Disclosure: I'm affiliated with Michigan, but I thought some of you might be interested.

 

For those of you who may or may not follow the volleyball team, they're rather good. They're ranked #9 in the country and 15-5 overall. They are in contention to knock Penn State off as the national juggernaut.

Well interesting news comes from the volleyball team today. All American outside hitter Brook Dieter quit the team today despite leading the team in kills.  No one knows exactly what happened.  Dieter didn't play Saturday against Northwestern, and many speculated that she just had a nagging injury. After the game, Coach Herbert told the media:

Usually the reason people play is because they’ve earned playing time and that’s what happened in this case.

That's pretty strange as Dieter lead the team in kills just the night before in the loss to Illinois. Team captain Lauren Gibbemeyer cited something that I think may be a bit more revealing, mentioning "personal reasons."  This immediately made me suspect health, or particularly, pregnancy might be a reason.

Whatever it is, it's a huge loss for the Gopher's volleyball team, especially as they take on #11 Michigan and #1 Penn State in the next two weekends.

I'm a big advocate of anarchy, especially when its related to meaningless internet polls.  For those of you who forgot, J Leman made a huge comeback to actually lead by 300 votes at one time (warning, this poll hates America).  How did BSD managed to let Zug fall so far behind?  That was me resetting my cookies about 500 times in an effort to ruin their poll. 

 

 

via firmandcorrect.files.wordpress.com

 

Now I have run into a wall.  My counterpoints (I'm just a baseball contributor, Tim does the football) over at VarsityBlue have set forth a meaningless Popularity Contest.  The poll is protected from just clearing cookies and voting again.  I need your help.  Vote Nick Sheridan over Brandon Minor.  Promote anarchy.  I only need 833 votes.

Howdy Hawkeyes,

Since one or two of your mass readership may be interested in the baseball program, I offer you two links. 

First from BigTen.org:  Justin Toole is awesome.  Basically, despite Iowa's horrible prospect for finishing the year, competing only with Northwestern and Michigan State for the bottom the conference, Justin Toole is one hell of a great player.

Second, since I cover Michigan Baseball, I put out my preview of Iowa for the weekend.  I think the Hawkeyes have a chance to take a game from us, probably the Saturday game.  Michigan has made meh pitchers look brilliant of late, so yeah.  Hopefully the weather holds out. 

Good luck this weekend, and please please please don't upset us... I wouldn't like that.

I want to preface this with a small note. My services have been bought out by Varsity Blue. Being a close friend of Paul at their site, he has requested I start doing guest posts with them. I'd like to thank Maize n' Brew Dave for his generosity and exposure. Thanks to Beauford for the bumps as well. I'll still be around making comments, so keep the content coming.

Thanks,
formerlyanonymous 

Thanks for all your awesome work FA! - the gang at MnB

Continuing the preview of Michigan Baseball's 2009 season, this post will address the new contributors and make my blind guess of a lineup.

New(er) Faces

The starting short stop this year appears to be redshirt sophomore Anthony Toth. Those close watching fans may remember Toth from a few starts at second base in 2007. As a freshman he appeared in 29 games with 4 starts, batting .440 in 25 at-bats. Toth redshirted his true sophomore season due to the extreme depth at the middle infield last year. With Christian at short, and both Mahler and Cislo lined up at second base, his middle infield prospects were low. Although initially slated to play second base for the Wolverines, he was a shortstop throughout high school and did get a few innings at shortstop in the NCAA regional against Vanderbilt in his freshman year. There is a chance that Toth and Cislo may swap positions on the infield, but we won't know until they hit the field.

#16, Anthony Toth in Middle, Image from Blue Cats Red Sox Flickr

At designated hitter, we don't have quite the number of options as we did last year. BigTenHardball.com is projecting Nick Urban, the backup middle infielder to take over the slot for the team this year. Urban is a redshirt junior who has

Lorenz in a PBR hat, Image from amatuerbaseballreport.com

been a career bench player to this point. He has made 33 appearances (1 start) with only 18 career at-bats. Due to the limited sample size, I wouldn't put too much stock in his career numbers.

