I have to disagree with you on this.  First of all, you mention that Salisbury could not win their regional.  They were beat by another highly ranked team (higher in the d3 baseball poll ALL YEAR than the ABCA poll, I might add) in the championship game of the regional. 

Also, how can you argue with the d3baseball rankings when 5 of the top 6 teams in the ranking BEFORE THE REGIONAL made it to the World Series (Chapman, Trinity, Kean, Johns Hopkins, and Cortland).  Salisbury was the only team in the top 6 that did not make the WS.  Not sure you can say that these teams are over-rated.



Well having seen salisbury first hand.  They should have lost to RMC if not for a baserunning blunder in the 9th.  They then did lose to Piedmont.  They played a week schedule.  And that was never taking into account.  on the other hand they did have a good year.  the fact remains that it was look out merely from a record stand point.  Salsibury is considered a south team and outside of there conference (18 games) they played 5 true south region games. (va. weslyan twice, CNU, LaGrange, and Rhodes which was added at the end)  Salisbury played a mid-atlantic schedule with a week opponent winning %.  that might be the reason the werent in the first abca poll.  Now with that said they were 40-4 but continue to dodge true south opponents and this isnt the first year they have done so.  The week schedule gave them an inflated record.

I have stayed away from posting on these message boards all season, but at this point I have had enough of the absolute rediculous antics going on here... And seeing the All-American team is the final straw.  I have seen the D3 Baseball top 25 throuought the year, and having seen many of these teams play there have been a case of severe over-rating.  When you look only at a team's record and do not take into account opponents you get severly over-rated teams(For example:Salisbury who was 40-4 but could not win thier regional)  Now to get onto the All-American team. Whoever is in charge of that has made some grave mistakes.

I realize that it is a complex assignment, but there has been some big omissions. By putting stats on there for each player, it allows for some debate. First off Kurt Yacko from Chapman...how is a 6-0 pitcher with 14 saves, 68 K's in 54 IP and a 0.60 ERA not a first team All-American? Lets not forget he also had 10 hr, 11 2B, 4 3B, and 46 RBI for a team he led to Appleton. From where I am looking he should have had player of the year consideration.  A second travesty is that Tom Dimitroff from Piedmont was not a first team All-American with a 7-2 record. (the 2 losses were to World Series bound Adrian and nationally ranked Depauw) Dimitroff's season included a nation's best 14 saves and 32 appearences. (Tied an NCAA Division III national record for appearences)  In addition to the wins, saves, and appearences Dimitroff also had 73 strikeouts in 62 innings of work.  The strikeouts were comparable to the strikeout totals for serveal of the starting pitchers on the All-American teams.

These examples beg the question is there any thought put into this or is it mearly picking out of a hat.  I feel like the schedule strength of many of these teams is not taken into consieration.  Chapman and Piedmont played very tough schedules. We did see this year that the ABCA top 25 can be much different than the D3 baseball top 25 and seemingly alot closer to accurate at least in my opinion.  The ABCA poll seemed to be more accurate from the first poll they published until now.

Thank you for hearing me out. I appreciate the work that you and your staff have put into D3 baseball this year, it just seems that some things have been overlooked.