throwback

Same old, same old. Rinse and repeat.

Looks like Christo will start the rematch for us.

Preseason B1G predictions in baseball are pretty much worthless every year. Guessing the predictions will only get worse when we add in the Pac-4, because everyone will assume those 4 are going to dominate. In reality, I'd guess Oregon would be the only one to make the 8-team postseason if those 4 were playing in the B1G this season.

B1G standings thru week 5: 10-2 Illinois 8-4 NU 8-4 Purdue 10-5 Michigan 9-6 Iowa 7-5 Indiana 6-6 Ohio St 5-7 Mich St 6-9 Maryland 6-9 Penn St 4-8 Minnesota 3-9 Rutgers 2-10 N'western Week 6 B1G Schedule Iowa at NU Illinois at Maryland Minnesota at Penn St Mich St at Ohio St Rutgers at Indiana Purdue at N'western Michigan OFF Remaining Schedule for Contenders Illinois: at MD, vs Ohio St, vs Iowa, at Purdue (remaining opponent record 29-25) NU: vs Iowa, at Minn, vs Indiana, at MSU (25-26) Purdue: at NW, vs Indiana, at Mich, vs Illinois (29-22) Michigan: at MSU, vs Purdue, at Indiana (20-16) Iowa: at NU, vs NW, at Illinois (20-16) Indiana: vs Rutg, at Purdue, at NU, vs Mich (29-22) Ohio St: vs MSU, at Illinois, vs NW, at Rutg (20-28) Outside of OSU, we have the easiest schedule remaining by a little bit, but it's going to take some work to catch Illinois, especially if they win the series at Maryland this weekend. And don't sleep on OSU if they can win at Illinois, as they have the weakest schedule the last two weeks. Lots of games left where the contenders are playing each other. _____ B1G Boyd's World RPIs (http://boydsworld.com/baseball/rpi/currentrpi.html) through 10 weeks: 19 Nebraska (25-12) (-3 spots vs last week) 46 Maryland -- WLW (25-16) (3 H) (+7) 51 Ohio St (19-17) -- WWL (3 H) (-7) 58 Rutgers (23-16) -- LWL (3 A) (-12) 69 Purdue (25-15)* (+2) 70 Illinois (23-13)* (-1) 77 Indiana (22-18) (3 H) (-7) 96 Michigan (20-21)* (+7) 106 Iowa (22-15) (3 H) (+24) 113 N'western (12-23) -- WWW (3 A) (-6) 114 Michigan St (14-19) (3 A) (+4) 151 Minnesota (16-18) (3 A) (-10) 160 Penn St (19-17)* (-8) * NU doesn't play Non-con opponents: 22 Oklahoma (24-14) -- L (1 N) (-3) 28 Texas Tech (29-13) -- L (1 N) (+9) 34 K-State (24-15) (1 H) (+4) 49 bluebirds (28-9) -- Lx (2 A) -- L (1 H) (-4) 65 Coll of Charleston (28-10) -- WWW (3 A) (+16) 68 South Alabama (23-17) -- LWW (3 H) (+18) 86 Kansas (21-15) -- L (1 A) (1 H) (+7) 99 Nicholls (27-14) -- WWW (3 H) (+1) 107 Grand Canyon (22-18) -- WWLW (4 A) (-16) 112 Wichita St (21-20) -- WL (2 A) (-11) 121 Baylor (18-20) -- W (1 N) (-4) 197 New Mexico St (17-22) -- WW (2 H) (+14) 215 South Dakota St (17-20) (1 H) (+4) 220 North Dakota St (12-22) -- W (1 H) (-19) 294 Omaha (12-23) -- W (1 H) (-5) The Pac-4: 64 Oregon (27-12) (-1) 92 USC (19-21) (-13) 174 Washington (13-19-1) (+16) 189 UCLA (13-24) (-23) What our quads look like right now: Q1: 1-5 (7 total games) (0 change in total games from last week) L – Oklahoma (N) L – Texas Tech (N) LX – bluebirds (A) LWL – Rutgers (A) Q2: 9-4 (17 total games) (-4) WWW – Coll of Charleston (A) WL – Wichita