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2021 Baseball


Bugeaters1

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Former Huskers in the minors :

 

Aaron Palensky, AA in the Yankees organization batting .385 0 Hr's 6 Rbi's in 8 games.

Matt Waldron, High A in the Padres organization 2 - 1 with a 2.81 ERA in 5 starts.  Of course, a ridiculous 27/3 K to bb ratio

Jake Meyers, AAA in the Astros organization .294 5 HR's 14 RBI's in 21 games.

Scott Schreiber, High A in the Astros organization .280 6 HR's 16 RBI's in 26 games.

Luis Alvarado, High A in the Angels organization 1 - 1 6.41 ERA in 8 games.

Ryan Boldt, AAA in the Rays organization .300 3 HR's 20 RBI's in 23 games.

 

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13 minutes ago, 49r said:

Gotta say I’m really proud of the boys and that was a hell of a season they just had with a first year coach.


Very excited for the future of this program and the Bolt era, GBR

 

Don't want to take anything you said away.

 

Just wanted to say... That was fun! Glad Nebraska baseball could be fun again!

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What a fun season, despite the handcuffs the B1G brass put on the team. Would've loved to have a shot at Arky this weekend in supers where it was a true best of 3, rather than us having to play those extra games in the regional format. When you consider we had to play an extra 9 innings vs what Arky had to play, and we still had enough pitching to hold that team to 10 runs over the first 25 innings we played them in their park is pretty crazy.

 

Something's been bugging me today - saw a lot of it on social media last night & Shatel repeated it this morning (and apologies if anyone on here said it in one of these threads 😉 ) - so have to throw this out there.

 

Shatel said NU is going to be hosting regionals and super regionals with regularity going forward (not verbatim) - that simply isn't going to happen. I get the sentiment. NU baseball is on an upward trajectory, and it looks a lot like what DVH was building in the early 2000s when we hosted supers in 3 of 5 years. But it's not anywhere near the same because of the B1G.

 

Being in the B1G, we're in a whole different world in the eyes of the tournament committee than we were in the early 2000s in the Big XII. A northern school in a southern conference, if it has a great season, has a regular chance at top 8 and top 16 seeds. A northern school in a northern conference -- even as much as the B1G has improved in the past decade -- has to catch lightning in a bottle. 

 

Just look at Notre Dame - they win the ACC this year, yet somehow end up as a 10 seed. Even catching lightning in a bottle for them in 2021 wasn't good enough for ND to host a super. Most years, the ACC winner is a sure fire top 3 seed. When a northern team wins it, though, not even a top 8 seed. "If ND won the ACC, it must've been a down year." (Sounds a lot like "if NU finished 4th in the B1G in basketball, it must've been a down year.")

 

Northern teams from northern conferences have to be on fire from game 1 and win a lot on their southern trips for the first month, all while playing great teams that have been practicing outdoors for weeks. Very difficult to do. The early 2000s NU teams had the ability to make up for an average start with tough conference series against the 'Whorns, Baylor, etc. The early 2020s NU teams won't have that ability to make up for even an average start. They have to be great immediately.

 

It certainly can happen for NU, and they may end up with a top 16 a couple of times a decade. Maybe they'll get lucky and host a super one of those years. But it simply isn't going to happen with regularity, especially in the super round. College baseball in its current format simply won't allow it.

 

We'll see how much traction the proposal from Michigan's Bakich to push the season back 4-6 weeks gets this offseason. There were a lot of southern coaches who were complementary of it right after covid canceled last season when there was a lot of talk of budget cutbacks, but now that things are going back to normal, I imagine the support from the power brokers in the south is waning. But if we push back the start of the season, the northern schools suddenly will have a shot.

 

It's a good idea with all of the minor league baseball cutbacks, so hopefully it gains steam this summer. 

 

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19 minutes ago, throwback said:

What a fun season, despite the handcuffs the B1G brass put on the team. Would've loved to have a shot at Arky this weekend in supers where it was a true best of 3, rather than us having to play those extra games in the regional format. When you consider we had to play an extra 9 innings vs what Arky had to play, and we still had enough pitching to hold that team to 10 runs over the first 25 innings we played them in their park is pretty crazy.

 

Something's been bugging me today - saw a lot of it on social media last night & Shatel repeated it this morning (and apologies if anyone on here said it in one of these threads 😉 ) - so have to throw this out there.

 

Shatel said NU is going to be hosting regionals and super regionals with regularity going forward (not verbatim) - that simply isn't going to happen. I get the sentiment. NU baseball is on an upward trajectory, and it looks a lot like what DVH was building in the early 2000s when we hosted supers in 3 of 5 years. But it's not anywhere near the same because of the B1G.

