Indiana To Build New Baseball Complex

Add Indiana to the list of Big Ten baseball programs that are building new facilities. Indiana's Board of Trustees approved the building of a new Hoosier Baseball Complex. In addition to a new playing surface, pressbox and indoor practice facility, the new structure will also provide for new locker rooms and offices for IU baseball.

The Hoosiers focus on upgrading their baseball facilities falls in line with several other programs in the Big Ten. Penn State will begin play in a new stadium, Medlar Field at Lubrano Park, next spring. Michigan is in the process of a two year renovation project at Ray Fisher Stadium. Michigan State and Purdue are raising funds for the updating/renovation of their baseball facilities. Of course, Ohio State has been the clubhouse leader in the stadium upgrades for over a decade with their commitment to Bill Davis Stadium.

This is not only good news for Coach Tracy Smith, IU baseball and the Big Ten, but college baseball in general. IU's financial support to baseball, especially in light of the others in the conference making similar moves, reveals the desire of some in the Big Ten to compete at the next level and shows the game's growing popularity.

Oakland University Releases Schedule

Why on Earth would I mention Oakland University's baseball schedule? OU is in the Mid-Continent Conference for crying out loud. Why bother with them? Well, in the interest of full disclosure, your local blogger attended the Rochester, Michigan university. (What? I can't watch more than ten schools at once?)

Besides, there is a Big Ten connection. OU will make what is becoming an annual trek to Ann Arbor to face Rich Maloney's defending Big Ten championship team. It will also mark the latest meeting between Michigan pitcher Zach Putnam and his brother Dylan, who is Oakland's head coach.

There is also a tie between the two programs as Michigan firstbaseman Nate Recknagel transferred to U of M from Oakland. See, there's plenty of viable Big Ten related information to be had by sharing Oakland's 2007 schedule.

I am a bit surprised that OU isn't taking on Ohio State in '07. Seems like the two schools have run into each other in the past, but the Golden Grizzlies don't have OSU, or Michigan State, for that matter, on this year's docket.

The Golden Grizzlies also have a few interesting non-Big Ten games. I kid you not. OU will be in Lexington to face the defending regular season SEC champ, Kentucky on February 27. On April 3rd, Dylan Putnam's side will be in South Bend to take on Notre Dame. Finally, Oral Roberts, who is probably the conference's baseball power, will make the voyage to Rochester to visit OU in May.

Michigan Travels South

As other institutions announce their 2007 baseball schedules, we learn more about the schedules of Big Ten teams. East Carolina released their 2007 slate and I see that Michigan appears on it. The Wolverines will be in Greenville to take on ECU from March 16-18.

EMU's Long And Winding Road Trip

In surfing for college baseball information, I came across the 2007 schedule for Eastern Michigan University. The Eagles not only have a daunting pre-MAC schedule, but I'm hoping they have frequent flyer miles. EMU faces, in successive three game weekend sets, Tennessee, Texas Tech, South Carolina, Arizona and Coastal Carolina.

A quick preview of the Eagles' road trip looks like this:

Ypsilanti, Michigan to Knoxville, Tennessee (433 miles)
Knoxville, Tennessee to Lubbock, Texas (1,030 miles)
Lubbock, Texas to Columbia, South Carolina (1,194 miles)
Columbia, South Carolina to Tucson, Arizona (1,729 miles)
Tucson, Arizona to Conway, South Carolina (1,844 miles)

If my math is correct, and that's always questionable, the Eagles will travel 6,230 miles to play in these five series. 6, 230! This supposes, of course, that EMU doesn't head home between each series or add dates to their 2007 schedule. The latter seems most likely as this is college baseball and schedules are not always worth the paper they are written on. Regardless, EMU will have a ton of mileage under their belts before taking on a single MAC opponent.

EMU also has three Big Ten opponents on it's schedule for next year. The Eagles will travel to Columbus to visit Coach Todd and Ohio State. David Grewe will bring his MSU Spartans into Oestrike Stadium in May. The Eagles will also have two games against the defending Big Ten Champion, Michigan. The Wolverines (in April) and Eagles (in May) will each host one game.

