Reminder. As you read this, we have three league's: The 6A SD#1, the 5A MWL and Gary's faux Hybrid MWL league. The Hybrid MWL league isn't a true double round robin as Marshfield is not playing the 6A varsity teams this year.
How's Gary's pre season prediction going?
My final pre Hybrid League prediction versus actual as of Saturday's games:
1. Thurston - Thurston
2. Sheldon - NE/Churchill
3. North Eugene - NE/Churchill
4. South Eugene - South Eugene
5. Churchill - Willamette
6. Willamette - Sheldon
7. Marist - Marist
8. Springfield - Springfield/Marshfield
9. Marshfield - Springfield/Marshfield
Note that Sheldon and Marist are behind a game - the only Hybrid game that didn't get played this rainy spring. Pretty amazing.
Three teams to keep an eye on the second round are Sheldon, Willamette and Marist. (I think the other six teams will continue at the pace they are on and improve as the weather gets better.) The Irish have a ton of talent and have that combination of pitching, hitting, defense and aggressiveness that should put them in a tight race with Thurston. The Wolverines are a team and a program with everything in place to move up to the North Eugene and Churchill level. And Marist has found their defense, no matter who is pitching. Looking at these teams in the context that matters - the official OSAA leagues.....
5A MWL
OSAA Standings
Churchill 4-1
North Eugene 4-1
Willamette 3-2
Marist 2-3
Marshfield 1-4
Springfield 1-4
I'm going to the Marist at Willamette game tonight to see which way these two teams are headed in the second round. I'm anticipating a Trent Waggoner versus Malik Evans showdown. Marist is currently ranked 12th in the 5A Southern Division. The Spartans need wins to avoid dropping below 16th and being eliminated from the play-in games. I put Marist in a rebuilding year mode when I first saw them, but if they continue to improve, they only have to win the last five games of the season once playoffs start and they've got a trophy. Willamette is safe for the play-in game unless they go into a major tailspin. A strong second half could move the Wolverines up from their current ninth place seed in the Southern Region. I like Willamette's lineup from A to Z. From a fan's standpoint, I want to see great games no matter who I'm watching, and hope the Wolverines can take all their skills and deliver consistent top notch play.
North might have to win out against the 5A MWL teams to earn first place in the 5A MWL. Churchill could lose a 5A MWL game and then beat North in the second to last game of league play to own the tie breaker. More importantly, these two teams need to win the majority of their games against all 6A and 5A schools to grab high seeds for the Southern Region play-in games.. North is currently 6th and Churchill 7th in the Southern Division.
6A Special District #1
Unlike 5A, the 6A league standings actually mean a lot. In the 5A level, 4 of 36 teams will not get to play a play in game based on their RPI, no matter where they finish in league. At the 6A, all 43 teams continue to play on, but a team can by pass the play-in games by doing well in district. The top three teams in Special District 1 get an automatic berth into the 32 team bracket.
There are only 7 league games in SD#1, so these guys are about halfway finished.
Thurston 3-0
South Eugene 2-1
Sheldon 2-2
Redmond 1-1
Grant 1-3
Lincoln 0-2
That looks good for the old MWL teams, but Sheldon has to play South Eugene and Thurston again, as well as Redmond. Redmond has two games left with 0-2 Lincoln.... Sheldon and South don't have any 6A action this week, so they'll have to hope that Thurston dumps Lincoln Wednesday and Redmond @ Redmond on Saturday. It'll be interesting to see how the Colts line up their pitching this week against North Eugene, Lincoln and Redmond.
The Colts will be fortunate if they can continue to run the gauntlet through Monday the 30th. Who set up this schedule? North Eugene today. Lincoln twice on Wednesday. Redmond in Redmond on Saturday for two games. South Eugene at home on Monday. I wish we had cable tv for this string of games.
South Eugene has some pitching decisions coming up - at Thurston next Monday, at Sheldon on Wednesday and another 6A away game at Redmond on Saturday. Actually, the Redmond trip is a double header with just the first game counting in league.
The Irish have the least pitching planning to do. They don't have a 6A game before or after the May 2 game against South. If the Irish beat South, they then can choose whether to throw their ace against Thurston on a Tuesday or Redmond on Friday, the last game currently scheduled in the Irish regular season.
But this is baseball and the standings are likely to look way different by the time Sheldon plays Thurston. So I wouldn't put a lot of time worrying about pitching match ups right now. However, it would be fun to see a Watson - Nielsen matchup in Thurston's last 6A league game of the season with a lot on the line.
Monday, April 23, 2012
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
2 Week Full Moon over Baseball Fields
Last week I wrote about some oddities I saw on the baseball fields as the April full moon approached. I'm not sure that the full moon is over.... Marshfield won it's first league game since May 3rd of 2010. Marist beat North Eugene 11-5 after losing to Churchil 12-1 last Friday (the 13th). And Willamette got the full moon hex, which I'll explain later.
