The 5 biggest storylines, thus far, in the 2024 SEC baseball season
So, about that LSU-Florida rematch in Omaha …
The 2024 SEC baseball season already has produced numerous surprising storylines, but none more so than the rapid free fall from last year’s national champion Tigers and runners-up Gators.
Their 1-year teardown is every bit as humbling as 2021/22 Mississippi State or 2022/23 Ole Miss — both defending CWS champions finished below .500 the following season. Probably more stunning, too, considering LSU and Florida are led by projected top-10 draft picks in Tommy White and Jac Caglianone, who has surged into the race to go No. 1.
With 5 SEC series remaining until the SEC Tournament, there’s no guarantee LSU even qualifies for Hoover. If the tournament started this weekend, LSU (3-12 SEC) and Auburn (2-12 SEC) would be the 2 teams eliminated from the 12-team field.
LSU’s saving grace might be a favorable finishing schedule; the Tigers still play Mizzou (5-10 SEC), Auburn and Ole Miss (5-10).
What else has caught our attention this season? Let’s take a look at 4 more surprising storylines.
Georgia’s Charlie Condon is the best hitter in America
Condon’s rise is remarkable.
In a sport where true freshmen often make an immediate impact, Condon redshirted.
He used that 2022 season wisely though, adding much-needed strength to his 6-6 frame.
Last season, he led Georgia in all 3 Triple Crown categories — .386/25/67. His 25 home runs ranked 2nd in program history — behind only Gordon Beckham’s 28 in 2008.
Condon, draft-eligible as a redshirt sophomore, entered this season in the top 5 of just about every major mock draft list — and somehow has exceeded those ridiculous expectations.
He is a taller combination of Dylan Crews/Tommy White.
How good has he been?
Condon is flirting with .500 (.482) while leading the country with 24 home runs. He already is the first Dawg in program history to hit 20+ homers in a season twice, and with 49 career HRs, he’s quickly closing in on Beckham’s all-time record of 53.
Not surprisingly, Condon is firmly in the discussion to be the No. 1 overall pick in this summers MLB Draft.
Jac Caglianone really is that guy
Is it surprising that Caglianone followed up his breakthrough sophomore season with an even more impressive junior campaign?
Yes … and no.
No in the sense that he was a projected top-5 pick in this summer’s draft, so results are expected.
Yes in the sense that, the more Florida plays, the more you realize how much worse things would be if the Gators didn’t have their 2-way star. The gap between Cags and his teammates makes many wonder why in the world anybody would challenge him with a game on the line.
Two weekends ago, Mississippi State did just that — and Cags walked it off with a 2-run homer.
He has 20 this season — 2nd in the country behind Condon — and is closing in on Florida records as well.
Jac Caglianone mashed his 20th HR of season Sunday.
Cags is the 5th Gator to hit 20 or more HRs in a season twice.
Cags: 33, 20 (and counting)
Wyatt Langford: 26, 21
Matt LaPorta: 26, 20
Jud Fabian: 24, 20
Brad Wilkerson: 23, 23
Cags is 2nd in career HRs (60).
LaPorta 1st w/ 74. https://t.co/T3DaYYx3SE— Saturday Down South (@SatDownSouth) April 15, 2024
Cags has homered in 6 consecutive games and 8 of the past 9.
More impressive, he has hit a home run in each of his past 4 starts on the mound — where he has been the Gators’ lone bright spot, going 4-0 with a 3.89 ERA.
He is a lock to win the John Olerud Award, given to the best 2-way player in America.
The race to go No. 1 overall could come down to the final regular-season series: Florida at Georgia. Cags vs. Condon.
Texas A&M vaults to No. 1 in America
Jim Schlossnagle is a proven winner who took the Aggies to Omaha in Year 1 before bowing out in the Regionals last season in Year 2.
Nobody slept on the Aggies in the preseason. They were top-10 in most major outlets, but because the SEC is so stacked, they still were behind 5 other teams.
