BOTM: 2013 July

Jonathan Shaw (TU #11-C)

Jon was a bright spot for a Tigers squad that was one of the most talked about teams, despite missing some of it’s key weapons at Nationals 2013. He leads not just through his words, but his play, and he’s got Towson on the right path towards becoming a dominant team on the East Coast. Shaw was an All-Star for the Brave Little Toasters at Nationals 2013, and also made the All-NCDA second team. With those personal credentials and the fact that he’s guided Towson to a Top 10 finish in just their second NCDA season, Jon definitely is a Baller to watch for in 2013-2014.  Continue reading “BOTM: 2013 July”

NCDA PACE Stats for 2012-2013

Check out the full spreadsheet here.

Anyone who knows me knows how much I like baseball. They also know that I am enamored with sabermetrics- that is, advanced baseball statistics. I regularly surf Fangraphs and Baseball-Reference, and I annually buy the Baseball Prospectus. WAR, OPS+, FIP, BABIP, and UZR are all words I often use in my vocabulary.

If you’re lost right now, go rent the movie Moneyball, or look at Bill James’ wikipedia.

My love of baseball statistics has led to me wanting there to be something, anything! to quantify the success a team has other than Wins and Losses. While we’re still a ways away from monitoring Kills, Catches, Blocks, Kill %, etc, I have come up with a nifty little statistic that I personally like- PACE.

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Matches I Hope We See This Season

We’ll start with the obvious ones:

  • Battle of the Valleys: GVSU vs SVSU, last two MDC and National Champions, eternal rivals looking to one up the other one. Besides the probable one at the MDC, hopefully we’ll get two more of these bad boys in this year.
  • Title Rematch: MSU has never beaten GVSU in the long history of this showdown, and GVSU would love to keep it that way. A rematch of a lopsided Championship Game would be fun to watch, so long as it’s more like the epic December 2012 battle these two teams put on.
  • Battle for Ohio: Kent State and Ohio State may be two title contenders this season, so this would be a huge game. These guys’ll likely meet multiple times in 2013-2014, getting good experience and fueling an old rivalry.
  • East Coast Throwdown: JMU, in the short history of East Coast schools, has dominated their territory. Towson looks like they might have something to say about it this year, after a good showing at Nationals despite being down some major pieces to their puzzle. A couple of these games could help show who’s the boss out East.
  • Battle of the Bluegrass: UK vs WKU has gone from Topper dominated to Wildcat dominated, but this is a very underrated classic that sometimes get overlooked.

Continue reading “Matches I Hope We See This Season”