I've seen several really good games since last Monday (the 9th). A lot of that was due to seeing some of the best pitchers in state and some of the MWL # 2's coming through with superb efforts. After so many good games, I was going to write about the little things in baseball. Most of the games I watched were close and the little things were costly; like a first baseman not coming off the bag after holding a man on first and the subsequent grounder ten feet away from first base going into right field. But there are too many wonderful team storylines to cover, so let's look at the developing storylines as we are about halfway into the regular season.
Thurston at 11-0
My pre-pre season pick to have a cakewalk through the hybrid league. I later backed off due to a season ending injury to Aaron Clift and predicted the Colts would still be the best MWL team, but not as easily as I originally thought. And, in fact, it hasn't been a cakewalk.
The Colts last four MWL league wins have been by 1, 2, 3 and 3 runs. Still, we're not playing horseshoes, and opponents being close doesn't show up in the loss column. It's good for the Colts to know that they can consistently win the close ones.
The Colts batters can go deep and the Colts can play smart small ball. Thurston small ball success is as much attitude as it is the speed that can be found in many of the Colts, especially the 1-2 hitters, Aaron Hoover and Joey Urness. Kyle Watson is stroking the ball at the three spot, Goddard is in form as cleanup hitter. Shane Quarterly and Hunter Combs had some big hits in the 5-2 win over Churchill.
The Colts fielding is excellent as always. Kyle Watson continues to pitch masterfully - he isn't overpowering the hitters and striking out a dozen a game, but pop ups and grounders are about all that come off of the other teams bats.
Can the Colts get through the regular season without a loss? Depends on the match-ups. Churchill's number 2 pitcher Jordan Thompson had the Colts corralled for five innings for a 1-1 tie while the Colts were throwing Watty. Would Churchill have won with Lessel on the mound? Or if Thurston had thrown their number two?
Can the Colts go deep into the state playoffs? There's no reason to think they can't. The critical week of the playoffs is the Monday-Wednesday-Friday first week. Most teams throw their Aces on Monday and Friday. If there are no rainouts, the aces can go again the next week for Tuesday semi's and Saturday finals - it's been done. It's that Wednesday game of the first week that tests a team's number two pitcher. I think Thurston has the balance of a good pitching staff, good fielding and good bats that they can advance to at least the semi's. Just gotta hope they don't get seeded against a superman pitcher.
Churchill
I saw Churchill twice in the past week. They are looking tough. Almost a clone of the Colts, just less speed on the bases. Like Thurston, the staff ace is a lefty with a great pickoff move - Jake Lessel. Lessel doesn't need to use his pickoff move too often as he tends to sit down ten or so batters via strikeouts each game. If Jordan Thompson's pitching performance against Thurston is indicative of Thompsons's ability, coach Hoberg is happy. Once Thompson settled in, it was mostly ground ball outs for Thurston as Thompson held the Colts to 1 run through five innings.
I don't think of Churchill as a bunch of speedsters and maybe they don't need to be. Chase Kearney and Jake Dezarn provide the wallop at the plate. But more importantly, the Lancers are trained to play small ball. If you can lay down sac bunts and pull off the hit and run, you don't have to be stealing bases all of the time.
Defensively, the Lancers are very good as always, and it was nice to be entertained by Andy Arruda's circus catch in the Thurston game.
Can Churchill sweep the 5A MWL teams? Why not? Hopefully, we'll get to see a Lessel-Moore matchup Wednesday at Churchill. I'm thinking that both pitchers will shut down the other team and the game will ride on which team's defense has a critical breakdown. I'm leaning towards Churchill for this game as I think North is still gelling on defense.
Can Churchill go deep into the state playoffs? I say yes, and I think seeing so much good pitching in the hybrid MWL is a great advantage for our better teams.
Willamette
The Wolverines were victimized by the lengthy full moon hex. What else could explain facing Lessel, Moore and Nielsen in three out of the last four games? Shouldn't the league give each team one 'Can't Pitch This Guy' token, so teams can use it to avoid a relentless stretch like that? Hey, at least Thurston didn't throw Watty at them.
Look for the Wolverines to get back in the groove after recently playing Churchill, North, Thurston and Sheldon. The Wolverines will tackle 6-6 Crescent Valley before hosting South Eugene. Will the full moon hex extend to South's Joe Schindler?
Willamette bats are still trying to find their way after losing Cole Hathaway to a season ending injury.
Marist
I came home from the Marist - Churchill game last week and told my wife I had just seen the weirdest thing. Marist made a bunch of bizzaro errors. Not stupid bonehead errors - just weird. Like the pitcher fielding a bunt and with all the time in the world to tag the runner, tags the runner only to see the ball fly out of his mitt. Then the shortstop gathers in a big bouncer with a huge handle, only to toss the ball behind himself instead of towards first. It just kept going until the Spartans walked away after the loss. My wife said, "Are you sure the full moon is over?"
Then I wake up Sunday morning and read that Marist went 9 innings at North Medford before losing 4-3. Hunh? Imports? Ringers?