 

Being in the B1G, we're in a whole different world in the eyes of the tournament committee than we were in the early 2000s in the Big XII. A northern school in a southern conference, if it has a great season, has a regular chance at top 8 and top 16 seeds. A northern school in a northern conference -- even as much as the B1G has improved in the past decade -- has to catch lightning in a bottle. 

 

Just look at Notre Dame - they win the ACC this year, yet somehow end up as a 10 seed. Even catching lightning in a bottle for them in 2021 wasn't good enough for ND to host a super. Most years, the ACC winner is a sure fire top 3 seed. When a northern team wins it, though, not even a top 8 seed. "If ND won the ACC, it must've been a down year." (Sounds a lot like "if NU finished 4th in the B1G in basketball, it must've been a down year.")

 

Northern teams from northern conferences have to be on fire from game 1 and win a lot on their southern trips for the first month, all while playing great teams that have been practicing outdoors for weeks. Very difficult to do. The early 2000s NU teams had the ability to make up for an average start with tough conference series against the 'Whorns, Baylor, etc. The early 2020s NU teams won't have that ability to make up for even an average start. They have to be great immediately.

 

It certainly can happen for NU, and they may end up with a top 16 a couple of times a decade. Maybe they'll get lucky and host a super one of those years. But it simply isn't going to happen with regularity, especially in the super round. College baseball in its current format simply won't allow it.

 

We'll see how much traction the proposal from Michigan's Bakich to push the season back 4-6 weeks gets this offseason. There were a lot of southern coaches who were complementary of it right after covid canceled last season when there was a lot of talk of budget cutbacks, but now that things are going back to normal, I imagine the support from the power brokers in the south is waning. But if we push back the start of the season, the northern schools suddenly will have a shot.

 

It's a good idea with all of the minor league baseball cutbacks, so hopefully it gains steam this summer. 

 

 

I disagree with a few things in here, but agree with quite a bit as well.  As much as we want to say it, the Big 10 will never be taken reallllly seriously in the baseball grand scheme of things.  We can't be swept by teams like Rutgers at all.  Period.  Losing a series here and there, maybe, but being swept can't happen and truth be told.... that is what lost us our regional hosting shot this year.

 

However, I do feel like the Big 10 has a little more "clout" than in previous years.  I think, the Big 10 winner will have a decent shot to host a regional year in and year out as we move forward.  Now, Supers is a whole nother ballgame in that you have to be a Top 8 seed.  That likely won't happen year in and year out.   However, it isn't out of the question to host a regional year in and year out.  Nebraska will just have to do it's part in winning either the regular season title or conference tournie and finishing near the top of the conference each year.

 

With Notre Dame, I do feel like they too were punished for not playing OOC games.  I think they only played 4 OOC games and three were against a realllllly bad Valpo team.  So, much like the Big 10, I think the committee punished them with a worse seed than they actually were because they didn't play anyone OOC.  I don't think it had anything to do with them being a Northern team as... like you said... a northern team in a southern conference will get to host year in and year out but I do feel the committee punished teams that didn't play OOC games this year.

 

I do feel we have a shot to host more than 1-2 regionals a decade.  I would say the winner of the Big 10 has a shot to host a regional year in and year out with a member school hosting a supers a couple times a decade if they get hot, hot.  Let's see how the Big 10 starts doing OOC... I think the league was better than we thought this year.  Unfortunately, because of Kevin, we will never know.

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5 hours ago, hskr4life said:

 

I disagree with a few things in here, but agree with quite a bit as well.  As much as we want to say it, the Big 10 will never be taken reallllly seriously in the baseball grand scheme of things.  We can't be swept by teams like Rutgers at all.  Period.  Losing a series here and there, maybe, but being swept can't happen and truth be told.... that is what lost us our regional hosting shot this year.

 

However, I do feel like the Big 10 has a little more "clout" than in previous years.  I think, the Big 10 winner will have a decent shot to host a regional year in and year out as we move forward.  Now, Supers is a whole nother ballgame in that you have to be a Top 8 seed.  That likely won't happen year in and year out.   However, it isn't out of the question to host a regional year in and year out.  Nebraska will just have to do it's part in winning either the regular season title or conference tournie and finishing near the top of the conference each year.

