10 burning questions about the 2024 college baseball season
Last year, early and often, we did our best to explain how historic 2023 was shaping up to be.
It did not disappoint. Among the standards set:
- LSU’s Paul Skenes and Dylan Crews became the first set of teammates to be selected No. 1 and No. 2 overall in the same MLB Draft.
- Skenes joined Rick Monday as the only players to win the CWS and go No. 1 overall in the same year.
- 10 first-round picks made it to Omaha, including 5 of the top 10 picks.
How do you top history? Typically, you don’t, but the drop-off might not be that noticeable.
As we eagerly await Friday’s first pitch of the 2024 college baseball season, here are 10 burning questions in and around the SEC.
10. Can LSU repeat?
No College World Series champion has repeated since South Carolina in 2010-11. (Those Gamecocks also made it back to the CWS championship series in 2012 — just missing becoming the first team since USC won 5 straight in the early 1970s.)
Since the Gamecocks went back-to-back, only Vanderbilt has won a title and even returned to the championship series the following year.
So, recent history illustrates the difficulty in repeating and suggests LSU will become the 11th consecutive CWS champion to fall short the following season.
But recent history doesn’t have to face Tommy White with runners in scoring position.
This LSU team isn’t as superstar-laden as the 2023 team was, but it might be deeper. Its pitching staff certainly is.
White is a top-10 MLB Draft prospect and best pure power hitter in the game.
And, unlike last year, when there were legitimate and serious questions about whether LSU’s pitching staff would hold up after Skenes’ starts, this year’s group is a team strength.
Thatcher Hurd, Luke Holman and Gage Jump are top-50 draft prospects and comprise 1 of the nation’s top weekend rotations.
Hurd played a key role in LSU’s late-season revival last year. Holman arrives from Alabama, where he emerged as a staff ace, and Jump, who is coming off Tommy John surgery, transferred in from UCLA, where he and Hurd started their college career.
As if that’s not enough, massive freshman Cam Johnson (6-5, 251) is a 2-way talent and former top-50 MLB Draft prospect who can help on the mound or at the plate. There’s a reason Louisiana betting sites like LSU’s chances to to win the CWS. Again.
9. Who is the best player in college baseball?
That’s an excellent question, and one draft scouts can’t answer in unison.
The only consensus about the 2024 MLB Draft class is that it’s not the generational 2023 class.
Florida’s 2-way star Jac Caglianone is the “toolsiest” prospect in college baseball and leads the race to win the SEC’s Player of the Year. He’ll be in the Golden Spikes Award hunt, too. Last season, Caglianone struggled with location on the mound. As fun as it is to wonder how long “Jac-tani” will continue to throw 100-mph heat and blast homers with even higher exit velos, the reality is his professional future is at the plate. Caglianone smashed a modern-day BBCOR-era (2011-) record 33 home runs last season.
White, aka Tommy Tanks, is a right-handed version of Kyle Schwarber — with a far superior 2-strike approach. White already has hit 51 career home runs. He spent his freshman season at NC State, so he’s no threat to rewrite SEC or LSU records for career home runs, but he has a chance to join college baseball’s exclusive 75-career home run club.
Only 2 full-time SEC players have ever gotten there: LSU stars Eddy Furniss (80) and Brad Cresse (78).
White is in the SEC record book, however. He finished with 105 RBIs last season — the 3rd-highest total in conference history and just the 6th time any SEC player has topped 100. (Interestingly, 5 of those players went to LSU.)
Beyond the SEC, Wake Forest 1B Nick Kurtz likely will win the race to be the No. 1 overall pick. Interestingly, he arrived at Wake as a potential 2-way star, too, but quickly focused on hitting. He’s huge (6-5, 235) and powerful (37 career home runs) and has fewer holes in his swing than Caglianone.
8. Is Wake Forest this year’s LSU?
It’s easy to see the similarities.
The Demon Deacons are No. 1 in Baseball America’s preseason poll for the first time — and for good reason.
They’re led by a hitting-pitching duo that, while not quite on the Skenes-Crews level (who is?), is the best in college baseball in 2024. And that’s just part of it.
Wake has 4 of the top 20 draft prospects, according to MLB.com’s way-too-early rankings. (LSU has 4 of the top 50.)
Kurtz leads the way and is a candidate to go No. 1 overall. Shortstop/CF Seaver King is a coveted transfer who checks in at No. 9, followed by pitchers Josh Hartle and Chase Burns — the triple-digit transfer from Tennessee. Burns struggled with command at Tennessee. It’ll be fascinating to see whether he can take advantage of Wake’s state-of-the-art pitching lab to correct his mechanics and add movement to a fastball that can touch 102. If he can, his transfer will be every bit as impactful as Skenes’ move from Air Force to LSU last year.
Wake Forest got to Omaha last year for the first time since 1955. North Carolina betting apps like the Deacons’ chances to be the last team standing in 2024.
7. Which teams can end the SEC’s 4-year CWS streak?
Would it be a surprise if an SEC teams wins the 2024 College World Series?
No. SEC teams have won the past 4 titles (LSU, Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Vanderbilt, respectively) and begin this season with 7 teams ranked in the top 12 of Baseball America’s preseason poll.
It’s still the SEC vs. The World.
But there are capable challengers, too.
Wake Forest is the obvious leader, with more proven production than even the SEC’s best teams.
