Let’s start with the bad news: North Carolina was my preseason national title pick. They have probably the deepest weekend rotation in the country with Alex White, Adam Warren and Matt Harvey, and they have the best player in the country in Dustin Ackley.
We’ll get to the good news about UNC in a second, but first let’s talk some Coastal Carolina. The Chanticleers (which, thanks to Rock Chalk Talk’s James Quinn is a type of bird) will send their Saturday guy, Nick McCully to the hill against Kansas. McCully, the righty, isn’t the team’s ace, although he does have the teams best numbers and is going to pitch to take advantage of KU’s righty-heavy lineup.
One player to watch for Coastal is Big South player of the year, who hit .389/.492/.750 with 20 homers on the year. Anderson had 43 walks to 50 strikeouts on the year. The Chanticleers aren’t just a one-trick pony however, as they have 6 hitters above .300, 5 regulars over a .400 OBP and are pretty strong defensively up the middle. Coastal will be gearing up for a rematch with UNC, who they lost to in the Super Regionals last season.
If the Hawks get passed Coastal Carolina they match up with a great UNC team. Beating tough teams is something KU is no stranger to this season, as they have won games at Arizona State and Arkansas, not to mention sweeping #1 national seed Texas. They are led by 1B/OF Dustin Ackley, who just missed hitting .400, had over a .500 OBP, stole 12 bases and oh yeah, hit a career high 20 home runs. Another Tar Heel player I love (as an aside, I think it’s weird that I admire UNC’s baseball program, as I have irrational man crushes on Ackley and Alex White and have always liked their players, but I hate hate hate everything else about that place) is Kyle Seager. Seager doesn’t have a ton of power (just 4 HR’s and a .580 slugging percentage) but he has a great eye at the plate, and puts the bat on the ball really well.
As I mentioned, Alex White, Matt Harvey and Adam Warren are a great rotation, and Brian Moran is a shutdown guy at the back of the bullpen. If Kansas can get past Coastal in game 1, I think they will have a shot against the Heels because UNC is so lefty heavy and KU can throw Shaeffer Hall. However, if they can’t beat Coastal in game 1 there is no way they will win the regional.
In the end I still think Carolina will win the national title, so I have to pick them to win the regional. But I do think Kansas will put up a fight and I wouldn’t be shocked to see them win the regional.
Real Baseball Intelligence (RBI), a leading resource in the evaluation of amateur baseball talent and draft coverage, offers its 2009 Baseball Draft Guide. The Guide includes RBI’s Top 400 draft prospects (including Dustin Ackley), scouting reports of the top ten players at each position, a mock draft and more. It is available at withthefirstpick.net/guide
Where’s the live blog fetch? At work so I don’t even get to listen to the game but will be following through game tracker.