WSU vs. Northern Colorado (Game 2)

[Wuzee]

Congrats to the Shockers on their third series sweep. Given that all 6 losses came on the road to Top 10 RPI teams, it might be time to cut these representatives of our university some slack.. Need to figure out the road, but I'm encouraged.

[1972Shocker]

Congrats to the Shockers on their third series sweep. Given that all 6 losses came on the road to Top 10 RPI teams, it might be time to cut these representatives of our university some slack.. Need to figure out the road, but I'm encouraged.

At this point I don't think it is so much a home games vs road games dichotomy as it is a good opponents vs weak opponents dichotomy. I am still waiting to see something to get excited about.

[Wuzee]

Grand Canyon and OU are top 100 RPI wins, but those aside, you and others here have made your last point abundantly clear. The horse has been dead for so long that it's borderline silly now.

[ShockerFever]

Grand Canyon and OU are top 100 RPI wins, but those aside, you and others here have made your last point abundantly clear. The horse has been dead for so long that it's borderline silly now.

Truth hurts.

[1972Shocker]

Grand Canyon and OU are top 100 RPI wins, but those aside, you and others here have made your last point abundantly clear. The horse has been dead for so long that it's borderline silly now.

According to WarrenNolan.com Grand Canyon's RPI is 114 and their Nolan Power Index ranking is 190. So far the only somewhat impressive win has been OU and the Shocks struck out 18 times in that game and arguably were a bit lucky to win that game. You are certainly entitled to be satisfied with the state of Shocker baseball. I am not nor am I seeing much evidence that we are making a lot of progress this year. Of course, it is still early in the season and things might or might not change for the better.

[Wuzee]

I said "encouraged" not "satisfied," but you knew that. I'm using the NCAA's Baseball RPI (http://www.ncaa.com/rankings/baseball/d1/rpi), which, with all due respect to Mr. Nolan, is the one more likely to matter come postseason. That ranking has Grand Canyon at #98, up from #126 the week before.

Notable RPIs
La Tech #8
LSU #9
Missouri St. #12
DBU #26
WSU #51
OU 54
Bradley #94
GCU #98
N. Colorado #205
Omaha #259
UVU #263
Creighton #276 (*snicker*)

[Play Angry]

WarrenNolan is about as close to gospel as you can get for RPIs. Note that the NCAA RPI is outdated and doesn't factor in yesterday's loss at UNLV, which is the cause of the discrepancy between the two. That said, the difference between coming in at 98 and 114 at this point of the season is inconsequential.

We are clearly much better than a year ago. How much better is the question - are we ~Top 100 (huge improvement but still not acceptable) or are we ~Top 50 (this is where we need to be). We'll get a better feel before March is done.

[shockfan89_]

We have played 9 games against really bad teams and won all 9 of them. Grand Canyon is not a good team and those wins will continue to lose worth as the season progresses. We have also lost 6 games to good/really good teams. La Tech is good based on their 15-2 record but they haven't played any teams in the top 50 RPI. The OU win is a great win but as 1972Shocker pointed out, OU lost that game more than we won it.

I think our record between 3/20 and 4/9 will be a much better indication of how good we are. We play 13 games against a good mix of competition. 11 of the 13 games are at home but the worst RPI team is 165. If we play above .500 I say we are at least somewhat improved over last year but still need to prove ourselves on the road. If we are below .500 it will be another long year and we will finish about where we were picked to finish in the MVC. Onegreatracer predicted we would go 11-2 in this stretch. If we do, this will be a much better year!!!

Here are those opponents, their current records and RPIs

@ ORU (9-7) - 65
Sacramento State (9-6) - 138
3 w/ Texas Tech (14-4) - 8
@ Ok State (11-6) - 56
3 w/ Valparaiso (6-8) - 94
Ok State (11-6) - 56
3 w/ SIU (9-7) - 165

[Shockers5150]

We don't completely suck, and that's a good thing. :)

[ShockerFever]

The only difference at this point between last year and this year is that we haven't lost to any grossly inferior competition yet.

But if you switch over to the "eye test", I don't know how you think major improvement has been made. This starts from the alarming strikeout rates, the hitter approaches, some fielding miscues, and some wild pitching at times.

I think it's a little early to say anything. That includes the "we're better than last year" talk, which isn't saying much.

[1972Shocker]

We have played 9 games against really bad teams and won all 9 of them. Grand Canyon is not a good team and those wins will continue to lose worth as the season progresses. We have also lost 6 games to good/really good teams. La Tech is good based on their 15-2 record but they haven't played any teams in the top 50 RPI. The OU win is a great win but as 1972Shocker pointed out, OU lost that game more than we won it.

I think our record between 3/20 and 4/9 will be a much better indication of how good we are. We play 13 games against a good mix of competition. 11 of the 13 games are at home but the worst RPI team is 165. If we play above .500 I say we are at least somewhat improved over last year but still need to prove ourselves on the road. If we are below .500 it will be another long year and we will finish about where we were picked to finish in the MVC. Onegreatracer predicted we would go 11-2 in this stretch. If we do, this will be a much better year!!!

Here are those opponents, their current records and RPIs

@ ORU (9-7) - 65
Sacramento State (9-6) - 138
3 w/ Texas Tech (14-4) - 8
@ Ok State (11-6) - 56
3 w/ Valparaiso (6-8) - 94
Ok State (11-6) - 56
3 w/ SIU (9-7) - 165

Any reason you left the road trip to Cal Poly off? Are you assuming Cal Poly witn an RPI of 193 and an NPI of 230 should be a sweep on the road? Cal Poly is 5-11 but looks like they have been competitive in most of their losses. and their 1st 11 games of the season were on the road. They are 3-2 in their last 5 games at home. A sweep is a possibility but certainly not a slam dunk is it?

[shockfan89_]

Any reason you left the road trip to Cal Poly off? Are you assuming Cal Poly witn an RPI of 193 and an NPI of 230 should be a sweep on the road? Cal Poly is 5-11 but looks like they have been competitive in most of their losses. and their 1st 11 games of the season were on the road. They are 3-2 in their last 5 games at home. A sweep is a possibility but certainly not a slam dunk is it?

Yes I had assumed by looking at their record and RPI/NPI that we would sweep or go 2-1 at worst. Now, thanks to you, I am more concerned. :)

The first 16 games I viewed as feast or famine (weak opponents at home vs. good opponents on the road). The Cal Poly games are kind of an outlier since I considered them a weak opponent on the road. They probably fit better into that second part of the season which also makes it 16 games. We need to win 9 of those 16 (IMHO) to stay on track.

[Cdizzle]

They probably fit better into that second part of the season which also makes it 16 games. We need to win 9 of those 16 (IMHO) to stay on track.

Nothing like going 1 game over .500 against marginally competent competition to say "we have arrived."

[shockfan89_]

Nothing like going 1 game over .500 against marginally competent competition to say "we have arrived."

Hey we would be 19-13. Not approaching good, but after the last two years I will take it. That's a .594 winning percentage and we have been hovering around .400 for the past 1,000 days or so...

[Cdizzle]

Hey we would be 19-13. Not approaching good, but after the last two years I will take it. That's a .594 winning percentage and we have been hovering around .400 for the past 1,000 days or so...

If that's acceptable in year 4...

then WSU deserves the MVC.