Then I get home Monday night and the OSAA scoreboard says Marist has beaten North Eugene 11-5.
What's going on? I don't know, but I'm guessing that Marist might be starting to gel after losing parttime baseballer/trackster Austin Baird to track fulltime. With the infield reset, the lads can get the experience they need. Pitcher Malik Evans is good for several wins and I think Grant Jamieson and Josh White can keep them in games as they head into the second half of the season. I think the Spartans are going to cause trouble for a few more teams besides North. By the way, I've been looking at Evans as mostly a pitcher, but he had a great battle against Lessel and went 3-5 in the win over North.
North Eugene
Wax on, wax off. Bats on, bats off. After 12 run outings against Springfield and South, North's bats have cooled off. Andrew Moore pitched the Highlander's past Willamette's Trent Waggoner in a great 3-1 game last week. North then scratched out just one run against Sheldon's Taylor Allie. Not a good trend.
And maybe... Defense on, defense off. North gave up just 1.4 runs per game in 7 pre hybrid league games. But they've given up 5.2 runs a game in league.
Big game against Churchill tomorrow (Wednesday). The Lancers have been better than North as of late. North needs the win to avoid a three game losing streak. Hopefully, it'll be Lessel versus Moore.
South Eugene
South is currently ranked #9 in the OSAA RPI ratings. They are going to need to sweep their next four games if they want to stay up in the ratings. RPI hinges a lot on your opponents record and South's next opponents are Marist (3-7), Willamette (6-6) , Grants Pass (5-8) and Springfield (1-8). Will the Axemen be mean to Willamette (who has faced the league's aces over and over) and hold Schindler for the Wolverines on Friday? Or will the Axemen try and stop Marist's surge with Schindler on Wednesday?
In any event, South is trying to sneak through the regular season unnoticed, but I'm not letting that happen. The Axemen are fine even when Schindler isn't on the mound because they can use Cameron Jack and Alec Wechtawski.
I like South's defense. The Axemen have been holding most teams to 1 or 2 runs in games that really count in their quest to place high in 6A special district 1. South beat Sheldon 2-1 and Lincoln 12-2. Thurston's big bats got to South for 7 runs in a 7-5 Colt win. That's not too bad for a worst case scenario.
Sheldon
The Irish lost two games that were called due to rain after Sheldon had taken the lead or put runners in a postion to tie. If those games had gone Sheldon's way, the Irish would be 9-4 rather than 7-6, and in second place in the 6A special district. Instead, #13 Sheldon is tied for fourth and trying to catch #10 Redmond for third in the league.
Close games haven't been unusual for Sheldon. The Irish have been caught up in 7 games decided by just 1 or 2 runs. They've lost four of those.
Sheldon's defense has been good almost the entire season, giving up just 3.2 runs per game. The teams that put the ball in play - Churchill and Thurston - took 7-5 and 5-4 victories from Sheldon. Those aren't insurmountable numbers and those are winnable games if the offense gets in gear.
Offensively, Sheldon likes to score four to six runs a game. I'd think Sheldon would be scoring more because they have the sticks and speed to put up good numbers. Maybe last night's 10-0 win over Willamette is a good omen for Irish bats.
Marshfield and Springfield
Both teams are 1-8. Marshfield's win is over Springfield 9-7. Springfield beat Marist 6-5. They can look to Marist's recent success for inspiration.
I've seen several really good games since last Monday (the 9th). A lot of that was due to seeing some of the best pitchers in state and some of the MWL # 2's coming through with superb efforts. After so many good games, I was going to write about the little things in baseball. Most of the games I watched were close and the little things were costly; like a first baseman not coming off the bag after holding a man on first and the subsequent grounder ten feet away from first base going into right field. But there are too many wonderful team storylines to cover, so let's look at the developing storylines as we are about halfway into the regular season.
Thurston at 11-0
The Colts last four MWL league wins have been by 1, 2, 3 and 3 runs. Still, we're not playing horseshoes, and opponents being close doesn't show up in the loss column. It's good for the Colts to know that they can consistently win the close ones.
The Colts batters can go deep and the Colts can play smart small ball. Thurston small ball success is as much attitude as it is the speed that can be found in many of the Colts, especially the 1-2 hitters, Aaron Hoover and Joey Urness. Kyle Watson is stroking the ball at the three spot, Goddard is in form as cleanup hitter. Shane Quarterly and Hunter Combs had some big hits in the 5-2 win over Churchill.
The Colts fielding is excellent as always. Kyle Watson continues to pitch masterfully - he isn't overpowering the hitters and striking out a dozen a game, but pop ups and grounders are about all that come off of the other teams bats.
Can the Colts get through the regular season without a loss? Depends on the match-ups. Churchill's number 2 pitcher Jordan Thompson had the Colts corralled for five innings for a 1-1 tie while the Colts were throwing Watty. Would Churchill have won with Lessel on the mound? Or if Thurston had thrown their number two?
