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This Rutgers series has shaped up to be a BIG DEAL... who knew?

k9_r

Offensive Coordinator
Jul 31, 2010
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Preseason I thought they would be bottom feeders but that was wrong. They didn't just beat Michigan they also played three very competitive games in Ann Arbor. Combining the scores of all three games has Rutgers winning 11-10. Rutgers only used 7 pitchers in all three games, Michigan only used 11 (two of them pitched in two games).

These games were regular baseball played at a pretty high level. Rutgers won game three 3-2, taking a 3-0 lead into the 7th where Michigan scored 2 runs - 8th and 9th were scoreless. Rutgers closer pitched 1.2 innings, faced 7 batters, gave up 2 hits, walked none, struck out none. Everything else was fly out, groundout. Well earned win for them, tough loss for the Wolves.

In fact, Rutgers has been competitive in every game this year but for one - 1-8 loss to Iowa. They've only been in two runaway games this year winning both - 16-1 v Minnesota, 15-4 v Purdue. They've only lost two series - 1-2 v Penn St and 1-3 v Iowa. Strangely, both at home. Won the OSU series 2-1 at home, Beat Purdue 2-1, NW 2-1 and now Michigan 2-1, all three on the road. They split 1-1 v both Indiana and Minnesota in a pod and split a four gamer at Maryland.

That team is winning on the road and playing competitive baseball everywhere. I don't think they fear any opponent. I never figured on that.

But here's what I think - We're not a fluke, we're for real. We've been fielding a very good baseball team. We're going to win this and look good doing it. And it's going to look good to baseball insiders across the country. We win 2-1.
 
Oops, didn't know this was that long. Sorry.
 
Taking Friday's game is always huge so we need to get a good start from Povich yet again. Probably our most challenging series since Iowa quite honestly.
 
Yeah, in my head I was kind of equating them to Maryland. But Rutgers prob is a little better. I do think this series is HUGE. Win 2 of 3 and maybe move up the rankings a bit (and will help RPI) and then we set ourselves up for a host with a good showing May 8-10.
 
Yeah, in my head I was kind of equating them to Maryland. But Rutgers prob is a little better. I do think this series is HUGE. Win 2 of 3 and maybe move up the rankings a bit (and will help RPI) and then we set ourselves up for a host with a good showing May 8-10.
Taking two—or even three—at home from Rutgers (currently 111) probably won’t help the RPI much. But its not all that important. While the committee will probably not completely ignore the RPI for Big Ten teams, it’s usefulness is greatly diminished. It’s really only meaningful for measuring the strength of Big Ten teams relative to each other. And the standings do pretty much the same thing since it’s close to a true round-robin schedule.

If the committee is doing its job, it will recognize all the things k9_r points out about Rutgers being a quality opponent.
 
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Taking two—or even three—at home from Rutgers (currently 111) probably won’t help the RPI much. But its not all that important. While the committee will probably not completely ignore the RPI for Big Ten teams, it’s usefulness is greatly diminished. It’s really only meaningful for measuring the strength of Big Ten teams relative to each other. And the standings do pretty much the same thing since it’s close to a true round-robin schedule.

If the committee is doing its job, it will recognize all the things k9_r points out about Rutgers being a quality opponent.
I just meant it will help out SoS and thusly help our RPI
 
We'll win it and guarantee we won't see another shit show we yesterday and Saturday the rest of the year as this last weekend was a wakeup call and what we saw in the extra innings was a team that wasn't gonna lose that game as was very evident defensively. This team has goals and this is Bolt ball and Bolt shouldn't never be compared to Anderson or Erstad led teams EVER as he is as close to Van Horne as it gets and is proving it. This team has the mentality that they own this conference and are playing like it. We are imo 2 years and a few good quality arms away from seriously contending for a CWS birth. We'll have a good showing in the post season this year and next but won't have the arms yet.
 
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I'm all in for reasonable expectations but 2 years from a CWS berth is crazy talk. Let's see what happens with the 2021 MLB draft (20 rounds) and FA signees before the 2023 season is discussed. July & August this year could be very beneficial to our baseball program, or it could be very bad.

k9, don't apologize. I've read that thing a half dozen times and enjoyed it each time. Awesome info.
 
So who are some other guys who could get drafted outside of Schwellenbach? My guess would be maybe Povich, Bunz, and then Christo or Hood from the high school signees. Is Hallmark eligible to come back next year for his extra season?
 
Not sure where to put this, but here's a Nebraska mention in D1 baseball chat today.

Willie M: What is Nebraska’s ceiling? Could you see them hosting a regional even as a low to mid 2-seed

Kendall Rogers: Willie — I was just talking to a coach this morning about Nebraska, and he thought NU was the most ‘complete’ team in the Big Ten with the most upside of any team he has seen in that league. I thought that was pretty illuminating.
 
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Not sure where to put this, but here's a Nebraska mention in D1 baseball chat today.

Willie M: What is Nebraska’s ceiling? Could you see them hosting a regional even as a low to mid 2-seed

Kendall Rogers: Willie — I was just talking to a coach this morning about Nebraska, and he thought NU was the most ‘complete’ team in the Big Ten with the most upside of any team he has seen in that league. I thought that was pretty illuminating.
Don't know who that coach was but the defense we mounted, while that machine on the mound mowed us down, was big time stuff. Big time.
 
Preseason I thought they would be bottom feeders but that was wrong. They didn't just beat Michigan they also played three very competitive games in Ann Arbor. Combining the scores of all three games has Rutgers winning 11-10. Rutgers only used 7 pitchers in all three games, Michigan only used 11 (two of them pitched in two games).

