Will winning every Valley series net us a championship?

[Shockerman]

In years past, the goal was always to sweep at home and take at least 2 of 3 on the road.(I'm talking 2000's shocks here). Will winning every series keep you in the hunt most years?

[SB Shock]

Of course if you win every series you will be in the "hunt". Last year (2011) WSU was 6-1 in series and even winning the CU series. Meanwhile CU was 5-2. The difference was WSU only swept 1 series, while CU swept 3 series and won the league by 1 game.

In 2010, WSU was 6-1, ISUR was 5-2, but ISUR tied WSU in the regular season because ISUR swept 3 series and WSU only swept 1.

In 2009, SWMO won the conference with 6-2 record and swept 5 of them. WSU was 5-2 (1 series complete lost to rain, another lost 2 games), but WSU basically only swept 2 series.\

But I guess the real issue is WSU should not be in the "hunt", but should be dominating the MVC with the support and money invested in this program relative to all the other programs in the conference. WSU and their fans are getting a very bad return on their investment.

[ShockTalk]

Of course if you win every series you will be in the "hunt". Last year (2011) WSU was 6-1 in series and even winning the CU series. Meanwhile CU was 5-2. The difference was WSU only swept 1 series, while CU swept 3 series and won the league by 1 game.

In 2010, WSU was 6-1, ISUR was 5-2, but ISUR tied WSU in the regular season because ISUR swept 3 series and WSU only swept 1.

In 2009, SWMO won the conference with 6-2 record and swept 5 of them. WSU was 5-2 (1 series complete lost to rain, another lost 2 games), but WSU basically only swept 2 series.\

But I guess the real issue is WSU should not be in the "hunt", but should be dominating the MVC with the support and money invested in this program relative to all the other programs in the conference. WSU and their fans are getting a very bad return on their investment.

This!! Regardless of the college baseball landscape outside the Valley.

[Shocker85]

So far not team has averaged more than two wins per weekend. Shox might be in the mix, but winning the regular season nets nothing anyway. MVC is a one bid league with only the conference tournament winner going to the NCAA tournament. Seeding in this tournament won't be worth much.

--'85.

[GoShockers89]

MVC is a one bid league with only the conference tournament winner going to the NCAA tournament.

--'85.

Not sure I agree with this. ISUb and MSU have a solid shot at an at-large right now.

[SB Shock]

Not sure I agree with this. ISUb and MSU have a solid shot at an at-large right now.

ISUB has an RPI of 51 with no Top 50 wins
MSU is 42 with 1-3 Top 50 wins

At best they are bubble teams on their body of work to this point. I think a perfect storm for MVC to get 2 teams unless these two teams can get some separation.

[GoShockers89]

ISUB has an RPI of 51 with no Top 50 wins
MSU is 42 with 1-3 Top 50 wins

At best they are bubble teams on their body of work to this point. I think a perfect storm for MVC to get 2 teams unless these two teams can get some separation.

I'd agree that the MVC is likely a 2 bid league this year.

ISUb was 2-1 against the top 50 until we dropped ISUr to #53 with today's loss. The winner of the Sycs-Bears series will have a very good resume if they can hold serve and finish at least top 2 in the league (especially if Dallas Baptist maintains a top 50 ranking).

No sunshine pumper here, but I'm confident in the league's ability to get multi-bids this season. I am not, however, confident that we will be one of them.

[shocker3]

I'd agree that the MVC is likely a 2 bid league this year.

ISUb was 2-1 against the top 50 until we dropped ISUr to #53 with today's loss. The winner of the Sycs-Bears series will have a very good resume if they can hold serve and finish at least top 2 in the league (especially if Dallas Baptist maintains a top 50 ranking).

No sunshine pumper here, but I'm confident in the league's ability to get multi-bids this season. I am not, however, confident that we will be one of them.

If Valley teams keep winning their non-conference games, the conference is likely to get 2 bids this year and could possibly get 3 if 3 teams were to separate themselves from rest of the pack.

It is kind of surprising when you look at the conference RPIs and the Valley is in seventh place right behind the Big 12.

