A College World Series Primer
Wait, let me get him out of his case.
ARISE!
I already rose. What's this nonsense now?
The College World Series! Michigan is in it for the first time in 35 years.
Surely you mean the Men's College World Series.
Okay yes fine that is its name, technically. If this space talked about stick and ball sports much it would refer to both the baseball and softball championships as just the CWS and rely on the reader to figure it out. Your author has the exact same take on the Women's World Cup, which should just be the 2019 World Cup and you'll figure it out.
Anyway, you wave the stick at the ball and things happen?
Baseball is a game with a long history and byzantine rules. Here's the wikipedia article.
[After THE JUMP: the opponents, the format, the sauce]
So how many teams are left?
Eight.
And how do you get down to one?
Exactly how they got down to eight: double-elimination regionals followed by a best two-out-of-three championship series. Michigan has already battered the #1 overall seed out of the tournament and gets the #8 overall in its opening game. Arkansas is the #5 overall seed. FSU was a 3 in the Georgia regional. Here's the bracket.
Michigan plays Saturday at 2 EST.
So this is a total fluke, right, and we're going to get crushed?
No? I mean, maybe, baseball is incredibly random on a game-to-game basis. College baseball, which has a lot more fielding/running/pitching implosions than the pro game, is even more random. Arkansas's super regional matchup against Ole Miss was an 11-2 win, a 13-5 loss, and a 14-1 win. As Billy Beane said,
"My shit doesn't work in the playoffs. My job is to get us to the playoffs. What happens after that is fucking luck." — Billy Beane, Oakland A's general manager
— Jacob Rickrode (@ClutchFantasy) January 18, 2019
The same applies for NFL playoffs
But Michigan isn't a team that lucked into a bid. Michigan's junior frontline starters just went 74th and 77th in the MLB draft. Sophomore Jeff Criswell got pushed into the starting rotation last year when sophomore Ben Dragani went out for the year after Tommy John surgery; this year Criswell was All Big Ten and made D1 Baseball's top 150 for the 2020 draft. He would have been drafted fairly early out of high school if not for his Michigan commitment* and seems to have boosted his stock since.
Meanwhile Michigan's entire outfield is also of interest to major league scouts. When Fangraphs ran down the prospects in the Corvaillis regional, Michigan had six of the top 10.
While the other three teams in the regional have a bunch of talent themselves, on paper Michigan can go toe to toe with anyone. Ask UCLA.
*[For a look at what goes into a draft-day decision for a guy in about the same range as Criswell, this Anthony Fenech article on HS senior and Michigan commit Colin Czajkowski is very good.]
But, uh…
Okay yes Michigan got swept in a three-game series in Lubbock in late March, losing 11-2, 10-3, and 8-5.
Anything I should know about this format?
It's a lot less of a burden to end up in the losers' bracket in the CWS because there are days off.
You blast through the regionals in 3 or 4 days and if you end up coming through the losers' bracket your best-case scenario is playing 5 games in 4 days against a team that got to skip one of those games. Michigan suffered an incredible collapse against Creighton in their regional that didn't matter because the Bluejays were down to scraps at pitcher the next day. Michigan put up a USWNT-worthy 17 runs.
The days off in the CWS mean that even if you get dumped into the losers' bracket immediately your #1 and #2 starters will have 6 and (if necessary) 5 days of rest by the time it's down to two, assuming that you use your #3 starter in Game 9. Michigan likely would since they've got three dudes.
Does this mean the idea of leaving the NCAA and playing with wood bats in the summer is a dumb one?
Hell no. 8% of CWS berths go to Northern teams. Michigan spent the first month of the season on the road. It is 72 degrees, crisp, and sunny today and there is no baseball that will ever be played in Ann Arbor on June 12th. Win the damn thing and then bail. That's the ticket.
This isn't crazy. Minnesota's coach advocated for secession just last year. Let's get it done.
Has to be correct. Texas Tech was in and awaiting the UCLA-Michigan winner no matter who it was, which would have been either the highest seed remaining or one of the lowest.
