For those of you not watching the @VarsityBlue twitter feed and may be cursing BTN for not showing the baseball game, it’s because it was rained out. The tentative schedule is to play two tomorrow starting at 1pm. The first game will be televised live on BTN, the second supposedly will be taped delayed and shown at a later time. I believe there is a softball game slated in the evening that is getting the live airing.

Fetter is still due to start in Game 1.

Posted under Baseball

Continuing the Q&A this week for the Buckeye series.  This time we’ve got Chris from The Buckeye Nine.  Both of us were left scrambling with exams this week, so I don’t have anything on his site, but he was good enough to answer a few of my questions.  He has somewhat of a preview of the series here.   Check out The Buckeye Nine for continuing coverage of Ohio State from the premier team specific BigTen baseball blog.

1)  It’s hard to find the weak link in the Buckeye lineup.  Other than perhaps Engle at short, no one stands out as a weak link.  The only thing that remotely stands out is Stephen’s 7 GDP and 30 Ks in the 3-hole.  Is there something the stats aren’t telling me, or is the Buckeye offense that good?

Two things come to mind immediately when discussing the teams offensive prowess this year. First in 07 and 08 we barely finished in the top 6 of the conference with back-to-back .500 Big Ten seasons. The team in the off season really took it to heart to get Ohio State baseball back to where it should be. Hours in the weight room, in the batting cages, watching film, all were spent to improve they’re playing ability and its showing. Secondly the teams we have had of later have been very young and Coach Todd threw quite a few players into the fire at an early stage. Now you have guys like Kovanda, Dew, Rupert, and  Miller who have 3+ years of experience then Hurley, Arp, and Burkhart are in their second full years and know what is needed to compete in the Big Ten. Just comes down to hard work and experience.

1b) What’s with all the triples?  Twenty-three seems a bit high.  Is this an effect of Bill Davis Stadium, or was this mainly road games?

The triples are a puzzling thing to us as well, we’ve never seen an outburst like this at this stage in the season. The team is only 2 behind the Ohio State record after Miller became the 9^th Buckeye with a triple. BDS has had the same dimensions as always and we usually travel to the same Florida destinations year in and year out. The most logical explanation is the team’s collective speed as vastly improved over the previous years. You have Stephens who transferred in with 5, Hurley has 5 as well and those guys have plenty of speed. Down through the line-up the team has solid speed, which glancing at the stats is overlooked with the low number of stolen bases and attempts but 1-9 the team can run. Now how does Burkhart as a catcher have 3 triples? I can’t explain that.

2)  Jake Hale has 27 appearances in 42 games.  Is this because the rest of the bullpen is struggling, are the Buckeyes just in that many close games, or otherwise?  Why is Hale so dominating?  Velocity? Location? Deceptiveness?

The bullpen at times has struggled, Rucinski along with Hale has quite a few appearances, but the number of games Jake has appeared in I believe comes down to his ability to be a starting pitcher if needed. Coach Todd has shuffled Hale between the pen and rotation every year now trying to get the most out of the big righty. Hale is capable of starting a game and throwing upwards to 130 pitches if needed. I think that allows Jake to say “hey I can go out there twice, even three times a weekend if only for a few outs” and he’s done that, most notably 7.1 innings against Purdue and collecting three saves.

Hale’s dominance stems from the fact he has 5 pitches he has plus control on in a 2 and 4 seem fastball, an overhand curve, a change-up, and a slider. Not many closers have 5 pitches they can go to, but with Jake being a converted starter, he has the numerous pitches in his repertoire. You combine the 5 pitches, with being 6’7 and releasing from an arm angle not many batters are familiar with and it puts him on the favorable side of the match up. He can reach 93 on the heater, which can overwhelm the lesser batters, but the pitches and being able to locate them is what makes him dominant so far.

3)  Similarly, what hope does Michigan have against Wimmers?  I mean yes, we do have Chris Fetter going up against him, but does Wimmers have a weakness?

Wimmers has two glaring weaknesses to me. Which speaks volumes that a sophomore could only have two weaknesses and how solid of a pitcher he has been. The first would be Wimmers has a tendency to get caught up in the moment and perhaps over pitch. He’ll be up 0-2, 1-2 on a hitter and if Burkhart calls for a fastball more than a handful of times will Wimmers send a 91 MPH fastball head high and out of the zone. Just a matter of getting too excited and trying to blow by the hitter.

