BB: USAC: USA South Athletic Conference

[vabaseball]

Just go with "Sean"....

[hokieone]

Great suggestion!  Works for me. Can't wait until the announcers say over the PA, " Now Pitching, uh...uh..uh."

[vabaseball]

Even if his name gets botched a time or two, I hope he mows 'em down this year....

[NoVa Baseball]

How'd CNU look in the scrimmage this weekend?

[LTBB1971]

NCWC's first game of Best of 5, started with Gold team beating Blue 7-4.  Max Knowles, Kaleb Wassell pitched great and offense had timely hits.  19 transfers/freshmen out there today...most of them played very well...looks like pitching will be solid.

[WHEELIN WES]

I heard game 1 was very good and I believe pitching will be solid. Looking for defense and sticks to reload key positions this year. Game 2 should start to give more insight on who is going to step up and start claiming these positions.

[LTBB1971]

Right Fielder for blue team wearing number 12 hit a bomb on bottom 8th to LF that has not landed yet.  Real huge body with a brace on the knee.  Swung the bat well.  Returners Rahm, and Zach Moore hit the ball well also.

[hokieone]

    NCWC brings in 19 frosh/transfers, Shenandoah brings in about the same number. Shenandoah fields a JV team which hopes to play around 20 games, not sure about NCWC.  At the other end of the scale, CNU brings in 10 freshmen/transfers, having lost about the same number off its roster to graduation, grades, or decisions not to play.  (Shenandoah and NCWC obviously lost some players to graduation, and perhaps other reasons as is normal in college baseball.) Greensboro, adding 19 new players, fields a JV program that had an 11 game schedule last spring, and traditionally has a huge roster, rivaling the size of some college football rosters.  Averett, Ferrum, and Methodist have on line rosters with 31-41 players, no info on newcomers. Methodist lists a 10 game JV schedule.

  So, is the trend in the USAS to bring in large numbers of players, funneling some off to JV squads? The conference is strong in baseball, top to bottom.  Certainly the quality of the coaching staffs is high throughout the conference.  The head coaches enjoy solid reputations.   Rosters are posted on line so recruits can surely see what they're coming into, but in a sport with little substitution except pitchers, it sure looks like an awful lot of players are not getting on the varsity field.  The Big time D-1's, ACC, SEC, PAC 10, etc seem  to be going in the direction of bringing in 15-20 (or more) new players every year, often blaming the pro draft as making them unsure as to what they'll actually get.  Some have brought  in as many as 25 new players annually. D III's don't have the draft problem, but since players receive no money and sign  no NLI, players can change their mind, literally, until the moment they step foot on the campus.

Are bigger rosters smart? Fair?   They sure seem to be here to stay.

   

[Ralph Turner]

    NCWC brings in 19 frosh/transfers, Shenandoah brings in about the same number. Shenandoah fields a JV team which hopes to play around 20 games, not sure about NCWC.  At the other end of the scale, CNU brings in 10 freshmen/transfers, having lost about the same number off its roster to graduation, grades, or decisions not to play.  (Shenandoah and NCWC obviously lost some players to graduation, and perhaps other reasons as is normal in college baseball.) Greensboro, adding 19 new players, fields a JV program that had an 11 game schedule last spring, and traditionally has a huge roster, rivaling the size of some college football rosters.  Averett, Ferrum, and Methodist have on line rosters with 31-41 players, no info on newcomers. Methodist lists a 10 game JV schedule.

  So, is the trend in the USAS to bring in large numbers of players, funneling some off to JV squads? The conference is strong in baseball, top to bottom.  Certainly the quality of the coaching staffs is high throughout the conference.  The head coaches enjoy solid reputations.   Rosters are posted on line so recruits can surely see what they're coming into, but in a sport with little substitution except pitchers, it sure looks like an awful lot of players are not getting on the varsity field.  The Big time D-1's, ACC, SEC, PAC 10, etc seem  to be going in the direction of bringing in 15-20 (or more) new players every year, often blaming the pro draft as making them unsure as to what they'll actually get.  Some have brought  in as many as 25 new players annually. D III's don't have the draft problem, but since players receive no money and sign  no NLI, players can change their mind, literally, until the moment they step foot on the campus.

Are bigger rosters smart? Fair?   They sure seem to be here to stay.

   

Smart and fair, especially if there is a JV to offer playing time to those players who are younger and need to develop.

The eligibility clock is ticking, regardless.  They are in D-III to concentrate on their grades while enjoying the discipline of baseball.  D-II is trying to concentrate on balance.  Is that a "knock" on scholarship intercollegiate athletics of the type at D-1?  I think so.

IMHO, that makes D-III so good as a format.

[coachmilburn]

    NCWC brings in 19 frosh/transfers, Shenandoah brings in about the same number. Shenandoah fields a JV team which hopes to play around 20 games, not sure about NCWC.  At the other end of the scale, CNU brings in 10 freshmen/transfers, having lost about the same number off its roster to graduation, grades, or decisions not to play.  (Shenandoah and NCWC obviously lost some players to graduation, and perhaps other reasons as is normal in college baseball.) Greensboro, adding 19 new players, fields a JV program that had an 11 game schedule last spring, and traditionally has a huge roster, rivaling the size of some college football rosters.  Averett, Ferrum, and Methodist have on line rosters with 31-41 players, no info on newcomers. Methodist lists a 10 game JV schedule.