St (A) L – Kansas (A) X – K-State (H) L – bluebirds (H) WWW – Northwestern (A) WLW – Maryland (H) XXX – Michigan St (A) Q3: 11-3 (21 total games) (+4) W – Baylor (N) WWLW – Grand Canyon (A) LWW – South Alabama (H) WWW – Nicholls (H) X – Kansas (H) WWL – Ohio St (H) XXX – Indiana (H) XXX – Minnesota (A) Q4: 4-0 (8 total games) (0) WW – New Mexico St (H) W – N Dakota St (H) W – Omaha (H) X – S Dakota St (H) XXX – Iowa (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+ We have several opponents dancing on the edge of Q2 / Q3, so those numbers may go back and forth a bit over the final month. We're also to the point where everyone has played enough games where you're not going to move a lot in RPI unless you have a really horrible or really dominant week. Even though we're still on the edge of hosting, we're going to have to play a lot better than we have in April to get there. This week is huge in that regard, as we can't lose home games to Q3 and Q4 teams without it costing us quite a bit, I would imagine. Plus we need to win the regular season to have any shot of hosting, so we really have to pick it up from here. Great chance to win an emotional series this weekend to propel us into May on a high note. Lose the series this weekend to an Iowa team that is starting to round into form, and we'll still be on shaky ground heading into the time when you want to be playing your best. Outside of a couple of big offensive performances, it's been incredibly frustrating to see our bats not heat up as the weather improves like we normally do. Until Sunday, we had so many weak, unconfident swings in key spots with RISP or 2 strikes. When you think how Columbus has been carrying us of late (and Brumbaugh and Sanderson to an extent), and all three of them have had long stretches were they weren't playing regularly through the first half of the season, it's a little frightening how much other guys have dropped off / stagnated since March. I know we changed up the pregame work a bit Sunday, so maybe that will be a turning point. We should be scoring at a much higher rate than we are with how many runners we are putting on base. With an uncertain bullpen now, it's time for the offense to start pulling its own weight. With the pitchers, it's been unbelievable how many poor results we're having after getting 2 strikes on the hitters. Not sure why we are giving up so many hits on 2-strike pitches, but that has to change if we're going to get back on track. Guys have to trust their stuff and hit spots. You start thinking about what the pitching staff would look like without Sears & Worthley (and Mac and Walsh much of the time), and it's pretty bleak. Again, a number of guys who've stagnated / regressed from where they were in March. It just feels like we have a major confidence problem right now on the bump and in the box. Losing will do that, especially blowing a couple of multi-run 9th inning leads, but coaches need to figure it out and make the adjustments to get the mojo back. Maybe Sunday was the first step

