Pac-10 Baseball WOW

You've got that right Mr. BOF!!
RR23

BTW, Starting pitcher of Uof A was hit by a line drive to head last night. I hope he is ok. LET'S CHANGE TO WOOD. That's why I am glad we are using wood at the National Classic.

quote:

Cal beat ASU

Cal beat Arizona last night, not ASU....I hate it when you guys do that and I'm sure the ASU guys are unhappy too....

That was a no lose game for me...I went to both schools although I consider myself a Cal fan #1.

The UofA pitcher was hit in the head but seems to be OK. Paper says 'it hurts to chew'...

Didn't take Oregon and the Phil Knight machine long, did it?

Those two undefeated teams is simply amazing. Hard to comprehend.

I've watched Stanford a number of times this year...they are good, but I'm not sure they have the pitching depth (especially starting pitching) to make it deep into the tournament. They do have some tremendous freshmen playing nearly every day in the field. Toby Gerhart's likely replacement at running back next year, Tyler Gaffney, sure is a fun player to watch in centerfield. Very talented.

Hopes (and prayers) for that pitcher to be ok.

Ooops sorry about the ASU/UofA goof.

It amazes me that two teams in the Pac-10 can be undefeated this far into the season.

I suspect the Cal coach is going to be looking for a new job next year based on how they have started. Maybe the same with USC. There are simply no easy series this year.

Son has a tournament next week so we are also going to pick up the UCI vs San Diego game so we will get a look at WCC/BW teams.

Cal has actually started off pretty well this year, with a very young team.
They are starting 4 freshman and 2 sophomores and their top 3 pitchers are freshman/sophomores.
Right now they are 14-10. They played ASU very tough at ASU in the final two games losing 6-5 and 2-1.
Two issues for the coaching staff, in my opinion, would be the history of underachieving with very good talent along with the issue of whether Cal baseball is in jeopardy as a whole.
An article yesterday said a new group has been formed to study Cal Athletics and the deficit it is running.
Some of the quotes suggested one issue is too many teams.

It's sort of tough to say that the PAC 10 is the best conference.

ASU has played 1 away game.

Of UCLA's 21 games they've played 4 games vs. teams that are well above .500.

Arizona has played 1 away game.

Oregon has finally started to play some tougher opponents and is 1-3 in its last 4.

Oregon State is 1-1 vs. teams with a well above .500 record.

Stanford swept a very suspect Rice team and the next weekend got swept by Texas and since hasn't face any real test except yesterday at UCLA, where they lost.

I'm not trying to anoint the SEC or ACC or any other conference as better, however the evidence for PAC 10 leadership is pretty suspect.

quote:

...however the evidence for PAC 10 leadership is pretty suspect.

I dunno, you might be right? But here's a little more objective (we all know about that Chicago-bias! ) look as of Saturday (4/3) morning (Boyds World):

Pac-10 Team - Rank - SOS
--------------------------------------
Arizona St. - 1 - 13
UCLA - 2 - 14
Oregon - 10 - 6 (just starting to play some tougher teams?? )
Oregon St. - 11 - 24
Stanford - 14 - 2 (beat UCLA Friday at UCLA)
Arizona - 17 - 42

..we could also add...

Cal - 29 - 9
USC - 32 - 3
WSU - 38 - 39
Washington 44 21

I don't really have a horse in this race (right now ), but looks pretty decent to me. Suspect? I don't think so.

Maybe the whole Pac-10 should make the tournament since all of their teams are in the top-64 both in computer ranking and SOS?

I don't need a computer model to tell me who the top teams and conferences are this year. To me, it is obvious it is a banner year in the Pac 10. UCLA has notoriously underperformed the last several years but not so this year. Oregon has added strength to the conference. George Horton and lots of money have made a difference there.

Similarily, it seems obvious that some other traditional powers are not as strong this year. Rice and Cal State Fullerton come to mind.

.

I would agree CD...Rice appears, at best, a long(grain) shot!




.

I went to see Oregon play ASU yesterday for the rubber game of the series. The game the night before ended at 12:45 AM on a 12th inning walkoff single for ASU's first loss.

Nasty day for baseball - about 45 degrees windy and rain about half the game. Turf fields are very hard on most spectators! I say most because I was tucked cozily away in one of the suites. Got to watch Butler beat Michigan state while watching the #1 ranked team in the country play baseball!

Anyway, I was impressed by ASU but they are hardly unbeatable. Very very solid for sure, and should contend all the way in Omaha.

Oregon has some holes in their program still.

Pac10, SEC, ACC, Big12, and even a couple other conferences. They are all the best and loaded every year! Can't ever say that one conference is the best. A person could find numbers to support any side of that debate.

That said, the Pac10 sure looks really good this year. When people compare college to pro ball, the pro guys insist there is no comparison, but when UCLA sends Gerritt Cole to the mound the college kids that face him are seeing someone who would "dominate" in the lower levels of pro ball. IMO

It's good to see Washington represented... Oh wait, nevermind.