Wolverines vs. Buckeyes This Weekend In Big Ten

After a slow start to the season Michigan finds itself in a four-way tie for first place in the Big Ten Conference standings heading into this weekend’s showdown with Ohio State.  In this podcast interview Collegebaseball360.com Big Ten correspondent Chris Webb talks to Wolverine head coach Rich Maloney about his team’s turnaround this season as well as the extension of the college baseball season and its impact on Northern schools, RPI and more.

Rich Maloney

* NOTE: Maloney references Notre Dame’s 2002 CWS team in this interview.  He is correct that Florida State was ranked #1 in the nation when the Irish defeated them in the Tallahassee Super Regional.

Four Things I’m Thinking About Right Now…

By Collegebaseball360.com Editor Sean Stires

As April hits its stride we’re getting ready for another weekend of college baseball.  We’ve had some new podcasts and will continue to have more in the coming weeks as we look at different teams and conferences around the country.  Here are some things that gnawed at my mind this week…

Say What… Here are the current statistics of two catchers.  One is on the 2010 Johnny Bench Award Watch List, but

Yasmani Grandal (Miami photo)

the other is not.  See if you can guess which one is:  A.  .414 BA, 7 HR, 37 RBIs, 1.211 OPS, 1 Passed Ball  B.  .294 BA, 6 HR, 25 RBIs, .888 OPS, 3 Passed Balls.  If you said catcher “B” is the one on the watch list you would be correct (I won’t mention his name here).  Catcher “A” is Miami Hurricane Yasmani Grandal.  After hitting 16 home runs and then playing last summer for Team USA the junior was not only not on the original watch list, but also left out of the group of nine catchers who were added to the watch list this week.  That’s 61 total catchers now on the watch list, but the guy hitting .414 at one of the best programs in the history of the sport is not one of them.

Big Shake-Up…Before last week the Big East was looking like it was going to be a one-bid league when NCAA selections come out next month, and Louisville was looking like it might earn the programs first top 8 national seed.  That all changed when Pittsburgh took two of three games from the Cardinals in the Steel City.  Pittsburgh (22-9, 6-3) was three outs from sweeping the series before Louisville rallied to salvage the series finale, but their two wins shook-up the Big East standings.  South Florida (16-16, 8-1) is in first place followed by UConn (24-7, 7-2) and Rutgers (18-13, 7-2), with Louisville (26-6, 6-3) and Pitt tied for fourth place.  USF played a brutal early schedule, but has zero quality wins to show for it.  UConn handed Louisville its other conference loss and seems to be gaining momentum.

Revving-up The RPI…The NCAA’s official RPI is out, and it’s no shock that the top five teams include Arizona State, Arkansas, UCLA, Florida, and Virginia.  Three of those five teams made it to Omaha last year and a fourth (Florida) played in a Super Regional.  Louisville (Big East), Coastal Carolina (Big South), Clemson, Texas, and Oregon State round-out the top ten.  That gives the Pac 10 three top ten RPI teams, the ACC and SEC each have two.  Here are some “non-power conference” teams that join Louisville and Coastal Carolina in the RPI Top-50:  17. Western Kentucky 21. The Citadel 23. TCU 24. New Mexico 30. College of Charleston 35. Western Carolina 39. Texas State 40. Connecticut 41. San Diego 44. Southeastern Louisiana 47. South Alabama 49. Pittsburgh 50. VMI

Gary Brown (mattbrownphoto.com)

Titan Turnaround…Since a disappointing 8-8 start to the season Cal State Fullerton (18-12, 5-1 Big West) has won ten of its last 14 games, including two of three from Big West rival UC Irvine last weekend.  The Titans also won a midweek match-up over UCLA (26-3)-a team that moved to #1 in two polls this week.  Fullerton didn’t shy away from tough competition early on, with six of those losses coming at the hands of TCU (24-7), Arizona (23-9) and Arizona State (28-3).  The Titan’s offense is starting to click, with Gary Brown and Billy Marcoe hitting .443 and .402, respectively.  The biggest issue has been inconsistent pitching from a team that has been traditionally dominant on the mound.  2010 Team USA invitees Tyler Pill and Nick Ramirez are a combined 2-7, although Pill gave-up just an unearned run in 8 1/3 IP and also had an RBI in Sunday’s 6-1 win over the Anteaters.  Expect the Titans to build some serious momentum over the next month…

