BB: NCAC: North Coast Athletic Conference

[Bishopleftiesdad]

Quite a list of assistant's. Craddock has been there fir what seems forever. 6 assistants, most are probably unpaid.

[Dr. Acula]

I would imagine Craddock is the coach-in-waiting.  He's already proved he can win as a HC and he's a Wooster guy.

Gamble is a good addition.  Reminds me of when Mount had the legendary Joe Gilhousen as an assistant.  There's no substitute for the years of experience guys like that bring.

[Bishopleftiesdad]

Wabash's pitching is going to be interesting this year. Looks like they are losing 173.1 innings out of 331.1. The biggest loss will be JT miller with 76 innings and 2.01 era. Of the pitchers left on the roster, they only have 84.2 innings pitched. The most being 18.2 by Jensen Kirch. The best ERA of the returners. with more than a few innings is 3.94.

[Bishopleftiesdad]

I am looking at Witt's Roster and it is pretty small. If Accurate it has 28 players. The Pitching staff has 12 players, of those 6 are also position players.
3 Sr
3 Jr
2 So
4 Fr
Tyler Powell who was a Freshman last year is not back He had the second most innings pitched. Hitt, Burgher, Haley and Black are all back.

http://www.wittenbergtigers.com/sports/bsb/2014-15/roster

[Bishopleftiesdad]

Hopefully Pitching depth will not be a problem for OWU, Out of 37 Players 18 are listed as Pitchers. Of those 12 are PO. They lose one pitcher that had meaningful innings. Only problem is that he was was the best performing pitcher last year, Greg Hock.
4 Sr two will probably be Conference game starters. 1 Weekday starter and one relief.
4 Jr, One a Conference starter and another possible week day starter (hard to say he is coming back from a surgery), An unknown (transfer), and a pitcher who has quite a few relief innings.
2 So, Both relievers.
8 Fr, One conference starter (my Guess) 2, weekday starters and relievers. A closer, and several unknowns.

There are going to be battling for innings. it should make for some good competition and Mott will have some options.

[Bishopleftiesdad]

One more thing this afternoon. With the new Ball I am interested in seeing how the diamonds in the NCAC give up HR. I know in the past left field at Littick was considered a launching pad. With the prevailing winds and the types of Hitters Ingles recruited lots of balls went over Left Field. Wooster should have even more HR this year. Every time I have been at Murray field the wind is blowing out. If that is usually the case more balls will be flying out this year than last.

Looking at Split stats for last year they hit 26 at home 3 away and 15 at neutral sites. Those numbers are going to go up.

[Pops33]

Wow that is quite a disparity....Looking at the Wooster split stats some more, they played only 6 games that were considered to be away (on the opponents' home field), 23 neutral site games and 15 homes games.  So the HR per game ratios are:

Home 26 HR / 15 games = 1.733 HR per game
Away

[Pops33]

Sorry, trouble with my ancient computer:
Wooster's HR ratio per game:

Home   26/15 = 1.733 per game
Away   3/6 = 0.5 HR per game
Neutral  15/23 = 0.65 HR per game

Apparently Pettorini is building his teams to take advantage of their home field conditions!!

I would like to see the split on HR given up by the Wooster pitchers home versus away to see if the ratios are dramatically increased at Art Murray Field.  My guess is yes.

[EttaFan1]

One more thing this afternoon. With the new Ball I am interested in seeing how the diamonds in the NCAC give up HR. I know in the past left field at Littick was considered a launching pad. With the prevailing winds and the types of Hitters Ingles recruited lots of balls went over Left Field. Wooster should have even more HR this year. Every time I have been at Murray field the wind is blowing out. If that is usually the case more balls will be flying out this year than last.

Looking at Split stats for last year they hit 26 at home 3 away and 15 at neutral sites. Those numbers are going to go up.

So I guess the NCAC is going to the new "flatter seam" balls this year, correct?  I wonder if the OAC is doing the same.  I'm torn on how I feel about this issue.  18 days until we find out (supposedly).

[Bishopleftiesdad]

Yes they are. I imagine most conferences are. Most schools used it some in the Fall I believe. OWU did not use it till almost the end of Fall. I am a pitchers Dad and I have waffled. My son though does not seem to mind. He has used this Ball over the summers and has been pretty successful.

[Bishopleftiesdad]

Sorry, trouble with my ancient computer:
Wooster's HR ratio per game:

Home   26/15 = 1.733 per game
Away   3/6 = 0.5 HR per game
Neutral  15/23 = 0.65 HR per game

Apparently Pettorini is building his teams to take advantage of their home field conditions!!

I would like to see the split on HR given up by the Wooster pitchers home versus away to see if the ratios are dramatically increased at Art Murray Field.  My guess is yes.

Oh I am sure he is. They get some decent loft on the ball.

[wally_wabash]

Was the ball change not adopted at all levels of the NCAA?  It seems kind of silly to have different equipment in different divisions. 

[Bishopleftiesdad]

Wally, originally it was just D1. But it has trickled down to all divisions. The new ball will be used in the regionals and CWS. Each conference was allowed to choose to adopt the new ball for the regular season. According to players I have talked to the NCAC will be using the new ball. OWU, started using the ball last fall during the non traditional  season.

[Bishopleftiesdad]

NCAC games already getting cancelled due to weather.

Wabash cancels games against Muskingum and Marietta due to weather:

http://sports.wabash.edu/schedule.aspx?path=baseball

Musky was set for 2/28 and Marietta was on 3/1.

Since Wabash is not the home team it was probably Musky and Marietta canceling,

[MC Pioneer Fan]

with the weather so cold and snowy, and even if it turns warm today, Coach Brewer said the field would not ready to play on at Marietta hopefully they will pick up some games in Fla in early March