These games were regular baseball played at a pretty high level. Rutgers won game three 3-2, taking a 3-0 lead into the 7th where Michigan scored 2 runs - 8th and 9th were scoreless. Rutgers closer pitched 1.2 innings, faced 7 batters, gave up 2 hits, walked none, struck out none. Everything else was fly out, groundout. Well earned win for them, tough loss for the Wolves.

In fact, Rutgers has been competitive in every game this year but for one - 1-8 loss to Iowa. They've only been in two runaway games this year winning both - 16-1 v Minnesota, 15-4 v Purdue. They've only lost two series - 1-2 v Penn St and 1-3 v Iowa. Strangely, both at home. Won the OSU series 2-1 at home, Beat Purdue 2-1, NW 2-1 and now Michigan 2-1, all three on the road. They split 1-1 v both Indiana and Minnesota in a pod and split a four gamer at Maryland.

That team is winning on the road and playing competitive baseball everywhere. I don't think they fear any opponent. I never figured on that.

But here's what I think - We're not a fluke, we're for real. We've been fielding a very good baseball team. We're going to win this and look good doing it. And it's going to look good to baseball insiders across the country. We win 2-1.
Strong post. I agree with all points - this series seems like it's going to be a dogfight. Lot of confidence coming off of a series win against Michigan. Also a good opportunity for the Huskers to measure themselves against Michigan via a common opponent, and bounce back after a relatively ugly series against MSU.

Quick scout on the (likely) Rutgers starters for this weekend.

Harry Rutkowski - 8 starts, 4.17 era / 44 Ks in 49.2 IP. Upper 86-88, touches 90. Strong start to the year, but has given up 4, 6 and 4 earned runs against Northwestern, Iowa, and Michigan in his last three outings. Around 4 walks per 9 innings.

Ben Wereski - 8 starts, 2.79 era / 40 Ks in 48.1 IP. 87-89, hits 90. Played for Columbia for 3 years through the 2019 season then transferred to Rutgers. Career era at Columbia was 5.92. Does not issue walks. 6 total BB in 48 innings.

Brent Teller - 7 starts, 4.00 era / 29 Ks in 36 IP. Low-mid 90s. Took a no hitter into the 7th against Michigan. Grad transfer from Sacred Heart where he had a career 4.99 era. 3 BB/9 innings.

Bonus: Ryan Lasko - Freshman CF. 9 home runs this year, 3 time freshman of the week standout. Probably their most dangerous bat right now.
 
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Saturday will be a tough Win. I’m surprised Rutgers don’t have a better record.
Pitching for them has been pretty decent lately but their hitting is still atrocious with a .250 team batting average. They are setup the way the old Erstad teams were. If pitching has a good day we most likely win. If it has a bad day then consider it a loss as the bats rarely carried the day.
 
I'm still trying to figure out how we rose 28 spots after sweeping Penn St. Head scratcher.

Not only does our wins affect our RPI, but teams we beat had great weekends the same weekend that we beat Penn State. Iowa went 3-1 against against Rutgers and Maryland swept Ohio State...giving us a huge boost.

The RPI is fluid and is not only affected by the team we play but movement around the country and from teams we played.

You can go look at impact games each day and you can see the impact of an Iowa win vs an Iowa loss for our RPI. It is very interesting to see how each game impacts our RPI.
 
Not only does our wins affect our RPI, but teams we beat had great weekends the same weekend that we beat Penn State. Iowa went 3-1 against against Rutgers and Maryland swept Ohio State...giving us a huge boost.

The RPI is fluid and is not only affected by the team we play but movement around the country and from teams we played.

You can go look at impact games each day and you can see the impact of an Iowa win vs an Iowa loss for our RPI. It is very interesting to see how each game impacts our RPI.
Thanks for replying, I appreciate it. I actually do understand RPI. I used to build spreadsheets and run RPI calcs (just for my own pleasure). Didn't do it last year and not doing it this year either. Think I've put that little hobby behind me.

One thing, Iowa going up 3-1 was a good boost for us and especially so b/c we played them five time making five entries into our SOS data base, But the MD/OSU results were nearly a wash. Three positive entries for MD but also 2 negative entries for OSU, right?
 
Thanks for replying, I appreciate it. I actually do understand RPI. I used to build spreadsheets and run RPI calcs (just for my own pleasure). Didn't do it last year and not doing it this year either. Think I've put that little hobby behind me.

One thing, Iowa going up 3-1 was a good boost for us and especially so b/c we played them five time making five entries into our SOS data base, But the MD/OSU results were nearly a wash. Three positive entries for MD but also 2 negative entries for OSU, right?

From what I was noticing on Wareen Nolan, MD winning was helping us more than an OSU win. We went 1-1 vs. OSU AND 2-1 vs. MD. I’m guessing the extra game against MD being a win is what helped us.

I definitely don’t understand the RPI as well as you do, but was just mentioning the things I saw over the weekend of the PSU series on Warren Nolan.
 
...but was just mentioning the things I saw over the weekend of the PSU series on Warren Nolan.
You may be on to something here especially with your Iowa mention. The more I think about it, that may be very reason for the 28 spot move after our PSU series.

It finally dawned on me that it happened mid season and mid season RPIs are volatile, not as volatile as early season but, yeah. Now, as you suggested, I look at Iowa's week and it's 3-1 result and I see the SOS push. The fact we played them five times makes it a bigger push. It's actually a ++ push. That will make a difference.

The MD/OSU thing also pushes our SOS but nowhere near as much. Still a push, though.
 
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Man, sure wish I hadn't included that last paragraph in my original post above. Criminy! Couldn't have been more wrong.
 
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