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bigfan
105 Posts |
 Posted - 03/02/2009 : 10:59:38
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I see the ECB Stars and Southern Jags entered this tournament late and added even more credibility to the tournament. Any predictions? I'll start it off.
Roadrunners (Heard there loaded)
ECB Stars (Always Good)
ECB Longhorns (Lots of POP)
Southern Jaguars (Just win)
Sleeper: ECB 45's (Picked up the lefty from the Astros)
Which order I have no idea. Who might I be overlooking? |
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baseball99
89 Posts |
Posted - 03/02/2009 : 13:02:04
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| Mill Creek |
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bmoser
1633 Posts |
Posted - 03/02/2009 : 16:44:48
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| Mill Creek |
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ronicard
117 Posts |
Posted - 03/02/2009 : 17:02:23
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| Is it true that the Slug Fest will separate the Major teams from the AAA/AA teams? |
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Learnpatience
69 Posts |
Posted - 03/02/2009 : 19:47:01
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In no particular order. These are the ones that might be playing at the end:
Roadrunners
Mill Creek
Stars
Longhorns
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bigfan
105 Posts |
Posted - 03/02/2009 : 21:09:30
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| I see the 11U schedule is posted on USSSA. |
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Marinersfan
57 Posts |
Posted - 03/02/2009 : 21:17:13
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Solid top four picks although I'd go with the Jaguars, EC Stars, Roadrunners and Mill Creek with the Longhorns slightly behind that pack. Too early in the season to determine which one will take over in this age group. If I had to guess I'd go with the Roadrunners or Stars.
Always good to pick a sleeper Bigfan. Makes it a lot more fun. My sleeper is the North Georgia Blazers. I say they make it to the final 8. |
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Mike Corbin
523 Posts |
Posted - 03/03/2009 : 00:46:46
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If you go and look at the brackets for after pool play, how is it that 4 of 7 pool winners get by's to the second round? I don't see how you can reward 4 teams for finishing first in their pool but not the other 3. That doesn't seem right to me. If you are going to give 4 by's then seed out everyone after pool play and award the top 4 team the by's. Then at least everyone had a shot at it, not who it was "assigned" to.
Yes my team is one that will have to play an extra game. But I still would find it unfair that this was happening. I might not be as loud about it, but still find it wrong. |
Edited by - Mike Corbin on 03/03/2009 09:00:04 |
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Learnpatience
69 Posts |
Posted - 03/03/2009 : 09:31:59
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Mike,
I agree with you. How can you arbitrarily pick the A,B,C, and D pools as the ones that get the by's as #1 seeds and ignore the E,F, and G pools?
Looks like the #1's in E,F, or G will have to either play at 3PM or 5PM on Saturday to make it to the 7PM game (#1 seeded games for other pools).
For those of you who want to take a gander at the pools/brackets, here is the link:
http://www.usssa.com/sports/Bracket.asp?Type=Winners&Tournament=510267
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OffSpeed
40 Posts |
Posted - 03/03/2009 : 13:04:13
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Mike, You make a valid argument. With larger tournaments and ones that have unbalanced brackets, the pool results should be viewed and sorted as a single list and in this case the top 4 teams (based on seeding criteria) from all teams should get the "Bye" spots.
While there are some minor efforts put forth to balance the Pools (various methods), it is assame to penalize an entire pool for being listed as 5, 6, or 7. |
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gohard
12 Posts |
Posted - 03/03/2009 : 20:17:58
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I posed the question to the tournament director and here was his response:
The short answer is we do not have any control over the format of the brackets. All USSSA tournaments use the national USSSA ISTS computer system that generates seeding, pool assignments based on that seeding and the bracket format. Therefore, if you play any USSSA tournament in the country with 28 teams, that is what the bracket will look like.
The goal of seeding tournaments is to hopefully achieve a match up of the two best teams in the tournament playing the championship game. Brackets assume that there will be no upsets and the higher seeded team will advance (we know upsets will happen). However, if you assume no upsets, the top four seeded teams entering the tournament would be the ones that would have a chance to earn the bye. Are those four the best teams in the tournament. Who knows this early in the season? Best on the USSSA seeding system they are the top four entering.
