RPI (3/31/08)

[SB Shock]

WSU RPI at Start of Week: 10

WSU RPI at End of Week: 38

I guess the best thing best thing that could be said is that WSU survived without suffering a embarrassing loss and finished 6-0. If the week helped get some player development and confidence then it may pay some dividends here on out.

WSU schedule for the next 2 weeks:

155 KU
29 ORU
70 Mizzou St x3

week 2:

74 K-State
44 OU
118 CU x 3

These two weeks will go along way of defining this team as a pretender or contender.

[Hill Sitter]

I guess the best thing best thing that could be said is that WSU survived without suffering a embarrassing loss and finished 6-0

and have beat the teams we're supposed to beat so far all year.....Sounds easy, but look around the country at other ranked teams - doesn't always pan out this way....This no small thing. Anytime if you have 6 games in a week anything can happen.

[KC Shox]

I guess the best thing best thing that could be said is that WSU survived without suffering a embarrassing loss and finished 6-0

and have beat the teams we're supposed to beat so far all year.....Sounds easy, but look around the country at other ranked teams - doesn't always pan out this way....This no small thing. Anytime if you have 6 games in a week anything can happen.

I don't buy it. We are the 11th ranked team in the nation playing at home and against a provisional D1 program and a small program from the NE. We should have gone 6-0. I'm a little bit worried that our soft schedule has not prepared this team enough heading into the 'meat' of our schedule. Committing 5 errors and giving up 4 unearned runs againts NDSU gives me pause for concern.

I'm not too worried over the weekend MVC series because I believe our starters (c'mon AS), will do their job. It's the midweek games against some very high RPI teams that are important. The Valley is horrible this year and I want us to be a National Seed. We need to win as many of these non-con midweek games in order to impress the committee and boost our RPI because the Valley won't do us any favors over the long run.

I just don't think we will have the mid-week pitching that is necessary to win these games - especially on the Wed. games.

[Hill Sitter]

You are right we 'should' go 6-0. Absolutely. But it just doesn't always work that way and that's why the silly cliché exists about ' that's why they play the games'.......I am not saying we just rolled through the Yankees and Red Sox. The point is we avoided any 'ugly losses' which is harder to do in baseball than any other sport. Nothing more, nothing less. The WSU teams of the 80s and 90s that some here like to say were infallible hardly ever accomplished avoiding said ugly loses (including some to very low or non D1 competition) and neither have some top ranked team this year around the country.

Also, we are very spoiled by the quality year in, year out, of our weekend starters. As a result, our standards are very high for mid-week. So the fact that the results of #s 4 and 5 are pretty much unknown shouldn't equate to an analysis of how effective they will be. If they were recruited into this program they possess A- a quality arm and B- potential to win this season and beyond.

[KC Shox]

None-the-less, WSU currently has 12 games left against teams in the RPI top 99. 9 of the 12 are against teams that we will be facing in mid-week games. Strictly thinking long term and possible regional hosting and national seeds possibilities, the tournament committee will not look favorably with the wins in conference due to the Valley being down this year.

So I'm thinking that our chance of hosting and/or being a national seed will totally rely on how well this team does against the mid-week competition. Having Cameron out (appears to be for the year at this rate) hurts really bad. Kelley may get better as the year progresses and this is what I hope for, but we are asking a freshman to go up against the Nebraskas, OU's of the world which is putting a lot of pressure on him and the team.

What do you think, is the chance of hosting/national seed going to come down on our success in the mid-week games based on this information?

[Shirley Schmidt]

None-the-less, WSU currently has 12 games left against teams in the RPI top 99. 9 of the 12 are against teams that we will be facing in mid-week games. Strictly thinking long term and possible regional hosting and national seeds possibilities, the tournament committee will not look favorably with the wins in conference due to the Valley being down this year.

So I'm thinking that the Shox chance of hosting and/or being a national seed will totally rely on how well this team does against the mid-week competition. Having Cameron out (appears to be for the year at this rate) hurts really bad. Kelley may get better as the year progresses and this is what I hope for, but we are asking a freshman to go up against the Nebraskas, OU's of the world which is putting a lot of pressure on him and the team.

What do you think, is the chance of hosting/national seed going to come down on the Shox success in the mid-week games based on this information?

Yes.

[SB Shock]

What do you think, is the chance of hosting/national seed going to come down on our success in the mid-week games based on this information?

WSU chances of hosting a regional has always came down to what they do during non-conference season. Winning the MVC has never been enough.

[KC Shox]

What do you think, is the chance of hosting/national seed going to come down on our success in the mid-week games based on this information?

WSU chances of hosting a regional has always came down to what they do during non-conference season. Winning the MVC has never been enough.

Well then, we have very little room for error. Of note, TCU beat #29 Baylor tonight. Yea Frogs!

[haysdb]

WSU chances of hosting a regional has always came down to what they do during non-conference season. Winning the MVC has never been enough.

I think more this year than ever. My God the MVC RPI's are weak this year.

[SB Shock]

2 wins this week so far and WSU back up to 27 in RPI.

[SpanglerFan316]

WSU chances of hosting a regional has always came down to what they do during non-conference season. Winning the MVC has never been enough.

I think more this year than ever. My God the MVC RPI's are weak this year.

:yes: :yes: :yes: :yes: :yes:

[shockfan89]

There seems to be a lot more mid-week losses in the top 25 this year. Is the national starting date showing some effect or is it just continued parity in college baseball?

Tuesday, April 1st - According to NCAA.com
Top 25 went 11-7. #10 Missouri lost to #256 Western Illinois

Wednesday, April 2nd
Top 25 went 14-5.

[WSUwatcher]

RPI

Playing Binghamton and NDSU really knocked down the RPI, from almost .63 to just over .58. No wonder WSU's rank fell so drastically.

These two wins have helped, but a little less than .01 (Warren Nolan has the Shocks at .5889 today) -- the reason WSU's rank is up to 27th is that there's a cluster of teams in the .58 range (WSU's .5889 is 27th; Charlie's Hogs at .5815 are 39th). There's a similar cluster in the .59 range, with Stanford at .5997 ranked 17th.

Success against MSU would help a lot, because although their rank this morning is only 76th, their record is pretty good (17-8, or .68, which ranks 41st and is just below ORU's 16-7, or .6957). And the opponent's W-L percentage is half of the RPI.

Sweeps are never easy, but the Bears are only 4-4 on the road, and their offense-defense numbers (7.7 runs/game; 6.2 for their opponents) actually look much like KU's. They can hit the ball, but their pitching is a little questionable. So keeping the streak alive is not out of the question, and would no doubt provide a major RPI boost if the Shocks could do it.