BB: MIAC: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[OshDude]

Excellent catch on Johnson only being a jr.

He couldn't have signed with an independent team, I've gotta believe that'd have to be an NCAA violation of some kind. Maybe he played for a Northwoods team? He's on the Isanti Redbirds town team roster...

Speaking of MIAC catchers and the Northwoods... Craig Henry had his offer to play in the Northwoods recinded after his numbers decreased from last year (Avg: .395 v .327, Hits: 45 v 35, Xbh 19 (2hr) v 9 (0hr), RBI 19 v 12).

That's correct. That's what I get for not looking it up.

[Gustie13]

All Conf team, POYs, and COY announced:
http://www.miac-online.org/News/baseball/2008/5/13/bsbawards08.asp?path=baseball
Pitcher - Josh Roiger, HU (no surprise)
CoPlayer - Dan Kazsrowksi, HU (no surprise)
CoPlayer - Todd Mathison, StO (somewhat surprising, since he's better known as a pitcher)
Coach - Dennis Denning, USt (not surprising, but Verdugo and Carroll should get some recognition)

Here is a breakdown of All Conf members by school (schools in order of reg season finish):
USt: 5
StO: 5
Ham: 4
GAC: 1
BU: 1
CON: 3
SJU: 1
AUG: 2
MAC: 2
SMU: 1
Car: 2

There were some guys I disagree with (excluding those players from teams with only 1 AllConf member):
Craig Henry, C, Aug: This was obviously just based on Henry's performance last year, his numbers decreased in nearly every category. My most compelling arguement would be to compare Henry's conf stats to GAC's C, Shea Roerhkasse:
Both guys were 25-65 (.385avg), but Shea had more R, 2b, Hr, Rbi, & Slug% and less K. Henry led in OBP% (by.015). Defensively, Shea threw out 8 of 23 runners, Henry 9 of 18.
Adam Johnson, P, Con: I like this young pitcher, but his stats weren't incredible enough to warrant 6th place Concordia getting 3 players on the team (K Johnson and Schumacher definitely deserved it however)
Ethan Guevin, P, Car: Lower overall ERA than Lonnie Robinson? Impressive! But conf era of 4.11 with a 1-4 record doesn't merit Carleton getting 2 AllConf members after finishing LAST.
Devin English, INF, Mac: Same arguement as above, he has one impressive stat (4 conf HR) but a lot of all mediocre ones (.330 conf avg?), and a team in 9th place deserves only 1 all conf team member (James Murrey in this case).

With those 4 spots taken away, I'd redistribute them to:
Aforementioned Shea Roerhkasse, C, GAC
Ben Turnwall, P, BU: 1-0, 6 saves in 7 conf appearances, .129 opp avg.
Dana Hegman, INF, BU: .381, 9xbh
Robby Wiens, OF, GAC: .377, 8xbh, 15rbi

[supermiac]

All Conf team, POYs, and COY announced:
http://www.miac-online.org/News/baseball/2008/5/13/bsbawards08.asp?path=baseball
Pitcher - Josh Roiger, HU (no surprise)
CoPlayer - Dan Kazsrowksi, HU (no surprise)
CoPlayer - Todd Mathison, StO (somewhat surprising, since he's better known as a pitcher)
Coach - Dennis Denning, USt (not surprising, but Verdugo and Carroll should get some recognition)

Here is a breakdown of All Conf members by school (schools in order of reg season finish):
USt: 5
StO: 5
Ham: 4
GAC: 1
BU: 1
CON: 3
SJU: 1
AUG: 2
MAC: 2
SMU: 1
Car: 2

There were some guys I disagree with (excluding those players from teams with only 1 AllConf member):
Craig Henry, C, Aug: This was obviously just based on Henry's performance last year, his numbers decreased in nearly every category. My most compelling arguement would be to compare Henry's conf stats to GAC's C, Shea Roerhkasse:
Both guys were 25-65 (.385avg), but Shea had more R, 2b, Hr, Rbi, & Slug% and less K. Henry led in OBP% (by.015). Defensively, Shea threw out 8 of 23 runners, Henry 9 of 18.
Adam Johnson, P, Con: I like this young pitcher, but his stats weren't incredible enough to warrant 6th place Concordia getting 3 players on the team (K Johnson and Schumacher definitely deserved it however)
Ethan Guevin, P, Car: Lower overall ERA than Lonnie Robinson? Impressive! But conf era of 4.11 with a 1-4 record doesn't merit Carleton getting 2 AllConf members after finishing LAST.
Devin English, INF, Mac: Same arguement as above, he has one impressive stat (4 conf HR) but a lot of all mediocre ones (.330 conf avg?), and a team in 9th place deserves only 1 all conf team member (James Murrey in this case).

