Base meet ball. This may not be how it works. Baseball plays for a spot in the championship series at 2 today. Michigan will start Karl Kauffman and has authorized extreme measures if and when Kauffman doesn't turn in a CGSO:

Karl Kauffmann will start tomorrow for Michigan, coach Erik Bakich said. Expect Jeff Criswell in relief, if needed.

— Abby Snyder (@abbyhsnyder) June 20, 2019

Texas Tech risked their third starter against the punchless FSU bats and got five innings out of him before burning out Tyler Floyd, their top reliever, in four scoreless innings. Michigan will get freshman Micah Dallas again. Dallas got chased after three innings on on Monday in his worst start since he emerged from the bullpen. He also pitched against Michigan in March, where he was much better but not particularly long-lived. He struck out 7 and walked none as he gave up one ER in five innings.

So far Micah Dallas is 91-93 FB, 81-84 SL. Good velo but the SL really sticks in his hand, doesn’t show much bite. Would guess he can keep RHB at bay with just the FB if he maintains velo. The SL to lefties deep in counts looks like a mistake waiting to happen.

— Manuel Excel (@colintj) June 15, 2019

For the season Dallas has a 3.6 ERA, a WHIP of 1.37, and 84 Ks in 75 innings. He went 7 innings in 3 of his 12 starts and usually gets to 5 or 6 so the bullpen will very likely get a significant amount of action. Even if Floyd is out, Tech has another couple of guys who made a ton of appearances in Dane Haveman and John McMillon—seems like everyone in the tournament has a much deeper bullpen than Michigan.

FWIW, Texas Tech's leadoff hitter returned from a broken finger against FSU. He's not healthy. He's wearing what his coach called "a contraption." He had a single in five plate appearances.

Come to the library! Tonight at 7:

The Shutdown Fullcast LIVE

When

Friday June 21, 2019: 7:00pm to 8:30pm

Where

Downtown Library: Multi-Purpose Room

Description

Billed as “the internet’s only college football podcast,” the Shutdown Fullcast has been entertaining and antagonizing college football fans worldwide since 2013.

This summer, for the very first time, they’re venturing into the wild heart of Big Ten country in celebration of the internet’s only college football team: Michigan. Join Spencer Hall, Jason Kirk, Ryan Nanni, and Holly Anderson for an evening of only the most dignified and sporting giggles at lesser teams’ expense.

The MGoBlog podcast crew will also be there, so this is going to be a chaotic hydra of a thing. Do you like coherence, reason, and order? If so I recommend the Sushi Demo & Workship, which goes from 6-7:30 at the downtown branch. Come to our thing if you go to the zoo and think "I wish the monkeys threw more poop."

[After the JUMP: it rattles home!]

Well then. The NBA draft provided some measure of solace last night when Jordan Poole defied literally every prediction made about the first round and landed with Golden State with the 29th pick:

Draymond and Jordan Poole when they see each other in the locker room next year pic.twitter.com/lAyleWX5IU

— Blake T. Silverman (@blakesilverman) June 21, 2019

Brazdeikis went 47th to the Knicks.

Replacing those guys. Still early days for Juwan Howard's recruiting. We're at the stage where Michigan's fired off a lot of offers to high-end guys but there hasn't been a whole lot of time to see when and if those turn into visits or genuine interest. There have been a couple of potentially meaningful quotes:

• 2020 CA combo guard Josh Christopher was Howard's first offer and that was enough to pique his interest: "I started talking to Juwan Howard at Michigan a whole lot since he got the coaching job. He made his first offer to me, so I was grateful for that.”
• 2020 CA combo Nimari Burnett went way back with Luke Yaklich and goes almost as far back with Howard: “I was excited. Like I said, me and Juwan have a good relationship. I’ve known him forever. To be recruited by a coach like him means a lot." He  further asserted that they're talking "almost every day."
• 2020 GA stretch five Walker Kessler said that he'll "probably" make a return visit to Ann Arbor. The rest of his list appears to be Gonzaga, UNC, Duke, and UVA with Auburn hanging around. Georgia didn't draw a mention in that article.
• 2020 IL wing Max Christie has already been on campus and when Orion Sang caught up with his head coach he made it sound like he was a guy prioritizing things other than bag: "First of all, it starts with academics. He wants to go to a university that challenges him academically. That’s the No. 1 priority. No. 2 is a strong basketball program."

Michigan's also offered some 2021 five stars but what we know about them so far boils down to "Michigan has offered this guy."

FWIW, this seems like non-news:

Sources: German forward Franz Wagner, the brother of Moritz Wagner, will decide between playing college basketball at Michigan next year or signing a professional deal with Alba Berlin.

— Evan Daniels (@EvanDaniels) June 20, 2019

But it becomes a little less pointless when Daniels follows up with an assertion that other college teams have tried to get involved but have been swatted away. Seems good?

When Dave Brandon calls you. Adam Jacobi took six years to tell us about this but that's fine because I wasn't ready:

I was covering the B1G for B/R back then, and I wrote this: https://t.co/qOySX7TwcU

— Adam Jacobi (@Adam_Jacobi) June 15, 2019

Bewildered, on multiple levels, I ask him what he means.
"It wasn't that serious of a situation. We were merely trying to teach our student-athletes that they can't always trust social media."

— Adam Jacobi (@Adam_Jacobi) June 15, 2019

Have you ever had a conversation with someone who ranks much higher than you, and it quickly becomes apparent that despite their rank, salary, etc... they're just not very bright?

Dave Brandon was not very bright.

— Adam Jacobi (@Adam_Jacobi) June 15, 2019

We all know that feeling tbh

— HOCKEYBEAR (@AKHockeyBear) June 15, 2019

Catfishing your own players to build trust. But at least he hired Bakich.

Swankler appears to be sticking. Never a good sign when a hockey commit is involved in an OHL trade but a couple months after Austen Swankler got traded to his hometown team it still seems like Michigan is the pick:

“I’ve always wanted to go to college my whole life,” Swankler said. “Going to Michigan, them committing to me, that’s probably the biggest success of my life, being able to go to college for free, getting a scholarship to a good school. If hockey doesn’t work out, I have a great education. So Michigan is definitely still No. 1. I’m definitely looking forward to going there.”

He'll certainly be part of the 2020 hockey class that is going to be the most spectacular jigsaw puzzle I have yet seen attempted.

York will go tonight. The NHL draft follows hot on the heels of their NBA brethren and one incoming Michigan recruit is certain to hear his name called in the first round tonight. That would be D Cam York, who hopes to replace Quinn Hughes with a bit less explosion on both ends of the ice. This is praise that's far too high but I'll take it:

NTDP coach John Wroblewski said York's game is similar to Morgan Rielly of the Toronto Maple Leafs. But he also sees some similarities to a Detroit Red Wings Hall of Famer.

"The mark of a defenseman is sometimes you don't notice them because they're so efficient on the ice," Wroblewski said. "Nick Lidstrom, he's cut out of that same ilk. I'm not saying this guy is going to be Nick Lidstrom, but the efficiency level that Nick played with is very akin to how Cam dissects the game and gets through a game. There's a really, really solid prospect there."

He should go in the top 15.

Etc.: Jordan Morgan on Juwan. Another Michigan transfer lands at Rutgers. SI is getting bought by the same scammy weirdo who imploded Rivals and Scout, RIP. The Kerr legacy. Poachin'. More on the California bill that would restore NIL to athletes. The "pass-first triple option spread" is a pretty good definition of what Gattis's offense is going to look like even if Michigan isn't directly mentioned in this Ian Boyd article.