All that said, I can argue your side equally as well. This is just the USSSA rules.
Doug |
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Goin Deep
140 Posts |
Posted - 03/03/2009 : 22:03:30
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| I can understand both sides, however it is a DISTINCT advantage for those four teams for alot of reasons...This early in the season, that specific advantage would be pitching. The tourney format will force 3 teams to burn 6 innings of pitching to advance, while 4 other pool winners enjoy a burger and some youth baseball. It almost assume those 4 pools, and there winners, will be there in the end. At 11u, probably not going to happen. Always upsets, because these kids are unpredictable (for the most part) at best. |
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Mike Corbin
523 Posts |
Posted - 03/03/2009 : 23:13:54
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This is the response I got on this matter from the Georgia USSSA State Director:
Mike,
The entire system is set up to reward teams that have more USSSA Points. The more favorable pool seedings, the more favorable pool schedule, etc., etc. When a bracket is not square (4, 8, 12, 16, 24, 32, 48, 64, etc.), an uneven quantity of byes to pools will exist. When these situations occur, the byes are automatically issued starting with Pool A because that’s the pool the #1 seed (by USSSA Points) is in. The #1 seed should win their pool and thus receive the bye. If the #1 seed does not win their pool, then a team who upset the #1 seed is rewarded for the upset.
Obviously with a 28 team bracket (not square) there are only 4 byes and they are awarded to Pools A – D because that is where Seed #1 - #4 are. Of course this early in the season a lot of teams have zero (0) USSSA Points in which case the system seeds those teams by total random.
Since every team in the world has the same exact opportunity to earn USSSA Points…it’s perfectly fair system! If for some reason we only allowed certain teams the opportunity to earn USSSA Points at certain times, then it would be a different storey.
It all boils down to USSSA Points. The great thing about it is the points system rewards teams that play more USSSA which makes perfect sense because the Slugfest is a USSSA event.
I hope this clears things up for you.
For The Love Of The Game!
Matt T. Trebuchon
USSSA National Baseball Director
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Edited by - Mike Corbin on 03/04/2009 08:20:32 |
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baseballpapa
1520 Posts |
Posted - 03/04/2009 : 16:32:50
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| Matt, Thanks for the explanation. Makes perfect sense. It boils down to choices. We chose not to play exclusively USSSA as we enter any tournament that provides the top notch competition. One weekend that might be USSSA, the next Triple Crown, the next BPA, and the next AAU, and the next some other organization. In other words we had the choice to earn the USSSA points but chose something else and we understand the seedings now and agree that they are fair based on the choices we made and not some arbitrary decision by USSSA. Thanks again and we look forward to playing this weekend. |
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bigfan
105 Posts |
Posted - 03/04/2009 : 19:29:58
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Matt's explanation makes since to me this early in the year. No one knows who will win this thing but I bet they have the most points in USSSA come Monday.
Mike, don't worry it's probably you or Rusty
Good Luck to all and bring your sunscreen.
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C. MORTON
1051 Posts |
Posted - 03/07/2009 : 09:09:49
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| WEll Friday nite is over is it looks like it went the way it should have went...Any surprises??? |
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SpeedKills
106 Posts |
Posted - 03/08/2009 : 22:42:30
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| Contrags to the Southern Jaguars |
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Mike Corbin
523 Posts |
Posted - 03/09/2009 : 09:48:41
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Yes, congratulations to the Jaguars! They played very well. Good combination of power, pitching and speed.
We were certainly proud of our boys (Roadrunners) as well. We certainly have some more work to do, but overall it was a good opening tournament of the year for us.
The Stars are very good and will be even better when they get all of their players healthy!
Other teams that played well were the EC Longhorns, EC Braves, Mill Creek, South Forsyth Renegades. I am sure that I am leaving someone out, but just my observations off the top of my head.
Lots of good pitching, lots of homeruns, and team still trying to knock off the rust a little. But overall a very good tournament! Thank goodness for the weather we had this weekend!!! |
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bruins1
32 Posts |
Posted - 03/09/2009 : 09:53:23
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Congrats to all the teams that stepped it up and played in such a tough tournament, and especially those that went deep on Sunday. quote:
Originally posted by SpeedKills
Contrags to the Southern Jaguars
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bigfan
105 Posts |
Posted - 03/09/2009 : 09:58:07
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What a great tournament, I watched a lot of games and the best team won. Congrats Jaguars. They can pitch and hit like no team I've seen before.