Can the Colts go deep into the state playoffs? There's no reason to think they can't. The critical week of the playoffs is the Monday-Wednesday-Friday first week. Most teams throw their Aces on Monday and Friday. If there are no rainouts, the aces can go again the next week for Tuesday semi's and Saturday finals - it's been done. It's that Wednesday game of the first week that tests a team's number two pitcher. I think Thurston has the balance of a good pitching staff, good fielding and good bats that they can advance to at least the semi's. Just gotta hope they don't get seeded against a superman pitcher.
Churchill
I don't think of Churchill as a bunch of speedsters and maybe they don't need to be. Chase Kearney and Jake Dezarn provide the wallop at the plate. But more importantly, the Lancers are trained to play small ball. If you can lay down sac bunts and pull off the hit and run, you don't have to be stealing bases all of the time.
Defensively, the Lancers are very good as always, and it was nice to be entertained by Andy Arruda's circus catch in the Thurston game.
Can Churchill sweep the 5A MWL teams? Why not? Hopefully, we'll get to see a Lessel-Moore matchup Wednesday at Churchill. I'm thinking that both pitchers will shut down the other team and the game will ride on which team's defense has a critical breakdown. I'm leaning towards Churchill for this game as I think North is still gelling on defense.
Can Churchill go deep into the state playoffs? I say yes, and I think seeing so much good pitching in the hybrid MWL is a great advantage for our better teams.
Willamette
Look for the Wolverines to get back in the groove after recently playing Churchill, North, Thurston and Sheldon. The Wolverines will tackle 6-6 Crescent Valley before hosting South Eugene. Will the full moon hex extend to South's Joe Schindler?
Willamette bats are still trying to find their way after losing Cole Hathaway to a season ending injury.
Marist
Then I wake up Sunday morning and read that Marist went 9 innings at North Medford before losing 4-3. Hunh? Imports? Ringers?
Then I get home Monday night and the OSAA scoreboard says Marist has beaten North Eugene 11-5.
What's going on? I don't know, but I'm guessing that Marist might be starting to gel after losing parttime baseballer/trackster Austin Baird to track fulltime. With the infield reset, the lads can get the experience they need. Pitcher Malik Evans is good for several wins and I think Grant Jamieson and Josh White can keep them in games as they head into the second half of the season. I think the Spartans are going to cause trouble for a few more teams besides North. By the way, I've been looking at Evans as mostly a pitcher, but he had a great battle against Lessel and went 3-5 in the win over North.
North Eugene
And maybe... Defense on, defense off. North gave up just 1.4 runs per game in 7 pre hybrid league games. But they've given up 5.2 runs a game in league.
Big game against Churchill tomorrow (Wednesday). The Lancers have been better than North as of late. North needs the win to avoid a three game losing streak. Hopefully, it'll be Lessel versus Moore.
South Eugene
In any event, South is trying to sneak through the regular season unnoticed, but I'm not letting that happen. The Axemen are fine even when Schindler isn't on the mound because they can use Cameron Jack and Alec Wechtawski.
I like South's defense. The Axemen have been holding most teams to 1 or 2 runs in games that really count in their quest to place high in 6A special district 1. South beat Sheldon 2-1 and Lincoln 12-2. Thurston's big bats got to South for 7 runs in a 7-5 Colt win. That's not too bad for a worst case scenario.
Sheldon
Close games haven't been unusual for Sheldon. The Irish have been caught up in 7 games decided by just 1 or 2 runs. They've lost four of those.
Sheldon's defense has been good almost the entire season, giving up just 3.2 runs per game. The teams that put the ball in play - Churchill and Thurston - took 7-5 and 5-4 victories from Sheldon. Those aren't insurmountable numbers and those are winnable games if the offense gets in gear.
Offensively, Sheldon likes to score four to six runs a game. I'd think Sheldon would be scoring more because they have the sticks and speed to put up good numbers. Maybe last night's 10-0 win over Willamette is a good omen for Irish bats.
Marshfield and Springfield
Monday, April 9, 2012
Full Moon, Red Heads and Lefties
Baseball probably has more lefties than any other sport. And if you've coached baseball, you know about 80 per cent of them are loony, hence the phrase 'loony-lefty'. There are some cerebral lefties, but they play chess.
Red heads seem to come in the fair skinned, quiet type or the wacky baseball type.
Full moons tend to produce odd behavior in certain people. Just ask a policeman or school principal.
So I wasn't too surprised as Full Moon Friday approached when I saw a red headed, left handed baseball player launch himself like a javelin towards second base at the North-Springfield game. And like a javelin, he stuck in the mud with his legs sticking up in the air.
As you can imagine, the North Eugene player, Dillon Hudson, was mighty sore from his "javelin" slide. The umps called a lengthy time out to see if he was all in one piece, and finally Dillon carried on from second base. After the game, coaches Nicholsen and Haxby tried to convince me that Dillon's unusual slide was just some leftover energy from playing on wet artificial turf over Spring Break. The coaches said the guys were having fun on the wet turf and sliding twenty feet or more, like they were on a Slip-N-Slide, sometimes going right by the bags. I said, "No way, if Dillon impaled himself on artificial turn like that, he would have torn a hole in it, and North would have had to pay to repair it."
