Top 25 Discussion

[Hammer Ball]

http://www.d3baseball.com/top25/2013/2013week-5

Things are starting to get sorted out.

Some things to think about and discuss.

Should teams with less than 10 games be in top 25? as a rule no
Should teams with winning percentages .600 or less be in top 25? up to the voter but imo no
SCIAC teams got votes but no love for top 25 yet. SCIAC teams have beaten Trinity, Linfield, Kean all in the top 10. this poll seems to lean away from west region teams

[Mike Falk]

Here is the American Baseball Coaches Association/Collegiate Baseball poll for games through March 24:

http://www.muhlenberg.edu/pdf/main/athletics/abcapoll_032613.pdf

[CrashDavisD3]

Here is the American Baseball Coaches Association/Collegiate Baseball poll for games through March 24:

http://www.muhlenberg.edu/pdf/main/athletics/abcapoll_032613.pdf

I see SCIAC teams are in top 20 in the ABCA/CB poll while are not in the D3baseball poll.

Is there some Anti-SCIAC bias out there?

[Hammer Ball]

I am missing the reason behind the ranking given St. Joe's(ME) in both polls.  Seems very high to me.
They do not have enough games to be given a SOS on boyds but their in-region SOS on D3baseball for 7 of their 9 games is 313!  Is that right? They swept a 2-12 Rhode Island and 4-5 Ripon and beat a 4 loss Wheaton(MA) and 5-9 Keene St.  Worst yet, they lost to a 3-6 UMass-Boston.

[Jim Dixon]

Here is the American Baseball Coaches Association/Collegiate Baseball poll for games through March 24:

http://www.muhlenberg.edu/pdf/main/athletics/abcapoll_032613.pdf

I see SCIAC teams are in top 20 in the ABCA/CB poll while are not in the D3baseball poll.

Is there some Anti-SCIAC bias out there?

Well no there is not.

[Jim Dixon]

Here is the American Baseball Coaches Association/Collegiate Baseball poll for games through March 24:

http://www.muhlenberg.edu/pdf/main/athletics/abcapoll_032613.pdf

I see SCIAC teams are in top 20 in the ABCA/CB poll while are not in the D3baseball poll.

Is there some Anti-SCIAC bias out there?

[Just_Some_Guy]

If you combined the two polls assigning equal value to the corresponding rank of each list the top 35 would look very close to this:

1.) Linfield
2.) Trinity
2.) Cortland State
4.) Salisbury
5.) Kean
5.) Marietta
7.) Christopher Newport
7.) St. Thomas
9.) Wheaton
10.) UT Tyler
11.) Shenandoah
12.) St. Joseph's (ME)
13.) Ramapo
14.) Keystone
15.) Haverford
16.) Johns Hopkins
17.) UW Whitewater
18.) Cal Lutheran
19.) Manchester
20.) Huntingdon
20.) Webster
22.) George Fox
22.) Pomona Pitzer
24.) Birmingham Southern
24.) Western New England
26.)   Augustana
26.) Wis-Oshkosh
28.)   Eastern Conn St.
28.)   UW Stevens Point
30.)   Texas Lutheran
31.)   UW-LaCrosse
32.)   St. Scholastica
32.)   Ithaca
34.)   Rowan
35.)   Heidelberg

Some of the "bigger" discrepancies come out West where the ABCA seems to value those team's body of work more-so than the D3 Baseball poll. As someone who follows the West relatively closely, my opinion would be that Trinity is ranked too high (in both polls), though I'd have them between 8 and 12. I'd have Cal Lutheran ranked between 18-24 and I would not have George Fox ranked at this time.

JSG

[CrashDavisD3]

If you combined the two polls assigning equal value to the corresponding rank of each list the top 35 would look very close to this:

1.) Linfield
2.) Trinity
2.) Cortland State
4.) Salisbury
5.) Kean
5.) Marietta
7.) Christopher Newport
7.) St. Thomas
9.) Wheaton
10.) UT Tyler
11.) Shenandoah
12.) St. Joseph’s (ME)
13.) Ramapo
14.) Keystone
15.) Haverford
16.) Johns Hopkins
17.) UW Whitewater
18.) Cal Lutheran
19.) Manchester
20.) Huntingdon
20.) Webster
22.) George Fox
22.) Pomona Pitzer
24.) Birmingham Southern
24.) Western New England
26.)   Augustana
26.) Wis-Oshkosh
28.)   Eastern Conn St.
28.)   UW Stevens Point
30.)   Texas Lutheran
31.)   UW-LaCrosse
32.)   St. Scholastica
32.)   Ithaca
34.)   Rowan
35.)   Heidelberg

Some of the "bigger" discrepancies come out West where the ABCA seems to value those team's body of work more-so than the D3 Baseball poll. As someone who follows the West relatively closely, my opinion would be that Trinity is ranked too high (in both polls), though I'd have them between 8 and 12. I'd have Cal Lutheran ranked between 18-24 and I would not have George Fox ranked at this time.

