Thanks hockey,

If this kid keeps finding his groove and USM can say they have 2 legit starters coming into regionals.  With that offense and a little bit of pitching, the World Series won't be to far away.  Their bullpen seems like it holds the staff together as I've said before most guys have more wins then they do starts (with the exception of Therian).  Get a little 1/2 action, with the bullpen, and defense, look out gentlemen. Thanks again hockeyfan.  Have a good one.

Spec

Hey guys,

I'm a new member of D3 baseball I haven't seen many games, but have followed every now and again over the years, and figure what the hell why not join if I think i can contribute a little.  I've been posting more recently on the general New England boards and whatnot talking about Wheaton/Curry/WPI's chances at large-bid attempts.

However, I recently put together some stats regarding Babson and their pitching and what kind of pitching their offense faced throughout the year.  I came across Fahey from WPI, who is having/had a spectacular year, as a legitimate All-American candidate.  I also saw they faced Gingras from Wheaton, who was an All-American in his junior campaign, but does not seem to be having quite the season he had last year.  Was wondering if anybody knows/knew about any injuries he may have had, or battling currently, or if its just a case of the pieces not falling in the right spots at the right time? Seems like the numbers hes putting up this year don't reflect the type of pitcher he really is. Just a curious question before selection Sunday, the LEC conference, and regionals kick off. (Am I bored over here? Sure. But everybody loves a little baseball )

Also, congrats to Babson on a well played tourney this year over the heavily favored Lyons.  This regional is going to be a great spectacle to watch with the teams that may be there this year.  Also good luck to Wheaton and WPI as they attempt to secure at large bids and see Babson over in the regionals (Babson would love to see that ) Thanks. Have a good day.

Spec

Just came across an interesting stat.

Southern Maine is 29-2 vs. right handed pitching and 5-3 vs lefties!

Just a little stat for teams and coaches to look at before trying to get on through their lineup during regionals 

Spec

Sorry WASN'T trying to make case against or for Babson.

Spec

GNAC,

Thanks for that, I was going off of ERA and and record which is naive of me.  Thanks for the correction as I haven't seen Suffolk play (or Babson) for that matter.  Just going off of stats here.

And I was trying to make a case against or for Babson I was trying to show that its going to be a tough road for them with the teams in this year's regional.  But then again I think it's going to be tough for everybody. Baseball is baseball, can't run out the clock here, got to throw the ball over the plate, anything can happen 8)

Spec

Thanks guys and I appreciate the feedback. If I had an idea of who would beat who right now (which I don't, so don't pay attention to the following statement ) I would predict:

Eastern over Keene - .377 is .377, but good pitching beats good hitting (maybe not with aluminum bats) but thats my motto and I'm sticking to it   ECSU 8 Keene 4

USM over UMB - UMB shut USM out earlier this year, but I doubt that'll happen this time around.  Therrian performs well, USM mashes.  USM 12 UMB 3

Again, you know better than I do, have a good day.

Spec

Moc,

As you can see from other posts I have put up on here I'm kind of a stat junky, but also realize that stats mean nothing in a sense that baseball is a funny game.  Things kind of fall the way they may on any given day.  But I also realize stats don't lie either so this is what I dug up and put together (relatively quickly).

Babson certainly did not duck any in-region opponents playing the likes of Wheaton, Suffolk, Keene, Curry, and USM which is in my opinion a testament to the coaching staff challenging his players.  I'm looking at the box scores of those games and seeing that when Babson played Suffolk, Suffolk threw what looks to be their #3 guy.  When Babson played Curry, Curry threw not a legit starter seems to be a spot starter as he has 3 of starts in 11 appearances.  Babson plays USM, USM throws what seems to be a spot starter (seems like all of USM is spot starters) but he has an ERA of 6.87 (Yates).

What I'm trying to put forth here is yes they did not duck any opponents this year on their schedule, but of those tough opponents the only wins they had were against Wheaton.  And of those losses the teams that played seemed to be throwing their 3 or 4 guys and not 1 or 2s.  They did face Fahey who is a legitimate All-American candidate (lost) and they did beat Gingras (All-American from his junior campaign, doesn't seem to be having quite the same year. Hurt? ) but other than that no real pitching seen.  So it would seem that their offense didn't fear well   against 3 and 4's how are they going to do when they see 1's and 2's?

