Big Ten baseball

In recent years, I'd give the nod to Ohio State and Michigan, as the best teams in the Big Ten.

I do not think you have to throw 90 to be recruited by a Big Ten School, as every pitcher in the Big Ten or any other conference for that matter doesn't have every pitcher throwing in the 90's.
Illinois and Northwestern have a good amount of Chicagoland players on the roster. I know of at least two players that are now freshman in Big Ten Schools outside of Illinois and Nortwestern: Johnny Lee (Naperville Central HS)now at Michigan State and Ryan Gryzwa (St Ignatius HS) now at Iowa. However, it's easier and less expensive for a coach to recruit players in his own state than travel out of state to recruit.

Here's a beginning to answering some of your questions...you can check each schools roster & "blogs" for interesting information on recruiting, etc...I know Iowa is recruiting several guys in Texas...

http://bigten.collegesports.com/sports/m-basebl/big10-m-basebl-body.html

Dusty Napolean who went to New Trier is also having a good experience at Iowa. He started every game at first base and hit over .300 Now he is going to be the cathcer for his sopomore year and could get drafted if he has another good year. Who is Illinois's new coach? What are his credentials? Is he a big recruiter?

Good luck to Dusty and all our guy's in the Big Ten.

Having said that I believe the Missouri Valley is the best Conference in the midwest. The MAC has also (imo) surpassed the Big Ten.

Big Ten baseball can be very good ball. Usually the top two pitchers for each team are pretty darn good. The teams tend not to be as deep in talent as those in the south. For the past few years, no team has really run away with the big ten accept Minnesota.

The Big Ten recruits the Chicago area very heavily. They rely on the players from here because it is too hard to convince a player from the warmer climates to play up here in the spring.

Most Big Ten programs do what is necessary to devlop players and get the most out of them. They take up to five major trips to the warmer states before the season begins and work their players very hard on fundemental baseball. Many players are drafted out of the Big Ten each year. You could do a lot worse. Big Ten schools are also very strong from an acedemic standpoint.

The new Illinois coach was the assistant coach last year. Hear he is a good coach and deserving of the job. Don't know much about his recruiting.

Hope you don't mind the intrusion into your forum:

http://www.boydsworld.com/baseball/isr/confisr.html

For what it is worth, conference rankings information

I watched Michigan State vs. Indiana late in the season last year and was not impressed. All I can say is it was a comedy of errors. IMO, it was like which team wants to lose the most. I realize these two teams were in the bottom of their division last year (and subsequently the coaching staffs from both teams were replaced) but I had expected better baseball than what I witnessed. In their defense there were some players who were pretty good but, IMO, very few.

quote:

Originally posted by Benchwarmer:

The new Illinois coach was the assistant coach last year. Hear he is a good coach and deserving of the job. Don't know much about his recruiting.

Coach Hartleb has been with Coach Jones for years. In fact, he was Coach Jones' assistant when Coach Jones was at Southern Illinois. Coach Hartleb was a catcher in college and work with the pitching staff under Coach Jones'. Naturally, being around Coach Jones, he has also been a big part of the offense approach and from our conversations, I would guess that you won't see many changes in that regard as he takes over. JMHO!

Ling. The Big Ten has been behind the MVC for about 15-20 years. Minnesota has been their ONLY consistent program during that time.

For the past 2 seasons the MAC has dominated the Big 10.

Gamer

Quinn Ewert from Crystal Lake Central is also attending Michigan State.

luvbb - thanks for the intrusion. That was an interesting link and I had not seen that before.

Northwestern has Folen from St. Viator, Binder from Hinsdale Central, Vocelli from Wilmington, Long from Notre Dame, and Wilson from Fremd. They recruit the Chicago area pretty hard. Kelley from Hersey is going to Penn State. I am sure that Illinois and Iowa have local players as well.

Soxnole - I agree with you on the MVC but not the MAC. They have improved, but not past the Big Ten.

Big MW - It is hard to judge a conference based upon watching the two worst teams play near the end of the year. The top teams can play some pretty solid baseball.

northwestern's best pitcher is geroge kontos from Niles West. thorws gas(93-95) played in the cape cod leage this summer and did awesome. Should be a mid round pick in next years mlb draft

You gotta love Ling's logo

Best Big 10/11 teams, year in and year out, are Ohio State and Minnesota.

