Tonight Stanford begins its final series of the season up in Seattle vs UW.
Here is the official site article on the series:
http://gostanford.com/news/2018/5/22/bas...reach.aspx
Stanford enters this series with a magic number of 1 to win the conference title, but it is a slightly odd 1 as it is over three separate teams, one of whom we are playing (UW) and the other two play each other (OSU vs UCLA).
So, a win tonight wraps up the conference title, but we won't get there tonight simply by opponents losing. That's because only one of OSU/UCLA will lose tonight and a loss by UW means a win by us.
Also of interest, as far as our standing vs OSU goes, their tie in the Sunday extra innings game vs WSU is effectively a loss for OSU given that they have a tie-breaker over us by winning the head to head series.
UW is an interesting team, with the sort of results that really hurt the conference.
They have had a good conference run, going 18-9 so far to tie for third place with UCLA, one half game behind OSU.
However, out of conference they have only gone 10-13 despite a not very difficult schedule (for example, their non-conference RPI SOS is #75 compared to Stanford at #27, OSU at #53 and UCLA at #45. Their non-conferences resume includes disasters such as losses to Portland, UT Rio Grande Valley (that I didn't know existed), and 3/4 to Illinois State. That sort of thing really hurts the entire conference in terms of RPI and perception.
At the moment, UW sits at #70 in RPI. As I understand things, no team with 18 or more Pac 12 (or its predecessor conferences) wins has ever not made the NCAA tournament. On the other hand, I heard no team has ever received an at large bid with an RPI as high as #70. UW's RPI will probably go up this weekend merely by playing Stanford, but might need to sweep us to make the field.
UW has got where they are more on pitching than offense. They are #8 in the conference in team batting avg, slugging percentage, and runs scored as well as a bunch of other offensive categories (quite consistent actually). They are #4 in the conference in team ERA and runs allowed, behind Stanford, UCLA, OSU (in that order, Stanford is nationally #3 in team ERA).
Of note:
As he did in our earlier Th, F, Sa series, Esquer is keeping T. Beck and Bubic pitching on their regular days (Friday and Saturday) and starting Miller tonight. Presumably B. Beck will be ready to go for long relief if needed.
UW's top pitcher is Joe Demers (6-3, 2.34 ERA), who seems to have been around a long time (though I think only a junior). Demers has usually been a Saturday (day 2) starter, which probably means he will go on Friday as most coaches don't seem to follow Esquer's efforts to keep his main guys on the same day of the week.
Demers is #2 in the conference in ERA (not quite sure minimum requirements to make the list), with B. Beck #3 and Bubic #4.
UW's most recent day 1 starter has been Lucas Knowles (4-5, 4.03), and day 3 starter Jordan Jones (5-3. 3.53).
Here is the official site article on the series:
http://gostanford.com/news/2018/5/22/bas...reach.aspx
Stanford enters this series with a magic number of 1 to win the conference title, but it is a slightly odd 1 as it is over three separate teams, one of whom we are playing (UW) and the other two play each other (OSU vs UCLA).
So, a win tonight wraps up the conference title, but we won't get there tonight simply by opponents losing. That's because only one of OSU/UCLA will lose tonight and a loss by UW means a win by us.
Also of interest, as far as our standing vs OSU goes, their tie in the Sunday extra innings game vs WSU is effectively a loss for OSU given that they have a tie-breaker over us by winning the head to head series.
UW is an interesting team, with the sort of results that really hurt the conference.
They have had a good conference run, going 18-9 so far to tie for third place with UCLA, one half game behind OSU.
However, out of conference they have only gone 10-13 despite a not very difficult schedule (for example, their non-conference RPI SOS is #75 compared to Stanford at #27, OSU at #53 and UCLA at #45. Their non-conferences resume includes disasters such as losses to Portland, UT Rio Grande Valley (that I didn't know existed), and 3/4 to Illinois State. That sort of thing really hurts the entire conference in terms of RPI and perception.
At the moment, UW sits at #70 in RPI. As I understand things, no team with 18 or more Pac 12 (or its predecessor conferences) wins has ever not made the NCAA tournament. On the other hand, I heard no team has ever received an at large bid with an RPI as high as #70. UW's RPI will probably go up this weekend merely by playing Stanford, but might need to sweep us to make the field.
UW has got where they are more on pitching than offense. They are #8 in the conference in team batting avg, slugging percentage, and runs scored as well as a bunch of other offensive categories (quite consistent actually). They are #4 in the conference in team ERA and runs allowed, behind Stanford, UCLA, OSU (in that order, Stanford is nationally #3 in team ERA).
Of note:
As he did in our earlier Th, F, Sa series, Esquer is keeping T. Beck and Bubic pitching on their regular days (Friday and Saturday) and starting Miller tonight. Presumably B. Beck will be ready to go for long relief if needed.
UW's top pitcher is Joe Demers (6-3, 2.34 ERA), who seems to have been around a long time (though I think only a junior). Demers has usually been a Saturday (day 2) starter, which probably means he will go on Friday as most coaches don't seem to follow Esquer's efforts to keep his main guys on the same day of the week.
Demers is #2 in the conference in ERA (not quite sure minimum requirements to make the list), with B. Beck #3 and Bubic #4.
UW's most recent day 1 starter has been Lucas Knowles (4-5, 4.03), and day 3 starter Jordan Jones (5-3. 3.53).
