The Road to Omaha: 2018 College Baseball Thread

[Michael_ Gee]

Yep, but they also, most of the time, have worse teams, as talent flows South and West to more favorable locales. A successful midwestern coach once told me the tried and true line they're playing a different sport structurally.

Oh, I'm not arguing that point. It's self-evident. Most NE D-1 players are guys who were all-around excellent high school athletes who weren't big enough for D-1 football or basketball, but still wanted to stay close to home so they play baseball. They are not the on-a-travel-team-since-seventh-birthday kids who go to Texas, Florida or Stanford. Case in point: My town of Lexington's high school had the best football player in its history. Kid played quarterback and was his division's state player of the year with like 50 touchdowns, over 20 of them running. But he's also 5-11, so he went to BC on a baseball scholarship. I'm sure he'll be a good player, but unlikely to be a first round draft choice, to put it mildly.

 

[micropolitan guy]

The brackets are weird - if all four Pac-12 teams win their regionals, they'll face a Pac-12 opponent in the Super Regional. And there are a few places where there are no SEC teams in a potential Super.
They could do a straight seeding 1-32, then fill out the bottom two spots to be as regionally feasible as possible. And for all the kvetching out of the West Coast, there is no law that is stopping them from playing ACC and SEC team in the pre-season.

Why should they have to travel clear across the country? The SEC and ACC teams generally don't play challenging nonleague schedules at all, loading up on February and March home games against competition from the Northeast, yet they don't get penalized for it because the conference season artificially inflates the RPIs of the SEC and ACC teams.

I realize they play excellent baseball in the SEC and ACC. But no better than in the Pac-12, as demonstrated by the number of Pac-12 national titles, and by the number of Pac-12 teams to win those titles.

 

[Donny in his element]

Florida State's loss Saturday ... my God.

Drew Parrish goes eight innings and 109 pitches as FSU takes a 2-0 lead. Then a 2 1/2-hour rain delay hits. Then ... Mike Martin sends Parrish back out for the ninth.

Walk, walk, couple of outs, 3-run bomb (on pitch 133), goodbye, season over.

Why do these college coaches remain so willfully stupid?

Column: FSU's Mike Martin made wrong decision to put Drew Parrish back out there

"We wanted him to have the ball because he wanted the ball," Martin said. "His teammates wanted him to have the ball, and if I had to do it over again I would have made the same decision.

A lot of rumbling that this might be it for "Eleven." He's got the wins record, he's got no contract for next year, and his decision yesterday gives the school a pretty compelling reason to make the move a la Bowden.

My hunch: A farewell year to get 2,000-plus wins and all the pomp and circumstance with a HCW understudy (hopefully not his son).

Unlike Bowden, though, he still fields competitive teams.

 

[HanSenSE]

Baseball is a sport with a budget. The Northeast teams do play ACC and SEC schools -- always on the road because they can't play at home. Losses are held against them by the selection committee. It was considered a real feat when Northeastern got an at-large berth this year.

Generally early in the season as well, while escaping wintry weather.

In answer to an issue posted elsewhere, Stanford's OOC weekend series pre-Pac 12 included Fullerton, Rice and Michigan at home, Texas away. MIdweek games were generally against the WCC, Big West and MW. Oregon State played a couple of tournaments in Arizona that included Nebraska and Ohio State as well as hosting Hartford and Fullerton. Also had two nonconference midweek matchups with Oregon (huh?) and a mix of Mountain West and WCC teams.

 

[Vombatus]

Florida State's loss Saturday ... my God.

Drew Parrish goes eight innings and 109 pitches as FSU takes a 2-0 lead. Then a 2 1/2-hour rain delay hits. Then ... Mike Martin sends Parrish back out for the ninth.

Walk, walk, couple of outs, 3-run bomb (on pitch 133), goodbye, season over.

Why do these college coaches remain so willfully stupid?

Column: FSU's Mike Martin made wrong decision to put Drew Parrish back out there

"We wanted him to have the ball because he wanted the ball," Martin said. "His teammates wanted him to have the ball, and if I had to do it over again I would have made the same decision.