 

With Notre Dame, I do feel like they too were punished for not playing OOC games.  I think they only played 4 OOC games and three were against a realllllly bad Valpo team.  So, much like the Big 10, I think the committee punished them with a worse seed than they actually were because they didn't play anyone OOC.  I don't think it had anything to do with them being a Northern team as... like you said... a northern team in a southern conference will get to host year in and year out but I do feel the committee punished teams that didn't play OOC games this year.

 

I do feel we have a shot to host more than 1-2 regionals a decade.  I would say the winner of the Big 10 has a shot to host a regional year in and year out with a member school hosting a supers a couple times a decade if they get hot, hot.  Let's see how the Big 10 starts doing OOC... I think the league was better than we thought this year.  Unfortunately, because of Kevin, we will never know.

I hope you're right - it's just so tough to overcome that RPI bias the committee has. To be top 20 RPI out of the B1G is very difficult. It takes a ton of wins all season long.

 

Illinois and Indiana both have gotten Top 8 seeds in the past 10 years by just dominating the league - I think Illinois went 22-1 or something to get a top 8 seed and Indiana went 21-3 or something, so it definitely can be done. (Indiana was coming off a CWS appearance the previous year, which doesn't hurt either.)

 

Expecting it to happen regularly is where I think it's asking too much, especially as the depth of the league continues to improve as teams spend more $$$$.

 

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I'll never understand why they don't move the college baseball season back.  Start it in April after the Final Four and have the CWS some time in August.  This would give the northern teams a more level playing field, and it would give the conference TV channels something to show between the end of hoops and the start of football other than old replays of games that nobody really watches anyway.

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1 hour ago, 49r said:

I'll never understand why they don't move the college baseball season back.  Start it in April after the Final Four and have the CWS some time in August.  This would give the northern teams a more level playing field, and it would give the conference TV channels something to show between the end of hoops and the start of football other than old replays of games that nobody really watches anyway.

Well, a big part of it is southern schools have a huge advantage and don't want to give it up. 😁

 

But quite a bit of it had to do with MLB having its draft in the first half of June in the past. They wanted to assign draftees to short-season A ball immediately, get them half a season in the minors. Colleges just didn't want to push the regular season past that draft date.

 

Now with MLB cutting the draft down to 20 rounds and pushing the draft into late July this year and cutting out quite a few minor league teams, college has an opening to make the push to a later start and end date. Whether they can actually come to a consensus, though, I don't know. 

 

Bakich's proposal sells giving teams more time to ramp up toward the season. Rather than 3 weeks of official practice before starting mid-Feb, teams would get 7-8 weeks. It'd be safer for pitchers, letting them build their arms steadily.

 

And with a later start date, attendance will go up. All over the country, attendance increases significantly from March to April and from April to May, even among southern schools. Additionally, northern teams could save money by not having to travel so much the first few weeks of the season.

 

So programs hopefully could pull more of their own weight financially if you push the regular season ending back to mid-July (which is why the southern schools were giving the idea the time of day last spring, as they were worried about covid budget cuts). Plus a summer college season fills a void for fans with fewer minor league teams out there now.

 

It makes a lot of sense. Hopefully it gains steam this summer, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

 

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11 hours ago, throwback said:

Northern teams from northern conferences have to be on fire

 

It's a worthy thing to look at. Not entirely your question, but here it is.

 

Teams in the NCAA tournament, North of the North Carolina/Virginia border:

  1. Army
  2. Central Connecticut
  3. Central Michigan
  4. Fairfield
  5. Gonzaga
  6. Indiana State
  7. Liberty
  8. Maryland
  9. Michigan
  10. Nevada
  11. NJIT
  12. Norfolk State
  13. North Dakota State
  14. Northeastern
  15. Notre Dame
  16. Old Dominion
  17. Oregon
  18. Oregon State
  19. Rider
  20. Southeast Missouri State
  21. Stanford
  22. UConn
  23. VCU
  24. Virginia
  25. Wright State

 

"North" teams that were at-large bids:

  1. Fairfield
  2. Indiana State
  3. Liberty
  4. Maryland
  5. Michigan
  6. Notre Dame
  7. Oregon
  8. Oregon State
  9. Stanford
  10. Virginia

Not at-large, but would likely make the tournament at-large had they not earned an automatic bid:

  1. Central Michigan
  2. Nebraska
  3. Old Dominion

The definition of "North" is very loose and definitely up for debate. But based on the NC/VA line, that's 13 teams of 64 that would have made the NCAA tournament without an at-large bid. 9 of those 13 teams are in P5 conferences.

 

That's not favorable, all things considered. But possible. Build a consistent brand of excellence, and you're hard to leave out of the tournament. No matter what sport you're talking about. This year was a good start at building that.

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