HI NOTES: SEC Underdogs, Poll-ish Sausage, Miami Vice

POLICE BLOTTER

Photo by Mike Licht flickr.com

♦ The big news coming out about the Tony Bosch list of PED customers isn't just about MLB players. This articles says a lot of the key figures had close ties to the University of Miami Baseball program: A Miami Clinic Supplies Drugs to Sports' Biggest Names (Miami New Times)

Indeed, there are two patterns to the names of athletes in Bosch's records: (1) Most have direct ties to Miami and often to the UM Hurricanes baseball program, and (2) a number have already been caught doping — which suggests that either Bosch isn't particularly gifted at crafting drugs that can beat performance tests or his clients aren't careful
...
At least one UM coach makes an appearance as well: Jimmy Goins, the strength and conditioning coach for the Hurricanes baseball team for the past nine seasons. Goins is recorded in multiple client lists; in one detailed page dated December 14, 2011, Bosch writes he's selling him Anavar, testosterone, and a Winstrol/B-12 mix and charging him $400 a month. Another, from this past December, includes sales of HGH and testosterone...

SOUTHERN EXPOSURE

♦ Mizzou isn't the only SEC Baseball team with something to prove: Baseball out to prove critics wrong (Bama Online)

Alabama, which opens the season Feb. 15th when it hosts VMI, went 21-34 last season, 9-21 in league play and missed out on the Southeastern Conference Tournament in Hoover. It’s not one of the eight SEC teams to be ranked in the national preseason coaches’ poll that had Arkansas first, LSU third and South Carolina fifth.

“I think we’re capable of a lot, more than people are giving us credit for,” Moore said. “We have a lot of guys coming back who went through the crap. We don’t want to do that again, so we’re really motivated and we have a great freshmen class, with a couple of guys who are going to come in and help right away. I think we’re going to surprise a lot of people.”...

PRE-SEASON SEASON

♦ Another day, another poll. The National College Baseball Writers Association has their say: Arkansas Tops 2013 Preseason NCBWA Poll (sportswriters.net)
Arkansas leads the Top 25, which includes 9 SEC teams not located in Missouri (plus Southern Mississippi, MU's opening weekend opponent).

♦ And no pres-season season would be complete without the poll of polls: Arkansas claims top spot in CBI Preseason Composite Poll (College Baseball Insider)

After tying for third place in the 2012 College World Series, Arkansas begins the 2013 campaign at No. 1 in the CollegeBaseballInsider.com Preseason Composite Poll.

In previous seasons, CBI has used four rankings in its composite poll: Baseball America, Collegiate Baseball, National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association and USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll. This year CBI will add a fifth ranking to the composite poll, the Perfect Game poll.
. . .
The CBI Preseason Composite Poll contains seven teams from the SEC. There are five from the Pac-12, four from the ACC, two from the Big 12 and single entries from the Big East and West Coast Conference...