As for me , I’m in Pittsburgh for a four-day weekend with friends so I’ll miss it.  If anyone gets some good photos, contact me and we can post them here. 

In related news, Coach Hartleb got some air time with Steve Kelly a couple days ago on NewsTalks 1400 Sports Talk.  You know the Illini Baseball season is getting close when the local media begins covering the sport.  Of course, Hartleb was plugging the Hot Stove Banquet but hit on the prospects of the 2012 season, the tougher 2012 schedule and even some MLB talk.  Note: the Hartleb segment begins at about the 32:00 mark. 

Also, some good news from Hartleb… the Banquet seems to be a sellout. 

You can listen to the full episode at illinihq.com. 

Practice begins today, baseball fans. 

Occasionally, I like to do interviews here are on IBR but this time I was really looking forward to doing this one.  The subject this time is sports photographer Cary Frye.  Those baseball fans  who attend games at Illinois Field will probably recognize Cary with his signature orange cap usually worn backwards. 

As an amateur photographer, I’m somewhat envious of Cary.  After all, he has nice expensive cameras slung over his shoulder and he has these nice long telephoto lenses.  Seriously, Cary is one of the best and to top it off he is a top notch guy who is always willing to chat at the ballpark.  Lucky for us, he was willing to answer a few questions for the IBR. 

Illinois Baseball Report:  A lot of us see you taking photos at Illinois sporting events
but tell us who you are.  Who do you take photos for and how did you get connected with Illini sports?

Cary Frye:  I’m Cary Frye a freelance photographer who lives in Champaign, I shoot for basically anyone who’ll hire me, many times its just for an event or game. Other times it could be for an entire season. I’ve shot for several Newspapers, web sites and a couple of magazines. As for working with Illinois it just kind of happened over time, I started out helping them on one sport and then another and as I got better equipment and became a better photographer they kept giving me more sports to shoot.

IBR:  Canon or Nikon?  Or maybe something else?

CF:  Nikon  I don’t really have a preference with Nikon or Canon their both the tops in their field, it’s just that when you start with one, you pretty much have to stay with that brand because of the cost of getting all new equipment.

IBR:  Without getting too technical, walk us through a sporting event from your perspective.  How many photos do you take at one game on average and how long does it take to process them afterwards?

CF:  For football and basketball I usually try and get to the game 2 hours before it starts, all other sports about 30-45 minutes before they start. At times I may have specific things that I need to shoot during the game, it could be an award being presented during a timeout or someone throwing out the first pitch etc. With shooting the game itself the game usually dictates what I do and at other times I may plan on trying something new like shooting from different spots or angles. On average I take about 500 photos per game, shooting a 1,000 isn’t out of the norm, it really depends on the game and how much action is involved.

IBR:  What gives you more personal satisfaction, getting the homerun shot or a photo of the diving grab at third?  Has there been one particular shot that you captured that you are particularly proud of?

CF:  That’s a tuff one, I guess it would be getting whatever the big play would be, that’s what makes shooting sports so much fun, any night something special could happen and if you capture the moment in a photograph its something you can treasure forever. For all time favorite, I’d have to go with my top 5 in no particular order.

IBR:  I know you shoot a variety of sports. Are there any that are more difficult than others to photograph?

CF:  Football is probably the toughest, one because you have to move up and down the field with all your equipment. It’s fast moving and covers a large area and you have to keep alert and try not to get ran over on the sidelines. But that’s also what makes it the funnest to shoot as well.

CF:  Not that I have found!

Thanks to Cary for taking the time from his busy photographer schedule to answer some questions.  You can see some of Cary Frye’s fine work over at IllinoisLoyalty.com.  He is also on Twitter @illiniphotog. 

But Shawn Roof is more than that.  He is a player who gives the game everything he has.  Roof never walked to his next assignment, he RAN.  If he was in the dugout, you could be sure Shawn was up on the railing cheering and yelling.  It’s no surprise that the Big Ten honored him with the Outstanding Sportsman Award in 2007.

