2016 College Baseball Thread

[micropolitan guy]

I see your points. I simply think that if you play in a power conference (Pac-12, ACC, SEC, Big 12) for baseball, have a winning conference record and are 16 games above .500 you should be in the field, no questions asked. I can't conceive of an ACC or SEC team with identical credentials 1, ever being left out, or 2, having an RPI of only 44.

(And I don't get the love for Coastal Carolina, which plays in abysmal league, more often than not loses every big OOC series it plays, and has never done very much on the regional or Super Regional level. Have they ever played in the CWS?).

I think there will be very little interest in this year's tournament west of the Rockies.

 

[DanOregon]

The Pac-12 needs to start heading East early on and playing SEC and ACC teams.

 

[Cosmo]

Coastal has won two regionals and lost twice in the supers, once to UNC, once to South Carolina. The Big South is usually better than it was this year. Liberty was supposed to be pretty good but majorly underachieved. Re: CCU's performance against power teams ... they usually have to go on the road for those series, though they do usually get some decent Big Ten competition to come down for their early-season tournaments. But ACC/SEC teams aren't coming to Conway for three-game sets.

Micro, I see your points. But the system is the system, and though it may be broken, someone like BC used it to its advantage. Why, if you're BC, would you go out of conference to play tough series when your league schedule includes Florida State, Louisville, Virginia, North Carolina, N.C. State, Clemson, Notre Dame (down this year, but usually stout), etc., etc.?

The Pac got some bad scheduling luck this year, and as Jake pointed out, the fact that teams like Cal and UCLA struggled against bubblish ACC teams didn't help matters.

 

[Big Circus]

Clemson (down this year, but usually stout)

That had better be a subtle Seth Beer reference.

 

[Cosmo]

Nah. It was a brain fart. That was supposed to go with Notre Dame, not Clemson.

 

[micropolitan guy]

Another goofy thing is that two former OSU high-ranking staffers are on the selection committee. They both wanted the OSU AD job that recently went to someone else. A third is a former OSU track guy, who left when the program got axed. No Pac-12 rep on the committee, and only one guy west of Texas.

Every power conference team plays a league schedule like BC's. So what is the incentive for any of them playing a decent OOC, instead of simply loading up on cupcakes?

The RPI is broken, and the selection committee is full of AD's looking out for their own interests and playing quid pro quo. Not sure how to fix it.

 

[Jake_Taylor]

No, the teams in the Big 12 and Big Ten didn't play a conference schedule like the ACC and SEC teams have the past couple of years. Those conferences are going to dominate the draft. Right now there is a wide discrepancy in talent and depth. It hasn't always been that way and it likely won't stay that way, but right now if you play in the ACC or SEC you are facing pitchers that could be in the big leagues soon almost every week.

 

[micropolitan guy]

No, the teams in the Big 12 and Big Ten didn't play a conference schedule like the ACC and SEC teams have the past couple of years. Those conferences are going to dominate the draft. Right now there is a wide discrepancy in talent and depth. It hasn't always been that way and it likely won't stay that way, but right now if you play in the ACC or SEC you are facing pitchers that could be in the big leagues soon almost every week.

Not including the Big Ten as a baseball power conference. But certainly the pitching in the Pac-12 historically is as good as anywhere.

 

[dixiehack]

Freshman pitcher for Vandy drowns on a fishing trip.

Vandy pitcher Everett, 19, dies of drowning

 

[Jake_Taylor]

My God, that's terrible.

 

[TigerVols]

He was expected to be a first rounder, IIRC.

 

[HanSenSE]

Don't know if I'm more horrified by his death or the indifference of the others in the boat.

 

[expendable]

Yeah. When somebody says they need help in the water, don't **** around.

 

[Jake_Taylor]

Lots of blowouts in the early games so far.

 

[albert77]

Southern Miss hung 11 on South Al in B6, went on to win 14-2. They are playing really well right now.

 

[Batman]

God, I hate Clemson's uniforms. They look like they found them in a time capsule from 1978, and not in a good way.

 

[HanSenSE]

Santa Barbara beats Washington in bullpen buster, getting a walk off in the 1984th. Vandy up next, but storms on the way.

 

[Batman]

Someone asked early in the thread what they were going to do to create late games? Apparently, the answer was to seed the clouds on the Gulf Coast.
The first game of the Lafayette Regional started at 6 p.m. local time. Game two is projected to start an hour after that one wraps up, so conservatively figure a 9:30 or 10 p.m. start if it doesn't rain again.
LSU and Utah Valley, originally scheduled for 2 p.m., is now going to start at 8 and the second game (Rice-SE Louisiana is postponed until tomorrow). Guess LSU enjoyed those late nights at the SEC tournament so much that they're making it a thing. Possums are nocturnal, after all.

 

[Batman]

Western Carolina jumps on Clemson for a 6-0 lead through 2 1/2 innings. Seth Beer just hit a grand slam for Clemson, Chris Okey made it back-to-back, and the Tigers are now up 10-6. Ten runs and counting in the bottom of the third. Could be in for a fun one there if Western Carolina can stop the bleeding and regroup.

 

[KJIM]

I'm watching scores. Who is WRST?