Boyd's World-> Breadcrumbs Back to Omaha-> Who's In? About the author, Boyd Nation

Who's In?

Publication Date: May 25, 2004

Their World, And Welcome to It

I'll get to the field in a minute, but I wanted to say a quick word on a couple of the conference races that wrapped up last weekend. The SEC had one for the ages, with six teams going into the final weekend within a game of each other. The only unsatisfactory part of it was that it ended in a tie between two teams that hadn't played each other. In the ACC, A previously mediocre Georgia Tech team caught fire down the stretch culminating in a sweep of Maryland over the weekend to pass Virginia by half a game (although the Cavaliers' idleness was another emotional weak point). The Pac 10 comes down to next weekend, with Stanford the most likely winner but with Washington still having a good chance, ASU having a slight chance, and there being a tiny chance of a three-way tie with Stanford in fourth. All told, it was a good weekend to watch baseball.

I'm going to change the format away from the conference-based system I've used in the past. That's because there's some reasonable evidence the past couple of years that the committee isn't paying as much attention to the conference standings as they used to (they still pay too much, but it's not an absolute thing any more).

While some would say that there's a lot of baseball left to play, there's not really -- just 5% or less of the season for most teams. What there is left, though, will be absurdly overemphasized by the committee, which means that predictions will be hard-put to stay accurate. Here's my best guess for the national seeds, though:

#1 Miami, Florida (ISR #11, RPI #1)
#2 Texas (#2, #2)
#3 Louisiana State (#8, #4)
#4 Stanford (#1, #15
#5 South Carolina (#14, #5)
#6 Rice (#4, #8)
#7 Mississippi (#13, #6)
#8 East Carolina (#9, #10)

Now, the non-national #1 seeds:

Arizona State (#3, #3)
Florida (#18, #7)
Virginia (#22, #9)
Georgia (#20, #11)
Georgia Tech (#21, #13)
Arkansas (#16, #14)
Cal State Fullerton (#7, #20)
Notre Dame (#29, #21)

Now, the #2 seeds:

Florida State (#27, #12)
Texas A&M (#10, #16)
Clemson (#42, #17)
Vanderbilt (#17, #18)
North Carolina State (#46, #19)
Long Beach State (#4, #22)
Oklahoma (#19, #23)
Tennessee (#41, #24)
Texas Tech (#25, #25)
UC Irvine (#12, #27)
Washington (#6, #28)
Southern Mississippi (#26, #29)
North Carolina (#45, #30)
Central Florida (#49, #32)
Arizona (#15, #34)
Oral Roberts (#28, #36)

#3 seeds:

Mississippi State (#37, #26)
Wichita State (#30, #37)
Florida Atlantic (#58, #35)
Nebraska (#33, #33)
Oklahoma State (#43, #38)
Minnesota (#59, #55)
Pittsburgh (#72, #53)
Birmingham-Southern (#52, #41)
Coastal Carolina (#70, #44)
Tulane (#38, #39)
UCLA (#23, #49)
Lamar (#32, #43)
Texas Christian (#54, #45)
CAA winner
Houston (#55, #48)
Texas State (#53, #50)

#4 seeds:

America East winner
Atlantic 10 winner
CAA runner-up
Horizon winner
MAAC winner
MAC winner
Mountain West winner
NEC winner
OVC winner
College of Charleston
Sun Belt winner
WCC winner
Texas Southern
Army
Bethune-Cookman
Princeton

Pitch Count Watch

Rather than keep returning to the subject of pitch counts and pitcher usage in general too often for my main theme, I'm just going to run a standard feature down here where I point out potential problems; feel free to stop reading above this if the subject doesn't interest you. This will just be a quick listing of questionable starts that have caught my eye -- the general threshold for listing is 120 actual pitches or 130 estimated, although short rest will also get a pitcher listed if I catch it. Don't blame me; I'm just the messenger.