To get 3 teams in, the Valley would most likely have to have 3 teams finish in the RPI top 50. That would give each of those teams several opportunites to get top 50 wins against each other. It would also help if Dallas Baptist were to finish in the top 50 (and lose a few games against the top 3 Valley teams) since it appears everyone is playing them this year.

Right now everybody in the Valley has a RPI of 97 or better except Bradley and Creighton. With 6 Valley teams in the top 100, WSU will have lots of chances to get quality wins and improve their RPI. We just need to take advantage of those opportunities like we did this weekend.

[Shocker85]

Gotta love you guys' optimism, but with 30 automatic qualifiers, how do teams in the 40s+ get at-large bids? And with nearly all the league between 50 and 100, how do the individual team's RPI's improve much, if any, unless teams go on an absolute tear? The OOC isn't going to help the Shox. KSU, KU, OSU and Alcorn State all suck. Dallas Baptist is in the same cluster as the MVC leaders.

The league might be in at 7, but it will be just good enough to be on the outside with a good view looking in.

--'85.

[shox1989]

Gotta love you guys' optimism, but with 30 automatic qualifiers, how do teams in the 40s+ get at-large bids? And with nearly all the league between 50 and 100, how do the individual team's RPI's improve much, if any, unless teams go on an absolute tear? The OOC isn't going to help the Shox. KSU, KU, OSU and Alcorn State all suck. Dallas Baptist is in the same cluster as the MVC leaders.

The league might be in at 7, but it will be just good enough to be on the outside with a good view looking in.

--'85.

Kstate got in last year with a sixth place finish in the big 12 and a rpi of 51 (they were 18-22 against the top 100 and had 2 bad 201+ losses). St. John's got in with a rpi of 49 and a top 100 record of 10-15 and had 3 bad 201+ losses. Most years there are very few northern schools with rpis in the low 50s or better. So most of the time that is good enough for a northern school to get an at large bid.

The remaining schedule with 12 top 100 rpi teams including 9 top 50 teams gives the team plenty of opportunites to improve their rpi. But they do have to win some games. The biggest problem this year is that they haven't had a winning streak of more than 4 games (if you throw out the UND games). If they can put together a winning streak they could really improve their rpi.

They have a lot of good opportunity games coming up, let's see if they can take advantage of them. Look at our basketball team, last year they failed to win their good opportunity games and they sat home. This year they won a couple of them (UNLV, @Creighton) and they danced.

This year's baseball team can still control their own destiny. Thanks to BU and CU, they are still right in the thick of the Valley race. They still have the opportunity to win the conference regular season title and they still have lots of good opportunity games left on the schedule. It is totally up to them. It sounds like this weekend they responded to the challenge. Let's hope if they can keep it up.

[SB Shock]

It is to bad there is not a rpiforecast.com site for baseball. Just have to wait for boyds world to do his "rpi needs report".

[shox1989]

The Shox have now won 6 of their last 8 games. Maybe they are starting to get on a roll. I remain cautiously optimistic.

[shox1989]

It is to bad there is not a rpiforecast.com site for baseball. Just have to wait for boyds world to do his "rpi needs report".

According to Boyd's World today, WSU would need to go 18-6 in their remaining games to finish with a rpi of 45 or better. While not easy, that is certainly doable. They have won 6 of their last 8 games, if Boyd's World is right, they would have to continue to win at that pace to finish with an rpi of 45 or better.

Also according to Boyd, if the Shox finish 20-4 they would finish with a rpi of 32 or better.

http://www.boydsworld.com/baseball/rpi/rpineeds.html

[JJClamdip]

The only chance this team has in getting to the NCAA Tournament is to win the Valley Tournament title in dog patch.

[shoxlax]

According to Boyd's World today, WSU would need to go 18-6 in their remaining games to finish with a rpi of 45 or better. While not easy, that is certainly doable. They have won 6 of their last 8 games, if Boyd's World is right, they would have to continue to win at that pace to finish with an rpi of 45 or better.

Also according to Boyd, if the Shox finish 20-4 they would finish with a rpi of 32 or better.

http://www.boydsworld.com/baseball/rpi/rpineeds.html

If they do any of the above I will take back every bad thing I have said about Gene and run nekked around the bases at Tyler Field.