And on top of all that, Shawn Roof has that sincere politeness and friendliness that can only come from a Kentucky home.  Mrs. Roof did well raising a baseball family (all three brothers play baseball and Shawn’s father is Gene Roof (baseball coach in the Detroit Tigers organization).  Three or four years ago, Shawn contacted me after reading an article I did about him thanking me.  The next year I introduced myself in person and we’ve kept in contact throughout his time in the minors.

Graciously, Shawn agreed to answer a few questions for Illinois Baseball Report.  I’d like to take credit for the questions but honestly, most of them came from Illinois baseball fans that saw Shawn play when he was here.  I just edited them a bit.  Thanks to them for their help!!

On to the interview…

Shawn Roof: First off I want to say hi to all the Illinois fan base and thank them for the questions. It’s always great hearing from you all, and thanks for all the support. Its nice knowing there are people out there rooting for you and on your side.

Illinois Baseball Report: We noticed you wear uniform #4 in the minors. Was that your choice or were you assigned it? Any particular association for that number?

SR: I wore #4 in Toledo. #4 was my high school number and when I got to Illinois Brian Blomquist was wearing 4 unfortunately, so Coach Hartleb and the staff gave me 44.  When I was in Erie they gave me #28 my first year, so I stayed with that, but I jumped at the chance to get back to “my number” again.

IBR: Do you ever make it back to Champaign-Urbana? Any plans to visit?

SR: I do make it back to Champaign-Urbana every now and then. The first two off-seasons I worked out in Champaign with Lars Davis and Kyle Hudson which was a ton of fun and we were able to get ready for the season. Last year I made it up for one day to see the team practice and say hi to everyone. I’m hoping to get up there again this fall for a football game or two but this time of year its tough to get away, but I’m sure I’ll be up there at some point.

IBR: What do you do in the off-season to keep in shape? Is it strictly weight room stuff or can you get out and hit the ball and play in the field to hone your skills? Do you work out with either or both of your brothers?

SR: To stay in shape in the offseason, I just try to hit the gym as often as possible 5-6 times a week to try to go into spring training in the best shape as possible. I also work on speed training by doing different runs and drills.
We have a batting cage in our garage, so I can walk out my room and right into my cage which is awesome and where I also give hitting lessons which I learned a lot teaching the kids. One very nice thing about Kentucky is it gets cold, but we usually get a chance to get outside and throw and run, and my brothers and I go to a batting
cage where we take ground balls and do drills to work on our hands for fielding. You definitely have to be in top shape when you come into Spring Training so you
are in a position to win a job.

IBR: Do you see any of your former Illini teammates on a regular basis (either on or off the field)?

SR: I do see former teammates occasionally. This summer I played against Scott Shaw which was a ton of fun. It’s kind of funny stepping in the box and seeing an old
friend and teammate on the mound. I also played against ex-Illini Jason Anderson who is with the Phillies.  We also played against Tanner Roarke this summer. We
played his team a couple weeks after he got traded but he didn’t pitch in the series. And most of the other guys are in different leagues, but it’s always fun to see and old
teammate and friend. Then Lars Davis and Kyle Hudson and I have always been close friends, so I try to see those guys a lot. In October Lars got married, and Kyle, myself, and Omar Kadir were in Lars’ wedding which was a ton of fun. I hadn’t seen Omar in years, and he seems to be doing real well. Now Lars is living in Nashville which is 2 hours from where I live so I’m sure I’ll get down there a bunch to work out and hang out this winter. I also get to see friends from the Illini family. I got a chance to see you Tom in Indianapolis which was awesome. The ballpark was beautiful and it was good seeing you and some other friends that came up for the game.

IBR: You advanced to AAA Toledo in the midseason of 2010 and responded by batting .354 (nice!) after hitting .219 with AA Erie before. Were there changes in your approach to the plate or your swing? How do you think you will do this coming year?

