M Baseball takes the series against Iowa
For those who follow baseball, Michigan lost on Friday to the Hawkeyes but took both games in the double header yesterday to win the series in Iowa City. Love a good road win. Go Blue!
The pitching looks much better, and they're still hitting. Tracy Smith is getting it done!
Pitching is better, but more importantly Smith is limiting the meaningful innings to only the best pitchers on the staff. Earlier in the season you have to go deeper into your bullpen to see who is pitching well in game situations and who isn't, and because you don't want to over-stress anybody's arm early in the season. Now that the conference season has started, you can keep your best arms out there longer.
During the 18 innings of yesterday's doubleheader, Michigan used only 3 pitchers. Will Rogers (who is Michigan's starting catcher when he's not pitching) pitched the 8th and 9th innings of game 1 as the closer and then pitched the 1st and 2nd innings of game 2 as the "opener" before yielding to the usual Saturday starter, Jacob Denner, in the 3rd.
The top half of the Big Ten right now:
1. Nebraska (5-0)
2. Illinois (7-2)
3. Michigan (6-3)
4. Indiana (3-2)
5. Iowa (5-4)
6t. Purdue (4-4)
6t. Michigan State (3-3)
Michigan hosts Minnesota April 12-13-14 and Ohio State April 19-20-21.
They have at least two hybrid players -- Rogers and Voit -- and that seems unusual at this level of play. I wonder how many D1 teams have players who both actively pitch and play another position. I could see switching back and forth between infield or outfield positions but pitching is a different animal.
Yes, and you could add Freshman Alfredo Velazquez to that list--he has played 13 games in the outfield and has also seen 4 appearances on the mound this year.
Having one hybrid player isn't unusual for a college team, but having 3 is very unusual...and I have literally never seen a starting catcher double as a top-3 relief pitcher on a team like Rogers does for Michigan. I assume this is an intentional decision by Tracy Smith to recruit the hybrid-type players. It certainly increases your roster options when one player can fill 2 different roles.
It's a lot more common than in pro ball--I think most D-1 teams have at least one. Florida has a kid, Jac Caglianone, who pitches and hits and had some buzz about his pro potential for doing both, but he's been shaky on the mound this season and will probably stick to playing first base as a pro.
Here's a list of top draft eligible two-way players:
And this is about two-way players in general:
"In college baseball, however, two-way players are relatively common and, in an era where teams are limited to 27 scholarship players, some programs see them as a market inefficiency. College baseball is, of course, vastly different from the big leagues, but it is also the highest level of the sport that still regularly uses two-way players."
Wow, having a guy who catches AND pitches is very rare at the D1 college level. Pretty impressive!
Is this heaven? No, it's Iowa.
Hell, I even thought I was dead 'til I found out it was just that I was in Nebraska.
Some of us—some of I?—like Nebraska.
It's not for everyone!
Like Russia.
Little Bill Daggett apparently hates Nebraska.
And speaking of baseball, guess who's throwing out the first pitch for the Tigers today?
Go Blake.. a Michigan athlete we’ll never forget.
I just wonder if they’ll have the speed gun on for his ceremonial pitch…
Nice.
I'm amazed his arms still work. Dude's taken more hits than Ali.
Video of the first pitch and a quick interview with Blake.
https://twitter.com/BallySportsDET/status/1777040481622303056
Go Blue. Head out to Fisher Stadium and support the team at home.
Keep it goin'. Go, Blue!