BB: ASC: American Southwest Conference

[CUAfan]

And I do believe that you can win 25 games without being very good when you play brutal teams before conference.

I did a quick once-over of UMHB's schedule, and I wouldn't necessarily call it "brutal." Out of conference, they swept 3 games against Trinity and won their game against Texas Wesleyan (a 30-win NAIA team). They also swept ETBU and took one from Ozarks. Getting into the ASC West, they've gone 2-1 against SRSU, HSU, McMurry, TLU, and Schreiner; only Concordia's beaten them more than twice on a weekend (swept them, obviously). While they had some other games I didn't look into much, that still adds up to 19 of their 25 wins. While it's not the hardest schedule ever by any means, I don't think you can really call it "brutal".

[fungoman]

Not to mention, didn't UMHB take 2 of 3 from my McMurry Indians, a team that went on to take 2 of 3 from CTX?  I have never been a fan of UMHB, but give credit where it is due, you don't win games in this conference unless you can play some ball.

I am sure as with most of the teams that have lost to umhb that MCM took them lightly since they have not been very competitive over the last few years.  And I do believe that you can win 25 games without being very good when you play brutal teams before conference.

I am not so sure that anyone takes a team nationally ranked lightly, so that comment doesn't make any sense. I have not seen UMHB play, but I have seen Concordia, and quite honestly I was not impressed. Maybe the whole west is just overrated?

I see the Concordia fans that were MIA for 2 weeks are back on the board, except for HAMBONE. Did daddy tell you to quit posting? So you call up your boyfriend David White to post for you? It really is quite funny.

Heading to Mississippi this weekend to bring home the East division champion again. Should be a good series, but I am predicting a Tyler sweep in 3 close games.

[HAMBONE]

Not to mention, didn't UMHB take 2 of 3 from my McMurry Indians, a team that went on to take 2 of 3 from CTX?  I have never been a fan of UMHB, but give credit where it is due, you don't win games in this conference unless you can play some ball.

I am sure as with most of the teams that have lost to umhb that MCM took them lightly since they have not been very competitive over the last few years.  And I do believe that you can win 25 games without being very good when you play brutal teams before conference.

I am not so sure that anyone takes a team nationally ranked lightly, so that comment doesn't make any sense. I have not seen UMHB play, but I have seen Concordia, and quite honestly I was not impressed. Maybe the whole west is just overrated?

I see the Concordia fans that were MIA for 2 weeks are back on the board, except for HAMBONE. Did daddy tell you to quit posting? So you call up your boyfriend David White to post for you? It really is quite funny.

Heading to Mississippi this weekend to bring home the East division champion again. Should be a good series, but I am predicting a Tyler sweep in 3 close games.

I have been absent because i actually do have a life.  I wouldnt necessarily call it MIA as I dont remember ever missing any role-call.  In fact the only action that really went on since my last post was my tornados sweeping the most un-sweepable team in college baseball....and i was present for that, so i have been PftA (Present for the Action)...Fungoman it sounds like you are a little jealous that David White is my friend and not yours...he is actually not my boyfriend, he is married, but I can see how you might be confused since we played together and dominated together.  And as of now my boyfriend and I still have rings that say West Regional Champs....something you dont have.

[Jack Parkman]

D35W-  I have said it before but until the ASC sends teams to the WOrld Series on a regular basis they are not going to be considered the top in the nation.  There are many good teams in TX but the only time the ASC made a W.S. trip the went 2&Q so it obviously isn't that easy to just go to WI and beat the Northern schools.

[Ralph Turner]

The biggest difference that I think we see in the ASC versus other parts of the country is that those teams that get to WI have very dominating pitching from very deep pitching staffs.

I wonder if those very good teams such as Cortland St or the Wisconsin teams or the NJAC teams or the Little East Conference teams such as Keene State or Eastern Connecticut State have their pitching talent diluted as we do in Texas.

We have sixteen D-III's in Texas, another 10 NAIA's, another dozen D-II's and 50-60 NJCAA's all needing more pitching than they have now.

If we had that dominating pitching down here, then we might have gotten to the D-III World Series more often than once! 

[TexasBB]

I think the ASC has a very competitive conference that can stand with any in the country.  They have had 3 teams this year that have been ranked in the top 25. Also the West was particularly rough this year. The pitching in the East is a bit deeper with UTT and Ozarks. Generally each team in the West has one good starter then a committee. McMurrry's bats however are exceptional. Their top 5 batters have great stats with 4 hitting over .400 and the 5th over .380. They also have an unbelievable slugging percentage, total home runs and RBIs.  They may be able to overcome the lack of pitching depth with their potenet offense. UTT is all around solid. No big boomers but as a whole alot of offense and the best defense to go along with the best pitching staff in the conference. They have on paper anyway the best chance in the Regionals (assuming they get there).  Vilade had great teams at UD in the past but has never won a conference tournament. Will he succeed this year?

