BB: E8: Empire 8

Started by maxpower, February 23, 2007, 12:22:17 PM

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d3fan039

thankyou caz.....your right about that, if youve never heard of the sunyac then you really must not be paying too much attention

JQV

Quote from: Caz Bombers on February 28, 2007, 09:24:36 PM
Quote from: Baseball101 on February 28, 2007, 07:57:42 PM
I dont see how somebody can say that the Skyline conference is a joke. First off, its the only conference in the nation that plays with wooden bat. Wouldnt a college player want to play with a wooden bat to see if they are able to make it on to the next level? Metal bat is very easy to hit with. Wood bat proves who can hit. Wouldnt u want a college student playing with wood bat? Look at Cortland, they play in a confernce SUNYAC. I never heard of the conference, ive heard of Cortland. But every year they recieve a bid to the regionals. And obviously the Skyline conference cant be a joke when u have a pitcher from Centenary College being drafted. Wood bat is real baseball my friend.

Really?  That's cool that they play with wood bats, I assume they're allowed to use metal in the regionals.  Makes me wonder what other equipment wackiness they got goin on in the Skyline.  Do their golf teams play with mashies, niblicks and gutta-percha balls?  White tennis balls and softballs?  However, Baseball101, if you've never heard of the SUNYAC, unless you're from the Midwest or farther out, you're simply not paying enough attention.

Mr. Chairman--come on now, you know me better than that.  Blue and Gold Uber Alles and all that jazz.  I'm just sayin they've got some tradition, we're not adding another Elmira here.  But if their dance team has never been seen on ESPN2, well then they're just second rate ;D

I know the Skyline uses a stuffed monkey as a scorekeeper in women's hoops... that is a wacky equipment thing.

Seriously though, wood bats?  Lets start a list of things the Chairman doesn't care about.

maxpower

Gee, I thought wood bats would be just the kind of old-school good-old-days old-ness that is right up the Chairman's alley. What's next, will you start to even look at a copy of Moneyball??


Wood bat leagues make as much of a difference, if not more, for pitchers than for hitters. They say that fewer pitchers are developing good fastballs because in college leagues jamming the inside will result in a Texas Leaguer, were a lot of the same pitches to wood bats would shatter them, and the cork inside, Mr. Sosa.

JQV

Quote from: maxpower on March 01, 2007, 10:23:00 AM
Gee, I thought wood bats would be just the kind of old-school good-old-days old-ness that is right up the Chairman's alley. What's next, will you start to even look at a copy of Moneyball??


Wood bat leagues make as much of a difference, if not more, for pitchers than for hitters. They say that fewer pitchers are developing good fastballs because in college leagues jamming the inside will result in a Texas Leaguer, were a lot of the same pitches to wood bats would shatter them, and the cork inside, Mr. Sosa.

The Chairman certainly enjoys the wood bat game better but doesn't really think that makes the Skyline a better conference.  If they have been playing with wood all season then they should be DOMINATING when they get to aluminum in the playoffs.  That was the Chairman's point.

As for Moneyball, the Chairman has touched a copy, right before wiping his ass with Bill Beane's mug...

John McGraw

That's not correct about dominating when they get to the playoffs.

Aluminum and wood are two completely different bats. When you're swinging wood all year then switch to metal, there's going to be an adjustment.

You don't just go from swinging a wood bat for at least three or four months to swinging metal and smashing the ball out of the park.

If anything, the switch hurts them since they have basically a week or two to try and transition themselves from wood to aluminum just in batting practice situations and not in live game action.

Not sure if they use aluminum in non-conference games though. That has to be hard on everyone, switching bats back and forth and not getting to become completely consistant on either of them.

d3fan039

John,

I couldnt disagree with you more....the switch from wood to aluminum is not that hard.....you go all season hitting with wood then make the switch over just makes it much easier to hit the ball. With wood bats you get jammed more often and the sweet spot is much smaller, with the aluminum the sweet spot is much bigger and the room for error is greater. You dont have to hit the ball right on the sweet spot to get a good piece of the ball with aluminum.  If you been hitting with wood all season then switch to aluminum the adjustment isnt a tough as your making it sound.


JQV

The Chairman is with the good Doctor on this point.  If you play a season with wood bats, the switch to aluminum would only be beneficial.  The oppossite switch would be hard (aluminum to wood).  Throughout the course of 20 or so games you would be developing the ability to center the ball on the sweet spot, as required by wood.  As a result, the wood bat hitters wouldn't develop as many tired/lazy habits as the metal bat hitters because their mistakes wouldn't be erased.

