Aaron Fitt: Hello everyone, and welcome to the first College Monday chat of the season. Seems like Opening Day was a big success around the nation — a lot of people seem very glad that there's finally a uniform start date, even though I think we'd all like the season to be a week or two longer so the 56-game schedule is less compacted. Let's get to the questions.

Aaron Fitt: No question Georgia would be ranked — as it is, they're in a group not far outside the top 25, even after losing a home series. That's a good, experienced Georgia club that we thought long and hard about ranking in the preseason, and I think they're going to be very good this year. But naturally, we can't move an unranked team into the top 25 after it loses a series at home, even if it was a competitive series against the No. 2 team.

Aaron Fitt: That series played out exactly as I thought it would — low-scoring, very well pitched on both sides, very competitive, down-to-the-wire games. I think both teams affirmed what we already knew: that they are very good pitching clubs who should be solid defensively, but both might have to scrap to score runs at times. I think Rice's offense will be much better as the season goes along, but I don't think the Owls will be as good offensively as they were last year. Long Beach, meanwhile, embraces that Dirtbag, scrapper mentality anyway, and no one expected LBSU to rely on the long ball. But good pitching in a spacious ballpark made two solid offensive clubs look shaky this weekend, and I think both offenses will be better.

Aaron Fitt: Pepperdine is good — I feel like I've dubbed them a "sleeper" in every chat I've done so far this young year. Brett Hunter was very good in the first game, repeatedly touching 97 mph and showing solid command, but they really need Nate Newman to be much better than he was on Saturday. He's got a great arm, though, and I think he'll settle in. I'm bullish on Scott Alexander on Sundays — that guy's got a big-time power arm from the left side, and he's a darkhorse early candidate for national freshman of the year. Also I think Donald Brown, Eric Thames and Chase d'Arnaud will form a very imposing middle of the lineup.

Aaron Fitt: Well clearly if I though that, we would have ranked the Rebels No. 1. Very impressive weekend, though, for a club we already were really high on, and that's why we moved Ole Miss ahead of UCLA. But Arizona's weekend was more impressive — going on the road and winning a series against a better team, though Minnesota is solid, just not as good as Georgia. And Arizona was already ranked higher, so moving the Wildcats into the top spot was an easy choice.

Aaron Fitt: Great outings from Crow and Gibson are very encouraging, and so was the performance of the underrated offense. Sophomore infielder Greg Folgia is a breakout candidate this year, and Jacob Priday is as steady as a college hitter gets. I really like that team all the way around, and I can't wait to see those guys in San Diego this weekend.

Aaron Fitt: Pedro had an arm injury — I've read one report that said it's a wrist issue, although all the information has been a little hazy. He will be assessed this week, so we should know more in the next day or two. Obviously, this has the potential to be catastrophic for Vandy if it's serious, but indications are that it is not.

Aaron Fitt: I responded to the wrong question a moment ago — my apologies. Early in the season, I've got some chatting rust to shake off. It's hard when you can't get outside...

Aaron Fitt: So I answered the Alvarez question above, but as for Arizona's defense, I wouldn't worry about that. The Wildcats have athletes and quality defenders all over the field, though they should be stronger up the middle than on the corners. There might not be a better catcher in the nation than Dwight Childs, and TJ Steele's got great range in center field.

Aaron Fitt: There is no question the Big East is a conference on the rise, and I think it will be strong again this year. I'm very high on St. John's and Louisville and think both are borderline top 25 teams, and Notre Dame should have enough pitching to get back to a regional despite a bad opening weekend, losing games to Liberty and Albany as well as beating Iowa. Rutgers, Cincinnati and South Florida are all very solid clubs that will compete for regional bids, and I'm positive that the Big East will get three berths again this year. At some point soon (and who knows, maybe even this year), I think the Big East could get four spots, because there are more than four regional-caliber teams in that league, in my mind.

Aaron Fitt: The last time I answered this question in a chat, I said San Diego. After seeing the Toreros get manhandled by San Diego State this weekend, I'm going to slowly back away from that proclamation—for now anyway. Arizona and Missouri are the other two teams in this discussion for me, and based solely on the opening weekend you'd have to give Missouri an edge. But to form any sweeping opinions based on three games in February would be folly.

Aaron Fitt: I think Beckham does project to hit for average power, which isn't bad at all — we're talking about major league average here. A guy with average power could hit 15-20 homers in the big leagues, and I'll take that guy on my college team any day. As for Wallace, he doesn't have as much raw power as Smoak and Alvarez, though I personally think he's actually similar to Hosmer as a hitter. Wallace is not far removed at all from the Smoak group for me, but Smoak is a switch-hitter with 70 power, a more prototypical frame and is is a Gold Glove caliber defender at first base. Give him the edge.