This is correct. Arkansas is the #5 overall seed and if I recall FSU beat the #4 seed, LSU. Both sides of the bracket are set up for a hypothetical top-8 tournament: #1 vs. #8 and #4 vs. #5 on one side, #2 vs. #7 and #3 vs. #6 on the other.
Baseball is a very streaky game. Many of the skills are fine motor skills like throwing, catching, and hitting which are more susceptible to slight variations in technique and repeatability than gross motor skills like running, jumping, etc. which occur more in sports like basketball & football. Baseball is a mix of golf and football. There are enough fine motor skills where is a few hitters or a pitcher can get hot they can lead you to a championship. There's also enough room for things like size, speed, and strength to make a predictable difference. It just depends on the matchup. But, usually teams that win in the playoffs are just the teams getting hot at the right time. Anyone can win with the right pitching and timing.
The only thing we need is a hot goalie
Counterpoint...Hope Solo. Hot, yet annoying as hell.
I have watched some of the games. Am I the only one who thinks there is a full minute plus between pitches, especially if there are runners on base? SSOOO SSSLLOOOWWW
You are not alone... but maybe... relax into it...?
It is also the charm.
Watching with buds is key for me. Everything else is fart jokes and food...but I'm a sophisticate obviously.
Watching golf is my pet peeve...a little more than a minute there.
I also love the golf announcers who speak in hushed voices, in the studio, a half mile from where the golfer is hitting the ball.
You should play with your pussy between pitches. It will make the time pass quicker for you.
Nice breakdown for us who don't really follow baseball.
I agree the northern teams should get out of the NCAA baseball business. It's not like there aren't talented players north of the Mason-Dixon line; they just don't want to be playing out of hotel rooms for a month+ while school is in session.
Looking forward. Go Blue!
I have a weekend in Montana as an outlaw to my wife's family.
Nothing to do but park it and watch game 1. Can't wait.
I was in Cincy last month and caught a Dodger game. My cousin talked so much ball it made me pine for Bill James. It really helps to know the team and players. This is a starter but where do we get the stats and bios? Let me dig.
Time to fire up Bull Durham, The Natural and Moneyball... I haven't seen Trouble with the Curve.
This is going to be fun.
EDIT************
Well it looks like someone sold the NCAA a CMS deal even though the webmasters are different. All the D1 sites are pretty much the same structure down to the font.
The Bad Guys (there's a frosh who is from Michigan... traitor)
https://texastech.com/roster.aspx?path=baseball
The Good Guys (no one from Tejas)
https://mgoblue.com/roster.aspx?path=baseball
Actually a pretty good collection of data but it's just a step too tree'd for my scrapping chops.
I was tempted to diarize it but it's no fun if I can't pull the data easily... it's just been too long.
Northern summer baseball is dumb. They’d get less talent than d2 and d3 schools because summer leagues are a really important component of raising a draft profile, nobody would choose to play in a low talent knockoff league. Might as well make it a club team while your at it
In my opinion the disparity between northern schools and the rest of the nation can be fixed without changing the seasons..Hear me out. The RPI or similar metrics used to determine who the 64 entries are SHOULD be weighted differently..Southern and Western teams play WAY WAY more home games because of the climate. Naturally they have better records playing at home so much.. Change that so that home games mean less than they do and road games way more..I know there is already some component to that today, but its minimal and hasnt changed a thing. Basically southern and western teams get rewarded for playing more home games. Their RPI's will be higher and when they play each other even higher this is a complete disadvantage to the cold weather schools...it HAS to be evened out or under this system it will NEVER change. It makes it even MORE impressive when a BIG team or the like breaks through and makes the CWS
A B1G team has made it once in 35 years, that’s not necessarily because the RPI is dragging them down, they’ve had a chance or two or five each year, they have failed to cash in. Look at this year, none except Michigan made the finals for the regional. Every one of them finished third or worst in their bracket.
CSB- my cousin was kicked off TTU’s baseball team for smoking weed. Beat the Raiders, fuck the NCAA!
So will the pitchers be sitting out since they got drafted?
This is a sad and deep point.
Football shouldn't be endorsed/sponsored by academic institutions... period. That is a different and obvious point.
Our president is a medical doctor. This post... what is the point?
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