OSU, PSU Schedule Notes

While neither Ohio State or Penn State have released their schedules for 2007, I can pass along a bit of information about some of their opposition next year. The first nugget comes from Ohio State. The Buckeyes are hosting their own tournament at the New York Yankees complex in Tampa, Florida (the tournament announcement comes amidst a review of the OSU freshman class). The dates are February 23-25 and, in addition to the Bucks, the field is comprised of James Madison, Kansas State and Seton Hall.

JMU posted a 38-21 mark last year and can boast of 2006 co-National Player of the Year, Kellen Kulbacki. Kansas State was 31-20 a year ago and Seton Hall went 21-34.

Thanks to a tip from my friend at the College Baseball Blog, I've learned about one road trip for Penn State in '07. The Nittany Lions are going to travel to Chapel Hill to take on the University of North Carolina. While the Heels have suffered some losses to the professional ranks, UNC can still field a challenging lineup featuring All-America SS Josh Horton and 1B/3B Chad Flack.

Illinois' 2007 Schedule

It's got plenty of "TBA" spots, but the University of Illinois has posted it's 2007 baseball schedule. Even with an incomplete list of non-conference foes in front of us, it's safe to say that the Illini tackle some better than average competition outside the Big Ten. Louisiana-Lafayette and Texas-Arlington certainly aren't cupcakes. If the remainder of their pre-conference slate maintains that level, Illinois should be plenty tough come Big Ten action.

In conference, Dan Hartleb's squad will visit Purdue, Northwestern, Iowa and Michigan. Ohio State, Minnesota, Indiana and Michigan State all travel to Champaign in '07. Midweek contests against Illinois State, Western Michigan, Bradley, Eastern Illinois, Southern Illinois and Missouri round out the "conference" portion of Illinois schedule.

Obviously, there is going to be more news on this as we learn who will comprise the remaining pre-conference schedule, but for now it's good to get a look at a second schedule from a Big Ten program.

Answering The Call For Stats

In my last post about summer league stats, I asked that if anyone could provide more data to email me. Well, ask and ye shall receive. Checking the BTH email today, I find a note pointing me to Purdue University's summer league stat recap. Here are some of the highlights of the Boilers' wood bat experience.

Ricky Heines went north to Alaska and posted a 4-0 record for the Peninsula Oilers. In 30.1 innings of work, Heines fanned 21 and posted a sharp 2.08 ERA. Purdue firstbaseman Andy Preston was Heines' teammate in Alaska and was named to the league's All-Star Team. The Oilers captured the Alaska League title.

Andrew Groves, another Purdue hurler, played in the California Collegiate League and also had a fine season against the wood bats. Groves threw 27.2 innings going 3-1 with a 2.60 ERA.

Jordan Comadena stole 17 bases and scored a tremendous 41 runs while playing for Madison in the Northwoods League. Comadena was a NWL All-Star selection.

For a look at all the Boilermakers' summer fun, click on the link above. (Note: it's a .pdf file.) Thanks to the BTH reader for bringing this recap to my attention and for stopping here. If you have any summer league numbers from Big Ten players, I encourage you to do what this fan did and pass them along.

Reviewing Summer League Numbers

I've been meaning to scan over the summer wood bat league stats for a while now, but just got around to it today. I am positive I overlooked somebody from the Big Ten, those fonts on the stat pages can be pretty small, the information rather incomplete and I just don't have every player's name memorized, so I ask for forgiveness in advance. If I missed your son, teammate or even you, please don't hesitate to email me and point out my oversight.

Starting in the Cape Cod League, Minnesota's Cole DeVries posted a 3-2 mark with a 3.31 ERA in seven starts. The Gophers' Friday starter (a presumption on my part) tossed 49 innings while fanning 50 batters. That total was good enough to tie DeVries for third place in the Cape in K's. I'll hazard a guess here and suggest that DeVries will contend for the Big Ten Pitcher of the Year Award in '07.

Also in the mix for top pitcher next year will be Ohio State's Dan DeLucia. (You can make a very convincing argument that DeLucia, OSU's Friday starter in '06, was the top pitcher in the Big Ten last year.) The Buckeyes' lefty went 2-3 on the Cape. DeLucia had a 3.55 ERA in 38 IP.

