BB: SCAC: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[infielddad]

2a)  While recognizing that getting drafted is a low probability for D3 players, with Millsaps I think you'd have to look at Hunter Owen and Tait Hendrix.  Hunter's numbers "slumped" early last year when Millsaps couldn't find enough consistent hitting to put in front or behind him.

I need infielddad and others to jump in here,

but I believe that a scout would much rather evaluate the quality of a player when pitchers are pitching around him.  How does he take what is offered and start the rally?  What is the "plate discipline" that he demonstrates?

Thanks.

Ralph, I would tend to agree with you.  Professional evaluations of hitters at the DIII level can be pretty hard.
Certainly, if you are not even seeing pitches in the strike zone, showing that type of plate discipline is helpful, to an extent.  I think the scouts would prefer to see a hitter who makes the guy in front and behind him better hitters and then takes his AB's seeing the best pitches in the best locations and succeeds in any count.
At the professional level/DI level, scouts know hitters are going to see better pitches, and will see them in any count.  They have to be able to translate what they might be seeing at the DIII level with what they know exists when the velocity is 88-93, with breaking balls/sliders and change ups that can always be thrown for strikes, and that always look the same out of the hand.
Thus, if the guys hitting in front and behind you at the DIII level cause you to get better pitches, a scout might look at that as a downside.
For our son and Nick Vera, I think the fact the Trinity coaches put them in top summer wood bat leagues and they hit around .300 and above made a huge difference.  For our son, scouts told him it  took out  the guesswork and helped them be able to project(of course he didn't like some of the projections, but they turned out to be wrong.)  It also made them much better hitters, in any situation.
I don't know if Hunter Owen has played with wood.  Personally, I think that could have hurt Wetzel.  He had tremendous tools and was physically very, very impressive.  But he struggled with the transition to wood and you don't get many chances in professional ball if you do.
If Owen has had success with wood, he is much less of a risk than trying to judge solely off what he does in DIII with aluminum.

[Krakatoa]

Just about a month to go.  Trinity will tangle early with UT-Tyler, on 2/7 and 2/8. That will be a fun pair to watch.

[historymajor]

IF UT-T has the facillities to support our streaming video, you WILL be able to watch it...  I'm checking with their SID to confirm whether they have the internet connection.

[frank_ezelle]

I saw the Millsaps guys out on the field when leaving the Sunday basketball games.  Millsaps opens up with 3 games on the weekend of Feb. 6-8, a round-robin series with LaGrange, U. of the Ozarks, and Rhodes.  There's not really much up on the Millsaps baseball season at the moment but Rhodes has a preview up on their baseball home page:

http://www.rhodeslynx.com/index.asp?path=baseball

[ILVBB]

Trinity recently posted their 2009 schedule, they have 8 home conference games and 12 road confernce games. You would think everyone would be able to play 10 home and 10 road conference games. Do other teams have unbalanced home/road schedules?

[Bmo]

Strange conference scheduling.  Southwestern has all of its 3 games series at home this year, Trinity has all of the 2 game series at home, and everyone else has a mix. 

Also looks like the conference tournament has changed format again this year to a 3 day schedule.  Anyone know the format?

[wishbone ash]

Oglethorpe plays 9 on the road and 6 at home. Is Birmingham Southern eligible for postseason play this year?

[frank_ezelle]

Hunter Owen of Millsaps has been named on the D3Baseball preseason All-American team.  I believe he is the only SCAC player on the list:  http://www.d3baseball.com/

Millsaps has a 2009 Preview posted on the baseball home page:  http://www.millsaps.edu/athletic/baseball/09Preview.shtml

I did not realize that the SCAC Baseball Tournament will be held in Jackson this year and when I look at the Millsaps baseball schedule I see no weekend reserved for the crossover series.  Is it back to the top 3 from each side go to a 6-team tournament?

[HeadingForHome]

Oglethorpe plays 9 on the road and 6 at home. Is Birmingham Southern eligible for postseason play this year?

