2026 Baseball - General

[FredJacket]

It seems that what I think is an error is vastly different than what the official scorer thinks. It seems to me that error counts in college baseball are underreported.

I think this is one very fun/entertaining debate with baseball dudes. It seems to me (over time) ... in MLB ... and it has trickled down to college baseball, official scorekeepers lean toward awarding hits over errors.

My father likes to keep score at games and he gets pretty bent out of shape (all relative) when the official scorer awards a hit when in his mind it is clearly an error. It's fun to antatonize him over the nuances of why it WAS a hit. His basic criteria is if the ball touches your glove, you should have caught it. Not sure where he stands on balls clearly misplayed/misjudged that end up hitting the ground without a player touching it.

I like to pick on @GTNavyNuke who leans more toward my dad's way of thinking when it comes to fielding. I'd love to see baseball played, scored, and documented in Nuke's perfect world. Boxscores would be novels with astericks and codes to differentiate between what would've, could've, and might've happened. In fact, he'd probably have 3 boxscores for each game. 1) What really happened (similar to what we see now with boxscores; 2) What would have happened if every player and coach performed perfectly (this would not last long because if every player played perfectly then nobody would get out OR get a hit); 3) What happens when a coaches has an infinite bench of pitchers and there are 17 mounds in the bullpen with the entire bullpen 'hot' at all times. Love you, Nuke!!

 

[DecaturJacket]

I believe the ‘rule’ in baseball is you can only count it as an official error if you get a glove on the ball.

This.

If they counted bad baseball plays as errors, Baker would have way more than 2 errors. I can think of at least 3 instances where he played the ball incorrectly off the bat and didn't get leather on it, so he was excused of his "error."

 

[DecaturJacket]

This is stupid. Mercer is closer to a 2 seed than a 4 seed

It will come down to whether they win their conference or not. The SoCon has historically been a one-bid league (I went back 10 years and if AI is to be trusted they haven't gotten more than one team in in those 10 years - it looks like 2010 was the last time they got 2 teams in). If they win it, I think they'll get a boost with their seeding, BUT if they don't win it and have to make it as an at-large I could see them getting a 4 seed - as dumb as that is. I don't think that they'd put them in our regional anyway though.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

QFT

Quantum Field Theory is the truth.

I said can lose, not will lose. Our offense covers up a lot for average pitching.

I think this is one very fun/entertaining debate with baseball dudes. It seems to me (over time) ... in MLB ... and it has trickled down to college baseball, official scorekeepers lean toward awarding hits over errors.

My father likes to keep score at games and he gets pretty bent out of shape (all relative) when the official scorer awards a hit when in his mind it is clearly an error. It's fun to antatonize him over the nuances of why it WAS a hit. His basic criteria is if the ball touches your glove, you should have caught it. Not sure where he stands on balls clearly misplayed/misjudged that end up hitting the ground without a player touching it.

I like to pick on @GTNavyNuke who leans more toward my dad's way of thinking when it comes to fielding. I'd love to see baseball played, scored, and documented in Nuke's perfect world. Boxscores would be novels with astericks and codes to differentiate between what would've, could've, and might've happened. In fact, he'd probably have 3 boxscores for each game. 1) What really happened (similar to what we see now with boxscores; 2) What would have happened if every player and coach performed perfectly (this would not last long because if every player played perfectly then nobody would get out OR get a hit); 3) What happens when a coaches has an infinite bench of pitchers and there are 17 mounds in the bullpen with the entire bullpen 'hot' at all times. Love you, Nuke!!

Only two box scores for me. The current one which is if you are smart enough to not get your glove on the ball or are slow to react and miss you don't get an error. And a second subjective one of what a reasonably talented player "should" have done. Taking a few steps in the wrong direction in RF and having the ball in front of you is the subjective BBP.

BTW, I like your BBP distinction and have made it the one I use.

Love you too

 

[Eli]

 

[bensaysitathome]

That's honestly wild that we grabbed 3 of the final 25 spots. Stacked.

 

[GTGoldout]

That's honestly wild that we grabbed 3 of the final 25 spots. Stacked.

Now if only we could have a golden spikes semifinalist level pitcher, then we’d really be stacked

 

[GT33]

Go vote for our guys. Multiple votes allowed per day.

Golden Spikes Award Home | USA Baseball

Since 1978, USA Baseball has honored the top amateur baseball player in the country with the Golden Spikes Award.

www.usabaseball.com

 

[Bostongt]

It seems that what I think is an error is vastly different than what the official scorer thinks. It seems to me that error counts in college baseball are underreported.

and the pitcher suffers from the lack of scoring it an error. it like they want to protect the fielder from getting an error scored against them, as well as the batter from not getting a hit. The Pitcher has to deal with it…

Sort of like how in football, the QB gets all the blame on iINTs where a good.,percentage of them is on the receiver‘s misroute or deflection.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

Now if only we could have three golden spikes semifinalist level pitchers, then we’d really be stacked

I don't think pitchers are in golden spikes competition, but understand the sentiment. FIxed it for you.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

and the pitcher suffers from the lack of scoring it an error. it like they want to protect the fielder from getting an error scored against them, as well as the batter from not getting a hit. The Pitcher has to deal with it…

Sort of like how in football, the QB gets all the blame on iINTs where a good.,percentage of them is on the receiver‘s misroute or deflection.