Fellow Buckeye southpaw, and yet another potential Player of the Year in '07, Cory Luebke, started six games, going 3-2 with a 2.84 ERA.

Ohio State sent more than just a couple of arms to the Cape. Matt Angle had a fine summer with eventual champion, Cotuit. Angle's .292 average was good enough for 8th in the league. His .412 OBP was the third best on the Cape. Angle also managed to steal 14 bases this summer. (If Angle posted these numbers in the prestigious Cape League while playing for a university a bit further south, he's mentioned as a potential All-America in 2007.)

Buckeye backstop Eric Fryer played at Harwich. The righthanded hitting catcher/outfielder hit .250 with two homers and nine RBI.

Another multi-position star, Michigan's Doug Pickens, donned a Chatham uniform. Pickens, as usual, played the outfield, secondbase and catcher on the Cape. He drove in 13 runs while hitting .215.

The Cape League totals show a Dan Sattler working only five innings going 0-1, I'm assuming that's Purdue's Dan Sattler. Not sure what led to the limited work--jumping to another league, lost in a number crunch, injury?

One Big Ten player who did appear in two leagues is Iowa's Travis Sweet. Sweet played in the Cape League and the Central Illinois League, as well. While with Falmouth on the Cape, Sweet hit .176, but was 1-0 with a 1.04 ERA in 8.2 IP. Sweet also spent time with Quincy in Central Illinois, where he hit .302 with two HR's and 12 RBI. The Hawkeyes' righty went 1-1 with a 6.00 ERA in the Central Illinois league.

Ohio State's Josh Hula spent time in the Great Lakes and Cape Cod Leagues this summer, as well. Identical to Purdue's Sattler, Hula didn't get large amounts of playing time at either stop, so it's another case of wondering what limited his action this summer.

Penn State infielder Matt Cavagnaro was a star in the Texas Collegiate League. Cavagnaro's 60 hits paced the league as did his five triples. His 37 runs scored were the third best mark in Texas. Cavagnaro was a two-time player of the week. His strong summer may be a precursor to All-Conference recognition in 2007.

Big Ten Freshman of the Year J.B. Shuck picked up right where he left off. The top newcomer in the conference had such a strong summer in the Great Lakes Collegiate League, Shuck was named by Baseball America as the top pro prospect in that wood bat league. The Ohio State star hit .364 and stole 11 of 16 bases this summer while going 2-0 from the mound with a dazzling 0.95 ERA. I think he's going to be on everyone's short list as pre-season All-Conference and Player of the Year Awards. After an impressive summer, All-America nominations aren't out of the question, either.

Michigan had it's own prized freshman perform dual duties in the Great Lakes League. Adam Abraham, who was selected as the Big Ten Tournament's Most Valuable Player in his inaugural season, hit .287 with 12 RBI in the GLL. The Wolverines righthander also had a 2-2 record and a 2.89 ERA. Abraham will be on some pre-season watch lists, as well.

Michigan's Mike Wilson didn't post eye-popping summer numbers (an ERA over 7.00), but his live arm got scouts attention. Baseball America's staff has him ranked as the 7th best prospect in the Great Lakes League this summer.

Michigan State pitcher Mark Sorenson's GLL season went so well, he also made Baseball America's list of top ten pro prospects in the the league. Sorenson's 6-0 mark and 1.71 ERA was impressive to more than a few.

Fellow Spartan, Kyle Day played for Hays in the Jayhawk League. The MSU catcher hit .371 with 7 HR's, 27 RBI and 31 runs scored. His strong bat earned him a ranking as the fifth best pro prospect in the league according to, you guessed it, Baseball America. (I really should not be paying for that subscription as much as I toss their name around here.)

Posting big offensive numbers was also the norm for Purdue's Ryne White. The Boilermakers slugger hit .329 with four dingers 28 RBI while slugging at a .475 clip in the Central Illinois League.

Other players whose names I found included Ohio State's Jacob Howell (.284 in the Great Lakes League), Wes Schritzinger (.282 in the GLL), Jason Zoeller (.209 in the GLL), and Trey Fausnaugh (2-2, 2.95). Shawn Roof of Illinois (.268, 20 sb in the Coastal Plains League). Northwestern's Tommy Finn (.205, Central Illinois), Michigan's Kevin Cislo (.276, GLL), MSU's Steve Gerstenberger (.247, 13 RBI in the GLL).