Four Ways To Promote The Game Where It Needs Promoting

1. Allow fall exhibition games that do not count against the 56 game limit. Teams like Texas, Rice and Baylor (to name a few) are already playing a handful of games each fall so they don’t have to cram a bunch of mid week games into a shorter season.  Teams like Michigan, Indiana and Iowa are playing games this fall as well.  Teams from the Big 12, SEC, ACC, and Pac 10 don’t have to worry about losing a few games in the spring, because they know their RPIs are going to be high enough to get them an at-large NCAA bid if they win 30 games, but teams from the north need every game they can get to 40 wins as they build their at large resume.
2. Use college football to showcase college baseball in the north. (This is assuming step #1 is in play.)  This can most easily be accomplished in September when the weather is still in the 80s and 90s pretty much across the country (including places like Minneapolis, Ann Arbor, South Bend, and Columbus…just in case those from states farther south might not be aware).  Fresno State was the defending national champion last year.  The Bulldog football team opened the 2008 season at Rutgers.  What if the Scarlet Knight baseball team could have had the defending champs play on their campus in a fall exhibition game (or games)?   Oregon State went to Penn State to play football two years ago when the Beaver baseball team was the defending CWS champion.  It’s a win-win situation for everyone.  Fresno State and Oregon State are never going to go to New Jersey or Pennsylvania in March or April, but September is perfect, and they don’t even have to worry about whether they
   

   Penn State's Beaver Stadium with baseball's Medlar Field at Lubrano Park upper right

   win or lose.  Just show up, play a game Friday night and/or Saturday morning before the football game ) when 50,000 to upwards of 100,000 fans are around to see the games) and then do some tailgating and watch a football game and go home.  It’s not limited to defending national champs though.  Some other football games that would be good fits for a fall baseball pairing include:  Arizona @ Iowa, USC @ Ohio State, Stanford @ Notre Dame, North Carolina @ UConn, Oregon @ Purdue, Virginia @ Indiana, Florida State @ BYU (I could go on).  All of those football games have either taken place recently or will take place within the next couple years.

3. Use football part II. The idea of using college football to promote college baseball is not limited to having one school’s baseball team tag along with the football team to go barnstorming in the north.  (EG: Penn State vs. Oregon State in both football and baseball as mentioned above.)  Baseball teams like LSU, Texas, Arizona State, Miami, Florida State (and a few others) could go just about anywhere independent of their football teams and draw a crowd.  So, Michigan plays Eastern Michigan in Ann Arbor on the gridiron on September 19, but Michigan plays Texas on the diamond the night before or that same morning.
4. BE CREATIVE. Schools like Rhode Island and St. John‘s don’t have the big football programs to prop up the rest of their programs like Penn State, Michigan or Notre Dame, but they could still make something happen in the fall.  How about the Red Storm playing Joba Chamberlain’s alma mater, Nebraska, at Yankee Stadium in September after the Yankees play Baltimore?  Or what if Dustin Pedroia’s college team, Arizona State, played Rhode Island at Fenway Park?
   

   Boston's Fenway Park

The biggest objection to something like this would likely come from the schools like Texas, LSU and ASU who would have to pick up the bill for the extra travel in September.  But look at it this way:  Those three traditional powers will average about 36 home games next spring.  Michigan, St. John’s, Notre Dame, and Ohio State averaged 24 home games last spring.

Ohio State played its first 21 games in Florida in 2009 before its first home game on March 31st.  Next season Texas will play its first nine games in Austin, and won’t leave the Lone Star state until a 3-game set at Oklahoma the first weekend in April.  The Longhorn’s only other trip out of Texas during the regular season is at Kansas State in early May.

In other words, it shouldn’t be too much to ask the biggest programs in the sport to make an extra trip or two in September to help the growth of the sport.

Have you ever been in a campus basketball arena when the Tennessee or UConn women’s basketball teams come to town?  Those teams are treated like rock stars by adoring young fans in front of sell out crowds, because they are the teams that are on national TV all the time.  If the Vols and Huskies are the Pied Pipers of women’s hoops, the Longhorns and Tigers can take the “ping” to the people on Saturdays in September.