Michigan made a splash last year could hang around near the top for the next few years with the coach that came over from Ball State (I believe). The Wolverines also had the women's softball National Champions this past year.

Rest are mediocre in terms of being nationally competitive.

Great conference for Ohio State and Michigan in football; and, for a few basketball programs.

Five Big 10 teams have had coaching upheavals within the past two years: Penn State, Illinois, Michigan State, Indiana and Iowa. From our own experience, the coaching change has resulted in a broadening of horizons and many more out-of-state players being signed to my son's program. Will be interesting to see how these coaching changes will impact their respective teams.

Benchwarmer,

I simply stated my experience with the two Big Ten teams I witnessed on that particular day (although it apparently didn't get any better the next day either). Although my post falls under the topic "Big Ten baseball", I wasn't attempting to judge the overall conference, just those two teams. The opinion stated is merely a speck of information for any prospective candidate to digest for what it is.

By the end of the season, I would expect a DI team to be more sound defensively than what I saw regardless if it's the best teams or the worst teams. I expected much better than what I saw. Sorry if what I have said offends anyone and for painting a somewhat negative spin on those teams but from the post season changes to these teams, I would say my judgement was sound.

I love this topic, keep it going!

wood - I spoke to Mr. Conklin about this and when I questioned him his answer was that it was his opinion that there should be no scholarships for any collegiate athletes. He just used Big Ten Baseball to make a point.

Michigan is a program to watch.

Prediction - Michigan will become one of the top programs, outside the south and west, within the next couple years. Michigan might have the top incoming freshman player in the country this year.

Minnesota is always good. Usually Ohio State is very good. Other programs, like Iowa are on the rise. Illinois and some others should be good also.

To play for a Big 10 school, you'd better have some talent. I would think a player and his parents should be very proud to draw interest from a Big 10 school.

Beenthere,

You mention, it's a great conference for Ohio State and Michigan in football. True! but there's another school that has won or shared the Big 10 Championship 2 out of the last 3 years. This same school has ended each of the last 3 years ranked #8 or better in all the polls. This school, Oklahoma and Southern Cal being the only ones to do that.

However, if your talking about the previous years... It's Ohio State and Michigan nearly every year.

Wood - Yea that was the article I talked to him about. He admitted that it was unfair to pick on Big Ten Baseball when his intended target was the entire collegiate scholarship system.

luvbb, Boyd’s World is a great place to root around.

The Big Ten, by the numbers on Boyd’s, ranks as follows;

RPI (Ratings Power Index) = 10 (out of 31)
This is the NCAA’s measure of team quality used for tournament selection.

ISR (Iterative Strength Rating) = 10
This is an algorithm that measures the quality of a team’s /conference using winning% with the difficulty of the schedule. ISR is an attempt to make up for the inaccuracies of the RPI.

SoS (Strength of Schedule) = 17
SoS measures the average ISR of the team’s/conference’s opponents.

Not bad being in the top 1/3rd, along with some pretty good company. As PG stated you better bring it in the Big 10.

Ling, in comparison MVC, RPI = 7, ISR = 7, and, SoS = 14. Statistically a bit better than the Big Ten.

The Final 2005 NCBWA Top 35 Poll (June 27, 2005) ranked 2 MVC teams, Creighton (48-17) 31st and Wichita State (51-24) 32nd. The Big ranked only one team, Ohio State (40-20) 34th. Advantage MVC.

The MAC is a bit of a reach in this discussion, 18 RPI, 17 ISR, and 18 SoS. However, great numbers with some great teams and coaches.

IMHO Big 10 baseball, given the $ brought in from other sports (football and basketball) and alumni, should be able to compete at the highest level in Div 1. There are Div 1 teams on shoe string/blue collar budgets that field better programs than the Big 10. Don’t blame title IX or the weather.

Keep it TEAL! GO CHANTS!

Smokey,

Outstanding, informative post. Thanks for breaking it down.

I agree with Smokey and PGstaff. There are pro players drafted out of the Big Ten every year. I think some of the criticisms in this thread are unfair. We probably can find something negative about any school or conference if we look hard enough. I would be very proud if my son were at a Big 10 school playing baseball.

Regarding the article above, we can do that kind of analysis with any sport and just about any conference. Are you a c-r-a-p program simply because you do not win a national championship each year - I think not. Look at Eddie Sutton or Gene Keady in basketball, for example. They are considered great coaches with great programs but have never won the big one.