Then out of the corner of my eye, I saw it. The speedy Hudson is an entrepreneur.
Red heads seem to come in the fair skinned, quiet type or the wacky baseball type.
Full moons tend to produce odd behavior in certain people. Just ask a policeman or school principal.
So I wasn't too surprised as Full Moon Friday approached when I saw a red headed, left handed baseball player launch himself like a javelin towards second base at the North-Springfield game. And like a javelin, he stuck in the mud with his legs sticking up in the air.
As you can imagine, the North Eugene player, Dillon Hudson, was mighty sore from his "javelin" slide. The umps called a lengthy time out to see if he was all in one piece, and finally Dillon carried on from second base. After the game, coaches Nicholsen and Haxby tried to convince me that Dillon's unusual slide was just some leftover energy from playing on wet artificial turf over Spring Break. The coaches said the guys were having fun on the wet turf and sliding twenty feet or more, like they were on a Slip-N-Slide, sometimes going right by the bags. I said, "No way, if Dillon impaled himself on artificial turn like that, he would have torn a hole in it, and North would have had to pay to repair it."
Then out of the corner of my eye, I saw it. The speedy Hudson is an entrepreneur.
Hudson must not be a loony-lefty after all. He's a smart business guy. His business cards say "Slide with Style". Anyway, after that performance I just had to go back to Swede on the totally Full Moon Friday and watch Hudson slide. Sure enough, he pulled off some pop up slides with flair, but I didn't see my favorite, the 'javelin'. However, I left early, so maybe he pulled it off one more time....
RPI, District Standings and Pitching Match-Ups
You all know by now that my 9 team MWL league standing is a hoax. There won't be a 9 team MLW champion crowned, mainly because there won't be a complete double round robin among all teams. The 6A teams won't be playing Marshfield, while all of the 5A MWL teams will. And there won't be any pressure for the 6A MWL teams to reschedule games against the 5A MWL teams. So, who knows how many MWL games will be played.
But there's pride out there and who doesn't want to know who the best team is among the old MWL group? That's why I'm still tracking the nine teams. And we can all calculate percentages -- right?
5A MWL Standings. Ironically the 5A standings don't really count for much. A team can win the league, but get a lower seed for the playoffs because of a lower RPI. This has happened in other sports this school year.
6A Special District Standings. These standings count for quite a bit. The top three finishes in SD6 (Sheldon, South, Thurston, Grant, Lincoln, Redmond) get an automatic berth into the 32 team bracket. The bottom three league teams play a play in game to get to the round of 32. ANDDDD.... it's possible that a team that wins a play-in game gets a higher seed than an automatically placed team because the play-in winner has a higher RPI than the automatic team. Don't you just love it...
But worst of all, the RPI driven world with Special Districts is messing up awesome pitching match ups in our local area. By all rights I should have seen Joe Schindler and Andrew Moore face up last Friday. In a way, they did.... at shortstop. (Moore won this one with a stellar defensive day at short and slapped the ball around quite a bit at the plate.) I didn't get to see the dream match up because South coach Chris Vermeer wisely held back Schindler for a next day Special District league counting game in Portland.
MWL fans usually see two or three true studs pitching league games in a year, and you get a couple of head to head matches. I'm lucky, because I don't follow one school, so I can choose to see great match ups when ever I want.
But this year, my goodness. Moore, Schindler, Lessel, Nielsen, and Watson were all potential or proven upper shelf starters before this season began and they have delivered as hoped. (Three of these men are juniors) Then you've got Waggoner, Molzahn, and Evans who all have the ability to throw sterling games and certainly have at times. So we should be seeing a ton of great head to head match ups, but it's not going to happen often because of those weird Thursday/Saturday Special District games. Let's hope the leagues can work out something else next year. Schindler, Nielsen, Watson, Molzahn and Evans will all be back and I haven't even waded into some of the really good number two's and relievers who will return.
That rant leads me to think of some of my blogs over the past few years about how the programs and facilities have been improving locally and we have the hardware to prove it. State Champs - Thurston '09, North '10. Runner-ups Churchill '07, Thurston '08
Thoughts Week of Apri 1 - 7
Marshfield. Better than their 0-7 recored indicates. Marshfield's Doug Molzahn pitched a great game against Willamette last Thursday. The Pirates had a tidy 2-1 lead after three and a half innings, but Willamette's bats got hot for just one inning, and the Pirate ship was down 7-2. The Pirate defense was good except for a few critical overthrows of cutoff men in the big six run Wolverine fourth.
Willamette. 3-0 in league with wins over Marist, Marshfield and Springfield. Next up... Churchill and North Eugene. The Wolverine offense took a big hit when they lost the torrid hitting of Cole Hathaway to a broken wrist. Someone has to step up to replace Cole or Willamette's pitching staff is going to have to suck it up.