Read a Florida State comment last night that I hadn't heard before:

Oh fer two, BBQ.

 

[MTM]

Forget the baseball, the Women's World Series has been a lot of fun to watch. UCLA-Florida St. in winner-take-all game at 7 EDT for a shot at Washington in the final series.

Four of the eight finalists were from the PAC-12 (UCLA, Washington, Oregon, Arizona St), with two from SEC (Florida and Georgia), an ACC (Florida St.) and a Big 12 (Oklahoma)

 

[tapintoamerica]

Indiana scored nine in the first inning and none thereafter against ATM. Have to wonder how many times that has happened in baseball at any level.

 

[DanOregon]

Why should they have to travel clear across the country? The SEC and ACC teams generally don't play challenging nonleague schedules at all, loading up on February and March home games against competition from the Northeast, yet they don't get penalized for it because the conference season artificially inflates the RPIs of the SEC and ACC teams.

I realize they play excellent baseball in the SEC and ACC. But no better than in the Pac-12, as demonstrated by the number of Pac-12 national titles, and by the number of Pac-12 teams to win those titles.

Oh I totally agree - but when you look at attendance and stadium size, there are few teams in the Pac-12 that can rival SEC/ACC. You already have Pac-12 teams getting on a plane in Feb.-March for Arizona, might as well head to SEC country if you want to make an impact.
My point is this - the Pac12 can play the "Respect" card, but it's ridiculous that announcers still have to remind a nationwide audience (most of them probably in SEC Land) about Oregon State's status as a top baseball school. Sure they never play on the SEC network and few Pac12 teams get nationally televised games - so you have to go there for people to see. Is it fair? No. But the economics of the game being what they are - it is the reality.
OSU thumped Missouri State this year in Mo. and the Bears are still alive in their regional. I hope more P12 and Big West teams travel to the SE.
Back in my high school coverage years I had a football coach complain about his ranking - I told him his team's non-league games were against teams none of the voters had any idea about - no frame of reference. They started playing some known-quantity suburban schools the next year and suddenly other writers were coming up to me saying - Wow, that team is good.

 

[Batman]

Why should they have to travel clear across the country? The SEC and ACC teams generally don't play challenging nonleague schedules at all, loading up on February and March home games against competition from the Northeast, yet they don't get penalized for it because the conference season artificially inflates the RPIs of the SEC and ACC teams.

I realize they play excellent baseball in the SEC and ACC. But no better than in the Pac-12, as demonstrated by the number of Pac-12 national titles, and by the number of Pac-12 teams to win those titles.

Ole Miss played a series at Long Beach State this season. Vanderbilt went to Los Angeles to play USC, UCLA, TCU and Long Beach State. Arkansas played a home series against USC and went to California for a round-robin with Arizona and a couple of the San Diego schools. LSU played a series against Texas (albeit at home; not sure if they'll return the trip next year) and another against Notre Dame.
That's not challenging? That's not going on the road to play somebody?

 

[Batman]

Also had two nonconference midweek matchups with Oregon (huh?)

That's a little weird for Stanford and Oregon to do that, but not that unusual to have two conference teams play a midweek non-conference game. I know Auburn-Alabama, and Ole Miss-Mississippi State both do it. Auburn and Alabama play in Montgomery, IIRC, and Ole Miss and Mississippi State play at the Braves' Double-A ballpark in Pearl.
Ole Miss and MSU have been playing that midweek game for about 40 years.

 

[Vombatus]

Following lacrosse, a lot of folks laugh at the seedings and pairings. It really is all about the money for the NC$$.

Example: The tournament selection process mandates no more than two teams are allowed to fly to their first round matchups. The required distance is something like >500 miles.

Also factor in trying to keep things reasonable for attendance draw, and you can get a lot of screwy results.

I imagine this kind of thing goes on for most of the lesser sports too.

 

[tapintoamerica]

In Conway, S.C., Washington and UConn are tied 6-6 in the top of the fourth.
In Athens, Ga., Duke leads Troy 7-5 in the top of the third.
I think they're gonna be there a long time.