The problem this year as in past years will be getting by Chapman. I think one of the ASC teams will be battling Chapman for the Regional Title. The question is can the ASC get by them this year. If we can I think we can win it all.

Call me the eternal optimist or just a too eager fan but I truely believe it is possible.

[Jack Parkman]

Oh come on Ralph, are you trying to tel me that there is too much competition in TX with 200+ schools

[hsusid]

I think the ASC offensively can stand with any conference, but I don't think it can with the pitching.

Those good teams in the East have 5-6 pro type arms and we see maybe 5-6 pro type arms every 10 years. The offense in the league is so good, because the pitching has been so mediocre as whole. Especially past the top starter in everyone's staff.

I think every team in the league would struggle to hit someone that throws consistently at 87-89 and can throw a curve ball for a strike. We don't see any of those type arms and that is what the good teams in Division III have.

[TexasBB]

UTT has 5 arms in the velocity range you are talking about. Booher is in the low 90s, Holland and Cambell in the upper 80s and Ziegler and Munchrath in the mid to upper 80s. They also have a couple of other relievers in the Mid 80s. So velocity and good stuff is not an issue with that staff. They are ranked 6th in the nation so they are a legitimate contender. Will they live up to expectations.

In so far as having watered down pitching, I am a former Ohio native and that state has 20 Div III schools, 4 DIV II and 13 DIV I schools playing baseball not to mention JUCO and NAIA Schools with they also have. That state has less than 1/2 the population as Texas and far less kids playing baseball year round. So I don't buy the water down arguement.  I am sure Spence would have a field day with someone argueing that the poor Texans have too many schools.

So I would not go there. We lost because we can't get past a tough regional.  Baseball in the ASC in the past 5 years is much tougher than it was in the mid 90s.
We lost in the past because of being in a tough region and not having the overall tallent. Now we have the talent - no excuses.

[Ralph Turner]

Oh come on Ralph, are you trying to tell me that there is too much competition in TX with 200+ schools

Yeah, and every pitching staff tries to have 3-4 quality arms, at minimum!

And the guys that are thinking pro ball are going to the "developmental JUCO's" that we have in the state "on scholarship"  !

I think the ASC offensively can stand with any conference, but I don't think it can with the pitching.

Those good teams in the East have 5-6 pro type arms and we see maybe 5-6 pro type arms every 10 years. The offense in the league is so good, because the pitching has been so mediocre as whole. Especially past the top starter in everyone's staff.

I think every team in the league would struggle to hit someone that throws consistently at 87-89 and can throw a curve ball for a strike. We don't see any of those type arms and that is what the good teams in Division III have.

Great Post, hsusid!

Good luck to the Cowboys this weekend! 

[Ralph Turner]

Does anyone know when the trading deadline is for D3?

What would it take to get Mark Cox as another arm in rotation for the playoffs?

[hsusid]

UTT has 5 arms in the velocity range you are talking about. Booher is in the low 90s, Holland and Cambell in the upper 80s and Ziegler and Munchrath in the mid to upper 80s. They also have a couple of other relievers in the Mid 80s. So velocity and good stuff is not an issue with that staff. They are ranked 6th in the nation so they are a legitimate contender. Will they live up to expectations.

I will add my thoughts to that after the season.   

In so far as having watered down pitching, I am a former Ohio native and that state has 20 Div III schools, 4 DIV II and 13 DIV I schools playing baseball not to mention JUCO and NAIA Schools with they also have. That state has less than 1/2 the population as Texas and far less kids playing baseball year round. So I don't buy the water down arguement.  I am sure Spence would have a field day with someone argueing that the poor Texans have too many schools.

FYI, those Ohio teams aren't competing for and winning national titles in any level but Division III. Texas has teams all over the national rankings and competing for national titles. When is the last time an Ohio team won a national title in baseball.

Just a little flaw to your numbers as well. In Texas there are 36 JUCOs, in Ohio there are six. Those pro type guys are going to JUCOs, whereas those protype guys in Ohio are filtering to Division IIIs. BTW, there are 12 NAIAs in Texas and 9 in Ohio, there are 10 Division II teams in Texas and 3 in Ohio and there are 18 Division I teams in Texas and 13 in Ohio. That makes 76 scholarship schools in Texas and 31 in Ohio. I will admit there are more players in Texas, but you look on almost every roster in scholarship baseball and there are Texas players on that roster.

