BB: Top Teams in West Region

[Richard Hamstocks]

Love this from twitter this morning:

@d3baseball Neither got in, actually. RT @OsportsExaminer: @d3baseball explain Linfield getting in over co-champ Pacific. Pac also beat Lin 2 out of 3.

Not sure what @OsportsExaminer was reading ...

d3's mock regionals. I'm wondering what d3baseball is thinking as well.  It adds legitimacy to the whole fiasco.

None of it really matters anymore, does it?

Well, it seems the problem is not an isolated one, rather it's systemic.  This needs to be fixed.  There's always next year...

[Ralph Turner]

Love this from twitter this morning:

@d3baseball Neither got in, actually. RT @OsportsExaminer: @d3baseball explain Linfield getting in over co-champ Pacific. Pac also beat Lin 2 out of 3.

Not sure what @OsportsExaminer was reading ...

d3's mock regionals. I'm wondering what d3baseball is thinking as well.  It adds legitimacy to the whole fiasco.

None of it really matters anymore, does it?

Well, it seems the problem is not an isolated one, rather it's systemic.  This needs to be fixed.  There's always next year...

Richard, thank you for the contributions during the short time that you have been on the message boards.

The competition committee of the NCAA addresses such problems across all the sports in D-III.

The primary focus is D-III is Regionally Based Competition, so as not to strain the requirements of classtime and school budgets.  (Attending class and not spending 2 arms and a leg on travel budgets is the driving force.)  How to handle a regional focus and a national tournament has been one of the ongoing questions in the decade that I have participated on the message boards.

I am personally happy with the West Region only getting one Pool C bid.  We have seen stronger competition in the West Region in the previous years.  We have parity, but the parity brought teams closer to the pack and dropped just below the magic #16.

[dp643]

I'm still mind boggled at how we are sugar coating a weak region this year with "parity". Did parity cause chapmans fielding percentage to drop 20 points this year? Did parity cause Tyler to have their worst pitching staff in recent history? Ask Texasbb if this years 30+ win Tyler team was near as strong as past. Point me to another year in the asc when two of the final three teams
Finished below .500 on the year.

I'm not trying to take away from the teams, but I'm going to call a spade a spade. We consistently have had deserving west region teams get snubbed from pool c. This year we were complaining about how the bubble teams shouldn't make it! I am not putting down any of these teams, but I'm also not going to call it something different than it is.

[Ralph Turner]

This difference in McMurry's schedule this year is the number of games played against non-D3 teams.

McMurry went 0-3 against D-2 Tarleton St., 1-2 against NAIA Friends and 0-3 versus Centenary which still may have  D-1 scholarship athletes on its roster.

Against pure D-III foes, McMurry is 22-16.  I agree that this year's McMurry team is not as good as the 2008 squad that went to the Regionals. I am waiting to see how the regional plays out in McMinnville with Coe and St John's in the mix.

I project CTX to win the Regional. Let's see what happens from here.

[108 Stitches]

Granted this is based on what I saw early season, but IMO overall the Trinity team is better than the CTX team even without Lucero. Whether they can overcome all of their injuries remains to be seen. Even without Lucero they are very talented pitching wise, and as Ralph pointed out they beat a very good Centenary team 2 of 3 with none of their weekend starters. On the other hand they lost 5 games to teams they had no business losing to.

[dp643]

Ralph:

There were probably only a couple of teams in the ASC this year that would say they were better this year than they were in 2008.

[BamColt]

Without Lucero I just don't see Trinity winning this thing. Depth on the mound will be a huge factor in this tourney in my opinion. Stranger things can happen, it could be a wild card winner as well.

[CrashDavisD3]

Granted this is based on what I saw early season, but IMO overall the Trinity team is better than the CTX team even without Lucero. Whether they can overcome all of their injuries remains to be seen. Even without Lucero they are very talented pitching wise, and as Ralph pointed out they beat a very good Centenary team 2 of 3 with none of their weekend starters. On the other hand they lost 5 games to teams they had no business losing to.

Very difficult winning a regional when you lose one of your top pitchers due to injuries

BUT it can be done.

Chapman in 2009 lost their #1 Kitchens before the Regional and still won the regional without him.

In 2012 Chapman lost their #1 Rauh in game one of the NCAA Championship round but still made it to the Champship game vs Marrietta.

[108 Stitches]

Pitching will not be TU's problem IMO, they have plenty of arms. I think people will be surprised how many hard throwers they have. Fink is back and they have two other front end starters (besides Klimesh, plus a whole bunch of relief guys) They gave up 8 hits to BSC and 5 came from two guys, they will win/lose based on errors (or lack of) and the ability to manufacture runs. I know CTX has plenty of arms also, but I wonder if they will be able to muster enough offense to get it done. I also agree that CTX has the advantage of playing on a turf field. It should be a fun regional.

[Ralph Turner]

Ralph:

There were probably only a couple of teams in the ASC this year that would say they were better this year than they were in 2008.

Thanks for the comment.

One other thing...
The new bats have made this an entirely different game. Where did all of the homers go?

I think that we need to drill down into the stats on unearned runs and Fielding percentage.

[dp643]

That is precisely why I dont use offensive statistics for comparison purposes. I used Tyler's pitching, Chapman's fielding, etc as examples. The days of Derek David hitting 26 homeruns are likely behind us. But there are plenty of other areas we could compare to gauge the quality of baseball around the region.

Lets move on to some regional tournament predictions!

[Ralph Turner]

I posted mine on another board.

My regional predictions:

Millington, TN: #1 Birmingham-Southern

Lakewood, NJ: #2 Kean

Marietta, OH: #1 Marietta

Whitewater, WI: #2 La Crosse

Mansfield, CT: #1 Wheaton

Farmingdale, NY: #1 Cortland Sate

McMinnville, OR:#1 Concordia-Austin

Newport News, VA: #1 CNU

[CrashDavisD3]

Who return as top teams in 2013?

NWC - Whitworth, Pacific, Pac Lu....Will George Fox and Linfield return to the top of the NWC 
ASC - Concordia, TX, Texas-Tyler, Texas-Tyler, Hardin Simmons
SCIAC - La Verne, Pomona-Pitzer, Cal Lu..Will Redlands and Chapman bounce back in 2013 
SCAC - Trinity

[CrashDavisD3]

2013 Predictions

SCAC - Trinity-Texas 
NWC - Whitworth
ASC - Concordia-Texas
SCIAC - Pomona-Pitzer

Others in the mix
La Verne, Chapman, Texas-Tyler, Linfield,

[108 Stitches]

I was looking at the McMinnville rosters and Concordia had 14 Sr's on it. They showed the full 35 man roster so I am not sure how many were contributors, but losing 14 Sr's is a lot. I think Tyler will be back stronger this year.

This is Centenary's first year of eligibility in SCAC and I expect them to be tough, if their pitching has developed past their number 1, they could be a contender.

Trinity should be very good this year, but I am concerned about their SOS. Not playing Millsaps, Hendrix, BSC and some tougher teams could hurt them come playoffs. It might be good for them to start going to the Az tournament to face some tougher teams until some of the other SCAC teams develop.