Thurston. I don't want to get accused of writing too much and too favorably about the Colts (like I get accused of writing too much about Marist in football). However, the record speaks for itself. Thurston is 8-0, has beaten MWL teams 12 straight games and has great balance among their hitting, speed, defense and pitching. Plus, I've written a lot about the new 'soft' bats. That was before Watson and Goddard jacked out back to backers.
Sheldon. Back to the wall in the 6A Special District. An early season 5 inning 2-1 loss to the Axemen and last Friday's 5-4 loss to Thurston really hurts. The Irish only get one league counting game against Grant, Lincoln and Redmond, so they better sweep those and pick off either South or Thurston the next time around. I don't know what the tiebreaker is for the bizzaro 6A Special District, but I don't think Sheldon wants to be tied up for third.
North. The last thing I wrote about the Highlanders was how anemic their offense was. Then they score 12 in back to back games. Go figure. Key game with Willamette this week, but North doesn't have Churchill until the following week.
South. These guys are sneaking up on people. It didn't help the Axemen to have four games in three days, starting with a thrilling 3-2 win over Churchill. That was okay, but South kind of punted against North in a 12-2 loss on Friday, before winning a very key league game in Portland Saturday against Lincoln. South closed the week with a 10-9 loss to Lincoln in the back end of a double header, but the game didn't count in the Special District standings. I really like South's potential. I think they have the talent and they just need experience and games under their belts. If the Axemen continue to develop their number two starter and primary reliever, then South might go deeper in the playoffs than anyone is thinking right now.
Churchill. Some people are thinking, 'Well, the Lancers are only 4-4 on the season.' I'm thinking, "Yeah, but...' Three of those losses were in Arizona. Back at the ranch in Oregon, the Lancers pounded Siuslaw 15-5 for the Vikings only loss in 7 games. The Lancers own a 7-5 win over Sheldon and barely lost to South 3-2. I haven't seen Churchill this year, but I hope to tonight at Willamette (Monday). I'm still confident that it'll be Churchill or North for the 5A MWL title with Willamette knocking on the door trying to be let in.
Marist and Springfield. When I go to a ballpark, I usually have my eye on the players. But when I watch these two teams this year, I've got my eye on the head coaches. How they approach their newbies after graduating a ton of seniors is going to determine whether they develop this year, next year, or never.....
MWL in College and Pros
Thanks to those who have helped update and correct my lists. I only know of one player in the pros this year. Let me know if you know of others. Plus there's a nice article about Dan Straily's journey to the pros.
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
I was really looking forward to a low scoring game between North Eugene and Thurston Monday night. I was happy to see two of the league's best pitchers, Andrew Moore and Kyle Watson, warming up when I showed up at the park.
My thinking was that Moore is one of the few MWL pitchers who can keep Thurston's big bats in check and keep the game to a 1-0 or 2-1 final score. Well, it wasn't the Colt big bats or Moore's dominance that keynoted the game.
Thurston used some of their abundant speed to garner two infield hits to begin the game. Add in a Highlander error and a really high hard one to the backstop by Moore and the Colts had a 3-0 lead without breaking out the bats. I started thinking what probably everyone was thinking.... North getting four runs off of Watson is very unlikely. Indeed, North wasn't knocking Watson around. The Highlanders really had only one chance to close the gap on Thurston, but Watson induced a ground ball double play with a man on third to end the inning.
Thurston took advantage of more North miscues in the fifth to break the game open. Thurston never hit Moore hard, but with the Colts up 5-0 in the top of the fifth, it was time to save Moore for another day. Thurston scored two more before the end of the fifth to take a commanding 7-0 lead. Thurston started hitting the ball harder off of relievers Kevin Haase and Jordan Barrett. But as often happens, crisp well hit balls are easy to play when hit right at the fielders
So now I've seen three MWL teams in this rain soaked spring. Marist, Thurston and North.
Thurston thoughts.....
The Colts have been scoring a lot of runs, but I didn't think they'd be bashing the ball off of Moore - and they didn't. However, they did put the ball in play and good things happen when you're hitting the ball.
Lot's of familiar last names in this line up.
Start with some speed at the top of the order in Aaron Hoover and Joey Urness. Cover those two for base stealing with left handed Watty batting third. Clean up the bases with catcher Jarren Goddard. Stefan Drake was 2-4 on the day. Familiar names all. Kyler Ridge, who had a good day in the infield, had two good at bats in the latter half of the game. And coach Dube must think pinch runner Tyler Van Damme has wheels. Van Damme worked his way around the bases in the fifth, eventually scoring on a sac fly. Aaron Clift didn't play and word is he is waiting for some MRI results. Clift is a big piece of the Colts. The Colts will still do very well in the 9 team Faux MWL without him if he can't continue, but the road to Keizer gets much tougher without him. Let's hope he can play.