Answer - Birmingham Southern isnt eligible for postseason play.

Hunter Owen of Millsaps has been named on the D3Baseball preseason All-American team.  I believe he is the only SCAC player on the list:  http://www.d3baseball.com/

Millsaps has a 2009 Preview posted on the baseball home page:  http://www.millsaps.edu/athletic/baseball/09Preview.shtml

I did not realize that the SCAC Baseball Tournament will be held in Jackson this year and when I look at the Millsaps baseball schedule I see no weekend reserved for the crossover series.  Is it back to the top 3 from each side go to a 6-team tournament?

Answer:  It is back to the top 3 from each side and the 6 team double elimination tournment I believe.

[frank_ezelle]

The new website for Millsaps athletics went online yesterday.  Check it out and note that there is a box on the lower right where you can sign up for the sports e-newsletter.

Link:  http://www.gomajors.com/

(And thanks for that answer HeadingForHome--your D3 message board name makes me think of the Meat Loaf song "Paradise by the Dashboard Light"--"He's heading for home, I think he's going to make it")

[infielddad]

Frank,
Thank you for the link.  The new website is a beauty and, in my view, very much adds to the sports/baseball program at Millsaps.
The Trinity athletic website, to me at least, is very much the opposite.  Luckily, historymajor uses his IT talents to bring live coverage for most baseball games.  Other than Bob's efforts, the site itself no longer reflects the quality of the program. 

[lynxbackstop]

Looks like this message board could use a voice for the Lynx in '09...its still early but this team looks very talented, and Coach C has more depth at each position than ever before. Having played at every field in the SCAC except Austin and Birm. Southern, I think the newly renovated field is now one of the top facilities in the conference.  Too bad for the freshly retired Lynx it came a year late... 

[Krakatoa]

Trinity has posted its 2009 team preview. 

[Jack Parkman]

16-0 in high school....a high school in Illinois where you probably dont play a ton of games.....crazy

[frank_ezelle]

Regarding last 3 posts:

1)  Link to Trinity 2009 preview:  http://www.trinity.edu/departments/athletics/Baseball/preview_recap.htm

2)  In reading the preview you will see that it is Northwestern University transfer Eric Binder who went 16-0 during his senior year in high school.  Regardless of the level of competition, that's something you don't see often and it appears to be a misprint in the Trinity preview based on this link from the Northwestern website:  http://nusports.cstv.com/sports/m-basebl/mtt/binder_eric00.html

3)  In defense of the SID's around the SCAC and other D3 leagues, I have to believe that most are tremendously overworked during the bulk of the school year and that is a huge factor in the lack of an impressive website at many schools.  Plus, they often have their hands tied as they have to conform to a standard template that doesn't work well for sports or they have limited access to making changes on the sports website. 

When I first started taking photos at Millsaps, the SID position was a part-time job that didn't even pay half of a decent salary.  It was a great day when that position became a full-time job and Millsaps hired Kevin Maloney, but he was one person trying to do the job of at least two.  The SID at Millsaps is responsible for a tremendous amount of game day preparation at each sporting event, and in the fall and the spring there are often 5 or 6 sporting events over a weekend.  After making sure that the sporting events are hosted properly, the SID still has to write the story, get the stats posted and reported to the SCAC, the newspapers, etc. 

All I have to go by is Millsaps, but I've seen Kevin put in more than 40 hours of hard work over the Friday-Sunday stretch many, many times, and then he still has the rest of the week where he is worrying about media guides, requests from local home town newspapers, and a ton of other jobs that fall into his lap.  Fortunately, Millsaps hired a second full-time staff member for the SID department this year and that has worked out great.  It is money well spent because doing a good job of promoting the athletics is a great way to promote the school, and for most SCAC schools the athletes make up a significant part of the student population.  A strong SID department is money well spent on deserving athletes and on recruiting for the school in general and I think the vast majority of school administrations fail to see this point.