BB: Midwest Region

OshDude · March 23, 2009, 03:34:36 PM

Biggie,
At what point do we stop considering a win over Hopkins as a feather in a team's cap? That's not a rhetorical question either. I don't know the answer. Tough schedule for sure, but at 7-7 with losses to Simpson and Newark, I'm not so sure Hop hasn't been given enough chances to remain in elite company.

I still like St. Thomas and St. Olaf. Anderson has a very good program. In isolation that sweep is questionable for a team as good as I think Olaf is, but many teams had bad games last week.

BigPoppa · March 23, 2009, 03:37:29 PM

Quote from: OshDude on March 23, 2009, 03:34:36 PM
Biggie,
At what point do we stop considering a win over Hopkins as a feather in a team's cap? That's not a rhetorical question either. I don't know the answer. Tough schedule for sure, but at 7-7 with losses to Simpson and Newark, I'm not so sure Hop hasn't been given enough chances to remain in elite company.

I still like St. Thomas and St. Olaf. Anderson has a very good program. In isolation that sweep is questionable for a team as good as I think Olaf is, but many teams had bad games last week.

That is a great question. Regardless of how Hopkins is playing they will still be a ranked team this week. I am just rewarding a team for beating a ranked opponent. JHU will quickly play themselves out of the Top 25, but for now they are still there and teams that beat them should be rewarded.

OshDude · March 23, 2009, 03:43:03 PM

FYI: clicking on the globe under Walter Sobchak will take you to a MW baseball blog. It's a little spare in terms of game coverage. But the SIDs do just fine with that anyway. Probably the best feature so far is the Standout Stats page on the right side.

BigPoppa · March 23, 2009, 03:55:32 PM

Quote from: OshDude on March 23, 2009, 03:43:03 PM
FYI: clicking on the globe under Walter Sobchak will take you to a MW baseball blog. It's a little spare in terms of game coverage. But the SIDs do just fine with that anyway. Probably the best feature so far is the Standout Stats page on the right side.

Great resource for any fan of Midwest baseball. Nice work.

http://midwestbaseball.wordpress.com/

OshDude · March 23, 2009, 03:57:39 PM

Quote from: BigPoppa on March 23, 2009, 03:37:29 PM
Quote from: OshDude on March 23, 2009, 03:34:36 PM
Biggie,
At what point do we stop considering a win over Hopkins as a feather in a team's cap? That's not a rhetorical question either. I don't know the answer. Tough schedule for sure, but at 7-7 with losses to Simpson and Newark, I'm not so sure Hop hasn't been given enough chances to remain in elite company.

I still like St. Thomas and St. Olaf. Anderson has a very good program. In isolation that sweep is questionable for a team as good as I think Olaf is, but many teams had bad games last week.

That is a great question. Regardless of how Hopkins is playing they will still be a ranked team this week. I am just rewarding a team for beating a ranked opponent. JHU will quickly play themselves out of the Top 25, but for now they are still there and teams that beat them should be rewarded.

And I agree with that line of thinking. I think Hop has been the biggest enigma this year, and it's hard to know where the lines are among expectation, the season's length and results. I mean they're 2-6 in-region with wins over Newark and Springfield. They have York and Salisbury at the end, but will that be enough?

OshDude · March 23, 2009, 07:34:18 PM

St. Thomas swept Oshkosh, 6-3 and 15-8. No details, just what the UWO site has. Interesting development to say the least. After weeks of splits among the elite, we finally have a pace car. I'm guessing Schuld stymied another good team in game 1.

Oshkosh threw what I'd consider its top three in yesterday's game against DePauw, a nonregion opponent. Curious to see if any of them pitched today in a VERY important in-region doubleheader. Then again I could be way off on UWO's SP pecking order.

BaseballFan · March 23, 2009, 07:57:46 PM

Quote from: OshDude on March 23, 2009, 07:34:18 PM
St. Thomas swept Oshkosh, 6-3 and 15-8. No details, just what the UWO site has. Interesting development to say the least. After weeks of splits among the elite, we finally have a pace car. I'm guessing Schuld stymied another good team in game 1.

Oshkosh threw what I'd consider its top three in yesterday's game against DePauw, a nonregion opponent. Curious to see if any of them pitched today in a VERY important in-region doubleheader. Then again I could be way off on UWO's SP pecking order.

Very interesting developments, but i would guess UWOs top 3 didnt pitch today since they all threw 2-4 innings yesterday. Im sure those 3 will pitch on Thursday against Thomas though with Thomas probably not having their best guys on the mound. So I wouldnt be surprised if UWO swept thomas back on thursday.

I think it was a smart move by Lechnir to get those guys a short outing yesterday so they could bounce back on thursday against St. Thomas.

