2024 Baseball

[AuroranHusker]

On 3/18/2024 at 3:12 PM, HB said:

Thanks for all of this work, Throwback; it is much appreciated.

 

@throwback provides the best info, I don't even look *any* where else, tbh.

[throwback]

We're switching up the rotation this weekend - Sears / Christo / McConnaughey - I think this is the way to go. 

Edited March 21 by throwback

[hskr4life]

59 minutes ago, throwback said:

We're switching up the rotation this weekend - Sears / Christo / McConnaughey - I think this is the way to go. 

I know pitching depth was a possible strength depending on how the arms shook out.  We had unknowns, but we had a lot of them.

 

Man has this been a pleasant surprise though.  Depth and dare I say… some quality mixing in there… its been a breath of fresh air.

 

Offense doing what it needs to do to win ball games— same with the pitch staff.  We’re not going to overwhelm you with 1-2 major talents but we have an overall tough TEAM. (Honestly, a little like the basketball boys in that regard) 

Edited March 21 by hskr4life

[throwback]

Going to be an interesting year in the B1G after these opening-day conference-play scores:

• Purdue 10, Iowa 3
• Penn State 4, Michigan 3
• Illinois 9, Indiana 1
• Maryland 7, Michigan State 6 (10 inn)

Indiana and Iowa get boat-raced and Maryland struggles with one of the worst teams in the league so far. (Yes, Iowa did throw its All-American Brecht yesterday, and he gave up 6 runs (3 earned) in 5 innings. Ouch.)

 

I thought maybe Iowa and Indiana would right the ship after rough non-conferences, but it didn't happen in the openers, not by a long shot.

 

[hskr4life]

11 hours ago, throwback said:

Going to be an interesting year in the B1G after these opening-day conference-play scores:

• Purdue 10, Iowa 3
• Penn State 4, Michigan 3
• Illinois 9, Indiana 1
• Maryland 7, Michigan State 6 (10 inn)

Indiana and Iowa get boat-raced and Maryland struggles with one of the worst teams in the league so far. (Yes, Iowa did throw its All-American Brecht yesterday, and he gave up 6 runs (3 earned) in 5 innings. Ouch.)

 

I thought maybe Iowa and Indiana would right the ship after rough non-conferences, but it didn't happen in the openers, not by a long shot.

 

Iowa and Indiana both respond with W’s in close games.  Maryland loses.

[throwback]

1 hour ago, hskr4life said:

Iowa and Indiana both respond with W’s in close games.  Maryland loses.

The fewer sweeps in B1G series here in the early going, the better. If we want a shot to host a regional, we need to win the regular season and, ideally, do so convincingly, so if the others beat themselves up the first few series, all the better for us.

 

[hskr4life]

Tuesday's game is a big one.  Good chance to pick up a Q1 win and we usually get a good crowd in MHK.

[hskr4life]

Weird week in the Big 10.  Indiana went 1-2 against an Illinois team that was... not good... coming in.  Maryland took 2 of 3 from MSU... but had to have extra innings to capture the two wins.  

[AuroranHusker]

1 hour ago, hskr4life said:

Tuesday's game is a big one.  Good chance to pick up a Q1 win and we usually get a good crowd in MHK.

 

I take it that ballgame should be on ESPN+....

 

[Bugeaters1]

47 minutes ago, AuroranHusker said:

 

I take it that ballgame should be on ESPN+....

 

Yes it is.

 

[AuroranHusker]

3 minutes ago, Bugeaters1 said:

Yes it is.

 

 

It's good to know for the rest of Husker fans.... thx Bugs.

 

[Huskerpapa]

Bummed that we aren't rated...but KSU is.  Perhaps if we can beat them, it will provide a little proof in the puddin.

[throwback]

B1G Standings

• 2-1 Maryland
• 2-1 Iowa
• 2-1 Penn St
• 2-1 Illinois
• 1-2 Indiana
• 1-2 Purdue
• 1-2 Mich St
• 1-2 Michigan
• 0-0 NU
• 0-0 Rutgers
• 0-0 N'western
• 0-0 Ohio St
• 0-0 Minnesota

 

This week's conference games:

• NU at N'western
• Rutgers at Mich St
• Maryland at Michigan
• Minnesota at Iowa
• Purdue at Ohio St
• Penn St at Illinois
• Indiana BYE

 

B1G Boyd's World RPIs (http://boydsworld.com/baseball/rpi/currentrpi.html) through 6 weeks:

• 10 Nebraska (17-5) (-6 spots vs last week)
• 36 Maryland (18-6) (3 H) (-4)
• 39 Rutgers (17-7) (3 A) (0)
• 54 N'western (10-11) (3 A) (+10)
• 73 Iowa (13-10) (3 H) (+18)
• 80 Ohio St (10-11) (3 H) (-27)
• 106 Indiana (12-12) (3 H) (-41)
• 108 Illinois (10-12)* (+32)
• 109 Purdue (16-9)* (-30)
• 136 Michigan (9-15)* (0)
• 139 Michigan St (9-12) (3 A) (+26)
• 148 Minnesota (10-10) (3 A) (+64)
• 215 Penn St (12-9)* (-46)

