BB: Top Teams in West Region

[Pat Coleman]

http://www.masseyratings.com/rate.php?s=cbase2015&sub=11620

A few final comments on team rankings, the West and how the NCAA does a huge disservice to the region.

The data is almost complete and is purely analytical, no "voting". Note that 7 of the top 20 teams are from the West.

Also note that 14 of the top 20 teams were either from the West, South or Wisconsin teams. Now how come the NCAA put those power house groups in the same pool at the CWS this year?

Hmmmm, could we have a  bias on trying to make it so a South, West or Wisconsin teams don't dominate at the CWS?  Seems odd to me.

Following up on what some of the Trinity players who were talking with the Linfield players, and after seeing it with my own eyes, the level of play on a team for team basis is higher in the West than anywhere else in the country. (South/Wisconsin aside) There is no logical reason to not have 6 West teams in the West Regional, and maybe even more logical, flying more teams OUT of the West.

This is all water under the bridge, but something is wrong with how the NCAA is doing their regional rankings.

Have a great summer.

You haven't said anything in this post that supports this statement, for what it's worth. You reference selections, pairings and assignments for regionals but nothing about regional rankings.

[Pat Coleman]

Another seven of the top 20 teams are from the South.

These are fairly isolated regions. Massey math doesn't work as well in Division III, with the lack of interregional play. It favors the WIAC and Wisconsin and proximity to Wisconsin in every D-III sport. Now, that and the West rankings could be proper, to a point, but it's hard to tell because of the high number of ASC and NWC conferences games and the like. More interplay is needed to really know.

[TexasBB]

The bottom line is that the West, although it has done well in Appleton is not dominating the world series.  Granted that it is only getting one of 8 teams in the tournament but if they were so much better then you would expect west teams winning a disproportionate amount of world series titles. They are not. So based simply on history of world series results Massey is biased to the west and south.

[CrashDavisD3]

Congrats on Trinity making it out of the West. Saw their program several years battle Chapman in the regionals. A great program a great coaching staff and most years have few players from Califronia on their roster.

A deep pitching staff is indeed a key element to winning the whole thing.

Chapman was without their All American #1 starter Kitchens in 2009 and fell a day short.

In 2011 Chapman was again without their #1 starter Rauh and fell a game short.

West has great teams but it is so tough to win in Appleton. Cortland has been a regular in Appleton for so many years and finally got their championship.

[Westside]

Fist D3 Baseball poll of the year is out (non d3baseball.com)

http://baseballnews.com/collegiate-baseball-div-3-poll-12-22-15/

From the West:

10. Linfield
16. PLU
20. Texas-Tyler
22. Cal Lu
23. Concordia (TX)
27. Trinity (TX)
40. Pomona-Pitzer

Received Votes: Whitworth, Redlands, Chapman



Obviously, it is too early to tell, but I think Trinity and PLU are Top 10 teams. Linfield has to replace some horses on their staff, but their offense should take a step forward. I think their Top 10 ranking comes more from their past success.

[108 Stitches]

I find it interesting that only 4 teams from the West made the list. I was at the CWS last year and frankly the teams in the West Regional were tougher than the CWS teams. IMO, the three best teams there were Cortland, (rightfully) Trinity and Frostburg.

#   School (1st votes)   2015 Rec   Pts   Prev.
1   Cortland State (23)   45-4   622   1
2   UW-La Crosse   36-16   537   3
3   Emory   31-15   508   6
4   Salisbury   33-6-1   501   5
5   Kean   35-12   442   11
6   Webster   34-15   415   8
7   Trinity (Texas) (1)   40-14   414   4
8   Birmingham-Southern   37-12-1   396   10
9   UW-Whitewater   35-11   372   9
10   Frostburg State (1)   43-9   370   2
11   Rhodes   33-13   342   13
12   Heidelberg   33-14   286   14
13   UW-Stevens Point   33-14   277   12
14   Linfield   33-15   245   15
15   Southern Maine   32-15   225   rv
16   Shenandoah   28-10-1   216   16
17   Pacific Lutheran   32-14   193   17
18   Ramapo   33-16   185   8
19   Baldwin Wallace   31-12   183   20
20   Wartburg   33-14   153   21
21   Wooster   36-9   150   24
22   Texas-Tyler   34-12   140   19
23   Methodist   32-10   125   22
24   Marietta   29-18   108   rv
25   Alvernia   35-14   61   18


Others receiving votes: Misericordia 57, Cal Lutheran 54, Ohio Northern 50, Mary Washington 45, St. Thomas (Minn.) 41, Coe 40, Concordia-Texas 37, Concordia (Ill.), Johns Hopkins 25, Carthage 25, Adrian 24, La Roche 23, Mitchell 22, Thomas More 21, Millsaps 21, Keystone 19, MIT 15, Stevens Institute 12, St. Scholastica 12, Randolph-Macon 11, Huntingdon 8, Wesleyan (Conn.) 8, Ohio Wesleyan 6, Anderson 5, DeSales 5, Endicott 5, Eastern Conn. St. 3, Wis.-Oshkosh 3, Rensselaer 2, Redlands 2, Clarkson 1, Rose-Hulman 1, Rutgers-Camden 1, Salem St. 1, Southwestern (Tex.) 1.

* fixed Redland.

[Westside]

Agreed. You also missed Redlands in the receiving votes (2 votes!). I had six teams from the West in the Top 25, and pretty much all of them ranked higher than where they ended up in the ranking you listed.

[Jim Dixon]

Agreed. You also missed Redlands in the receiving votes (2 votes!). I had six teams from the West in the Top 25, and pretty much all of them ranked higher than where they ended up in the ranking you listed.

A lot of coaching changes in the NW and that no SCIAC team has not made it to Appleton are factors in what starts out as a down year in the west teams in the poll.

