Marmonte League Rankings

As expected with CC of C vs TO and Calabasas. I think it was a good thing for them to do though during spring break. It should keep the kids from getting complacent about winning at the D7 level and hopefully help some of the more talented ones see what they have to do to go on to play college ball at some level.

Have not looked at the Maramonte match ups this week but Hueneme and Oxnard go at it on Tuesday. Both 6-0 in League.

Royal v Moorpark - Royal, should be good game.
TO v Calabasas - TO
NP v Simi - Simi if Sherfy threw lot of innings v Bishop Gorman, otherwise NP.
Agoura v WL - WL

Tough day to call.

Jesus Valdez throws no hitter against Oxnard. Quite a feat as Oxnard can hit. Way to go Jesus.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/...0414,0,6529394.story

SB d San Marcos 14 - 5
DP d Ventura 6 - 4

Congrats to Chewy and his team, it helps you when have a great friend who is the catcher. I hope they have a nice run in the playoffs. Some real nice kids and parents on that team. SB is going to be a team do be dealt with in the playoffs. Don't underestimate them, I watched the Loyola playoff game vs them last year at loyola. They were young and played real well and beat Loyola soundly.

quote:

NP v Simi - Simi if Sherfy threw lot of innings v Bishop Gorman, otherwise NP.

Brower gets the start. With Vigo down, and NP's having success against some very tough teams at the Bishop Gorman tournament (e.g. Menlo Park), I'm gonna be biased and say that NP prevails against Simi today.

I'd also like to offer congratulations to Jesus Valdez for the no-hitter. My son was on the Crushers travel team with Jesus, and you won't find a nicer kid anywhere. He deserves all the success he will have with his baseball career.

Nice call by Proud on the NP game. Shoredan looked like a decent pitcher to me when I saw him pitch a little bit a few weeks ago.

Buckel vs. Barker must have been a treat for the radar guns. Barker throws almost as hard as Buckel and is probably more projectable. Buckel is far more polished. Just speculation, but it wouldn't surprise me if Barker saw a lot of guns and overthrew a bit.

More predictions based on less than nothing:
Royal v TO - Royal, could be pretty close if Thomson pitches well

Moorpark v Agoura - Moorpark

WL v Simi - Simi

Calabasas v NP - NP

Agree but don't think the Royal vs TO game will be close, Royal is one of the better teams in SoCal and TO is a below average team this year. There not terrible, but just not in Royal's class right now.

Could be a good game in SB this afternoon with cross town rivals San Marcos and SB. Will be interesting if SB can keep it going as they head into their heavy league schedule. They also have some tough non league games mixed in. Right now they are ranked pretty high.

Oxnard vs Hueneme should be fun also. Will be interesting to see how a non Valdezean pitcher does against Oxnard. This game could end up being critical for the Pacific View title.

Royal game was close, until TO won it.
Moorpark d Agoura
WL d Simi
NP d Calabasas

With league half over it looks like Royal, Moorpark and NP are locks for the playoffs barring a collapse and TO seems to have the advantage over Calabasas and WL. Simi and Agoura look to be out of contention. There may or may not be a fifth playoff spot depending on the overall record of the 5th place team.

Guesses for 4/21
Royal v Simi - Royal
Moorpark v Westlake - Moorpark, could be good game as WL is playing better lately
TO v NP - NP, can NP make a nail biter out of what should be an easy win?
Agoura v Calabasas - Agoura is due to win one.

BTW,
Nice win for Moorpark vs. Lakewood on Saturday. Junior RHP Matt Higginbotham was the starter and Barker closed. Saturday games don't mean much but still a nice win.

Agree with CADad.

This week Pacific View has:

Oxnard vs Rio Mesa x2

Hueneme vs Camarillo x2

Oxnard should beat RM x2 but they could take one from Oxnard. H vs C should end up a split. This series will be important for Hueneme if they want to take the league title this year. These are going to be two great games.

Channel:

Buena vs San Marcos x2
DP vs Santa Barbara x2

Buena and SM should split, SB should beat DP 2x and take a comanding lead in the Channel League.

My mind tells me to root for DP so the race stays close, but the DP coach is a complete...well I can print that here...so my heart says SB crush them. Ventura has a bye week.

What makes the DP coach questionable? We have played them numerous times and have never had a problem. They are very rah-rah, but other than that it seems like he pushes his guys hard and they usually play pretty well fundamentally

Royal d Simi
Moorpark d WL
NP d TO
Calabasas d Agoura

Friday guesses:
Moorpark v TO - TO in a big upset
NP v Royal - NP in another upset
Agoura v Simi - Agoura
Calabasas v Westlake - Westlake

I'll be lucky to get one of these right.

CADad, You will probably get a couple right, Moorpark is playing pretty good baseball so I am not sure about that one. Maybe on NP, but Royal is also pretty tough.

Channel League got real interesting yesterday, DP beat SB, San Marcos d Buena. They both go at it again tonight. I will post a link in the SB thread on the DP/SB game.

Coach brave, on DP coach it is one thing to be rah rah, but it is another to cross the line with inappropriate language and actions. He has only been doing this for two years so I will give him the benefit of the doubt. I will give him this, his team does play hard, but they are also trash talkers, which personally I don't like.

BOF,
Been picking the easy ones so I thought I'd go out on a limb this week.

I saw you posted the article on Edgington. When my son told me that Edgington had K'd 21 I knew he must have thrown a lot of pitches but I didn't think the pitch count would be quite that high. I think they have to at least split their last 4 games to have a good shot at making the playoffs and have to win 3 to be almost certain. If they can sweep they could still end up second.

I missed the 160 pitches...wow..old school. I guess if you are rolling along you can do this, but hopefully does not become the norm. Break out the ice

There haven't been many complete games. He seems to go by how they look rather than the pitch count.

