Big Ten Baseball Blog: Big Ten Baseball 2010 Preview

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Big Ten Baseball 2010 Preview

With the season kicking off in a little less than 2 months, it's time for the 2010 Big Ten Baseball Preview.

Yahoo!/Rivals' college baseball analyst Kendall Rogers tabbed the Big Ten as a baseball conference "on the rise" after they sent 3 teams to the NCAA tournament last season (Ohio State, Minnesota and Indiana). With some big faces returning and new players arriving, the 2010 edition of Big Ten baseball will most definitely provide some excitement again in 2010.

First, let's take a look at last year:

Ohio State 18-6
Minnesota 17-6
Indiana 16-7
Illinois 16-8
Mich. St. 13-11
Purdue 11-12
Michigan 9-15
Penn St. 8-16
N'western 5-17
Iowa 4-19

Ohio State claimed the 2009 Big Ten regular season championship, while Indiana made a perfect run in the Big Ten tournament in Columbus, OH to earn an automatic bid in the NCAA tournament. Minnesota also earned an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament and advanced to the regional final against LSU in Baton Rouge, LA.

2010 Conference Predictions

1.) Ohio State
2.) Minnesota
3.) Michigan
4.) Illinois
5.) Michigan St.
6.) Indiana
7.) Purdue
8.) Penn State
9.) Northwestern
10.) Iowa

2010 Hitters to Watch

Ryan Dew, OHIO ST
Dan Burkhardt, OHIO ST
Zach Hurley, OHIO ST
Michael Kvasnicka, MINN
AJ Pettersen, MINN
Justin Gominsky, MINN
Ryan LaMarre, MICH
Mike Dufek, MICH
Pete Cappetta, ILL
Aaron Johnson, ILL
Willie Argo, ILL
Alex Dickerson, IND
Jerrud Sabourin, IND
Eli Boike, MICH ST
Jonathan Roof, MICH ST
Eric Charles, PUR
Drew Madia, PUR
Jordan Steranka, PENN ST
Blake Lynd, PENN ST
Kenneth Avila, NW
Chris Lashmet, NW
Ryan Durant, IOWA
Kurtis Muller, IOWA

2010 Pitchers to Watch

Alex Wimmers, OHIO ST
Dean Wolosiansky, OHIO ST
Drew Rucinski, OHIO ST
Seth Rosin, MINN
Scott Matyas, MINN
Eric Katzman, MICH
Tyler Burgoon, MICH
Tony Bucciferro, MICH ST
AJ Achter, MICH ST
Matt Morgan, PUR
Matt Bischoff, PUR
Matt Jansen, PUR
David Lutz, PENN ST
Ryan Ignas, PENN ST
Eric Jockisch, NW
Phil Schreiber, IOWA

3 comments:

AnonymousJanuary 2, 2010 at 7:17 PM
Good to see you'll be continuing this season. I think you're a little high on the Illini, especially without Haig. I really like NU's rotation. Might boost them a bit.

All that said, I think the overall ranking sounds pretty solid.
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IUbaseballfanJanuary 24, 2010 at 7:53 PM
I'd add Indiana's Blake Monar and Chris Squires to the pitchers to watch.
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AnonymousFebruary 17, 2010 at 12:10 AM
Both without a doubt. I'm also higher on Iowa's Hippen as a sophomore lefty than Schreiber. That's totally subjective though.
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Big Ten Baseball Blog

Hello everyone and thanks for checking out my Big Ten Baseball Blog! This website is a great resource for anyone and everyone who is interested in not only Big Ten baseball, but baseball in general. Obviously, the main topics of discussion will be Big Ten baseball, but there will also be discussion of other levels of baseball as well. I will try to faithfully update the blog with scores, statistics, standings, and discussions as much as possible.

If you are unfamiliar with Big Ten baseball, or the Big Ten conference in general, here is a quick overview:

The Big Ten Conference was established in 1895, and originally included seven midwestern universities (University of Chicago, University of Illinois, University of Michigan, University of Minnesota, Northwestern University, Purdue University, and the University of Wisconsin.). In 1899, Indiana University and Iowa University joined the Big Ten while in 1912, Ohio State joined. In 1946, Chicago withdrew from the Big Ten and later in 1949 Michigan State University was added. For a period of 40 years, the Big Ten remained with its 10 members until 1990 when the Big Ten agreed to add Pennsylvania State University. Since this addition, the Big Ten has become the 11-team elite athletics conference it is today. In recap, today's Big Ten conference includes Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Michigan St., Iowa, Penn St., Northwestern, Purdue, Indiana, Ohio St., and Wisconsin.

The Big Ten athletics conference competes in 12 men's sports and 13 women's sports, and has become one of the strongest collegiate athletics conferences in the nation. Among these is baseball, this blog's focus.

Big Ten baseball has a long and rich tradition which sadly has gone "under the radar" due to the lack of popularity of not only baseball in the midwest, but college baseball in general. It is my goal to gain more attention to this great conference and sport which is always filled with extremely gifted student athletes and exciting competition.

Currently, 10 of the 11 teams in the Big Ten conference compete in men's baseball. Wisconsin is the only team which does not participate, cutting their program in the late 1980's. These 10 teams play a full 50-60 game schedule each spring, and ultimately strive to become not only Big Ten champions, but NCAA champions. Each season, teams play a handful of non-conference games against various opponents across the nation, as well as 24 games against conference opponents (this determines who wins the Big Ten regular season championship). Once the 24 conference games have completed, the top 6 teams in the conference recieve spots in the Big Ten tournament, which has been held at the regular season champion's home field in the past, but this year will be held at a neutral site in Columbus, OH (Huntington Park). The winner of this tournament recieves an automatic bid into the NCAA baseball tournament which ultimately determines the national champion.

Each year, Big Ten teams are getting more talented and are creating a more exciting situtation for fans and followers. The Big Ten has produced some very quality major league baseball players, and will continue to do so.

I hope that this blog will serve as a great resource for you to follow, learn, and enjoy the great sport of baseball, and more specifically, in the great Big Ten Conference.