College Baseball Odds, Picks: Updated Projections & Futures for This Week’s Games

College Baseball Odds, Picks

The focus of this column from week to week has been projections over the course of the weekend.

With March Madness winding down to the Final Four, the beginning of April is a good chance to take a temperature check on college baseball futures.

Like any other college sport, home-field advantage gives a big boost to any Division I baseball team. To handicap futures, it's important to not only look at the record; RPI and road RPI play a part in determining the strength of a squad.

Here's a look at the national contenders and their odds, alongside RPI and Road RPI:

Moving Up

• Arkansas, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt, Dallas Baptist, East Carolina, Kentucky and UC Irvine all posted 4-0 records last week. The Razorbacks, Patriots and Anteaters own a top-20 road RPI rank.
• Mississippi State (+9000) was a threat to Florida in Gainesville. The Bulldogs scored 21 runs compared to the Gators' 13 over the three-game set. Expect an RPI of 44th to climb with a road series scheduled against Arkansas and Vanderbilt.

• Anchor Aiden May has returned from injury for Oregon State (+1600) over the past two weeks, staying below 60 pitches in each outing. The toughest competition for the Beavers until Regionals is a weekend series with the 49th-ranked RPI team in Arizona State.
• A Super Regional team last season, Kentucky (+6000) is back for more in the SEC. The Wildcats have the second-highest road RPI rank and are sure to garner a postseason spot. Road series await Kentucky at Auburn, South Carolina and Florida.

Moving Down

• LSU (+1200) was swept in Fayetteville last weekend. The Tigers have fallen to 2-7 in SEC play, logging a strength of schedule rank at 63rd.
• No team is spiraling south quicker than Wake Forest (+1000). The former No. 1 was swept at home by North Carolina, as ace Josh Hartle sports a 6.68 ERA. The Demon Deacons have four series remaining against top-25 teams
• The Big 12 has disappeared from the top 25. Both Oklahoma and Kansas State fell from the ranks after losing weeks, while TCU was removed after consecutive series losses. UCF at 25th is the only representation from the conference, as the Knights rank fifth in RPI. They're also are 8-2 in one-run games.

Our projections for this weekend are a small sample from series scheduled to start Thursday.

The SEC kicks it into high gear with LSU and Arkansas as hosts, while North Carolina travels to Virginia to create space in the ACC standings.

In our weekly projections, sides are based on a calculation of ERA, FIP and xFIP. The total is based on the same numbers, along with calculated base runs and park factors.

You can use this data along with our Fanatics Sportsbook promo code to get the most value on college baseball this season.

Here are the projections for games starting April 4:

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