BB: General New England Discussion

[wordsmith]

Fans of NE d3 baseball, most teams have reached the half way point or are around their half way point of the season.  My question to you...  Who are the biggest surprises of the season, who are the disapointments of the season, who are the best 5 players in NE and if you had to pick 8 to go to a regional right now who would they be? 

The most surprising thing for me this year is the apparent parity we are seeing across New England. On any given day......

The second most suprising thing is Zak Talis - UMD

Disappointments - Inconsistency of KSC squad who I had picked to go to the Appleton this year. Unless the boys turn it around real quick they might not leave New Hampshire.

Players having great years....OK I am going to name names that might surprise you...
Talis - UMD
Fluegge - Worcester St
Macchi - UMD
Eaton - USM
Doyon - KSC
Henry - USM
Melvin C. - Econn


8 Regional teams -

EConn
WNEC
Wheaton
Suffolk
Worcester St
Tufts
Curry
Trinity

Word

[straightHeat3]

Think a name that isn't floating around New England that should be is Joe Griglun from WNEC...

Player            avg  gp-gs    ab     r    h   2b  3b  hr  rbi  tb  slg% 

Joe Griglun    .462  28-28  106  27  49  11    0    4  40  72  .679 

[Hobbesy]

I have to say that I am most surprised by the closeness (is that a word) of each conference right now.  Until this year I had not looked at scores every single day but I am sure there were the same kind of upsets in previous years.  That is why I am saying the parity in the conference. 

GNAC- Suffolk leads but St. Joes right behind
LEC- RIC leads but three teams within a game of each other
MASCAC- Three way tie for first and two teams within a game of top seed
NAC- Castleton and Husson dominating and will decide the #1 seed with four-game set coming up
NESCAC- Bowdoing, Tufts and Trinity in the East and Wesleyan, Amherst, Williams in the West are all still in contention
NEWMAC- Wheaton has share of first locked up but WPI-Babson can play
TCCC- Endicott at 13-1 but three teams at 12-4

Instead of disappointing, I will go with unnerving.  What is with some of these ridiculous stat lines!!??  A handful of kids hitting over .500 at this point in the year?!  Is the pitching going down or are these kids just that good of hitters...

Best 5 players-

Joe Griglun- WNEC- power bat and a consistent hitter-good call straightheat
John Parke- ECSU- hits everything and great speed
Pat Moran- St. Joes- can pitch and hit and when hes on he is on
James Wood- Trinity- Drops bombs and is whole key to the offense without Graham
Tim Sweeney- Curry- Can hit, drive in runs and score em

The Mansfield 8-

GNAC- St. Joe's
LEC- ECSU
MASCAC- Westfield St.
NAC- Castleton if they win it- if the other division wins they might not get put in New England
NESCAC- Trinity
NEWMAC- Wheaton
TCCC- WNEC

Pool C- Bowdoin/Tufts

If Castleton or Husson do not get the NAC bid a New York Region team may be shipped into New England or N.E. will get to pool C's.

[YA, Boy]

Cannot Overlook the numbers being put up by Sean Ryan...Wheaton Frosh hittin .450+ with 23 rbis and 11 sb's not to mention sluggin .738

may get over looked because he is so young but those numbers arent lying to any one...

Ya, Boy

[GNACfan]

What about St. Joes Keneborus hitting .449 with 50 RBI

Suffolk has a freshman Mendez hitting over .400 20 RBI and pitching well

C Barrett hitting .440 and not seeing anything to hit all year.

[Hobbesy]

GNACfan-

Great point about those three players.  Saw Keneborus play against Suffolk and was immediately impressed by his size and his swing.  Big guy who can pound the ball and his having a great season.  Hardest thing to do in New England is stand out as an outfielder because there are so many guys with gaudy numbers.

***And as soon as I finished writing this I read that Keneborus was national hitter of the week!  11 double and 10 triples for the Monks.  I think it is safe to say he is one of the top ten if not five players in New England.***  

And I believe Barrett was an honorable mention All-American last year.  He is a gritty player that does multiple things to help his team succeed.  The Rams will miss him alot next year IMO.  

As for this weekend... tons to look forward to with alot of great matchups!  Check out the weekend preview and share your thoughts...

http://ned3baseball.wordpress.com/

[GNACfan]

they are just not talked about. if they are not top notch players then they are guys to watch. they play the game right and hit the balll hard keneborus has stepped up this year.
Barrett this year seems to be a guy who will play where ever they ask him to and he has changed his approach to suit his team

[Ralph Turner]

I have to say that I am most surprised by the closeness (is that a word) of each conference right now.  Until this year I had not looked at scores every single day but I am sure there were the same kind of upsets in previous years.  That is why I am saying the parity in the conference. 

