2017 Mid Season thoughts....

[oldskool42]

I don’t see any dominant teams to be honest, so I think its totally up for grabs this year.
Appo is obviously doing really well at 8-0. They have 5 wins over top 20 teams (no one else has more than 3). They also beat St Marks and Sallies. They have very deep pitching and good hitting. They are built to get through the playoffs. They play Mtown this week which probably will be for the conference but they clearly will make the tourney either way.
Conrad is 7-0 and is a shoe in for the playoffs the way they are playing. Bradigan and Maxell are pitching very well. Conrad has a very tough schedule to finish they play St Marks, Archmere twice, DMA, Newark Charter twice, Wilmington Christian, Mtown, St Georges. That’s nine more games against top 20 teams.
Sallies has won 3 of its last 4 games beating Caravel and Cape but losing to Newark Charter. Sallies (5-3) pitching has been suspect, though they shut down a good hitting Cape team. They have decent bats but not strong bats. Their schedule isn’t brutal but they do have Tech, St Marks twice and St E twice in addition to scrappy teams like Central & IR.
Caravel is 5-3 but two of those losses are out of state. All three losses were by 1 run. They also only beat Cape & St Marks by 1 run. Their pitching was a little suspect to start the season, but in the last 5 games they are only allowed 3 runs per game on average and Silan is back. Their hitting is hard to tell. They have scored over 10 runs in 4 different games and under 5 runs in 4 other games. They do usually see everyone’s best pitching though. Caravel has five in state games left (Poly, Smyrna, Newark Charter, Newark and Central) and five out of state games. Its hard to tell where they could finish up.
St Marks (6-2) is still really good and still defending champs. They have lost their last two games against Appo (2-1) & Caravel (1-0) but two great games against two of the better pitchers in the state; Steckline & Silan. St Marks hasn’t seemed as dominant as in past seasons though. Two of their wins were by 1-run against IR & Archmere and they needed 7th inning heroics against Hodgson in game 1 to win that one. Ludman and Sullivan are pitching very well. St Marks has only allowed 16 runs in 8 games. At the plate they are averaging under 5 runs per game, but they also seem to get everyone’s best pitcher.
Cape was most people’s pick for top team this year, especially with their pitching. But at 5-3, they haven’t been as good as advertised (YET). Now to put things back in perspective though, all three of their losses were to top 10 teams (Caravel, Milford & Sallies). All three losses were by 2 runs or less and two of the losses were late inning collapse. Cape has allowed 30 runs in 8 games, but 18 of those were in two games early in the season. The other six games just 12 total runs. At the plate, they have scored 5 runs or more in every game this year except the one against Sallies. Cape leads the state in homers. Cape is deep in pitching and hitting and are another team built for a good playoff run. Their conference is tough and their remaining schedule is really tough. They finish a game with Smyrna…they got Dover, Poly, Seaford, Tech, Delmar, IR, Appo and St Marks. That’s pretty brutal.
The rest of my top ten (Milford, Dover, Tech and Newark Charter) are what I would call the next level down.
Milford is the most intriguing. Milford beat Cape early on the season and just blew out Tech 12-2 (though 8 runs came in the 7th). But they got beat up by Archmere 10-1 and lost to a not so good Laurel team 9-4. They also lost to Smyrna late in the game. I wouldn’t say Milford is as good as the teams I listed above or as deep. But I think game by game they could hang with most any team. Their remaining schedule isn’t easy. It will be interesting how they finish up.
Dover and Tech have done well at 7-1 and have been relatively unchallenged thus far. Dover does have a win over Poly. Valazquez and Davis have been pitching well and Warrington and Parks are pitching well for Tech. Both have some tough games coming up in the second half including showdowns with Cape.
Newark Charter has been very scrappy so far. They have gotten five straight wins, four of which were 1-run games and most recently against Sallies. They were leading Appo 3-1 in their only loss of the season, but allowed 4 runs in the sixth to surrender the game. They are getting good pitching from Vivian, Chopko and Kelby. They are averaging 6 runs per game at the plate. Unfortunately they are in a tough conference and have to navigate a pretty tough schedule to finish the season. They got two with DMA, two with Conrad, two with Wilmington Christian, Archmere, St E, Caravel and St Georges.

Other teams: Polytech and Middletown have yet to make a big splash this season. Delmar is racking up the wins at 8-1 but pretty much unchallenged yet. Archmere, DMA and Wilmington Christian are all going to beat each other up. Hodgson and St Georges have shown flashes but I’m not sure about them.

That pretty much rounds out my top 20. There are some decent teams that could make some noise not listed like St E, Central, Newark and Seaford.

These are just some quick thoughts. I would love to hear some more specific insight from others.

What are your thoughts?