Emphasis on plural

They do sometimes play each other midweek, but the midweek games are counted as non-con games. Oklahoma & Okla State sometimes do the same thing once a year, usually at Bricktown or Tulsa's minor league park, or at least they used to. I think OU & OSU even went through a stretch where they'd play the 3 conference games at home, on the road, and neutral within one weekend.

That's how you attack a team with a poor pitching staff. So many good swings today on breaking balls, fast balls, whatever. Lots of confident 2-strike swings. Complete 180 from yesterday. Props to Walsh and Stone for setting the tone today from the jump, and the boys ran with it from there. Whatever the coaches did in pregame today, they need to bottle it. Sets up a huge weekend with tons of emotion in the park, as Io_a is going to make every effort to save their season by coming in here and beating us next weekend. Friday will be a monster pitching matchup with many MLB scouts in the stands, and Saturday will be a huge crowd after the spring game. Plus it's a rivalry against a team that's had our number since Heller got there to the tune of 9-18 including a complete domination in a sweep last year in Io_a City. Taking care of business against UI would get the season back on track and set the tone for a strong finish.

Yesterday was the poorest effort out of this team as they've had all season. Reminded me of a throwaway midweek effort from last season. Not good enough then, but lightyears worse in the present when you have a chance to clinch a conference series. To let that soft thrower continually strike us out on late swings on high "fastballs" that would struggle to break glass was simply a team that wasn't ready to compete and didn't go to the plate with a confident mindset. Outside of Columbus, thinking too much, worrying about what could go wrong, instead of making things happen. The coaches can't figure it out and are making decisions that make things worse. I mean the only positive out of a dumpster fire of an effort was Clark, but the coaches even ruined that. To leave Clark in there for another inning after a great outing to face the right handers when he was tiring, and he promptly gives up a 2-run HR, was simply idiotic. Clark is a guy who needs confidence, and he gained a lot yesterday, only to have the coaches leave him hanging out to dry and have him leave the outing with a bad memory. Absolutely terrible. This team reminds me of some of Coach Anderson's teams -- not a compliment -- where they started the season OK, only to have multiple guys stagnate and regress instead of showing improvement. That's not a good look for the coaching staff. Now, this team started far better than OK, but the stagnation and regression, outside of a few guys, is pretty significant at this point. I've got more, but I'll just say this for now -- lose today, and we'll spend May simply trying to hang on to a B1G tourney berth. Not something I thought I'd ever be typing at the start of April.

Why is he not wearing his goggles in his official photos?? I feel like we may have another shin-going-the-wrong-way type of situation building here.

Wow. Awful news. Hope the best for him as he goes through the cancer treatments.

