BB: MIAC: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[supermiac]

While  Carleton is not as strong as last year, the team is better than you would think from the scores - perhaps should have played only five or six days instead of seven in Arizona. It was good for the hitters to face good pitching and to have lots of innings to work on fielding/defense , but not good for pitchers stats. With so many innings to play in a short time they had to stretch arms to go longer in these games. Starting pitchers looked good through 5 or 6 innings, but were just left in one inning too long or were pitching on too little rest.  They will bounce back in MIAC.

Maybe, we'll see. Their pitching has been absolutely horrendous so far though; and most other MIAC teams have gone through the same strenuous schedule over their spring break trips without the sort of numbers CAR has been showing.

On a different note, what is going on with St. Olaf? Getting swept by Bowdoin, losing to Colby (a pretty bad team), and then Chicago (an even worse team that St. Thomas clobbered in a DH while tossing 2 new pitchers). The only "bright spot" of their trip so far has been the 16k strikeout performance by Hughes today. Even there is something fishy about that when you check out the box score:

http://www.stolaf.edu/athletics/baseball/media/2009-10/box/sto-ec1.htm

Why in the world is Hughes throwing a 9 IP CG, giving up 4 runs, 12 hits and a bunch of K's this early in the year in a blowout? If you use a pitch count estimator, the box score puts him roughly at 170-175. WHAT?!

[MIACLUV]

When it comes to Florida schedules, you're very limited in choosing your schedule. You have to matchup with who's there at the time so it really depends on who's spring break matches up with yours. It's a good chance for the Tommies to get all these young arms in the mix and see what they can do. So far so good.

[MIACLUV]

Is it too early to say that the Oles staff is abyzmal? Outside of Hughes and Dzurak, the rest of that staff is in trouble. Agneberg may be feeling the effect of last years use. Anybody have an idea if he's hurt, it's the only thing that makes sense.

[MIACLUV]

Hooray! The Oles are .500 again!

[tommiegun]

"St. Thomas won all eight NCAA games in Florida to improve its season record to 13-1. During the trip, the Tommies outscored opponents 88-18, outhit them 110-46 and batted near .340 over 64 innings. St. Thomas pitchers allowed only 13 earned runs and the defense had only 11 errors."

A great week, but this is a little disconcerting.

[MIACLUV]

Is Augsburg for real or do they just put it together for a game or two at a time. Anytime you beat Murray you've done something right!

[tmerton]

Scores from today - at UST:

SJU 2 - UST 1
UST 3 - SJU 2

[OshDude]

Congrats to CCM's Bucky Burgau for earning his 600th win today.

[MIACLUV]

Based on what we see right now, I'm going to throw out the first MIAC tourny predictions:

1) St. Thomas
2) St. Johns (yes, I know they got swept by Conc)
3) Conc. Moor
4) Augsburg

Not liking the schedule for the Oles, but I still give them a shot to sneak in.

[tommiegun]

My first stab, espn.com "Bubble Watch" style:

Locks: St. Thomas
Should be In: Concordia, St. John's
Work Left to Do: St. Olaf, Augsburg

Outside Looking In: Hamline, Macalester, Carleton
Fuggedaboutit: St. Mary's, Gustavus, Bethel

[tmerton]

Based on what we see right now, I'm going to throw out the first MIAC tourny predictions:

1) St. Thomas
2) St. Johns (yes, I know they got swept by Conc)
3) Conc. Moor
4) Augsburg

Not liking the schedule for the Oles, but I still give them a shot to sneak in.

According to the email I received from SJU, they split with the Cobbers.

[supermiac]

The Cobbers and Johnnies are looking very good early on. The Johnnies big recruiting class is really showing its strength along with its veterans. They aren't a team that will wow people will big talent, but they are very solid. I would put them, Concordia and USt in the playoffs now if I had to decide who was in. The fourth could really go to anyone, it's a complete crapshoot at this point. Although I'm somewhat surprised by the success Concordia is having, given they graduated some pretty good players, they really are playing well. Some good seasons being produced by several of their plays already.

