BB: Midwest Region

[OshDude]

Rankings are out. Not surprised about the teams, just the order. Although maybe they are not correct if St. Thomas plays in "Minnestoa." Wonder what else they got wrong ...

Even before the Tommie losses to Hamline (StT is now 13-5 in-region), I thought Whitewater would be second behind Oshkosh. And you're right, 10-0 against HS teams doesn't impress the NCAA. Ripon is usally two spots ahead of where I thought they should be, so I predicted they would be again. Glad to see I was wrong on that one.

Thoughts? Only five ranked teams is interesting ... makes me think the NCAA field, as of now, has a Central team going to Oshkosh.

http://ncaa.com/rankings/default.aspx?id=212508

Why would they only rank 5 teams? I dont get it, but its the NCAA so what else should I expect!...well Im pretty sure CSS will make it as a pool B, because pool B only has about 6 teams that deserve and they are one. Surprised that Ripon isnt higher since NCAA loves them...basically I agree with Oshdude on everything, but dont think a central team will be shipped to the midwest with only a 6 team region

I don't think so either. I hope CSS makes the next rankings, so that's not the case. But as of today, another team would be in Oshkosh to complete the regional. That's what those rankings expressed. It said CSS is not as good as the 54 other ranked teams, of which only five are traditional Midwest teams.

I took my beef to the national regional rankings board. We can only hope the NCAA was only kidding with the first rankings. If it's not a joke and CSS is worse than St. John Fisher and East Bay, CSS may never reach the rankings because it doesn't have anything left on the schedule, if St. Thomas and St. Olaf remain off the sked.

Pathetic either way, if you ask me.

[BaseballFan]

Oshdude I appreciate your thoughts on CSS being in the midwest rankings. I seriously dont think CSS gets respect from the NCAA, but every team in the midwest does respect them. I know Thomas, Olaf, Point and pretty sure Olaf does. Look at last year Point pitched Zimmerman against CSS the #6 seed. In my opinion some teams would pitch their #2 in that situation.

On the other side CSS is hurt by the lack of success last 2 years 1-4. I heard the MIAC is not allowing games outside the conference until all conference games are played. So CSS might be out of luck playing GA, Olaf, Thomas. But should not be CSSs fault.  IMO the entire midwest region could win the central, the best team of the central would struggle winning in the midwest.

To confirm my thought on the NCAA not respecting CSS. 2006 36-4 opens the season with sweeps of #3 Wartburg and #13?? Thomas. They were ranked #4 by ABCA and got the #4 seed in midwest. 2007 34-6 less impressive wins but great record, perhaps lucky to make regional at #6 seed but still drew the best pitcher in D3 in game 1

[OshDude]

The silver lining is what Pat wrote on the national board. CSS doesn't necessarily need to be regionally ranked to get in as a Pool B. CSS has to be the No. 6 team in the Midwest.

But Ralph says the NCAA is doing regional baseball rankings this year like it does with football and men's hoops, with a rough regional allotment to the rankings based on the number of championship-eligible teams in each region. The result is the MW gets five ranked teams because it's by far the smallest region with only 30 teams.

The MW committee gets to take a list longer than the current five teams to the national committee. My guess is it may come down to CSS, Concordia-Chicago, Rockford and Emory for two spots, if everything holds. Let me know if I missed a team there. And no, I don't think East Bay should be in the previous sentence.

Unless something funny happens, Chapman, Salisbury, Ithaca and Piedmont appear to be Pool B locks. There's always Pool C for CSS ... but I highly doubt it.

[OshDude]

OWP (opponent's winning %), QOWi (quality of wins index) and records against regionally ranked teams of what I think are the top 10 teams in the Midwest Region, through 4/24. I included all regionally ranked opponents and not just the ones that count toward in-region games. I figured the QOWi and OWP using only in-region records.

More teams than will be selected, but there should be some movement until the end of the season. Wanted to make it deep enough.

Team, in-region record, OWP, QOWi, (record vs. regionally ranked teams)
1. Oshkosh, 21-6, .618, 10.56, (Whitewater 2-2, Stevens Point 3-1, St. Thomas 1-1)
2. St. Thomas, 13-5, .631, 10.22, (Oshkosh 1-1, Stevens Point 1-1, Trinity-Conn. 0-1, EDIT: Amherst 1-0)
3. Whitewater, 22-4, .542, 9.50, (Oshkosh 2-2)
4. Stevens Point, 17-5, .617, 8.91, (St. Thomas 1-1, Oshkosh 1-3, Wooster 0-2)
5. Ripon, 12-0, .418, 10.25, (EDIT: RPI 0-1)

In no particular order:
St. Norbert, 14-6, .563, 8.35, (Augustana 0-1, Carthage 0-2, Stevens Point 0-2, Mt. St. Joe 1-0)
St. Olaf, 13-6, .619, 10.37, (Whitewater 1-1, St. Thomas 0-2)
Gustavus, 14-5, .425, 9.05, (Keene St. 0-2)
Hamline, 17-11, .470, 8.50, (St. Thomas 2-0, Roger Williams 1-1, Johns Hopkins 0-1)
St. Scholastica, 15-3, .555, 9.56, (Oshkosh 1-1, St. Thomas 1-1, Elizabethtown 1-0, Alvernia 1-1)

[Bronko7]

If I am St. Olaf & CSS right now I am LIVID, are you kidding me with Ripon. There key wins for the season in Marion. The MWC is worst than the UMAC and considerably worst than the MIAC. At the time Ripon was 10-0 in region which is probably the reason they made the list. But the fact is that they can only rank 5 teams based on the size of the region. In the book it states that there is no maximum or minimum amount of bids from a single region, so I dont believe there is an issue for CSS, from my calculations I have them as the 5th Pool B barring they lose another conference game. Rockford still has to deal with ILL-Wes & Carthage, I dont see them splitting those series. Plus they have no wins over a ranked opponent. Bottom line CSS has to win out and St. Olaf needs a good run to the MIAC title game.

