Shox vs Oral Roberts, 03-08-2022

[SHOCKvalue]

Please don’t get my hopes up just to dump on them, Shox.

Haven't been a shocker fan long, eh?

[Shockm]

This has been a great rebound after a terrible start. Gotta keep grinding and find 3 quality starters. AAC will expose any faults and we'll fall right back into the crapper unless we clean up a lot of things.

I like the phrase “Gotta keep grinding”. That’s a perfect description of what is currently happening with this team. It Probably will continue the entire year.

[WuDrWu]

Not sure we answered a lot of questions today. Will Stark took advantage and looked like he belonged. Ross is getting better at the plate.

Cam and LJ were definitely the best arms, but Cam walked 3 and LJ hit 2 then lost it a little mentally more than physically. Either one look like a starter? Not to me. Both are talented and both could start eventually but both still have work to do.

Gifford and Jones were ok, but as Shane might say, the best they are going to do is soak up some innings. Neither is blessed with a great arm.

Holden continues to get it done. 6 appearances, 1-0, 4 saves (we only have 6 wins as a team) no runs allowed, 9Ks no walks. Can't ask for more from the transfer.

Oh and if you haven't figured it out, Tolle is a man child. He's hitting .375 and he's just barely learning what to do out there.

[WuDrWu]

IMO, this game was far more significant than it first appears if you only see "Oral Roberts" on the jersey.

This was our first home game.
This was our first top-100 RPI win.

WSU's RPI jumped up to 41 in Warren Nolan.

Coming into this game, ORU was 63 RPI (IIRC) -- they are now 75.

ORU is ranked #9 in the country in batting average
ORU is ranked #9 in the country in triples per game
ORU is ranked #16 in the country in on base percentage
ORU is ranked #21 in the country in hits
ORU is ranked #29 in the country in scoring
ORU is ranked #30 in the country in slugging percentage
ORU is ranked #32 in the country in runs

I don't know that ORU will end up anywhere near any of the stats when it's all said and done, but for now at least, this was an important confidence building game that was never going to be a cakewalk. We defended our turf like you would hope a rebuilding team would today.

As Fev will tell you, it's way too early to put much stock in the RPI. Even later, Warren Nolan's ELO rating is a better measuring stick, and I think, a lot better measuring stick now.


For comparison, our opponents with current (Mar 8) RPI & ELO


La Tech 23 - 42

Oklahoma 100 - 54

Texas St 12 - 37

Tx A&MCC 105 - 134

Pepperdine 96 - 61

Iowa 122 - 88

ORU 77 - 87

Wazzu 120 - 86

Texas A&M 194 - 46

SDSU 209 - 256

New Mexico 227 - 116

Mizzou St 216 - 118

Creighton 244 - 193

Kansas 199 - 168

K State 259 - 114

OSU 41 - 14

Houston 111 - 91

ECU 89 - 25

Cincy 142 - 141

Memphis 146 - 137

UCF 50 - 42

Tulane 22 - 30

USF `82 - 66


As you can see, lots of spread and some really bad numbers, especially with the RPI.

But, I think it's clear WSU hasn't played any bad teams so far. They will this weekend, but mostly that should be it for resume killers.

Texas State is for real. They took 2 of 3 AT Arizona then gave #1 and undefeated Texas all they wanted tonight, losing 9-8.

[ShockerFever]

Great breakdown as always Doc. And dead on about RPI/ELO this early.

And Texas actually did lose finally. Lost 5-1 to UCLA on Sunday and the only reason I knew is cuz the game was on the MLB Network and I happened to be passing through.

[Kung Wu]

As Fev will tell you, it's way too early to put much stock in the RPI. Even later, Warren Nolan's ELO rating is a better measuring stick, and I think, a lot better measuring ...

Yeah I mentioned elsewhere in my babblings that its too early for RPI to be very meaningful, but you can still get some information out of it. Apparently in baseball I should be looking at ELO, though. Good to know.

[shocks02]

I still think the offense has a lot of potential. Kocis (although he’s been out) and Sigrist aren’t hitting anywhere close to what they gave us last year. Casserilla seems to be pressing and hasn’t lived up to the hype so far. Not saying we can expect everyone to be hitting on all cylinders, but I do think we have been below our mean.

[Argent159]

Little recap for anyone interested. Go Shox! - Shocker Buzz: Finally Some Home Games (batandyellow.com)

[WstateU]

Apparently in baseball I should be looking at ELO, though. Good to know.

The only 'ELO' I know...

[1972Shocker]

Yeah I mentioned elsewhere in my babblings that its too early for RPI to be very meaningful, but you can still get some information out of it. Apparently in baseball I should be looking at ELO, though. Good to know.

Boyd's World use to be fairly well though of for college baseball. Not sure if that still is the case though. He has his own Iterative Strength Ratings (ISR). Generally though, it is probably to earyly in the season for any of these ranking systems to be of much value. I start taking them a little more seriously about the time conference play kicks in.

http://www.boydsworld.com/baseball/isr/currentisr.html

Boyd's World's ISR had the Shockers ranked #95 going in to yesterday's ORU game. ORU was #66 so that should of helped the Shockers a bit.