The other weakness I have picked up on is that though he does a great job of mixing his pitches up during at-bats, he has a few tendencies he follows closely when going batter to batter, especially against lefties. If he’s in the zone and having a great game on the mound he gets caught up in repeating pitch sequences some.

For Michigan to be successful just be patient and pay attention. He doesn’t pitch to contact much, preferring to strike a batter out which is great, fewer chances of balls in play, but it does force him to pitch and be on the mound a bit longer.

4)  The Buckeyes don’t appear to attempt too many steals but are very good about it when they do.  Is there a reason they don’t steal too much?  Do you see them testing Berset behind the plate this weekend, and if so, who should we be watching?

Coach Todd is notorious for not being huge on stealing bases. As mentioned before the team has solid speed throughout which is evident by the triples piling up, but for whatever reason Todd rarely gives the green light to his players. More commonly he will elect to hit and run, which he does a lot, but it is puzzling that more players do not run on the bases.

I doubt at this point, being the 1^st of May that Todd will change anything up and stick to his guns. So Berset shouldn’t be too concerned with what going on on the base paths. Though if Todd does change it up some, the leading candidates to steal or those who posses the ability to do so successfully would be Stephens, Hurley and Kovanda.

5)  What will the atmosphere be like in Columbus this weekend?  How hostile do you project it?  I’m sure the baseball fans are slightly less hostile than football, but I know blood tends to run hot during any sport between the two teams.

The atmosphere should be pretty intense, but respectful. Our crowds here at Ohio State can get into the 2,500-3, 000 range but for the most part it is fairly quite for a crowd of that size. Now it is Michigan obviously and that brings even the most casual fans out, but in terms of hostility, there will surprisingly not be that much. Now everyone is aware of the importance of the series and how it can help Ohio State get back to the elite status in the Big Ten that Michigan has owned of late, so I suspect the crowd will be very supportive of the Buckeyes, but you won’t get too many catcalls or chants form the Scarlet and Gray directed at Fetter or Maloney.

6) More a commentary, but has underlying effects on the game…. As bad as my day was with tests and finals (2 exams, a presentation, and an English final), how bad does it have to be for the student athletes?  I know Michigan is in the middle of finals right now.  Where is OSU in it’s quarter system?  Is it finals yet or no?

Yes Ohio State is on quarters though that is expected to change in 2012 with a switch to semesters. So no it is not finals, but it is the end of week 5 in a 10 week quarter so just replace finals with midterms and we’re on equal footing.

I personally feel that the quarter system works to our advantage during baseball season. People might think I’m nuts and disagree, but I’ve learned athletes are creatures of habit. Our quarter will not end until the first week in June, and by that time it’s the Super Regionals stage. To me it works favorably that players throughout the entire season can know what to expect week to week and be consistent with their practice, class, homework, and game schedule. I had always believe it is a disadvantage for those on semesters once school is done to have nothing but baseball to focus on. Maybe it allows players to hone their skills or spend extra time in the cages, but it would seem like a lot of idle time, and we all know if a player is ever in a slump more times than not he is his worst enemy with the consistent thinking and focusing on it.

7) I assume you’ll be there this weekend?

Yes I will be down at Bill Davis for the three games. Right now it is Friday afternoon and there are scattered showers popping up, nothing more than a 3 minute rain the sun again. Unfortunately it looks like it will be overcast and those attending this weekend will be dodging raindrops. The temperature is expected to be in the mid to upper 60s so hopefully a few thousand Buckeyes can bare the light rain and come out for a great series. I will take that any day over the 2005 conditions which saw a snowstorm hit Ann Arbor canceling the last three games, or 2007 when it was in the mid 40s and breezy.

Thanks to Chris for his comments.  Go Blue.

Posted under Baseball

HATE OHIO STATE

First off, all apologies to the baseball crowd out there.  It’s the last week of classes and the requisite workload accompanying the end of classes.  Nothing says great week like 2 exams, a final presentation, and a final paper all on a Wednesday.  I wrote 14 pages in 3.5 hours – quitting abruptly during the last final because I couldn’t write without a writhing pain in my fingers.  I tried to go southpaw, but it just wasn’t happening.  And what makes this all the better is I get to virtually repeat that day on Monday, so scant posting again this weekend.