Aaron Fitt: We discussed this at some length in the podcast today, so check that out if you're interested. ASU definitely had the best weekend of any team in the nation in my mind, and we thought hard about running them up to No. 3, but after much debate we decided that North Carolina and Missouri both went 3-0 on the road, and we liked those teams better in the preseason, so we can't jump ASU over them after they went 3-0 on the road. Obviously their competition wasn't the same competition that Arizona State faced, but the Sun Devils were also in their home park (a small but still significant factor in his discussion), and we still haven't seen whether they've got the pitching depth to handle the compacted schedule, considering they've only played three games. That question mark was one reason we ranked them lower than UNC and Missouri in the preseason, and that question mark has not gone away. It would be premature to crown anyone national champions after three games in February.

Aaron Fitt: They sure played like a top-five team this weekend, but I think the five teams ahead of them in the rankings are all better positioned to win in the postseason. Just my opinion, and it's subject to change as the season develops, as is everyone's opinion.

Aaron Fitt: He did indeed have an emergency appendectomy, as you said. I'm no doctor, but these kinds of injuries aren't usually season-ending. Wichita State will start redshirt freshman Tim Kelley in Capra's place, and I wouldn't be shocked to see a guy like Cameron Maldonado get a look at some point if Capra is sidelined longer. Maldonado's a freshman from Colorado with a good-three pitch mix and plenty of upside. Justin Kemp, another freshman with a great arm, could also benefit.

Aaron Fitt: You're exactly right. Pitching questions are why we did not rank the Gamecocks in the top 10 in the preseason, and they certainly didn't address those concerns this weekend. I was at the second game Saturday (see Three Strikes on the college blog for more on that), and Blake Cooper was just OK — 87-89, touching 90, curveball int he 74-77 mph range. All of their guys are basically like that — decent stuff, but just not overpowering, which means they have to locate and must get good defense behind them. Neither of those things happened in that nightcap.

Aaron Fitt: I don't want to start revising these picks every week, but there are a few teams that I feel very confident will be strong Omaha contenders: Arizona, Mississippi, UCLA, Missouri and Michigan (if Zach Putnam gets healthy — he didn't pitch this weekend because of shoulder tenderness). If I had to pick three more teams today, I would take North Carolina, Long Beach State and Vandy (even though their pitching worries me a little...)

Aaron Fitt: It's one of those weird things — if a couple bounces go UCLA's way and they win that 12 inning game instead of losing it, they remain No. 1. But they were at home against an Oklahoma team that is solid but not spectacular — the No. 1 team in the nation should sweep Oklahoma at home (like Mississippi did against a Minnesota team that is comparable in talent, in my mind).

Aaron Fitt: Wow, fun question. I'll give it a crack, based only on highest ceilings, not on likelihood to reach that ceiling. Hitters: Alvarez, Smoak, Jordan Danks, Victor Sanchez at San Diego, and let's say Grant Green at Southern California (apologies to Dennis Raben, Brandon Crawford and Jared Mitchell). Pitchers: Crow, Matusz, Strasburg, Matt Harvey, Kyle Gibson, Alex White. I know that's six, but I can't decide who to bump, and it's my chat, so you'll have to take six.

Aaron Fitt: Scott Gorgen first, then Andrew Liebel from Long Beach, then Jeff Kaplan from Fullerton. Keep an eye on Derrick Saito from Cal Poly as a fast-climber now that he's in the rotation.

Aaron Fitt: I was very impressed with Fullerton going on the road and winning a tough series at TCU. That's a big win for them, and should help them build more confidence heading into another big road series at Stanford. That should be a very interesting series...

Aaron Fitt: You know, San Diego State is very dangerous — Troy Hanzawa appears to have gotten much better, Nick Romero is a star in the middle of the lineup, Garett Green is a very good player at second base, and Cory Vaughn looks like a great addition. That club can hit, but still, San Diego has to be worried about giving up that many runs, considering pitching is supposed to be USD's calling card. I look forward to getting a closer look at both of these teams next weekend.

Aaron Fitt: Fields had two hits Friday night, and it seems like Georgia's coaches weren't just hyping up his ability with the bat — what a neat story. Jarvis did pitch an inning Sunday — he was ruled eligible for now at least, though Pat Murphy did say the situation still has not been completely resolved. He declined to give much more information than that — weird situation.

Aaron Fitt: I think that's a fascinating series, and the winner of it could very well find itself ranked (unless they split), because both teams were in strong consideration for our preseason top 25, and both had strong opening weekends. I'm high on Auburn's pitching staff, but that series is going to be a major test for those guys, because FSU can score runs on anybody, not just Duquesne. I'm betting on a split.