BigTenHardball.com also suggests that "the keys to third base" have been handed to true freshman John Lorenz. Lorenz was listed as the #8 overall player in the state of Illinois after his junior year, but he suffered a broken hand his senior year, causing him to miss the entire season. He did play summer ball this year to get him back into the swing of things. Lorenz had been a shortstop throughout high school, but will be trying it out at third to start the season. It sounds like it's his job to lose.

Attempting the Impossible

Lineup guessing is an impossible task without knowing what's going on in practice. So here's my disclaimer, I just don't know how well these guys have progressed over the offseason. I don't know the new guys that well. This is just my thoughts on what the lineup will look like.

Lineup			Rotation				Bullpen
Kenny Fellows	8		Fri	Chris Fetters	RHP		Closer	Tyler Burgoon	RHP
Anthony Toth	6		Sat	Eric Katzman	LHP		Closer	Mike Dufek	RHP
Kevin Cislo	4		Sun	Travis Smith	RHP		Setup	Matt Broder	LHP
Ryan Lamarre	9		MW1	Mike Wilson	LHP		Long	Ben Jenzen	RHP
Mike Dufek	3		MW2	Kolby Wood	RHP		Lefty	Jeff DeCarlo	LHP
Alan Oaks	7		MW3	Brandon Sinnery	RHP		Short	Matt Gerbe	RHP
Chris Berset	2
Nick Urban	DH
John Lorenz	5

He's Bringing It, Image from MGoBlue.com

Moving along in the series to open up the Michigan season, we have come to returning pitchers. Like any other college program, consistent loss of pitchers is the norm. Many programs stockpile as many partial scholarship pitchers as they can, then they accept more walk ons. You can never have too much pitching in todays game of offensive explosions and MLB teams consistently poaching quality players right and left (especially the left, as in left handers). Unlike football, players can enter the pros (minor leagues) right out of high school. Many players in college are there just to polish themselves for a year or two to improve their draft stock. Its for this reason that Maloney lists 15 pure pitchers on his roster. Three other players are also listed as part time position players. Two of those were detailed in yesterday's post in Alan Oaks and Mike Dufek. These guys may see some limited action this year, but I wouldn't expect much more work than Adam Abraham did last year, 5 or so appearances early in the season. The other is Tyler Burgoon, who we'll talk about more later.

Before I get started, I'd love to give you a scouting report including descriptions of their pitches, such as a blazing fastball in the upper 90s with a outward slide on some, or a sharp slider that goes high 80s from 12-to-6, but honestly, its been a while since I've seen these guys pitch. Some of these I haven't seen in two years. Some of the pitchers I'll be mentioning I've never seen pitch. I went back and read some articles and box scores. Its up to you the viewer to go out and see these guys. Form your own opinion. Baseball is America's game. Go out to the Fish and enjoy it. If you've never been to a college game, you'll enjoy it. Its cozy and quaint. I wish I could, but I'm stuck in Houston. So that's my mini-soapbox rant to start the season. On to the introductions...

Projected Starters

To start this preview, we go no further than last year's (de facto) Big Ten Pitcher of the year (there is no way you can tell me that Zach Putnam was better overall, there is more than just record and being a senior) Chris Fetter. Fetter lead the conference in ERA (2.47), opposing batting average (.209), innings pitched (94.2), strike outs looking (34), wins (10), games started (3 way tie with 14), second in strike outs (82), 7th in hits allows (71, ok, so Putnam beat him here... in less innings), and 4th in runs allowed (35, Putnam beat him here too... in less inngings). I'm not trying to knock Putnam here, but how did Fetter not take Pitcher of the Year honors?

Chris Fetters, Image from MGoBlue.com

Fetter, by all indications will be the Friday night opener pitcher for the whole season. Based on Maloney's previous rotations, I have to believe he will start his ace in game 1 of every conference series to set the tone. There are some coaches out there that save the ace for the weekend to boost attendance, or on the last game to end on a good note, but that hasn't been Michigan's thing that I've ever noticed. By being the most used starter, we should expect 13-15 starts out of Fetter, along with 10-12 wins. Much of his success will depend on his support from the offense. Fetter can keep the opponent from scoring, but having watched Roy Oswalt, Andy Pettite, and Roger Clemens pitch as Astros, giving up 1 run isn't always enough to win. I'm not that pessimistic about our offense, there are just that many question marks. Its also worth noting that Fetter is on every major watch list there is for pitching both in the Big10 and the nation. 

