What is going on with Michigan Baseball?

Submitted by amir_6 on
This was supposed to be the year they were going to contend for a Big Ten Championship. Everything seemed to look good as they were ranked as high as #15 this year. But they have dropped games to teams they should have easily beat. They have now lost 5 in a row, what do you expect from the rest of the season? Do you expect them to take a big step forward next year? Discuss.
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Baseball/Softball

Ronnie Kaye

May 19th, 2016 at 1:42 PM ^

Michigan is a football school and always will be. We're not a Arizona State, a Texas or a Cal State-Fullerton. Deal with it.

Signed,

MGoBeilein apologists

Joined: 05/09/2015

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BlueinLansing

May 19th, 2016 at 2:01 PM ^

is a very balanced baseball league.  Very little difference between the 1-10 teams.  Even #11 Rutgers is holding on to a .500 overall record.

Minnesota, leading the BIG, lost a mid-week game to South Dakota St.

 

Michigan is hurt by not playing Purdue in the Big Ten schedule, though they benefit by not playing Indiana.  Still I'd rather have 3 games against a truly awful Purdue.

Michigan is essentially tied with Ohio State, Michigan State and Nebraska,   All 3 of those teams have played Purdue.

Joined: 09/01/2009

MGoPoints: 23532

Raoul

May 19th, 2016 at 3:59 PM ^

Michigan has had a tough stretch lately, but except for the absolute top teams in the country, every baseball team tends to lose a few games each year to on-paper inferior competition. That's the nature of baseball.

And in what matters as far as getting into the NCAA tourney—RPI—Michigan does NOT have a ton of bad losses like so many people seem to think they have. They've lost twice to 101-200 teams and twice to 200+ teams. Not unusual. For example, Texas Tech, currently ranked #5 by Baseball America and #11 in RPI, has 7 losses to 101-200 RPI teams. Several top 25 teams have at least one 200+ loss.

Michigan is still the top Big Ten team in RPI (#35), so if they can turn things around and take at least 2 out of 3 this weekend over Illinois (#58), they should still be in good shape for an NCAA bid heading into the BTT.

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ChalmersE

May 20th, 2016 at 1:26 PM ^

FWIW, Baseball America not only still has Michigan in the field of 64, it's still giving Michigan a two seed in a regional.  Obviously, it would behoove Michigan to win at least two at Illinois this weekend and to at least make a run in the B1G Tourney, but all is not lost.  (I'd rather have a five game losing streak over the last two weeks than a five game losing streak over the next two weeks.)

Joined: 11/19/2008

MGoPoints: 5196

chatster

May 22nd, 2016 at 3:54 AM ^

The Big Ten Conference RPI is ranked seventh, so it would be hard for the conference to receive more than a couple of at-large bids to the NCAA tournament. The projected field as of May 18 had only Minnesota, Nebraska and Michigan from the Big Ten. LINK

As of now, Michigan's best shot at getting an at-large bid comes from having the second-best RPI among conference teams, slightly behind Nebraksa that Michigan swept in a three-game series in mid-April.

But despite having a top 40 RPI (just barely), ending the season with seven of eight losses might have hurt the Wolverines’ chances of an NCAA at-large bid if they don't at least make it to the conference tournament championship game. Michigan finished the season 12-13 against teams with winning records, after starting the season with six wins in seven games against teams that wound up with records of better than .500. LINK

Of the Big Ten teams that finished ahead of Michigan in the Big Ten standings, in their last ten games, conference leader Minnesota finished 5-5, second-place Nebraska and fourth-place Ohio State (tied for third with Indiana, but getting the fourth seed in the tournament) both have gone 8-2, and Indiana finished 4-6, while fifth-place Michigan finished 3-7.

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