Chris Fetter was drafted by the San Diego Padres with the 264th pick, 3rd in the 9th round. This is a little further down than expected, but not too far.

In recruiting news, Daniel Fields of University of Detroit Jesuit was picked by the Tigers at #180, the middle of the 6th round. I wouldn’t be surprised if he went with the Tigers as the 6th round is pretty respectable, and it is the Tigers who drafted him, which may or may not influence the decision.

Dennis went in the 10th round to the Rays, so there is a good chance he could end up in Ann Arbor. It’ll be a wait and see situation. (Andrew@EC, I’ll get your comment approved by Tim or Paul soon enough.)

The last prospect we’re watching is Patrick Biondi. He’s still undrafted as of 2:05pm (late in round 13). That may bode well, too.

I’ll update if I hear anything else. There’s a chance Dufek or Katzman may go in the VERY late rounds, but I don’t think they’re any chance of defection.

Posted under Baseball, Recruiting

Derek Dennis as taken by Phil Niekerk

Via The Grand Rapid Press, Michigan is close to signing Forest Hills shortstop Derek Dennis.  Dennis visited this last week, talked with Coach Maloney, Lloyd Carr, John Beilien, and Red Berenson to discuss the benefits of college.  The GRP makes it sound like if he’s not taken in the top 3 rounds, he will forgo signing and come to Michigan.  This may bode well, as if a team suspects he may not sign, he may get drafted even lower, increasing his odds of coming to Ann Arbor.

Shortstop isn’t a huge need as Toth still has two years of eligibility left, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Dennis started working into games as a freshman in the same fashion as Kevin Cislo.  The guy is currently the #6 SS out of high school (#9 overall SS) according to Baseball America.

Second related GRP article

Also, I’m a sucker for great photography of amatuer sports, so go check out more pictures like the on above at Phil’s Pics.

Posted under Baseball, Recruiting

Via MgoBlue:

University of Michigan head baseball coach Rich Maloney announced today (Thursday, May 28) the addition of RHP Ben Ballantine (Napa, Calif./Napa) to the team’s 2009 recruiting class. Ballantine becomes the seventh prep to commit to the program and the first hailing from outside the state of Michigan.

He’s a tall pitcher with the goal of becoming the next Chris Fetter. Solid pickup.

Related Post: Baseball Recruiting: Ben Ballantine

Posted under Baseball, Recruiting

The BigTen released their All BigTen, POTY, and Sportsmanship awards today.  Michigan has a few showing up on the lists.

FIRST TEAM
1B – Mike Dufek, MICH
SP – Chris Fetter, MICH

SECOND TEAM
OF – Ryan LaMarre, MICH

THIRD TEAM
No one

ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM
No one

SPORTSMANSHIP AWARD HONOREES
Kenny Fellows, MICH

I’m don’t think there was anyone who was skipped over in this list.  Lorenz stood no chance against Penn State’s Steranka for All Freshman third basemen.  McLouth had no chance against Freshman of the Year Dickerson of Indiana.  Cislo wasn’t as good this year.  Fellows probably just missed being on the third team. Berset missed too much time and would have needed a strong full campaign to overtake the 3rd team catcher.  None of our pitchers deserve all conference representation.  It was a down year, here’s hoping next year will be better.

I’ll work on getting a end of season post out tomorrow. I’m furiously packing for a trip to New York next week.  I’m also contemplating taking a couple days to float the river north of San Antonio.  So it’s probably good Michigan didn’t make the tournament, I’d be out of posting capabilities for way too long.

Posted under Baseball

We lost to Northwestern 10-6. I just got home from my grandfather’s funeral, so I’m in no position to look anywhere past the score.  We cannot make the BigTen Tournament. The season is now over.  I’ll have some more post over the next week to week and a half looking over the season, including the Northwestern and Minnesota series that I’ve laxed up on the last few days.

Posted under Baseball

Game was washed out this afternoon (Friday).  They’re playing a double header beginning at noon eastern (11am in Evanston).  Illinois got the job done against Purdue as well, keeping Michigan’s BigTen Tournament hopes alive for another day.  We have to sweep and Purdue must lose in order for Michigan to advance.

And as commenter JJ pointed out, Fetter is looking tired.  I picked up on this last week.  His pitch counts have been VERY high compared to his last few seasons.  Instead of 7 inning complete games at best, he’s been throwing into the 8th and 9th innings a lot this season.  I think the fatigue is catching up.  Hopefully he can recover fully for next week (that is, if tomorrow goes well).