DeLucia Striking Out vs Katzman

And now on to the baseball.  Michigan takes on 1st place Ohio State in Columbus tonight, tomorrow, and Sunday.  Ohio State is far and away the highest ranked team in the BigTen.  They enter today’s game with an 11-4 conference record, 32-10* overall, including a win at then #2 Miami. The Buckeyes currently sit #28 in Boyd’s psuedo-RPI and #30 in NCAA.com’s RPI.  We sit at 180 and 184 respectively in those polls.  While I don’t see us taking the series, Since we’re going to sweep the series, we’re going to drop their RPI plenty this weekend and get ours boosted closer to the 100 mark.  I can sense it.

Friday’s (today @7pm) game looks to be the best pitching match up of the BigTen conference season.  The two top pitchers (not to take anything away from Indiana’s Arnett) in the league square off, Chris Fetter for Michigan and Alex Wimmers for Ohio State. Wimmers currently has a 3.14 ERA, good for 8th in the BigTen, but he does lead the conference in strikeouts with 89.  That doesn’t bode well.

The top reliever will also be seen in former starting ace Jake Hale.  Hale’s move to the closer role this year has seen him 27 appearances and 10 saves.  His ERA is only 1.00 and he’s struck out 48 in 36 innings.  That’s ridiculous.

If this game finishes 1-0, don’t be surprised.

Saturday (1pm) should see Dean Wolosiansky start for the Buckeyes.  Wolosiansky is 9-1 with a 5.09 ERA.  If I remember correctly, Dean isn’t an overpowering pitcher, instead living by his location and inducing ground balls.  He only has 37 Ks this season in 53 innings.  He did pitch against Michigan last year, going 6.2 IP and only allowing 2 runs in the Michigan loss.

In that same Michigan loss last year, he was relieved by Eric Best, who is expected to start the Sunday game (1pm).  Best is 6-2 on the season with a 4.93 ERA.  He hasn’t been that dominating this year and has floated in and out of the starter role.  He’s got 14 appearances, only 8 starts.  His last start was last weekend against Northwestern, a loss.

On offense, Ohio State hits and hits well.  They currently have the #31 batting average in D1 at .329.  They lead the BigTen in scoring, runs, hits, batting average, slugging percentage, home runs, and triples.  The only weakness in their lineup appears to be shortstop and third base.  The left side of the infield is held by third baseman Justin Miller (.278 BA) and shortstop Cory Rupert (.272 BA).  Those two are the on regulars batting less than .325 and slugging less than .450.  That’s ridiculous.  I’ll save giving you the stats on the rest of the lineup, just know they hit well.

Ohio State doesn’t run much, but when they try, they are successful (32/41).  Lead off man and left fielder Zach Hurley has the most attempts at 13, 11 times successful.  Three hole hitter Micheal Stephens is second on the team with 9 attempts, 7 successful.

Outlook

This is a tough series for Michigan given not just how good Ohio State is, but also the atmosphere in Columbus.  That said, I think this series is a good match up for Michigan.  Fetter is always reliable for a great start, and Michigan has done well against the top starters from other teams.  The back half of the OSU starting rotation is a little weak, it just becomes a question of if our pitching can hold up.  We can’t afford to make the small mental errors on defense or fail at the small ball this weekend.

I’m feeling lucky. I say Michigan wins two.

We’re On TV

The entire weekend series is available to all of you with the BTN this weekend. The games are on at 7:05 tonight, and 1 the next two days; make sure you catch all the action.  If anyone wants to record it and send me a torrent link, I’d appreciate it.  Living outside the BTN footprint, all I’ve got is UM’s IPTV which doesn’t record or, for that matter, stream too easily.

*They also lost to Rollins, who isn’t even a D1 school, so technically its 32-9.  Just thought I’d point out they lose to a D2 school.

Posted under Baseball

From Sunday’s game. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then this slideshow is worth about half a normal Formerly Anonymous post.

Posted under Baseball, Other Sports, Photo Album

vs. Indiana

from indiana.edu

6:35pm Friday, 1:05pm Saturday, 1:05pm Sunday
Ray Fisher Stadium
Ann Arbor, MI

Media Game 1: Live Stats and Audio (WBCN)
Probable Starters Game 1: Chris Fetter (5-1) vs. TBA
Media Game 2: Live Stats and Audio (WBCN)
Probable Starters Game 2:  Eric Katzman (6-3) vs TBA
Media Game 3: Live Stats and Audio (WBCN)
Probable Starters Game 3: TBA vs TBA

Series: Michigan leads 123-54
Last Meeting: Michigan UM split the season series @Bloomington last year, but won the rubber match in the BigTen Tournament in Ann Arbor
Last Michigan Loss: 4-11, (April 2008 @ IU), Mike Wilson gave up 4 runs in .1 innings to start the game, Jenzen gave up 2 in 1.1 of relief.  Burgoon pitched 5.1 innings giving up 5 runs.