SR: I did make a few changes once I went to AAA Toledo. I was swinging the bat the first 2 months real well. I was hitting around .300 at the end of May, and I went into a
little slump (well a huge slump). I lost some rhythm I had at the plate and I struggled pretty well. When I got to Toledo the hitting coach lowered my hands down to around my belt, and opened me up to the pitcher a little, so I was able to see the ball much better and I saw results instantly. All the coaches I have had in Minor League ball
have been great, and the coaches in Toledo fit in that group too. They see things with guy’s swings and are able to get guys better, and I owe them a lot for helping me
out and getting me going again. I finally had rhythm at the plate again and was able to see the ball much better.

As far as this season goes who knows where I will end up.  But with the changes I made, and the confidence I’ve gained in my abilities and seeing that I belong and can succeed at the higher levels against guys who have great stuff and have played in the Big Leagues, I’m very excited to see what kind of season I may have. I just wish we were still playing, or the season was to begin in a week or two.

IBR: What is it that Shawn Roof needs to do to go to the next level?

SR: To get to the next level I think I need to continue getting stronger and put on some weight which will lead to being able to drive the ball a little more and become faster. In Toledo I was driving the ball a little more, and getting stronger will only help. I also just need to continue getting better at each position, shortstop, second and third, so that I can play any of the positions and play them well. If I can progress on the changes I made in the last month of the year and get stronger, you never know what could happen if they need somebody.

IBR: Finally Shawn, are still you having fun?

SR: I’m having as much fun if not more than ever. Outside of being a Major Leaguer I feel like I have the best “job” in the world. I hate to call it a job, because I love going to
the ballpark every day to work and get better, and the game of baseball is so awesome because every day is different and you just never know what you may see that day. I feel very honored and privileged to go out and work towards my dream of being a Major League baseball player. Hopefully it will happen at some point. Plus you get to travel all over the country and see places and people you might not be able to if it wasn’t for baseball.  Another thing that’s been fun too is that I’ve gotten to play for my dad as my coach and with my brother Eric as a teammate. Eric and I were teammates in Spring Training during a Big League game against the Astros and my dad was the 1st base coach. It was a blast. We beat the Astros, and my brother had a couple hits including an RBI double. Than my dad will travel from team to team and he’ll coach 1st base so it’s always pretty cool to get a base hit and get a fist pound from your dad. Not many get the opportunity to work with their dad and it’s always nice to have someone see something in your swing or game that they can help you out. Hopefully I’ll get to
keep playing for another 15 years, but I do know if I don’t they’ll have to tear the uniform off of me.

I want to wish Shawn well.  I know there are a lot of Illini fans who remember of him fondly and I’ll speak for all them when I say good luck in 2011!

Ok, that’s a very positive spin on a dire situation for the Illini (21-21 6-9 Big Ten).  But the team has done well under pressure before so I’m hoping they respond well this weekend when they travel to Columbus to play the Buckeyes. 

The Bucks currently reside in second place (they’re actually in a three way tie for second in the Big Ten’s very tight standings).  They have a 26-17 overall record (third best in the conference).

Ohio State Buckeyes
May 7, 2010			5:35 pm ct
May 8, 2010			12:05 pm ct
May 9, 2010			12:05 pm ct
Bill Davis Stadium			Columbus, OH
Program website link			Record	26-17 (Big Ten 8-7)
Head Coach:	Bob Todd		Key player:	Michael Stephens

Cleanup hitter Michael Stephens is having a nice season for the Bucks.  He’s leading the Buckeyes’ potent offense in rbis and homers while hitting .374.

That said, catcher Dan Burkhart is on a roll.  In the Buckeyes’ last game (in their loss against Louisville), he went 5 for 5 with a homerun. 

Yes, they lost against Louisville.  The Illini can take heart that the  Buckeyes CAN be beat (again, looking on the positive side, here).  Not only that, they’ve had some 2010 losses against some mediocre teams so any mystique of the Buckeye formula can stop now. 

We won’t be seeing Ohio State’s superstar pitcher Alex Wimmers.  Unfortunately for Wimmers, he suffered a hamstring injury before the Michigan series.  That will really impact their pitching strength as he is leading the conference in ERA and strikeouts. 

And I don’t know what impact this will have on this weekend’s series, if any, but it’s worth mentioning.  Ohio State’s head coach, Bob Todd, recently announced that he will retire at the end of this year. 

