Dec. 27, 2007

By Douglas Kroll

CSTV.com

	DOUG KROLL Doug Kroll is an editor for CSTV.com, focusing on baseball. E-mail here!

        ---   Column Archive   --- BASEBALL 1/17: So Cool In SoCal 1/10: Starting With Not Such A Clean Slate 1/3: Closing the Gap 12/27: For Starters 12/20: Second Is Just Fine 12/13: Not Short On Talent 12/06: Stars In The Outfield 11/29: Staying Hot On The Hot Corner 11/23: First Thing Is First 11/16: Best Backstops 11/08: Engineering Perfection 11/01: Up The Coast 10/25: Sun Devils Best In Fall 10/18: Taking The Plunge 10/11: Tourney Time 10/4: Red Raider Savior 9/27: Not Fooling Around 9/20: Continuing To Right The Ship 9/13: Flying Back With The Ducks? 9/6: Same Faces, New Places 8/30: More And More Like MLB 8/23: Laying Down A Full House 8/16: No Hitch At Deadline 8/9: College Homerun Kings 8/2: Bringing The Tradition Back 7/23: Cape Cod Update - All-Star Edition 7/19: Bringing The Quack Back 7/17: Summer League Update - Week 5 7/6: A Ride On A Carousel 7/2: Summer League Update - Week 3 6/28: Omaha In Review 6/26: Summer League Update - Week 2 6/25: Second Time As Good As First 6/21: Back In The Saddle 6/20: Series On The Line 6/19: Expect the Unexpected 6/19: Planting Seeds...Again 6/18: Cape Cod Summer League Update 6/18: Cards On Their Heels 6/17: Pac-10 Showdown 6/17: Is It April Or June? 6/16: Seeds of Success 6/16: Sunday, Bloody Sunday 6/15: Final Chapter For Price 6/13: Omaha in the Cards 6/7: Big Blue Oaks 6/7: The Right Price 5/31: Go Johnnies Go 5/17: Not So Mid Anymore 5/10: In And Out 5/6: On the Road With ECU: Day Three 5/5: On the Road With ECU: Day Two 5/3: On the Road With ECU: Day One 5/3: Staying True to the Family 4/26: Having Fun With Two 4/19: Pitching Is Name Of The Game 4/12: Going Coastal 4/5: Right On Key 4/3: April Schedule Planner 3/29: Northern Exposure 3/22: East Carolina Set To Make Waves 3/8: Shedding The Blues 3/1: March Baseball Schedule Planner 2/25: Seawolves Swept in Carolina 2/24: A Loss Is, Well, A Loss 2/23: On the Road With The Brook 2/15: Florida Looks To Chomp Out Of Rut 2/9: Winthrop Winning The Tough Way 1/29: February Baseball Schedule Planner 1/28: Same Game, New Team, No Year Off 1/21: The Real All-Americans 1/19: Just One Of Those Weeks FOOTBALL 8/24: When Is A Win, A Win? 8/21: Topping Harlon's Hill Twice 8/2: Mid-American Conference Preview 8/2: Thunder and Lightning in Kalamazoo 8/2: Showing Flashes 12/16: Sweet Home Alabama 12/15: Humble Woodhead Wins Harlon Hill 12/14: Familiar Foes, Only On The Biggest Stage 12/7: Blooming in Bloomsberg 11/30: Grand Valley To Face One And Only Rival 11/15: Something New, For Newberry 11/1: Chadron's On The Map 10/28: What Can Brown Do For U-Conn 10/23: Asserting Identity 10/11: Leaf Fits Right in at West Texas 10/4: Pioneers Post Impressive Feats 9/27: Bible Belt Clash 9/20: Regaining Respect at Ashland 9/13: It's the GLFC, Not the GLIAC 9/7: Four Horse Race At Valdosta State BASKETBALL 10/23: Jayhawks, Longhorns Top Big 12 10/19: Memphis The Class Of C-USA 1/8: In The Zone, Hofstra Goes To It 12/28: Sweet Stroke For Stokes 12/05: Hofstra Wins Battle Of Long Island 11/30: Despite Loss, Great Day For Sea Wolves 10/17: CSTV's Top Five Games 10/16: Shiny Pearl in Knoxville 10/13: FSU's Thornton Still Blossoming W. VOLLEYBALL 8/23: Cardinal Comeback 8/21: Pavan Paves Her Way 8/21: Rock Stars In Diguise 8/20: Nebraska's Staying On Top M. WATER POLO 9/5: West Is The Best 9/3: 2007 Men's Water Polo Preview

If you thought starting pitching was thin at times in the collegiate game in years past, wait until 2008 gets underway.

