NCAA Baseball Seeding Predictions (Updated 5/22/2009)

New seeding projections through games of 5/22/2009

1. Arizona State
2. North Carolina
3. Cal-State Fullerton
4. Texas
5. LSU
6. Florida
7. UC Irvine
8. Florida State
9. Clemson
10. Rice
11. Georgia Tech
12. Ole Miss
13. Virginia
14. Oklahoma
15. Miami
16. TCU

On the bubble - Alabama, Missouri, Arkansas, Texas A&M

Awesome, just awesome

The Braves have been struggling against the DBacks and Rockies, who are two of the worst teams in the NL, and this weekend they were faced with the best team in the AL, the Toronto Blue Jays. To make things worse, possibly the best pitcher of the decade, Roy Halladay, was pitching for the Jays on Friday. Well, Halladay did his job, giving up 0 runs in 7 innings, but Atlanta's Kenshin Kawakami did him one better. Kawakami gave up 0 runs in 8 inning on 3 hits and 7 strikeouts to get the win in a 1-0 game. The lone run was scored in the 8th inning when Matt Diaz pinch-hit for Kawakami and hit a ground rule double. Yunel Escobar moved him to third with a ground ball to first, then Casey Kotchman hit a sacrifice fly to score Diaz. It was a great ball game that was finished in 2 hours, 19 minutes. This is what baseball is supposed to be.

Since Ball State is now out of the tournament, I have started following another in-state red and white team, the Indiana Hoosiers. IU has won it's first three games in the Big Ten tourney and will await the winner of the Ohio State/Minnesota elimination game to play for the championship. Indiana really needs to win the tourney, as they are 111th in the RPI and will not get an at-large bid. The OSU/Minn game is at 330p today on the Big Ten Network. 30 minutes after that game, IU will play the winner. If IU loses tonight's game, the same teams will play tomorrow in a winner-take-all game.

Brownsburg's baseball team started the week losing to an average Zionsville team, however they won 4 straight games after that, including a 4-1 win over Fishers on Friday, to win a share of the Hoosier Crossroads Conference title. Tucker Barnhart had 3 RBI for the Dogs, the big shot coming on a two-run homer in the 6th to extend the lead. Mitchell Burton scored two runs in the game. Alex McGowan started on the mound and gave up 1 run in 2 2/3 innings. He ran into trouble in the third, with the score tied 1-1, and had bases loaded and a 2-0 count on the Fishers hitter. Brownsburg coach Pat O'Neil removed McGowan from the game in the middle of the at-bat to bring in Dalton Wentz. Wentz threw three straight strikes to end the threat. After that, it was smooth sailing. BBurg scored three runs in the 6th and Wentz only allowed one more hit, while Fishers left 9 men on base in the game. Wentz pitched 4 1/3 innings with 8 strikeouts and only 1 hit. It was Dalton's 6th win of the season.

NCAA baseball seeding predictions (Updated 5/21/2009)

It's coming down to the wire in the NCAA baseball season, so I thought I would take a stab at the NCAA seeds for the baseball tourney.

1. North Carolina
2. Arizona State
3. Cal-State Fullerton
4. Texas
5. LSU
6. Florida
7. Florida State
8. UC Irvine
9. Georgia Tech
10. Rice
11. Virginia
12. Clemson
13. Ole Miss
14. TCU
15. Miami
16. Oklahoma

I will try to update these throughout the weekend up to the selection show at 1230p on Monday.

Where has all the pitching gone? Long time passing....

The Braves received payback from Wednesday's 12-4 crushing of the Rockies by getting beat 9-0 on Thursday. Kris Medlen made his major league debut for the Braves and was shaky in his three-plus innings of work. He had two wild pitches, a hit batter, a balk, and five walks. However, it is only one game and he will hopefully bounce back for his next start. The Braves also called up Diory Hernandez from AAA Gwinnett. Omar Infante and Jo Jo Reyes were put on the 15 day DL. There weren't any bright spots for the Braves on Thursday, so let's hope they pick it up while they host Toronto this weekend. Kenshin Kawakami will get the start for the Braves, but he will face some tough competition as Roy Halladay will pitch for the Blue Jays. Halladay is the winningest pitcher is baseball since the start of the 2002 season.

Ball State's pitching and defense has failed them once again. BSU lost to Ohio 15-6 to be eliminated from the MAC tourney. Kolbrin Vitek had 3 RBI and pitched 6 innings only giving up 2 earned runs, but 7 runs overall. The bullpen was no help, giving up 8 runs in 3 innings. Tim Issler had 3 hits to assist Vitek on the offensive side of the ball. However, you can't give up 34 runs in 2 games and expect to win. The Cards finished with a 26-25 record and a very disappointing end to the season.