[BigPoppa]

I find it interesting that only 4 teams from the West made the list.

If all was equal, each region would be represented by 3-4 teams in each poll. The WEST getting four in the preseason poll is about right... Each of us feels "our region" is under-represented. I am not certain of the breakdown into how each region is represented, but so much of the early previews are focused on who voters feel will be the top teams from conferences that produce contenders year after year (ex: WIAC, NJAC, OAC, etc...). While each of us knows our regions relatively well, most know very little about teams outside of the region and as a result are often shocked to find there is quality baseball played elsewhere.

Part of the issue some of the West teams run into is that by starting so early (compared to cold-weather programs) they are not forced to develop 4th and 5th starters and a deep bullpen that Snow Belt programs find a necessity simply to survive conference play by playing 6-8 games a week while the West/South plays 3-4... that shows up in the post-season.

[Ralph Turner]

I find it interesting that only 4 teams from the West made the list.

If all was equal, each region would be represented by 3-4 teams in each poll. The WEST getting four in the preseason poll is about right... Each of us feels "our region" is under-represented. I am not certain of the breakdown into how each region is represented, but so much of the early previews are focused on who voters feel will be the top teams from conferences that produce contenders year after year (ex: WIAC, NJAC, OAC, etc...). While each of us knows our regions relatively well, most know very little about teams outside of the region and as a result are often shocked to find there is quality baseball played elsewhere.

Part of the issue some of the West teams run into is that by starting so early (compared to cold-weather programs) they are not forced to develop 4th and 5th starters and a deep bullpen that Snow Belt programs find a necessity simply to survive conference play by playing 6-8 games a week while the West/South plays 3-4... that shows up in the post-season.

My other comment about the West Region is that I think we have very few teams in the Top 15, but IMHO we have more than the statistically expected number of teams in the 25-120 range out of ~360 teams playing D3.

The West Regional is always balanced.  The games are tight, with very few blowouts that you see in the Regionals back east.
Plus the difference between the schools at the top of each conference is so small, that the teams sitting at home rankle at how close they were to making the playoffs.  Plenty of West and South Region schools show up in the Indexes such as Massey. The West is also the smallest in terms of participants among the 8 regions.

[108 Stitches]

I find it interesting that only 4 teams from the West made the list.

If all was equal, each region would be represented by 3-4 teams in each poll. The WEST getting four in the preseason poll is about right... Each of us feels "our region" is under-represented. I am not certain of the breakdown into how each region is represented, but so much of the early previews are focused on who voters feel will be the top teams from conferences that produce contenders year after year (ex: WIAC, NJAC, OAC, etc...). While each of us knows our regions relatively well, most know very little about teams outside of the region and as a result are often shocked to find there is quality baseball played elsewhere.

Part of the issue some of the West teams run into is that by starting so early (compared to cold-weather programs) they are not forced to develop 4th and 5th starters and a deep bullpen that Snow Belt programs find a necessity simply to survive conference play by playing 6-8 games a week while the West/South plays 3-4... that shows up in the post-season.

Great points BigPoppa,

Nice to be talking about baseball again. One of the reason's Trinity broke through last year was the depth of their pitching staff. Offensively they will likely be the best team in the West this year as the whole starting lineup returns and most are Sr's. With their number one on the hill they will be anyone, anywhere, the question will becomes what happens at 2-5 and the pen. I think them and PLU are probably the best teams in the West this year, but it is too early to really know. I actually think there may be a bit of a drop off from previous years. Don't know what is happening with Chapman and Linfield will be good. A lot of teams lost a lot of talent so we will see.

[Ron Boerger]

The d3baseball West Region preseason report is up:

http://www.d3baseball.com/notables/2016/01/preview/west-preview

[Ralph Turner]

The d3baseball West Region preseason report is up:

http://www.d3baseball.com/notables/2016/01/preview/west-preview

I gotta give props to Colton Westfall. I like the way that he writes.  His prose is so much more "baseball-y" than mine (too much technical writing...)

Great preview.  I stand by my conviction that this is the strongest and most competitive region in the country.

There are essentially no easy teams in the Region.

Thanks to Jim Dixon! 

Let's play 3!  Lobos and UDallas open this weekend in Alpine. 

[Bishopleftiesdad]

All great job as always. I may have missed this in the past, but most of the conferences are missing some teams.
The Sciac review, for example, is missing:
Cal Tech,
Whittier,
CMS
Occidental

Has this always been the case, and I missed it, or do to constraints, were all the teams not reviewed?
Ralph why I agree that the West is very strong at the top. I cannot agree there are no easy teams in the region. There may be fewer easy teams, and no easy teams in the regional playoff. But there are easy teams. For example if Wilmington, Or Hiram, from the mid east played Cal tech. I believe both of those mid east teams could beat Cal Tech. And at least compete with Lewis and Clark.

If you are talking about solely teams in the Regional I cannot argue with that. Due to the Pool A bids in other parts of the country, there are usually Some weak teams at the other regional's.

Thanks again for all the work that is put into creating these. They are a great resource and always a fun read.

[Westside]

The d3baseball West Region preseason report is up:

http://www.d3baseball.com/notables/2016/01/preview/west-preview

I gotta give props to Colton Westfall. I like the way that he writes.  His prose is so much more "baseball-y" than mine (too much technical writing...)

Great preview.  I stand by my conviction that this is the strongest and most competitive region in the country.

There are essentially no easy teams in the Region.

Thanks to Jim Dixon! 

Let's play 3!  Lobos and UDallas open this weekend in Alpine.

Thanks. Though it is tough to write the preview when only 10% of the West teams respond to the questionnaires that are sent out and half the teams hadn't updated their school websites/rosters!

Should be another great year in the West, for sure.