ACC Standings & GT Finish

[GTNavyNuke]

Parity? Who would have thought that after only 2 ACC games each, only two teams would be undefeated (FSU and UNC) http://www.theacc.com/standings/#/m-basebl/2014

I think we'll be in the Play In group (7-10). I expect a slower start as our pitching comes around and finish the end of the season strong. So basically, expecting what we did last year.

Wouldn't mind winning the tourney again. If we get in, we should have the pitching depth to make a good run.

Note: The voting will never close, so you can update your vote as the season goes on.

 

[MWBATL]

Looking like the top 3 teams in the Coastal will all be 2-1 after this weekend's game are done (UNC is trailing Duke 7-1 in the 7th inning). That would put us, UNC, and Virginia all at 2-1. Pitt, Duke, Miami and VPI&SU would all be 1-2.

 

[awbuzz]

Hope I'm wrong and we don't have to play in.
Will have to see what happens the next couple of months.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

Hope I'm wrong and we don't have to play in.
Will have to see what happens the next couple of months.

No one knows right now, I sure don't. There are a lot of teams in the ACC with a lot of potential. Our strong suits are hitting and in-field defense. If pitching keeps improving, we will be a hard win for anyone in the country. But the same can be said of a lot of teams.

It's a lot better to have won our first series than lost it!

 

[Stinger90]

After receiving some PM's I've decided to stay on and post on a sport I like very much and was the first GT sport I attended while there.

After Sunday, there's a 3-way tie (Uva. GT UNC). This coming weekend series, Georgia Tech has the harder road with us playing at Duke who lost to UNC 2-1. UNC goes to Pitt (1-2) who lost to UVA that was played in Cary, N.C. due to weather. UVa goes to Blacksburg, Va. to take on VT (1-2) who lost to Wake Forest in Winston Salem.

I agree with Nuke in it was better for us to win our first series and against a Notre Dame team that is by no means a pushover. That was a big boost on both sides of the diamond. On a side note: Did you know our AD used to be a pitcher for the Irish? I didn't. Being a baseball man maybe helped fast track in upgrading our facilities in a major way. JMO

Tech takes on Georgia Southern at the Rusty C in our second game against them. Our last meeting was a 7-4 victory which they'll be looking to avenge and tie the series up. Georgia Southern is coming off a weekend series sweep against App. State.

 

[MWBATL]

I am probably getting too caught up in what this team has in terms of skills, but I am thinking we could do very well this year. I would be VERY disappointed if we did not get an NCAA Tourney invite, and am frankly hoping for Regional host spot....

 

[Stinger90]

@MWBATL I can understand getting too caught up with our team. For me, after this year in basketball I couldn't wait for baseball to start.

Having the year we had last year and the players we lost, I really wanted to see what this year's team is made of. I know it's way too early but I'm excited about the chemistry we have. Like you and others have stated about our pitching it can make us or break us a long with how hot our bats get. I'm trying not to get overzealous because our youth in pitching we are going to have ups and downs.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

After receiving some PM's I've decided to stay on and post on a sport I like very much and was the first GT sport I attended while there.

After Sunday, there's a 3-way tie (Uva. GT UNC). This coming weekend series, Georgia Tech has the harder road with us playing at Duke who lost to UNC 2-1. UNC goes to Pitt (1-2) who lost to UVA that was played in Cary, N.C. due to weather. UVa goes to Blacksburg, Va. to take on VT (1-2) who lost to Wake Forest in Winston Salem.

I agree with Nuke in it was better for us to win our first series and against a Notre Dame team that is by no means a pushover. That was a big boost on both sides of the diamond. On a side note: Did you know our AD used to be a pitcher for the Irish? I didn't. Being a baseball man maybe helped fast track in upgrading our facilities in a major way. JMO

Tech takes on Georgia Southern at the Rusty C in our second game against them. Our last meeting was a 7-4 victory which they'll be looking to avenge and tie the series up. Georgia Southern is coming off a weekend series sweep against App. State.

Glad you are staying!

I was going to argue about our pitching being young and then checked the stats, only Stanton and Pitts are Srs. King and Joe Wiseman are Jrs who we could lose to the draft. Also, Zac Ryan is 21 and I don't know if he turns 22 before the draft. (After Heddinger, I don't count anyone as staying for sure.) So we have a lot of solid young pitching being developed.

