TCU Baseball comes in at #19 in D1 Baseball Preseason Rankings

Five Big 12 teams made the Top 25 of D1 Baseball’s inaugural ranking of the 2019 season, headlined by #3 Texas Tech. But just a year after being left out of the postseason conversation entirely, the Frogs are back in the mix, coming in at 19th ahead of what is expected to be a bounce-back year in Fort Worth.

Led by veterans Josh Watson and Jared Janczak, TCU Baseball will look to get back on track after watching their streak of four straight College World Series appearances come to a close. With a mix of exciting young players and talented holdovers, the Frogs should be competitive once again in a conference that promises few “nights off.”

In addition to Texas Tech, the #15 Baylor Bears, who knocked the Frogs out of the postseason bracket with a dramatic win in the Big 12 Championship game, the #18 Oklahoma State Cowboys, and the #23 Texas Longhorns all find themselves in the Top 25. Only the SEC, with an insane eight ranked teams, has more programs on the list. That conference, in fact, holds the top two spots, Vanderbilt and LSU, with Louisville and UCLA rounding out the top five. The Frogs will see the Commodores on opening weekend, when they face off with Vandy to close the MLB4 Tournament in Scottsdale next month - a weekend that opens with #25 Cal State Fullerton and features traditional power Virginia as well. Those are, currently, the only ranked non-conference games on the Frogs’ schedule. TCU is one of a handful of teams coming off of less than ideal 2018 seasons to find themselves back in the rankings.

After holding on to their coach in the off-season and getting Janczak and Watson back from the draft, the new-look Frogs have every reason to set the bar high in 2019. With a strong starting rotation and more pop in the lineup, it should be a fun year in Funky Town, with plenty of Lupton Magic.

The season begins on February 15th in Arizona, with TCU’s first home game taking place on Tuesday, February 19th against ACU.