GNAC- Suffolk leads but St. Joes right behind
LEC- RIC leads but three teams within a game of each other
MASCAC- Three way tie for first and two teams within a game of top seed
NAC- Castleton and Husson dominating and will decide the #1 seed with four-game set coming up
NESCAC- Bowdoing, Tufts and Trinity in the East and Wesleyan, Amherst, Williams in the West are all still in contention
NEWMAC- Wheaton has share of first locked up but WPI-Babson can play
TCCC- Endicott at 13-1 but three teams at 12-4

Instead of disappointing, I will go with unnerving.  What is with some of these ridiculous stat lines!!??  A handful of kids hitting over .500 at this point in the year?!  Is the pitching going down or are these kids just that good of hitters...

Best 5 players-

Joe Griglun- WNEC- power bat and a consistent hitter-good call straightheat
John Parke- ECSU- hits everything and great speed
Pat Moran- St. Joes- can pitch and hit and when hes on he is on
James Wood- Trinity- Drops bombs and is whole key to the offense without Graham
Tim Sweeney- Curry- Can hit, drive in runs and score em

The Mansfield 8-

GNAC- St. Joe's
LEC- ECSU
MASCAC- Westfield St.
NAC- Castleton if they win it- if the other division wins they might not get put in New England
NESCAC- Trinity
NEWMAC- Wheaton
TCCC- WNEC

Pool C- Bowdoin/Tufts

If Castleton or Husson do not get the NAC bid a New York Region team may be shipped into New England or N.E. will get to pool C's.

Hobbesy is right.  The NAC has an affiliation agreement with the NEAC for access to the AQ.

NEAC hosts on May 8th and 9th.

[Stump]

I have to say that I am most surprised by the closeness (is that a word) of each conference right now.  Until this year I had not looked at scores every single day but I am sure there were the same kind of upsets in previous years.  That is why I am saying the parity in the conference. 

GNAC- Suffolk leads but St. Joes right behind
LEC- RIC leads but three teams within a game of each other
MASCAC- Three way tie for first and two teams within a game of top seed
NAC- Castleton and Husson dominating and will decide the #1 seed with four-game set coming up
NESCAC- Bowdoing, Tufts and Trinity in the East and Wesleyan, Amherst, Williams in the West are all still in contention
NEWMAC- Wheaton has share of first locked up but WPI-Babson can play
TCCC- Endicott at 13-1 but three teams at 12-4

Instead of disappointing, I will go with unnerving.  What is with some of these ridiculous stat lines!!??  A handful of kids hitting over .500 at this point in the year?!  Is the pitching going down or are these kids just that good of hitters...

Best 5 players-

Joe Griglun- WNEC- power bat and a consistent hitter-good call straightheat
John Parke- ECSU- hits everything and great speed
Pat Moran- St. Joes- can pitch and hit and when hes on he is on
James Wood- Trinity- Drops bombs and is whole key to the offense without Graham
Tim Sweeney- Curry- Can hit, drive in runs and score em

The Mansfield 8-

GNAC- St. Joe's
LEC- ECSU
MASCAC- Westfield St.
NAC- Castleton if they win it- if the other division wins they might not get put in New England
NESCAC- Trinity
NEWMAC- Wheaton
TCCC- WNEC

Pool C- Bowdoin/Tufts

If Castleton or Husson do not get the NAC bid a New York Region team may be shipped into New England or N.E. will get to pool C's.

a few observations or questions on a rainy Saturday:
1) if Castleton wins might they be sent to NY or is NY that much stronger a field than New England  this year? I would guess if Husson wins they stay in New England.
2)Doesn't seem to be an Endicott bandwagon. Even with their record nobody seems to believe they'll be in the running.
3)Any pool C's in NE would be NESCAC or NEWMAC  reps I would  guess unless somebody gets real hot in the LEC real quick
4)Pitching seems to be either very good or absolutely horrible this spring.  I've seen some of the most well pitched games and then the other games look like slow pitch softball scores

Just my two cents(maybe 4 cents with inflation)

[kscer]

No one seems to be talking about the break up of the CCC. What does that mean for the teams in the new conference and the teams remaining? where does the autobid go? What if the remaining teams add enough teams to retain the bid. What happens to the teams that are leaving? The whole thing sucks the way it's come down. Not exactly D3 athletics in action.

[Stump]

What's behind the breakup? Different schools and focus on different sports? Is it just politics? From the release it seems like the remaining teams could gather some teams to hold the conference together and keep the AQ.  Would leave the departing teams out of an AQ for a couple years.  Does it revolve around baseball or other sports? Be interesting to see how it plays out.

[Ralph Turner]

Some of this debate has occurred on the Men's Hoops board...

starting at Pat Coleman's Post 3461

[Stump]

"share a focus on student-athlete success and commitment to standards for competitive play,"  Sounds like political speak to me.  And sounds like it doesn't start with baseball.

[Ralph Turner]

"share a focus on student-athlete success and commitment to standards for competitive play,"  Sounds like political speak to me.  And sounds like it doesn't start with baseball.

Practically speaking, 14 teams was becoming unwieldy, especially in an area of the country where there are so many D-III schools.  You only need 7 for an AQ.

This breakup was almost inevitable.  We have seen it in the long history of the Middle Atlantic Conference.

[ecfaninri]

Ralph...
Does the UAA get an automatic bid this year? If so does Rochester go to the NY or NE region?