A few early season national observations

B

Beau Vine

1,000+ Posts
Has the RPI finally figured out that the best baseball is played in the west?

1. ASU
2. Stanford
3. Fla State
4. Irvine
5. Long Beach

I know it's early, but I can't think of any time 4 western teams have been in the RPI top 5 ever. Hell, the Pac-10 has 5 teams in the top 17 of the RPI. The Big West has 3 in the top 10. The SEC's highest RPI team is #24 Georgia, which went 2-4 against Oregon State and Arizona.


Early game of the year on Sunday -- Irvine @ ASU. Irvine allows 2.1 runs per game. ASU scores 10.6. It's too bad they couldn't move this to Friday to have Scott Gorgen pitch against the Devils.


After going 0-44 last season, Coppin State has already won two games, although both were against D-I newbie NC Central. Our hero Sebastian Fomenko is off to another blistering start -- 1-for-14 with 6 Ks.


Boyd Nation likes Mizzou so far, at #7 in his ISR. Tigers face Baylor this weekend in a huge series.


LSU still doesn't seem to be back. They had a 9-game winning streak against mostly northern teams, but are currently on a 4-game skid and have a #79 RPI ranking. This email from one of my LSU friends says it best:

In reply to:
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I saw ASU play Arkansas last week and they already look to be in mid-June form. Very, very good team.

I'm going to be out there again this weekend, but unfortunately I think we'll be playing our 2nd round game during the ASU/Irvine game, so I'm not sure I can make that.
 
I'm gonna warn you guys, so don't say I didn't. Don't sleep on Nebraska. This team is finally reaching the potential that it should have last season. Four SOLID starting pitchers (THANK YOU, Eric Newman - former DBU coach), better hitting, no more egos on the team - just better all around.

And just cranked Arkansas today 6-1 behind a complete game from our fourth starter. OUR FOURTH STARTER just shut down Van Horn's Piggies.

I know we haven't played a whole lot of great teams, but we are still 8th coming into today in ISR (which means a hell of a lot more than that stupid RPI, and yes, the RPI is still stupid, they had the ACC ranked #1 in conference RPI last weekend).

This is a team which, despite the tough road sked, can easily win this conference and take the country by surprise.
 
Irvine?? .. It is University of California, Irvine .. UC Irvine or UCI (as in UCLA) would be fine to use. There is no University of Irvine (and UC Berkeley has no real right to be called "California")
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Yeah, the Anteaters have not lost a beat after the coach change. Gorgen has pitched some 32 innings giving up just 7 hits so far.

I hope they take ASU this weekend.

R.J.
 
I think everybody knows that it's UC Irvine. It's just an abbreviated way of saying it. Just like many people call Cal State Fullerton "Fullerton" and Long Beach State "Long Beach".
 
Yes, but UCI is a regular PhD-granting UC campus of 25,000 students now, while CS Fullerton, CS Long Beach etc are (by state law) colleges that cannot grant PhDs. In California, the UC campuses have a different status from the legislature, as all of them work under the same rules of the largest state university system. So, the UCI alumni, whose university pride is growing only in the last decade or so (the Univ itself being only 40 years old), do not like UCI's being listed as though it is a small city college, I think.

In fact, CSU LB folks do not like being called LongBeach State, CSU Fullerton guys do not like FullertonState, etc, as well. That usage has now nearly gone away though.

Not a big deal or anything; just pointing out ..

BTW, I am a professor at UCI, and actually gave an early final exam to civil engineering student Ryan Fisher yesterday, before he took off to Arizona. He is the RBI leader so far for the Anteaters. They have been doing well, but the ASU game will be a test. ASU has been very good so far.

R.J.
 
ASU is a good team, no doubt. But I find it interesting that their first loss came agaisnt Northern Colorado, a team we swept.
smile.gif


On another note, Northern Colorado has NOT been ducking people. They've played Nebraska, Creighton and A&M so far, played ASU last night and play UC-Irvine this weekend.
 
Don't be all that impressed by ASU. They haven't played anyone but arkie and still have not played one game on the road.
 
Not that impressed by ASU, huh? You must not be paying attention.

Two solid starters in Mike Leake and Josh Satow, buth of whom played in the CWS last year.

Solid bullpen. Four guys with at least 1 save this year.

Explosive lineup. Six guys who have started at least ten games who hit .325 or better.

Almost unbeatable at home. 44-2 in their last 46 home games, and at their pace they will almost certainly be in their home ballpark for the first two weekends of the tourney.

And if that's not enough, #4 in ISR, a rating which usually gets it right. Virtually every champ the last ten years has ended up #6 or better in ISR.

Most importantly, a WEST COAST team.

If you're not impressed with them, then I dunno what you're watching.
 
The joy of baseball is that it is a long season and people have a chance to prove themselves. My point was they have done nothing so far to make me want to crown them CWS favorites.

Keep in mind Beau- "played" as it was written in my post is past tense. This means it has already happened as opposed to it is going to happen at some time in the future like all of the teams you mention. My point is that to date they have not played a tough schedule and they have not played a road game. These facts remain true.

There is no question that they have tons of potential talent, but lots of teams like tulane and the huskers get fat on weak competition at home in the early season only to fall apart at the end. In the end, ASU still has Pat Murphy and I'll bet on that clown to lose more than he wins when they count.
 
Not really. The Univ. of Texas system of universities is quite fundamentally different than the UC system of universities. But yeah, it is not a crime or anything that people call UC Berkeley as THE "California" university..

The smiley was just to show that I wanted to take light-hearted dig at UCB, as I am at UCI.

R. J.
 
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