[CTcard]

The apologists for Florida/believers in SEC baseball supremacy baffle me.

Six weeks ago, I wrote a baseball writer and asked if Stanford didn't have the best starting rotation in college baseball.
No, he said, it definitely was Florida.  Two first round picks in this year's graduating class and one, Dyson, in next years.
Since then, Dyson has lost his starting job, convincingly.  And his replacement got hammered this weekend.

The Gators have lost seven of their last 14 games, one at home to #136 Mercer, and  they just got swept by unranked Mississippi State.  But that game, like every game Florida loses in conference, is merely considered added confirmation that the SEC is overpowering--even the bottom half of the conference teams can beat Florida, still clearly the nation's best team!!

And note that the D1 coaches, until Stanford's 1-2 series at Oregon State, gave 12 of 31 first place votes to Stanford.  And four coaches ranked Florida third while none ranked Stanford below #2.  But it appears few people suspect thaat college baseball coaches might be a good sources of authority on who are the nation's best college baseball teams.

Florida has an excellent team, to be sure.  But without question the number one?  They lost the series because they were missing the catcher and #1 starting pitcher, so that explains it?  Stanford, apparently, has had the benefit of a complete roster this year?

Aggh.

Agree with you on the overall idea, but maybe not on all the details. 

Florida might indeed be the best team in college baseball - I have watched them a bit but not enough to really know. 
I think their run of weekend series wins is a strong point in their favor, and their lineup is likely to be the highest drafted in the country - or close to it. 

But, relatively speaking they have lost a lot of games (15 losses vs 8 for Stanford and OSU). 
That's a combination of dropping games (usually single games) to SEC foes [but the SEC is sooooo good] and a handful of weekday games [but they were just giving some of the bench some time, at least pitching]. 

A few buts ... 

I wouldn't put all that much extra weight on the coaches poll. First of all, the coaches are busy preparing their teams to spend a lot of time watching the whole country. Secondly, they are notorious for handing off the job of filling out their ballot to some minion in the sports information office. 

On injuries, the issue isn't whether there should be some kind of sympathy for performing without your expected starters, but rather who was missing during your losses who is expected back presently. So, for Florida isn't expecting their #1 pitcher or catcher to be out long. For Stanford, Kinamon isn't going to be playing so his absence should not be factored in any way, Wulff is coming back so his could be, Handley I hope so.

[CTcard]

The apologists for Florida/believers in SEC baseball supremacy baffle me.

Six weeks ago, I wrote a baseball writer and asked if Stanford didn't have the best starting rotation in college baseball.
No, he said, it definitely was Florida.  Two first round picks in this year's graduating class and one, Dyson, in next years.
Since then, Dyson has lost his starting job, convincingly.  And his replacement got hammered this weekend.

The Gators have lost seven of their last 14 games, one at home to #136 Mercer, and  they just got swept by unranked Mississippi State.  But that game, like every game Florida loses in conference, is merely considered added confirmation that the SEC is overpowering--even the bottom half of the conference teams can beat Florida, still clearly the nation's best team!!

And note that the D1 coaches, until Stanford's 1-2 series at Oregon State, gave 12 of 31 first place votes to Stanford.  And four coaches ranked Florida third while none ranked Stanford below #2.  But it appears few people suspect thaat college baseball coaches might be a good sources of authority on who are the nation's best college baseball teams.

Florida has an excellent team, to be sure.  But without question the number one?  They lost the series because they were missing the catcher and #1 starting pitcher, so that explains it?  Stanford, apparently, has had the benefit of a complete roster this year?

Aggh.

Agree with you on the overall idea, but maybe not on all the details. 

Florida might indeed be the best team in college baseball - I have watched them a bit but not enough to really know. 
I think their run of weekend series wins is a strong point in their favor, and their lineup is likely to be the highest drafted in the country - or close to it. 

But, relatively speaking they have lost a lot of games (15 losses vs 8 for Stanford and OSU). 
That's a combination of dropping games (usually single games) to SEC foes [but the SEC is sooooo good] and a handful of weekday games [but they were just giving some of the bench some time, at least pitching]. 

A few buts ... 

I wouldn't put all that much extra weight on the coaches poll. First of all, the coaches are busy preparing their teams to spend a lot of time watching the whole country. Secondly, they are notorious for handing off the job of filling out their ballot to some minion in the sports information office. 

On injuries, the issue isn't whether there should be some kind of sympathy for performing without your expected starters, but rather who was missing during your losses who is expected back presently. So, for Florida isn't expecting their #1 pitcher or catcher to be out long. For Stanford, Kinamon isn't going to be playing so his absence should not be factored in any way, Wulff is coming back so his could be, Handley I hope so.