Overview

Indiana enters this series with a less than sterling 18-20 record, but don’t let that fool you.  This team is very good and is picked by many to be the team to beat out ranked Ohio State for the conference crown.  They currently are 8-3 in BigTen play, good for second and only .5 games behind Ohio State.  They are batting .327 as a team, also second to Ohio State.  Two of their three weekend starters claim conference ERAs under 3.00.  Eric Arnett is the leader for BigTen pitcher of the year (BT stats – 34 innings, 5 R, 5 ER, 34 K, 9 BB)  His 1.94 ERA leads the conference.  Matt Bashore was their ace last year, and has been pretty good in conference play himself.  His BigTen ERA is 2.82 over 22.1 innings with 7 ER and 22 K.

For player overviews, check out the Q&A with IUBaseballFan and his Q&A with me @ Behind the Plate.

The Weather

Weather looks perfect the next few days.

Winds are blowing straight in from center; they’re hard enough I don’t expect too many balls carrying out.

Promotions

Bring a phonebook to be recycled and get into Friday’s game for $1.  Also on Friday, the team appears to be giving away free trees.  They call it grow your own baseball on MGoBlue, but I think they meant baseball bat?

Saturday is Daddy/Daughter day through Heart of Michigan Council Girl Scouts.  Scouts and their dad’s get in for $5 a person and receive a food voucher.  Saturday also features a guest appearance by an ambulance and fire truck for kids to look at and hear safety tips from paramedics.  WOO FIRE TRUCKS!

Sunday is an extravaganza.  We start with a kiddie carnival with inflatables, face painting, “and much more!”  Little League and high school players receive free admission to the game.  Trading cards go to the first 500 fans.  AND after the game,” the ENTIRE Michigan baseball team will be signing autographs for fans!”

Awesome.  Get out to the games.

For the full list of promotions, go here.

Outlook

I’m not overly confident about this series.  I think Michigan can take one, probably tonight’s game.  I’m guessing the Indiana starter will be Blake Monar, who hasn’t been that spectacular.  He’s been their regular Friday guy though.  It’s unclear if IU coach Tracy Smith will move around his starting rotation in order to get his ace against Fetter.

The other thing going for Michigan is their luck against really good pitching.  Outside of Stoffel at Arizona, Michigan has been lucky to knock the aces around for most teams, or at least get an early exit (Reeser at Illinois).  The problem for the Wolverines has been the meh pitchers – like Monar.

At this point, I think we take game, two if we get really lucky and play solid defense.

Posted under Baseball

Michigan split a pair of mid week games at Notre Dame last night.  It was one of those nights where Maloney was out to throw as many pitchers as possible just to get them work.  Even with that mindset, some pitchers still couldn’t make it through just an inning of work (Travis Smith, I’m looking at you).  Overall though, most of the pitchers did fairly well from what I heard on MGoBlue and the comments yesterday.

Katzman looked shaky in his one inning of work, walking the lead off batter and then hitting Golden Tate with a pitch to start the game.  After a strikeout and another walk, he managed to escape the inning without a run.

Kolby Wood threw the long relief; he was originally scheduled to start.  Over his 4 innings, he only gave up 2 runs on 6 hits, 2 walks, and 2 Ks.  He worked into a bases loaded jam in the 2nd and induced a double play, then again, in the 5th, he got a critical double play to preserve the lead.  After giving up a single and double to open 6th, Wood was pulled for…

Tyler Burgoon.  Burgoon managed to get a fly ball on the first batter, but it was deep enough to score a run.  Groundout, RBI single, double, groundout and we were out of the inning, but Wood lost the chance for the win.  Burgoon did pick up the win in the top of the 7th.  He’d close out the game with a pair of strikeouts and a groundout for the finish.  So while his first inning was a bit rough, he looked really good to finish.  Hopefully that shoulder isn’t affecting his pitching too much.

