Illinois

It looks like Illinois has been hit by the by the secondary injury nuke too:

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=5506744

The National Football Post has begun scouting all teams in the FBS for "players who could warrant the most interest from NFL teams in the 2011 draft." I thought that it would be wise to get to know the more dangerous players of the teams we'll be facing this year. This is ongoing throughout the summer so all of our opponents are't covered yet (no U-M either) but the two early opponents that are cause for concern have been scouted. Notre Dame leads the way with eight players scouted, Penn State has six. The teams so far:

Update/Edit: added more teams. decided to add all big ten teams, not just M and their opponents. Northwestern remains the only team yet to be scouted. Number of players scouted per team are in parentheses. Only seniors were scouted..

• Michigan (5)
• UConn (1)
• Notre Dame (8)
• Illinois (0?)
• Penn State (6)
• Michigan State (5)
• Wisconsin (6)
• Ohio St (9)
• Nebraska(8)
• Minnesota (3)
• Purdue(0?)
• Indiana(0?)
• Iowa(0?)

Some of these pages aren't in order. The teams with zero players are mistakes I believe.

Side Note: Derek Dennis's status is day-to-day with an undisclosed injury.

With half of the Big Ten regular season complete, it's time to take a look at the conference to see where Michigan is and what it will take to get a good seed in the Big Ten Tournament. In this post, we'll walk through the series we've already completed and then look at the opponents we still have on the schedule.

So, for all you late comers to the baseball season, here's what you need to know.

Where We've Been

While not much has changed in terms of outlook, Indiana hasn't turned out just as good as I expected either. They've been quite inconsistent, with their top hitters going ice cold the weak after they torched us. That freeze of course happened against Ohio State, giving the Buckeyes a pretty easy 2-1 series victory. They did sweep Iowa, though, something Michigan couldn't do.

The loss to Bischoff is still nothing to worry about. It really would have helped for Michigan to get a sweep. Ohio State isn't on their schedule, but I'm not sure if that helps or hurts us. Purdue may be able to steal a game from the Buckeyes, or they may get blown out in all three.

Things haven't changed much here in a week. Illinois lost 2 of 3 at Michigan State, which means the Spartans are just keeping pace with us.

That happened. Nothing has happened in our season and it still stings. I can't wait for this weekend to come so I can get it out of my head. Plus, the Buckeyes did us a favor losing a home series to Penn State just so we could keep pace.

After the jump, we look at the present and then haphazardly predict the future.

Guess who's back? Courtesy of Illinois Baseball Report

Michigan (22-12) went into Champaign looking to keep pace with the league leaders and came out with a 2-1 series victory over the Illini to keep a hold of their first place tie with the Buckeyes at 6-3 in conference. The series definitely had some wild moments, including a Michigan offensive explosion on Friday accompanied by a sterling start from Oaks. That was followed up with a Michigan collapse on Saturday and a hard fought but ugly game on Sunday.

Full Recap after the jump:

Michigan travels to Illinois this week to take on the Illini in what has been a pretty even series over the last few years. Michigan is just 19-20 against the Illini since 2000, having won just one series in 2008. That said, they've only lost 3 series in that time due to several four game splits, but the Illini have continuously been a throne in Michigan baseball's side. This year looks to be no different.

Just a reminder, Q&A with Illinois Baseball Report happened. Preview is there.

Abbreviated thoughts after the jump:

Michigan took both games in the midweek, beating Toledo by a score of 8-4 and Bowling Green State by a score of 8-5. I'm not going to get into either game too much as the midweek games are pretty meaningless from a long term perspective, but there were a few notable players and storylines worth recapping.

Toledo

Eric Katzman was brilliant in relief of Matt Miller on Tuesday. Katzman went 5 innings, allowing just one hit and two walks to earn the win. It was great to see him get a solid long relief appearance and hopefully this builds his confidence when it comes to the weekend relief corps. He was mixing up pitches really well, and had some stretches of "effective wildness" that kept hitters off balance and rolling over pitches.

On offense, Ryan LaMarre kept his offensive tear rolling, knocking a 2-run homer in the first inning, his first long ball since returning from the injury. But not everyone enjoyed the LaMarre homer. Chris Berset, still feeling the "sting" of losing his 3-hole spot last weekend, came up on the next pitch to hit a solo home run of his own, the first back-to-back homers Michigan has had since February 2009.

John Lorenz also added on in the early innings to remind some of us that he's just as capable of producing in the 8-hole. Biondi also went 3/4.

BGSU

This game was a bit more bothersome from an offensive perspective. For the most part, Michigan was kept off base for the first 5 innings. Biondi and Toth combined to produce a run in the first inning, and then the offense went into hibernation mode as Apthorpe chewed through our lineup.

Upon Apthorpe's exit, things picked up. Anthony Toth picked up his first career homer, and LaMarre and Berset both followed that up with hits. After a Crank hit by pitch, the Falcons made their only error of the game on a would be double play ball to end the inning. Instead, it opened the flood gates to a 5 run Michigan inning.

Things weren't all sunshine and happy following the inning. On Berset's double, LaMarre went 1st to 3rd and came up holding his hamstring, stretching it out thoroughly during a pitching conference at the mound. LaMarre would stay in and score on a Dufek sac fly, but he left the game as a precautionary move to start the next inning. He's expected to be fine for the Illinois series.

On the mound, Matt Gerbe made a good start, making it through 4 innings and giving up just one run. He gave up a lot of baserunners, but he managed to escape time and again. That changed in the 5th inning. After loading the bases, with only one out, Gerbe threw a wild pitch through Crank's legs. That plated the first Falcon run of the inning. The next batter would line one right back to Gerbe who made a great snag to catch the ball for an out, but when Gerbe went to throw out the runner at third for not tagging up, the ball was thrown away. Two more runners would score and Gerbe would be pulled.

Kolby Wood came in and did alright in earning the win, but the team did have to use Burgoon again for 2 innings. Tyler was lights out as usual, but I have to wonder what his availability is this weekend. I imagine he won't be in Friday unless it's a dire necessity.

Bonus update from The Daily's game wrap:

“I want to thank Tyler Burgoon for my inspiration for my first home run,” Toth said. “He inspired me by telling me I am never going to get one. He tells me that every single day, whether we have a game or not, so I’m glad I got that monkey off my back.”

Illinois questioning [ed: and awesome excel graph!] after the jump: