BB: ASC: American Southwest Conference

[Just_Some_Guy]

Speaking as an ASC fan, second question for you or anyone else...

We didn't see UT-Tyler in the playoffs until this year.  Exclude 2007 UTT and before.  Therefore, which have been the best 3-5 pitching staffs, by season,  that we have seen in this decade?

I'll just mentioned this since we're excluding the 2007 and before UTT squad briefly. The 2007 UTT squad had quite possible the best staff in the last decade. They still had Campbell, Booher, and Holland who I like, but I wouldn't consider the best weekend rotation of the last decade, but the depth of that bullpen with Jennings, Johnson, McClure, Stutts, and Burnett was as impressive as any I've seen in D3.

CUA had a tough 3 when they had Chavez, Berkman, and Gordon...Did Steve Smith overlap with those guys one year?

TLU was stout last year with Besa, Enloe, Hull, and then Wesson, Yager, Conley, and Hembree out of the pen. Had Newman pitched like he had the rest of his TLU career, that staff probably rivals the 2007 UTT Tyler staff.

TLU also had solid staffs when they Hunn, Newman, Wallace, Enloe w/ Paras closing the door.

McM had some good pitchers come through, but never really 3 really solid weekend guys all at one time. The best year might've been 2004 with Josh Lee, Nick Shafer, and Scott Meurer. Erickson, McClure and Carrizales were solid out of the pen. The thing about that is Meurer has a better year in 2005, Erickson in 2006, and Shafter in 2007.

I know that both Miss and TLU has some solid staffs prior to the 2003-2004 season. I was surprised HSU didn't have one that stood out to me, but it seems like Coach Coleman has always done it without the filthy staff. Even when Rucker, Lay, Bishop and Tabor were all together in 2005 and then the next year with Alcorn's first year, the staff collectively (Rucker excluded) was fairly average.

JSG

[Ralph Turner]

ASC SPRING 2008 DISTINGUISHED SCHOLAR-ATHLETE TEAM

(+Sport's Distinguished Scholar-Athlete)

BASEBALL
Name                             School                           Cl.           Major                        GPA           Hometown

Nick Cmerek                Concordia Texas         Jr.            Business Admin       4.0              Austin, TX
Mark Cox                        Texas-Dallas                   Gr.           MBA                           3.35             Coldspring, TX
Robby Finnell                 Ozarks                             Sr.           Political Science          3.55             Tulsa, OK

Adam Froeschl                Mary Hardin-Baylor       Sr.           Political Science          3.35             Buda, TX
Bryan George                  Louisiana College            Sr.           Biology                       3.36             Bossier City, LA

Brett Holland                   Texas-Tyler                     Jr.            Health & Kinesiology        3.49             Lindale, TX

Ray Martinez                   Schreiner                         Jr.            Biochemistry               3.34             Boerne, TX
Ryan Nokelby                 Texas Lutheran                So.           Pre-Engineering          3.88             Santa Fe, TX

Monte Piper                    Sul Ross State                 So.           History                        4.0               Houston, TX
Kyle Pope                       East Texas Baptist           So.           Accounting                  3.89             Longview, TX

Blake Shaffer                  Howard Payne                Jr.            Ex. and Sport Science 3.35             Brownwood, TX

+ Brent Voorhees            McMurry                        Sr.           Mathematics                3.91             Abilene, TX

Eric Wait                         LeTourneau                     So.           Biology                       3.74             White Oak, TX
R.C. Waters                     Hardin-Simmons             Sr.           Art                               3.93             Mesquite, TX

Tyler Williams                 Mississippi College         Sr.           Marketing                    3.58             Ridgeland, MS

From the ASC website.

[WLCALUM83]

Jonathan Miller (Concordia-TX alum) got off the schneid big time last night:

http://www.rivercityrascals.com/cgi-bin/dist/news.cgi?id=1210948751

[Josh Bowerman]

I'm not sure it's really good form to list specific players and their injuries--and/or speculation regarding their futures in this forum...

But, moving on...

Congrats to McMurry's Derek David--again.  This time for being featured in this week's issue of Sports Illustrated (the one with Josh Hamilton on the cover).  He's listed in the "Faces in the Crowd" section as a result of his consecutive games with a home run feat.

[mcm_sid]

Might start following that draft tracker on ESPN.com late today and tomorrow - could be a couple of ASC names show up. And possibly three from Abilene Christian, had to throw that in there, being an alum

http://reporternews.com/news/2008/jun/04/high-hopes-for-watten-other-locals-in-baseball/

ACU's (DII) Trey Watten drafted in 7th round by Brewers

West Region's first pick (DIII) Kurt Yacko - Chapman (8th Round - Colorado Rockies)

[Pat Coleman]

This would've been cool to know about a month ago while it was going on. Sorry if it was mentioned here and I missed it.

http://www.d3baseball.com/notables/2008/06/05/5656/letourneau-foursome-roadtrips-for-the-cure.html

[mcm_sid]

Another West Region player from Chapman just went: Mike Vass, RF, 35th round (1,058th overall). Vass was on the all-tournament team for the West Region Tournament at McM

[mcm_sid]

Might start following that draft tracker on ESPN.com late today and tomorrow - could be a couple of ASC names show up. And possibly three from Abilene Christian, had to throw that in there, being an alum

http://reporternews.com/news/2008/jun/04/high-hopes-for-watten-other-locals-in-baseball/

ACU's (DII) Trey Watten drafted in 7th round by Brewers

West Region's first pick (DIII) Kurt Yacko - Chapman (8th Round - Colorado Rockies)

After Vass, came Evan Bronson of Trinity (Tex.) he was picked in the 36th round by the Brewers (1,088th overall); Bronson was also on the all-tournament team at the NCAA West Regional at McMurry

[mcm_sid]

Might start following that draft tracker on ESPN.com late today and tomorrow - could be a couple of ASC names show up. And possibly three from Abilene Christian, had to throw that in there, being an alum

http://reporternews.com/news/2008/jun/04/high-hopes-for-watten-other-locals-in-baseball/

ACU's (DII) Trey Watten drafted in 7th round by Brewers

West Region's first pick (DIII) Kurt Yacko - Chapman (8th Round - Colorado Rockies)

After Vass, came Evan Bronson of Trinity (Tex.) he was picked in the 36th round by the Brewers (1,088th overall); Bronson was also on the all-tournament team at the NCAA West Regional at McMurry

1st ASC player goes in 48th Round! Brett Holand of UT-Tyler is the 1,435th overall pick to the Oakland A's.

[TexasBB]

A real good arguement against putting the over emphasis on the conference tournament as the determining the regional qualifyer is exemplified by Rice's march to the D-1 College World Series.  Rice was 0-2 in the Conference USA end of the season tournament and yet was picked by the D-1 selection committee to attend the regional. Rice beat Texas to advance to the super-regional and then beat Texas A&M to advance to the College World Series.  The winner of the conference USA tournament Houston was its 4th place team didn't get out of the regional. It beat Marshal the 6th ranked team to win the conference tournament and get the automatic berth to a regional. 

If D-1 used to the same logic as D-3 does Rice would not have received a berth in the Regionals and Conference USA would not have a representative in the College World Series.

I think it is time for the ASC to consider dropping the conference tournament. The  regional selection committee puts way too much emphasis on what a team does on that single weekend. Higher ranked teams are passed over and forgoten if they don't play up to "expectations" on that weekend.  A team like Rice going 0-2 would not be given a chance if they were under DIV-III selection criteria. (You would see them drop several places in the regional rankings (like what happened to UTT this year) and fall out of contention for an at large seleciotn.) D-I does not appear to put the same level of emphasis on the one weekend and thus does'nt penalize a team that has won all year if it doesn't meet expectations.

[hsusid]

So how do you propose getting a conference winner? We only have one automatic bid and two divisions. You can't play a 13-week round robin. You can't go by record, because the two sides are not equal in level of play.