So not only do we fill Texas' schools rosters up, we also fill up a lot of other schools in the country. Every scholarship school is spending time in Texas every summer. 

So I would not go there. (I went there with facts to back it up). We lost because we can't get past a tough regional (it has been the same team, so I wouldn't say it is the regional it is Chapman and it is not like they have torn up the Series except the year they won it).  Baseball in the ASC in the past 5 years is much tougher (I don't know if I agree with that, early 00's Schreiner, UMHB and TLU were all still coming off scholarships, Vilade had UD going, MC was very good, McMurry had some legit teams) than it was in the mid 90s. (There was no ASC in the mid 90's.)

We lost in the past because of being in a tough region and not having the overall tallent. Now we have the talent - no excuses.

I am anxious to see what the ASC rep does in the regional. That Concordia team had great arms, that is why they went to the World Series. Berkman, Chavez and Gardner were a legit 1-2-3. No one else before or since then has had that. 

[TexasBB]

I still don't buy the lack of arms.  The Ohio Schools have the same issue - lots of teams to spread around a thin talent pool. We have more schools but the talent pool is much larger.  The same arguement can be made about hitters but we seem to have good hitting. The fact that we have so many JUCOs means that there is alot of potential talent to pick up besides from HS. In Ohio the DIII are primarily using HS talent and forced to develop that talent in-house over a short 40 game season. Many of our ASC schools make heavy use of JUCO talent including pitchers  that have been used for 2 years against quality JUCO teams. Most of the JUCO pithchers do not go on to DIV I or II programs. So alot of quality is available. Here in the metro-plex we have several quality DIV III Jucos and UTD and UTT as well as other ASC teams make heavy use of that talent pool just look at their rosters and see how many are JUCO transfers.

So the talent pool is available between the graduating HS players and the JUCOs their is a bunch to pick from.  Some schools recruit better than others and those that can consitantly recruit well have the better programs. Vilade at UTT is one of those that is very good at recruiting JUCO talent. He did the same thing when he was at UD.  Since he left the later program it has dropped considerably. Those are two very different schools from a cost standpoint. Recruiting abilitynot lack of pitching ability is where I would focus my attention. 

[All-AmericanFan]

Ok here's my opinion from watching D3 baseball for the last ten years, up until when was it 2005 when the extra week of playoffs were added? Before then the ASC champion would have a two and a week lay off before it played in the regional, and any player hitter taking that long off would struggle to keep his timing, pitch selection/ discipline in my opinion. Now, the champs still have to wait about 10-12 days, which is a long time for a baseball player (consider the MLB all-star BREAK is only 3 days).

I dont think ASC have struggled due to pitching depth, take the TLU teams of 2005 and 2006 as example, they had plenty of pitching. Co-Freshman of the year in 2004, Brian Wallace, didn't see much time for TLU on the mound in 2005 or 2006 due to the depth.

Plain and simple, Chapman has figured out a way to compete to win the regional year after year. In 2005, they won about 4 games in a row with their backs against the wall. Only the CUA team of 2002, yes we know HAMBONE your team, have pulled off playing well and winning the tournament. The ASC champ will just have to learn how to stay focused and determined to win despite the long lay off

[TexasBB]

Just to demonstrate where the talent comes from I took a look at the rosters of 4 teams. Two in Ohio from the NCAC - Wooster and Denison who are the respective division leaders in that conference. From the ASC I took UTT and McMurry also the division leaders.

Here is what you find.
                                          Denison        Wooster          UTT         McMurry
Total Roster                              26             32                 36               38
Transrers from JUCO or other     0               1                  22               16
Recruits from HS                        26             31                 14               22
Freshman                                  12               8                    5                8
Soph                                           7              13                    8               5
Juniors                                        3                4                  15              13
Seniors                                       4                7                    8               12

Very interesting to say the least. The two good Ohio schools are almost exclusivly made up of HS recruits and are predominantly made up of under classman. The two Texas programs are bigger and made up of a considerable number of Juco transfers. Also the Texas schools are predominantly upper class heavy.

That tells me that the two Texas schools use the JUCOs like a JV.  You would think that with that heavy of JUCO laden talent and being mostly upper classman that they would dominate the two Ohio schools. It would give the appearance of a varsity vs a JV type environment.  Bigger Rosters more transfers and more upper classman.   So what is the excuse?