Baseball breakdown

Even though Clemson went 4-1 last week with victories over ranked GT, SC and Coastal, we still lost ground in the division to FSU, who swept Wake and lead at 15-7 in the Atlantic. We stand at 14-10 and lost the series @ FSU, so the hard fact is that we're 2.5 out with 6 games to play. Unless VT and GT manage to put a whipping on the Noles, who have won 9 straight, we'll be hard pressed to make that up. GT does get them in Atlanta however.

As for hosting, like the NCAA basketball tournament, the RPI is a big factor in who gets it, along with the site's ability to host more fans and generate a turnout to make a profit. As of today, the RPI has Clemson at #7 in the nation. As you can see, UNC and GT are essentially locks to host, but Miami (13-11 in ACC) is teetering at 4th in the Coastal Division. Virginia (3rd Coastal) has a much better shot at it, but getting more than two hosts in one division seems unlikely.

In this chart, you can see the possible end RPI rankings and what has to happen for teams to reach a certain level of RPI ranking. From the link, you can see we need a 10-1 finish to end up in the Top 8, and 6-5 to end up in the Top 16. Our remaining opponents have a break even record as of this weekend. I would say that right now, given that we are a near-lock to finish in that 10-12 range in RPI and that the ACC is #1 in RPI, that we'll get the Regional hosting site for the first round.

Jeff Schaus was named ACC Co-Player of the Week after last weeks games:

Clemson’s Schaus had a stellar series against No. 4 Georgia Tech to lead the Tigers to a 2-1 series win. Against the Yellow Jackets, the Naples, Fla., sophomore went 8-for-13 (.615) with one double, one homer, four RBIs, three runs, one walk, no strikeouts, a .923 slugging percentage, and .643 on-base percentage. Schaus’ three-run homer in Saturday’s win proved to be the difference, and he was 4-for-5 with four RBIs in all on Saturday.

Schaus also went 3-for-4 in Friday’s game. But perhaps his biggest moment of the week came against No. 19 Coastal Carolina on Tuesday. With two outs in the ninth inning and Clemson trailing 3-1, Schaus blasted a dramatic grand slam to give the Tigers a 5-3 walk-off win. On the week, he was 10-for-22 (.455) with seven runs, one double, two homers, nine RBIs, and two stolen bases in five games, four of which were against top-25 ranked teams. On the season, he is hitting .331 with 10 doubles, one triple, eight homers, 30 RBIs, seven steals, and a .436 on-base percentage thanks to 28 walks against only 15 strikeouts in 169 at-bats.

Next season's uniform start date could be moved up one week, extending the season's length but not the number of games. This would put less of a burden on pitching staffs around the country, by cutting the number of midweek games down.

Rankings for this week: USA Today-17th, Collegiate Baseball-19th, Baseball America-21st, National Collegiate Writers-19th.

OMG
The Buffalo Bills did sign Cullen Harper to a mini-camp contract for a tryout. The turd hung up on Strelow yesterday, and I think Paul was completely fair to him in his article. We all have to admit that while he should've kept his fucking mouth shut about Bowden, that he would've had a far better season with an OL that could protect him and take pressure off him with better run-blocking.

And skipping your Senior year when you play at Sakerlina isn't always the smartest thing to do, as is training with Neon Peion Sanders.

Cook, the Gamecocks’ leading tackler the past two seasons, likely was hurt by character concerns.

The 21-year-old was arrested on a gun charge on campus in 2007, although the charge was later dropped. Cook was ineligible for the Outback Bowl after he failed to pass the mandatory 12 hours required by the NCAA.

Munnerlyn was mystified that 18 safeties were drafted, and Cook was not among them.

“I feel like he’s way better than them,” he said. “His situation, I don’t know what happened.”

I can tell you what happened. If the NFL sees a guy who won't work, they won't take his ass. He's lazy and stupid to throw away his last semester and fuck things up for his team in a bowl game. If you watched Iowa run all over them, you'd see that another good tackler would've been very helpful in that game....although they would've lost anyway.