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Messages - Texas Leaguer

#1
Quote from: Ralph Turner on May 13, 2014, 07:35:47 PM
It is interesting to note the number of schools participating in the 2014 regionals that made up the SCAC not too long ago. You don't have to go back to far to see all of these as part of the SCAC.

Rose-Hulman      to the Heartland CAC
DePauw              to the North Coast AC
Rhodes                          to the Southern Athletic Association
Birmingham-Southern   to the Southern Athletic Association
Trinity                            remained in the SCAC


And never once did anyone mention it as a power conference that received multiple bids. I can only remember trinity and southwestern once and trinity and milsaps once getting bids in the same year in the 2000's.
#2
Quote from: BigPoppa on May 12, 2014, 11:38:12 AM
Quote from: Whatagame on May 12, 2014, 11:18:43 AM
Quote from: 108 Stitches on May 12, 2014, 09:57:22 AM
ILVBB is spot on. I am thinking that Trinity will not have any trouble next year getting the ASC teams filling in their Tuesday night games.  ;D They did the right thing this year going to Hendrix and Millsaps, plus their regular home/away with Chapman. Chapman actually has a better chance by going independent again.

Yes, scheduling Milsaps, Hendrix and Chapman was nice, but despite all that, Trinity's SOS was still 197.  Chapman was 203.  The highest ranked West team this year was George Fox at 92nd.  It seems like the West Region teams can play any combination of games amongst themselves and it will not solve the SOS issue regarding at-large bids.  It looks like teams need to somehow get out of region for games, way out of region.  The OAC placed 4 teams in 3 different regionals this year.  The NESCAC placed 3 teams into 3 different regionals.  1/8th of the total field is from those two conferences.

I'd love to see teams be able to get out to Florida, or the mid-west or East Coast, but the realities of that are very difficult.

It is difficult, but all of the northern schools do it. They find a way to put their teams into contention despite the disadvantage of the weather.

Big Poppa, I respect you as much as any poster on this board but this post bothers me. D3 baseball is all about regional competition and bringing the best of the eight regions together for a World Series. A balance between the focus on athletics and academics is why D3 exists. Just because the northern schools see traveling south to Florida as the best way to build their schedule, doesn't mean the West schools should be forced to burden their student-athletes unnecessarily or be punished otherwise because of low "SOS" numbers.
The better weather and ability to play games earlier should be seen as an advantage to promoting true "student-athletes" and minimizing the burden on the players an universities instead of being used as an excuse on why a West team was left out.  The West doesn't have the benefit of having weak neighboring conferences to beat up on to build their own conference SOS numbers although it sure was nice when Trinity got to thump a mediocre Desales team 4 times one year and then watch them rack up wins in a weak conference. Sure there will be years when a region is down and doesn't deserve all 6 but only 4 West schools getting in on all pool A bids twice in the recent past begs the question if the D3 brain trust is really practicing what the preach.
Anyone saying a West team "needs to" travel to Florida to have a better chance at making the West regional is missing the entire point of D3 athletics and should go focus on BCS football.  Hoping for some good, competitive games this week.
#3
West Region / Re: BB: Top Teams in West Region
March 27, 2014, 11:31:46 PM
Quote from: NWBaseballFan10 on March 27, 2014, 09:28:47 PM
For those who have started to point out Concordia's success this season, I can't help but notice how much this team reminds me of last year's Linfield squad. Both teams started their seasons unranked following a disappointing year (Linfield 25-15 in 2012; CTX 22-22 in 2013). Both teams had a legitimate ace emerge on their staff (Haddeland for Linfield and Cox for CTX) and the bulk of the innings was primarily distributed to the 3 starters (68% for Linfield and 69% for CTX). The biggest difference IMO for CTX's success this year has been from their offense (team BA went from .251 last year to .324 now). Their top hitters are all returners who seem to have benefited greatly from the experience and AB's they received last year. Linfield's offense scuffled a bit in 2012 (BA .285), but you could see a noticeable difference last year from guys who received a lot of PT the previous year. It should also go without saying, but both teams are led by great managers who have used their big league experience to produce top contenders in the West region.

It will be interesting to see how CTX's season rolls along. It appears they are carrying that chip on their shoulder from having to watch the Regional last year while hosting (the same thing that Linfield experienced in 2012). This should make them a very dangerous team come May and, at this point, I will be surprised not to see them in McMinnville.