You can keep up with Fetter on the Captain's Blog.  His posts are by far the most enlightening in terms of understanding the pressures of the student athlete.  Great read.

	ERA	W	L	App	GS	CG	SHO	CBO	SV	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	2B	3B	HR	BF	B/Avg	WP	HBP	SFA	SHA	BK
2005	Redshirted Season
2006	2.22	5	2	16	10	1	1	3	1	73.0	66	25	18	14	48	8	1	6	292	.246	3	4	0	6	1
2007	4.71	6	3	16	12	0	0	0	1	70.2	85	45	37	21	48	16	2	5	317	.302	3	5	3	7	1
2008	2.47	10	2	16	14	5	1	1	0	94.2	71	35	26	28	82	8	2	7	386	.209	3	4	6	8	1
Total	3.06	21	7	48	36	6	2	4	2	238.1	222	105	81	63	178	32	5	18	995	.250	9	13	9	21	3

My projected second starter is the lefty Eric Katzman. Katzman was the second most valuable reliever down the stretch, so much though that he earned a start in the Big Ten Conference Championship game. The concern with Katzman is he hasn't been a starting pitcher consistently since high school. His small sample size of starts have all been either short or rough. He made the occasional start in Saturday doubleheader games, hardly ever making it past the 5th inning. If he's going to be the answer to one of the rotation spots, he had better have developed some arm strength/stamina.

That's Probably a Balk, Eric Katzman, Image from Blue Cats and Red Sox flickr

	ERA	W	L	App	GS	CG	SHO	CBO	SV	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	2B	3B	HR	BF	B/Avg	WP	HBP	SFA	SHA	BK
2007	5.92	3	2	13	4	0	0	0	0	24.1	27	20	16	22	20	2	2	2	127	.297	2	9	1	4	0
2008	3.52	2	1	17	5	0	0	0	0	38.1	34	18	15	28	33	7	1	4	177	.239	4	2	1	3	2
Total	4.45	5	3	30	9	0	0	0	0	62.2	61	38	31	50	53	9	3	6	304	.262	6	11	2	7	2

 

Other Starters - Guess Work

The other reason I see Katzman as the second starter is to have the left hander sandwhiched between two right handed starters. The leading candidates due to nothing other than experience are Travis Smith and Kolby Wood. I might even throw Mike Wilson into that hat as well if he hadn't spurned me every time he entered a game last year.

Smith is a right handed sophomore out of Austin, Texas. As a freshman, he had the best numbers as a starter from anyone not named Fetter or Putnam. Michigan was 6-2 in his starts, most of which were non-conference games. The Wolverines sturggled in finding a third and fourth starter last year. Midweek games were started by whoever the flavor or the week happened to be. Smith faired the best, but was still just meh. His 4.40 ERA was 5th on the team; his 43 innings pitched was good for fourth on the team. Hopefully he can avoid a sophomore slump and continue to build upon his past success.

Kolby Wood had quite a bit of success in the rotating Tuesday starter role, but he was also limited in innings. In his five starts, the team went 5-0. The problem with this? His longest outing was 4 innings, so he didn't receive the win in any of them. Kolby showed good potential, he just didn't have the arm strength as a freshman to sustain pitching over the long haul.

Mike Wilson, When he was good, Image from Rob Migrin, The Daily

Mike Wilson was not a good pitcher last year. His 9.00 ERA in 15 games, 9 starts, is just the tip of the iceberg. To put it in perspective, in those 15 games, Wilson only managed 34 innings. Even if he only had one inning per relief appearance, that just leaves him a shade over 3 innings per start. His opponent batting average was 2nd highest on the team at .313 (Adam Abraham decided to stick to 3b after that). Despite all of this, Mike still has a good chance at starting, and maybe even being one of our top pitchers. His sophomore year was the exact opposite of last year. This is what happens when you let Canadians play baseball, weird things happen. As a sophomore, Wilson posted a 3.45 ERA, going 7-1 in 15 games (12 starts). Hell, he threw a shutout one game. Then came the second inning of the Super Regional at Oregon State. Everything since then has been downhill. Hopefully Mike rights his ship and regains his confidence this season. We really need him to step up.