B1G standings thru week 4: 7-2 Illinois 6-3 NU 8-4 Purdue 8-4 Michigan 5-4 Indiana 5-4 Ohio St 6-6 Iowa 5-7 Maryland 5-7 Penn St 3-6 Rutgers 3-6 Minnesota 3-6 Mich St 2-7 N'western Week 5 B1G Schedule Maryland at NU Ohio St at Michigan N'western at Illinois Indiana at Minnesota Rutgers at Iowa Penn St at Michigan St Purdue OFF B1G Boyd's World RPIs (http://boydsworld.com/baseball/rpi/currentrpi.html) through 9 weeks: 16 Nebraska (23-10) (+1 spot vs last week) 44 Ohio St (17-15) -- WWL (3 H) (+6) 46 Rutgers (22-13) -- LWL (3 A) (+13) 53 Maryland (23-14) (3 H) (-24) 69 Illinois (16-13)* (-1) 70 Indiana (20-16) (3 H) (-13) 71 Purdue (23-13)* (+21) 103 Michigan (17-20)* (-14) 107 N'western (12-20) -- WWW (3 A) (-11) 118 Michigan St (14-19) (3 A) (-10) 130 Iowa (18-15) (3 H) (-7) 141 Minnesota (14-16) (3 A) (+17) 152 Penn St (18-14)* (+40) * NU doesn't play Non-con opponents: 19 Oklahoma (21-14) -- L (1 N) (+5) 37 Texas Tech (26-11) -- L (1 N) (+6) 38 K-State (21-13) (1 H) (-12) 45 bluebirds (26-7) -- Lx (2 A) (1 H) (-11) 81 Coll of Charleston (24-10) -- WWW (3 A) (-10) 86 South Alabama (20-16) -- LWW (3 H) (-11) 91 Grand Canyon (19-16) -- WWLW (4 A) (+6) 93 Kansas (19-14) -- L (1 A) (1 H) (0) 100 Nicholls (24-13) -- WWW (3 H) (-36) 101 Wichita St (21-16) -- WL (2 A) (0) 117 Baylor (16-18) -- W (1 N) (+24) 201 North Dakota St (10-21) -- W (1 H) (-46) 211 New Mexico St (15-19) -- WW (2 H) (-3) 219 South Dakota St (15-18) (1 H) (-17) 289 Omaha (10-22) -- W (1 H) (+3) The Pac-4: 63 Oregon (25-10) (-9) 79 USC (17-18) (+24) 166 UCLA (13-20) (-13) 190 Washington (11-17-1) (-38) What our quads look like right now: Q1: 1-5 (7 total games) (0 change in total games from last week) L – Oklahoma (N) L – Texas Tech (N) LX – bluebirds (A) LWL – Rutgers (A) Q2: 12-4 (21 total games) (-3) WWLW – Grand Canyon (A) WWW – Coll of Charleston (A) WL – Wichita St (A) L – Kansas (A) X – K-State (H) X – bluebirds (H) WWW – Northwestern (A) WWL – Ohio St (H) XXX – Michigan St (A) Q3: 6-1 (17 total games) (+3) W – Baylor (N) LWW – South Alabama (H) WWW – Nicholls (H) X – Kansas (H) XXX – Maryland (H) XXX – Indiana (H) XXX – Minnesota (A) Q4: 4-0 (8 total games) (0) WW – New Mexico St (H) W – N Dakota St (H) W – Omaha (H) X – S Dakota St (H) XXX – Iowa (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+ Maryland dropped from Q2 to Q3 this week, and that was the only major change in our RPI projections. Well, we caught a break by playing good teams on the road, even though we didn't win much. The 1-3 week didn't cost us anything in RPI ranking. Actually moved up a spot. Those benefits are not going to be there the next couple of weeks on this 8-game homestand, though. We have to start racking up wins now, or the RPI will take a nose dive, especially since Maryland & Iowa are playing like garbage. We also need to move back to the top of the league standings. We're not going to be in the host discussion unless we can win a B1G title, I'd imagine. It certainly looks like the B1G is struggling since preseason favorites like Iowa, Maryland, and Indiana are not playing great, and because NU is the only NCAA tourney 'lock' at this point, although the B1G's overall RPI is pretty solid. The bottom of the league is playing far better than expected, which helps. Nobody is really, really terrible. Maybe Iowa. Either way, I think we need to win the regular season for the 'eye' test. The NCAA committee is willing to give the best northern team the benefit of the doubt in terms of RPI, but we have to do our part and make ourselves look good. It'd probably help if Indiana State started to slide down the RPI list from #8, too. The NCAA would love two northern hosts, but they aren't going to give one of them the benefit of the doubt if the other one is solidly a host. TL;DR: Last week didn't cost us much. Huge 2-week stretch coming up. No more margin for error. Time to take out some frustration on Maryland & Iowa (& the bluebirds & Kansas).

Anyone else think this dude's name was FLGOR MILICIC at first glance. Because I sure didn't. Hope Brice can reel him in.

Have to completely disagree - we're still very much in the discussion for hosting. I don't disagree that we should be focusing on trying to win the B1G title, as that should always be the #1 goal, but we earned the opportunity to be in the discussion for a host spot with how we played in the first half. Now, I don't think an NCAA host will happen, you just have so little margin for error when you're in the B1G. But what we did in the non-con was more than enough to be in the discussion as a regional host. And we still are in the discussion with an RPI in the teens. We have to be really good from here - probably in the 18-4 range - so it'll be really difficult, but not impossible. We've already had a 19-3 stretch this season against solid competition, so we are more than capable of doing it again. We're just slumping a bit now. It happens to every team, but especially to northern teams in mid-April as the early-season road trips start to catch up to them a bit. Whether we can flip it around quickly is the key. The offense is starting to come around again, and the defense was outstanding last night (for a change), but now we have some issues in the bullpen and with pitching depth. A couple of our younger guys who were really good early are scuffling now. And Perry has been lights out most of this season, so hopefully last night was just a blip. In hindsight, we probably should've had Daiss ready to go earlier against RU's tough righties in the 9th, but it's hard to fault the coaches for relying on Perry as good as he's been. Just the ups and downs of a baseball season. We won a few games early in the year with crazy late-inning comebacks, so eventually the law of averages were almost certainly going to catch up to us. Hopefully we bounce back strong today and start a big run to close out the season. Very important for Mac and Christo to be sharp against some great RU hitters the next couple of days, but I'd guess we're going to have two wild back and forth games.

