Aaron Fitt: Hi everybody. Today's chat might move a bit slowly as I try to eat my frozen beef Stroganoff while answering your questions, so bear with me. (I have defiantly ignored the instructions to let it stand in the microwave for two minutes so I can get to your questions.)

Aaron Fitt: Cozart has definitely helped himself with his hitting during SEC play, and I wouldn't be surprised if somebody pops him late in the first round -- that's where he projected anyway heading into the season, bat questions or no. But it would be premature to say that he has completely allayed all concerns about the bat. Scouts have a long track record with Cozart, they've seen plenty of him over the years. They didn't just decide there are hitting questions because he got off to a slow start.

Aaron Fitt: Georgia Tech still has quite a long way to go, and it's going to be very difficult. The remaining schedule includes trips to Clemson (which has its back to the wall and will probably a very stiff challenge at home this weekend), South Florida (watch out for this series -- that's a solid club, even after getting swept by Rutgers) and North Carolina, plus a home series against Florida State. Good luck finding anyone in the nation with a harder schedule down the stretch than that. I think it's quite unlikely the Yellow Jackets will fare well enough against that stretch to host a regional. If they go 5-4 in those nine ACC games, they'll be 18-11 in the league, which might be good enough. But I'm not so sure it will be, because Tech's first-half resume is very uninspiring.

Aaron Fitt: I think we talk an awful lot about Weathers on this website... just last week, we released our updated College Top 50 prospects list for the 2007 draft, and Weathers rocketed up the list to No. 11. His stuff is simply awesome, and it's amazing how much he's improved since converting from the outfield. I believe you'll see him in the majors fairly quickly.

Aaron Fitt: At 15-3 in the league, Florida State is in the driver's seat, obviously, and its remaining schedule is challenging but not overwhelming: at Miami, at Maryland, home against Clemson, at Tech.

Aaron Fitt: As much as I'd like to go off the board on this one, I'm afraid I'll have to go with John Manuel favorite Caleb Glafenhein of East Tennessee State. Just no way around it -- that's a great name. I'll listen to other nominations, though.

Aaron Fitt: Listen to the podcast. It was a very tough call this week, but you conveniently neglected to mention that Florida State also lost a midweek game to an unranked team. Granted, Florida is better than Lipscomb or MTSU, and North Carolina is better than Tennessee, but the 'Dores also swept their series. Vandy went 3-2 against an inferior (but still decent) schedule, and FSU went 2-2. Had FSU gone 3-1 on the week, it would have been a no-brainer -- we'd put Florida State at No. 1. But there just wasn't enough compelling reason to bump the incumbent No. 1 team.

Aaron Fitt: Yes, and yes. It helps that ASU gets both UCLA and Arizona at home. That Oregon State trip will be tough, but I'm starting to think the Sun Devils might be able to simply overpower OSU, no matter how many grand slams Mitch Canham hits (see the top 25 tracker for more details about Canham's big weekend). And even if the Beavers hold serve and win that series at home, they're already 4.5 games behind ASU in the standings. That will be tough to overcome.

Aaron Fitt: Well, there's no way both of those teams will end up as top-8 national seeds; if they did, they would not have to play each other in a super-regional, because the top eight seeds do not have to meet until the CWS. I think an ASU-UofA super-regional is entirely possible, but there are other West Coast teams who could factor in here as well, like Pepperdine, Fullerton, San Diego. It's possible the committee would match those teams up with the Arizona teams in supers.

Aaron Fitt: I think last week I gave USD the edge because of starting pitching. But if Pepperdine's Brett Hunter can deliver another outing like his gem yesterday, that edge is really neutralized. Hunter's the key, in my mind; he's capable of dominating, but he's been less consistent this year than all three Toreros weekend starters, so I'll continue to give USD the edge at home.

Aaron Fitt: I do think the WCC is good enough to be a three-bid conference, and Gonzaga is clearly that third team, with a 9-3 conference mark. The Zags did play a tough nonconference schedule early, but what hurts them is they only went 2-7 against Arizona, UC Riverside, Arizona State, Oregon State and Missouri. Then again, it's a cold weather team facing mostly good warm weather teams early in the season, so that's about what you'd expect. Only the elite cold-weather teams (like Oregon State or maybe even Michigan) do much better than that. Long answer short, I do think Gonzaga has a chance, but if you put me on the spot at this moment, my gut says they don't get it.

Aaron Fitt: Lance Lynn has been unbelievable, racking up huge strikeout numbers, and Will Kline is a very steady Friday starter. But I don't think it's the best one-two punch; I'd probably go with Travis Banwart and Aaron Shafer of Wichita State by a hair over Brian Matusz and Josh Romanski of San Diego.

