RANKINGS - April 13th 2014

[oldskool42]

1 St Marks (7-0). Defending champs, beat 3 top ten teams Hodg, CR, Arch
2 Dover (6-0). Have two decisive top ten wins over Delm & Tech
3 Caravel (5-1).
4 CR (5-2). Beat Poly, Mtown and loss 1 run game to St Marks
5 Archmere (6-1). 5 wins over top 20 teams
6 Hodgson (5-2)
7 Delmar (5-1)
8 St Georges (5-2)
9 Smyrna (5-1)
10 Sussex Tech (5-2)
11 Middletown (4-3)
12 AI Dupont (6-1)
13 Conrad (5-3)
14 Cape (4-4).
15 Sallies (2-3). Trying to give Sals credit here but their making it tough
16 Charter (5-1). No quality wins, but a respectable 7-4 loss to Caravel
17 DMA (4-2)
18 Sussex Cntrl (4-1).
19 Polytech (3-2). Both losses close to top ten teams.
20 Mt Pleasant (5-0). Sorry, no quality opponents.

This post was edited on 4/14 9:57 AM by oldskool42

 

[CountianJeff]

Never easy to rank 20 teams. That said, I realize Central got blown out by Sallies, but it is also 4-1 with wins over your you No. 9 and 14 teams. I think 18 is a little low. Especially two spots behind a team that is 5-1 on an easy schedule and a "respectable loss," whatever that is. Anyway, keep up the good work. It's fun to see different takes on these things.

 

[TouchThemAll]

Nice work, oldschool42.

Will Smyrna @ Dover pretty much decide the Henlopen North conference tonight?
Does Archmere already have the Diamond State wrapped up?
Delmar has Henlopen South wrapped up?
AI vs Charter next Monday night at Frawley. Huge Blue Hen Flight A game.
Blue Hen Flight B still up for grabs.
... and let the debate begin about the Independent Conference getting an auto-bid.

 

[oldskool42]

CountianJeff....Your right its tough doing rankings. They obviously don't mean a thing, but i think it gives us something to discuss since our local papers do such a horrible job up north.

I had a really hard time trying to figure things out. Flight A is messy with A.i losing to Mtown, but Mtown losing to Penn. Charter barely beat Newark and only beat Delcastle by 6. Downstate is always a mess because its so competitive. The only thing clear this year about Downstate is Dover seems to be a step above everyone else...but you never know.

Even aside from rankings, for example i have seen Sallies play twice in person. They looked good against Caravel losing on a walkoff hit to one of the best teams in the state. I thought then that Sallies was top 5. Then Sallies crushes Central (who i thought was pretty good). So i really figure Sallies is good. Then i saw Sallies plays a mediocre game against a struggling Appo team. Appo was outplaying Sallies even though Sallies was pitching its ace. Then i hear that Sallies lost to Cape (who barely beat Lake, Wood & Seaford)???

Things will hopefully get clearer as the season progresses. I'm not sure though, i think the top 3 St Marks, Caravel, Dover will stay there all year. After that i should probably say "Other" and do the rankings in alphabetical order.

 

[8yaz]

Great list, and I won't argue that they don't belong at #5, but when I watched Archmere against DMA Thursday, I sure didn't get the feeling that I was looking at a top 5 team. Maybe they are in this state.

 

[oldskool42]

8yaz...i have to agree with you in the quality of play of Archmere. I was touting them early because they were 4-0 and only had given up 5 runs against pretty decent teams (Mtown, Penn, Conrad, Poly). Since then they are 2-1 but they have given up 29 runs to St Marks, DMA & Concord and have committed 14 recorded errors in those 3 games.

In my mind they were going to fall in the rankings, especially after getting beat bad by St Marks 12-1. But a couple of things i noticed. Archmere has played 7 games, 5 against top 20 teams and they are 4-1. Their other two wins were against Penn & Concord who are just outside of the top 20 teams. So no cupcakes in all seven of their games. Only St Marks has as many wins aginast top 20 teams. Dover has 3 and everyone else has less than that.

When i look at teams i could possibly put ahead of Archmere.

Hodgson 5-2. Hodgson lost to Mtown who Arch crushed. and 4 of their wins are against teams with a 4-24 record
Delmar 6-1. They have 5 wins against teams with a combined record of 5-26
Smyrna 5-1. They have 4 wins against teams not in the top 20.
St Georges 5-2. Archmere did better against two common opponents, Mtown and DMA
Tech 5-2. They have 4 wins against unranked teams.
Ai. 6-1. They have 5 wins against unranked teams and lost to Mtown who Archmere beat up on
Charter. 5-1. 5 for their 5 wins against unranked teams.

8yaz i thought the same as you especially after these last three games by Archmere that they don't seem top 5, but i really don't see a team that would have a good argument to knock them out of the top 5.

 

[8yaz]

One thing that I saw in the DMA v Archmere game that was glaringly weak, on both sides actually, was the arms of the catchers. If I was coaching against either of those teams, I'd be running till the cows came home. Oddly, neither team was doing that. Having a good catcher is important part of being a top team.

 

[oldtimer22]

Originally posted by 8yaz:
One thing that I saw in the DMA v Archmere game that was glaringly weak, on both sides actually, was the arms of the catchers. If I was coaching against either of those teams, I'd be running till the cows came home. Oddly, neither team was doing that. Having a good catcher is important part of being a top team.

Groucho Marx was never one to pass up an opportunity for a play on words and this occurs in his dialogue of the 1933 film Duck Soup:

"I could dance with you till the cows come home. Better still, I'll dance with the cows and you come home."

 

[oldskool42]

8yaz. It seems catching is becoming a lost art form. I saw Kid on Caravel on Saturday, Zwier, he has a gun.

For DMA, didn't Hill catch all of last year. He isn't catching this year. It seemed he was pretty good but think i only saw him a couple of times last year. Honestly remember his bat more than his glove.

 

[DETitans]

Hill I believe is going to Wilmington next year and from what I have heard they want him to play the outfield

 

[Bigpep2001]

Most coaches these days seem to care more about their catchers going yard than defensive ability. For me I'd rather have a good defensive catcher who can hit for average and get on base.

This post was edited on 4/15 11:26 PM by Bigpep2001