Speaking of The Buckeye Nine’s Chris Webb, he conducted an interview of our own Coach Hartleb.  You can listen to it here. 

So how many games does Illinois have to win to stay alive in the Big Ten Tournament race?  A sweep would nice obviously but even a 2-1 win would begin help our comeback.  I haven’t done the standings math this early in the season yet but a 1-2 or god forbid a OSU sweep starts putting us in the “stay at home” category”.  Do or die?  Maybe that’s a stretch.  But a good showing is a must in order to keep the Big Ten Tournament in sight. 

Oh and let me leave you with this photo… for those who were there last year, you remember this?

Good luck, Illini!!

If you missed it from the previous post, I did an interview of the Michigan baseball blogger from MGoBlog.com.  Turnabout is fair play, they say and he returned the favor.

He grilled me about the Illinois baseball team for an interview article on MGoBlog.  He asked me a bevy a questions (a total of eleven in all!) which ranged the gamut in topics.  So take a look and check my answers and keep me honest.

Good Luck this weekend, Illini!!!

On to the interview:

Illinois Baseball Report:  Michigan outfielder Ryan LaMarre, who was injured in the first weekend of the season, wasted no time making an impact in his return this past weekend. He played well enough to be named Big Ten Player of the Week. I imagine Michigan fans are happy about this. Do you see him continuing this type of the play throughout the conference season?

MGoBlog:  Michigan fans are ecstatic to have Ryan back and for good reason. This weekend was an explosion that no one saw coming. That said, I don’t think anyone  has the ability to keep a .600 batting average over a 7 week stretch. What should be scary to opposing pitchers is that LaMarre (left) was diagnosed as only about 80-90% this weekend. He still has some time to build back up his strength to the point it was before the fracture. Once he gets that back, those two he hit off the wall in the same inning will be clearing the wall easily.

IBR:  Aside from LaMarre, who are the other Michigan players Illinois needs to keep an eye on? Any newcomers who are pulling their weight?

MGoBlog:  Michigan has a lot of talent on offense this year, but it all starts with the lead off man Patrick Biondi. Biondi was a late round draft pick by the Tigers, but he came to Michigan to build up his draft stock. He’s arguably the fastest player in the Big Ten and has one of the best bats as well. The kid has come out of nowhere to hit .376 with a .482 on base and .547 slugging percentage. The kid just gets on base, then he steals another. He’s already tied Michigan’s freshman stolen base record with 19 so far this season.
Things also won’t be easy after LaMarre. Senior catcher Chris Berset took over the offense during LaMarre’s absence, and he put up better numbers than LaMarre did in the previous season. He’s batting .400 as of the Purdue series and the game plan appears to be get LaMarre on, steal to get into scoring position if necessary, then let Berset line a single in the outfield for the RBI. That combo worked 4 times this last weekend. 
After you get past Berset, you’ve still got Coley Crank, the team’s leading slugger, and Mike Dufek who lead the Big Ten in homers last season.

IBR:  Michigan is 18-11 for the year but 3-8 as the visiting team. Is that going to be an issue during the Big Ten schedule (and hopefully against Illinois)?

MGoBlog:  3-8 as the visiting team is somewhat deceptive. Michigan was swept on the road by three opponents following the exit of Ryan LaMarre. Texas Tech is a top 65 RPI team, UNC is a fringe ranked team, and Coastal Carolina got a wake up call from some team I’m sure you’ve heard of, which left them extra focused for Michigan. That’s 7 of the losses, and the eighth was at Indiana when Michigan made some questionable pitching choices on a weekend when Sabourin and Dickerson were red hot. Michigan probably should have taken one or two from UNC, but they were still shell shocked from the LaMarre loss.
The three wins we have are solid though, including a win at top 100 Florida Gulf Coast and two at Indiana. So I think the boys can handle almost any road situation.

IBR:  Minnesota has had a slow start during the non-conference schedule and even Ohio State, while still dominant, lost to a couple of non-competitive teams early on. Going into the season, they were two of the favorites of the conference. What does that mean to a Michigan baseball team who is trying to regain their status as the team to beat in the Big Ten?

