The Book 2007 Ragin' Cajun Baseball

[lcitsh]

_ Do you understand how difficult it is on any level to beat a team three times in a row?

Be content with the series win and the knowlege that it's only the second loss at the Tigue all season. _

It's not difficult when you are clearly superior to the team you're playing. I'll be content when they finish the job they started and develop the killer instinct they will need when they play real competition.

[NewsCopy]

UL's baseball team doesn't play a mid-week game this week, and that's a good thing for the Ragin' Cajuns heading into the home stretch of the 2007 season. During the just-completed weekend series against Arkansas State, the Cajuns appeared lethargic even though winning two out of three and holding onto a two-game lead in the Sun Belt Conference standings. "This comes at a good time for us," Cajun coach Tony Robichaux said of the week away from play. "It'll help us get our legs back under us. We're coming off some long trips and a lot of road games, and finals are only a week away." UL (32-13, 15-6) also gets a chance to rest up before playing one of its biggest series of the season this weekend. The Cajuns travel to Monroe for a three-game Sun Belt series against UL Monroe beginning at 6 p.m. Friday. That series would have had even more impact had not ULM dropped two of three games at Troy over the weekend. The Warhawks are in a virtual tie with Troy for second place in the standings. The rest of the story Dan McDonald dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com

[rhineaux]

They obviously left next week open for the finals week, but the earlier rain-out at Houston forced them to play next week anyway. I assume they scheduled it for next week because UH already had a game scheduled this week and didn't want to play two. But, I wonder why, starting at the beginning of the season, there was no game scheduled for this week. I am curious if coach foresaw that the team would be pretty tired after the three weeks they have just come off of, and figured that they would be able to use a few days off. I think its good that they were able to get a game in one of these two weeks, but too bad it had to happen during finals.

[GoneGolfin]

I sent the following to Mark Etheridge concerning the Cajuns' difficult road schedule and he is going to make reference to such in the Daily Dose tomorrow ...

I suspect that the Cajuns' record against the Top 50 (3-6) and potentially the Top 75 (10-9) Base RPI may give them problems if their Adjusted RPI slips down into the mid to late 20's. By trouble, I mean possibly losing out on a #2 seed, despite winning a conference championship. However, I wonder how deep the selection committee will dig here. An interesting thing to note is that all nine Top 50 games have been on the road. Additionally, sixteen of the nineteen Top 75 games have been on the road. When the regular season is complete, the Cajuns will have played 32 road games and only 24 home games. I venture to say that no team in the Top 20 will have played such a home/road differential. And many teams will be far from such a differential.

Brian

[CajunRed]

This is the kind of thing I've been ticked about for years. Unlike in basketball, the NCAA baseball RPI is not adjusted for home and away. Mid-majors normally have to play BCS programs on the road, whereas an SEC school, for instance, gets to play half its conference games at home. That is a HUGE disadvantage for a school like UL to have to overcome.

I hear all this crap about the SEC or the Big 12 having to play such a strong schedule, but in reality it isn't as strong as they would have you believe when you consider they get half of those games before their home crowd!

[Cajunsmike]

_ I sent the following to Mark Etheridge concerning the Cajuns' difficult road schedule and he is going to make reference to such in the Daily Dose tomorrow ...

I suspect that the Cajuns' record against the Top 50 (3-6) and potentially the Top 75 (10-9) Base RPI may give them problems if their Adjusted RPI slips down into the mid to late 20's. By trouble, I mean possibly losing out on a #2 seed, despite winning a conference championship. However, I wonder how deep the selection committee will dig here. An interesting thing to note is that all nine Top 50 games have been on the road. Additionally, sixteen of the nineteen Top 75 games have been on the road. When the regular season is complete, the Cajuns will have played 32 road games and only 24 home games. I venture to say that no team in the Top 20 will have played such a home/road differential. And many teams will be far from such a differential.

Brian _

Who is Mark Etheridge? I imagine he has some type of position on the selection committee. What is the Daily Dose? Do you believe your email will have some impact on the decision making process?

[BirdofParadise]

_ Who is Mark Etheridge? I imagine he has some type of position on the selection committee. What is the Daily Dose? Do you believe your email will have some impact on the decision making process? _

Mark Ethridge is the man who runs sebaseball.com. He isn't on the selection committee, but any publicity we can get about our road travels this year is a good thing.

[GoneGolfin]

Who is Mark Etheridge? I imagine he has some type of position on the selection committee. What is the Daily Dose? Do you believe your email will have some impact on the decision making process?

Mark is the founder of SEBaseball.com and the person to which I submit my article content when I find time to write. Paul Kislanko is the stats workhorse behind the scene and provides the core numbers behind Mark's work. SEBaseball.com is well read in the college baseball community. Let's just leave it at that.

