2023 College Baseball Preview
A sport that asks, "what if we gave very strong young men aluminum bats?"
First of all, I’d like to welcome everyone who just subscribed! I’m really excited to get this going in a new direction. Most posts won’t be this text-heavy, but I want to establish a benchmark for each of the teams I’m covering before their respective seasons start.
College baseball is about much more than stimulating our monkey brains with the satisfyingly sharp *PINGs* of DeMarinis or the long arcs of home runs that smack into the side of campus administrative buildings.
It's about the tension in a crowd when a pitcher misses with 5 straight balls, because we all know he could be very close to a meltdown. It's about the routine ground ball the shortstop boots right before making one of the slickest plays you’ve ever seen. And, yes, it's about a slugger going 0-for-3 with 3 swinging strikeouts and then getting a fat fastball to hit from a terribly flawed relief pitcher.
Once you accept the inherent ugliness, it's pretty fun to watch! These guys play with visible passion in every single game, and many of them know this is as far as they’re going to go with their talents. There's something cool and very high-stakes about it.
With the season coming up in just two short weeks (isn't that amazing!), it's time to preview the college teams this blog is dedicated to covering, other than Northwestern.
College baseball in Chicago is not a priority for basically anyone but me and a handful of other sickos. The entire season is played in cold, windy, wet weather. But sometimes, it is just sunny and cold. Those are the days you've got to cherish.
All of the teams I'm about to discuss deal with this weather, meaning they all start their seasons well below the Mason-Dixon line, where baseball can be played year-round. This is something I took for granted when I grew up in Texas and considered the Oscars, typically held in late February or early March, the harbinger of warm weather. I was completely unprepared for my first “spring” in college. Lordy.
At any rate, here are 6 teams you're going to be hearing about most often over the next few months:
Note: there is no info on transfers in here, because that would be a ton of work to track down, and I am not About It like that. If any of them perform well, I will talk about them!
Eastern Illinois Panthers – Conference: Ohio Valley | 2022 record: 33-20, 12-12, lost in OVC Tournament
2023 outlook: By far the top performing team of this group down in Charleston, Ill., EIU returns its best player, Ryan "Shohei Ohtani Lite" Ignoffo. Primarily a first baseman and outfielder, he led the Panthers with a .395 batting average last year and has even pitched in 16 games over 3 seasons. In the New England College League last summer, he just kept on boppin' at .377 with a 1.171 OPS. The man is a machine, and with 3 of the other top 5 hitters coming back from last year, this lineup will be nasty.
Pitching-wise it's a similar story, but the Panths do lose some experience at the top of their rotation. I'm not one of these people who thinks that losing experience is always a bad thing. I just don't happen to know how well EIU's younger pitchers have been developing, and am too lazy to look into it, so it's hard to say. It's certainly a less solidified unit than the lineup, which we know will mash.
Verdict: This team should be good! Remember that sentence because I may not say it again in this post.
First game: Feb. 17 – 3 p.m. CT at Florida A&M, Tallahassee, Fla.
Illinois State Redbirds – Conference: Missouri Valley | 2022 record: 20-31, 7-14, lost in MVC Tournament
2023 outlook: The Redbirds are looking to rebound from a tough 2022. Entirely unhelpful to that pursuit, their best player/hitter from that team, Ryan Cermak, was drafted last summer (2nd round, Rays). Pretty impressive! But a bummer when the rest of the lineup lacks thump, outside of a few above average hitters. An average 2022 OPS of .708 (below average) from everyone not named Cermak does not inspire confidence, to me.
The pitching is in a similar predicament, and lost one of its top starters to graduation. Jared Hart is a name to watch here. He’s a senior lefty reliever from Vista Ridge High School outside Austin (cool!) who improved drastically in 2022, hovers around 9 strikeouts per 9 innings and has very nice K/walk numbers.
Verdict: When the most exciting part of your pitching arsenal is a middle reliever, you may be in for another tough year. Or not! You never know.
First game: Feb. 17 – 4 p.m. CT at Austin Peay, Clarksville, Tenn.
Northern Illinois Huskies – Conference: Mid-American | 2022 record: 14-40, 13-25
2023 outlook: Woof! 2022 was a year to forget in DeKalb, Ill. While the team site deftly spins the 2022 Huskies playing in “16 games decided by 3 runs or fewer” as having a “flair for the dramatic,” these guys, plainly, lost a lot of games. Their best hitter, Carlos Aranda, has since transferred to Southeast Missouri State (a pretty competitive team). Some of their other top hitters return, though.
The pitching was a disaster, full stop, last year. Nobody had an ERA below 5, for a team ERA of 8.09. That is yucky! There is not much else to say about that.
Verdict: You never know, but in this case, I think you do.
First game: Feb. 17 – 3 p.m. CT at Oral Roberts, Tulsa, Okla.
Illinois-Chicago (UIC) Flames – Conference: Horizon League | 2022 record: 22-25, 14-11, lost in Horizon Tournament
2023 outlook: UIC is always a pretty fun team to watch, and has the distinction of playing in one of the most beautiful parks out there, Curtis Granderson Stadium. Games are FREE! Grab a $6 dinner at Ghareeb Nawaz and walk around the corner for this view. It’s a strong contender for the best night on a budget in Chicago.
Anyway, on the field, I’m bullish on the Flames this year. Breck Nowik, who might have the most 21st century baseball name I’ve ever seen, led them with a .335 clip last year in his first full college season. They played decently in conference. The pitching is littered with question marks, but what college pitching staff isn’t?
Verdict: You can dream on something here. Why not?
First game: Feb. 17 – 12 p.m. CT at St. Mary’s, Moraga, Calif.
Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) Panthers Conference: Horizon League | 2022 record: 20-30, 9-18
2023 outlook: I hesitated to add a team from a bona fide city other than Chicago to this blog’s coverage radius, but UWM is the only top level college team in the entire state of Wisconsin. That’s noteworthy in my book.
I like some parts of this team, but they’re going to need a crop of average veteran hitters to creep closer towards above average to make a leap. Watch out for sophomore first baseman Justin Hausser who hit .357 in 30 games last year and made the conference all freshman-team.
Outside of lefty ace AJ Blubaugh, you— oh, the Astros drafted him? Nice choice guys! Ok, well you already know what I’m going to say about the pitching then. I must admit that it’s cool that the Panthers play on the same field as the M*lkm*n in Franklin, Wis.
Verdict: Bats can only carry you so far.
First game: Feb. 17 – 4 p.m. at North Alabama, Florence, Ala.
Valparaiso Beacons Conference: Missouri Valley | 2022 record: 16-31, 5-15
2023 outlook: Only one way to go from here, really. Mercifully, star second baseman Nolan Tucker returns after hitting what must have been the loneliest .365 season of all time. Hang in there, buddy. It’s a young team though, not a lot of seniors here. So…that’s good?
I truly see nothing positive to report with regards to this side’s pitching. That’s too bad.
Verdict: Indiana Dunes National Park, 20 minutes north of campus, is a 4-season destination.
First game: Feb. 17 – 3 p.m. CT vs. Kansas, Corpus Christi, Tex. (Interesting!)
And there you have it! I’ll be back next week with a full preview of the Northwestern Wildcats, a team near and dear to my heart that enters 2023 under the direction of its 3rd coach in 3 seasons and has not finished above .500 since the spring of 2000, when Bill Clinton was President.