Tyler Burgoon, Image from Blue Cats and Red Sox's flickr

Tyler Burgoon is another interesting choice to start. Last year Tyler emerged from the closer by committee system to take over the duites. He was not there long because he was also forced into the rotating midweek starter role. I'm not sure what Maloney has in mind for Burgoon just yet, whether it be as a reliever or starter. Tyler pitched very well down the stretch and in the post season as a setup man for Powers. He is at least flexible enough to try either if the need arises.

.

Relief? Starters? Pine Riders?

The rest of the returning pitching staff is a myriad of question marks. Ben Jenzen is more of the Academic All Big Ten than he is athletic (not that there is anything wrong with that). Gerbe hasn't been that exciting since he was forced to redshirt his freshman season from injury. Miller hasn't looked good in his limited work. DeCarlo is another one of those Academic All Big Ten guys. His numbers are slightly better, but there just isn't enough to look at to judge. I'm pretty optimistic we will have at least 3 quality starters out of this whole mess. The mid-week games are going to be getting much tougher though. We really need one or two of these guys to step up and beat the MAC teams of the world. Unlike football, the Big10 isn't that far ahead of the MAC. My next post will be my projections at the remaining positions left on the defense. I'll have it out by Monday. I'm out.

With a week (still) left until first pitch, I’m going to start doing a little bit of a build up for the baseball team this week. Today I’m going to run through the main starters who return on offense from last year, with a few tid-bits about the replacement players who may have a shot at starting this season. With the 4 position players (and one DH) gone from last year, there are going to be many a new face at the Fish to start the season.

Chris Berset, Image from Blue Cats and Red Sox's flickr

 

 

Behind the plate, Michigan will be returning 3rd year starter Chris Berset. Berset is a switch hitting (throws right, obviously, I mean he's a catcher) junior who is becoming known more for his reliability behind the plate rather than at it. As a freshman, Berset played in 37 games, 24 starts, recording a nice .300 batting average. Not too shabby. Last year, Berset earned the starting catching duties outright with 42 games, 37 starts. Chris's bat never really got going last year. He peaked in mid April with a .273 batting average, but ended the year at .244. Part of this may be due to the large workload behind the plate. This was a career high for innings caught this season, so it will be interesting to see how he has progressed this year. Expect Berset in the bottom half of the order, perhaps as high as 6th if can get his swing back. More realistically, I'm guessing 7 or 8 hole.

	Avg	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	TB	SLG	BB	HP	K	GDP	OB%	SF	SH	SB	AT	PO	A	E	FLD%
2007	.301	83	19	25	6	0	2	18	37	.446	13	2	14	4	.404	1	2	0	0	160	23	5	.973
2008	.244	119	24	29	3	0	1	18	35	.294	13	4	24	0	.336	1	7	1	3	240	30	3	.989
Total	.267	202	43	54	9	0	3	36	72	.356	26	6	38	4	.364	2	9	1	3	400	53	8	.983

Kevin Cislo, Image from Blue Cats and Red Sox's flickr

Returning at center field is one of the teams captains, Kevin Cislo. Kevin will be the one of three outfielder returning for the Wolverines. Cislo is the two time First Team All-Big Ten, 2nd base in 2007, OF in 2008. Don't expect to see him at second base any time soon. Michigan appears to be grooming Nick Urban to replace Leif Mahler (who I am ashamed to admit I left out of my last post). Kevin also had ample playing time as a freshman; for his career, he has 157 games played, 120 of which were starts.

