As the 2023 Men's College World Series approaches, the LSU Tigers baseball team is the fifth-ranked national seed, having swept through its regional last weekend, and is preparing to host the Kentucky Wildcats in a super regional this weekend. The stakes: LSU's first trip to Omaha, Nebraska, and the College World Series since 2017. On top of that, the Tigers have the consensus two top prospects for the 2023 MLB draft headlining the most talented roster in college baseball.
This is a rare, all-time group of talent playing at a national power in the SEC, the best conference amateur baseball has to offer. But exactly how good are the Tigers? It's easy to base our answer on LSU's odds of winning a title, but baseball is the most subject to luck of any of the major sports. Instead, let's focus on this group of on-field talent through the prism of prospect value, ranking the Tigers against the farm systems I've valued in MLB.
The team
Outfielder Dylan Crews was a longtime high first-round talent who had a weaker run of form leading into the pandemic-affected 2020 draft and pulled his name from the draft when it looked like he'd go in the late first or compensation round, below his expectations. That's the type of good fortune for LSU that top programs get only once or twice a decade, and Crews has more than lived up to the expectations.