[bigbadbaseballman]

oshdude,
can you explain to me why ripons QOWI is typically high year in and year out considering how weak their schedule is and their lack of big wins?

[OshDude]

St. Olaf's QOWi is boosted a bit by its opponents being right at .500 in some cases.

Even if Point sweeps Ripon, those are nice games for RC's cause. If RC wins one or both? Golden.

That Ripon team is good, though. Not so sure about pitching depth, but RC can hit with, and against, anyone. That loss to RPI and Zongol, an A-A candidate, has some qualifiers attached. But those are neither here nor there, and it doesn't matter in the scheme of things because it was nonregional. Let's see how RC fares against Point and SNC before writing them off as a team created by its schedule to date.

RC's biggest games are against Norbert, IMO. RC needs three over SNC. Then again, even RC will probably need to win the MWC Pool A bid. Hard to imagine two MWC teams in, even though SNC and RC are very good.

[OshDude]

Ripon (Beloit) and Whitewater (La Crosse) only managed splits today, adding some intrigue to the proceedings.

[OshDude]

oshdude,
can you explain to me why ripons QOWI is typically high year in and year out considering how weak their schedule is and their lack of big wins?

RC beats teams that it should. Rarely does RC throw a stinker in there, and that's a huge part of the QOWi. Beat the teams you should and everything works out, especially if you can steal a game from a .667 team.

A loss to Norbert is usually a good loss, according to the formula.

[BaseballFan]

Ripon (Beloit) and Whitewater (La Crosse) only managed splits today, adding some intrigue to the proceedings.

That makes things pretty interesting, especially if Ripon doesnt get a sweep tomorrow. I think thats a big loss considering they are looking at most likely a couple losses in those last 6 games. Ripon is looking like they need to win the conference tourney more and more to make the regional

[cubs]

Ripon (Beloit) and Whitewater (La Crosse) only managed splits today, adding some intrigue to the proceedings.

St. Norbert also split yesterday with Lawrence, to make things interesting there as well.....

Today, Ripon sweeps Beloit, but what I found most interesting was the omission of Ripon 3B Nick Beaman from both box scores.  Looking back at yesterdays games, it appears he finished both games, and was not hit by a pitch or anything.  I would be curious to know what is up there....

[OshDude]

Team, in-region record through 4/27, OWP and records vs. regionally ranked teams – nonregion ranked teams)
1. Oshkosh, 23-6, .584 (Whitewater 2-2, Stevens Point 3-1, St. Thomas 1-1)
2. St. Thomas, 13-5, .641 (Oshkosh 1-1, Stevens Point 1-1, Trinity-Conn. 0-1, Amherst 1-0)
3. Whitewater, 25-5, .546 (Oshkosh 2-2, Point?)
4. Stevens Point, 18-6, .553 (St. Thomas 1-1, Oshkosh 1-3, Ripon?, Whitewater? Wooster 0-2)
5. Ripon, 15-1, .429 (Point?, RPI 0-1)

In no particular order:
St. Norbert, 17-7, .523 (Augustana 0-1, Carthage 0-2, Stevens Point 0-2, Ripon?, Mt. St. Joe 1-0)
St. Olaf, 14-6, .588 (Whitewater 1-1, St. Thomas 0-2)
Gustavus, 14-5, .427 (St. Thomas?, Keene St. 0-2)
Hamline, 17-11, .466 (St. Thomas 2-0, Roger Williams 1-1, Johns Hopkins 0-1)
St. Scholastica, 17-3, .536 (Oshkosh 1-1, St. Thomas 1-1, Elizabethtown 1-0, Alvernia 1-1)

Midwest Region's 5 Big Results of the Week (4/21-27):
Hamline swept two games from St. Thomas.
Stevens Point split two games with Oshkosh.
St. Olaf swept two games from Gustavus.
Ripon won three of four games over Beloit.
Whitewater won three of four games over La Crosse.

Midwest Region's 5 Big DH's of the Week (4/28-5/4):
4/28  4/29 St. Thomas vs. Gustavus
4/29  4/30 Stevens Point vs. Ripon
4/30  Gustavus vs. Hamline
5/2-3 Whitewater vs. Stevens Point (4 games)
5/3-4 Ripon vs. St. Norbert (4 games)

[szlongball]

Point vs Ripon now scheduled for Wednesday.
Point beat Stout in game 2  25-5.

[BaseballFan]

Pretty interesting that 6 Midwest teams are ranked in the top 27 in todays poll

[bigbadbaseballman]

7 teams if you throw in st olaf who got a couple votes