Cislo currently has a career batting average of .330, highest of any of the returning starters. My guess has him batting in the 2 spot to start the season. He is a predominately singles hitter who won't collect a large number of RBIs, but can score runs and create things on the base paths. Look for him to improve his walk numbers a bit more this year. One thing else to keep in mind is Cislo's stellar play on defense. Cislo hasn't had an error since June 3rd, 2007 (at Vandy in game 1 of the regional championship). That is a span of 124 attempts without an error. All of them came while playing second base. In his career, Kevin only has 7 errors overall, look for him to stay the course and end the year with less than 5. Also, I'll keep propping the Captain's Corner Blog that Cislo writes with Fetter and Kalczynski. Kevin has a pretty good sense of humor and apparently his tacos get a bit messy? He's also giving shout outs to the people behind the scenes that make the baseball team click. Day 9's update gave thanks to Jason Cole, the strength and conditioning coach not named Barwis. It's a good read.

	Avg	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	TB	SLG	BB	HP	K	GDP	OB%	SF	SH	SB	AT	PO	A	E	FLD%
2006	.242	62	19	15	1	2	0	11	20	.323	19	2	17	0	.434	0	3	3	6	48	66	1	.991
2007	.364	162	40	59	5	1	1	23	69	.426	19	7	21	0	.445	3	2	7	12	66	140	6	.972
2008	.348	178	41	62	5	2	1	28	74	.416	28	9	19	1	.456	2	6	18	26	95	21	0	1.000
Total	.338	402	100	136	11	5	2	62	163	.405	66	18	57	1	.448	5	11	28	44	209	227	7	.984

Mike Dufek, Aptly named "waiting his turn" Image from Blue Cats and Red Sox's flickr

Mike Dufek, a left handed hitting but right handed thrower, is the starter on the infield who returns for the Wolverines. Mike started the season as a primary pinch hitter and part time relief pitcher. While his pitching prospects fell, Mike's batting prospects earned him a consistent spot starting at first base to end the season. Dufek comes from a logn line of Michigan Men^TM; His grandfather was the MVP of the 1949 Rose Bowl and his uncle was a All American defensive back, and another uncle was an offensive tackle who eventually played for the Jets. It appears Mike also has taken a keen liking to Rick Leach from his Michigan roots. Dufek changed his number from #24 to #7 in honor of the baseball great. Yes, I said baseball. Leach lettered all four years in baseball as well. What this has to do with this year's baseball team, absolutely nothing, but I figured it would be an interesting fact for some of you.

Back to the player... Mike didn't get much time playing as a freshman. He received a few mop up innings here and there, ending with a - cough- paltry .095 batting average. Year two provided much better results as he batted .321 over 109 at-bats. Dufek also provided a better defensive presense at first place over Nate Recknagel. Dufek hasn't shown himself to be a big star yet, but entering his junior year, he has the opportunity to take the reigns and prove himself. I expect him to bat in the heart of the order, probably the 4 or 5 hole if he builds off last year. He offers a bit of pop but doesn't work the count enough to be in the top of the order. I'm not going to include him in the returning pitchers as he had so little work, and what there was - well, it wasn't good (17 runs, in 23 innings).

	Avg	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	TB	SLG	BB	HP	K	GDP	OB%	SF	SH	SB	AT	PO	A	E	FLD%
2007	.095	21	0	2	1	0	0	2	3	.143	3	0	5	1	.200	1	0	0	0	46	4	1	.980
2008	.321	109	21	35	6	0	3	25	50	.459	7	0	17	3	.356	2	0	2	2	199	13	3	.986
Total	.285	130	21	37	7	0	3	27	53	.408	10	0	22	4	.329	3	0	2	2	245	17	4	.985

Ryan Lamarre, Image from Lon Horwedel, The Ann Arbor News

 

 

Ryan Lamarre finished as the everyday right fielder for Coach Maloney last year. As a freshman, he started 40 games in the outfield in a rather successful season. He ended up batting .305 for the season and made a run at Big Ten Freshman of the year. He ultimately fell short, but appears to have great potential. The one shortfall Lamarre had last season was his patience at the plate. His 11:25 walk-to-strikeout ratio puts it in perspective. He can be cut slack for being a freshman, and Coach Maloney has had a year to work with him which should help. There really isn't much else to say about Lamarre. His game is normally pretty quite, but he produces good results. Look for him to hit in the middle of the order, especially if he can develop power. Any of the 4/5/6 spots are likely.