Date   Team   Pitcher   Opponent   IP   H   R   ER   BB   SO   AB   BF   Pitches
May 20 Tulane Brian Bogusevic Houston 8.0 10 3 2 0 4 31 35 126
May 20 Air Force Paul Vignola Brigham Young 6.0 17 13 11 2 3 35 39 133
May 20 Air Force Blake Nixon Brigham Young 6.1 12 10 10 5 5 31 38 134
May 20 The Citadel Jonathan Ellis North Carolina-Greensboro 9.0 4 3 1 3 8 32 36 136
May 20 Nicholls State Robbie Hebert Southeastern Louisiana 6.0 6 3 1 4 0 24 29 124
May 20 Texas State T. Robbins Northwestern State 9.0 8 0 0 3 4 32 36 128
May 20 Texas-San Antonio Boehme Texas-Arlington 9.0 11 5 5 2 8 37 39 156
May 21 Albany Steve Emmertha Northeastern 8.2 9 2 2 3 5 33 38 143(*)
May 21 Maryland-Baltimore County Eric Butkiewicz Maine 8.2 13 6 3 0 7 41 41 154(*)
May 21 Vermont Blazek Hartford 9.0 4 1 0 3 16 32 35 151(*)
May 21 High Point Matt Kniginyzky Coastal Carolina 4.1 9 12 10 6 5 20 27 122
May 21 Cal State Fullerton Jason Windsor Long Beach State 10.0 5 1 1 2 12 32 34 135
May 21 George Mason Gant James Madison 7.1 10 7 7 2 5 32 34 127
May 21 Tulane Brian Bogusevic Houston 8.0 10 3 2 0 4 31 35 126
May 21 Alabama-Birmingham Adam Price Cincinnati 8.0 9 2 1 2 4 34 38 141
May 21 Southern Utah Justin Abbott Oral Roberts 6.1 8 7 7 2 4 27 32 121
May 21 Air Force Clayton Couch Brigham Young 5.0 15 15 13 2 6 31 35 126
May 21 Nevada-Las Vegas Jake Vose New Mexico 7.0 8 4 4 3 5 28 32 121
May 21 Southeast Missouri State Anthony Maupin Tennessee-Martin 9.0 9 2 2 4 3 32 37 133(*)
May 21 Tennessee-Martin Massey Southeast Missouri State 8.1 12 7 7 5 2 36 41 148(*)
May 21 Arizona Koley Kolberg Arizona State 7.0 9 6 5 4 10 30 36 148
May 21 Ole Miss Mark Holliman Louisiana State 9.0 12 6 6 3 4 34 38 124
May 21 Florida Justin Hoyman Tennessee 7.1 11 4 4 4 3 34 38 153(*)
May 21 The Citadel Ken Egleton North Carolina-Greensboro 7.0 4 1 1 3 8 23 28 121
May 21 San Francisco Derek Tate Pepperdine 9.0 7 5 5 2 6 34 39 147(*)
May 21 Portland Sean Sargent Santa Clara 8.1 10 5 5 3 4 34 38 146
May 22 Northeastern Monds Albany 8.0 6 1 0 6 10 29 36 147(*)
May 22 Massachusetts Keith Doherty Richmond 7.1 4 5 5 5 4 26 34 124
May 22 Mercer Jones Florida Atlantic 9.0 13 4 4 1 7 38 39 145(*)
May 22 Purdue Chris Toneguzzi Indiana 7.0 4 1 0 2 6 23 26 121
May 22 Boston College Kevin Shepard Seton Hall 8.0 6 5 2 5 6 30 37 128
May 22 Coastal Carolina Jake Hurry High Point 7.0 8 3 3 5 6 22 29 122
May 22 Cal State Fullerton Ricky Romero Long Beach State 8.0 6 1 1 1 5 28 32 128
May 22 Akron Ross Liersemann Ohio 6.0 9 4 4 1 3 27 29 122
May 22 Murray State Bart Peach Samford 8.1 8 8 1 2 10 35 41 149(*)
May 22 Arizona State Jason Urquidez Arizona 7.1 3 2 2 4 9 24 29 131
May 22 Washington State Aaron Trolia Oregon State 8.0 5 3 3 3 7 29 35 137
May 22 Appalachian State Taylor Craig Western Carolina 9.0 8 4 4 4 9 34 40 139
May 22 Louisiana-Monroe Justin Lensch Lamar 9.0 6 0 0 1 3 31 33 123
May 22 Rice Wade Townsend Fresno State 7.0 8 4 4 5 9 24 30 123
May 23 Coastal Carolina Andy DeLaGarza High Point 8.0 1 0 0 7 10 22 30 122
May 23 Washington State Aaron MacKenzie Oregon State 9.0 7 2 1 2 5 33 35 123

(*) Pitch count is estimated.

If you're interested in reprinting this or any other Boyd's World material for your publication or Web site, please read the reprint policy and contact me

Google

Boyd's World-> Breadcrumbs Back to Omaha-> Who's In? About the author, Boyd Nation