I'm all for giving a pitcher who commits an error both and earned run AND an error. Special case for position.

 

[bensaysitathome]

and the pitcher suffers from the lack of scoring it an error. it like they want to protect the fielder from getting an error scored against them, as well as the batter from not getting a hit. The Pitcher has to deal with it…

Sort of like how in football, the QB gets all the blame on iINTs where a good.,percentage of them is on the receiver‘s misroute or deflection.

I love stuff like this!

I think both instances are examples of inferring intend, but more so in regards to football. Did the receiver run the wrong route, or did the QB throw to the wrong place? It's not always cut and dry. I'm entirely ok with assigning the INT to the QB but understanding it's a team stat while that QB is on the field. The o line failed to protect and he was hurried, or the receiver broke too late, or maybe it was just a tip drill. But somebody has to own it even if we understand it's not always the QB's fault.

Also, while both are team sports, baseball is more of a series of individual matchups than football. You can usually look at a baseball play and identify who failed to make the play. So while you're still making a judgment call, it's slightly less arbitrary. If someone is pitching to contact to induce a ground ball double play, but the third baseman bobbles it, that's obviously not on the pitcher. It's easier to accurately point fingers, even if the "single vs reached on error" is up for debate.

I recognize the difference is small, but the sports are fundamentally different.

 

[gtbeak]

Wow, Mercer up to 28 in the RPI. If they win another this weekend and then win the SoCon tourney they may become the 2 seed in our region. That's probably a little high for them, but it is becoming a possibility.

 

[Sugar3ThousandPounds]

Wow, Mercer up to 28 in the RPI. If they win another this weekend and then win the SoCon tourney they may become the 2 seed in our region. That's probably a little high for them, but it is becoming a possibility.

Send em to Athens, would be poetic for them to take down UGA after UGA refused to schedule them

 

[gtrower]

That's honestly wild that we grabbed 3 of the final 25 spots. Stacked.

You could probably make an argument that Zuckerman and Kerce got robbed. But yeah the 3 guys that made it are probably on a 1st team all American team lineup. This kind of lineup might never be seen again in this age of parity.

 

[BennyWheels]

UCLA getting absolutely taken to the woodshed by a very mediocre Washington team.

 

[gtrower]

UCLA getting absolutely taken to the woodshed by a very mediocre Washington team.

That’s a Q3 loss. Less than 1 point ahead of us in ELO rankings now (they were about 30 points ahead this morning). We probably control our own destiny for the #1 overall seed after that. That’s a horrific loss for them at this point in the season. Friday loss to a bottom dweller. Xavier is about 100 spots ahead of Washington in RPI. And they needed a B9 rally against us. Washington just curbstomped ucla. Like a 4 seed run ruling a 1 seed in G1 of a regional.

 

[Bogey]

UCLA getting absolutely taken to the woodshed by a very mediocre Washington team.

But the game was not played on the weekend so it is not important.

 

[FredJacket]

Ok... my annual little rant about RPI. I waited until [almost] the end to see if the "math" would work itself out. It did not... again.

It needs to be relegated to the "other" or "interesting" rankings/ratings pile. OR the function needs to be modified to be better. Every season we reach this point and you look at the RPI rankings and there are teams you just know are not correctly ranked based on their resumes. Sure... RPI is a mathematical thing... but it produces flawed results. I suspect it is 2-fold.
1) Too much weight on the home/road factors
2) Too much negative weight on simply playing poor teams (....who generally play poor teams). If you are a good team that beats a bad team, you should not be (net) penalized.

Worth repeating... every year teams literally cancel games to avoid the the penalty of simply playing a weak RPI team. ...and there's always a crowd clamoring to say schedule tougher teams. Sometimes you 'try' and either it doesn't work out or the teams you scheduled that 'were good' the previous year turn out to be not good. You also need their schedule to be on the tough side too. Not as much control over that part of the RPI calc as folk may think.

This won't be popular... but objectively. When the SEC champ (by a LOT) has 22+ SEC wins and is barely cracking the Top 15 of your 'system', something is not right. UGA is 5-games ahead of the 2nd place SEC team, yet 6th in RPI in the conference. ??? I know folks will say "play a tougher schedule" and you won't have this problem. To that I say YES.. play a tougher schedule AND RPI is too flawed right now to be the primary tool to compare teams. Both things are true; and frankly, should not be related at all. That's the problem with a lot of problems out there...instead of actually fixing the root cause (RPI), folks bend over backwards to force changes 'around' the problem (i.e. cancelling games for no good reason other than the RPI impact or hand-waving "well they should have had a tougher schedule").

Again... I'm not saying get rid of the RPI. I like that it is a repeatable calculation and not hidden behind some proprietary "model". However, when it seems to be so heavily used to sort our post-season placement, I have a problem with that.

I'll hang up and listen...

 

[Sugar3ThousandPounds]

But the game was not played on the weekend so it is not important.

Counterpoint: In college the weekend most definitely starts on Thursday night