* NU doesn't play

 

Non-con opponents:

• 15 Oklahoma (14-9) -- L (1 N) (-10)
• 19 K-State (17-6) (1 A) (1 H) (+37)
• 46 bluebirds (17-3) (2 A) (1 H) (+11)
• 58 Wichita St (15-8) -- WL (2 A) (+13)
• 59 South Alabama (14-10) -- LWW (3 H) (+7)
• 63 Texas Tech (17-7) -- L (1 N) (+7)
• 72 Kansas (12-10) (1 A) (1 H) (+21)
• 92 Coll of Charleston (14-8) -- WWW (3 A) (+40)
• 97 Grand Canyon (13-10) -- WWLW (4 A) (-2)
• 118 North Dakota St (7-16) -- W (1 H) (+6)
• 125 South Dakota St (11-12) (1 H) (+2)
• 142 Nicholls (17-10) -- WWW (3 H) (-39)
• 149 Baylor (8-15) -- W (1 N) (+6)
• 222 New Mexico St (10-13) -- WW (2 H) (+11)
• 298 Omaha (4-18) -- W (1 H) (+2)

The Pac-4:

• 62 Oregon (15-7) (-15)
• 101 Washington (6-11) (+3)
• 166 UCLA (9-12) (+10)
• 181 USC (8-15) (-10)

What our quads look like right now:

 

Q1: 1-2 (13 total games) (+6 games from last week)

• L – Oklahoma (N)
• WL – Wichita St (A)
• XX – bluebirds (A)
• X – K-State (A)
• X – K-State (H)
• XXX – Northwestern (A)
• XXX – Rutgers (A)

Q2: 6-2 (13 total games) (-1)

• L – Texas Tech (N)
• WWLW – Grand Canyon (A)
• WWW – Coll of Charleston (A)
• XXX – Maryland (H)
• X – bluebirds (H)
• X – Kansas (A)

Q3: 3-1 (17 total games) (-8)

• W – Baylor (N)
• LWW – South Alabama (H)
• XXX – Ohio St (H)
• XXX – Iowa (H)
• XXX – Michigan St (A)
• XXX – Minnesota (A)
• X – Kansas (H)

Q4: 7-0 (11 total games) (+2)

• WWW – Nicholls (H)
• WW – New Mexico St (H)
• W – N Dakota St (H)
• W – Omaha (H)
• XXX – Indiana (H)
• X – S Dakota St (H)

• Quad 1: Home games vs. RPI 1-25, neutral site games vs. 1-40, road games vs. 1-60
• Quad 2: Home games vs. RPI 26-50, neutral site games vs. 41-80, road games vs. 61-120
• Quad 3: Home games vs. RPI 51-100, neutral site games vs. 81-160, road games vs. 121-240
• Quad 4: Home games vs. RPI 101+, neutral site games vs. 161+, road games vs. 241+

 

Big week on tap - a win at K-State would look really good on our resume by the end, as KSU (and KU) are going to continue to get a nice Big XII bump in the RPI all season. And I can't imagine NW is going to stay Q1, but they're vastly improved from a year ago, which is stunning considering the turmoil they've had in that program. Even winning Q2s at NW is helpful, thanks to it being on the road.

 

Big opportunity to go on the road & truly establish ourselves as a regional host contender this week.

 

This is a schedule to this point that gives a northern team a chance to host a regional, even if we lose a few of the projected Q1 games to Q2. Even our B1G opponents should help us in RPI, based on who we play on the road and who we miss. Huge jump by C of C the past two weeks has been a big help to our RPI.

 

As far as the back end, Minnesota did its part this past week to get far away from Q4, and now we need Indiana to get it's sh*t together at least a little bit to limit our Q4 games as much as possible.

 

We're at the point in the season where we're trying to string 3-1 weeks. If we can go 3-1 every week from here on out, we're going to be around 41 total wins and we'll be around 18 B1G wins, which often is enough to win the league. With this impressive start against a pretty salty schedule, we put ourselves in a position where we don't need a bunch of unbeaten weeks.

 

Stringing 3-1s isn't easy, and we'll probably have a clunker of a weekend at some point -- hopefully not this week, as this will be a tough one. But we've done a helluva job to this point to put ourselves in this spot. Most years, we're hoping to string 3-1s at the start of B1G play just to have a shot to win the league and to squeak into a regional, so this has been a tremendous start.

 

 

 

 

[throwback]

Huh? Michigan is not good this year, Ohio St and Indiana are in free-fall, and we're playing most of the best teams in the league, at least based on RPI so far. Rutgers is probably better than all the teams he mentioned, other than Maryland, and we have to go to New Jersey. NW on the road this weekend will be no picnic. Odd take.