Game two started with Mike Wilson… and he wasn’t half bad.  He went 4 innings giving up 4 hits, 3 walks, and 3 strikeouts.  His toughest inning was the second; he started by giving up back to back singles and a walk.  He worked his way out with a pair of strikeouts and a ground ball.  That’s the type of situtation Wilson hasn’t performed in well lately.  It was a real promising start.  After giving up only a hit in each of the 3rd and 4th inning, Wilson started to lose command to start the 5th.  He walked both batters he faced, opening the door to the bullpen.

Travis Smith came in and wouldn’t record an out.  The defense set the tone for his outing, with a John Lorenz error on the first batter Smith would face.  The next batter would single in two runs.  A hit by pitch and walk later, Notre Dame would score again.

Matt Miller would take over from here (still 0 outs in the 5th).  The first batter he faced flew out to Alan Oaks in left, plating a run on the sac fly.  Miller then struck out 4 of the next 5 batters to finish the game.  Miller was damn impressive.

Offensively, Coach had a chance to move some people around.  Ryan LaMarre was given the night off to rest; this was his first set of games to sit out.  Cislo also sat out most of the second game, coming in to pinch run in the last inning (and get caught stealing).

Despite the shakeup, Michigan was back to its favorite past time in game one – strikeouts.  The Wolverines struckout 10 times, lead by the hat trick of Kenny Fellows.  The left on base stat was also a little high, but about average for Michigan at 8.  Lorenz owned half of those, but I will point out that at least he didn’t strikeout this game.

The good came from Coley Crank.  Coley went 3/5 on the day with a double and a solo homerun.  Anthony Toth also went 3/6 with an RBI.

Defensively we had 2 errors on the game.  Berset had a throwing error that didn’t lead to a run, but should be at least noted.  Lorenz had the error (previously mentioned during the Travis Smith escapade) that lead to a run.  His defense has been suspect lately, but he did earn some props from Kolby Wood in game one:

“I came in and tried to aim the ball when I was first throwing and got into a jam[…] There were a couple of tough plays, and then John Lorenz, our third baseman, made a really nice play and picked me up. That gave me a lot of confidence.”

So at least he’s got that going for him.  The kid is still a freshman and will struggle.

In the long run, this doubleheader doesn’t mean much of anything.  It was good to see Michigan keep its composure in game one.  I was also glad to see we hit a pair of lefties around a little bit.  We’re facing two really good lefties this weekend from Indiana.  So hopefully this was good practice leading up to that.

First game Friday is at 6:35pm at the Fish.

Posted under Baseball

Preface: Posting will be light today and tomorrow. Football is slow. Basketball is slow. No LAX report until Monday.  This will also act as most of my preview.  So savor what content you get. – FA

This weekend of the baseball schedule features a home series with the Indiana Hoosiers.  In order to give you a little bit of a preview of their team, I exchanged some Q&A with IUBaseball of Behind the Plate.  Behind the Plate is slowly becoming one of the top school specific baseball sites in the BigTen (yes, there are more than one, there are five that are baseball exclusive as compared to me leeching from Tim and Paul).  My answers to his questions can be found here.

Question 1: While much praise is due to manbearfreak Josh Phegley, I can’t help but see headlines about freshman Alex Dickerson. Who is this 6’3″ freshman phenom? How in the hell did he end up at Indiana from San Diego? I know its not Friday yet, but is it already too late to hide the women and children? Does he have a weakness?

Alex Dickerson was definitely a huge get for Head Coach Tracy Smith. “Skip,” as the players like to call him, has made considerable headways out on the West Coast the last couple years. Obviously Dickerson is the biggest and most notable signee to this point, but it is interesting to note that there are currently 7 players on IU’s roster from California, all of which are either freshmen or sophomores. As to how IU actually landed him, I would imagine the fact that fellow Hoosier freshman Drew Leininger was a high school teammate of his certainly helped the cause. In addition, sophomore 1B Jerrud Sabourin, who had a very successful freshman campaign, is also from San Diego and played in the same high school conference as Dickerson.

Although there wasn’t a ton of hoopla surrounding Dickerson’s signing, there were no doubts about his hitting prowess. He was drafted out of high school in the 48^th round by the Washington Nationals, and he was an all-state selection by two different publications in a state that is very rich in baseball talent. All that being said, his success so far is actually not all that surprising. IU was just very fortunate to land such an impressive talent. I don’t know about “hiding the women and children,” but Dickerson indeed does not appear to have many weaknesses at the plate. In reality, his biggest weakness is actually his defense, and that is why he has yet to see an inning of action in the field in Big Ten play. The word is that he can’t field a lick, but fortunately that is a weakness Michigan’s pitchers won’t be able to expose.