True Cleveland. I think the Big Ten is a solid (not great) conference. I think most of the knocks against the Big Ten come from their standing in baseball as a conference compared to their success in other sports. In addition, Big Ten apologists do too much whining about the weather and Title IX. If a Big Ten softball team can win a National Championship, there is no reason why a Big ten baseball team couldn't at least make an occasional appearance in Omaha.

Having played in the MVC I would agree that at one point the MVC was better than the Big Ten. This was when in the late 70's and early 80's SIU and Indiana State were national powers, WSU took off in the very early 80's and are still the class of the MVC right now. In the mid 80's to mid 90's WSU, Creighton, Southwest Missouri, Evansville and Indiana State all made the Mo Valley the best baseball in the Midwest. Since that time the Valley has fallen to the point WSU wants out! Baseball America last year and the year before that had the Big Ten ahead of the MO Valley and I would have to agree with that. Last year the Mac was ahead of the Mo Valley which I do not have enough info to comment on. Yes the Valley has fallen off in recent years. I do not think the Big Ten has improved all that much, I just think the Valley has lost ground.

Your right UpAndIn. I think the gap between the MVC and the Big 10/11 has narrowed, although I would still give the knod to the MVC (as did the final conference RPI's for 2005). And, I agree, it is more a case of the MVC slipping than the Big 10/11 gaining ground. The MAC has a couple of quality programs, but also a ton of dead weight. I don't see them at all in the class of even the MVC or the Big 10/11. I'm not sure, but isn't the WSU possibly leaving the MVC issue more about the overall weakness of the conference than just a baseball issue? I can't believe any team would jump a conference based on its baseball strength.

Travel is an issue with WSU, but baseball is the sport WSU hangs it's hat on. What Gene Stephenson wants, Gene Stephenson gets. Look for the Shockers to move on out within 5 years.

UpAndIn,

I am definitely not disagreeing with you, especially since you played at WSU. But is it really true that a baseball program at ANY university has that much input and pull into a conference affiliation decision? The D1 baseball fan in me is thrilled that any baseball coach at any D1 school could have that much input in any decision outside the narrow scope of his program (except of course the obvious exception of Bertman when he was the coach at LSU--now the AD). The skeptic in me still questions whether it is possible, but I'll take your word as a knowledgable insider. BULLY for Stephenson at WSU!

K13 I said I played in the Valley, I did not play for WSU. I could only have wished to be good enough to play for them. I might have been good enough to carry a ball bucket for the Shockers LOL! WSU was just starting to takeoff when I was in the Valley.

I think the Shockers also want to go bigger in football and basketball, but baseball is the driving force at this point. I would have guessed that this would have happened by now, this talk started 4 ot 5 years ago.

To go bigger in football, WSU will need a team first.

They had a nationally ranked one in 1983 NCAA 1aa, what happened? When did they drop it?

I think they dropped it before 83. You might be thinking of SIU, which won the Iaa National Championship in 83. Where do you think Wichita got all their money in the 70's to restart their baseball program.

Witchita State dropped football somewhere around 86 or 87. I had a cousin playing quarterback there at the time.

WSU played at ISU in the 80's in football. A game in which ISU lost. Was it called the Gateway (football only) at that point? or was it a playoff game? ISU had a good year in there with John Copens (sp?) at QB.

The Shockers started baseball in the late 1970's as their National Championship video shows.

Sorry, my timing was off. I'm sure either Siu or ISU would take Cessna Stadium over what they have now for football. Cessna used for track now.

I would imagine a player throwing mid 80's could pitch for the big ten. As long as you have three developed pitches and shown a knack for composure and winning.I think your body type has a lot to do with it as well. Are you 5'10 and throwing 85 or 6'4 throwing 83? I believe they like to look at how you will project. I agree with up and in that the MAC has slid, and the big ten has been stagnant. Unfortunately college coaches will take a chance on a unproven pitcher throwing 90 verses a proven pitcher throwing 85 or less.If the pitcher that throws 85 or less does poorly, the coach will take the heat for not developing him into a college pitcher. But if the kid throwing 90 does not pan out the coach can simply say thathe throws 90 but just did not develop.It is unfortunate ,but that is the way it goes. Keep working hard and you can play wherever you want!

Your probably right. I try to see things with a positive twist. A lot of things are out of your control!

sac...Nice post. Welcome.