On the brighter side of things, Brownsburg beat Fishers 5-1 and Westfield lost to Lafayette Jeff 9-2 to create a tie in the HCC standings with today's game left to play. Fishers got one run in the first on 2 infield hits, a stolen base, and a solid single. BBurg came back with 4 runs in the bottom of the first to take the lead for good. The Dogs added another run in the 6th for the final score. Matt Duncan was brilliant on the mound. He threw his 3rd complete game of the year, giving up 1 run on 5 hits with 7 strikeouts and no walks. He retired the last 14 batters he faced. The Dogs travel to Fishers tonight and Westfield hosts Lafayette Jeff. A win for the Dogs would clinch at least a tie for the HCC title.

Defense? I'm sorry, we don't have that today.

The Braves scored 9 runs in the 4th inning to spark a 14-hit attack on the Rockies, winning 12-4. Matt Diaz had 3 hits and 4 runs while Yunel Escobar added a 3-run homer that broke the game open in the big inning. Javier Vasquez pitched 5 innings giving up no earned runs and striking out 6. The bad news is that super-utility man Omar Infante broke his hand and may be out 6-8 weeks. He was batting .349 and playing almost every day. It will be interesting to see how Martin Prado and Brandon Jones attempt to fill in for Infante while he is out. Game 4 of the series is tonight at 710p. Tonight will be the major league debut for Kris Medlen who was just called up from AAA Gwinnett.

Ball State started off slow and used too much energy to get back into the game, eventually falling to Eastern Michigan in the first round of the MAC tourney, 19-16. EMU was up 8-0 after two innings before the Cardinals put up 6 runs in the 3rd and 4 in the 4th to take a 10-8 lead. However, EMU got 5 runs in the 5th to take a 13-10 lead. Then, BSU scored 2 runs in each of the 5th and 6th innings to take a 14-13 lead. But it all fell apart in the 8th when EMU got 6 runs. BSU could not come back after that. Zach Dygert had 4 hits, and Kolbrin Vitek and Kory Benbow had 4 RBI each. The Cardinals will play Ohio in an elimination game this morning. The game was originally scheduled for 9am, but the BG/CMU game was suspended last night after a power substation exploded. BSU will play 35 minutes after the conclusion of the BG/CMU game.

Brownsburg beat Harrison 3-2 in the completion of the game from last Friday. BBurg is 1 game behind Westfield for the HCC title. BBurg hosts Fishers tonight for Senior Night and goes to Fishers tomorrow. Westfield plays Lafayette Jeff in a home/home on Thursday and Friday. GO DOGS......and, uh, um, GO JEFF!!!!

Maybe they have some life after all

The Braves finally stopped their poor play at home against bad teams by beating the Rockies 8-1. Jair Jurrjens pitched 7 innings and only gave up the one run while scattering 3 hits and striking out 8 batters. Manager Bobby Cox switched the lineup around a little bit and it seemed to work out well. Yunel Escobar was moved from second to lead-off and was 1 for 4. Casey Kotchman was moved from sixth to second and was 3 for 5 with 2 doubles and 3 RBI. Kelly Johnson was moved from lead-off to sixth and responded by going 3 for 4 with two runs scored. I think he was pressing a little bit while batting in the lead-off spot, so this move may work out well for the team as a whole. The teams play game three of this series at 710p tonight. Javier Vasquez will pitch for the Braves.

The Ball State baseball team starts play in the MAC tournament this afternoon against Eastern Michigan at 4pm. Brenden Stines will get the call for the Cardinals. He is 4-4 with a 5.08 ERA on the season. In other BSU news, the All-MAC baseball teams were announced, with three Cardinals getting first team nods. Zach Dygert, Jeremy Hazelbaker and Kolbrin Vitek were all given first team honors. Ian Nielsen was honored on the second team.

