Completely new/old ballgame

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I like what I'm reading 44...thanks.




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Very encouraging. Sounds like baseball.

I am looking forward to seeing real baseball being played at the college level. It's sad we still have the rocket launchers in HS though.

So what you are saying is that you didn't see any 6'4" & 240/lb guys playing 2b?

We can expect that batted ball speeds will creep back up to some extent because:
- Bat manufacturers will optimize the designs to give higher batted ball speed whle still meeting BBCOR requirements. Twice before, the NCAA has clamped down on bat specs, and each time scoring has crept back up.
-Hitters will find that using bats of higher moment of inertia (heavier or longer) yields higher BBS. They'll accept more strikeouts to get more home runs.
-Some hitters will adjust their swing mechanics to work better with BBCOR bats.

Even so, the new standards are going to improve college baseball.

More early evidence of the change in the college game:

Son's DII was 13th in the nation last year in home runs hit per game (66 hit in 48 games is 1.38 a game). Seven players who accounted for 80% of last year's homers returned this year.

So far this year through seven games? The team has hit four home runs, an average of .57 a game. Even though the bulk of the power hitters have returned a year older and stronger, the home run pace is less than half so far.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/vi...ns_amp_holeinone.htm

It maybe a good research to check the schools in New Mexico, Colorado and Utah as to the HR's this year as opposed last year.

Yesterday at SSU the scores were 6-5 and 1-0. Biola
University was the opponent. The successful hitters
in the games all played in wood bat summer leagues and hit the ball where it was pitched.

The pro scouts, players and the coaches will adjust!

Bob

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quote:

Originally posted by Bob Williams:
It maybe a good research to check the schools in New Mexico.....as to the HR's this year as opposed last year.

Bob

Great question...and I have an answer...

I have it on excellent authority that at New Mexico State they hit/expect about 30 home runs a bp...

...down 90% at the first BP this year...

44
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quote:

Originally posted by 3FingeredGlove:
We can expect that batted ball speeds will creep back up to some extent because:
- Bat manufacturers will optimize the designs to give higher batted ball speed whle still meeting BBCOR requirements. Twice before, the NCAA has clamped down on bat specs, and each time scoring has crept back up.
-Hitters will find that using bats of higher moment of inertia (heavier or longer) yields higher BBS. They'll accept more strikeouts to get more home runs.
-Some hitters will adjust their swing mechanics to work better with BBCOR bats.

Even so, the new standards are going to improve college baseball.

Agree on all points...

The fascinating thing was that I heard the opinion circulated that "wood bats have more pop".

Thta would lead me to believe that perhaps someone has already factored in some "creep".

44
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And you know...

The new bats just don't sound right....

I really miss that cheery, uplifting, "Ping" that could be heard from the far reaches of the parking lot...

...the one let you know that it was time for the "airshow"...

44
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quote:

Originally posted by Hot Corner Dad:
More early evidence of the change in the college game:

Son's DII was 13th in the nation last year in home runs hit per game (66 hit in 48 games is 1.38 a game). Seven players who accounted for 80% of last year's homers returned this year.

So far this year through seven games? The team has hit four home runs, an average of .57 a game. Even though the bulk of the power hitters have returned a year older and stronger, the home run pace is less than half so far.

I think it is too early to tell. The temperatures are low across the nation this time of year and homeruns are always down - new bats or not. I think we need more data (warm + cold weather) before drawing the ultimate conclusions.

quote:

Originally posted by observer44:

I really miss that cheery, uplifting, "Ping" that could be heard from the far reaches of the parking lot...

That is the last thing I will miss. I always enjoy hearing the ball meeting the wood on the sweet spot knowing it was stuck well with a chance to become a souvenir. The metal bats never had a soul.

quote:

Originally posted by ClevelandDad:

quote:

Originally posted by Hot Corner Dad:
More early evidence of the change in the college game:

Son's DII was 13th in the nation last year in home runs hit per game (66 hit in 48 games is 1.38 a game). Seven players who accounted for 80% of last year's homers returned this year.

So far this year through seven games? The team has hit four home runs, an average of .57 a game. Even though the bulk of the power hitters have returned a year older and stronger, the home run pace is less than half so far.

I think it is too early to tell. The temperatures are low across the nation this time of year and homeruns are always down - new bats or not. I think we need more data (warm + cold weather) before drawing the ultimate conclusions.

Yes, two weeks of games is almost statistically irrelevant, especially in February weather. But if you add in the testimonies of coaches across the country from the fall, the evidence is already compelling clear. The college game as we have known it in recent decades is going to look different this year.

Went and watched Cumberland University (class of 89 ) they played 4 games this weekend, 2 against Missouri Baptist and 2 against University of St Francis. Combined stats Cumberland 22-6, 4 hrs in 4 games for CU, 2 by one player in one game, then one game had O. 1 by the opposing teams. CU was 6-7 in stolen bases, the other teams 2-4. Some things I noticed, yes some balls that CU hit last year would have been gone, course if they did not have 10-20 mph wind they were hitting into they may have gone out as well. The one homerun St Francis did hit yesterday was wind aided, towering fly ball that just floated and floated and the the right fielder just couldnt jump high enough. The Demarini Voodoo black "sounded" great, the old metal sound, the Easton Surge sounded like a wood bat, and the bat that hit the most hrs was a Easton Rival. There were more bunt attempts and most of the runs were scored off of singles and doubles, "small ball". BUT the bottom line as the stats indicate, good pitching will beat good hitting any day of the week, no matter what they are swinging. Funny thing, I talked to some players since then asking their opinions on bats, and to a man they even wished they would all go back to wood. I love this game, lol.

quote:

Watched my first college games with the new bats…I expected some change….but the difference I saw was simply ASTOUNDING...