Royal d NP in 8
TO d Moorpark
WL d Calabasas
Agoura d Simi

Not bad CADad. Take away one inning and you are 4 for 4.

Oxnard is starting to pull away in the Pacific View League, Camarillo showed they have to be reckoned with and knocked off Hueneme with Valdez pitching. Hueneme will be in it, but not sure if they are deep enough to overcome Oxnard.

Channel League got turned upside down last week. Two underdog 1-4 teams swept their series. San Marcos beat Buena twice and DP beat Santa Barbara twice. Ventura has critical series with SB this week that may well determine the Channel League….maybe since there are 5 teams and the League match ups are back loaded and all teams are evenly matched.

Actually 3-0-1.

Wednesday guesses:
Royal v WL - Royal
Calabasas v Simi - Calabasas
MP v NP - tossup, heads it is MP, tails NP - heads
TO v Agoura - Agoura

Royal d WL
Moorpark d NP
TO d Agoura
Calabasas d Simi

Looks like Moorpark has done the same thing that probably kept them from making the playoffs a couple years ago. Moving one of their weekday starters to the bullpen. They got away with it on Tuesday as the replacement starter gave up all 7 runs over 4 innings. The ex-starter struggled with control (probably why he was moved to the pen) but gave up 0 runs over the next couple innings. They have a tendency to try to force pitchers into their mold, i.e. pitching backwards. The kids who are comfortable with that flourish and the ones who don't fit that mold, typically the harder throwers, tend to struggle. To be fair, I have to say that the kid who did start is a talented pitcher, and a good kid, who had pitched well against strong competition lately.

Guesses for Friday:
Royal v Calabasas - Royal
Westlake v TO - Westlake
NP v Agoura - NP
Moorpark v Simi - Moorpark

Royal d Calabasas
Westlake d TO
NP d Agoura
Moorpark d Simi

In the "boy did we blow it" department.

Oxnard took Pacifica lightly and got beat then Camarillo beat them this week and now they have been knocked out of the Pacific View league lead and now have to take on Jesus Valdez to just tie.

Ventura was swept by Santa Barbara last week pretty much dashing any Channel League hopes and virtually assuring a Channel League title for SB.

In the what just happened department NP vs Westlake game took 66 minutes...

I am sure there were more than a few Dads who left the office early to pick up the second half only to show up to high fives.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.co...ity+Times+Insider%29

Royal has at least guaranteed a tie for the Maramonte title, I am not sure if 4 or 5 get playoff spots but at least Royal, MP, NP and Westlake (I think) will make it, Santa Barbara has wrapped up the Channel League, San Marcos is in, and there may be a three way tie for third depending on games tomorrow. Camarillo has at least a tie for the Pacific View league, Oxnard second, and Hueneme third. As a side note Oaks Christian knocked off St. Bonnie (first time in 5 years) for the Tri-Valley title. Just shows you how competitive the baseball is out here for it to go down to the last week in all of the northern section leagues…actually the same in the Valley as several are undecided.

There was a great article in the local paper title “what just happened” about how difficult it is to make it through the baseball playoffs, even for high seeds. Link below.

http://www.vcstar.com/news/201...to-cover/?vcspreps=1

My guess is that Royal and Moorpark will be seeded directly into the playoffs and that NP, TO and WL will have to play "play-in" games. I don't remember if teams have to be .500 overall or better than .500 overall to qualify for the playoffs as a wild card team. (Looking back to last year's posts on this it looks like a .500 overall record is the requirement so WL should be in.)

Royal v TO is a somewhat meaningful game for both. Royal probably wants 1st alone and TO would like better seeding in playoffs? WL v Simi may be meaningful for WL relative to seeding in the playoffs. I don't know how Simi will approach this as it has been awhile since they've been in this situation. Moorpark v Agoura is probably meaningful for Moorpark (trying for share of 1st) and probably senior day for Agoura. NP v Calabasas is probably senior day for Calabasas.

We'll have to get together some playoff predictions once the brackets have been posted.

When the brackets are posted we can open up a new thread.

Royal beat TO and used Buckel in back to back games. Moorpark and NP won. Simi upset Westlake. I think WL still makes the wild card game.

2011
Half way through and everyone's had troubles but Westlake. Still looks like to me anyone can steal this years title. well maybe not Royal or Moorpark. JMHO Aldo

Unless there's an injury I'm unaware of why you would say Moorpark is out of it? Strange things happen in the Marmonte League.

I have not been following the league and just checked the rankings and I agree with CADad, a lot happens in the last two weeks of league play. Certainly WL and NP seem to be the best of the group, but anyone 3-3 and up ahould have a chance, which according to Maxpreps are Moorpark and Agoura.

My uncertainty relative to Moorpark going into the season was their pitching depth but it looks like they've got at least two solid starters now. The hitting may be down a bit due to injury but I think they are in good shape for the second half. Westlake has had some bad second half finishes in the past so the league could be up for grabs still. In any case, the most important thing is making the playoffs.

Let's see with 1 game left in the regular season Moorpark is 1 game out of first. Royal is out of the title hunt but should make the playoffs (play in round) and is playing well right now.

Westlake has done poorly over the last few games, no surprise, but is tied for 1st still and has the best draw for their final game. NP is tied for first but has a tough game vs. Simi who is tied with Moorpark 1 game out of first.

As stated earlier, anything can happen in the Marmonte league.

1. Westlake
2. Simi
3. NP
4. Moorpark
5. Royal

Westlake and Simi will probably go directly into the 1st round of the playoffs. Moorpark and Royal will almost certainly have to play in a play-in game. NP could get in directly or may have to play a play-in game. My guess is a play-in game.