	Avg	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	TB	SLG	BB	HP	K	GDP	OB%	SF	SH	SB	AT	PO	A	E	FLD%
2008	.305	141	27	43	5	0	3	23	57	.404	11	5	25	2	.376	0	7	8	13	85	2	2	.978

Adam Oaks, Image from his MGoBlue Profile

 

Alan Oaks is likely to regain his starting role at either left field or at designated hitter. Oaks struggled as a sophomore in his 48 games (39 starts) and lead the team with 42 strike outs. Oaks is more you're stereotypical power hitter, he can get many extra base hits, but his average will be low and he will strike out quite a bit. His defense has been somewhat meh for an outfielder. He had 5 errors last year in 49 chances. Not the best performance ever, but not that poor. I really see him taking the DH role over and batting around the 6-spot. Everything will be a question mark until he starts producing.

	Avg	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	TB	SLG%	BB	HP	K	GDP	OB%	SF	SH	SB	AT	PO	A	E	FLD%
2007	.204	49	9	10	5	1	2	9	23	.469	7	0	16	1	.298	1	0	0	0	20	2	0	1.000
2008	.250	128	18	32	5	0	6	19	55	.430	11	3	42	1	.317	3	2	2	2	48	4	5	.912
Total	.237	177	27	42	10	1	8	28	78	.441	18	3	58	2	.312	4	2	2	2	68	6	5	.937

Kenny Fellows, Image from Blue Cats and Red Sox's flickr

 

The reason I think he becomes the DH is the option of putting Kenny Fellows in the outfield for defensive purposes. Fellows has been a great role player for the team, and now in his 5th year senior season, he has a chance to make it to the field more often. Fellows has always come off as a center fielder to me, but with Cislo entrenched there, he will probably start in left field. Fellows has good speed and is a good contact hitter. He was our primary pinch hitter/runner almost all last season. His .333 batting average ranked him fourth on the team, second behind only Cislo on the returners. Fellows may be a solid lead off man for the team to set up Cislo and the heart of the order. Fellows has the ability to be a base stealing threat. He attempted a steal about once in every three times he reached base (for those tempo-free statistic fans), and was successful 7 of 9 times. I also wouldn't be suprised to see Kenny batting anywhere else in the lineup. I would imagine it would be any of the 1, 2, 6, 7, or 8 spots. He doesn't appear to have the power of the 3, 4, 5 hitters.

	Avg	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	TB	SLG	BB	HP	K	GDP	OB%	SF	SH	SB	AT	PO	A	E	FLD%
2006	.000	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	0	0	0	0	.000	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	.000
2007	.150	20	2	3	1	0	0	1	4	.200	4	0	6	2	.292	0	3	2	3	16	0	1	.941
2008	.333	36	17	12	1	0	0	7	13	.361	7	1	4	0	.455	0	1	5	5	21	0	1	.955
Total	.263	57	19	15	2	0	0	8	17	.298	11	1	10	2	.391	0	4	7	9	37	0	2	.949

In my next post I will try to get to either the pitchers returning (of which there are many to go over) or who I expect to start at the remaining infield spots. A special shout to Blue Cats and Red Sox for her amazing phots. Hopefully she makes it back out to Ann Arbor again soon.

Zach Putnam, Image from MGOBLUE.COM	Adam Abraham, Image from LEISA THOMPSON, THE ANN ARBOR NEWS

With one week left until first pitch, I'm going to start doing a little bit of a build up for the baseball team this week. Today I'm starting with the players that left the team last year. As we get closer, I'll examine who's returning this year and what we might expect as we move closer. I also have previews put together for the BigEast/Big10 Challenge, or at least the BigEast Challengers. I skipped Purdue for the time being, mainly because I just haven't had time. Their sports information department was also very slow at getting information out on their website as well. They just finalized their schedule this month. So, to players lost (all stats pulled from Mgoblue.com):