Eerily similar.  Excellent analysis.  I'd love to see a Cox-Haddeland Rd 1 matchup in the West Regional to see possibly the best two arms in the West square off (and possibly for selfish reasons as well ;D) but I think those two teams will end up Being two of the top three seeds.
#4
West Region / Re: BB: Top Teams in West Region
March 26, 2014, 11:17:52 AM
Quote from: BigPoppa on March 26, 2014, 10:34:29 AM
Quote from: tigerfan_2001 on March 26, 2014, 08:36:41 AM
Must be getting close to April because here come Spence and all his anger towards TU.  Best advice, learning from my past mistakes, completely ignore Specen/foreheavendial4499

The thing with Spence is his numbers are generally very accurate and telling. You may not like the delivery, but you'd be a fool to ignore the message.

This thing with Spence is his delivery is worse than Nuke LaLoosh.  I keep waiting for an Annie Savoy to join the boards because it's become apparent to me that our Crash Davis unfortunately doesn't have the cure.
#5
West Region / Re: BB: Top Teams in West Region
March 25, 2014, 04:26:26 PM
I wouldn't sleep on Concordia in the West either.  It looks like they have a true #1 in Cameron Cox that you need to win the first game of a Regional.  They have primarily used 3 pitchers at the halfway point of their season so it'll be interesting to see how it plays out if they make a deep run come tournament time.
#6
West Region / Re: BB: Top Teams in West Region
March 25, 2014, 03:58:08 PM
Quote from: CrashDavisD3 on March 25, 2014, 02:24:16 PM
SCIAC 9 on Friday DH 9/9 on Saturday. Real College baseball plays 9. Does playing 7 explains why Trinity has not made it to Appleton  ??? ??? ??? ???

Hahaha.  I think we're on to something here!  Trinity typically has a deep staff so the extra two innings would more times than not play into their favor. 

The one thing I will say about the 7 inning game is each situation's significance is somewhat magnified due to the shorter length.  It's a lot easier for either A) a dominant pitcher to get into the 7th and still have something in the reserves to finish his own game (potentially without having to go through the heart of the order for a 4th time) or B) if you have a quality reliever, getting 5 innings from your starter and handing the ball directly to your best relief arm without having to navigate through any other bullpen arms.

#7
West Region / Re: BB: Top Teams in West Region
March 25, 2014, 11:24:53 AM
Quote from: Spence on March 25, 2014, 01:30:50 AM
Quote from: 108 Stitches on March 24, 2014, 02:20:27 AM
It also allows for shorter weekend series with Friday, Sat. games and home by Sunday. Most of the schools are academically challenging plus it prob. saves on some travel costs. Seems to work OK.

I'm confused how this means you have to play 7 inning games. Teams do play 9 inning doubleheaders.

With how short the season has been made in D-III, I would think you'd want to get as many at bats and innings as you can out of the games you do get.

3 games a week, 7 inning games...weren't you talking about how you thought Trinity was looking tired? If so, they'd never survive a northern schedule.

Good thing Trinity plays in the good ole South then.  ;)  Maybe all of this extra sun they get is draining.  Going to get up to 86 by Friday.
#8
Pro ball / Re: BB: D-3 Players in minor leagues/MLB
June 12, 2013, 02:23:57 PM
Quote from: 108 Stitches on June 12, 2013, 10:39:54 AM
1. Most D3 players are not drafted as Jr's so this question is more appropriate for D1 players. Frankly this is a personal decision and I have seen Jr's go back for millions (Appel from Stanford last year) and others come out for less than $100K. The two most recent from D3 last year were Maxwell and Rauh, both went out for numbers reported in the $700K range.


108 - For what it's worth, I couldn't find Ruah's actual signing bonus but I would be surprised if it was in the $700k range with the new bonus slot system.  Ruah was an 11th rd pick.  Teams get allocated signing bonus money for each of their picks in the first 10 rds on a downward sliding scale.  For rds 11-40, they are allotted up to $100k per player.  If they go over $100k, the incremental money would have to come from the excess allocated signing bonus pool from one of the first 10 rd picks that signed a contract for less than his slot value (like the Astros did with the 1st overall pick).  If he signed for $700k, that means the Nationals were able to sign some of their first 10 rd picks for collectively $600k less than their slot and gave that money to sign Rauh.  For comparison, the 73rd pick is valued at $700k so $600k is a fairly significant amount of extra slot money to arrive at.  Teams can go above recommended slot bonus targets but they are subject to penalties that serve as strong deterrents.  That being said, I hope he did get that much for his sake.
#9
West Region / Re: BB: Top Teams in West Region
May 22, 2013, 02:06:00 PM
Quote from: forheavendial4999 on May 22, 2013, 01:25:49 PM
Quote from: CrashDavisD3 on May 22, 2013, 01:09:17 PM
BUT I doubt they will make this change with so much emphasis on academics at the SCIAC schools. This would eliminate the MTWTH games for the most part

Wouldn't this be good for academics?