Anyhow, he provided the quote in today's Daily Dose, which is just a recap of the previous day in college baseball and what is on tap for the current day.


From the Mailbag:

I used to get a lot of hate-mail. That has slowed a bit fortunately and here recently have had some nice exchanges with players, coaches, and ardent bracketologists. This week I got a nice message - a Louisiana Ragin' Cajun fan pointing out an interesting note.

"I suspect that the Cajuns' record against the Top 50 (3-6) and potentially the Top 75 (10-9) Base RPI may give them problems if their Adjusted RPI slips down into the mid to late 20's. By trouble, I mean possibly losing out on a #2 seed, despite winning a conference championship.

"An interesting thing to note is that all nine Top 50 games have been on the road. Additionally, sixteen of the nineteen Top 75 games have been on the road. When the regular season is complete, the Cajuns will have played 32 road games and only 24 home games. I venture to say that no team in the Top 20 will have played such a home/road differential. And many teams will be far from such a differential."

In this era of home-loaded schedules for the top thirty teams, it seems very odd that a warm-weather program would have such an road-heavy schedule. In contrast, Florida State has just 18 road games and a neutral site game in Jacksonville against Florida. That leaves the other 37 at home. Just thought that was interesting.

[NewsCopy]

He's the most feared .232 hitter in the Sun Belt Conference. Of the league's 11 baseball teams, no nine-hole hitter makes an impact on games like UL's Devon Bourque, just because he's seemingly always on base. "That's my job," Bourque said. "Play defense and get on base. I'm not a guy that's going to drive in 50 runs, so I have to get on and score runs." The senior from Gonzales and East Ascension does that on a regular basis. His batting average through the Cajuns' first 44 games may be nearer the Mendoza line than the team leader, but his on-base percentage is an astonishing 166 points higher at .398. That's mostly because he's tied for the team lead in walks (33), a huge number for someone hitting at the bottom of the lineup. He's also struck out the fewest times among Cajun starters (17). The rest of the story Dan McDonald dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com

[NewsCopy]

MONROE - No one expected this weekend's UL-ULMonroe intrastate series to have such an impact on the Sun Belt Conference baseball race - except, maybe, the folks in the Warhawk camp. ULM was picked last in the Sun Belt in the preseason coaches' poll in February. Now, three months later, there's a chance that the Warhawks could be atop the league standings by Sunday night. The visiting Ragin' Cajuns are, of course, hoping that's not the case, since UL (32-13, 15-6 Sun Belt) enters tonight's 6 p.m. game at the ULM Baseball Complex leading the Sun Belt race by two full games. But the Cajuns admittedly didn't play well last weekend even though taking two of three at home against Arkansas State. "Our biggest goal is not just winning another conference weekend, but getting back to playing quality baseball like we were earlier in the year," said Cajun coach Tony Robichaux. "It's a long season and everybody gets in a rut. You hope to stay away from that late in the season. Every team hits a wall, and we've got to be able to scale that wall." The rest of the story Dan McDonald dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com

[NewsCopy]

For the first time since ULM moved into the Sun Belt Conference for all sports, the Warhawks will face rival Louisiana-Lafayette with the chance for a conference championship on the line for both schools. The ULL baseball team comes to Warhawk Field for a three-game series this weekend, starting with a game at 6 p.m. today. The Ragin' Cajuns (32-13, 15-6 Sun Belt) are currently in first place in the standings. They are 2½ games ahead of the Warhawks (27-20, 14-9), who are behind Troy by mere percentage points for second place. Neither team can clinch the regular-season title this weekend. However, both could effectively eliminate the other from the race. Trailing with just two conference series left, ULM needs to win at least two of three games this weekend to stay in the race. The rest of the story By Michael Kern mkern@thenewsstar.com

[Dad04]

Is ULM reverse pitching? What happened to Bucky Chandler?
EDIT: Just read BB's scouting report

[cajun1300]

_ Is ULM reverse pitching? What happened to Bucky Chandler? _

By the way, Dad, how's your son feeling?

[Dad04]

He's good.

[NewsCopy]

MONROE - UL's baseball team won two of three games last weekend playing what head coach Tony Robichaux called "ugly baseball," but his squad turned that around in Friday's 5-2 win over UL Monroe. The Cajuns didn't commit an error, although two defensive mishaps led to ULM's two seventh-inning runs, UL outhit the hosts 9-6 and Cajun pitchers Danny Farquhar and Greg Harmon combined for 17 strikeouts with only two walks. "We won playing better baseball tonight," Robichaux said. "We're still a tired bunch, but we also played a lot closer together tonight." TODAY: The Cajuns are scheduled to start junior lefthander Hunter Moody (5-3, 4.20) against ULM junior lefthander Keith Christensen (3-3, 4.50) in today's 6 p.m. middle game of the series. The rest of the story Dan McDonald dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com