Tag: MLB Draft

College Sports Roundup: NBA mock, MLB mock, and West Virginia

Check out today’s top stories with the College Sports Roundup.

Despite being in a bit of a slow period in college sports, there is no shortage of headlines.

The College World Series is currently in full swing with the Wake Forest Demon Deacons awaiting the winner of the LSU-Tennessee rematch. In the other bracket, the Florida Gators will face the winner of Oral Roberts-TCU. Those matchups will take place on Jun. 20.

Check out LSU Wire, Gators Wire, and Vols Wire for more on the College World Series. 

College Sports Wire checks in on the top stories over the weekend, including Bob Huggins abruptly resigning from his post in Morgantown. We also look at who are the top projected picks for the upcoming MLB and NBA drafts.

Sooners take on talented, battle tested ECU team to kickoff NCAA Tournament

Oklahoma will take on the ECU Pirates in their first game of the Charlottesville regional at 6 pm on Friday evening.

Oklahoma has its work cut out. Friday evening, they’ll take the field to play against the best the American Athletic Conference offers in baseball. The East Carolina Pirates are a dangerous and scrappy team fully capable of winning the Charlottesville Regional and moving on to the Super Regionals.

Oklahoma is just a year removed from a magical run to the NCAA championship series in Omaha. Things are very different this time around for the Sooners. Why, you might ask? Well, for starters, they lost so many players from that team.

Josh Callaway of Sooners Illustrated perfectly captures the sheer magnitude of what losses Oklahoma overcame to make the tournament.

On top of those losses, the Sooners had the 16th most difficult schedule in the nation. They are tested and hung in there enough to make the 64-team tournament.

15 of OU’s 31 wins this season came against teams in the NCAA Tournament field. Many detractors will say they don’t belong here, but arguing against their schedule is a difficult one. They enter the tournament winners of 12 of their last 19 games despite their lackluster showing in the Big 12 tournament.

Their opponents on Friday night, the Pirates, should come in locked in after losing a chance at an AAC tournament title and the possibility of hosting a regional when they failed to defeat Tulane. The Green Wave became the worst team ever to make the NCAA tournament after they pulled off a Cinderella run through the conference tournament.

Starting on the mound will be Trey Yesavage, a sophomore righthander who is 6-1 with an ERA of 2.80 and a team-high 98 strikeouts. He is 11th in hte nation in WHIP (0.99) and 17th in strikeouts per nine innings (12.48).

Yesavage is tracking to be a top 50 pick in the 2024 MLB Draft, so getting to him won’t be easy.

Offensively, the Pirates were second in the AAC with a team batting average of .292. Outfielder Carter Cunningham leads the way, batting .324. He has hit eight home runs and has 35 RBIs. Five other ECU players are batting over .300. Josh Moylan is the chief run producer with 19 doubles, two triples, 15 home runs, and a team-high 66 RBI.

Oklahoma and ECU have never met on the diamond. That changes on Friday night. The game will be shown at 6 p.m. CT on Friday at Davenport Field at Disharoon Park in Charlottesville, Virginia. The game will be broadcast on ESPN2/ESPN+.

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Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow Bryant on Twitter @thatmanbryant.

Top 10 Notre Dame baseball players according to ChatGPT

How many of these players do you recognize?

So Notre Dame will not make the College World Series for a second straight season. In fact, it didn’t make the NCAA Tournament at all. So what are Irish fans left to do? Look into the past, of course.

Not long ago, we took the liberty of asking ChatGPT, the AI information bot that supposedly is threatening to put all of us writers out of work, its opinion on Notre Dame athletic history. Specifically, we asked it to rank what it believed were the top 10 Notre Dame football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball players. Now, we’re bringing it back to seek its opinion about Irish baseball players.

Keep in mind that ChatGPT gives this disclaimer:

“As an AI, I don’t have access to real-time information or the ability to provide subjective opinions. However, I can tell you about some notable baseball players who have had successful careers at the University of Notre Dame. Keep in mind that this list is not exhaustive and does not rank them in any particular order.”