MGoBlog:  I think Michigan is trying to take advantage the best they can. There isn’t the dominant pitcher at the front of our rotation as there has been in the past, but our pitching depth is one of the top in the Big Ten. We also have the advantage of not facing Michigan State, the current leader, in conference play (although we do have a pair of mid-week games against them). This opens Michigan up to a potential run to try and steal a regular season championship if we catch a few breaks.
I don’t think we’re worried about being the team to beat. After last year’s debacle, Michigan is out to just win every series and get a good seed to the tournament. If we can get there, our pitching depth should help us get back to the national picture. 

IBR:  Surely, there has to be a weakness on the Michigan squad. Care to share what it is?

MGoBlog:  There are two major concerns on my mind right now. The lesser of the two is the team defense. Freshman Derek Dennis has been a solid contributor and will definitely be a star sometime in the near future, but his defense has been rocky as of late. It hasn’t cost us a game that recently, but it’s been close a few times.
The bigger issue facing the team right now is consistency in the starting rotation. Alan Oaks dominated out of the gate, but he’s been on a 4 week slide and hasn’t shown signs of digging out of it yet. I’m not sure if this is just fatigue from his first full season on the mound or what. Sunday starting pitching has been a hodge-podge of guys that haven’t had a ton of success this season. Burgoon did alright, but he’s been too valuable at closer. Miller has left the ball up a lot. Sinnery came in for his first start of the season this week and looked good, but that’s just one start. I need more data to really get a feel. 

Ok, let’s do a few rapid fire questions…

IBR:  The Big Ten team Michigan must win all three against?

MGoBlog:  [slams head to desk] Northwestern. We couldn’t do it last year. We can’t afford not to do it this year.

IBR:  Stats aside, the Michigan player that has come through in the clutch?

MGoBlog:  Until this last week, Mike Dufek. He’s cooled, so I’ll go with LaMarre/Berset combo. 

IBR:  Similarly, the pitcher you want on the mound for the big game (or big inning)?

MGoBlog:  Game is tough. Brosnahan is hot right now. Big inning, no doubt it’s Burgoon. He was throwing 93-94 and touching 96 on the fast ball last weekend. Filthy slider.

IBR:  The Michigan baseball team, a group of stars or a team effort?

MGoBlog:  Group of stars. Bottom 3 in the lineup are just contributors this year. We lack the stars in the starting rotation.

IBR:  Finally, your favorite Michigan alum who’s made it to the bigs?

MGoBlog:  So many greats, where to start… I’m going way back to George Sisler (right).  Potentially the greatest Wolverine. Special love to Barry Larkin though. He was the man when I was a kid growing up. He’s also getting his number retired during the OSU series this year.

IBR:  To close this off, tell us about mgoblog.com. How long have you been covering the team? Also, is the program pretty receptive to you as someone who blogs about the team?

MGoBlog:  mgoblog.com was started by Brian Cook in 2005. covering mainly football with a couple other Michigan sports and some U.S. Men’s soccer. It’s grown quite a bit over the last 5 years to the point where the site gets about 50-60,000 visitors each day. Over the course of its existence, coverage became focused to just Michigan football, hockey, and basketball, but following the acquisition of Varsity Blue (my former affiliation) to start this academic year, lacrosse, volleyball, and baseball have all received quite a bit more coverage. Volleyball and baseball are my own contributions to the site, with volleyball just wrapping up it’s first season of coverage, while baseball is now in it’s second year.
From what I heard from a former player, the guys don’t follow my work. That’s probably for the best. I know a couple parents do keep up with the write ups and they seem to appreciate it. The Athletic Department seems to have a few consistent readers as an SID or two has mentioned to me, and as I’ve noticed them sending out specific emails about an hour after certain threads on our message board ask similarly specific questions. My interactions with them have been nothing short of excellent.
In many cases, the UM AD gives Brian, our reporter Tim, or our photographer Paul any media credentials we desire, be that for baseball, football, or otherwise. We’re treated like any other media source, but unlike the Detroit Free Press and a few other major local pundits, we generally have a very positive view of all things Michigan. I think it makes us more desirable.

thanks to formerlyanonymous for taking the time to answer my questions.  I’m looking forward to this weekend’s series with Michigan… it should be a good one.