With the uniform start date of Feb. 22 in place, and coaches still playing the same number of games, do the math. Teams will play more mid-week games than ever, meaning not only will a head coach need a fourth starter, but a fifth on a regular basis as well.

Luckily for the college baseball community, there are plenty of top returning starting pitchers to choose from, after so many underclassmen had excellent 2007 seasons.

As some teams have found out the hard way, it's not just about the Friday night starter. It takes more than being one-deep to get to Omaha. But that certainly doesn't mean that head coaches across the country wouldn't jump at the opportunity to have any of these guys leading their staffs this season.

1. Jacob Thompson, Virginia: It feels weird to say this, but it's true: Jacob Thompson flew under the radar for parts of the 2007 season. Thanks in large part to the presence of Sean Doolittle a season ago, Thompson perhaps had one of the best seasons of anyone in the nation, yet ask anyone at the beginning of last season, and it would have been Doolittle getting most of all the high praise. Thompson's 1.50 ERA was good for fifth in the nation, which also included two complete-game shutouts. The 6-foot-6 junior posted an unblemished 11-0 record in 16 starts (17 appearances), and while he wasn't completely overpowering (101 strikeouts in 114 innings), the Danville, Va., native still held opposing hitters to just a .198 average. If one thing's for sure at the start of the 2008 season, Thompson's going to get a whole lot of love thanks to that sub-2.00 ERA and the fact he's 21-4 in his two seasons in Charlottesville.

2. Preston Guilmet, Arizona: Some have the Arizona Wildcats as a favorite to make it to Omaha. Why would they? In large part because of junior Preston Guilmet. A right-handed workhorse, Guilmet finished the 2007 season 12-2 with a 1.87 ERA. His 135 innings pitched were 25 percent of the team's total, and good for fifth in the nation along with five complete games (two shutouts). The 6-foot-2 California native also finished fourth with 146 strikeouts (behind the impressive company of Price, Matusz and Fullerton's Wes Roemer), to earn all sorts of accolades and help lead Andy Lopez's squad into the postseason. Guilmet will team with Mike Colla and David Coulon to form the top three in the Wildcats rotation.

3. Brian Matusz, San Diego: When looking at the strikeout leaders for the 2007 season, it was David Price in the stratosphere, and then everyone else a few levels below. Vanderbilt's ace finished the year with 194 K's, and who was in second? San Diego's ace, Brian Matusz. His sophomore season yielded some very impressive numbers, leading the Toreros to a first-ever national seed in the NCAA tournament. The lefty led USD with a 10-win season, going 10-3 with a 2.85 ERA, and when you add in his strikeout total of 163 in 123 innings pitched, he whiffed 1.3 batters per inning. Not bad. With fellow starters Josh Romanski and Matt Couch back with Matusz, Rich Hill's bunch likely goes into this season with the best starting rotation in the country. It's definitely a good year to have three tested pitchers take the bump each week.

4. Scott Gorgen, UC Irvine: One of the best stories of the 2007 season was the inspired play of the UC Irvine Anteaters, who made it all the way to Omaha for the first time in school history and quickly became a crowd favorite about the locals in Omaha. He's only 5-foot-10, 190 pounds, but the right-hander packs a punch. Gorgen was one of the main parts to the Anteaters' pitching staff in '07, finishing with 13 wins (tied for second in the country), a 2.83 ERA and six complete games including three shutouts. The junior continued pitching well into the summer on the biggest stages of the college game. Gorgen threw out of the bullpen for the Bourne Braves, going 2-1 with a 2.25 ERA in 24 innings, and also pitched in two games for Team USA. With some pieces missing from UC Irvine's magical run, not to mention losing their head coach Dave Serrano during the offseason to archrival Fullerton, a lot will be riding on the shoulders of Gorgen if they want to show the nation they weren't a fluke.

5. Ryan Berry, Rice: Ryan Berry was only a freshman last year when he helped lead Rice back to their familiar stomping grounds in Omaha. He tied staff ace Joe Savery (and a first-round pick in the spring) for the team lead in wins with 11 and had an ERA under three until his last couple of starts in the postseason. The 6-foot-1 right-hander will join Matt Langwell and Chris Kelley to form a formidable rotation for Wayne Graham's bunch. Berry bounced back this summer with an impressive stint with Team USA. He went 2-1 in six starts (seven games) with a 1.88 ERA to set himself up for what should be an even more impressive sophomore campaign.

On The Radar: Lance Lynn, Mississippi; Bobby Gagg, Coastal Carolina; Josh Satow, Arizona State; Mitch Harris, Navy; Zack Pitts, Louisville; Mike Stutes, Oregon State; Aaron Crow, Missouri; Mike Leake, Arizona State.