2023 MCWS preview: Analysis, picks, players to watch

The eight-team field for the Men’s College World Series includes the top team in the country, a Cinderella and of course, incredible players across the board.

Wake Forest, Florida, LSU, Stanford, Virginia, Tennessee, TCU and Oral Roberts have all made it to the final stage of the NCAA baseball tournament, which gets underway starting Friday with Oral Roberts playing TCU at 2 p.m. ET on ESPN.

Our college baseball analysts break down what they’re excited for in Omaha, give their players to watch and make predictions on who they think will win it all.

1. What are you most looking forward to in this year’s MCWS?

Mike Rooney: The 2023 MCWS field is bringing the star power. These eight teams are loaded with high-end talents, including nine players whom Kiley McDaniel projects as first-round picks for this July’s MLB draft. The underclassmen offer similar upside. And this year’s home run title will be decided in Omaha as Jac Caglianone (Florida) and Brock Wilken (Wake Forest) enter the tournament leading the nation with 31 and 30 homers, respectively.

Chris Burke: Hard to narrow it down to one thing, but I think the most fascinating thing about this year’s MCWS is how many top draft prospects will be part of the field. Paul Skenes (LSU), Dylan Crews (LSU), Wyatt Langford (UF) and Chase Dollander (Tennessee), Kyle Teel (Virginia) are the headliners, but Tommy Troy (Stanford), Rhett Lowder (Wake Forest), Brock Wilken (Wake Forest), Hurston Waldrep (Florida), Josh Rivera (Florida), Brayden Taylor (TCU) are just a few of the others who could hear their names called in the first round this year. And I can’t leave out Oral Roberts CF Jonah Cox. He leads the country in hits and has a … 47-game hit streak … incredible! This field is loaded with topflight dudes!

Ryan McGee: Am I allowed to say pace of play without someone throwing a batting practice ball at me? While I am not a huge fan of all the goofy rules being tried throughout baseball to speed up games, I am a big pitch clock proponent. As much as I love covering and watching Men’s College World Series games, when Omaha games hit the mid-innings they grind to speeds slower than molasses in February. No one is watching these games to see coaches go through a mental checklist of pitches before sending them in. And the TV numbers have told us in recent years that the Women’s College World Series has started to draw better numbers in later games. Why? Anyone who has watched any softball knows it has never suffered from any pace of play issues.

Kiley McDaniel: The prospect riches! The 2023 MLB draft is one of the best in the past decade, if not the best and by my count, we have 10-12 potential first-round pi.cks for this year’s draft and another 10-12 for the combined 2024/2025 drafts. The top three overall prospects in the draft (Crews, Skenes and Langford) and the top three pitchers in the draft (Skenes, Dollander and Lowder) are all in Omaha.

Kyle Peterson: Fireworks. We will see triple digits on the radar gun from a few different guys, we have big leaguers all over the field and potentially 10 first-round picks. I don’t remember the CWS ever having this much firepower.

2. How much of a big deal is Wake Forest? Can it actually be the first No. 1 team to win it since 1999?

Rooney: They sure can. The Demon Deacons’ balance is striking. Head coach Tom Walter deploys All-Americans in his lineup, starting rotation and bullpen. Wake Forest is a roster without holes. And while No. 1 overall seeds have struggled to bring home the ultimate prize, the big personality of this group might be the anecdote for that. This team is outrageously gifted, and it plays with a freedom that wins.

Burke: Wake Forest is No. 1 and it is playing every bit as good as that seed would indicate. Since the NCAA tournament began, the Demon Deacons have outscored their opponents 75-16! They lead the country in ERA and are top 10 in the NCAA in homers. They are balanced and talented as any team we’ve had in Omaha in a long time. Can they carry the burden of No. 1? Going to be fun to watch their journey.

McGee: It’s a huge deal. Full disclosure, I’ve been around this program my entire life. Growing up on Tobacco Road, I went to a lot of games at that ballpark as a kid, Wake and various Winston-Salem MiLB teams (Go Warthogs!) and my brother went to school there. Then, more than a decade ago, I did a story about Tom Walters donating a kidney to a player. The point is I always thought that the Deacs could one day get back to Omaha for the first time since 1955 … but as the No. 1 team in the land … with the nation’s deepest pitching staff … and all those homers … and that room full of analysts cranking out numbers to live by? Not a chance. So, yeah, with all of that in mind and all that this team has done, why wouldn’t it be the team to finally erase the most confounding statistic in all of sports, the “1999 Rule”?

McDaniel: LSU is the most talented team in the field in terms of pro prospects, but if we’re talking about the best college baseball team to win a game right now, I think it’s Wake Forest. I tend not to think the favorite will win in a wide field of any baseball playoffs due to the nature of the sport, but Wake is the best top-to-bottom team in the country and is red hot.

Peterson: Absolutely, but I say that every year! Wake has the nation’s top ERA in a hitter-friendly ballpark and hit NINE home runs in the supers’ clincher last weekend. And it has Tommy Hawke, who America is going to fall in love with this week. Wake is the most complete team in the nation.