John McGraw

Hasn't helped any of the Skyline teams in NCAA regionals. Centenary's been shut down by the Ithaca's, Cortland's and RPI's of the world and prior to that it was the same for Mount St. Mary, Old Westbury, etc etc. Though, Centenary did get their first NCAA tournament win against Endicott this past year.

d3fan039

I agree John,

Id rather see the #5 NJAC team get an NCAA bid instead

JQV

Quote from: John McGraw on March 01, 2007, 01:22:07 PM
Hasn't helped any of the Skyline teams in NCAA regionals. Centenary's been shut down by the Ithaca's, Cortland's and RPI's of the world and prior to that it was the same for Mount St. Mary, Old Westbury, etc etc. Though, Centenary did get their first NCAA tournament win against Endicott this past year.

That is why I was saying that I couldn't care less about the fact that they play with wood.  They are so bad that they can't compete even with that advantage.

utilitycat17

Just to add something about the wood bat aluminum bat debate.  As a college player and even a high school player I always used wood bats for tee work and soft toss.  However, any bp or live situations were always done with the aluminum.  The reason for this is because swinging aluminum is significantly different than swinging wood.  Yes, wood does promote a better swing.  However, the timing makes a significant difference.  I played in summer wood bat leagues and would come back every year and there was always a transition necessary.  Athough my swing always felt more refined coming from the wood bat, it didn't always translate into success.  You have to, in a sense, relearn to swing the aluminum.  I later moved on to play professionally where wood is the only option.  Coming back and swinging aluminum, whether just for fun, does not always end up with great success.  In fact, the college players tend to handle the aluminum better than I do.  Although, there is no question who handles the wood better.  All this being said, they are just different.  It absolutely makes you a better hitter to use wood, but it doesn't mean that you will have immediate success with the aluminum.  I personally would rather see the wood at all levels, as it makes the evaluation process more exact.  But that is probably a debate for another day.

John McGraw

I disagree that the number #5 NJAC team belongs in the NCAA tournament.

Some years, the NJAC is really good, like last year with Montclair State, TCNJ, Rowan and William Paterson. I think in most years, three NJAC teams belong in the tournament and those are the traditional three powers - MSU, TCNJ, and Rowan.

Putting five teams in the tournament from one conference is rewarding mediocrity. Like in men's college basketball, the Big East or one of the power leagues getting seven or eight teams in.

The Skyline Conference deserves a bid in the NCAA tournament. While they haven't had much success, that doesn't mean they don't belong. This is Division III baseball and all legitimate conferences deserve a chance to compete.

Centenary's appearance in the NCAA tournament the last two years has led to them now scheduling Cortland during the regular season. Cortland in the past has also gone down to the New York-New Jersey area to play St. Joseph's (Long Island), Stevens Tech (or just Stevens), and Manhattanville just to name a few.

While the conference is a whole is on the weaker side, you can't deny them the right to get into the NCAA tournament. What if we said that, oh, well conference A is horrible and they're no better than the ACC or the Big East and the seventh team in that league should be in over a crappy mid-to-low major. But that argument's blasted out of the water by every George Mason, Creighton, and Southern Illinois that proves they can compete on the national level.

On a Division III baseball level, Mount St. Mary, representing the Skyline in 2003, advanced to the third day of the NCAA regionals after upsetting RPI on the first day of the tournament. They lost to eventual regional winner Trinity and then Messiah.

d3fan039

John,

I dont diasgree with you about the Skyline receiving a bid....it was more of me just saying the competition in the skyline was so bad it didnt deserve one. I do feel though the NJAC deserved to get 5 teams in last season....William Patterson won the regular season title and then ran into some tough luck in the toughest league in the country and went 2 and done in the conference tourney. How do they not get in??? It seems from my experience that if your trying to get an at-large bid your better off beating up on the weaker teams instead of playing good teams.

baseballfan12

As a follower of NJ baseball, NJAC got the right number, just the wrong teams.  Rowan's guys had packed up and gone home for the summer.  They knew they didn't deserve a bid, and had to scramble just to get everyone together again to make the trip to the regionals.

See another Jersey team, Stevens, is joining the league in 2008.  Where do you guys see them fitting in?  They had some quality wins last year and always play a brutal non-conf schedule.

And apparently, Skyline has switched to metal this year for all games...

Baseball101

Quote from: Dr Baseball on February 28, 2007, 09:29:18 PM
thankyou caz.....your right about that, if youve never heard of the sunyac then you really must not be paying too much attention


If a player had such great talent wouldnt he want to show his talent off using wood bat?Instead of making it easy and playing with metal, metal is so much easier then wood bat. i would think that players using wood, would get more "looks" from scouts, showing on a college level they can hit with woood.