Correct me if I'm wrong but under the current format, teams travel on Friday, play during the weekend and return home Sunday.  Some of the SCIAC schools are close enough that I assume they just bus day of game.  Not sure if all of the fields have lights.  The ones that don't would mean the Friday game would be during the day and kids would have to miss class they otherwise wouldn't.  Also, if travel is involved, it would be pushed up to Thursday potentially causing more classes to be missed.
#10
West Region / Re: BB: Top Teams in West Region
May 22, 2013, 02:03:40 PM
Quote from: CrashDavisD3 on May 22, 2013, 01:09:17 PM
Quote from: dahlby on May 22, 2013, 12:38:47 PM
JP is correct. Hopefully the SCIAC will go to 4 game weekends next year (I doubt it) which would force the teams to develop a fourth (or fifth) starter for the non-conference games played during the week. CU was fortunate during D3 tourneys where they advanced to have good relief pitching they could  rely on instead of a fourth of fifth starter. Also picher injuries reduced the number of starters for CU during tourney time.
4 game series for SCIAC would help them develop that 4th starter. 1 on Friday, 2 Saturday 1 Sunday would be a good format. BUT I doubt they will make this change with so much emphasis on academics at the SCIAC schools. This would eliminate the MTWTH games for the most part

One factor that could hold them back from going to a four game weekend series would be if they thought there was more variability in the outcome of the 4th game.  When it comes to Pool C selections and regional rankings, you would be compared to other teams in the region that were able to throw their 1-2-3 more often and it could negative impact your comparisons if you picked up a couple more in-region losses than you otherwise would have.  It would be interesting to see how the pitchers are used.  Would the underdog team throw their ace in game 1 of the series or save him for a later game when he would be going up against the other team's #4 to try to "steal" a game.
#11
West Region / Re: 2013 West Regional - Austin Tx
May 20, 2013, 03:08:38 PM
Quote from: forheavendial4999 on May 20, 2013, 01:20:22 PM
Quote from: 108 Stitches on May 20, 2013, 01:05:57 PM
It was around 105-110, my point was that the combination of innings and then to throw 16 in 3 games over 4 days.

110 2/3, the most ever in a season at Trinity. So 109 was too much if he was a pro prospect, but 110 is fine? Weird. Klimesh started a second game in the regional last year...the only he didn't throw 18 innings is because he was ineffective.


It's not solely the total innings pitched, it's time frame in which those innings are thrown as well.

Couple of factors to consider:  At no point in the 2012 season did Klimesh throw 3 out of 4 consecutive days.  Klimesh did start the opening game of the Regional and then again on two days rest (the fourth day of the tournament) where he went 4 innings giving up 2 runs.  A new pitcher started the 5th inning.  It's pure speculation on your part to say he would have thrown more if he wasn't ineffective (4 IP 2 runs is on the way to 6 IP and 3 runs which is considered a quality start).   

I'm having a hard time recalling a coach ever pulling his ace out of a game after 4 innings and 2 runs unless there were other factors involved.  If you're trying to ride a guy for all he's worth since he is by far your best arm that season, you trot him out in the fifth and see if he can give you more.  You don't replace the guy with a 1.7 ERA with a guy that had an 8 ERA.  If he gets in trouble, then you yank him.  The next 4 batters he would have faced were 2-7 with a walk.  One of the hits was an infield single.  The score was 2-1 at that point. 

Personally, I'm very much in agreement with whoever said a player's ceiling should be considered when you're deciding how far you're going to push an arm's limits in a tournament.  If he has the potential to play at the next level, I think it's the coach's obligation to show some restraint on how frequently you use him.  Just because he gives you the best opportunity to win today, doesn't mean you should trot him back out there.  However, if a D3 championship would be the pinnacle of his individual baseball career, I think you can justify pushing the limit.

Scott Brosius is a smart, smart baseball guy.  Each situation is unique.  What Haddeland did was other-wordly in this Regional and I tip my cap to him.  I hope it works out well for both of them in the long-term. 
#12
West Region / Re: 2013 West Regional - Austin Tx
May 18, 2013, 01:51:15 AM
Quote from: forheavendial4999 on May 18, 2013, 01:36:28 AM
Quote from: Texas Leaguer on May 18, 2013, 01:29:46 AM
Quote from: forheavendial4999 on May 18, 2013, 12:25:51 AM
Linfield hasn't lost a game, you have...how can you say Trinity's been playing better?

And people wonder why I get annoyed by Trinity fans...

This was his rationale.  Just one man's opinion.  Nothing wrong with it.  I never realized you were annoyed. I always thought you were just jealous of our warm weather and spread out schedules.

"This may sound stupid, but I think Trinity has the advantage tomorrow since they still have so many arms left. They out played Linfield in the last game except for the first inning when their freshmen starter could not get out of the first inning. This is not to disrespect the great program of Linfield, just that I think Trinity is playing better ball right now and has a much deeper pitching staff."