 

[DE-Sussex]

Milford is up and down. I think on any given day they can play with anyone. I would just like to see more consistency out of them. They are 6-3, but they've had big innings in 5 of those wins to put them over the top ( 5 in the 7th @ CR won 5-1, 8 in the 7th @Tower Hill won 8-5, 4 in the 6th versus Cape went up 6-2, won 6-4, 4 in the 1st vs Central won 4-2, 8 in the 7th vs. Tech with 2 outs, and lost a game to Smyrna in the 7th). Prior to Tech they were averaging about 6 runs per game despite a sputtering offense. They have speed, they have power, and their lineup is pretty deep, but it just hasn't kicked in yet. They could be scary if the offense comes around. They have big inning capability, they just need some consistency to put up crooked numbers throughout the game instead of waiting until late.

Tech is about to run square into the teeth of their schedule. History says that they will get the W's they need to make the tournament, but they could potentially take a few L's here over the next several games with Sallies and Cape and a large chunk of conference play left.

Delmar is currently sitting at 8-1. That's all good. The bad thing is that if you look at their remaining schedule they have: Laurel, Milford, Seaford, Tech, CR, Parkside, Cape, Dover and Polytech remaining. Laurel and Seaford games are hotly contested and not a gimme per se in the South (as Milford found out). Those last 6 games to finish out the season are going to be a grind.

Dover is in a good position. All year long, no one has really said a whole lot about them as they lost a ton from last year's team. First 4 games it looks like they came out hot. Last 4 games has been a different story with close games versus Seaford, CR, and taking an L versus Parkside.

A team to keep your eye on I think is CR. Will they make the playoffs? Probably not. Yes, I know they are currently sitting at 2-6, but their losses have come to Milford, St Marks, Dover, Middletown, Tech, and Cape. All 6 of those teams are currently listed in the top 10 above or on previous thread. If CR coaches can get those young kids to realize that hey we're not a bad team, we've just played a killer schedule with some tough luck, they could get on a roll and start hurting some feelings. Two of their losses were as a result of late inning homeruns vs Milford (2 run shot) and Dover (grand slam). They could easily end up with 8 wins which for a young team is a great accomplishment.

Cape is another team that I think is just waiting to put it all together. Obviously they have the pitching and they've got some power at the plate. If they can get on track with their offense, they clearly can carry the baton on the mound. I know they kids know they achieve, but maybe they're just trying a little too hard. If they just stay within themselves and let the game come to them and relax, I think they'll start playing better.

 

[DoverSenator]

It's been a strange year of baseball already. I haven't made it up to a lot of games upstate this year but I saw the Polytech Conrad playoff game last year and Conrad really impressed me. So just my overviews of downstate teams.

CR- Is really young with great talent in the future. Good core of young guys playing good against older teams. Those kids stick together could be a scary sight for teams in a few years. Playing in the Henlopen you need experience that conference is arguably the best overall conference.
Dover- I wasn't a big believer with everyone they lost but they're playing good baseball. Only quality win as of now is Poly. Couple of games they won could of easily lost them but timely hits won them the games. Definitely getting ready for a tourney run again.
Poly- I called this team as my dark house team before the year and I can't back away from it but that Seaford lost even hurt me haha. Poly is a good hitting team but that can only get you so far. Pitching will have to improve for them to be one of those elite teams. Definitely will see the Poly in the playoffs again.
Cape- Everyone gives them hen hell for starting out so slow. Cape hasn't even hit their potential yet which is scary. They have the pitching to compete with anyone in the state. Starting to hit the ball better just looking at the box scores. Cape should make a deep run in the tourney.
S.Tech- It's hard to judge this team because they haven't played anyone good yet barely beating a young CR scoring late to beat them. Than the Milford game I have no idea what happened there never saw that coming. Their schedule coming up is brutal if they can sneak out a couple wins they should be fine. Tech is a tough team went into to Smyrna last year and beat them. I wouldn't want to match up with Tech in the tourney.
Milford- Another team this is good but you don't know which team you'll get. Beat Cape looking like they're going to be strong than lost to Laurel. Archmere 10-1 and losing to Smyrna in the 7th is concerning but they are talented that's for sure. Milford will make the playoffs and I think depending on who they match up with could win a game or two.
Delmar- Started out on fire winning games but than gave Woodbridge their first win on the year. Another team that is good but doesn't always show up against teams. I like the Adkins kid and I would favor them in most games when he's on the mound but when he isn't on the mound I think they're a mediocre team at best. Delmar will make the tourney and might surprise a team if being overlooked.
IR- This team caught my eye when I saw them in a scrimmage. Scrappy team with a bunch of young players as well. IR plays a brutal schedule if those young guys stick together like CR I think both of those teams in a few years could be very good.