JSG

I agree Trinity may be ranked too high. I also agree Cal Lu should be in the top 25. I also agree George Fox should not be ranked and Pomona Pitzer should almost ranked in the top 25.

[OshDude]

Not sure if everyone knows, but the SOS numbers from the front page are in-region only.

How accurate are those numbers.  It shows Trinity (TX) in region record as 19-5.  Their total record is 23-5.  DeSales, Cardinal Stritch, and Rockford aren't in region.  That is 5 wins a 1 loss.  There is a debate if Centenary counts as in region since they aren't eligible for NCAA post season play.  With Centenary, TU should have a record of 18-4 and without it would be 17-2.

People are working daily to get the in-region designations correct. It's a lot of work.

Rockford is in-region for Trinity (Texas). No debate on Centenary. That's an in-region game for TU as well. All third- and fourth-year reclassifying programs count in the primary criteria.

[tigerfan_2001]

Not sure if everyone knows, but the SOS numbers from the front page are in-region only.

How accurate are those numbers.  It shows Trinity (TX) in region record as 19-5.  Their total record is 23-5.  DeSales, Cardinal Stritch, and Rockford aren't in region.  That is 5 wins a 1 loss.  There is a debate if Centenary counts as in region since they aren't eligible for NCAA post season play.  With Centenary, TU should have a record of 18-4 and without it would be 17-2.

People are working daily to get the in-region designations correct. It's a lot of work.

Rockford is in-region for Trinity (Texas). No debate on Centenary. That's an in-region game for TU as well. All third- and fourth-year reclassifying programs count in the primary criteria.

thanks for the clarification. Can you tell me how to determine if a team is in region? Seems crazy a team that is 1100 miles away is in region

[Spence]

http://www.d3baseball.com/top25/2013/2013week-5

Things are starting to get sorted out.

Some things to think about and discuss.

Should teams with less than 10 games be in top 25? as a rule no

If you were going to ban teams with less than 10 games from the poll, you'd have to wait until probably this week to have a poll unless you just wanted the national poll to be the South and West region rankings...as if those regions don't get enough exposure from their early starts...

[108 Stitches]

thanks for the clarification. Can you tell me how to determine if a team is in region? Seems crazy a team that is 1100 miles away is in region

San Antonio to Spokane ~2,000 miles. In region. It is the Wild Wild West!

...and a little East depending on your perspective.

[Spence]

thanks for the clarification. Can you tell me how to determine if a team is in region? Seems crazy a team that is 1100 miles away is in region

San Antonio to Spokane ~2,000 miles. In region. It is the Wild Wild West!

...and a little East depending on your perspective.

Part of the deal if you live out west. I live in North Dakota and it's nothing for someone to hop in the car and drive 4-5 hours here. I used to date a Wyoming girl and her high school alma mater's closest conference opponent was a 2 hour drive.

I haven't seen much of these western and southern teams coming east or north to play. I give big props to Huntingdon for being one of the very few I can ever remember doing it when they played at Marietta this past weekend. Methodist and Ferrum did it in the 90s as well, but Ferrum is only about 4-5 hours from Marietta and they got to play 6 games in 3 days thanks to a rule that no longer exists.

[Spence]

I am missing the reason behind the ranking given St. Joe's(ME) in both polls.  Seems very high to me.
They do not have enough games to be given a SOS on boyds but their in-region SOS on D3baseball for 7 of their 9 games is 313!  Is that right? They swept a 2-12 Rhode Island and 4-5 Ripon and beat a 4 loss Wheaton(MA) and 5-9 Keene St.  Worst yet, they lost to a 3-6 UMass-Boston.

That 4-loss Wheaton took home a piece of wood last year from Appleton. UMass-Boston and Keene State are respected programs as well. Keene State has a lot of losses but they also beat Bowdoin and Western New England. St. Joe's also beat UMass-Boston and their other loss is to Webster who was also in Appleton last year.

If you extrapolated their record to teams that have played more games that would be 14-4 or 21-6 against mostly pretty good programs. It would surprise me if St. Joe's finishes with less than 28 wins, and they could end up with many more.

But at least they actually beat those 2-12 type teams they played. We've got a team in the top 5 that lost to a 2-10 team.

[tigerfan_2001]

thanks for the clarification. Can you tell me how to determine if a team is in region? Seems crazy a team that is 1100 miles away is in region

San Antonio to Spokane ~2,000 miles. In region. It is the Wild Wild West!

...and a little East depending on your perspective.

i get that, they are both in the same region, the West.  I dont think Rockford from Illinois who participates in the Northern Athletic Conference which is part of the Midwest Evaluation Region and is 1193 miles from Trinity would count as an In Region game.  Unless I misread Ricky's post, he is saying they are in-region.