I guess you missed that part.

I would have been jealous of the weather in February. Today where I live it was 73 degrees and cloudy. You can keep your swampass and 100 degrees in the summertime.

I guess you missed that part.

Other than one bad inning, Trinity has played exceptional tournament baseball. Based on how they are playing and the arms they have available, he likes their chances tomorrow. Again, I see nothing wrong with that. 

73 degrees and cloudy. Sounds like paradise.
#13
West Region / Re: 2013 West Regional - Austin Tx
May 18, 2013, 01:29:46 AM
Quote from: forheavendial4999 on May 18, 2013, 12:25:51 AM
Linfield hasn't lost a game, you have...how can you say Trinity's been playing better?

And people wonder why I get annoyed by Trinity fans...

This was his rationale.  Just one man's opinion.  Nothing wrong with it.  I never realized you were annoyed. I always thought you were just jealous of our warm weather and spread out schedules.

"This may sound stupid, but I think Trinity has the advantage tomorrow since they still have so many arms left. They out played Linfield in the last game except for the first inning when their freshmen starter could not get out of the first inning. This is not to disrespect the great program of Linfield, just that I think Trinity is playing better ball right now and has a much deeper pitching staff."
#14
West Region / Re: 2013 West Regional - Austin Tx
May 17, 2013, 11:02:43 PM
What a first three days of this West Regional.  One great game after another.  Linfield's in the catbird's seat only needing to win one.  Trinity has a nice compliment of arms that should be available for tomorrow considering they've played one more game.  Here's a quick look at the arms that could be available for tomorrow:

Linfield
Garett Speyer.......  3.43   0-0    12   0   0   0/1    3  21.0 (0 IP)
Garrett Miller......     3.86   0-1     8   0   0   0/1    1  14.0 (0 IP)
Zach Manley.........  1.64   2-0     2   2   0   0/1    0  11.0 (0 IP)
Joseph Stevick......  7.11   1-0    11   1   0   0/0    1  19.0 (0 IP)
Justin Huckins......   1.32   2-1    15   0   0   0/1    7  34.0  (Day 3 - 2.1 IP)
Chris Haddeland.....1.05  12-1    14  13   7   2/0    1 103.1 (Day 1 - 9.0 IP; Day 3 - 1.1 IP)
Aaron Thomassen....2.66  11-1    13  13   0   0/1    0  81.1  (Day 2 - 7.0 IP)

Trinity
Carter Lauck........    2.57   3-1     6   4   0   0/0    0  21.0 ( 0 IP)
Michael Bentz.......   2.87   3-0    16   0   0   0/0    3  31.1 (0 IP)
Ryan Gray...........     3.48   1-0     6   1   0   0/0    0  10.1  (0 IP)
Tanner Barron.......  4.50   2-1    10   7   0   0/0    0  28.0 (0 IP)
Andrew Alig.........    3.48   4-2    11   7   1   0/0    0  51.2 (Day 3 0.1 IP)
Ryan Lucero.........   1.98  10-1    13  13   4   3/0    0  82.0 (Day 1 9.0 IP)
Zack Speer..........    1.54   9-0    11  10   1   0/1    0  70.1 (Day 2 9.0 IP)

Can't wait to see how this all plays out tomorrow. 

#15
West Region / Re: 2013 West Regional - Austin Tx
May 17, 2013, 03:56:16 PM
Quote from: Whatagame on May 17, 2013, 03:39:08 PM
Quote from: forheavendial4999 on May 17, 2013, 03:23:50 PM
Quote from: CAT BAT 22 on May 17, 2013, 03:16:59 PM
Looks like the 'Cats are a little tight.  Some uncharacteristic errors being made... turn it around boys.

Haddeland comes in and records the final out in the 8th.  Way to sack up .. coming back on 1 day rest.  Huge. 

Let's get some insurance runs boys!

Go 'Cats

Not that it matters, but technically it's 2 days rest. You count the day you pitch. Might be better if people called it "nights rest."

I'm guessing Haddeland didn't throw very many pitches against TLU, making this more possible and realistic an option.

Then why in "the Bigs" when you have a 5 man rotation, its said you're pitching on a normal 4 days rest?  Am I missing something?

You aren't.  MLB pitchers typically have 4 days of rest between starts and the Linfield pitcher came back on one days rest.  Wording aside, I was surprised to hear his name being announced coming out of the pen.  I didn't expect him to be ready to throw a couple innings until tomorrow at the earliest.  Gutsy performance by him today.  Hats off to Linfield.  Can't say enough about Walker for Trinity throwing 7 2/3 scoreless baseball.

Trinity now has to win 3 in a row.  Hopefully they can bounce back tonight and get the first one.  With Linfield's ace throwing today, I'm curious who they plan on starting tomorrow.