Similarly, SEC coaches picked the Aggies to finish 3rd in the West — but they were not 1 of the 5 teams that received votes to win the SEC Tournament.
Further, only 2 Aggies were selected to the preseason All-SEC first or second team.
Now, those 2 — Braden Montgomery and Jace LaViolette — are the biggest offensive reasons the Aggies have vaulted to No. 1 in the country.
Montgomery is 3rd in the SEC with 19 homers and leads the league with 58 RBIs. Little surprise that LaViolette is 2nd in the SEC with 52 runs scored.
The real secret? A&M’s pitching. The Aggies rank 2nd in the SEC in team ERA (3.14), 3rd in batting average against (.217) and strikeouts (414).
Ryan Prager (7-0) has recovered from Tommy John surgery and blossomed into an ace. The Aggies’ Friday night starter shares the SEC lead with 7 wins and is 3rd in ERA (1.98) and strikeouts (73).
Kentucky is leading the SEC
Kentucky hasn’t won the SEC East since 2006. They’ve never won the modern-era SEC Tournament.
SEC coaches certainly didn’t expect that to change in 2024, either. They picked the Cats to finish 5th in the East — a fairly typical landing over the past decade or so.
Instead, Kentucky has raced to a 14-1 start in league play — the best record in the league.
They’re 30-5 overall, but it took awhile for the polls to acknowledge their hot start. The Cats didn’t crack the top 20 in the major polls until April 1. Now, they enter the week at No. 7 in Baseball America’s Top 25 and are in the top 5 in 3 other polls.
Was it the schedule? The history? Admittedly, the front end has been soft, but we’ll find out soon enough.
The Cats’ next 3 SEC series are vs. No. 3 Tennessee, at No. 19 South Carolina and vs. No. 2 Arkansas.
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LSU has been pitiful. Astonishing drop considering their recruiting. The bright side is they have some promising freshmen.
yup they have a lot of inexperienced talent, especially pitching. I will be surprised if you guys are not right back up there next season.
meanwhile that UK v UT series this weekend looms very large. cant wait.
cant wait
UK v UT is shaping up to be HUGE! Can’t wait to watch that series! The offensive prowess of these two teams is awesome and I look forward to the fireworks.
My Hogs head to SC this weekend. Good mid-week series against a very good hitting TexTech squad, but hope we fair better than we did at ‘Bama.
BTW – congrats Aggies! Kinda glad to shed that #1 ranking and let you guys take a turn.
Another great year for SEC baseball. Love to see UT, UK, A&M and the Hogs all be top 8 seeds. Lots of ground still to cover but any of those could take the CWS.
And I do not discount Vandy, Georgia, Florida, Miss (both) and ‘Bama making a run.
LSU and Auburn are just having a tough go right now, but I doubt that anyone wants to go into their stadium to take 2 of 3 to advance in the tourney.
I am amazed at how bad LSU has played this season. Clutch, this team is not. The pitchers can’t seem to get the crucial out, even with two strikes on the hitters, and our hitters suck with men in scoring position. The fielding has been weak too. We can’t do anything right. I haven’t even watched them play these past few series. We haven’t won a single conference series all season. We really haven’t even been competitive in most of them. When your starting CF is hitting in the low .200’s and is a suspect fielder at best, you know you have problems. We, have problems. There is some talent there, but they can’t seem to put it together for a full game, much less a whole series. Hopefully we find a way to at least make the conference tournament. I’m still holding out some hope that they can get hot and make the NCAA tournament. I admit, that’s a reach.
We need to be 2-1 vs ANM in three weeks at the Box. That weekend is pivotal.
When you’re 3-12 in conference, every weekend is pivotal.
This is also true.
Michael Braswell has been a disappointment with his errors every game. He’s got to lead the league in errors by a large margin. JJ needs to re-evaluate that position.
He leads the nation, I believe.
