BB: MIAC: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[d3ballguy]

Did anyone happen to take in either of the Bethel/Oskosh games this morning?
I realize it was extremely early but just curious.  I heard the games were pretty tight.
How did the teams look? Pitching, hitting, etc.  Could Bethel be a surprise team in the MIAC this year?

[Iluvd3BBALL]

I am on Bethel.  It was brutal waking up this morning so early.  Batting practice started at 3:45AM and the game started at 5:30.  The games were close.  OshKosh beat us in the first game 4-0, Travis Adams pitched a great game his only mistake was when he hung a change up and it got hit into the left field bleachers.  They scored some more runs later off of John Slick who came on in relief.  We couldn't get the timely hitting that we needed.  In game two Isaac Hamilton started his 3 game of the year off of 3 days rest.  He threw 6 innings and pitched excellent again for us.  It was a back and forth game and tied coming into the bottom of the 7th, 2-2.  Ethan Formo came in to close the game and a runner got on right away on a HBP.  He then advanced to second on a sacrafice bunt and then to third on a ball in the dirt.  He got another out, and with 1 strike on the batter a wild pitch ended the game.  We lost 2-3 and were swept by OshKosh, but I am happy with how we played and battled with the #10th ranked team in the nation.

[Gustie13]

MiacBaseballFan,

I don't have a comprehensive list like Jim's link, but here are the MIAC players I can think of that are still active in Pro ball:

Andrew Schmiessing, OF, StO, MN Twins
Chris Coste, C, Con, Phillies
Brian Whinnery, LHP, UST, StP Saints
your old teammate Foster
Charlie Ruud, RHP, StO, StP Saints
Brian Sprout, INF, StO, StP Saints
Tony Konicek, OF, GAC, Evansville
Casey Haugen, C, SJU, Winnipeg *just my 2 cents, but if this guys dad wasn't SJU's coach, would he be playing professional baseball???*
Zach Goldberg, C, UST, *not sure about this one. As far as I can tell Goldberg played for and was released from a number of Frontier League and American Assocation teams last year, don't know if he'll be playing again*

Good luck tonight vs Edgewood.

[miacbaseballfan]

Gustie13,

Thanks, great list; there were definitely a few guys on there I hadn't thought of.  The reason I asked was a friend and I were having a conversation about how the number of MIAC baseball alumni currently in pro ball compares to the number of Univ. of Minnesota baseball alumni currently in pro ball.

[d3ballguy]

Has anyone seen the 2008 MIAC preseason coaches poll that came out today?  Here it is:

1. St. Thomas (7)
2. St. Olaf (4)
3. Saint John's
4. Gustavus
5. Hamline
6. Augsburg
7. Concordia
8. Bethel
9. Macalester
10. Saint Mary's
11. Carleton

The top two seem to be pretty much set in stone.  Once again Bethel gets absolutely no respect. I would have had them top 5 for sure. Saint Johns probably gets a little too much respect considering I would say they overachieved a little last year. Gustavus just always hangs around those 3-5 spots in seems like. 

What are everyones thoughts on the rankings?

[BaseballFan]

Has anyone seen the 2008 MIAC preseason coaches poll that came out today?  Here it is:

1. St. Thomas (7)
2. St. Olaf (4)
3. Saint John's
4. Gustavus
5. Hamline
6. Augsburg
7. Concordia
8. Bethel
9. Macalester
10. Saint Mary's
11. Carleton

The top two seem to be pretty much set in stone.  Once again Bethel gets absolutely no respect. I would have had them top 5 for sure. Saint Johns probably gets a little too much respect considering I would say they overachieved a little last year. Gustavus just always hangs around those 3-5 spots in seems like. 

What are everyones thoughts on the rankings?

