BB: General New England Discussion

[soxfan42585]

I would like to know who/how the poll is determined and what factors go into deciding what makes one team better than the other.

[abc123]

This is to clear up some info regarding the d3 baseball coaches polls.  New england has 6 coaches that gather votes from the other sixty or so coaches in NE.
Each coach is supposed to call their rep with their top 8 choices.  Those votes are compiled by each region and called to a central point.  At that point each are tabulated, hence compiling a top 8 or 10 teams?  No, Bostonian this poll is NOT and indepth poll like the NCAA regional poll that decides the New England Regionals.  I hope this shed some light on how this is done.

[wordsmith]

National Rankings followed by Regional Rankings

American Baseball Coaches Association/Collegiate Baseball
NCAA Division III Baseball Poll
April 10, 2007
Next poll: April 24
Rank School Record Points Last Rank
1. (7) Wooster (Ohio) 23-0 239 1
2. (1) Chapman (Calif.) 25-4 233 2
3. Emory (Ga.) 26-4 219 4
4. Cortland (N.Y.) State 17-2 214 3
5. Kean (N.J.) 17-3 208 7
6. St. Olaf (Minn.) 14-1 203 9
7. Wheaton (Mass.) 16-6 192 10
8. Texas Lutheran 25-5-1 180 12
9. Salisbury (Md.) 22-5 172 8
10. Washington (Mo.) 22-5 169 17
11. New Jersey 16-7 156 13
12. Eastern Connecticut State 13-6 144 nr
13. Transylvania (Ky.) 17-5 120 24
14. Pacific Lutheran (Wash.) 24-6 118 nr
15. Wartburg (Iowa) 15-6 116 28
16. Rensselaer (N.Y.) 12-4 114 13
17. Wis.-Stevens Point 9-6 112 18
18. Methodist (N.C.) 23-9 107 21
19. Johns Hopkins (Md.) 16-4 105 19
20. Trinity (Conn.) 17-3 101 30
21. Otterbein (Ohio) 14-5 85 27
22. Millsaps (Miss.) 25-9 76 11
23. York (Pa.) 20-5 72 nr
24. St. Thomas (Minn.) 12-6 71 20
25. Ramapo (N.J.) 20-5 37 nr
26t. Pomona-Pitzer (Calif.) 19-8 36 26
26t. Carthage (Wis.) 10-6 36 nr
28. Washington & Jefferson (Pa.) 12-4 29 16
29. Brockport (N.Y.) State 10-7 19 22
30t. Marietta (Ohio) 14-6 11 25
30t. Rhodes (Tenn.) 30-4 14 nr
Also receiving votes and named on more than one ballot (alphabetically): Augustana (Ill),
Texas-Dallas.

Regional Rankings
New England
1. Wheaton (16-6)
2. Eastern Connecticut State (13-6)
3. Trinity (17-3)
4. Southern Maine (9-6)
5. Tufts (13-5)
6. Suffolk (13-7)
7. Western New England (11-7)
8. Williams (11-5)
-

[Paul Heering]

back to the comment about LEC not being a great conference b/c USM lost to JWU and ECSU lost to Babson, we could play that game all day.

For example we could say

WNEC (GNAC) beat Roger Williams (CCC)
Roger Williams beat Springfield (NEWMAC)
Springfield beat Keene State (LEC)
Keene State beat Babson (NEWMAC)
Babson beat Eastern Connecticut (LEC)
Eastern Connecticut Beat WNEC (GNAC)

Can we therefore say that the GNAC is better than the CCC which is better than the NEWMAC which is better than the LEC which is better than the GNAC?

we could go around in cirlcles like that all day

[dgilblair]

Let's just say they are all pretty darn good................

[soxfan42585]

I think you are talking about a discussion in another topic- but my point was that any team can beat any team based on a pitcher being hot and the team coming out ready to play.  I wasn't trying to say that the GNAC was better than the Little East because of one win.  I was trying to shed some light on the fact that it is hard for someone to argue that an entire conference is head and shoulders above the rest.  JWU is a middle of the GNAC team and they beat what is supposed to be a top of the pile LEC team.  Yes, it is one win, butanything can happen.