I heard Bobinski on ESPN - he was very supportive of Danny Hall (Duh) and talked about the "Arms Race" in college facilities. We need to have good facilities which we didn't have. I think if we are to take the next step to regularly get a top 10 team, we'll need to recruit successfully outside of Georgia more. Facilities and being in ATL help a lot. As well as academics since baseball players are generally more academically inclined it seems.

One thing I liked about Bobinski is that he seemed a lot less reserved than I have heard him before. It may be because baseball is his element, or it may be that he wasn't talking to a large audience. He seemed very genuine when he talked about how he was a hard, but not particularly talented, pitcher and had the surgeries to prove it.

 

[Stinger90]

I am too

I want so much for beesball to have more poster's on this site. We do have some great people on here that help make this the best all around GT sport forum when compared to others. I know beesball will always take a backseat to football and even basketball but our beesball program has had so many positives except when it comes to post-season play which is still not as doom and gloom but frustrating for not having at least one CWS ring to show for it. There's a lot of schools that would love to in our shoes and I believe we'll get back to Omaha.

Thanks guys for having me back and looking forward to reading, learning, debating and agreeing wit ya.

 

[gtrower]

The bats are on fire to start the season even with Spingola/Gonzo (#1/#2 in the conference in hits for '14) in bad slumps. Although both are finally starting to get in the swing of things. Fielding is still solid and suddenly King/Pitts/Gold looks like it might be a regular rotation. Right now we look like a 3-6 seed team in the ACC. Hoping for at least 18-12 in conference with our relatively favorable Atlantic schedule (no FSU, NCSU, WF).

 

[MWBATL]

Hoping for at least 18-12 in conference with our relatively favorable Atlantic schedule (no FSU, NCSU, WF).

I would take WF and NCSU in a heartbeat...neither of those two scare me. FSU is good, but I would expect us to go either 1-2 or 2-1 against them, they do not appear to be the powerhouse this year that they have been in the past (specifically because of pitching).

Meanwhile, we got swept by Pitt last year...we owe them big time.

 

[gtrower]

I would take WF and NCSU in a heartbeat...neither of those two scare me. FSU is good, but I would expect us to go either 1-2 or 2-1 against them, they do not appear to be the powerhouse this year that they have been in the past (specifically because of pitching).

Meanwhile, we got swept by Pitt last year...we owe them big time.

Pitt plays on a turf infield, right? As in the entire infield (including mound and "dirt") are just colored astroturf. Maryland's field is the same way. We were 1-5 against those two teams during the '14 regular season. I went to the Fri/Sat games @Maryland. That turf was giving our normally sure-handed infielders fits and their infield was obviously well adjusted to the way the ball was bouncing off of it. I think we'll be fine against Pitt in Atlanta.

 

[Squints]

I think I have us in the 4-8 range at this point. I expect the standings to be really bunched up this year outside of Virginia. Went with 7-10 to hedge my bets.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

Half way through the ACC season, we are firmly in the middle. At 7-8, we are 1/2 game out of sixth (behind 7-7 NC State) and 1 game ahead of 11th (ahead of 11 place ND at 6-9). http://www.theacc.com/standings/#/m-basebl/2014

5 series to go: UVA (6-8!!), @BC (5-9), Clemson (7-8), Pitt (4-11), @Miami (11-4). I think the series go like this UVa (1-2), BC (3-0), Clemson (1-2), Pitt (2-1) and Miami (1-2). Or we go 8-7 to end season 15-15 and firmly

 

[GTNavyNuke]

A lot of RPI love from Warren Nolan, which predicts we end up 4th in the ACC with a 17-13 record. That means we go 10-5 from here. http://warrennolan.com/baseball/2015/predictedstandings

Simply winning every series will do that ..... (tic)

 

[GTNavyNuke]

After taking the series from UVa, we are 9-9 - along with 4 other teams. So there we are in a 5 way tie for 4th place. So who we play in the next four ACC series makes a big difference.