3. Which players do we need to keep our eyes on?

Rooney: Jonah Cox (ORU) is bringing a 47-game hit streak to Omaha. Paul Skenes (LSU) is posting a college season that is Mark Prior-Stephen Strasburg level domination. Wake Forest has won all 16 of Rhett Lowder’s starts. Middle infielders Josh Rivera (Florida) and Christian Moore (Tennessee) make their respective teams go. Ethan Anderson (Virginia) is the star protégé of teammates Kyle Teel and Jake Gelof. Tommy Troy (Stanford) enters the CWS with 12 career postseason round-trippers … and counting. Finally, Brayden Taylor (TCU) will invoke Don Mattingly vibes with his smooth left-handed stroke.

Burke: See answer to question one plus …. since I laid out a big group of the 2023 premium talent, let’s talk about the 2024 group. Jac Caglianone is the most gifted player in the country. A power-hitting first baseman who leads the country in homers (31) and is a hard-throwing left-handed pitcher who is 7-3 with a 3.78 ERA and a fastball up to 97 mph. Chase Burns and Drew Beam are two very talented right-handed pitchers from Tennessee who will be first-rounders next year. Nick Kurtz is a power-hitting first baseman for Wake Forest who is a barrel waiting to happen. There are so many dudes!

McGee: Well, Skenes and Crews, that’s obvious, right? Those guys are so good they have managed to cast a national shadow over the guy that I think is the most exciting player in college baseball. Florida’s Caglianone is the Shohei Ohtani of college baseball. He’s hitting .336/31/84 and he’s also 7-3 and averaging nearly 11 strikeouts per 9 innings. I love the history of two-way players in college baseball, from Florida’s Brad Wilkerson to Todd Helton, John Olerud, Dave Winfield, it’s a long list of legends. But Caglianone is already one of the best and he still has a year of college ball left. Also, I am totally calling him “Jactani.”

McDaniel: Crews, Skenes and Langford are all easy ones to mention as the top three pro prospects in college baseball. I would submit that 2024-eligible first baseman Nick Kurtz of Wake Forest is next best and is nowhere near as famous as those other three. Dollander and Florida right-handed pitcher Hurston Waldrep also stand to make/lose the most money with their starts in Omaha.

Peterson: There’s no wrong answer here. We have the top two strikeout leaders in the country in Skenes and Quinn Mathews and the top two leaders in home runs in Caglianone and Brock Wilken. We have the SEC Player of the Year (Crews), the SEC Pitcher of the Year (Skenes), the ACC Player of the Year (Teel), the ACC Pitcher of the Year (Lowder), the Pac-12 Pitcher of the Year (Mathews), the Pac-12 Player of the Year (Rios), the Summit League Player of the Year (Cox) and the Summit League Pitcher of the Year (Denton). Buckle up.

4. What other storylines are you following?

Rooney: Offense has been up in college baseball again in 2023. But Charles Schwab Field presents a unique challenge: This place can play big. It will be interesting to see how the Chuck Box fares versus these high-powered offenses. Oral Roberts is just the third No. 4 seed to advance to the MCWS in the 24 years of the current 64-team format. In hindsight, it’s safe to say the Golden Eagles were under-seeded. Nonetheless, the Golden Eagles are on a road trip for the ages.

Burke: On May 1, TCU was 23-20 and on the outside looking in for a NCAA tournament bid. Since then, it has reeled off 19 wins in their past 21 games. Led by third baseman Brayden Taylor, this TCU group could be the team that most resembles Ole Miss from last year. Don’t let the Frogs get hot!

McGee: I love these teams returning for the first time in forever. Wake back for first time since winning it all in 1955. Had Oregon made it, it would have been its first Omaha trip since ’54, but it was denied by Oral Roberts, who returns for the first time since 1978. That’s so long ago, they weren’t even the Golden Eagles, they were the Titans. ORU has always had a great baseball program (see: 29 NCAA appearances and 133 MLB draft picks), but could never get over the hump. Now it has. I’ve always been fascinated by the fact that nearly every single MCWS field has contained at least one underdog/party crasher team. From Maine and Harvard to Stony Brook and now Oral Roberts. It’s a big part of what makes college baseball great. Everyone legit has a chance to be on the big stage.

McDaniel: Can LSU deliver on being the most talented team with the most resources and the two best players? Can Wake Forest break up the SEC dominance of baseball? Which of the potential dozen first-round picks in July will have the best performance and/or make himself the most money in Omaha ala Cade Horton last year?

5. Who’s your pick to win it all?

Rooney: None of the current Wake Forest players were alive when this program last advanced to Omaha in 1955. In fact, I’m pretty sure none of their parents were either. But that 1955 team did more than just show up in Nebraska … it left with a national championship. The 2023 Demon Deacons are capable of a repeat performance. As Marty McFly would say, it is their density.

Burke: To start the tournament I predicted a first-time champion at this year’s MCWS so I will stick with that prediction. Not sure who it will be, or how confident I feel about it but I’ll stick with it for now.

McGee: Wake Forest and LSU are better than everyone else and have been since February. It’s hard to believe that LSU hasn’t won the MCWS in a decade and a half and that it has never dogpiled in this ballpark. After being ranked No. 1 nearly all spring, it hit a bit of a midseason slump. But when the Tigers are firing on all cylinders, no one has more talent. So, Geauxmaha it is!

McDaniel: I’ll take Wake Forest. The Deacs just have too many power arms and power bats that are all clicking right now.