As a team they bat .309, which is less than average, especially when you compare the teams that are going to be in this upcoming regional.

You guys do have Aizenstadt who seems to be putting himself together quite a year, but does he match up against Bayer, Therian, Gilblair, Musson, etc...?  And if they do match up (which is not unforseen), can Babson's offense hang with the 1s and 2s of that of ECSU and Trinity?

This is not a knock on Babson at all and I am a firm believer in that baseball is baseball and anything can happen.  Maybe I'm just bored Just wondering what your thoughts are? Have a good one.

Spec

KSCfan,

I couldn't agree more. I want to say that ever since the topic of Curry/Wheaton, and enter WPI into the discussion, came up I think everyone that was arguing their respective points were under the assumption that Trinity is going to get a pool-A bid and one of USM or ECSU would win the LEC awarding an at-large to the other. Because lets be honest if either of those scenarios doesn't play out in Curry/Wheaton/WPI's favor then this whole quarrel about who should/will get an at-large is for nothing.  Granted its fun. Personally, I think the committee should look at the boards and see the conflict of awarding one of the at-larges to one of those three teams, and award Trinity their conference, give ECSU or USM the LEC title and give us our answer!!

Spec

Hey guys,

New here at D3 and wanted to chime in to what is the most talked about conference in the region and maybe the nation! Awesome. I know you don't get acceptance into a prestigious board like this on your first post, but I wanted to chime my thoughts in on the conference tourney coming up.

Southern Maine - what can you say about that offense? Batting .349 as a team and outscoring teams to the tune of 454-221, they can swing it.  There hole definitely comes when you look at pitching. You got Therrian at 8-0 then it seems most of their wins come from out of the bullpen, with Therrian starting 8 games and the next guy starting 6. You got Hahn who is 6-1 but has started 0 games! Cause for concern, but I guess they've been dealing with that all year and seem to be doing fine

ECSU - has to be the tournament favorite here doing it with pitching and hitting.  Batting .355 as a team and an team ERA of 3.02 well usually get the job done.  When you have the likes of Musson, Gilblair, and Fontaine (who have legitimate shots of being all aces on other teams) to run out 3 games in a row, tough to beat. They're bullpen isn't doing to shabby either if one of 3 get in trouble, it seems. Not to mention when you have to pitch to Gilblair, Castillo, and Hobbes (and the rest of the line-up for that matter) it takes its toll on pitchers.  If I had to nit pick at a hole for them it would be their fielding at a clip of .949. But still, my pick for LEC champs lies with ECSU.

Umass-Boston - They don't quite have the offensive pop as USM or ECSU batting at .324, but any team can put together a little string of offensive to get things going, right?  They're biggest hole by far is their pitching with a team ERA of 7.48.  You give up almost 8 runs to ECSU, with their bullpen its pretty much over.  However, I do think if they can get 2 solid or above average starts by their starters they can make some noise.  Who am I to criticize their pitching they did shut out USM this year, didn't they? 

Keene State - my team here to make legitimate noise in this tourney.  They are batting .377 as a team!  I don't care who you are or who's pitching against you, that's going to make it tough for pitchers. Like Umass-Boston and USM, their hole lies within their pitching with a team ERA of 6.24.  .377 though!  Anyways, if Keene can get a quality start out of someone and put that .377 average together, watch out for the noise to be brought.

- ECSU wins the tourney, with Keene throwing a couple wrenches in along the way.

- I know this means nothing to all of you who live for the LEC because you know everything I just said to you   Just wanted to poke my head in and say good luck to the teams involved and give my two cents. Thanks guys.

Spec

D3ball,

You are right, I was going by the wrong thing apparently, or maybe I'm just getting confused (new to D3, sorry).  TCNJ, Hopkins, and William Patterson do count as in-region wins.  Revisions to my previous post look like this now:

Wheaton plays 21 games going 16-5 while opponents win/loss record is now 370-223

Sorry about that, guess that's not very good research on my part 

Spec

D3ball,

What I did was click on New England region here on this site in the upper left hand corner, so that it lists all the teams in the New England field and those are the teams I saw.  If I'm not mistaken Hopkins is in the Mid-Atlantic region, but if those three teams are considered in the New England region then all the more power to Wheaton scheduling 21 games and going 16-5 in those games. Thanks.

