Mideast Glory Days

Started by aalumc, April 20, 2011, 12:57:04 PM

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aalumc

Maybe someone can help me understand the current state of the Mideast region.  It seems its glory days are behind it (a region as a whole, not one-off teams here and there).  If you look at the record books of these schools they are filled at the top by players from 1995-2005.  Think about these names:

Wooster: M. Jackson, Urban, Snyder, Treadway, Penberthy, Frank and Flinner
Marrietta: Coakley, Hollrah, Tekulve, Timmer, Streit and McGlucky
Allegheny: Musgrove, Nypaver, Riordan, Hensler, Davidson and Couch
OWU: Caravella, Bogenrife, Rice, Marchetti, Missler and Loudenslager
Wittenberg: Peters, B. Magoteaux, Burke and Thomas

Must have just been bad pitching, right?  Nope. How about these names:

Wooster: Englander, Werner and Binkowski
Marrietta: Desalvo, Buirley and Lamb
Allegheny: Mountain, Swinchock and Sharpless
OWU: Moenter, Farmwald and Mott

What's going on with the region?  I know they are all excellent schools and tuition has probably doubled at each since 2000.  Is that the reason since there is little in the way of financial aid?  Is there a smaller talent pool or has it concentrated somewhere?  Is there more talent and more kids are going D1 and D2?  Any ideas?

mideastfan2

#1
Having played during this time period, and against (and obviously with) the majority of these guys, I would say that these players were definitely great talents....but there has also been extremely talented players since then, and before.

The Mideast as a region has sent numerous different teams to the World Series over the last 5 years (Marietta, Wooster, Adrian, Heidelberg) and all of them have done fairly well.

Stats may have trailed off since the "glory days" in the mid to late 90's and early 2000's, but that can be attributed to different NCAA requirements for post-season play.  In 2000 they changed to a Pool A, B, and C (at large) format that required teams to play tougher schedules to beef up their resumes.  Tougher schedules equal tougher opponents and tougher pitching.

In the "glory days" we would only face those top pitchers that you mentioned occasionaly during the season, but all at once in the Regionals.  Now teams face all the top in-region competition during the regular season....it wasn't that way for a longggg time.  Some of us know why; and it has a lot to do with playing home games, coaching, and easy wins.  The more wins you have year after year, the easier it is to recruit against other top teams in the region.  I remember my recruiting trip when some poor team got destroyed in a DH, and there were balls flying out of Pioneer Park like nobodies business.

The players listed above were All-Americans who would probably be All-Americans today; but the top guys today would probably also be All-Americans during the "glory days" of the record books.

good discussion though!! :)

fyi, my "glory days" MARIETTA team:

C - J. Coakley (2001)
1b - C. Tekulve (2000)
2b - T. Timmer (2001)
3b - D. Geudtner (2000)
SS - D. Childress (2001)
LF - A. Hollrah (2000)
CF - C. Siddick (2005)
RF - T. Hill (2000)
DH - J. Streit (1999)
SP - M. DeSalvo (2002)
SP - D. Bradley (1999)
SP - K. Buirley (2001)
UTL - J. Thomas (1997)


forheavendial4999

Pretty much. Heidelberg and Adrian have come up, Allegheny and Ohio Wesleyan have fallen down. Otterbein was up for a while too when they had Remenowsky and Stevens. I'm interested to see if Heidelberg can stay where they are after this huge senior class graduates.

The Indiana programs seem much better than they used to be as well.

If the season was to end today, I would say Marietta would have a terrific chance at 2 first-team All-Americans (Snyder and Gasser) and possibly a couple more (Williams and Saunders). Adrian has Ryan Domschot and David Partyka anchoring a solid pitching staff. Heidelberg had 5 first and 2nd team all americans last year and all of them are back except the catcher. Wooster is down this year but was a national runner up a couple of years back.