Nate Recknagel, Image from LEISA THOMPSON, THE ANN ARBOR NEWS	Adam Abraham, Image from BEN SIMON, MICHIGAN DAILY

Offense

Player	POS	AVG	GP-GS	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	TB	SLG	BB	HBP	Ks	GDP	OB%	SF	SH	SB-ATT	PO	Asst	Err	F%
Nate Recknagel	1B	.368	58-58	209	56	77	9	1	23	68	157	.751	33	8	30	3	.465	4	0	5-6	443	45	10	.980
Adam Abraham	3B	.352	60-60	233	44	82	14	3	7	54	123	.528	20	6	26	3	.415	1	1	2-5	36	112	15	.908
Jason Christian	SS	.330	50-48	194	56	64	13	6	7	48	110	.567	39	3	36	2	.445	2	2	16-18	83	113	13	.938
Zach Putnam	DH	.307	55-55	199	47	61	13	2	11	51	111	.558	28	5	29	3	.400	3	0	3-3	5	15	0	1.00
Derek VanBuskirk	OF	.294	60-60	221	53	65	10	1	10	44	107	.484	29	2	36	2	.381	0	4	11-12	107	2	1	.991
Jason Malefakis	PH	1.00	1-0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	1.00	0	0	0	0	1.00	0	0	0-0	0	0	0	0
Leaving Totals		.330	60	1056	256	349	59	13	58	265	608	.576	149	24	157	13	.413	10	7	37-44	674	287	39	.961
Team		.315	60	2041	464	643	101	15	75	433	999	.489	252	55	339	26	.401	22	43	78-100	1507	592	73	.966

So that's a lot of loss. We lose nearly 52% of all of our at-bats, 3/4 of our infield, 61% of our runs scored, and about 47% of our stolen bases. That's awesome. [/sarcasm]. What the few many of us Michigan baseball fans must keep in mind this year is that last year's team might have been the best team we have had in over a decade, and while we do recruit well for a northern mid-major, we are no Rice, Tennessee, or South Carolina. Michigan doesn't just reload with extreme quality talent. Last year's team had a large group of upperclassmen who had several years on the field. The group of five starters are probably the best leaving/graduating class Michigan has had since the CWS runs in the 80s. It's never good to lose this many players. Luckily we are in a weak conference for baseball, so while these losses hurt, they aren't going to kill us.

Derek VanBuskirk, Image from MGoBlue

Pitching

Player	ERA	W-L	APP	GS	CG	SV	IP	H	R	ER	BB	Ks	2B	3B	HR	AB	B/Avg	WP	HBP	BK	SFA	SHA
Zach Putnam	2.58	9-0	12	12	1	0	76.2	62	29	22	23	78	10	1	4	278	.223	2	7	0	0	3
Michael Powers	2.60	6-4	28	1	0	8	62.1	62	18	18	20	62	9	1	1	225	.276	4	3	2	3	7
Sam Yashinsky	0.00	0-0	1	0	0	0	1.0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	4	.250	0	0	0	0	0
Adam Abramham	4.76	0-0	5	0	0	1	5.2	8	3	3	3	5	1	0	0	25	.320	0	1	0	0	0
Leaving Totals:	2.65	15-4	46	13	1	9	145.2	133	50	43	46	146	20	2	5	532	.250	6	11	2	3	7
Team Totals:	4.19	46-14	60	60	6	16	502.1	469	274	234	237	444	74	9	33	1875	.250	42	57	7	20	44

The good news on the pitching front is we aren't losing as many great stars. Last year's pitching was held together by the two aces on the mound, one of which being Zach Putnam. Along with DH'ing for the team, Putnam was also arguably our second best starter in the league (behind returning Wolverine Chris Fetter). Putnam ranked in the top 10 of all 13 pitching categories tracked by the Big10 last year. Our year ending closer was Michael Powers. Powers finished the year one of the top closers in the nation and was nearly unhittable in post season play. What's very worriesome for the upcoming year is the team ERA. The leaving players only allowed 2.65 earned runs per 9 innings while the rest of the team gave up 4.81.