Well Here are my thoughts. This are the results from last year. Very similar to the poll if you ask me. In fact the top 6 are exactly the same and the bottom 5 are only off my one stop from last year.
2007 MIAC Overall
St. Thomas     16-4 34-12
St. Olaf           16-4 32-10
Saint John's    15-5 23-16
Gustavus       14-6  21-15
Hamline         10-10 22-18
Augsburg      10-10 18-19
Bethel            8-12 18-22
Concordia      7-13 11-23
Saint Mary's   6-14 10-21
Macalester     5-15 14-23
Carleton         3-17 11-22

So it seems like they based it on last years results, as well they should. Bethel probably doesnt get any "respect" because they have not deserved it since they havent been above 500 in the last 3 years. Maybe this year will be different, already 3-3 but still have to go through the MIAC schedule. My last poll, who cares its a preseason coaches poll

[for2n8john]

I saw Gustuvas, Macalster, Augsburg, St. John, Hamline and Concordia play so far this year.
They were all good teams, but no one stood out.  I'd rank Augs and Ham slightly ahead of the others, but as the actual scores have indicated so far, they will all split with each other. 
Augsburg, Hamline

Gustuvas
Concordia
St. John
Macalster

Pete Rozelle is happy someplace because they will all end up around .500

[Gustie13]

The MIAC coaches rarely give much thought to the preseason polls, each one is usually a mirror image of the previous season's standings.

If I'm Coach Carroll I'm pretty dissapointed in GAC's spring trip. Swept by Keene St and So Maine (which are certainly good teams but GAC usually gets some quality wins against nonconf opp like UWW (2) in '07, UWW, NC Wes, Wart (2) in '06), then splits with average teams like MIT and Williams, and a sweep of Middlebury. This doesn't bode well heading in to conf play, although I did hear the flu hit the team hard right before the trip.
Their DH against Con scheduled for Saturday is up in the air right now, and I hear its very unlikely they'll play CSS on Sunday.

Side note, who the HECK is D'Youville??? They played three MIAC teams in AZ and lost by a combined 80-2. Their roster has 12 players listed.

[supermiac]

Heading into the MIAC conference season, it's still really foggy as to who will be joining USt in the top 4...but I may have been a little off in my previous forecast. This is how I would have it with a couple capsules.

1. USt- cream of the crop...got a couple tough in-region splits already...would have been nice to win em all, but showed they can compete with the WIAC's best and everyone else for that matter.
2. StO - I put them here by default. Their pitching will live up to its hype, but their hitting has been average for most of the year. They could potentially fall out if hitting doesn't pick up or injuries act up in their pitching staff like it did last year.
3. Hamline - Hmm...earlier I picked them last after seeing their first couple games. Now, after seeing several of their games, I'm pretty impressed with their hitting. Kaczrowski and Bennett are top-notch MIAC hitters, and the rest of their lineup gets the job done. Pitching will be their wildcard. Roiger has been very solid, and their other starters have kept them in games. I like their sweeps of Stout and LaCrosse too, very impressive.
4. Gustavus- less than stellar spring trip. Hitting fell flat pretty fast and their starting pitching wasn't as competitive as I expected. However, I still think they are the best of "the rest." That being said, there will be a ton of competition for the last two spots in the playoffs.
5. Bethel- for the most part, the pitching has been pretty good. The hitting has been above-average. I expected more out of Carr to start the season off, but slow starts happen. They are definitely in reach of the top 4 from what I have seen from them and other teams.
6. Concordia- Had a pretty good spring trip in terms of record (though several wins came off weaker teams). Schumacher has had a great start to the year both hitting and pitching. I still don't think their pitching will be that good; though their hitting is certainly better than it was last year.
7-8. ehhh...Augsburg or Macalester- The Auggies have been hitting poorly to say the least. I don't expect it to be this bad once conference starts going. Their pitching has definitely made up for their lack of hitting. Weber and Glasenapp have started off strongly, and Kickhafer has been underachieving as of now.

For Macalester, their pitching has been abysmal. Granted, several of their starters are freshmen, but I don't expect their team 6.88 era to drop in-conf. Murrey's the only one bailing their staff out, having four of their seven wins with a save apparently. The hitting for Mac will be average/above-average. They've started off well, but that doesn't mean much for the whole year.

9. St. John's- Very poor start. Their six wins have come against Marian(Wis.), Knox, Lawrence, and D'Youville(?)...all poor-quality teams. They lost two to Superior the other day, who is not a solid team. Their hitting stats look good, but to be fair, they scored 47 of their runs in two games against Lawrence and D'Youville. As for pitching, Aebly has been a nice surprise for them and Nelson should come into form. Besides them, nothing much after that. I could be wrong, but I think this will be a down year for them.

10. St. Mary's- Blah. Nothing really special here; I don't really see anything special developing either. They could surprise some middling teams, but probably not.