Swinging from the left side, Dickerson really likes to go the other way and hasn’t really shown the ability to pull the ball. Last weekend, however, I did see him pull a ball off Penn State’s T.J. Macy (who hadn’t given up a homer all year) over the right field fence, so I don’t know how big of a weakness this truly is. Other than that, I would say Michigan’s best bet may be to just pitch around him this weekend.

Question 2: Now to Phegley. while most of my readers may not remember/know this, Phegley is probably the best offensive player in the BigTen, and is probably a first round draft pick in this year’s MLB draft. His defense however is a bit suspect. He’s only caught 6 of 25 stolen base attempts this year. What does Indiana do to keep runners honest? A ton of pickoffs? Quick slide steps? Arnett, subject of question 4, just not allowing base runners? Do you expect the Wolverines to run much?

To be honest, I would say that Phegley’s reputation is what keeps runners honest in many cases. 6 for 31 is obviously not a great percentage, but it is still important to note that only 31 runners have even attempted a stolen base against him. I think the fact that IU starts 2 left-handers and a very hard-throwing right-hander also works in the Hoosiers’ favor as far as steals are concerned. Michigan is 3rd in the Big Ten in stolen base attempts with 69 on the year (as of Tuesday), so all things considered, I think it would be safe to assume that Michigan will be aggressive on the basepaths this weekend in an effort to manufacture runs against a strong crop of starters. [manufacture runs, what is this you speak of? – FA]

Question 3: Speaking of base stealing, who do the Wolverines need to watch out for on base?

Without a doubt, the biggest threat on the basepaths for the Hoosiers is junior Evan Crawford, who is currently 2^nd in the Big Ten with 18 steals. The speedy CF has only been caught stealing twice this year (both in the same game, one of which was on a failed squeeze play attempt and the other on a pitchout), and MLB scouts rave about his speed. He is definitely the one the Wolverines will want to pay the most attention to on the basepaths. Outside of Crawford, only 2B Tyler Rogers (7 steals in 8 attempts) has stolen more than 5 bases. IU began the season with a more passive approach on the basepaths, but they have been more aggressive of late with 19 steals in conference play. Besides #9 hitter Vince Gonzalez (who I can guarantee will not be stealing any bases anytime soon), any other Hoosier is a threat to run as all other starters have recorded at least 1 stolen base on the year.

Question 4: I have to think Arnett is up for pitcher of the year. A sterling 8-1 record, 1.94 ERA, opponents batting .202, 9 K/9IP, and 4 complete games. Wow. His only loss came against then #20 ECU in a complete game. What hope does Michigan have against them in game 2?

Yes, Eric Arnett is undoubtedly among the front runners for Big Ten Pitcher of the Year. He leads the Big Ten in wins, ERA and innings pitched, is second in opposing batting average and fourth in strikeouts. There are definitely a number of worthy candidates at this point (including Michigan’s own Chris Fetter), but I think Arnett stands as good a chance as any pitcher in the conference at taking home that piece of hardware. Consequently, Arnett will be a very tough match-up for the Wolverines. After throwing 3 straight complete games to open conference play, he is coming off his shortest Big Ten outing (97 pitches in 6.2 innings in a 15-1 romp over Penn State) and should be well rested for Saturday’s contest. While Michigan sports several dangerous hitters and can score a lot of runs, given Arnett’s track record this season, I just don’t see the Wolverines experiencing much success against the big right-hander on Saturday.

Question 5: Last year’s Fetter vs Bashore game was an epic thriller (2-1 IU victory in walk off fashion as both pitchers got the 7 inning complete game). Does Blake Monar stand any chance of going head to head with Chris Fetter on the mound, assuming he’s still the Friday starter?