Yeah, Sears is going to be a draft pick oddity. He'll be 24 years old, he's a late bloomer, and he has no leverage as a super senior, so teams can really low-ball him. Plus, he's going to have to be great out of the gate. Teams aren't waiting around for a 24-year-old to develop over a few years. However, if someone loves his makeup, he could end up going in the first 10 rounds, especially when they can sign him for quite a bit below slot value and give that money to other top 10-round draft picks. Tough to project where he'll go, but I'd guess someone will take a flyer. He's someone where his value to a team may be higher in the first 10 rounds, because he has no leverage, than in the back half. He also could go undrafted and have to try a free agent route. He's definitely in a unique situation.

No change to the rotation - should be a great pitching matchup tonight - two of the best in the league tonight ... well, the best in the league and the guy who's a distant second or third. RU's pitching depth has been a mess of late, but they can really hit and score. The games could get back and forth squirrely Saturday and Sunday.

Board of Regents is discussing this right now - apparently NU and the Saltdogs negotiated an agreement that both could live with. Going to guess the Saltdogs got a bit of pushback from the public for not negotiating fairly, so they caved a bit. It looks like there will be beer sales, starting Tuesday. It's nice of us to make sure bluebird fans will be the first to feel right at home - they can even gather down the first base line and turn their backs on the game and everything, just like they do in Omaha.

Welp, I think we're officially in a mini-slump. So many things went right early in the year, and it's going the other way a bit here of late. Can't believe we scored 11 runs and lost with as much pitching depth as we've had this season. It's pretty common for NU and other northern teams to slump a bit around the middle of the season. Those long road trips early in the year start to take their toll. It's just a matter of us getting it flipped around as quick as possible. Taking a loooong East Coast road trip probably isn't the best remedy for this right now, though, I'd imagine. At least it's a charter flight this weekend. I did like the way we fought back tonight, as it had to be extremely deflating to claw back to a 5-5 tie, only to give up 6 unanswered. Yet, we didn't let the game end right there. Fighting back a second time from a big deficit is a good sign. RU has been a pain in the a$$ over the last several years, as they've beaten us 8 of the last 12 meetings. Hopefully Sears is able to get us off to a good start Friday in NJ and we can take advantage of RU, which is slumping more than we are right now, to get things turned around.

Sigh. I really wish our radio guys would stop telling us how dominant pitcher "X" is looking. A crooked number is sure to follow (other than Sears).