  So, is the trend in the USAS to bring in large numbers of players, funneling some off to JV squads? The conference is strong in baseball, top to bottom.  Certainly the quality of the coaching staffs is high throughout the conference.  The head coaches enjoy solid reputations.   Rosters are posted on line so recruits can surely see what they're coming into, but in a sport with little substitution except pitchers, it sure looks like an awful lot of players are not getting on the varsity field.  The Big time D-1's, ACC, SEC, PAC 10, etc seem  to be going in the direction of bringing in 15-20 (or more) new players every year, often blaming the pro draft as making them unsure as to what they'll actually get.  Some have brought  in as many as 25 new players annually. D III's don't have the draft problem, but since players receive no money and sign  no NLI, players can change their mind, literally, until the moment they step foot on the campus.

Are bigger rosters smart? Fair?   They sure seem to be here to stay.

   

For one, if a college coach makes any promises or guarantees on playing time, then that recruit should request that to be documented and signed by both parties involved. 

What is so great about this country that we live, we have choices to make each and every day.  Recruits have choices to make, to attend a school or not.  So it's on the recruit and the family to decide where they should go to college and to have an opportunity to play college baseball in one of the toughest conference for DIII baseball.

I do not believe there is a perception where the coaches have a gun to the recruits head demanding them to come their respective school.

[Falcon2720]

Hokie,

Methodist usually has a small varsity roster.  They only have 26 players listed on their 2009 roster compared to 36 that CNU has listed.

MU also plays a 20 game JV schedule not a 10.  They play against some very good NC JUCO programs.  Many of the freshmen varsity players will play in JV games to get them AB's and innings pitched.

With little substitution like you said, this is a good way to develop players and keep them ready in case of injury.

With no letter of intent, coaches don't know if players are going to be their until the first day of classes.  That is why most D3 programs tend to over recruit.  Recruits need to be smart and look at rosters and ask the coaches what their role will be.

This thing boils down to private vs. public like always.  CNU, I think would have different recruiting strategies because of their academics and them not needing to field JV teams.

Most private D3 schools are tuition driven and need students to survive.  Most D3 Athletic Departments want JV programs to get more students.  This is just the way it is.

[hokieone]

Falcon,   you are correct about the academic standards. CNU's baseball recruits get admitted on the same basis as anyone else, and as their admissions standards seem to get stiffer ever year, I'm sure that's a problem for some potential recruits.  They aren't imposing anything like Ivy League standards, but SAT's under 1000 and GPA's under 3.0 are simply nonstarters.  The Princeton Review lists an average GPA for entering freshmen of 3.5 and SAT of 1100-1200.   The Daily Press had an article a year or so ago examining at length the difficulty of recruiting football and basketball players to CNU with the increased standards. I don't think baseball has quite the same issues-baseball players on the average seem to have better academics than the other two sports-but I know  there are kids they'd like to have had that couldn't get admitted.

Nevertheless, it is a darned good conference, with talent at every school, which makes those conference games just that more important. It would be nice if they could get in a few more conference games as it seems the tie-breakers come into play every year.   

[coachmilburn]

Hokie,

Methodist usually has a small varsity roster.  They only have 26 players listed on their 2009 roster compared to 36 that CNU has listed.

MU also plays a 20 game JV schedule not a 10.  They play against some very good NC JUCO programs.  Many of the freshmen varsity players will play in JV games to get them AB's and innings pitched.

With little substitution like you said, this is a good way to develop players and keep them ready in case of injury.

With no letter of intent, coaches don't know if players are going to be their until the first day of classes.  That is why most D3 programs tend to over recruit.  Recruits need to be smart and look at rosters and ask the coaches what their role will be.

This thing boils down to private vs. public like always.  CNU, I think would have different recruiting strategies because of their academics and them not needing to field JV teams.

Most private D3 schools are tuition driven and need students to survive.  Most D3 Athletic Departments want JV programs to get more students.  This is just the way it is.

Falcon2720, your comment was right on time for me as I shared it with an e-mail trying to shed sunlight on the my concern with "SU Baseball Friends" on getting adequate funding for the baseball program.  Thank You!

[Falcon2720]

No problem Milby.

Hokie,

2006 was the last year the conference had 3 game series.  This created less tie-breakers as there were 18 conference games as opposed to the 12 conference games they have now.  The problem with the 18 game conference slate was the USA-South teams were losing mid-week region games.  In a 3 (9 inning) game series, teams use up alot of pitching.

Most USA-South teams play ODAC or CAC teams mid-week.  This created bad pitching match-ups with ODAC and CAC teams throwing their #3 pitcher vs. a # 5 or # 6 from a USA-South team.

This resulted in only 1 USA-South team making the regional in 2004, 2005, 2006.  The only USA-South team to make the regional were the tournament winners.  It was very difficult for USA-South teams to get an at-large bid.

For regional selection, south in-region games are just as important as conference games.  CNU's game with VWC or HSC is just as important as their game with SU or NCWC.  In-region games are the only games that matter.

The 2 game conference slate seems to be working.  In 2007 MU received an at-large bid to the regional and in 2009 SU and CNU both received at-large bids to the regional.   With a 3 game series I'm not sure CNU or SU would have won as many in-region midweek games.

[coachmilburn]

I see both (+) and (-) of the 3-game sets and understand clearly why USA-South coaches voted to go to a 2-game set.  They were beating each other up over the weekends.  Just think about this, if last year consisted of 3-game sets, do you think the USA-South would have qualified 3-teams for Regional play?

Wonder IF a DH consisting of two 7-inning games and one 9 game on Sunday would help.  The big advantage of a 3-game set is a built in tie-breaker.

Thoughts?




Sorry, Falcon2720 ... I just read completely what you stated and I basically repeated you.  There is no doubt that the 2-game set has been a positive for the overall well-being of the USA-South.