11. Carleton- I hate to be critical, but I don't see much that I like about this team. Guevin IS a good pitcher, but their lack of offense is a problem. I saw them play last night against Luther and they won (were winning 6-2 when the game was called...) a game against a solid team. However, the win was not pretty and Luther did not pitch anyone special. Fujisawa looks like he could be good, but I couldn't get past the fact that he was throwing his helmet everywhere and shaking his head at everything. Their 4-hitter (Melson) looked like he had quite a bit of pop in his bat though, which was good to see for them.

[BaseballFan]

9. St. John's- Very poor start. Their six wins have come against Marian(Wis.), Knox, Lawrence, and D'Youville(?)...all poor-quality teams. They lost two to Superior the other day, who is not a solid team. Their hitting stats look good, but to be fair, they scored 47 of their runs in two games against Lawrence and D'Youville. As for pitching, Aebly has been a nice surprise for them and Nelson should come into form. Besides them, nothing much after that. I could be wrong, but I think this will be a down year for them.


Superior is not bad this year already 9-3. They will not finish last in the WIAC, heck no one seems to want that #4 spot in the WIAC so maybe they will slip in there wouldnt that be something.

Overall, nice summary!

[OshDude]

9. St. John's- Very poor start. Their six wins have come against Marian(Wis.), Knox, Lawrence, and D'Youville(?)...all poor-quality teams.

There's no shame in losing to Marian. Very solid club, just not the best depth. Marian's best against your team's best – pick any Midwest team – and your team has its hands full.

I like Marian to be 1st or 2nd (with Concordia-Chicago) in the NATHcon this year.

[supermiac]

I'll retract saying Marian was a poor-quality team. However, that is definitely a team that you need to atleast split with if you are St. John's. I know it is the beginning of the season; but if you are St. John's you can't be happy with getting swept by a team like Marian...especially losing one game 13-1.

I'm not convinced that Superior is a good team though. They were 1-23 last year in the WIAC and 9-30 overall. Their wins this year were not against particularly strong competition either; so saying that St. John's lost to a legitimate 9-3 team is a bit skewed. I would say that the Bethels, Augsburgs, and Concordias of the world are better than them; which isn't good news for St. John's.

[OshDude]

I'll retract saying Marian was a poor-quality team. However, that is definitely a team that you need to atleast split with if you are St. John's. I know it is the beginning of the season; but if you are St. John's you can't be happy with getting swept by a team like Marian...especially losing one game 13-1.

I'm not convinced that Superior is a good team though. They were 1-23 last year in the WIAC and 9-30 overall. Their wins this year were not against particularly strong competition either; so saying that St. John's lost to a legitimate 9-3 team is a bit skewed. I would say that the Bethels, Augsburgs, and Concordias of the world are better than them; which isn't good news for St. John's.

Those Marian guys can rake. Smart and scrappy bunch, too.

I'm a bit skeptical of Superior as well. But if the transfer pitchers are as good as people have been posting on the WIAC board (although it must be stated that one of those posters admitted to being one of said transfers), there is some truth to the good start. Posters have said the new guys throw serious gas, like high 80s and touching 90 late in games.

It's just been sooooo long since Superior was worth WIAC teams' time and effort to even show up at the field. Hard for me to wrap my head around Sup being even competitive in the WIAC, let alone a contender. But that's my own bias that I'll have to get over.

If the weather agrees, Sup plays at Oshkosh on Saturday. Hope to get a chance to see the improved pitching in person this weekend.

[Bronko7]

Don't overlook the UWS team. They aren't going to be in the top three in the league but I can see them winning a lot like St. Johns last year, having a couple good arms to pull one or two games a weekend out of a series. They are trying to build something right now and with the amount of JUCO kids they have brought in from some decent schools I can see them moving up. They have a young coach that used to be at CSS, so you can imagine that he doesn't enjoy losing that often.

[BaseballFan]

UWS is not going to go 30-10 and win the WIAC by all means just saying they are much improved and I think they might be .500 this year overall. They will probably get 6 wins against Northland, finlandia, north central. SO would just have to get 5-6 wins in the conference which I think is duable to at least get one win a weekend.

Here is another question I noticed they have 42 games schedule and some other teams have over 40. I thought 40 was the limit for games? Oshdude do you know about that?