ON A SIDE NOTE: I got to see the pitching matchup of the year today in the DH between USt and Mac. I linked the box score and am waiting on the Tommie SID to release his full recap of the game.

http://athletics.macalester.edu/custompages/baseball_statistics/stats10/0413-st1.htm

Mac- 5
USt- 2

Murrey and Schuld both throw complete games and the game was played very cleanly on both sides. Schuld was pretty pinpoint on his control early on like usual, but just didn't really have anything in terms of offspeed. His change up looked good for the most part, but he got behind in counts alot and the Macalaster hitters did well putting the ball in play in their big inning. Overall, I wasn't really impressed though and have seen him pitch much better than this on numerous occasions.

Murrey had several instances where he got behind in counts early in the game, but worked through them and cruised through the middle and late innings before giving up a couple runs in the last frame. In terms of stuff, his is simply better than Schuld's. Fastball looked harder (doesn't spot it nearly as well though), breaking pitches were a league above Schuld's... Change-up wise not really sure if he threw any to be honest. If he did, they didn't seem particularly effective. Overall, he was simply the better pitcher today. However, there's no doubt in my mind that these two are the best in the region especially considering how "down" the WIAC pitching seems to be compared to years past.

[OshDude]

The Cobbers and Johnnies are looking very good early on. The Johnnies big recruiting class is really showing its strength along with its veterans. They aren't a team that will wow people will big talent, but they are very solid. I would put them, Concordia and USt in the playoffs now if I had to decide who was in. The fourth could really go to anyone, it's a complete crapshoot at this point. Although I'm somewhat surprised by the success Concordia is having, given they graduated some pretty good players, they really are playing well. Some good seasons being produced by several of their plays already.

ON A SIDE NOTE: I got to see the pitching matchup of the year today in the DH between USt and Mac. I linked the box score and am waiting on the Tommie SID to release his full recap of the game.

http://athletics.macalester.edu/custompages/baseball_statistics/stats10/0413-st1.htm

Mac- 5
USt- 2

Murrey and Schuld both throw complete games and the game was played very cleanly on both sides. Schuld was pretty pinpoint on his control early on like usual, but just didn't really have anything in terms of offspeed. His change up looked good for the most part, but he got behind in counts alot and the Macalaster hitters did well putting the ball in play in their big inning. Overall, I wasn't really impressed though and have seen him pitch much better than this on numerous occasions.

Murrey had several instances where he got behind in counts early in the game, but worked through them and cruised through the middle and late innings before giving up a couple runs in the last frame. In terms of stuff, his is simply better than Schuld's. Fastball looked harder (doesn't spot it nearly as well though), breaking pitches were a league above Schuld's... Change-up wise not really sure if he threw any to be honest. If he did, they didn't seem particularly effective. Overall, he was simply the better pitcher today. However, there's no doubt in my mind that these two are the best in the region especially considering how "down" the WIAC pitching seems to be compared to years past.

Agreed that the MIAC has the top two starters this year. I think that was the consensus heading into the year, with Salazar somewhere in the top three.

The WIAC has its aces (Williams-UWSP, Hooper-UWW, Wink-UW-Sup). I have not seen the BLC transfers and Dorris this year, but they could be in the "so-far" top five SP's in the MW Region conversation with Salazar from Aurora, Adams and Lewis from CSS, Jusk from CUC, Pankow from CUW and Chepil from Lakeland.

[MIACLUV]

This is just getting ridiculous, Schuld gives the Tommies a chance to win and the middle infield kicks 4. Last time I checked Parade Stadium isn't a gravel infield. This is a program built on pitching and defense and when the starting middle infielders have 19 errors on the season, ITS A PROBLEM. Especially when 10 of the 26 games have been on turf. Get it together!

[biggio34]

This conference race is shaping up to be an exciting finish...

School            MIAC           Overall
Concordia      7-3              16-11
St. Olaf          7-3              16-12
St. Thomas    8-4              21-5
Saint John's   8-4              15-14
Augsburg       7-5             14-16
Hamline         5-5             11-18
Carleton        5-7             9-20
Gustavus       4-6            12-14
Saint Mary's   4-8           11-20
Macalester     3-7-0        16-12-1
Bethel            2-8           14-14