College Baseball is back, and our futures are here! Last season my members and followers rode our Texas A&M’s championship future right to the end and fell a bit short! I am looking to capitalize this year and cash on multiple plays!
College baseball is one of the most electric sports to follow. The cream of the crop usually finds its way to the top come end of the year. We certainly will have some teams looking to upset everyone's picks leading up to the College World Series, and I won’t be shocked to see a smaller school make waves in the tourney!
Texas A&M
There is honestly not too much to say here. They return possibly the best 1-2 punch in college baseball. Jace LaViolette is considered the favorite to win SEC Player of the Year and college baseball’s top player and top MLB draft prospect. On the mound, they return one of the top aces in all of baseball and another year we get to enjoy Ryan Prager dominate college hitters.
My one and only concern with them is the coaching change. A HUGE shakeup in the SEC and college baseball with Jim Schlossnagle leaving for rival Texas, who is considered one of the top coaches in the country.
After thinking about it a bit more, I believe that will give these players an edge to stick it to him and make him wish he had run it back with this group. With revenge fresh on the mind, and added motivation, I believe they can win the whole thing.
Arkansas
Arkansas was one of our World Series picks last season, and though they lost one of my favorite college players to ever lace it up, and the best pitcher in the country last season to the majors, they have retooled in a BIG way! Two of my picks to win the whole thing, were in the top 3 in the country in the transfer portal!
Arkansas lost 8 players to the draft and I still believe they can make a better run than last year's team, which sounds wild! They return serious talent on both sides of the ball, and they loaded up in the transfer portal.
My two favorite moves were bringing in Charles Davalan, a lead off hitter from Florida Gulf Coast who will be leaned on to set the table offensively, and Zach Root. We followed Root closely last season as East Carolina had one of the best starting pitching rotations last year. Him joining Arkansas will 100% soften the blow of losing Hagen Smith and they are lined up to make a serious push!
Florida
Perhaps one of my favorite picks this season, and one I honestly don’t think a ton of college baseball cappers would be on. The loss of Jack Caglianone cannot be understated and I think most fans believe they won’t be able to replace his production. Now while that may be true, I trust this coaching staff more than any other coaching staff to make the college world series.
Last season we saw Florida not play its best, and still found a way to get 28 regular season wins, and make the postseason. Kevin O’Sullivan has had 16 chances to make the CWS with Florida and they have made 10 of them. I believe he has a chance to improve this team's performance over last years group.
This team offensively will want to show both the college baseball world, and to their conference foes, they collectively can handle the loss of Caglianones production. The pitching staff was their biggest problem last season and a majority of those players are back, with more experience, ready to have a better 2025. If their pitching improves, and their team collectively hits the ball, they will make the postseason again and +250 for a Kevin O’Sullivan team seems like a steal!
Futures Bets for 2025
To Make College World Series:
Texas AM (+120) DraftKings
Arkansas (+210) DraftKings
Florida (+250) DraftKings
LSU (+120) BetRivers
Virginia (+190) DraftKings
Champions:
Arkansas (+1500) ESPN Bet
Texas A&M (+900) Bet365