With those 4 spots taken away, I'd redistribute them to:
Aforementioned Shea Roerhkasse, C, GAC
Ben Turnwall, P, BU: 1-0, 6 saves in 7 conf appearances, .129 opp avg.
Dana Hegman, INF, BU: .381, 9xbh
Robby Wiens, OF, GAC: .377, 8xbh, 15rbi

To begin, I agree with your selection of Craig Henry; it seems like his great season last year warranted an automatic bid as all-conference, which doesn't make sense anyways because there were already substantial amount of catchers (2) in Pexa and Johnson.  Adam Johnson's selection however I don't think is as cut and dried. If you look at conf. stats only, he was pretty good. If you look at his overall statistics, he was still pretty good despite not getting too many innings. If the MIAC is going to have so many pitchers on the all-conf. team I think he is a shoe-in in most cases. In Guevin's case, I have trouble deciding whether he should or shouldn't be... if he played on any other team his W-L record would not be 3-5 (more like 5-3 atleast). In that case, he's an all-conf. bid; however, he still lost 5 games, while only winning 3, which is not good by any means. Devin English though, definitely deserves to be on the team. I'm not sure how you can't have him on your team Gustie when he hit 2 HR's against your pitching!! His conf. power numbers definitely warrant all-conf. However, I'm not sure the coaches look at conf. stats only; and if that's the case, I'm not sure when a player who got 37 runs, 4 HR's, 27 RBIs, and .354 BA ever missed all-MIAC. Maybe you could enlighten me?

In terms of choosing between your mentioned players, I think Turnwall was very deserving of all-MIAC. He was a lights out closer for Bethel with a silly K-9 ratio and a ton of saves. I'm not sure how the coaches missed that. However, Hegman did not deserve to be on the team, not if's and's or but's about it. He only had 1 HR, 12 RBIs and struck out 14 times in 22 starts. Any player who starts only 22 games (whether it be to injury/whatever) needs to impress better than that to get all-conference anywhere. I know he is a great hitter, he has been over the past couple years; but like Henry's case, that doesn't warrant all-conference. I definitely think Shea Roehrkasse should have been on the team; he's a mammoth with a good bat and solid behind the plate who had pretty good production this year as you listed off; and I think his teammate Robbie Wiens could make the same case as well.

[Gustie13]

There were some guys I disagree with (excluding those players from teams with only 1 AllConf member):
Craig Henry, C, Aug: This was obviously just based on Henry's performance last year, his numbers decreased in nearly every category. My most compelling arguement would be to compare Henry's conf stats to GAC's C, Shea Roerhkasse:
Both guys were 25-65 (.385avg), but Shea had more R, 2b, Hr, Rbi, & Slug% and less K. Henry led in OBP% (by.015). Defensively, Shea threw out 8 of 23 runners, Henry 9 of 18.
Adam Johnson, P, Con: I like this young pitcher, but his stats weren't incredible enough to warrant 6th place Concordia getting 3 players on the team (K Johnson and Schumacher definitely deserved it however)
Ethan Guevin, P, Car: Lower overall ERA than Lonnie Robinson? Impressive! But conf era of 4.11 with a 1-4 record doesn't merit Carleton getting 2 AllConf members after finishing LAST.
Devin English, INF, Mac: Same arguement as above, he has one impressive stat (4 conf HR) but a lot of all mediocre ones (.330 conf avg?), and a team in 9th place deserves only 1 all conf team member (James Murrey in this case).

With those 4 spots taken away, I'd redistribute them to:
Aforementioned Shea Roerhkasse, C, GAC
Ben Turnwall, P, BU: 1-0, 6 saves in 7 conf appearances, .129 opp avg.
Dana Hegman, INF, BU: .381, 9xbh
Robby Wiens, OF, GAC: .377, 8xbh, 15rbi

To begin, I agree with your selection of Craig Henry; it seems like his great season last year warranted an automatic bid as all-conference, which doesn't make sense anyways because there were already substantial amount of catchers (2) in Pexa and Johnson.  Adam Johnson's selection however I don't think is as cut and dried. If you look at conf. stats only, he was pretty good. If you look at his overall statistics, he was still pretty good despite not getting too many innings. If the MIAC is going to have so many pitchers on the all-conf. team I think he is a shoe-in in most cases. In Guevin's case, I have trouble deciding whether he should or shouldn't be... if he played on any other team his W-L record would not be 3-5 (more like 5-3 atleast). In that case, he's an all-conf. bid; however, he still lost 5 games, while only winning 3, which is not good by any means. Devin English though, definitely deserves to be on the team. I'm not sure how you can't have him on your team Gustie when he hit 2 HR's against your pitching!! His conf. power numbers definitely warrant all-conf. However, I'm not sure the coaches look at conf. stats only; and if that's the case, I'm not sure when a player who got 37 runs, 4 HR's, 27 RBIs, and .354 BA ever missed all-MIAC. Maybe you could enlighten me?