There’s also this:

“Please note that this is not an exhaustive or ranked list, and there have been many other talented baseball players who have represented the University of Notre Dame.”

So with all of that said, let’s see who ChatGPT came up with. Please note that some of these have been edited to remove inaccurate or outdated information:

College Prospects headline MLB Pipeline’s top draft prospects

Heading into the last month of the college baseball regular season, who are the top collegiate draft prospects for this July?

Believe it or not, the college baseball regular season is nearing the end of its regular season. Later this month, conference tournaments will begin around the country. The earliest coming next week is with the Patriot League’s conference tournament beginning May 13. The other 27 conferences will hold their tournaments mostly between May 19 and May 28.

Following the conclusion of the conference tournament the NCAA baseball tournament selection show is set for Monday, May 29 at noon on ESPN2 before regionals start that Friday, June 2. Then over the next three weeks, the field will narrow down from 64 teams to just two leading up to the College World Series Finals on Saturday, June 24.

With that all being said, not only is this regular season coming down the stretch and to the make-or-break point for teams across the country. It’s also the make-or-break for hundreds of MLB draft prospects. This year’s MLB draft is set for July 9 through July 11, coinciding with MLB All-Star Week in Seattle.

Recently, MLB Pipeline released their 150 top draft prospect for this year’s draft, and to no surprise, it has a heavy college presence. Out of the 150 prospects, 81 are collegiate prospects including eight of the top 10.

Below, we take a look at who the top collegiate prospects in this year’s MLB Draft are as well as a brief look at their ongoing seasons and their individual skill sets. For college baseball fans, the top two prospects on the list should come as little or no surprise as both players are posting tremendous seasons for one of the country’s top programs.

WATCH: Texas baseball RHP Tanner Witt returns from Tommy John surgery

Tanner Witt is back on the mound for Texas baseball.

Texas baseball’s Tanner Witt is making his long-awaited return to the mound on Monday in Fort Worth against TCU.

Following a freshman All-American campaign in 2021, Witt picked up right where he left off with an excellent start to 2022. The Texas righty was 2-0 with a 1.64 ERA in two starts to the season.

D1baseball ranks Witt as a primer talent in college baseball. He is listed as the No. 14 collegiate prospect in the 2023 MLB Draft class.

Unfortunately for Witt, his sophomore campaign would be cut short after a UCL tear forced him to undergo Tommy John surgery.

Tommy John surgery requires a long and grueling recovery process. Most pitchers need about 12-14 months to return to game action.

David Pierce plans to be precautious in easing Witt back into things. Witt is getting the ball to start Monday’s game with a strict 20-25 pitch count. After that, Texas will increase his pitch count gradually with each start he makes.

Witt’s return comes at a great time for the Longhorns. Texas is fighting to get back into Big 12 title contention and set itself up nicely for the postseason.

Contact/Follow us @LonghornsWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Texas news, notes and opinions.

Top 10 Notre Dame men’s basketball players according to ChatGPT

Let’s see what AI knows about Irish men’s hoops.

For the past few months, I’ve heard quite a bit about the AI information bot known as ChatGPT. It was the subject of an episode during this past season of “South Park”. More importantly, I’ve heard how it’s such a game-changer that writing jobs are done for. We’ll see about that as I’m not too worried about it, but then again, I’m sure newspaper employees said the same thing about the internet in the mid-1990s.

When our editor Nick Shepkowski decided to ask ChatGPT what it thought Notre Dame’s 10 best football players were, I decided to follow suit and ask the same question but for the 10 best men’s basketball players instead. Keep in mind that even the bot knows this list is subjective:

“Please note that there are many other outstanding players who have played for Notre Dame and could also be included on this list.”

So keep that in mind as you go over the following list, which also includes ChatGPT’s description of each player:

High school baseball watchlist: 10 MLB draft prospects to know in 2023

An impressive list of athletes stepping onto the baseball diamond in 2023.

The 2023 high school baseball season showcases an impressive lineup card of top prospects across the U.S., from dynamic middle infielders and outfielders to pitchers touching well above 90 mph on the radar gun.

