Defending champ Florida tops preseason poll
The preseason USA TODAY baseball coaches poll is out, and the Florida Gators will enter the 2018 season where they ended last year, at the top.
The defending champs hold the No. 1 spot, receiving
26 of 31 first-place votes. Florida has been picked as the team to beat in numerous other preseason rankings, so the news of a high position doesn’t exactly come as a surprise to Gators coach Kevin O’Sullivan.
“I guess it’s no surprise that people are going to think we should be ranked pretty high,” he says. “We’ve got really good starting pitching, and we’ve got a guy who had 19 saves back in our bullpen. We’ve got some other guys who are going to be high draft picks.
“But at the same time I would hope that this group is mature enough to realize that this team is different from last year. I think the pieces that allowed us to be successful are in place, but there are always changes.”
Given baseball’s relatively high turnover rate among top teams with the most talented players often signing professional contracts, repeating as College World Series champion is not easy. It’s been done, and as recently as when South Carolina won in 2010 and
2011.
The Gators certainly look as though they’re built to make another run to Omaha. At the top of the pitching rotation will be Brady Singer. The hard-throwing junior right-hander will likely be among the first selections in the upcoming draft. He posted a 9-5 overall record in 2017 with 126 innings pitched. He recorded two wins in the CWS, including a 12-strikeout performance against LSU in the first game of the championship series. The aforementioned closer is Michael Byrne, who earned three of his school-record 19 saves in Omaha. In total for his sophomore campaign he recorded 93 strikeouts to 15 walks over 75.2 innings with a 1.67 ERA.
The batting order will look a bit different. But senior JJ Schwarz figures to be in the middle of it, as he has been for the past three seasons. O’Sullivan named Schwarz the team captain, the first time he has done so since he took the helm of the Gators program in 2008.
“I just thought it was the right time,” O’Sullivan says. “I want him to go out as our first team captain, and in the years to come maybe that will be something we carry forward.”
Schwarz set a high bar for himself in 2015 when he hit 18 homers and drove in 73 runs, earning several national freshman of the year honors. His numbers last year weren’t quite as lofty, but he did have 56 RBI and 12 homers, including three round-trippers in the NCAA tournament. He also hit .314 in Southeastern Conference play.
“Most people would say that’s a tremendous year,” O’Sullivan says. “I actually think he gets some unfair criticism just because of the freshman year he had. But I’m just glad he’s back. He’s a true big bat in the middle of the lineup, and that’s hard to find.”
Naturally, the Gators are going to have plenty of competition. The coaches voted Oregon State No. 2. The Beavers, who posted a remarkable 56-6 mark a season ago, received four No. 1 votes. Texas Tech claimed the last first-place nod and will open at No. 3. TCU, which will be looking to reach Omaha for a fifth consecutive year, is No. 4, and perennial contender Florida State rounds out the top five.
As usual, the rest of the Gators’ conference is well represented in the top 25 as well. Florida heads a list of seven ranked SEC teams, including four more in the top 10.