The numbers are going to look even more different this year with the change in the bats. I'm interested to see how the All-American committee handles this because while huge numbers are still being generated against mediocre pitching, it seems clear that good pitching depresses offense significantly in the new paradigm.

Some of those guys though are just rare commodities. There aren't going to be very many guys with a swing like Drew Caravellas anywhere in D-III ever. Same with the raw power of Jay Coakley or the all-around pitching dominance of Matt DeSalvo.

aalumc

Thanks Mideastfan2 and Forheavendial4999.  Great insights.  After re-reading my post, I can see how it could be seen as demeaning to other eras.  No doubt there has been great talent pre- and post the turn of the century. I have the utmost respect for those that have played and are playing who just do it because they love the game.

I think I was trying to reconcile the trends in the record books across many of the region's schools during this period to their respective long histories.  I suppose some of it could be scheduling and some of it could be bats, but to Forheaven's point, it just seems like a disproportionate pool of talent was in this region during this time.  A lot of these kids were drafted and I know at least Desalvo and Sharpless pitched in the bigs.  I remember watching these teams play and thinking to myself, "Good Lord, they're all 6'-2" 210lbs men throwing the ball 90mph and hitting it 420'."  At the time, the regionals were held at Thurman Munson Stadium and it was like watching D1 baseball (and it rivaled the Frontier League, in my opinion, who played there at the time).  Anyway, thanks for the thoughts.  Hopefully we'll bring it home this year.

forheavendial4999

Quote from: aalumc on April 21, 2011, 10:00:14 AM
Thanks Mideastfan2 and Forheavendial4999.  Great insights.  After re-reading my post, I can see how it could be seen as demeaning to other eras.  No doubt there has been great talent pre- and post the turn of the century. I have the utmost respect for those that have played and are playing who just do it because they love the game.

I think I was trying to reconcile the trends in the record books across many of the region's schools during this period to their respective long histories.  I suppose some of it could be scheduling and some of it could be bats, but to Forheaven's point, it just seems like a disproportionate pool of talent was in this region during this time.  A lot of these kids were drafted and I know at least Desalvo and Sharpless pitched in the bigs.  I remember watching these teams play and thinking to myself, "Good Lord, they're all 6'-2" 210lbs men throwing the ball 90mph and hitting it 420'."  At the time, the regionals were held at Thurman Munson Stadium and it was like watching D1 baseball (and it rivaled the Frontier League, in my opinion, who played there at the time).  Anyway, thanks for the thoughts.  Hopefully we'll bring it home this year.

It was easier to hit it a long way with the -5 ratio bats in the late 90s! :) You're reaching back to that era with some of those guys.

Bishopleftiesdad

This got me thinking. If you were to rank the reagions how would you rank them. Whick is the toughest and which is the easiest?

DenisonBigRed

It did seem that this was a down year, certainly in the NCAC.

My team, Denison, had its first losing record since 2000. Ouch. In non-conference games, it was 8-13.

The non-conference results for teams in the NCAC, using the standings now on the NCAC site:

Wooster, 11-12
Ohio Wesleyan, 12-10
Wittenberg, 11-13
Wabash, 12-15 (and Wabash won the NCAC tournament)
Denison, 8-13
Allegheny, 11-8
Kenyon, 8-8
Oberlin, 11-12
Hiram, 8-8

The only NCAC teams with winning non-conference records were OWU, 12-10, and Allegheny, 11-8.

In the OAC, using the standings on the OAC site:

Marietta, 16-2
Heidelberg, 18-4
Mount Union, 6-11
John Carroll, 7-11
Otterbein, 10-11
Capital, 4-12
Muskingum, 7-11
Baldwin-Wallace, 12-6
Wilmington, 5-8
Ohio Northern, 15-5


EttaFan1

The OAC, save for Marietta and 'Berg is simply AWFUL this year.  Only two other teams have records .500 or better and they are tied for last in the conference (ONU and BW).  It has been suprising how poor the rest of the league has been.