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The 2016 college baseball season has reached its halfway point, meaning we now have enough evidence to publish our first set of Pac-12 power rankings. To do this right, we have compiled ballots from the four brightest baseball minds west of the Mississippi.
Our panel is as follows:
Ryan Bafaloukos - House of Sparky Co-Managing Editor (@RyanBafo)
Connor Pelton - House of Sparky baseball beat writer (@ConnorPelton28)
Kaelen Jones - House of Sparky baseball beat writer (@kaelenjones)
Dom Cotroneo - WCSN baseball writer/Pac-12 Digital broadcaster (@Dom_Cotroneo)
Rank | Team | Points |
1 | California (18-7, 7-2) | 43 |
2 | Oregon State (19-7, 5-4) | 37 |
3 | Stanford (15-8, 4-2) | 34 |
4 | Utah (10-15, 7-2) | 32 |
5 | Washington (14-10, 5-4) | 28 |
6 | USC (13-14, 3-3) | 22 |
7 | UCLA (12-14, 4-5) | 19 |
T8 | Oregon (11-11, 2-4) | 17 |
T8 | Arizona State (16-10, 3-6) | 17 |
10 | Arizona (18-11, 3-6) | 10 |
11 | Washington State (9-17, 2-7) | 5 |
California earns our top spot, receiving three first place votes after starting Pac-12 play with a record of 7-2. The Golden Bears had won seven straight (including sweeps of Oregon State and UCLA) before a brief setback yesterday against Stanford.
Still, David Esquer's team is playing as well as anyone in the conference and is on track to earn a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Our voters currently have Arizona State in a tie for eighth with Oregon. The Sun Devils were able to avoid disaster and escape Pullman with a series win last weekend, but still find themselves at three games under .500 in league play.