Scouting the talent on the diamond is one of the more —if not most—complex tasks, though, with the massive amount of players stepping onto high school field oftentimes exposing the charts as mere guessing games.

But for baseball fans who are excited to keep any eye on the top-tier talent this season, these 10 players have been listed as the can’t-miss names to watch in 2023 (courtesy of the MLB.com’s draft experts).

One former Notre Dame baseball player impresses after being drafted

No surprises here

When the San Francisco Giants selected former Notre Dame ace John Michael Bertrand, it should have been viewed as one of the steals of the draft. I was somewhat shocked that he went so late, getting selected in the 10th round. After what JMB did in his short time with the Giants, that assertion was spot on.

When MLB.com looked at the best 2022 professional debuts, Bertrand was named among top performers. The lefty led the Atlantic Coast Conference with a 2.81 ERA and struck out twice as many hitters as he allowed walks. Since his transfer from Furman and through his first season of pro ball, JMB has been fantastic.

The Irish will miss their ace from the past two years but it is great seeing Bertrand having success so early into his professional career.

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Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Mike on Twitter: @MikeFChen

Photo Gallery: Cayden Wallace’s time as a Razorback

Cayden Wallace had a great two-year career in Arkansas in every aspect of the game.

The 2022 Major League Draft began by Arkansas standards in round two, when third baseman [autotag]Cayden Wallace[/autotag] was taken with the 49th overall pick by the Kansas City Royals.

Wallace was one of three players taken in the second round of the MLB Draft, joining RHP [autotag]Peyton Pallette[/autotag] (White Sox) and second baseman [autotag]Robert Moore[/autotag] (Brewers).

Wallace had a successful two seasons in a Razorback uniform. At the plate, Wallace hit for a .298 average, and collected 272 total bases, 149 hits, 30 home runs, and 104 RBI in 127 games.

Wallace started all 67 games for Arkansas in 2022 at third base. He led the team in RBI with 60, and in doubles with 20. He joined Brady Slavens atop the team’s home run leaderboard with 16, and was second in hits with 82, one hit behind the team’s leader, Michael Turner.

In the field, Wallace had a career fielding percentage of .956, committing just 11 errors in two seasons. In 2022, Wallace made 29 putouts while assisting on 110 outs. He, along with fellow draft picks Jalen Battles and Robert Moore, formed one of the best defensive infields in the SEC.

Here’s a look back at the best moments from Wallace’s two seasons at Arkansas:

Baltimore Orioles agree to terms with Trace Bright

Contract details have emerged for RHP Trace Bright and the Baltimore Orioles.

Another key piece of Auburn’s rotation is officially going pro.

Jim Callis of MLB Pipeline has reported that the Baltimore Orioles have agreed to terms with their fifth-round selection, Auburn RHP [autotag]Trace Bright[/autotag].

Bright, who recorded 17 starts for Auburn in 2022, was taken with the 137th overall selection and has signed a contract worth $400,000, which is below slot value, but still considered a pretty hefty payday.

The Montgomery product ends his three-year stint at Auburn with an ERA of 6.01 in 139.1 innings of work. He struck out 149 batters and issued just 63 walks in 40 total appearances, posting a 10-9 record.

In 2022, Bright got the nod in 17 weekend games, and making one additional appearance as a reliever. In 18 appearances, Bright struck out 94 batters while issuing just 38 walks. His longest outing of the season was 6.0 innings, which he accomplished in three straight starts in nonconference weekend action.

His best outing came in the Auburn Regional against Southeastern Louisiana, where he struck out ten batters in Auburn’s 19-7 win over the Lions at Plainsman Park. Bright also got the start against Stanford in the College World Series, where he struck out eight batters in five innings of work in Auburn’s lone win in Omaha.

Bright becomes the fifth draft pick from Auburn to sign with an MLB Organization. Details have yet to emerge for [autotag]Brody Moore[/autotag] (517th overall pick by Cardinals), [autotag]Hayden Mullins[/autotag] (369th pick by Red Sox), and [autotag]Carson Skipper[/autotag] (326th pick by Rockies). It is expected that all three will sign with their respective organizations.

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