Brownsburg started off slow (again) last night against Zionsville. ZVille had a 4-0 lead into the 5th inning when walks and timely hits helped BBurg take the lead. After two walks, a hit batter, a wild pitch, and another walk loaded the bases in a 4-1 game, Justin Hartnagel tied the game with a bases-clearing double to tie the score. Alex McGowan singled home Hartnagel to give the Dogs the lead. Ben Blystone added some insurance with a two-run homer in the 6th. Dalton Wentz had a RBI single in the 7th to account for BBurg's 8th run. The final score was 8-5. McGowan started on the mound and gave up 4 runs in 4 innings, but hung in there and got the win. Wentz pitched the final 3 innings for his 7th save of the year. The Dogs will go to Harrison today to finish the suspended game from Friday. The game is tied 2-2 in the 11th inning. BBurg is still one game behind Westfield in the HCC as Westfield swept Noblesville over the past two days. Conference play ends on Friday, so we need to win the rest of our games this week and get a little help from Lafayette Jeff against Westfield on Thursday and Friday.

Embarassing

After splitting two games over the weekend with woeful Arizona, the Braves looked to get back on track playing a similarly poor Rockies team. It did not happen last night as Atlanta lost 5-1. Derek Lowe showed why he is the number one starter, giving up 2 runs in 8 innings. However, the offense still sucks and the bullpen can't keep a game close. The Braves had 5 hits, but grounded into 4 double plays. There are no more excuses because there are no more injuries and we have what is supposed to be our number one lineup out there every day. The only change I would make right now is to play Omar Infante at second base instead of Kelly Johnson. The bullpen gave up three runs in the ninth to put to rest any hope of a comeback. The teams play tonight at 710p, Jair Jurrjens will pitch for the Braves.

Class 4A #7 Brownsburg lost to the 9th place team in the HCC Conference, Zionsville last night 5-1. The team had no fight in them at all and looked like they lacked any type of leadership out on the field. When the season started, there were 5 seniors in the starting lineup. Now there are 2 or 3, depending on who is pitching. Of course, the seniors that were benched have played their way out of the lineup, but the senior leadership is not there and it looks like those players have "checked out" on the team. Last night, the Dogs fell behind 3-0 after two innings due to the seemingly always rocky start from senior Matt Duncan, who has now given up 15 runs in his last 20 innings. Two more runs were added in the 4th. Justin Hartnagel scored the only run for BBurg with a solo home run in the bottom of the fourth. The team only managed 4 hits against a Zionsville team that started the day 4-10 in the HCC. The Dogs travel to Zionsville tonight and then go to Harrison on Wednesday to complete the game from last Friday with the scored tied 2-2 after 11 innings. The Dogs are 18-5 overall and 10-4 in the HCC, a game behind Westfield for the conference lead.

Natalie Gulbis knows where her money comes from

There was not a lot on TV yesterday, so I watched a little golf, both PGA and LPGA. During the ESPN2 telecast of the LPGA event, where the temperature was in the 50's, most of the women were wearing sweatshirts/jackets and long pants....but not Natalie Gulbis who did have long sleeves, but her shorts/skirt barely covered her ass. Not that I minded, but it just brings home the point that sometimes it is better to look good than to play well. She was 1-over for the day and 3-under for the tournament finishing in 13th place. She does have 2 top-10's in 8 tournaments this year, but only one win in 174 tournaments in her career. She does market very well, considering her swimsuit calendars, her appearance on Celebrity Apprentice, and her show on the Golf Channel.....Can you say "Anna Kournikova"?

Speaking of marketing, Bruno Junqueira qualified for the Indy 500 yesterday only to be replaced by rookie teammate Alex Tagliani. The reason, and I quote, "We've been working with Alex for a long time now and have built our commercial and marketing program around him," Conquest Racing team owner Eric Bachelart said in a team release.

It's not about how well you play or whether you win or not, it's all about the money.....

Nobody played yesterday

The Braves showed up to their game, but did not come to play as they lost to the DBacks 12-0. The offense scattered 7 hits, got picked off twice and struck out 6 times. The pitching was terrible. Kenshin Kawakami started and gave up3 runs in 5 innings. The bullpen gave up 9 runs in 4 innings while walking 8 batters. Hopefully, Atlanta can turn it around today as the finish the series with Arizona at 135p. Derek Lowe will pitch for the Braves.

Ball State's game against Toledo was canceled due to rain and poor field conditions. BSU is the #2 seed in the MAC tourney and will play #7 seed Eastern Michigan on Wednesday at 4pm. The teams played 3 games during the regular season and they were all one-run games with two of those games going to extra innings. Both teams are close in the RPI with BSU at 202 and EMU at 207. It's probably one of the tougher 2/7 match-ups you will see in any tourney.

Brownsburg plays four conference games this week. On Monday and Tuesday they play Zionsville and on Thursday and Friday they play Fishers. They may also have a game to make up against Harrison sometime next week.