Baseball: Michigan State Preview

Due to the limited 8 week conference schedule in the Big Ten, every year, one team is dropped off the conference schedule. There they stay for a two year conference hiatus, before returning for the next 18 years or otherwise depending on things working out in your hypothetical expansion rumor of the week.

This year, it's Michigan State's turn to rotate off the conference regular season slate. To keep the rivalry fresh, the two teams will tango in a mid-week home-and-home series opening Tuesday in East Lansing.

The Spartans had quite high hopes coming out of the first two seasons, even being a fringe ranked team, but they have suffered a near humiliating collapse over the last two weeks, falling from first place in conference to last. They're still a dangerous team, especially if Michigan were to face them on the weekend, but like any other team in the mid-week, nothing is a sure bet.

This series is absolutely meaningless from a conference tournament point of view, but no game against the Spartans will ever be taken lightly in these parts. So with that, we'll move to the slightly abbreviated team preview after the jump.

The Spartan Season

Michigan State enters the series with a 29-16 record on the year and a pseudo-RPI of 98 (as of Monday morning). The Spartans rank in the national top ten in fielding percentage and top 50 in batting average (#33 .331), triples per game(#12, 1.48), steals per game (#30 @1.28), walks allowed per 9-innings (#36, 3.09), and double plays per game (#31, 1.07) – all impressive.

Despite all that good, lately, the Spartans have been quite the opposite. The Spartans were swept two weeks ago by conference bottom dweller Penn State by a combined score of 49-13. This past weekend, they lost a series to conference leader Purdue 2 games to 1.

Also important to look at is their performance in the mid-week. Michigan State has gone 5-2 in mid-week games since returning to East Lansing this season. They split series with a decent Central Michigan and a bad Western Michigan team, swept two from Eastern Michigan and beat Bowling Green State. Much of that is pretty unimpressive, but the loss to the Broncos is pretty horrible. And yes, the Wolverines almost pulled the same feat, but they managed to escape with the win.

Spartan Pitching

The two mid-week starters for the Spartans have been Tony Weiber and Andrew Waszak . Weiber, a true freshman righty, has gotten the Tuesday start the last two times out, recording the win in both. On the season, he's 3-0 with a 5.02 ERA and a .296 opponent batting average. Weiber has thrown 28.2 innings (including 3 starts), giving up 9 doubles and 5 homers while striking out 18 and walking 10. His last time out was a 6.1 inning start, allowing one unearned run on 3 hits, 2 walks, and 6 strikeouts. His groundball to fly out ratio was 2:1.

Andrew Waszak has had a few more starts for the Spartans, but he seems to have fallen behind Weiber as the primary mid-week guy. He sports a 4-1 record overall, spanning 39 innings over ten appearances, including 7 starts. He's struck out just 19 and walked 10. Over the last two weeks, Waszak is 1-1, including the loss at a neutral site against Central Michigan. In his last start, the freshman righty went 7.2 innings, giving up no runs and 2 hits while striking out 7 and walking two. His ground ball to fly ball ration was 8:7.

The MSU bullpen is probably tops in the league. They are anchored by Kurtis Frymier, the closer, who in 19 appearances, has a 2-0 record and a 3.86 ERA. His 5 saves leads the team. He's thrown 23.1 innings to lead the bullpen, and has 18 strikeouts on the year. Their other primary reliever is Tim Simpson. Simpson is 0-1 with a 2.49 ERA over 21.2 innings. Simpson also likes the strikeout, recording 20 so far.

(all stats previous to the series ending game against Purdue)

Spartan Offense

Michigan State has lead the Big Ten in hitting just about all season. As of Monday morning, the team was hitting .327 combined. They have 5 regulars hitting over .350, and two others, including a role player, hitting around .330.

The hottest hitter lately has been Torsten Boss, son of no relation to head coach Jake Boss (update HT: mikejc1997). In Big Ten play, Boss is hitting .433 with a .683 slugging percentage. The guy has just been clobbering the ball. Other dangerous hitters include Andy Johnson, Jeff Holm, and Eli Boike. Boike is the overall batting average leader at .376 and a .594 slugging percentage, both lead the team. He's also leading the team with 6 homers. He and Holm are the two major on base threats (both at .442 on base percentages), and Holm is the big stolen base threat. He's 22/24 on the season. Other base stealing threats include Brandon Eckerle (19/22) and Jonathon Roof (13/18).

McLane Stadium

The Spartans play their home games at McLane Stadium. The capacity has been expanded to 2,500 but the Spartans don't often fill it. This week will probably be the exception. The seating areas are much improved after Drayton McLane sponsored a $4 million dollar revamp. I've heard the stadium isn't the most fan friendly, lacking a built in concession stand, and having small restrooms, but I'm not 100% on that. They don't have lights, so if a 3pm game goes too late in the day, the game could be called for darkness.

For those that may go to East Lansing, parking isn't near the field. You'll have to park at Breslin and take a short walk to the field. That's probably not a bad thing. Michigan may have parking right next to the stadium, but they've also broken 5-6 windshields this season.

I'd be interested in anyone's take on the stadium from a first hand point of view. I've heard it's much improved, so if you make it out, drop a comment.

Weather

It's looking bad on Tuesday in East Lansing. Both The Weather Channel and Weather Underground are both predicting 70-100% chance of rain throughout the day, peaking at the 3pm start time.

Wednesday in Ann Arbor should be a bit better. It should still be cloudy and overcast, but rain chance drops down to the 20% range. I wouldn't be surprised to see a double header in Ann Arbor, starting at maybe 3pm.

Series Thoughts

I'm not sure who Michigan throws in game 2 of this series, but my guess is Gerbe. He threw one inning on Saturday, and I would expect him ready by Wednesday. I also wouldn't be surprised if it was a staff day to get in work for a lot of guys. Several could use work outside of the weekend mop up duty. Travis Smith, Kyle Clark, and Ben Ballantine all come to mind.

Michigan set a home attendance high last season against the Spartans with 3,400+ fans for the Saturday game. It'd be awesome to see something like that in the mid-week, but the overcast weather and people's work week schedule probably won't allow for it. And, I mean, it's not like we're retiring Jim Abbott's number like we did in that Saturday game. Still, I wouldn't be surprised to see close to 2,000 in attendance for Wednesday night game.

My gut tells me we split with the Spartans as a worst case scenario. Their weekend against the Boilermakers was pretty close. They're still a good team that can hit, and their mid-week starters aren't half bad either. My head tells me we sweep, though, and I think I'm going to go with the head this time around. Michigan's offense shouldn't be stymied by those pitchers, Patrick Biondi is coming around. Chris Berset are making their last round against the Spartans. I have to expect a big series from them. It's all just a measure of how well our pitching staff goes.

Michigan sweeps 2-0.