Quotes & Notes: Rankers away

■ Baseball America has shown they have a crush on Missouri over the last year or two, and today's new Top 25 confirms this, with Missouri dropping only to 15th from their preseason height of 10th. On the other hand, MU's next opponent, Arizona State, jumped 5 slots, from 13th to 8th.

BA's Aaron Fitt talks about Mizzou in his weekly Top 25 Chat, including these comments:

Really though, for Missouri to live up to its preseason top-10 billing, it needs Tepesch to grow into that No. 2 role. I hear he was up to the mid-90s this weekend with a wicked mid-80s slider, yet he got drilled; just shows you how important command is.

And in the weekly Top 25 Podcast, BA had this to say comparing Michigan with Missouri:

Michigan has a lot of young players stepping forward. There's a contrast here if you compare them with Missouri, for instance. Both these teams have a group of sophomore power arms they're relying on this year, guys that need to step forward and shoulder more of a load than they have in the past. Michigan's did, and they looked really good doing it. And Missouri's struggled, and the Tigers lost three games out there in the Grand Canyon Tournament.

■ As mentioned earlier, CollegeBaseball.Rivals.com dropped MU out of their Top 25 altogether. Collegiate Baseball apparently agrees, letting the Tigers slide out of their Top 30 as well.

■ The NCBWA poll will likely come out sometime tonight or tomorrow. The USA Today/ESPN poll is usually not updated during the earliest weeks of the season.

■ The Baseball Draft Report highlights a pair of MU's draft-eligible hitters:

Ryan Lollis: 6-15, HR, 2 2B, 6 RBI, 5 R, 1 BB, K

Greg Folgia: 5-14, HR, 3B, 2 2B, 3 RBI, 7 R, 3 BB, 3 K

Two pretty promising starts for key players on the Missouri squad. Four of Folgia’s five hits went for extra bases, that’s always nice.