Of course this is all what Im thinking is the case

OshDude · March 23, 2009, 08:20:40 PM

Quote from: BaseballFan on March 23, 2009, 07:57:46 PM
Quote from: OshDude on March 23, 2009, 07:34:18 PM
St. Thomas swept Oshkosh, 6-3 and 15-8. No details, just what the UWO site has. Interesting development to say the least. After weeks of splits among the elite, we finally have a pace car. I'm guessing Schuld stymied another good team in game 1.

Oshkosh threw what I'd consider its top three in yesterday's game against DePauw, a nonregion opponent. Curious to see if any of them pitched today in a VERY important in-region doubleheader. Then again I could be way off on UWO's SP pecking order.

Very interesting developments, but i would guess UWOs top 3 didnt pitch today since they all threw 2-4 innings yesterday. Im sure those 3 will pitch on Thursday against Thomas though with Thomas probably not having their best guys on the mound. So I wouldnt be surprised if UWO swept thomas back on thursday.

I think it was a smart move by Lechnir to get those guys a short outing yesterday so they could bounce back on thursday against St. Thomas.

Of course this is all what Im thinking is the case

You're probably right, but I'd rather throw the bat boys at DePauw than my top three. I'm the kind of guy who would rather play dueling aces than play chess. Then again I have not won two national championships, and I'm not sure who pitched today. I'm hoping for a split with Olaf and sweeps of UST and Westminster.

BaseballFan · March 23, 2009, 08:49:32 PM

Well if the aces pitched today than they wouldnt of been able to pitch against St Thomas on Thursday.

Plus St. Thomas had plenty of games under their belts where as Oshkosh had only 1 game and would of been the first outing for the big guns so it would of been a pretty big risk.

I think this is the smart, safe way to go. It will be interesting to see the box scores

OshDude · March 23, 2009, 08:51:48 PM

Schuld pitched game 2.

RSSmith · March 23, 2009, 09:43:27 PM

Quote from: OshDude on March 23, 2009, 03:57:39 PM
Quote from: BigPoppa on March 23, 2009, 03:37:29 PM
Quote from: OshDude on March 23, 2009, 03:34:36 PM
Biggie,
At what point do we stop considering a win over Hopkins as a feather in a team's cap? That's not a rhetorical question either. I don't know the answer. Tough schedule for sure, but at 7-7 with losses to Simpson and Newark, I'm not so sure Hop hasn't been given enough chances to remain in elite company.

I still like St. Thomas and St. Olaf. Anderson has a very good program. In isolation that sweep is questionable for a team as good as I think Olaf is, but many teams had bad games last week.

That is a great question. Regardless of how Hopkins is playing they will still be a ranked team this week. I am just rewarding a team for beating a ranked opponent. JHU will quickly play themselves out of the Top 25, but for now they are still there and teams that beat them should be rewarded.
And I agree with that line of thinking. I think Hop has been the biggest enigma this year, and it's hard to know where the lines are among expectation, the season's length and results. I mean they're 2-6 in-region with wins over Newark and Springfield. They have York and Salisbury at the end, but will that be enough?

Enigmatic is not a bad description. I've posted my takes on Hopkins spring ball on the Centennial Conference board. I don't think JHU will quickly play themselves out of anything now. They played a very intense spring schedule where even the unranked teams like Rutgers-Newark (good wins against SCIAC teams this past week) are showing themselves to be formidable. Certainly there's no shame in losing to ECSU with Gilblair pitching, or Wheaton with Gingras pitching, or Southern Maine with Therrian pitching. The conference games start tomorrow. Last year, Hopkins was 16-2 in the conference, and I'll go out on a limb here and suggest that they will do no worse than that this year. Hopkins will probably need to win their conference tournament to return to post-season play, but it looks to me like that's what the team has been using its spring games to prepare for.

BaseballFan · March 23, 2009, 09:52:18 PM

Quote from: OshDude on March 23, 2009, 08:51:48 PM
Schuld pitched game 2.

Looks like he got roughed up a little bit

xyz123 · March 24, 2009, 03:14:39 PM

Is this a joke?

http://www.muhlenberg.edu/sports/abcapoll32409.pdf

BaseballFan · March 24, 2009, 03:33:36 PM

Quote from: xyz123 on March 24, 2009, 03:14:39 PM
Is this a joke?

http://www.muhlenberg.edu/sports/abcapoll32409.pdf

2 things that really stick out for me is St. Scholastica and Chapman not being ranked.

BigPoppa · March 24, 2009, 03:46:04 PM

I can see Chapman not being ranked (taking stats from another poster, they only have the 8th best in-region record in the West). St. Scholastica is a shock to me.

Usually, the ABCA poll consists of only 8 voters while the D3baseball.com poll contains 25 voters. I think this poll gets a more rounded feeling.