Posted under Baseball

The good news is Michigan took game 1 despite Chris Fetter having another rough outing.  The final score was UM 16, NU 6.  Fetter had a way high pitch count but did manage to strike out 9 hitters in 6.2 innings pitched.  The low spot had to be the 6 run 4th inning.

Offensively, the high was the 9 run 7th inning for Michigan.  Dufek had a pair of bombs, six different batters had at least 2 hits.   The NU bullpen was just horrid.

The bad news is out of West Lafayette.  Purdue won 12-5 to decrease their magic number to one.  We must win out and Illinois must take the remaining two games at Purdue in order for Michigan to make the tournament.

As mentioned by Other Chris, NU is streaming a video feed of tomorrows game.  Its pretty crappy feed, but it is available.

Gotta love that chain link fence in the way. And yes, that’s the only camera angle you really get. Occasionally it gets blurry as they move slightly right or left. But its at least available (and for free if you search hard enough).

As I’m headed to Austin now, you can catch my thoughts and a less than play by play at @Varsityblue.  I apologize to those that may consider it twitter spam.  If I ever do it again, I’ll try to do it CiL instead of there.  It was just available at the time.  So deal with it.

Game 2 starts at 4pm EDT tomorrow.  The Purdue/Illinois game should be wrapping up right as Michigan starts.  Hopefully it’ll feature a big L for Purdue.

Go Illini! Go Blue!

Posted under Baseball

Northwestern isn’t really very good at all.  They have a 3-16 BigTen record (12-34-1 overall).  Michigan is playing and praying.  We need Purdue to lose at least two against Illinois at home.  We must take care of Northwestern.  If Purdue wins two we’re done.  If they win one, we must sweep.  If they get swept, we must win 2.  We have to hope the weather works in our favor.  That is all.

Rocky Miller Park
Evanston, IL

Game 1 Thursday:4pm  Live Stats
Probable Starters: Chris Fetter (6-3) vs. TBA

Game 2 Friday: 4pm  Live Stats
Probable Starters: Eric Katzman (7-4) vs. Eric Jokish (3-7)

Game 3 Saturday: 2pm  Live Stats
Probable Starters: TBA vs. Joe Muraski (3-5)

No word on audio.  I’m guessing there may not be any.  I’m headed to Austin today to pick up my little sister and head to a funeral.  I should be back by Sunday to hopefully have a post on making the tournament.  We’ll see.

Posted under Baseball

The first game just started. If you’re in Ann Arbor, make it out to the double header. The second game should start around 6:30pm. If you’re not in Ann Arbor, the game is on WCBN’s stream.  The two announcers are admittedly “not quite into it yet” and “having a tough time here.”  There’s been some less than awesome announcing, but it appears to be getting better here in the 3rd inning.  Live stats are also available, but they added another set of ads to it – a floating blimp between innings and another annoying side bar pop up. Uggh… CBS College Sports, I hate you so much right now.

This is the last home game of the season so make it out before its too late.

Posted under Baseball

Update: I fixed the spelling. Apparently I started the article one way and finished another. It is DiLaura.

from De La Salle's picasa

The newest preferred walk-on to the Michigan baseball team is reported to be John DiLaura.  DiLaura is a catcher for De La Salle Collegiate High School.  I haven’t found much as far as stats on the internet.  The MaxPrep page for De La Salle hasn’t been updated with player stats this year.  So we’re left with just what the report of his preferred walk-on status tells me.

DiLaura is a four-year starter in baseball, the last two as a catcher. This season he’s batting .442 with two home runs.

That sounds pretty solid.  DiLaura had played second base (and occasionally third) before the move to catcher.  I’m not sure where Maloney has him slated in the future lineup.  We recruited 2 catchers last season and we’re unlikely to lose Berset this year.  He may fill the role of Timmy Kal.  The utility player extraordinaire.  Who knows.

Not really important but also interesting is the fact DiLaura is more known for his bowling on campus than his baseball.  He’s been Catholic High School League All-League or Honor list each of the last 3 years.  Impressive.

On a side note, those looking for my recap of Indiana, I had a death in the family yesterday morning, and I just haven’t felt up to it yet.  I’ll get it out when I get to it.  I’ll also be missing most of this weekend’s series due to the funeral.  Don’t expect too much from be between now and then.

Posted under Baseball