Aaron Fitt: Give the Tigers their due--they've now won SEC series against Mississippi State, Mississippi and Alabama, with a home series loss to Auburn mixed in the middle. Right now you'd have to consider LSU the seventh team in the SEC, behind Vandy, Arkansas, South Carolina, Mississippi, Mississippi State and maybe Florida. If you think there's any chance that fewer than seven SEC teams get into the NCAA tournament, you're crazy, so at this point you'd have to project LSU as regional team. Personally, I don't think any team with a sub-.500 conference record should make the postseason, and the Tigers remain 8-9. And beware: trips to Arkansas and Vanderbilt remain on the schedule, though home series against Florida and Tennessee are winnable.

Aaron Fitt: The Shockers have a huge series coming up this weekend against Evansville, the defending MVC champs--this is one we've had circled on our calendars at BA all year long. Wichita has a nice four-game padding between it and the Aces, but that could change in a hurry if things go awry this weekend. If the Shockers take care of business at home, their stranglehold on the MVC will tighten. I am a major Wichita State believer, and I think it's only a matter of time before they move up in the rankings ahead of some of those ACC and SEC teams ahead of them.

Aaron Fitt: I like the pitching staff, but I still think Central Michigan is the favorite in that league. If the Eagles doesn't win the automatic bid, they have no chance at an at-large bid--that 16-15 overall record is not very impressive, and games against Northwood, Spring Arbor, Madonna, Olivet and Concordia will absolutely kill their RPI.

Aaron Fitt: Huge series, and I plan to be on hand Friday night for the Roemer-Simmons duel. I'd love to go out on a limb and take the Highlanders to win that series, but every time I've picked against the Titans this year I've gotten burned, so I'm more than a little gun-shy. I guess I'll stick with Fullerton until further notice.

Aaron Fitt: The Bluejays have won eight straight and are 27-11 overall, plus 12-3 in the conference. They've already played Wichita State and Evansville (and won the latter series), so you've got to figure they're in very good shape in the conference race. The MVC is at least a two-bid league, and right now Creighton has a better case than Evansville for that No. 2 spot. They are in the top 25 picture as well, though that picture is a little crowded.

Aaron Fitt: Locked in. Twig-thin, but so strong. ("but" and "so" don't count against me in the word count -- those aren't real words!) As for this weekend, it's a tossup, but the Horns showed they can win a tough road series this weekend against Nebraska, and I think they could do it again in Stillwater. As tremendous as that OSU offense is, I just still worry about the pitching staff, though Oliver Odle was solid this weekend.

Aaron Fitt: Worth's got a lot of helium right now-- scouts seem to think he's got a better bat than Cozart, and he's a better defender than Josh Horton, who is generally regarded the best-hitting shortstop in this class. Worth might have played his way into the first round, if he keeps it up.

Aaron Fitt: I do think Tulane's in trouble -- an 8-7 CUSA record, looking up at four teams in the standings... that's not a good place to be. Tulane's pedigree is in its favor, but its body of work really isn't that impressive -- lost series to Southeastern Louisiana, Loyola Marymount, Southern Cal, Memphis and now Houston. I think the Green Wave must take a series at Rice in a couple of weeks, because the rest of the schedule leaves little chance to impress (UCF, UAB, Chicago State).

Aaron Fitt: The Stroganoff has gone cold, so I'll take a couple more and then wrap this thing up. As we discussed in the podcast today, John Manuel and I both believe Arizona State is better than the 11th-best team in the nation, but it comes down to those pesky poll mechanics again. Wichita State's playing well, so you can't jump ASU over the Shockers.

Aaron Fitt: Louisiana Tech was right on the cusp of the rankings before losing that series at Hawaii this weekend. That was a big series in the WAC standings--Fresno State now has the inside track. Rike is one of the best power-speed threats in the whole country, comparable to guys like Corey Brown, Matt Brown, and Grant Desme.

Aaron Fitt: That early schedule is one of the reasons Arkansas is so tough down the stretch -- not many coaches would have the guts to schedule road trips to Louisiana Tech and Troy the first two weekends of the year. As for the pitching staff, I worry about the bullpen a little with Todd in the rotation; I'd almost rather have Keuchel starting on Sundays and the ability to bring Todd out of the bullpen whenever you need him most. Losing Seibert was such a big blow to this team. Heading into the year, with Seibert healthy, I thought Arkansas was an excellent darkhorse national title contender. I still think the Hogs are capable of making a run, but it's going to be tougher with one of their best arms out for the year. Pitching depth tends to loom very large in the postseason, and while I love Arkansas' front-line pitching, I think its depth is an issue. Travis Hill needs to emerge as a more consistent presence in the bullpen.

Aaron Fitt: Ok, that's it for today. Great batch of questions. See you all next week, as the chat will come to you live from SoCal.