In terms of choosing between your mentioned players, I think Turnwall was very deserving of all-MIAC. He was a lights out closer for Bethel with a silly K-9 ratio and a ton of saves. I'm not sure how the coaches missed that. However, Hegman did not deserve to be on the team, not if's and's or but's about it. He only had 1 HR, 12 RBIs and struck out 14 times in 22 starts. Any player who starts only 22 games (whether it be to injury/whatever) needs to impress better than that to get all-conference anywhere. I know he is a great hitter, he has been over the past couple years; but like Henry's case, that doesn't warrant all-conference. I definitely think Shea Roehrkasse should have been on the team; he's a mammoth with a good bat and solid behind the plate who had pretty good production this year as you listed off; and I think his teammate Robbie Wiens could make the same case as well.

Super, I couldn't tell from your post whether you agreed or disagreed, but I was saying Henry should not be on the team.
It sounds like you're in favor of Turnwall, Roerhkasse, and Wiens making the team, so which 3 guys would you take off the team?

I think its pretty sad that 4th place GAC and 5th place BU had 1 All Conf player each while last place Car and 9th place MAC had 2 each.

[supermiac]

[/quote]

Super, I couldn't tell from your post whether you agreed or disagreed, but I was saying Henry should not be on the team.
It sounds like you're in favor of Turnwall, Roerhkasse, and Wiens making the team, so which 3 guys would you take off the team?

I think its pretty sad that 4th place GAC and 5th place BU had 1 All Conf player each while last place Car and 9th place MAC had 2 each.
[/quote]
To clarify, I agreed that Henry should not be on the team, sorry about the mixup. But yeah, I agree with you in that GAC and BU only had 1 in some sense. Any team who is in the playoff hunt should have more than one contributor to their success that deserves all-MIAC honors. However, maybe having only one guy on each team is a testament to how rounded the team in general is; maybe not, who knows. I know GAC deserved another player, not sure who though; probably Roehrkasse or maybe Wiens. But in Bethel's case: who else would you have? Hegman played 24 games and still did not produce great numbers. None of their pitchers except for Turnwall really did anything exceptional. Even Turnwall had only a 3.29 ERA in 12 innings, despite the 9 saves. If I'm voting relief pitchers in, I'd still rather have a guy who ate up a bit more innings than him. It's strange that GAC and Bethel only produced 1 LOCK all-MIAC selection this year though, I definitely expected more. I think however, for the most part, MAC's players were deserving. English had a good year with better overall production than any of the players you listed, and Murrey is probably going to be one of, if not the best pitcher in the conf. for the next couple years. Carleton, same thing. Melson had an unbelievable year, and Guevin had better pitching statistics than most despite not winning many games because of an anemic offense. However, I'm still pretty sure any of those players would rather be in Gustavus' shoes going into the playoffs each year, so it really doesn't matter IMO. It does stink only placing one player on the all-conference team, but I don't think we should overstate that.

[supermiac]

I would have liked to see Roehrkasse and Turnwall make the team instead of... Henry and Siering/or Gagnon from StO. I'm not sure why Siering was voted above Wiens anyways really. But Gagnon benefited from being put behind 3 guys in the StO order who were always on base, so his RBIs may have been a bit inflated. Besides that, there wasn't really much production from him except for in the field.

[Iluvd3BBALL]

I like where everyone is coming from however I think you have forgotten about Bethel's set up man, Kyle McCracken.
Player                       ERA   W-L   APP  GS  CG SHO/CBO   SV    IP   H   R  ER  BB  SO

33 Kyle McCracken...  1.93   3-1    14   0   0        0/0         2  32.2  28  14   7  12  11
43 Ben Turnwall.....    3.29   1-1    13   0   0        0/1         9  13.2  12   5   5   4  24

He was one of the most dominant relief pitchers in the MIAC.  A 1.93 ERA with 32.2 IP is unreal and well deserving of all conference honors.