My emphasis was on the fact that any team can beat any team at any time.  Except for Newbury against Bridgewater...thats ugly.

[soxfan42585]

to add to that- speculation is overrated.  To try and specualte who is better, you would have to watch every game and know who is throwing and whatnot.  Say team A beats team B 10-0, and Team B beats team C 57-1.  Team A should MURDER team C right?  Wrong!  Track record means nothing when you step onto a baseball field.  You are only as good as your next game...
yes?

[Paul Heering]

my circular logic point wasn't trying to show that anyone was better than anyone else, it was just to show that you can't go by one game

[soxfan42585]

I was trying to agree with you as well-
one game doesnt take away from what a team has accomplished


anyway-

what makes for an impressive win streak?
a small streak (4-5) where quality teams are beaten?
or a win streak of ten or more games where the team finds a way to win everyday?

[Paul Heering]

I agree with watching for streaks.

When trying to see who will be a contender come may i like to look for how teams do when they play good competition in a short period of time.  There are times where a team will play a single game thursday and then double headers on saturday and sunday.  that is 5 games in 4 days and 5 different starting pitchers.  that is when you see what a team can do.

[soxfan42585]

and also see if the hitters can keep a consistant focus...
there are many factors and perhaps excuses that can fall upon a team through a season, but a true team and by true, I mean one that will do something come playoff time, is a team that can win consistantly and do what it takes to win a hard stretch of games

[Bostonian]

I disagree that those individual games have little meaning. I don't think they tell the full story of how strong a team is, but they have alot of meaning because of the potential Pool C bids that NE teams are going after. The LEC, the NESCAC, and maybe the NEWMAC have teams that will have a shot at an at-large bid if they do not win their conference championships. So the midweek games between teams in different conferences have plenty of meaning. So teams like So. Maine, ECSU, Keene St, Wheaton, Tufts, Trinity, Amherst, and Williams are definitely going to need to help their at-large chances by winning as many of those non conference games.
That's why ECSU losing to Babson, So. Maine losing to JWU, or Tufts losing to Brandeis should not be dismissed.

[soxfan42585]

haha i agree on that too- we could go full circle all day
losses along the way mean very little to how a team is so long as they dont make habit of it.  however- in terms of recieving an at large bid they do have resounding effects...
i agree with everyone who has a point on this topic

but bostonian- back to my point about streaks
do you think the powers to be take into consideration what a streak reflects about a team.  say wheaton wins 15 in a row.. and then drops one to a subpar team- which will stick in the mind of the committee?

i dunno- its pretty interesting stuff

[Bostonian]

soxfan,
I'm not sure how the committee does things, but I do know that there is an index which cretaes the NCAA regional rankings. The index takes all of your in-region games and assigns a number of points to each game depending on the strength of the opponent, home or away, and win or loss. That index is then calculated and used for seeding purposes, I believe. I'm not sure if there are other big factors, so the committee might just look at the numbers and create a balanced field.

As for streaks, it's tough to tell. Look at Trinity. They are 17-3....ranked in the top 20...#1 or #2 in NE. But their schedule has been a joke so far, and they lost 2 of 3 to Bowdoin. Now the rankings say that they are a top team. But who knows what the committee will think, and who knows how good their index will be. Granted, they still play 3 vs. Tufts, 2 vs. Amherst and Brandeis, and Eastern CT, so we'll know more about them in a few weeks, but at this point, it's impossible to know how strong they are compared to a ECSU or Wheaton, teams that have played such strong competetion...

[soxfan42585]

Thats interesting sutff-
yeah it looks like the truth will be out about Trinity pretty soon- good or bad.

It seems the ship has sailed for USM- I imagine a tournaround will still find them atop the polls