Yes indeed. We reported on this rather extensively when the bats appeared last Fall.

The first six games I've seen this Spring have gone pretty much as I thought they might; low-scoring games punctuated by effective pitching and good defense.

It will be interesting to see if the lower scoring games bore the fan base away as many a D1 Coach has gone on record to say?

I did see something interesting the other day; two boxes of Maple bats, sent over from a local ACC D1 school, to have the handles and end cups sprayed with "line-ex" bedliner! They are testing them to see if it impedes breakage. Hum ... what are they gearing up for?

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quote:

Originally posted by Prime9: It will be interesting to see if the lower scoring games bore the fan base away as many a D1 Coach has gone on record to say?

IMO....while I enjoyed the "live bat era" as much as the next guy...

...There are two kinds of boring...

...and one of them is watching players round the bases endlessly...waiting forever for the other team to get up...4 hour games...4 pitchers per inning (we spent as much time watching pitching changes as we did actual game)...high pitch counts and walks as pitchers dance around the zone afraid to throw strikes...

There needs to be some balance. And there may be.

If MLB is any indication, things will work out just fine...it was amazing how quickly MLB and it's fan base adapted to a new/old game.

44
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One other factor that will make the game MORE exciting, not less: Suspense. A tight 3-2 game in the eighth is not unlike a good Hitchcock movie. Remember those.. when something was left to the imagination.

There is not much suspense when you're behind 14-3 with 6 outs to go.

quote:

Originally posted by Vector:
I am looking forward to seeing real baseball being played at the college level. It's sad we still have the rocket launchers in HS though.

BBCOR in HS next year.

quote:

IMO....while I enjoyed the "live bat era" as much as the next guy...

You are missing the point about the young fans that our filling the stands at the CWS, they aren't all old time purists like us, they want the scoring! Tuning the College game down may not sell tickets.

I just got back from watching a three game series by my son's team. In twenty innings of offense they scored 36 runs and hit 4 HRs but the other team did make a lot of errors in allowing ten runs in the first game. It was kind of ironic that the first batter of the season on the other team hit an HR, but that was the last one they hit during the series.

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quote:

Originally posted by Prime9:

quote:

IMO....while I enjoyed the "live bat era" as much as the next guy...

You are missing the point about the young fans that our filling the stands at the CWS, they aren't all old time purists like us, they want the scoring! Tuning the College game down may not sell tickets.

Rgarding ticket sales and quantitative (non purist) popularity....let's ramble a little bit...

I was at one point convinced of that too...that a large part of the fan base was the fan base was generated almost exclusively by a unearthy love of and devotion exclusively to explosive offense and the long ball...when the steroid/live Bat era's were in full swing I was the first to predict doom and gloom when they ended....a declining fan base...empty stadiums...

But I have been amazed at how the mlb fan base has shifted qualitative and quantitative allegiance to the value of a different game, one based on athletic drama the awe of pitchers rather than the awe of offense....

...OR to take an entirely different and cynical view...there is a large portion of the fan base that apparently is not really there for the "game" as we purists see it anyway...rather they are there to eat and drink and be part of something bigger, "an experience" with only a % of that being the baseball...at the very least, the money that was generated by those power eras was put into ballparks that have created a fan experience that is not "game related" but amenity related...and cointinues to fill ballparks...regardless of the current non-explosive quality of the product...for a large # it may just be that even though they do not fully comprehend it, the game is secondary...go to any MLB game an see how many people are actually focused on the game...and how many are busy eating and drinking and heckling and wandering and people watching and grousing...and having an afternooon in the sun that in the city just happens to need an excuse and a venue. And they love dramas, the drama of an athtlic event...and for them the drama of a close game, a great pitcher is a drug that is nearly as good as drama of a power spectacle.

...and taking that same cynical view to the college game...again easy to predict doom and gloom for the college game with a big part of the young fan base leaving wihout the thrills and spills of the long ball...but if we take that same cynical view of the MLB fan base to the college game...it just may be that the "fan experience" is the underlying factor that again will tell...not simply the explosive or non explosive nature of the game itself,...again being cynical, not sure that the college kids are not after the experience of being college kids, in the sun, with ot her college kids...being part of "an event" of the/any drama. Watch the college kids, watching (or not watching) the game is telling. Again being cynical, The % of focus on the game is not that large...that being the case it can be argued that a large % didn't come for the specific qaulity of the game anyway and they will stick for reasons other than power...at least for a while.

Omaha...great example of the power of the draw of an event, and athltic drama of any kind...lots of those fans don't have a "dog in that fight" and may not even be die hard baseball fans but the thing has become a must see event...even after it's power quotient was dumbed down a few years back.

44
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I would have to agree with your "ramble" about the college attendance O44. I would think that a large % of the students are their for the experience, something to do, to see their boyfriend or friend. And I believe there is nothing wrong with that. That's how fans are created to most things. The more students that go, the more other students want to go.

IMO most of these students are not looking for a home run or a lot of runs scored. They're there to have fun, be part of something and support their school. If we happen to win, great. If the team wins even more students will go. If they lose alot less students will go.

The one constant at the games are us the parents. Thirty degrees or 100 degrees we will be there no matter how many home runs, strikeouts, wins or loses.