 

It's a scheduling 'gift' in terms of having a chance to keep our RPI high, but it's not a gift in terms of trying to win the league. Iowa got that. They get Rutgers and NW at home, they don't play Maryland or Indiana. They do have to come to Lincoln. Now, Iowa's schedule doesn't look quite as soft as it did in the preseason, but it's still a far easier slate in terms of trying to win the league vs what NU has.

 

Maryland has to go to NU, Rutgers, and NW. They don't play Minnesota. They may end up with the toughest schedule. 

 

Edited March 26 by throwback

[Bugeaters1]

 

[hskr4life]

Ridiculous!

[Bugeaters1]

Forecast is for partly cloudy and a high of 42

[throwback]

It's way too cold to play today with the wind chill - I see now that K-State has a Thurs-Sat conference series with Texas this weekend (avoiding playing on Easter), so that leaves Wednesday out, otherwise I'm sure we'd have played tomorrow. No coach is going to voluntarily play a non-con game the day before a big conference series.

 

Bummer, but it just makes this weekend that much more important. Fortunately, the weather this weekend in the Chicago area looks much better than it did a few days ago, although it's still not great. And I don't think they have lights there, so moving games around at the last minute is tough. At least they've upgraded the facility some over the past several years and have artificial turf now, which helps a ton if it rains. It's still in the lower third of the B1G for facilities, but light years ahead of where it used to be.

 

Keep an eye on Sunday's forecast, which looks like the worst weather day - they may try to play 2 on Saturday, but they'd have to start early in the day to beat the darkness. My guess is they'll just take their chances and leave the 3 games where they are scheduled.

 

Edited March 26 by throwback

[Bugeaters1]

21 minutes ago, throwback said:

It's way too cold to play today with the wind chill - I see now that K-State has a Thurs-Sat conference series with Texas this weekend (avoiding playing on Easter), so that leaves Wednesday out, otherwise I'm sure we'd have played tomorrow. No coach is going to voluntarily play a non-con game the day before a big conference series.

 

Bummer, but it just makes this weekend that much more important. Fortunately, the weather this weekend in the Chicago area looks much better than it did a few days ago, although it's still not great. And I don't think they have lights there, so moving games around at the last minute is tough. At least they've upgraded the facility some over the past several years and have artificial turf now, which helps a ton if it rains. It's still in the lower third of the B1G for facilities, but light years ahead of where it used to be.

 

Keep an eye on Sunday's forecast, which looks like the worst weather day - they may try to play 2 on Saturday, but they'd have to start early in the day to beat the darkness. My guess is they'll just take their chances and leave the 3 games where they are scheduled.

 

Rutgers is the shit hole of the B1G as far as facilities go. I tuned in to watch a softball game of theirs, holy crap they are bad. I wonder where all of the money that they get from the B1G goes.

[hskr4life]

We’ve now had 3 games lost to weather.  Is there a chance we try and add a mid-week somewhere?

[AuroranHusker]

On 3/26/2024 at 12:21 PM, Bugeaters1 said:

Rutgers is the shit hole of the B1G as far as facilities go. I tuned in to watch a softball game of theirs, holy crap they are bad. I wonder where all of the money that they get from the B1G goes.

 

Probably wasted... .they are New Jersey, after all.

 

[throwback]

I'd be surprised if we add any games. Bolt has not done so in the past when we lose games to weather - he doesn't like playing more than 4 games in a week. We only had 2 weeks out of 14 scheduled with 5 games this season. We've scheduled fewer than 56 games in the past few years to avoid 5-game weeks. Plus, with where our RPI is, playing a lesser opponent at home isn't much benefit. 

 

If we could find a way to make up the game at K-State, we might try that one, as there's little risk in a road loss to a top team, plus we have the pitching depth to pull it off. However, it's just not what Bolt typically does. 

 

[AuroranHusker]

4 minutes ago, throwback said:

I'd be surprised if we add any games. Bolt has not done so in the past when we lose games to weather - he doesn't like playing more than 4 games in a week. We only had 2 weeks out of 14 scheduled with 5 games this season. We've scheduled fewer than 56 games in the past few years to avoid 5-game weeks. Plus, with where our RPI is, playing a lesser opponent at home isn't much benefit. 

 

If we could find a way to make up the game at K-State, we might try that one, as there's little risk in a road loss to a top team, plus we have the pitching depth to pull it off. However, it's just not what Bolt typically does. 

 

 

I was really looking forward to NU-KSt. Too bad that Bolt doesn't tend to re-schedule, that's the one worth doing tbh.

 

[throwback]

Need to get back to the days of having 8-12 guys on this list.

[Bugeaters1]

2 hours ago, throwback said:

Need to get back to the days of having 8-12 guys on this list.

Matt Waldron is on the Padres roster.