B1G Boyd's World RPIs (http://boydsworld.com/baseball/rpi/currentrpi.html) through 8 weeks: 17 Nebraska (22-7) (-5 spots vs last week) 29 Maryland (22-10) (3 H) (+3) 50 Ohio St (13-14) -- WWL (3 H) (+16) 57 Indiana (18-15) (3 H) (+43) 59 Rutgers (19-12) (3 A) (-16) 68 Illinois (16-13)* (+18) 89 Michigan (14-18)* (+15) 92 Purdue (20-12)* (+23) 96 N'western (10-18) -- WWW (3 A) (-15) 108 Michigan St (14-15) (3 A) (+9) 137 Iowa (16-13) (3 H) (-35) 158 Minnesota (12-14) (3 A) (-13) 192 Penn St (16-12)* (+15) * NU doesn't play Non-con opponents: 24 Oklahoma (17-14) -- L (1 N) (+5) 26 K-State (20-10) (1 H) (+11) 34 bluebirds (24-5) -- Lx (2 A) (1 H) (+5) 43 Texas Tech (24-9) -- L (1 N) (+16) 64 Nicholls (23-11) -- WWW (3 H) (+30) 71 Coll of Charleston (20-10) -- WWW (3 A) (+30) 75 South Alabama (17-15) -- LWW (3 H) (-19) 93 Kansas (15-14) (1 A) (1 H) (-33) 97 Grand Canyon (16-15) -- WWLW (4 A) (-8) 101 Wichita St (19-13) -- WL (2 A) (-24) 141 Baylor (13-18) -- W (1 N) (+13) 155 North Dakota St (8-19) -- W (1 H) (-20) 202 South Dakota St (13-16) (1 H) (+6) 208 New Mexico St (12-18) -- WW (2 H) (-5) 292 Omaha (8-20) -- W (1 H) (+6) The Pac-4: 54 Oregon (22-8) (+11) 103 USC (15-16) (+5) 152 Washington (9-15-1) (-56) 153 UCLA (12-17) (+21) What our quads look like right now: Q1: 0-3 (7 total games) (0 change in total games from last week) L – Oklahoma (N) L – Texas Tech (N) LX – bluebirds (A) XXX – Rutgers (A) Q2: 12-3 (24 total games) (+3) WWLW – Grand Canyon (A) WWW – Coll of Charleston (A) WL – Wichita St (A) X – K-State (H) X – Kansas (A) X – bluebirds (H) WWW – Northwestern (A) WWL – Ohio St (H) XXX – Michigan St (A) XXX – Maryland (H) Q3: 6-1 (14 total games) (-3) W – Baylor (N) LWW – South Alabama (H) WWW – Nicholls (H) X – Kansas (H) XXX – Indiana (H) XXX – Minnesota (A) Q4: 4-0 (8 total games) (0) WW – New Mexico St (H) W – N Dakota St (H) W – Omaha (H) X – S Dakota St (H) XXX – Iowa (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+ Not a huge change from last week, other than Ohio St moving into Q2. Kind of surprised Maryland hasn't lost more ground with back to back series losses. Big week upcoming with 4 Top-100 RPI road games, although if we win the series at Rutgers, they probably fall to Q2. Iowa has solidly placed itself in Q4. Definitely didn't have that on my bingo card back in February. Indiana made a huge surge, though, and they're approaching Q2, as did Nicholls.

Wouldn't be surprised if we tried someone else on the bump on Sunday next week. Christo still just gets too much of the plate - been a problem since he arrived. Probably Walsh. Maybe we try moving Christo to midweeks. Or maybe we let him throw as Walsh's backup, as those two have completely different styles and can complement each other. Regardless, the bats have to get going. Just slumping a bit right now with runners on base and especially with runners in scoring position. We needed the offense to seize control of the game in the middle innings when Walsh gave us a chance. Still, as mentioned earlier, tough to be upset about a 2-1 B1G weekend. Huge week coming up from an RPI perspective with winnable road games. Need to take advantage of Rutgers while they are scuffling, because they're too good not to going to get it going at some point. And KU is sneaky good. Throwing Walsh as much as we did today probably leaves him out of the equation at KU, so not sure what we're going to do on the mound for such a big game. For our chances of hosting a regional, this upcoming week could end up being make or break when we look back at it in late May. Have to find a way to score some runs.

The preseason B1G predictions don't look so good thru the nearly 1/3 point of league play. B1G Standings 5-0 NU 7-2 Illinois 6-3 Michigan 3-2 Indiana 5-4 Iowa 4-4 Purdue 3-3 Mich St 2-3 Ohio St 3-5 Maryland 3-5 Penn St 2-4 Minnesota 1-4 Rutgers 0-5 N'western Woof. Although it's fun to see Iowa, Rutgers, and Maryland scuffling, and although their struggles help us work toward winning a B1G regular-season title, this isn't helping our hopes to host a regional. It'd be nice if Maryland could win tomorrow vs Indiana and salvage one game in that series. At this rate, if we want to host a regional, we're probably looking at needing to get to 19-plus B1G wins in the regular season and be nearly perfect in the remaining non-con games. Not a lot of room for error, but at least we're in control of our own destiny for the most part. Just keep winning.

The way B1G play has started, the league is far closer to a 1-bid league than a 4-bid league.