If you can't win a four-team tournament how are you going to win a six or eight-team regional tournament or the eight-team World Series.

UTT and the other 13 teams in the league had the same chance of getting in. There is a sure fire way to get in the tournament and that is by winning the tournament and everyone else knows it. You should prepare your team for a tournament and not the regular season. Championships are won through a tournament at every level of college baseball, that is just the nature of the game.

The other way to get into the tournament is to schedule up and win with that schedule. UTD did that in the 2007 season and they were rewarded with a berth. If you play a quality Division III schedule and win 32-34 games you are going to get in. If you play a weak one with 35 wins you are not going to get in.

Those of us that have been around the conference have seen quality teams get left out of the NCAAs several times. UMHB in football, HSU in women's hoops, UTT in baseball and others. That is the chance you take when you don't win the automatic.

Going into every year you know the format and what it takes to get to the NCAA Tournament.

Now on a peronal level I would love to see Division III go to the Division I format in baseball. Four-team regionals and then a super regional. I think you would get more quality games that way and I love to watch good baseball.

[TexasBB]

Seriously the only other way of determing a confence champion is to hold a best of 3 playoff between the winners of each division. What I really doing was venting my frustration at the selection method that D-III uses as opposed to D-I. (I have done that before and know I have to get over it but it still bugs me to no end.) They need to go to an 8 team region.

I will respectfully disagree with your comments about UTD and its method of getting a berth. In 2007 UTD did not even win its division. If you recall they were swept by UTT and their W/L record and national ranking was lower in 2007  than UTTs was this past year. UTD also had the same record as UTT did in the confernce tournament 3-2 and did not make it to the finals. It was a strange confluance of events that got them in that are unlikely to repeat.  George Fox got in this year and their conference did not have a tournament. If the ASC did not have a tournament UTT would have been in and possibly also Ozarks. McMurry got in only due to their win in the conference tournament. They played a tougher schedule but also had over 15 losses. The W/L record would have kept them out.

[hsusid]

I don't think there is a lot of difference in the way that Division I does it compared to Division III. Rice would have been in the tournament even with a two and out situation in the CUSA Tournament.

The bottom line is that they both use the same criteria and one of those is your opponents winning percentage and your opponents' opponents winning percentage. When those two numbers are low you don't get in.

College of Charleston in Division I had 39 wins and was a very good team and they did not get in, why because their schedule was weak. Oklahoma in Division I had a 9-17-1 record in Big 12 play, finished eighth in the league and got into the tournament over the seventh and sixth place teams in the league.

Why? Strength of schedule.

I think the NCAA is doing its best to get the best teams in according to the rules that the members put in place.

I saw UTT eight or nine times this year and while I think they were good they were not any better or any worse than the six teams in the West regional. Could they have matched up? Yes. Could they have gone two and out? Yes. I don't think there was a big difference between Chapman and the other teams as far as talent. Their experience and one superstar out of the bull pen was the difference. He won them four close games. 

That said, I am not sure how good the West region stacks up with the rest of the country. It is pretty obvious with the results of the World Series the last eight or nine years, not very well.  Like I said in the debate during the season, the teams back East have better arms and pitching wins.

[TexasBB]

The representation of DIV I in Texas in the Regionals - 8 teams (Houston, Dallas Babtist, Texas A&M, Rice, Texas, Sam Houston State, Texas Southern, TCU) the representation in DIV III - 1 team (McMurry).  I realize that Texas has more teams in DIV I but that is a riduculous diffence 8-1. Only 6 teams are picked in the entire Western Region. Something needs to change. A regional with 8 teams spread into subregions of 4 like they do in DIV I would be a start.

[hsusid]

You have to look at where the teams in the Division are.

There are a lot more Division I teams West of the Mississippi than there are Division III teams.

The majority of Division III is in the northeast and the midwest. There might not have been six teams out of the Midwest and the Northeast in the whole DI Tournament.

It is all about geography.

BTW, Trinity and McMurry make two teams out of Texas in the tournament.