Michigan vs. Maryland baseball thread

Submitted by ThadMattasagoblin on

Michigan is playing Maryland today on BTN. I'm not sure why Michigan didn't play a doubleheader on friday given the conditions. Michigan is 7-0 and in first place in the big ten.

Alton

April 15th, 2018 at 7:57 PM ^

Michigan maintains its perfect conference record (8-0), and stays one game ahead of second place Minnesota (7-1). Michigan's conference schedule has been pretty easy so far, and stays that way next weekend, with Penn State (1-11) visiting.

rob f

April 15th, 2018 at 8:52 PM ^

As for the premature celebration of 17 straight wins? Nothing other than being a little ahead of the curve!

PS: Long live the memory of Harry Chiti, even if Harry is (to borrow the words of the great Ernie Harwell) LOOOOOOONG GONE!!!

rob f

April 15th, 2018 at 8:35 PM ^

for the win. And that's what happened today.

Not the prettiest of games, and a lot of that had to do with just awful weather conditions, but Michigan Baseball found a way today to get the needed runs early and the needed outs at the end.

The biggest of those outs most likely was in the top of the 8th on a brilliant catch by 2nd baseman Thomas, who sprinted out full speed to shallow center to outrun a weak pop-up that appeared to be about to fall for a one-out base clearing double if he doesn't snag it.

I don't care who the opposition has been over this stretch, 17 straight baseball wins at any level is nothing to sneeze at.

Wolverine Devotee

April 15th, 2018 at 9:17 PM ^

I've been doing some research by-hand on the win streak and where it stands. It's not close to the program record but it's getting up there. 

Regardless............lol...........did anyone forsee this happening? Our last loss was to an NAIA team at home. Unbelievable. To start 5-11 and get to 21-11.

tlo2485

April 16th, 2018 at 9:58 AM ^

The team is slowly inching its way up in the RPI standings. We came into this series at 62 and are now 51. Anyone have any insight on where the general cut off is for at-large invites? It's amazing that we're talking about this after the 5-11 start.

26 Indiana (6-2)

27 Illinois (9-3)

39 Iowa (6-4)

40 Minnesota (7-1)

42 Ohio State (6-3)

51 Michigan (8-0)

80 Maryland (3-5)

82 Purdue (4-4)

92 Nebraska (3-7)

143 Rutgers (4-5)

181 Northwestern (1-11)

228 Michigan State (3-5)

232 Penn State (1-11)

166 Eastern Michigan

237 Central Michigan

 

Bolded teams are who we face the remainder of our season. (Listed with RPI and B1G record)

Alton

April 16th, 2018 at 10:31 AM ^

It's pretty much like this...

#1 to #30:  In

#31 to #50:  On the bubble (need a good record in recent games, a winning conference record, and/or a dominant non-conference record, especially against the top 50).

#51 & up:  out, unless you are a Big West or Pac 12 team with a winning conference record.

The RPI tends to under-rate west coast teams and over-rate teams from the southeast with easy non-conference schedules.  The committee will compensate for that fact.  Personally, I don't think Michigan gets even a sniff at consideration unless they are in the top 40 RPI with either 38 wins or a conference regular season title.  That early season record was so bad, and they don't have enough wins against the top 50 to help them out.  (Ordinarily, I would say Michigan would need 40 wins, but it looks like they are going to end up about 5 games short of their maximum regular season game total of 56).

Alton

April 16th, 2018 at 12:28 PM ^

I think Michigan will need to look for a deep run in the conference tournament if that's how it ends.  The good news is that a good seed in the tournament is very likely.  The 34-16 is 6 losses the rest of the way (Nolan doesn't count the NAIA game), 9-6 in conference with a perfect non-conference record.  I think we should do 1 game better.  18-5 in-conference could mean a conference championship, if Minnesota doesn't go wild the rest of the way.  A conference championship would get us some special consideration from the committee.

Michigan can schedule up to 5 more non-conference games right now.  They might sneak in an extra game or two against Toledo or Eastern Michigan or somebody else nearby, just to run up that win total. 

As an aside:  I noticed this at the beginning of the year--Bakich was leaving 2-3 open dates on the schedule this year by dropping a few midweek games against MAC opponents compared with the season before.  Those MAC games really hurt us last year; they don't help when we win, and it can be easy to lose with your #4 starter pitching but with a 80 pitch limit (which is pretty standdard practice for Tuesday games).  Tuesday baseball against the MAC is like nuclear war:  the only to win is not to play.

 

Bluey

April 16th, 2018 at 7:10 PM ^

Coach Bakich has the boys rolling. 

Slighty off topic, but I always hoped they would convert the left field brick wall at Wilpon into their very own "blue monster" with seats on top similar to the green monster at Fenway Park. They last touched the stadium 10 years ago correct? Might be time for a facelift given where this program is headed.