Again, I encourage you to contact with the names of the players I didn't recognize here. I'll add to this list or create a new post, if I find more data.

A Bit Of Fall Ball

Jake Toohey, who had a great summer playing in the Northwoods League, provides some insight on Illinois baseball heading into fall practice.

Indiana head coach Tracy Smith shared some of his thoughts prior to the Hoosiers autumn warm-ups.

Buckeyes Pace Attendance, Again

Ohio State fans, this post's for you. Well, in part, anyway. The Buckeyes' faithful get a tip of the ol' ball cap as they, once again, led the Big Ten in attendance in 2006. Ohio State not only lead the Big Ten in fans in attendance, but came in 24th overall in college baseball.

Their national ranking is made more extraordinary when you realize that the Buckeyes played far and away the fewest home games of the universities in the top 25. OSU played a mere 17 home dates, while the next closest team was Notre Dame with 24 home games. Bob Todd's squad averaged over 2,000 fans per game.

As is often the case in Big Ten matters, Michigan also can boast a bit. According to Boyd Nation's breakdown, the Wolverines are amongst the best teams to invite to town. Rich Maloney's team was ranked as the 19th best team to increase attendance. Go check out Mr. Nation's work and get a look at '06 attendance figures.

Ohio State's Shuck Earns Praise

Baseball America has been reviewing the collegiate summer leagues and OSU's J.B. Shuck garnered some recognition. Shuck, the Big Ten's Freshman of the Year in 2006, pitched and hit in the Great Lakes Summer League. You can read up on Shuck's summer here. (Scroll down past the league reviews.)

Visting The Big Boys

While only IU has released it's 2007 schedule, in reviewing the slates of non-conference schools, we can see that a few Big Ten institutions are taking on some of college baseball's big names next year.

Purdue leads the charge with a tour of The Peach State. The Boilermakers will visit the Georgia Bulldogs from February 23 - February 25. Little over a week later, Purdue continues it's tour of the SEC with a stop in Alabama to take on Auburn, March 9 - 11.

Coach Schreiber and the Purdue Atheltic Department deserve some extra credit. Their non-conference schedule has been rather impressive in recent years. The Boilers administration isn't afraid to visit anyone. In the position the Big Ten schools find themselves in, especially in terms of RPI, it's very important for the conference's schools to schedule quality non-conference opposition and Purdue has done that as well as anyone in the Big Ten.

Illinois isn't ducking the elite schools, either. The Illini are loading up the bus (or plane) and heading to Knoxville to play Tennessee from March 2 - 4.

Finally, last year's conference Cinderella, Northwestern, is going to the Lone Star State to play Texas Tech, February 9 - 11.

Now, if we can just get some of the traditional big boys to dig out their jackets and travel north.

(Hat tip: College Baseball Blog.)

Technical Difficulities

I'm in the process of making the switch to the updated version of Blogger. This has lead to a number of technical issues--things like this site not appearing. My apologies to all, especially both of my loyal readers and those making their initial visit courtesy of Skilton's Baseball Links.

I expect these matters to arise until the Blogger folks get a handle on the migration process and work out all the associated bugs. Thanks for stopping in and being patient.

The DQ Lineup

It appears the 2007 Dairy Queen Classic field has been set. According to the University of Arkansas' official site, The DQC will feature the Razorbacks, The Citadel, Mississippi and, of course, Minnesota. The Gophers host The DQ, one of the country's top tournaments, at the Metrodome from March 2 - March 4.

Indiana's 2007 Schedule

Here is Indiana's 2007 baseball schedule. The Hoosiers pre-conference slate isn't completely filled in, but that three game visit to Florida State seems daunting enough.

Kudos to the IU's sports information department for being the first university in the Big Ten to publish their '07 slate.

The Transfer Market

The Big Ten has a number of players opting to apply their craft elsewhere this summer. Baseball America has published the list of athletes opting to transfer and the Big Ten is far too well represented.