Blake Monar is scheduled to get the ball for the Hoosiers on Friday, and while Chris Fetter is undoubtedly one of the toughest (if not the toughest) match-up in the Big Ten, I am confident he can toe the rubber at Michigan and give the Hoosiers a solid outing against Fetter and the Wolverines. While it is likely the runs will be few and far between for IU on Friday, Monar has demonstrated that he is more than capable of handling the #1 spot this season. In 8 starts, the left-hander (who was drafted in the 26^th round out of high school last year by the New York Yankees) is 4-2 with a 5.02 ERA and 43 strikeouts in 52 innings of work. He is coming off a rough outing last weekend against Penn State, but prior to that he had impressive starts at Illinois and Iowa and had only given up 4 extra base hits all season (all doubles). In fact, if you take away the 2 starts against Penn State and Minnesota, Monar would be holding opponents to a .226 batting average and have a 3.27 ERA. He also threw 7 strong innings and gave up only a single earned run in a tough-luck loss against Ohio State and Big Ten Pitcher of the Year candidate Alex Wimmers down in Florida over spring break. Coach Tracy Smith loves the young freshman’s approach: “What really acts as a strength is his [Monar’s] mentality” he recently said an interview. Monar has proven himself to be a gamer, and I think he will rebound with a solid effort against Fetter on Friday.

Question 6: What happened to Chris Hervey? The guy was a monster last year, now he’s just rotating in occasionally. What gives?

Although Hervey is hitting .272 after hitting .373 in 54 starts last season, the senior outfielder has actually started in 10 of IU’s 11 Big Ten games, including the last 9 in a row, and seen action in all 11 games. Early in the season he was pushed for playing time by a number of his teammates (including T.C. Knipp, Michael Earley and Brian Lambert), but he ultimately established himself as an everyday player again and has been a formidable lead off batter with a .406 on-base percentage. He is one of two Hoosier seniors and has proven himself to be one of the top clutch hitters on the team despite not hitting as well overall as he did last year. We all know what Hervey is capable of, and it appears that IU’s coaching staff is opting to let him work his way out of this slump on the field. The Hoosier faithful are certainly keeping their fingers crossed that he returns to last season’s form sooner rather than later.

Question 7: What are your expectations for the weekend?

I think IU will take 2 of 3 from the Wolverines. The match-up between Monar and Fetter will be an excellent one on Friday, but it’s just too hard to pick against Fetter right now. As such, I see Michigan taking Game 1 with Arnett and Bashore pitching the Hoosiers to wins in Games 2 and 3. Although this will likely be a close series, I ultimately think the Hoosiers’ combination of quality starting pitching and strong hitting will be too much for the Wolverines.

Thanks to IUBaseball for instigating this and his responses.  Remember catch mine at his site, Behind the Plate.

Posted under Baseball

With FA unavailable, I’ll give the status update on baseball’s series with Notre Dame.

Today’s game in Ann Arbor was rained out, and will be made up tomorrow. However, instead of playing a home-and-home with the Irish, Michigan will now play a road doubleheader in South Bend. The games start at 4:30 PM tomorrow, though the weather doesn’t look particularly promising.

Remember, his brief preview of the series can be seen here, and hope for nice enough weather tomorrow to play the DH. Now the question is, do I drive down there for the games?

Posted under Baseball

UPDATE: TimFAIL. Almost immediately after I say the game looks like it won’t be canceled, it is. 

As of right now, it looks like the game is going to be played. I’ll update accordingly if it’s not. -t

We’ve got a home and home scheduled with Notre Dame that is supposed to start tonight at 7:05pm.  I’m not so optimistic it’ll be played.  Tomorrow has a better chance.  If the game gets canceled tonight, I expect a doubleheader at Notre Dame tomorrow.  We’ll see though.

Notre Dame is a middle of the pack BigEast team, a conference Michigan has performed well against this year.  Unfortunately all that success was in week 1 during the BigEast/BigTen challenge when Michigan looked really good.  The Irish enter the series with a 22-14 record (8-7) in the BigEast.  Their team batting average is a very respectable .309, and the team ERA of 4.93 is also pretty good.

Tonight’s game features Kolby Wood and Notre Dame’s senior lefty Sam Elam.  Elam will be making his 6th appearance and first start in this game.  He appears to be high risk-high reward.  He has struck out 13 batters in 9 innings, but he’s also walked 11 and given up 9 earned runs.  His opponent batting average is only .161, but the walks have really hurt him.

Wednesday will see Mike Wilson take on Irish freshman lefty Ryan Richter.  Richter is 3-1 in 7 appearances (1 start) with a 2.04 ERA.  In 17.2 innings of work, he’s given up 17 hits, 8 walks, and 16 strikeouts.  Looks like were getting the power lefties from the Irish.  Richter’s only start came against Northwestern, a 5-1 loss where he only lasted 3.2 innings while giving up 2 runs on 6 hits, 3 walks, and 6 strikeouts.

