Baseball question

[bozar1]

Newbie here. I'm most interested in college baseball and have covered the WAC and San Jose State heavily for the past few years. I have friends in Loveland whom we visit so I thought I might start following the Bears as they are fairly close to Loveland. Does anyone here write up previews and analysis for the Bears or the Great West Conference? Just testing the waters, folks.

 

[Beardown]

Newbie here. I'm most interested in college baseball and have covered the WAC and San Jose State heavily for the past few years. I have friends in Loveland whom we visit so I thought I might start following the Bears as they are fairly close to Loveland. Does anyone here write up previews and analysis for the Bears or the Great West Conference? Just testing the waters, folks.

Welcome bozar. UNC traditionally is a baseball school. Our facilities and team though has been on the back burner as far as the budget is concerned and it shows. Over all we've struggled since moving up to D1. I'm not sure how this years squad lines up.

 

[bozar1]

Hmm, looks I've got work to do. If you want to see a sampling of my stuff covering the Spartans, log in to InsideSparta.com and check under other sports in the forum drop down menu. Baseball is also a minor sport here as football rules as in most schools. The Spartans have a decent basketball team but got spanked by you guys earlier in the season. That was a shock to most of us out here. I've been paying attention since.

I'm still surprised that CU and CSU don't field baseball teams. The Ft. Collins area is ripe with good D1 talent that could play anywhere. It's good to hear that you guys consider yourselves a baseball school. The SF Bay Area is a real hotbed for baseball talent as SJS, Cal, Stanford, Santa Clara, USF, and St. Mary's all field good teams (Pac10, WAC, and WCC) and this coming year is no different.

I'll see what I can do. Give me some time to get up to speed.

 

[Bearsfan24]

All I know is back in the day UNC was pretty good in baseball, even made the college world series a few times, and I'm talking way back in day. But like Beardown said, baseball doesn't get a whole lot of support, fan or money wise. Even though Jackson field is one of the better ball parks in the state, in my opinion. They have struggled since the move up to D1, but have beat some quality teams.

Ya its crazy that CU or CSU don't have baseball teams, I don't know if CU ever did, but I think CSU did back in the day. UNC and Air Force are the only D1 programs in the state. There's 3 D2 programs, and handful JUCO programs as well. I agree the baseball talent in northern Colorado is real good, and its like that throughout the state.

As far as how good UNC will be this year, I'm not sure, I know last year they were really young. They started a bunch of freshman. About the Great West conference, I think its the first year for this conference in baseball, here's the link if you haven't already fount it: http://www.greatwestconference.org/sports/m-basebl/gwfc-m-basebl-body.html From what I have looked at, this conference is going to be pretty weak, and I think UNC could be top 3.

 

[bozar1]

Things I've noticed. The Bears play a good schedule. I don't know what their RPI is but it looks like they play above themselves for most OOC games. Last year, for instance, they played NMSU which was one of the leaders in the WAC. The Aggies usually clubbed other teams in their wins and losses but it looks like NCU held their own in most games. I'm impressed. Hitting is good but they lose their homerun hitter. Pitching is not good and needs to be upgraded or improved somehow. It looks like two lefty starters return which is good. More to come.

 

[jjjj]

I think the baseball team could turn the corner like the basketball team did. They are usually competitive and pull off some big wins on occasion. Hopefully, this is their year also!

 

[Bearsfan24]

Things I've noticed. The Bears play a good schedule. I don't know what their RPI is but it looks like they play above themselves for most OOC games. Last year, for instance, they played NMSU which was one of the leaders in the WAC. The Aggies usually clubbed other teams in their wins and losses but it looks like NCU held their own in most games. I'm impressed. Hitting is good but they lose their homerun hitter. Pitching is not good and needs to be upgraded or improved somehow. It looks like two lefty starters return which is good. More to come.

Ya they lost Sandberg to graduation, he was their best player by far, but that was theme last year they had some good sticks but no pitching. A kid I'm interest in is, Tyler Wallace, he's an incoming freshman. He played his high school ball at Eaton HS, which is a baseball power at the 3A level. He was suppose to go to Nebraska, but decided not to, and he was also drafted by the Rockies. I've seen him play my old high school, not only does he a pretty good glove, he can pitch. I think he was in the mid to high 80s. He also has really good stick, everything he hit was a rocket, he was easily one of the top players in Colorado last year. So he probably could contribute right away.

I agree jjjj, baseball could have a good year this year. Like I said before the Great West Conference is going to be pretty weak, so we could contend for a title right away.

 

[bozar1]

Stole my words, Bearsfan. Don't know much about the roster as of yet but, any time you get a draft choice walk on campus it's a red letter day to be sure. SJS has a 24th rounder coming on and it's like the second coming if you get my drift. If this kid can pitch, he certainly will get his chance to improve the staff. They need righties since the two top returners are left-handed. Believe me, this is not a bad problem since most young hitters have a devil of a time with left-handers. Hmm devil of a time and second coming in the same posting. This is baseball, right? I'm working on a posting comparing RPI's and SOS of the teams in the conference. Folks, this isn't a pretty picture. More to come.