Monday, April 06, 2009

Standings, Scores, Polls And Other Things

As I was Internet-free for a large part of the weekend, there is much to catch-up on. First, here are the standings:

     Team                   W   L   T   Pct       W   L   T   Pct
Illinois............ 4 2 0 .667 18 7 0 .720
Minnesota........... 3 2 0 .600 16 9 0 .640
Purdue.............. 3 2 0 .600 13 12 0 .520
Indiana............. 3 2 0 .600 12 16 0 .429
Ohio State.......... 3 3 0 .500 22 7 0 .759
Michigan............ 3 3 0 .500 18 10 0 .643
Penn State.......... 3 3 0 .500 17 12 0 .586
Michigan State...... 3 3 0 .500 11 17 0 .393
Iowa................ 2 4 0 .333 11 15 0 .423
Northwestern........ 1 4 0 .200 5 20 0 .200

By now, I'm presuming you are all caught up on the scores. However, for those that may have been without Internet access, here's what transpired since Friday:

Indiana 14 Illinois 4
Indiana 2 Illinois 1 (10 innings)
Illinois 5 Indiana 4

Iowa 15 Purdue 7
Purdue 5 Iowa 3
Purdue 10 Iowa 9

PSU 6 Michigan 4
Michigan 9 PSU 5
PSU 16 Michigan 5

MSU 2 Northwestern 0
MSU 9 Northwestern 4
MSU 6 Northwestern 5

Minnesota 7 (28) Ohio State 5
(28) Ohio State 3 Minnesota 2
Minnesota 16 (28) Ohio State 3

Now, courtesy of Boyd's World, let's take a quick look at some other numbers of note. There are the ever-popular pseudo-RPI figures. Minnesota has the best mark in the Big Ten at number twenty. They are followed by Ohio State (24) and Penn State (75). The next wave begins with Illinois (89) then continues with Indiana (132) and Michigan (153). The last four programs all top 200. Purdue is in at 206, Michigan State at 212, Iowa at 215 and Northwestern's at 250.

Continuing with ISR numbers, Ohio State is at 29 while Minnesota is one back at 30. Penn State (90) and Illinois (94) really take a tumble versus their RPI figures. Michigan is next at 122, then Indiana at 153. Purdue moves up to 172 in ISR. Iowa (208), Michigan State (209) and Northwestern (245) round out the conference.

On to the polls where Baseball America inexplicably dumps Minnesota out of their Top 25. (Sorry, John and Aaron, I haven't listened to your podcast for explanation as of yet.) The Gophers take two-of-three from Ohio State, a team inside of everyone's top 30 in RPI, yet fall out of the BA poll. I don't get it.

To rub salt in the wound, the BA guys rank Hawai'i and TCU, programs that Minnesota has dispatched earlier in the year.

These same Gophers have climbed into Collegiate Baseball's top 30. CB was loving OSU and Illinois, but their series defeats have jettisoned them from the rankings.

Proving the coaches are as in-the-dark as everyone else when it comes to rankings, we have the USA Today poll. Ohio State fell out of the rankings after losing two at Minny. Yet, the Gophers, who I must repeat are in nearly everyone's top 25 in RPI, aren't getting as many poll votes as the Buckeyes. Minnesota received nine votes to OSU's 32. I'm happy the Bucks are getting votes, but how can anyone justify giving them more votes than the Gophers? (I should point out that Illinois did receive four votes from the coaches.)

Ping! has the Gophers ranked 29th in the land. No word yet from the NCBWA poll.

That's enough to review for now. I'll be back with a look at the midweek action.

4 comments:

BaseballBucks33 said...

Yeah Baseball America has no clue. The Gophers beat the Buckeyes 2/3 games this weekend and are not ranked.Then 2 teams they beat this season are ranked too. Aaron Fitt does a decent job but he is really clueless on this deal. Lol!

Here is to the Buckeyes getting it together and winning all 4 games this week.

Go Bucks!!

Brian said...

I know Minnesota dropped a midweek game to Northern Iowa, but I would have thought OSU's RPI would have more than made up for that.

Unknown said...

The loss to Northern Iowa was almost entirely the fault of the last pitcher on the roster, Allen Bechstein. The offense was fine. The other pitchers were anywhere from good to almost acceptable. Bechstein gave up six runs in two-thirds of an inning in a 9-7 loss.

If we can pick up a win either today or tomorrow at Missouri, we should be fine.

stateguybrian said...

I'm not sure if anyone noticed, but Nolan Moody pitched a No-Hitter Saturday vs. Northwestern. He was actually perfect through the 8th. It was a really great performance.