AJ Pollack leads the Irish offense in average with .350, but he also has his share of power with 5 homers and ten doubles.  Pollack also leads the team with 13 steals in 18 attempts.  He is joined by Jeremey Barnes in the lineup who is second on the team with .341 average and 7 homers.  Barnes is the leading slugger at a .644 slugging percentage.  Greg Sherry and Golden Tate are also both hitting over .335.  Tate, unsurprisingly, is also a stolen base threat.  He’s 6/7 on the year.

Other Notes:

• Irish Illustrated – Their preview of us.

Posted under Baseball

With the Michigan State Series wrapping up today, the BigTen Conference season has reached the midpoint. The conference season hasn’t fared so well for Michigan, obviously, as the Wolverines are currently 5-7 in 8th place. Lets take a look back at what we’ve seen, then look forward to what we have left to know what we have to do to make a solid run.

Where We’ve Been

We should have swept. Iowa is one of only two teams below us in the standings. We definitely need that win now. Iowa’s season has been a slow spiral downward. They took one game from Purdue, were swept by Indiana, and split with Northwestern. Iowa isn’t a good team and we squandered that game.

We’re pretty equal to Penn State. They are currently right at .500 in conference play. We’ll be fighting them head to head for a 6th spot in the tournament. Losing the series to them hurts as it is the tie breaker.

This still wasn’t a bad series. We could have performed a little bit better, but the outcome is about what I would have expected. Illinois is a strong team and toward the top of the BigTen standings. They’ll be a top 3 seed in the tournament.

Then is now. It still sucks. Michigan State defends their home field well, but we would have won Game 1 if not for the bullpen. We should have won Game 2 if not for the lack of offense. Would have, should have, didn’t.  We finally woke up in game 3, but it was too late.  The game we played on Sunday is how we should look every time out.  We just don’t have that consistency.

So here we are, sitting at 8th place (PSU and MSU hold tie breakers at 5-7) in the BigTen.  We are currently 4 games back of the top team, so we really aren’t that far out.  We still have games against three of the top four teams.

Where We’re Going

Indiana (6-3): The Hoosiers are a great hitting team and have probably the best offensive player in the BigTen with Josh Phegley. The Hoosiers have players in the top 3 of nearly every offensive category in BigTen play. They also rank third in the league in strikeouts. The Hoosiers split a pair with Minnesota, took 2 of 3 from Illinois, swept Iowa, and took 2 of 3 from Penn State. We may take one game in this series. I fear the Sunday game.

@#26 Ohio State (7-3): Everything the Hoosiers do, Ohio State does better. The Buckeyes sit atop the BigTen standing and will have a hostile home crowd. They took 2 from Penn State, 1 from Minnesota, swept Michigan State, and swept Purdue. My prediction: pain. I again think we have a shot to win a game, but it’s not a very high chance. The one thing we’ve got going for us is no midweek games so the entire bullpen should be rested. Game 1 of Fetter vs Wimmers should be epic (aka most of you will find it boring as all hell).

Minnesota (7-3): Minnesota completes our three game streak of tough competition. The Gophers are ranked in some polls – deservedly so. Offensively, their numbers match up to Michigan’s very well, but they get that extra hit to drive in the run where Michigan has failed consistently all year. On the pitching side, they are exactly opposite of Michigan… they are consistently good. Minnesota split a pair with Indiana, took 2 of three from Ohio State, swept Northwestern, and took 1 of three from Illinois. The outlook doesn’t look good right now. It’ll be a struggle to win a game here. The only good news I can offer is we do better against good pitchers than we do meh pitchers.

@Northwestern (2-7): Northwestern is the worst team in the BigTen. They are the worst hitting team in the BigTen and they don’t pitch particularly well. They rival Michigan State for fewest strikeouts, but sit 7th in BigTen team ERA. I see us winning at least two games in this series, most likely a sweep. But as we’ve seen all season, we have a tendency to blow games to inferior teams.

I really think we end up with 6 or 7 wins out of that schedule, especially the way we’re playing right now. That leaves us with a conference record around 11-13 or 12-12 for the season. The cut of for the tournament is historically around 12 wins (actually ~=16 wins, but we moved from 4 game series to 3 this year, 16*.75=12).

My projections for our competition after the jump. Read More…

Posted under Baseball