Thanks to Doug Bailey and his crew for doing a great job |
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wolf20
27 Posts |
Posted - 03/09/2009 : 10:27:07
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| Really no contest at all. The Jaguars ran through the competition quite easily. Allowing only 13 runs in 7 games against supposedly the best competition in the state. East Cobb needs to be on ALERT!!! |
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The One
35 Posts |
Posted - 03/09/2009 : 10:34:55
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| Congrats to the 11 and under Jaguars. You played funadamental baseball all weekend and went through the competition like a hot knife through butter. Can't wait to see you match up against the Knoxville Stars in Border Wars!!!! |
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Marinersfan
57 Posts |
Posted - 03/09/2009 : 11:11:45
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With 28 teams and all of the top 11U teams in the State in attendance, this one was as good as the hype, especially Sunday's bracket play. Here's my observations:
Best two teams in Georgia (Southern Jaguars and ECB Stars)were right where they should have been -- in the finals. It actually was a contest. Stars pitcher struck out 4 of the first 5 Jags batters but then came out of the game with an arm problem, and Stars used patchwork after that. Was a 3-2 nail biter until the bottom of the fifth when the Jags put a few more on the board to put it out of reach.
Both teams tore through the competition in Bracket play with very few runs scored against top notch competition. They can both compete on a national level without any doubt.
Roadrunners were in the final 4 as expected. Great team. Big extra inning win in the sweet 16 against the South Forsyth Renegades. Renegades had winning run in scoring position in two innings in a row.
5 of final 8 teams were from ECB. When is the last time that has happened? Not too shabby. Mill Creek played lights out in pool play but not so well the first time they came up against real competition (Jaguars).
Jaguars averted near disaster, rebounding from a close 7-6 win over Hobgood in Bracket play that would have sent them home to go through Mill Creek and Roadrunners back to back to get to the finals. Stars beat up on the Colt .45s number 1 pitcher, then had two pitchers (one new, one old) both throw 2 run complete games in the quarterfinals and semifinals. Jags pitcher through 6 in the finals.
Surprises:
Academy A's 1-2 on the weekend. Losses to EC Yankees and Suwanee. Take them off the list.
ECB Yankees making it to the final 8, ECB Braves to the final 4. Impressive
Sharon Springs Spartans winning their pool with virtually no runs allowed. Very good team.
All in all, great baseball. Congrats to the Jaguars for winning it and the Stars for being right there despite all the arm problems. |
Edited by - Marinersfan on 03/09/2009 14:51:44 |
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ronicard
117 Posts |
Posted - 03/09/2009 : 11:19:11
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Ron Smith and the Jaguars deserved to win because they did play solid fundamental baseball. We played our best game of the tournament (and probably about as good as we can play) and they still beat us in the last inning on a nailbiter. That team is very deep in pitching and good hitters. I'm not sure they have a lot of homerun hitters on that team, but every player hits the ball hard. After our game ended, Ron made a very classy move to come over and speak to my team and families to congratulate them on a game well played, which I thought showed outstanding sportsmanship.
I also have to say that I was incredibly impressed with Mike Corbin's team. We didn't help ourselves by making 7 errors in that game Friday night, but the Roadrunners are stacked with hitters. Jamai Jones is one of the best hitters I've ever seen at that age and Mike's team plays with a lot of class as well. They'll certainly make a lot of noise this summer in many tournaments to come.
All in all, a well run tournament. |
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Mike Corbin
523 Posts |
Posted - 03/09/2009 : 11:27:13
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| Convienient to come on here after this weekend and talk that kind of smack. The Jaguars played well no doubt about it. But they can and will be beaten by some of the teams they beat this weekend! Wonder if you will still be talking the same when that does happen? |
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ecbstix
115 Posts |
Posted - 03/09/2009 : 14:44:54
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| Great Tourny Jags! Alot of teams played well as mentioned before. Gonna be an interesting year! |
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Topic |
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11U Slugfest Predictions