Michael Powers, Image from churl

 

BigTenHardball pointed out the new "Captain's Corner Blog" on mgoblue in a post tonight and the blog is full of awesome descriptions.  Seniors Chris Fetters, Tim Kalczynski (known as Timmy Kal), and Kevin Cislo are offering an insight into the daily life of a student athlete, much in the same way as The Fat White Guy.  While the craze has been spreading throughout several programs, this is the first time I've noticed it with any Michigan team. 

I decided to highlight a few of the gems from the first 8 days of practice so far:

Day 3

The freshmen on the team were able to demonstrate that their athletic abilities such as coordination, flexibility, and overall lack of athletic physique could transfer over into their routine. They were able to show their skills off by having a dance off with the hockey team's freshmen. With their efforts, they were able to muster a score of 31 on a 40 point scale. Overall, they were able to entertain the crowd and at the same time rack up fines in the locker room kangaroo kourt which is a team bonding event where teammates fine each other for saying or doing laughable, unintelligent things. --Kevin Cislo

Day 5

I would compare our performance today to eating Kevin Cislo's homemade tacos. The first few are pretty good, but the plate gets messier with each one. By the time you get to your fifth taco, the plate is full of lettuce, stray cheese, and taco meat grease. It's all over your hands and your left wondering how there seems to be more food on your plate than in your stomach. Similarly, outfielders Nick Urban, Tyler Mills, Bryce Aspinwall and company set a strong tone as their throws were right on target. When we moved to infield work, it just wasn't as clean. It's nothing to get too worried about. It was one of those days. Hopefully, we don't have any more of those. --Tim Kalczynski

Day 8

Ann Arbor is an interesting place. It's usually pretty cold around this time of year and students are dressed in layers of sweatshirts, jackets and hats. However, when the weather warms up just a hair, parts of Ann Arbor turn into Miami Beach. When I was walking back from class around noon, I saw a guy running shirtless (in his defense he had the chest of a sasquatch), a homeless man eating an ice cream cone (outside) and a girl sunbathing on the roof of one of the sororities…and yet I was not the least bit surprised. -- Tim Kalczynski

In that last post by Timmy Kal, he also briefly discusses the benefits of Rodriguez on the baseball team... the brand new field turf in Oosterbaan.

My personal favorite post was Day 7 by Chris Fetters.  Fetters gave the general description of how they prepare themselves for the spring semester from class scheduling to exams on the road.  I'd highly suggest any fan of the team to check in with the posting.  It's some quality stuff.  They don't have an RSS feed going on it yet, and I'm not keeping my fingers crossed.  I sent in an email to the webmaster for mgoblue and the sports information department.  I'll pass along any response if I ever get it.

FYI

Beauford

 

From BigTenNetwork Headlines:

Baseball:

Date	Time	Opponent
Friday April 3	4pm	vs Penn State
Friday April 1	7pm	vs Illinois
Friday May 1	7pm	@ Ohio State
Saturday May 2	1pm	@ Ohio State
Sunday May 3	1pm	@ Ohio State
May 20-24		ENTIRE Big10 Tournament

It appears baseball coverage won't be improving much this years in terms of quantity of games.  Here's hoping maybe quality will be better.  Penn State should be a great kick off for Michigan on the Network.  They are the annual challenge Michigan for the crown this year.

Softball:

Date	Time	Opponent
Saturday March 21	1pm	@ Northwestern
Sunday March 22	2pm	@ Northwestern
Saturday April 4	2pm	vs Purdue
Sunday April 5	1pm	vs Purdue
Wednesday May 6	5pm	vs Ohio State
Wednesday May 6	7:30pm	vs Ohio State Game 2

BigTenNetwork apparently knows softball.  Northwestern is a top ten team and our series against them is the opener for the BTN coverage. 

I personally hope there may be more games covered, or at least streamed through bigtennetwork.com.  I'm not holding my breath as that generally requires at least 3-5 cameramen, their crew, and announcers.  I really wish they'd just not use announcers and just show the game for internet broadcasts.  It'd be immensely convenient, but I can only dream it.