Listen, we know it’s tough to catch up on everything happening in the baseball world each morning. There are all kinds of stories, rumors, game coverage and Vines of dudes getting hit in the beans every day. Trying to find all of it while on your way to work or sitting at your desk just isn’t easy. It’s okay, though, we’re going to do the heavy lifting for you each morning, and find the things you need to see from within the SB Nation baseball network, as well as from elsewhere. Please hold your applause until the end, or at least until after you subscribe to the newsletter.
Back in the first weekend of June, the first pitch of the 2016 NCAA Baseball Tournament was thrown, and 64 of college baseball’s best teams started upon their journey towards Omaha. Now, eight teams have reached the promised land at TD Ameritrade Stadium and are currently in the 2016 College World Series. Two weekends of Regionals and Super Regionals have now come down to everyone’s favorite double-elimination baseball tournament, and it should be plenty of fun to watch.
That prediction is being made due to the fact that the tournament up until this point has definitely been intriguing. The SEC went into this tournament with a record four national seeds, but now there’s only one representative left from the conference — Florida. Granted, they’re still probably the strongest team left, and they also include the No. 6 overall pick in the 2016 MLB Draft in A.J. Puk, but with the way that this exciting tournament has gone so far, they definitely aren’t a shoo-in to roll through the College World Series and lift the trophy in the end.
The Gators will have to contend with the No. 3 national seed in the form of the bat-flipping Miami Hurricanes, the No. 5 national seed in the form of the Texas Tech Red Raiders, two teams who have yet to lose a game so far in this tournament (Oklahoma State and the Cinderella story of the tournament, UC Santa Barbara) and three teams who took out heavily-favored SEC opposition at the Super Regionals (Coastal Carolina, TCU, and Arizona). You don’t make it to Omaha via fluke, and all eight teams have definitely earned the right to be here. The action continues today at 3 p.m ET and it should be an exciting continuation of what will hopefully be an incredibly intriguing week or so of college baseball.
Yordano Ventura had his suspension reduced by one game after he agreed to drop his appeal, so he'll be out for only eight games instead of nine.
Meanwhile, the Royals absolutely pounded the Tigers on Saturday night, and as a result, Andrew Romine had to pitch. This is the eighth position that he’s played this season!
The Rangers pulled off a dramatic comeback in order to beat the Cardinals and keep their awesome start rolling along.
The Giants wore their sweet throwbacks (and the Rays wore their cool "faux-backs"), and apparently this inspired Joe Panik to come through in a clutch situation.
James Shields has struggled mightily for his past few starts, and it was the same old story on Saturday.
The Freak is back! Tim Lincecum made his return to the big leagues on Saturday by shutting down the A’s over six innings of work.
Dusty Baker has publicly admitted that one of his most important relievers is having a rough go of it right now.
Of all of the Brewers who could be Milwaukee’s most valuable trade chip, nobody figured that at this point, it would be Aaron Hill.
The currently-injured Kyle Schwarber has been involved in trade rumors, but it seems as if he won’t be on the move anytime soon.