I like where you are coming from on Turnwall and Wiens.  Wiens' offense was stellar but his defense was even better, he put up good power numbers as well.  Turnwall was 9-9 in save attempts and most of his earned runs came in his first appearance of the season when he gave up 2-3 runs at the Metrodome and had a 0.00 era in conference.  I think McCracken, Turnwall, and Wiens would have been good all conference selections, but McCracken ahead of Turnwall.

[Gustie13]

I chose Turnwall over McCracken, despite the better ERA and more innings, because I view a closer as more important that a setup or middle relief guy. And thats how I saw their roles, Turnwall the clearcut closer and McCracken the middle-long relief or setup guy. To me its hard to justify a middle relief guy deserving All Conf. But McCracken would definitely be the one I'd pick if I had to choose one.

[whozon1st]

 I sympathize with those who would have liked to see more All-MIAC players from teams that went to the playoffs, there are great players who didn't get picked this time. But I disagree with those who don't see Carleton's Guevin  as an All-MIAC player.

He has great composure, leading a very young team whose defense led the league in errors for the second year in a row. He has had freshmen as catchers the past two years, yet he has been a consistently great pitcher for Carleton  - who knows what his stats would be in front of a stronger defense ?

Imagine your favorite pitcher in that position, then consider how they'd match up. My hat's off to Guevin for what he has accomplished and for his leadership on the team.

[supermiac]

Yeah he led them to a great 2-18 conf. season right?  Just kidding around. But yeah, I would have him on the team nonetheless; he is a good pitcher, and I'm interested to see how he fares in the Valley League this summer.

[Gustie13]

If Guevin gets All-Miac then Melson shouldn't, its that simple. Only one person from CAR should be on the all conf team. They both have decent arguements for inclusion.

[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
Kyle Foster, RHP, HU, StP Saints
Charlie Ruud, RHP, StO, StP Saints
Brian Sprout, INF, StO, StP Saints
Tony Konicek, OF, GAC, Evansville Konicek was released prior to the start of the season.
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???*UPDATE: Haugen was recently released by Winnipeg.
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* UPDATE: Goldberg was signed by Evansville of the Frontier League last week following the league tryout. Goldberg traded to St Paul Saints. Currently backup C
Josh Dietz, P/INF/DH, CON, Gateway *signed in Dec, released in May*

Good luck tonight vs Edgewood.

I'd guess that Lonnie Robinson (P, USt) gets drafted and that Kyle Johnson (C, Con), and Andrew Bennet (OF, Ham) both get serious looks from some independent league teams. Bennet signed by StP Saints.

[supermiac]

If Guevin gets All-Miac then Melson shouldn't, its that simple. Only one person from CAR should be on the all conf team. They both have decent arguements for inclusion.

Perhaps; but you still don't add a different player from a different team who had lesser stats simply because their team was better overall. Guevin was a good pitcher; certainly a top 8 pitcher in the MIAC; and Melson's stats were certainly deserving of all-conf.

[Iluvd3BBALL]

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
Kyle Foster, RHP, HU, StP Saints
Charlie Ruud, RHP, StO, StP Saints
Brian Sprout, INF, StO, StP Saints
Tony Konicek, OF, GAC, Evansville Konicek was released prior to the start of the season.
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???*UPDATE: Haugen was recently released by Winnipeg.
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* UPDATE: Goldberg was signed by Evansville of the Frontier League last week following the league tryout. Goldberg traded to St Paul Saints. Currently backup C
Josh Dietz, P/INF/DH, CON, Gateway *signed in Dec, released in May*

Good luck tonight vs Edgewood.

I'd guess that Lonnie Robinson (P, USt) gets drafted and that Kyle Johnson (C, Con), and Andrew Bennet (OF, Ham) both get serious looks from some independent league teams. Bennet signed by StP Saints.

I have got good sources that have told me to expect to see Brandon Carr, 3b, Bethel drafted in this coming draft.  The Twins have seen him play against pros for 3 years now when Bethel plays their rookie team during Bethel's Florida trip, and Brandon has put up great numbers against them every game even hitting a home run when he was a sophmore.  Look for Brandon Carr to get drafted in the later rounds of this draft.

[dukes]

[/quote]
I have got good sources that have told me to expect to see Brandon Carr, 3b, Bethel drafted in this coming draft.  The Twins have seen him play against pros for 3 years now when Bethel plays their rookie team during Bethel's Florida trip, and Brandon has put up great numbers against them every game even hitting a home run when he was a sophmore.  Look for Brandon Carr to get drafted in the later rounds of this draft.
[/quote]

That could be, and I am sure he is a good ballplayer but I HOPE the Twins put a little more scouting into it that his performance against the "pros". Unless of course, he is the next Toby Gardenhire...