Defensively, with Watty on the mound and Goddard behind the plate, the Colts have to feel great. They performed as expected, but I was really impressed by the way the Thurston infielder's played the conditions (long, moist infield grass) and managed the base runners. Kyler Ridge (#8) and Hunter Combs (#18) read the long grass perfectly and made several good plays on slow rollers/bouncers. They also made good decisions on when not to force the double play.
Nothing spectacular in the outfield by either team. But maybe there won't be spectacular outfield plays this year. I don't think I've seen a ball go past about 280 feet. I'm expecting the outfielders to start playing a lot of the batters at about 175 feet with these magic bats.
North Eugene thoughts...
North is trying to replace a lot of players off of last year's starting roster. With seven games under their cleats prior to the Thurston game (and a 5-2 record), I thought they'd be a little tighter defensively than they showed Monday afternoon. That said, the Highlanders will be in fine shape in the official MWL 5A league race. I can't see the other 5A teams getting by Moore and Toby Woods, with the possible exceptions of Churchill when Jake Lessel is pitching for the Lancers and perhaps Willamette if Trent Waggoner is on.
It was hard to get a read on North's bats because they were facing Watson. But after eight games, the Highlanders are averaging less than three runs per game. I'm guessing Willamette and Churchill like the sound of that, as both teams have two ten-plus run games already in this young season.
Defensively, the Highlanders had trouble with the long grass and the speed of the Colts. But North probably had fewer problems then most 5A teams would have had against Thurston. It's a compliment to the North program that they can lose several players who could have come back and yet still be at the top part of the 5A pack.
I think that North will get better and better on defense, and if they don't start hitting soon, coach Nicholsen will probably call one of his famous night batting practice sessions.
New bat thoughts....
Until I see the ball exploding off of some bats, I'm not playing as deep as last year in the infield or outfield.
Baseball Northwest Player Prospects
Everyone knows I'm pumped about this year's pitchers. The March publication by Baseball Northwest reinforces my pumped-up-ness. Three top ten players (all pitchers in the class of 2013)
Super Class of 2012 (Entire Northwest)
# 34 Andrew Moore
Oregon Class of 2012
5 Andrew Moore
16 Jake Lessel
22 Joey Urness
26 Jarren Goddard
28 Toby Woods
29 Ryan Land
Watchlist
Aaron Hoover
Chase Kearney
Max Morrison
Oregon Class of 2013
2 Brett Nielsen
3 Joe Schindler
6 Cooper Stiles
16 Malik Evans
18 Austin Baird
19 Kyle Watson
25 Ryan Delaney
Watchlist
Scott Kuvaas
Gaje McDaniel
Doug Molzahn
Shane Quarterly
Dustin Smith
Wyatt Swick
Jordan Thompson
Oregon Class of 2014
6 Aaron Clift
17 Cameron Jack
21 Gauge Hallett
Watchlist
David Bellamy
Jimmy Grossman
Oregon 2015 Watchlist
Hank Forrest
This link will take you to Baseball Northwest.
Housekeeping...
My thinking was that Moore is one of the few MWL pitchers who can keep Thurston's big bats in check and keep the game to a 1-0 or 2-1 final score. Well, it wasn't the Colt big bats or Moore's dominance that keynoted the game.
Thurston used some of their abundant speed to garner two infield hits to begin the game. Add in a Highlander error and a really high hard one to the backstop by Moore and the Colts had a 3-0 lead without breaking out the bats. I started thinking what probably everyone was thinking.... North getting four runs off of Watson is very unlikely. Indeed, North wasn't knocking Watson around. The Highlanders really had only one chance to close the gap on Thurston, but Watson induced a ground ball double play with a man on third to end the inning.
Thurston took advantage of more North miscues in the fifth to break the game open. Thurston never hit Moore hard, but with the Colts up 5-0 in the top of the fifth, it was time to save Moore for another day. Thurston scored two more before the end of the fifth to take a commanding 7-0 lead. Thurston started hitting the ball harder off of relievers Kevin Haase and Jordan Barrett. But as often happens, crisp well hit balls are easy to play when hit right at the fielders
So now I've seen three MWL teams in this rain soaked spring. Marist, Thurston and North.
Thurston thoughts.....
The Colts have been scoring a lot of runs, but I didn't think they'd be bashing the ball off of Moore - and they didn't. However, they did put the ball in play and good things happen when you're hitting the ball.
Lot's of familiar last names in this line up.
Nothing spectacular in the outfield by either team. But maybe there won't be spectacular outfield plays this year. I don't think I've seen a ball go past about 280 feet. I'm expecting the outfielders to start playing a lot of the batters at about 175 feet with these magic bats.North Eugene thoughts...
North is trying to replace a lot of players off of last year's starting roster. With seven games under their cleats prior to the Thurston game (and a 5-2 record), I thought they'd be a little tighter defensively than they showed Monday afternoon. That said, the Highlanders will be in fine shape in the official MWL 5A league race. I can't see the other 5A teams getting by Moore and Toby Woods, with the possible exceptions of Churchill when Jake Lessel is pitching for the Lancers and perhaps Willamette if Trent Waggoner is on.