Perhaps, the most notable departure is Troy Krider leaving Michigan State. Krider has gotten plenty of playing time with the Spartans -- playing in all 56 MSU contests while batting .355 -- and I suspected he would be in the running for an All-Conference selection in '07. Alas, Mr. Krider has chosen to leave East Lansing, although he hasn't decided where he is headed yet.

The other player whose name jumped out at me is the previously invisible Cameron Satterwhite. The Indiana OF/DH is headed to Cincinnati after playing only briefly for the Hoosiers in 2006. Satterwhite was really starting to look like an offensive force when he suddenly disappeared from IU's roster in the middle of the conference schedule. This is the first most of us have seen or heard of the slugger since.

Also on the list of those transferring out of the Big Ten are Ohio State's Dan Barker (RHP) and Josh Hula (C), Indiana's Jon David and Jason Drew, MSU's pitchers Mike Takashima and Matt Trausch.

The only player heading into the conference is Josh Lindblom. Lindblom is leaving Tennessee and taking the mound for Purdue in 2007.

August's # 1

It's August. It's also about as far away from the start of the next college baseball season as you can get. However, what have I been thinking about? If I were a member of the voting media, who would I vote as the number one team in the country heading into 2007?

My answer is South Carolina. The Gamecocks impressed me last year and have a number of players returning in '07. I guess that makes South Carolina my pre-pre-season number one.

Cape League Complaints And My Solution

John Manuel, of Baseball America fame and fortune, writes that scouts weren't terribly impressed about the Cape Cod League All-Star Game. Seems a number of the quality arms in the league couldn't pitch due to a variety of factors. That left a series of less than top flight pitchers for the scouts to evaluate. Our scouting friends were so up in arms, pardon the pun, that they will probably complain back to their Major League employers who will take the summer wood bat league to task for not providing them with the talent they anticipated seeing.

My thought is that the scouts should complain about their employers as they are part of the problem. This is going to run over a sacred cow or two, but let me pose a philosophic question anyway. Do we really need the Cape League? Or wood bat summer leagues, in general, for that matter?

Yes, the college players do need a place to play during baseball's peak time of the year. From that perspective, I understand the need for all the summer leagues. Yet, why should MLB scouts get so up in arms over one all-star game? What has made these summer leagues so important? The reason is simple--wooden bats.

When the college kids leave campus, they leave all the metal bats behind. In the summer, scouts get to evaluate both hitters and pitchers in a setting that more closely resembles MLB action. Thus, when the kids they want to see play against each other don't participate, scouts get a bit edgy. They have a very small window to look at the nation's collegiate stars in this environment. When your livelihood comes from making proper recommendations, it's understandable that you get cranky when your opportunities to evaluate are hampered.

Let's also realize that MLB is footing a portion of the bill in many, if not most, of the summer wood bat leagues. MLB is helping cover the cost of the bats, presumably, so they can judge their prospective future employees in the optimum setting. Again, not having your best players play comes off as biting the hand that feeds you. Which leads me back, in part, to my original question.

What if MLB decided to stop funding the summer leagues and sent the money to the NCAA? What if, instead of a few weeks of wood bat action in the summer, college players got to play with wood bats all year long? I'm not looking to destroy the summer wood bat leagues, but I am curious why they can get money from MLB and the NCAA cannot? Even if their is some archaic rule in the NCAA that prohibits such a move (and who would believe the NCAA has archaic rules on the books?), if MLB offered the money, couldn't the NCAA really just re-write the rule?

Such a move would really be a win-win for both MLB and the NCAA. MLB would get several extra months, if not years, to evaluate talent using and facing wooden bats on a regular basis. Wouldn't this create plenty of scouting chances? Might proper evaluation lead to less drafting errors and save money--in theory anyway? (Hey, I'm selling a concept here, play along.)

The NCAA also gains as one of the biggest complaints I hear about the college game from general baseball fans is the "ping" of metal bats. It doesn't faze me, obviously, but it clearly keeps some from embracing the game. If attendance and interest rose in the college game, players in the NCAA might become more recognizable and fans might get more interested in things like the MLB Draft. Again, how this hurts anyone is beyond me.