Spec

Thanks Ralph,

Just been watching the boards and stuff.  As people might see I'm kind of a New England-er being from Mass and its fun to watch D3 teams play very good baseball, rather some of the D1 "big-shot" garbage that goes on nowadays (so flashy, still love it though).  Thanks for the welcome and can't wait to see how selection Sunday plays out over here in this power house region of ours. Thanks again.

Spec

I'm still torn by this whole Wheaton/Curry/WPI thing.  I did some more research and looked at non-conference in-region games only and this is what I came up with.

Curry played: Bowdoin (2), Johnson and Wales, Babson, Wheaton, RIC, and Bridgewater
- They played 7 games and went 5-2 in those games

WPI played: St. Joes (2), Fitchburg State (3), Umass Dartmouth (2), Johnson and Wales, Becker, Worcester State, Nichols, Trinity, Westfield State, Brandeis, Elms, and Framingham State (2)
- They played 17 games and went 15-2 in those games

Wheaton played: WNEC (2), Roger Williams (2), Rhode Island College (2), Umass-Dartmouth (2), Endicott, Brandeis (2), Suffolk, USM, Bridgewater, Curry, Keene State, and ECSU.
- They played 17 games and went 12-5 in those games.

I also looked at the teams they played and compiled then added wins and losses and this is what it looks like:

Curry's opponents were overall 142-97

WPI's opponents were overall 238-215

Wheaton's opponents were overall 299-177 (this is without ECSU, Keene, or USM finishing the LEC)

- Did Curry's coach just forget to schedule ANY out of conference games at some point? Does this show any justice to how strength of schedule can influence the committee?  Just a little more breakdown before Sunday comes along. Just something I thought would pass the time until Sunday. Thoughts? Thanks guys.

Spec

I may have overlooked WPI a bit here with their in-region record.  I just took a quick glance at their schedule and what not and noticed that WPI couldn't run this kid Fahey more into the ground if they dug a hole and stuck him in there and told him himself to start digging.  Does anybody else see this?  The kid has thrown 80.2 innings with the next CLOSEST being 48.2!!!  That is absolutely absurd and still to put up the numbers he has this season, hats off.  However how much depth does WPI have in the pitching?  I looked at the box scores of a couple of in-region games they had and Fahey had thrown against St. Joes, Babson (double header), and Wheaton (double header).  He also came in, after starting a game 2 days BEFORE, against Trinity (Conn.) and shut them down as he threw 2.2 innings giving up no runs and 1 hit.  That game ended up 9-7, without this kid, I don't see WPI pulling that one out, but nobody can tell.   

What I'm getting at here is once WPI gets beyond Fahey, who seems to be their ace starter and closer as he leads the team with 3 saves along with 7 wins, they don't have much depth.  I looked at their offense and they have one guy batting over .350, Wheaton has 4, Southern Maine has 7, EConn has 7, just to name a few.  I don't know if the committee looks at how far a team can go in the tourney or not, but I guess it can be a consideration of the human element, again.

Thanks, guys.

I haven't seen many D3 games, but being from New England I did happen to catch a couple WNEC and Wheaton games sometime back along with a little LEC conference games between ECONN and RIC.  And looking at the previous top 25 rankings it just seems like New England has dominated the polls having as many as 5 to 6 ranked teams in the top 25 nationally, consistently.  It seems as if a region may have a couple teams that get hot crack the polls then fall out, but these 6 (USM, ECONN, Suffolk, Wheaton, Curry, Trinity (Conn.)) were there all along and its a testament to coaching and the players to excel even when games start piling up. I also see that WPI and WNEC are getting some love too, receiving votes for the top 25, congrats. Anyways, I think I remember seeing somewhere a team from New England, I'll try to dig it back up, played 9 games in a span of 6 days, because of conference rain outs and other important games.  How do you have the arms for that!?  It seems as if a lot of people think its a long shot that a team be shipped to New York AND somewhere else and potentially have THREE New England teams representin' (as the kids would say) in the World Series. I am one of those people, I think it is by far a long shot that the committee would let that happen, but is it really? Have a good one gentlemen.

Spec