Oregon State is a trendy pick, led by a potential No. 1 overall pick in 2B Travis Bazzana. The Beavers pushed LSU in last year’s Baton Rouge Regional, where Bazzana homered off the Tigers and was named to the all-tournament team.
6. Who is the freshman to watch?
Florida right-hander Liam Peterson was projected, at times, as a fringe first-rounder last year. He starred at Calvary Christian, the same private power in Clearwater, Florida, that produced Tommy White. Whether it was bonus demands or other factors, Peterson is in Gainesville, the ace of a decorated recruiting class and an eventual Friday night starter. He won’t steal the spotlight in 2024, but he’ll begin the season as the Gators’ Saturday starter (No. 2 starter) and, with a fastball approaching 100 mph, should play a pivotal role in the Gators’ title drive this season and beyond.
In other words … he’s Next.
5. Who is Rob Vaughn?
Vaughn is Alabama’s new head coach, charged with picking up the pieces in the wake of the Brad Bohannon gambling debacle. And Vaughn arrives with plenty of bona fides.
He compiled a 183-117 record in 6 seasons at Maryland.
Vaughn was named Big Ten Coach of the Year in 2022 and 2023 after leading Maryland to regular-season titles both seasons. Last season, the Terps won the Big Ten Tournament for the first time, too.
He’s just 36, which makes him the youngest coach in the SEC.
Vaughn is a former catcher and 30th-round draft pick in 2009 who spent 2 seasons in the Chicago White Sox organization.
4. Who is Kerrick Jackson?
Mizzou’s new head coach is the first Black head coach in SEC baseball history.
Baseball America honored Jackson with its Trailblazer of the Year Award in 2023, but Jackson is more interested in restoring Mizzou baseball than setting precedent. He’s also a former Tiger, having served as a Mizzou assistant from 2011-15. So he’s seen the rigors of SEC baseball.
He’s also experienced success. He helped recruit the Mizzou team that won the 2012 Big 12 title and reach the NCAA Tournament. The Tigers haven’t been back since.
3. Is Vandy done? Or on the rebound?
Tim Corbin has set an impossibly high bar at Vandy, seemingly making annual appearances in the College World Series, winning titles in 2014 and 2019, and finishing 2nd in 2015 and 2021.
It’s rare when the VandyBoys aren’t in the title mix, but that’s been the case each of the past 2 seasons.
Last season was particularly odd as Vandy won the SEC Tournament but then lost in a regional it hosted, marking the 2nd consecutive season the VandyBoys failed to make it to the Super Regionals. The last time that happened was 2005-09.
Baseball America remains bullish on Corbin’s 2024 group, though. They’re ranked No. 7 in the preseason poll — but that’s behind 3 other SEC teams. Tennessee betting sites gave Vandy the 6th-best odds to win the CWS.
It’ll be weird, though, not seeing Enrique Bradfield (first round, Orioles) leading the charge and chasing down fly balls in center field.
2. There’s no way FSU misses the NCAA Tournament again, right?
Last season, FSU missed the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1977. The Seminoles’ 44-year streak is tied with Miami for longest in NCAA baseball history.
(Vanderbilt now owns the nation’s longest active streak, at 17 consecutive years.)
The Seminoles didn’t just miss the NCAA Tournament, though. They finished a program-worst 23-31 in Link Jarrett’s first season back at his alma mater, where he was a 2-time All-American shortstop.
Jarrett didn’t forget how to coach. He led Notre Dame to the 2022 College World Series and is a former ACC Coach of the Year. He’s not the problem. Injuries and a late start building the 2023 roster derailed all postseason aspirations last season.
Jarrett has retooled the roster for 2024, but the Noles still lack the first-round talent that drove so many of late legend Mike Martin’s best teams.
FSU hasn’t had a first-rounder since DJ Stewart was selected No. 25 overall in 2015.
Cam Smith, a draft-eligible sophomore, could change that this season. Smith, who is 6-3/220, hit 12 home runs as a freshman in 2023 and then lit up the prestigious Cape Cod League over the summer. MLB.com ranks him No. 25 among draft prospects.
Most preseason predictions list the Noles in the middle of the pack in the ACC, but Baseball America has projected them to be a No. 3 seed (read: Last Four In) in the NCAA Tournament.
1. Enough chatter … who wins it all?
Florida.
The Gators have too much of everything and, in Caglianone, they have the single-most dominant player in the sport. Nobody is replacing Wyatt Langford, but the Gators added some spark, too. Colby Shelton, who blasted 25 home runs for Alabama last season as a freshman, takes over at shortstop.He’ll play beside 3B Dale Thomas, a feisty Drew Gilbert-type, who will provide the Gators an edge they sometimes lacked last season.
They also have the extra motivation of coming so close to winning it all a year ago.
LSU isn’t going away. Arkansas is supremely talented. Wake Forest also is loaded, but if Peterson is as good as advertised, the Gators’ weekend rotation of Cade Fisher-Peterson-Caglianone will challenge the Deacons and Tigers for best in the country.
Fisher was a freshman All-American last year who pitched in 5 of the Gators’ 6 CWS games. He not only moves into the starting rotation this season, he’ll set the tone on Friday nights.
Fortunately, we won’t have to wait until June to settle the LSU-Florida debate.
After missing each other in the regular season last year, the Gators visit LSU on March 22-24 — the most highly-anticipated series of the college season.