(GT - 9-9 ACC; 24-12; 11 RPI)

@BC; 6-11 ACC; 16-18; 87 RPI
Clemson; 9-9 ACC; 18-18; 81 RPI
Pitt; 6-12 ACC; 14-20; 144 RPI
@Miami; 14-4 ACC; 28-9; 2 RPI
Overall opponents; 35-36 ACC; 76-65;

I think whether we make the top 6 in the ACC at the end of the regular season will largely be decided in the next three series. We really need to hope we avoid the play-in game given our starting pitching depth. If we only lose two games in those three series, I think we'll be top 6 regardless of the Miami series. Lose 3 or 4 and then the Miami series will come into play.

But one game at a time. THWG first!

 

[AE 87]

Sweep BC & Pitt and take cu, then make d'uh u cry

 

[GTNavyNuke]

Here's what I posted in the Clemson thread for comparison at year end. I still expect us to be in the play in - 7 through 10 spots.

We have 7 ACC games left. And we are tied with Wake for 8th/9th place. Suppose we keep playing like yesterday, then I'd expect we lose to Clemson today, take 2 from Pitt (who is awful) and get swept by Miami. That would be 2-5 and put GT 6 gamesunder 500 at 12-18. With that scenario (and gobs of guesses below), we don't make it.

Here's the other bottom dwellers with gobs of guesses based on RPI and game location:
Wake: -3 to 500 currently; games to go are 1 with ND, 3 with NCState, 3 @ Duke. Guess go 3-4, end at -4 (=-3-1).
VT (GT has tie breaker): -5; 2 @ Duke, 3 BC; 3@Pitt. Guess 5-4, end at -4.
NC State: -3; 2 UVa, 3@Wake, 3@Louisville. Guess 3-5, end at -5.
BC (BC has tie breaker): -4; 1 @UNC, 3 @VT, 3 ND. Guess 3-4, end at -5.
Duke (GT has tie breaker): -9; 2 VT, 3@UVa, 3 Wake. Guess 3-4, end at -8.
Pitt (GT should have tie breaker): -9; 3 Miami, 3@GT, 3 VT. Guess 2-7, end at -14.

But if we do as I expect and win 3 or more of the next 7 games, then we are 3-4 and end up at 8th or 9th. We are getting hit hard by the injury bug - Pabst hand (kind of important for catcher), Kel has been hobbled and awful at the plate, Spignola out with ankle and lost pitchers (Ben S + Stanton + ?). I'll also guess our RPI will go from 26th to 35th. That should be good enough to get into the #3 or #4 seed.

 

[Squints]

I think we're tied for 7th. I haven't checked the schedules of the teams around us but I'm gonna guess that unless we sweep Pitt we're gonna end up as a play-in team. With our lack of pitching depth that would be pretty bad for us.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

I think we're tied for 7th. I haven't checked the schedules of the teams around us but I'm gonna guess that unless we sweep Pitt we're gonna end up as a play-in team. With our lack of pitching depth that would be pretty bad for us.

I looked at schedules before, but a simpler way is to look at what it took last year to make the tourney and where teams are this year in terms of games over or under 500.

In last years tourney:
Top 6 ranged from +18 to +1 games over 500;
7 to 10 ranged from 500 to 4 games under 500;
Bottom four teams were -9 to -12 games.

Right now, we and Wake are tied for 8th at -2.
Complete standings:
Top 6: Louisville +17, FSU & Miami +8, UNC +3, Clemson +1 and ND +0.
7 to 10: NC State -1, GT & Wake -2, UVa -4.
Bottom 4: BC and VT -5, Pitt & Duke -9.

Just looking at GT,

• we can go 2-4 to end up 4 under 500 and still probably make the 7-10 spots.
• A 3-3 finish (most likely case IMHO) will have us at -2 and probably have us playing in but certainly not top 6.
• But if we go 4-2, we would end up at +2 and probably make top 6. Thus to get top 6 we need a Pitt sweep and 1 win at Miami. If we had won the BC series we would only have had to win the Pitt series to be in the top 6.

Our making the NCAA tourney is by no means certain .... although our RPI is 28th we aren't even ranked in the Coaches poll which goes 45 deep. http://warrennolan.com/baseball/2015/schedule/Georgia-Tech and http://warrennolan.com/baseball/2015/polls

I think we'll need to solidly be in the top 45 to make the NCAA tourney. The top 45 is a guess because the field of 64 is made up of "Thirty-one teams will be awarded an automatic bid as champions of their conferences, and 33 teams will be selected at-large by the NCAA Division I Baseball Committee."