(As an aside, I also figure some minor league teams might get a bit anxious at the thought of the NCAA using wood bats. Some kids, although not a significant amount, might opt for two years of college baseball (minimum) instead of heading off to the big league farm system straight from high school. From strictly a budgetary standpoint, would having fewer minor league franchises save MLB money? Again, this is just a thinking-out-loud moment.)

I realize that if MLB stopped funding the use of wood bats in college, the summer leagues prestige may fall. Some would probably fold. While I'm not looking to crush this cottage industry, I think it's time to take another look at this entire set-up. Clearly, the best case scenario would be one where MLB steps up to the plate and funds both the NCAA and the summer wooden bat leagues so they can evaluate the players from March until August.

Providing your potential future workforce with the tools of their job at a younger age? Expanding the game's popularity at lower levels? Getting more time to evaluate players? Why, again, is this not a good idea?

Update (8/2/06): I emailed someone with far more knowledge about this subject than I--which I realize could be just about anyone--and learned that one possible issue may be Title IX. The theory is that because of Title IX, if MLB tossed money at the NCAA and equal amount would have to go to women's athletics. That does provide a rather large obstacle. I'd say an unnecessary one, but that might get me in trouble.

There is also the matter of whether or not there really is enough wood bats out there to supply all of D-I. I'm going to be the last guy to encourage stripping our forests to make bats, so if it's even debatable, it's probably not a good idea. I would like to think that some of these companies are actually re-foresting (if that's the proper term for planting more trees), but I don't really care to ponder that, either.

The last point is one of the bat manufacturers and their "relationship" with the NCAA. I leave that statement for you to read between the lines.

An Indiana Stats Question

I received an email from fellow baseball fan Steve Guthrie. Steve has asked for some assistance. As I couldn't give him a definitive answer, I'm tossing this one to BTH readers. Here's Steve's query (with my editing the email into paragraphs at different points, as it didn't exactly copy and paste well; my apologies to Mr. Guthrie):

2006 is the second season I will have made a Big Ten card set available free to people for use on the APBA table baseball game. I get my data almost completely from team websites and have never seen anything like the way Indiana handled their 2006 stats.

The batting stats for three players are included in the 2006 Indiana team totals on their website but are not listed as individual players; hence the player totals don't add up to the team totals. I have never seen this kind of data expulsion done before. There are two pitchers left out of their pitching table, too. None of the five are listed on the fielding table on the Indiana site. (The Big Ten website has all players listed only in fielding tables - the five missing ex-Hoosiers are all listed there.) I did some work to dig up the data for the missing players in the Indiana boxscores.

These player situations really call out for explanations.1) Brett Sager batted 6th starting Game 1 as the Hoosier second baseman. He went 0 for 2, booted his first fielding chance, and was substituted for after six innings. He pinch-ran for the catcher in Game 3 and never appeared again. His stats are gone. 2) Steve Head started 35 of Indiana's first 43 games as their thirdbaseman. He made only one more appearance (in Game 47) going 1 for 2, scoring twice. He never appears again in the last nine games. His stats are gone. 3) Cameron Satterwhite didn't play until Game 16 but soon made an impact as the Hoosier DH. After the team's 37th game, Satterwhite was batting .386, slugging .516, and on base 42.6 percent of the time as the cleanup hitter. He never appeared in a game again. His stats are gone.

What happened to these players? Web searches turn up nothing. I will e-mail 2006 Indiana Batting and Pitching tables as Excel spreadsheets that include the five dropped players to anyone that might want them.

Again, I can't provide Mr. Guthrie with any solid information. I suspect there is a combination of youngsters that dropped out, were dismissed from the school or opted to transfer elsewhere, but that's all speculation. It's also doesn't explain the stats being erased from IU's records.

If anyone has an answer to Steve's inquiry, feel free to post it here or drop me an email. I'd leave Steve's email address, but it would just get filled with all the spam I get now. Thanks to any and all that can shed some light on this matter.

MSU's Grewe Profiled

Much to my amazement, there is a link to a feature about a college baseball coach on the ESPN.com homepage today. Even more astounding is the fact that the baseball coach profiled is from the Big Ten--Michigan State's David Grewe. It's the off-season and a Big Ten baseball coach gets a story on the Worldwide Leader's website? Go figure.

Regardless, it's great for the conference, in general, and for Grewe and the Spartans, specifically.