern ROBBED
Surprised to see UC Santa Barbara above Irvine and Cal Poly. Did they have a big offseason or something?
I think its due to UCSB starting rotation but they have to play at cal poly and at irivine Cal poly will be up there if starting pitching improves on saturdays and sundays and how much production we get from 1b/C and dh
Literally just cause of Jackson Flora. I'd take Cal Poly over them, Garza and Castellon and the weekend rotation back is scary.
Go Jackets! Go Vols! Go Noles!
I don’t follow every other team like I do coastal, but 17 seems low for them. They just went to the cws final, they return most of the offense, Flukey is a bonafide ace and Hayden Johnson is primed to breakout as our Saturday guy. I would’ve thought at least top 12
ECU is returning just about everyone.
Gunna be a scary squad.
Shocked FSU is 9. Lost too many good players and the pitching is questionable.
Link Jarrett is as good as they come. He will piece something together for us.
Why did I think Avent retired
Obviously I’m happy with being number 1, but I was not expecting GA Tech at number 2. Have they made a lot of noise this offseason? I know nothing about their program.
Two preseason first team all Americans (both of whom are top 10 MLB draft prospects). We might have one of the best offenses in college baseball, and if our pitching keeps up at even a reasonable clip, we are looking dangerous
Good stuff. Where did you guys finish last year? I’m mostly shocked because I don’t remember hearing any noise about GA Tech all of last season.
ACC regular szn champs, ranked 18th, knocked out at the Oxford regional. Solid season. Huge pro is that most of our good players were underclassmen, so we’re keeping the vast majority for this szn
Sweet
I’m excited. But could ya rank us a little lower?
Just so we can have something to work toward? Not cause I think it’ll be bad. Recruiting went great and O’Connor seems like the guy to take us back to the CWS.
These make zero sense
In Roch we trust
I don’t get Tech at 2. Just don’t
I'm kinda surprised we're at #1 here, tbh. We're replacing a lot. Yeah, we're replacing it with talent, but I think the first half of the year could be pretty up and down as guys grow and develop.
I know I should be happy all things considered, but 4th in the SEC would probably still be a bit of a disappointment.
It’s not when you consider that the SEC is fucking disgusting
4th in the SEC is hosting a super regional and probably means your team is favored to go to Omaha.
Unranked? I mean we lost a few guys sure but all of our biggest hitters + our ace are back. We finished last year top 20 and I have to think this year’s team is better.
Probably didn't want 10 SEC schools
How is the outlook for 2026? Last year was good, but the two previous were iffy. Didn't really follow the offseason much. I'm considering getting season tickets
UNC at 18 with one of the best pitching staffs in baseball is absolutely hilarious.
I expected us to be around 12-15, but we are replacing 7 of the 9 guys in the lineup. We’re just as likely to be a fringe top 25 teams as we are to be a top 5 team until we see what the lineup can do
I agree with you, but remember, the year before, we replaced 6 of 9 players. Look at how we did last year. I think our transfer portal haul this year was better than last year even. I’m just excited for baseball season to get started up. February 13th seems so far away.
Can’t wait for another ECU vs UNC game at DBAP!
It’s going to be awesome! I honestly hope that we keep doing this every season! I wish we could get a series with Coastal as well.
You have to rank as many SEC programs as possible so there is no such thing as a bad loss. That’s the rule!
That’s got to be what it is. I thought we would be top 10, but it’s just pre-season. I honestly was shocked about GT being two. I also thought UCLA was a no brainer at number one.
No Ole Miss is interesting. We were a 1-seed last year and we return our ace and the bulk of our lineup, plus landed one of the top transfer classes. I have is more likely a Top 8 seed than out of the Top 25.
Who is 9? Is 20 Campbell?
9 is FSU and 20 is Clemson