When a team loses 6 starting position players with one being the #2 draft choice, the best collegiate pitcher to play the game in decades (the #1 draft choice), then top that by losing 2 very respected coaches, thinking that this team would be anywhere nearly as good as last season’s national champions, would be a huge mistake. But with the talent left on the team one would expect LSU would still be a playoff team. Instead, we’re seeing a team that has a good chance of not even making the SEC playoffs. I believe the 2 coaching loses have had the biggest impact on this team.
THIS^^^
Finally, someone with a clue. Been saying all year what a huge hire Wes Johnson was for the Dawgs, and huge loss for dem Tigahs.
If you ain’t got pitching you\re like Florida, wasted offense.
Speaking of wasted offense, didn’t know Condon was draft eligible. So the hapless pups will lose their sole baseball player at season’s end, oh well that’s life
Everyone can’t be elite as you claim the gators are.
On the contrary, when it comes to baseball most SEC teams have a shot at being elite once in a while. The 2 Miss teams did it back to back a few years ago for example. I say most because I believe UGA is SEC but they have no shot in baseball. The only reason anyone mentions Georgia baseball is when talking about Condon. He is gone after this season you know
you do recognize that uga is currently higher thought of than uf, right? uga is forecasted to host a regional, while uf is not. uga and uf have the same conf record, while uga has played the tougher sched. uf has had a tough ooc sched, but what did they prove with that? not much…at least as far as anything truly positive. uga steamrolled through their ooc sched with a 20-1 record.
you mention that uga is a one-trick pony with condon. what do you think the perception is of uf with jac in 2024?
i don’t think that last conf series in may is going to go as you think it will.
You need to figure out the difference between “flash in the pan” and “elite”. But, if you think the gators are élite because of a title from long ago, go ahead.
13 trips to Omaha is a lot more than 6 and if a tittle in 2017 is “long ago” one in 1990 is from prehistoric times. Making the CWS finals 4 times and winning one is a lot better than making it just once.
16 SEC titles is a lot more than 5. And to list all the regionals and superregional hosted and won is too time consuming but the results would be similar.
Florida and LSU are SEC baseball elites, Georgia is a wannabe
Forgot flash in the pan, but Georgia is not even that
Face it, your Basketball program and baseball programs are mid. No matter how many times you try to drag UGA into your argument.
I should add that in the only sport that anyone cares about, the gator program is definitely not mid.
PT so what if UGA finally has a better season than UF, heck they’re also having a better season than LSU, the two SEC baseball powerhouses. That only means that UF and LSU are having one down year. Let’s see you actually host a regional, not just forecast to host one, let’s see if you make it to Omaha( that’s where the CWS is played by the way). But to my point let’s see how you do without next season and beyond without Condon.
UF is loaded with young talent, all we need is for some pitchers to step up, not this year but beyond. Far from a OTP as UGA is. And I don’t have any expectations on how that last series will go, it’s up for grabs.
Tried to tell ya, palley…Condon ain’t transferring next year no matter how fat the NIL offer. Why do you never listen to me, bruh?
You’re right he aint transferring, he’s turning pro. Same sheet as far as your your program is concerned
You’re a fart smellow palley, I mean smart fellow…see if you can look at current results of LSU and UGa baseball this year as compared to last year, and then see if you can figure out who UGa hired as baseball HBC and who LSU lost off of their coaching staff last year. I think we’ll be fine with or without Condon next year but one thing is for sure…another sEC team will not lure Charlie away next year as you said…
I guess my slant is different. I went from 1978 as a scholarship recruit for coach Norm DeBriyn @ Arkansas (with the Phillies and Cardinals in play) to a joe average college student after shattering my wrist and ruining my breaking pitches. I always want my Hogs to win. But I love watching the Tim Elko’s and the Condon’s and the Jac Caglianone’s in this league. The SEC is the best baseball league in America.
Win or lose, SEC baseball is crazy competitive and I pull for you guys every weekend that we don’t play you!