Aaron Fitt: Great weekend for the Broncos, and that win against Kansas State especially stands out, because I like that K-State club. Evan Leblanc had a huge weekend with the bat, which is very encouraging, and Medica was very good also, but most importantly, Santa Clara got three strong outings from its weekend starters. I could see Santa Clara finishing third in the WCC and getting a regional bid.

Aaron Fitt: Honestly, I think it's a significant concern. Yeah, Arizona State had a powerful offense last year, but the forgotten ingredient to their success was a defense that led the nation in fielding percentage. Andrew Romine and Eric Sogard were a big part of that — those guys might have been the nation's slickest double-play combo. Their replacements—Jake Elmore, Riccio Torrez and Marcel Champagnie—made four errors this weekend, and Wallace and Davis also made errors on the corners. Guys like Satow and Leake aren't really strikeout pitchers and need their infield defense to be solid behind them to be truly successful, so keep an eye on this storyline.

Aaron Fitt: ECU really did what it needed to do — went on the road and won a game against a ranked team, and nearly won the whole series. We hated dropping the Pirates out of the rankings, but when you're ranked No. 24, there's just little margin for error. There were other teams who we debated ranking in the preseason that had better weekends than the Pirates, and the bottom line is ECU did lose a weekend series.

Aaron Fitt: Dominating weekend for Kentucky, and we considered them for the top 25 this week, but other teams that played better competition got the nod this week. I do think Kentucky will be a top 25 team at some point this season, but their soft-ish early-season schedule makes it tough for them to break into the rankings when other teams are winning series against very good teams like TCU and San Diego.

Aaron Fitt: I think right now he's probably the favorite to go No. 1 overall, though we ranked him third in the sophomore class in our preseason fab 50 list. I haven't gotten any reports yet about his velo on Friday, but I do know he touched 100 in the fall. He's legit.

Aaron Fitt: I believe the Titans were team No. 26 in the preseason internally, so winning a road series against a good TCU club was enough to get them into the rankings. We do have an internal list of 25 or so other teams that we're keeping an eye on for the top 25, though we have them in tiers more than a strict ranking. Every once in a while, a team like San Diego State this weekend comes from nowhere and leapfrogs everybody else who's waiting in the wings with a hugely impressive weekend. To score 37 runs on what might be the best pitching staff in the nation was very loud.

Aaron Fitt: Just keep winning. I was impressed with Tulane's dominating weekend against a solid UIC club, but we'll know a lot more about Tulane in two weeks, after they've played three games against UC Irvine and single games against Pepperdine, Minnesota, Lousiana-Lafayette, TCU and New Orleans. That potential Shooter Hunt-Brett Hunter matchup this weekend looks like a dandy.

Aaron Fitt: I don't know about 90 percent, but they could start on Fridays at an awful lot of places (and maybe it is 90 percent). Those guys will be the No. 4 and 5 starters this year, which means they should get plenty of midweek work and long relief work, and that's a big reason we have Arizona ranked No. 1 right now — incredibly deep staff. Perry was consistently 94-96 this weekend with a good slider, but he tended to pitch off his slider an awful lot and didn't have great command. Fields was dominant, reaching 97 mph with his fastball and striking out the side in the ninth inning Friday.

Aaron Fitt: Yes.

Aaron Fitt: This early in the season, you have to give the warm-weather team the edge, even with the uniform start date, because the warm-weather team has been able to get outside to practice the last three weeks. I think Zach Putnam is capable of dominating against any team in the nation if he's healthy, and Mike Wilson could give ASU's lefties trouble, but the Sun Devils are firing on all cylinders right now. I'll predict a split in those two games.

Aaron Fitt: South Carolina's offense is much better, but Clemson's pitching is much better. I think the Gamecocks mash their way to a win at home, and the Tigers win at their place. If one team is going to sweep, though, I think it will be Clemson.

Aaron Fitt: He's not hurt, he just got beaten out for the Sunday job by Rob Catapano. Harvey will pitch UNC's home opener tomorrow against Old Dominion, barring a rainout, in which case he'll start the weekend opener.

Aaron Fitt: Dustin Ackley went absolutely nuts. It got to the point where FAU was walking him intentionally with no one on base. He gets my MVP award from this weekend, and I'll go with Lance Lynn for most valuable pitcher.

Aaron Fitt: All right everyone, that's all for today. Thanks for coming by, and see you next week from San Diego. Be sure to check the College Blog all weekend for updates from that star-studded USD Tournament.