It was hard to get a read on North's bats because they were facing Watson. But after eight games, the Highlanders are averaging less than three runs per game. I'm guessing Willamette and Churchill like the sound of that, as both teams have two ten-plus run games already in this young season.
Defensively, the Highlanders had trouble with the long grass and the speed of the Colts. But North probably had fewer problems then most 5A teams would have had against Thurston. It's a compliment to the North program that they can lose several players who could have come back and yet still be at the top part of the 5A pack.
I think that North will get better and better on defense, and if they don't start hitting soon, coach Nicholsen will probably call one of his famous night batting practice sessions.
New bat thoughts....
Until I see the ball exploding off of some bats, I'm not playing as deep as last year in the infield or outfield.
Baseball Northwest Player Prospects
Everyone knows I'm pumped about this year's pitchers. The March publication by Baseball Northwest reinforces my pumped-up-ness. Three top ten players (all pitchers in the class of 2013)
Super Class of 2012 (Entire Northwest)
# 34 Andrew Moore
Oregon Class of 2012
5 Andrew Moore
16 Jake Lessel
22 Joey Urness
26 Jarren Goddard
28 Toby Woods
29 Ryan Land
Watchlist
Aaron Hoover
Chase Kearney
Max Morrison
Oregon Class of 2013
2 Brett Nielsen
3 Joe Schindler
6 Cooper Stiles
16 Malik Evans
18 Austin Baird
19 Kyle Watson
25 Ryan Delaney
Watchlist
Scott Kuvaas
Gaje McDaniel
Doug Molzahn
Shane Quarterly
Dustin Smith
Wyatt Swick
Jordan Thompson
Oregon Class of 2014
6 Aaron Clift
17 Cameron Jack
21 Gauge Hallett
Watchlist
David Bellamy
Jimmy Grossman
Oregon 2015 Watchlist
Hank Forrest
This link will take you to Baseball Northwest.
Housekeeping...
- Just a reminder that you can help with the former MWL players in college and the pros. Here's the link to the college list so far. 26 players so far.
- The only MWL player I think is still on a roster is Dan Straily with the Oakland organization. Please let me know if you know of others.
- Link to my Twitter page so you can get the scores of the game I attend. You can also text me with the score of the game you attend. 337-1311
- Link to my MWL Facebook page.
- If you would like to email me game recaps or line scores, pitching lines etc, please do at mwlnow@yahoo.com. I usually get electronic recaps from South and Sheldon and a coaches recap from Willamette. A good way to get some ink is to recap the game you attend:)
Monday, April 2, 2012
MWL players in college 2012
It's looking sunny this afternoon. I plan on going to the Thurston at North Eugene game today....
Many of you know I intended to close down the website to make way for a new official league website. When I took the site down for awhile, I lost some of my files, one of which was the popular 'MWL College Players' page. I've quickly put one together for spring of 2012.
I've found 25 players so far. Four schools have at least four players on a college roster - Churchill, Marist, North Eugene and Springfield. South Eugene and Thurston have at least three each.
Lane Community College has 7 former MWL'ers on the roster. Linfield has four! Jeff McKay's Corban University team has an Irishman and Miller on the roster. And it looks like the Corban program is on a huge turnaround in the right direction.
Long distance honors go to South's Gus Craig, playing in New York for Columbia. North's Tim Keller has moved south - to Texas A&M at Corpus Christi. South's Spencer Dunlap has tough duty at the U of San Diego. Further north at the University of San Fran, you'll find Marist's Will Swindling.
The Beavers don't have any locals. I guess they are waiting for next year. The Ducks have Churchill's Anthony Kreitz on the roster.
Here's the current list. Let me know if you know of any others.
MWL players in college 2012
(Thanks to Bill Grossman for the South players in college.)
Many of you know I intended to close down the website to make way for a new official league website. When I took the site down for awhile, I lost some of my files, one of which was the popular 'MWL College Players' page. I've quickly put one together for spring of 2012.
I've found 25 players so far. Four schools have at least four players on a college roster - Churchill, Marist, North Eugene and Springfield. South Eugene and Thurston have at least three each.
Lane Community College has 7 former MWL'ers on the roster. Linfield has four! Jeff McKay's Corban University team has an Irishman and Miller on the roster. And it looks like the Corban program is on a huge turnaround in the right direction.
Long distance honors go to South's Gus Craig, playing in New York for Columbia. North's Tim Keller has moved south - to Texas A&M at Corpus Christi. South's Spencer Dunlap has tough duty at the U of San Diego. Further north at the University of San Fran, you'll find Marist's Will Swindling.
The Beavers don't have any locals. I guess they are waiting for next year. The Ducks have Churchill's Anthony Kreitz on the roster.
Here's the current list. Let me know if you know of any others.
MWL players in college 2012
(Thanks to Bill Grossman for the South players in college.)
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