Larry Fall blogs about sports at Penn State University and his blog, Happy Valley  Hardball covers the baseball team at PSU.  Happy Valley takes a unique look at the team as it is very stats-oriented and Larry even occasionally expands his coverage to the conference in general. 

In light of Illinois’ opening Big Ten series against Penn State this weekend, Larry was kind enough to answer a few questions about the PSU baseball team. 

Illinois Baseball Report:  Taking a quick look at the standings, the Penn State record of 8-12 (as of Saturday) doesn’t seem too impressive.  But looking closer at their schedule, they’ve played some tough teams.  For example, they’ve played ranked Texas A&M twice.  In the long run, will playing such competitive teams help PSU when the Big Ten season starts?  And given all that, just how good is Penn State?

Happy Valley Hardball:  One would hope so, but we’ve scheduled even tougher competition on our spring break trips in the past and it hasn’t seemed to help.  We got off to a very good start in the Big Ten/Big East challenge (wins over Cincy and Seton Hall and a one run extra inning loss to Notre Dame), which were followed up with a split in a four game weekend tournament in Texas (wins over McNeese State and Dallas Baptist, but two losses to Lamar).   At that point, I’d say things were looking pretty optimistic since, in the past, we’ve been notoriously slow starters.

Unfortunately, we then ran into a buzzsaw in the aforementioned Texas A&M and they whopped us pretty good (17-3, 7-0).  That led to a string of defeats, seven in all, and it wasn’t until this past weekend that we looked like we might come out of it.

If you dissect our 9-12 record, you find that we’ve 0-5 against top 50 RPI schools with our losses coming to #13 Texas A&M (2) and #40 Texas State (3).  So that makes us 9-7 against the rest of the world.  Given that the entire Big Ten only has three wins in forty four games against RPI top 50 schools, maybe we can hold our own in conference.

However, to be honest, I don’t expect us to.  I think our pitching is suspect, particularly the bullpen, and without good pitching, we’re going nowhere.  I see us struggling to play .500 ball in conference.

Just as a follow-up on the scheduling.  I think the Big East/Big Ten challenge has been a fantastic idea.  The Big East traditionally has some pretty decent teams (from a northern school perspective) so they provide a challenge for the Big Ten schools but, at the same time, don’t have the enormous early season weather advantage that the southern schools possess.

IBR:  Perhaps I’m reading too much into it but Penn State has a 0-9 record in opponent’s ballparks but a 8-3 record elsewhere.  Do you think there’s anything to that?

HVH:  Actually, I do.  Part of it is, of course, that we played the top 50 schools, Tex A&M and Texas State, on their campuses, so that’s likely to put us in a road hole to begin with.  The rest of it, though, I think is because of the make up of this team.  We have an ok offense and a bunch of kids who won’t quit, but we are handicapped with our pitching.  So in games where we get the last at-bat, we have a chance.  But with a weak bullpen, the same can be said for our opponents when they get the last shot.

Penn State has actually been involved in seven walk-off games.  We’ve won four and lost three.  Amazingly, when we have the last at bat, we are actually 7-1.  Of course, that also means we are 2-11 when the other guy bats last.

IBR:  Junior catcher Ben Heath seems to be Penn State’s big offensive threat this season.  At this point, he’s leading the team in homeruns and rbis.  Are there other Nittany Lion hitters that Illinois should be careful with?  Pitchers?

HVH:  Ben is having an outstanding season (.358 BA, 7 HR, 26 RBI); I’d actually call it an All Big Ten type of season to date.  He’s currently second in the conference with 7 home runs and, if he can continue to hit with power at Medlar Field, a not exactly power friendly park, he could have a shot at Penn State’s thirty plus year old home run record of 17.  His backup at catcher, Bobby Jacobs (.390 BA, 1 HR, 6 RBI), is someone else to keep an eye on since he’s recently taken over most of the DH role. 

But the big pleasant surprise of the season is sophomore and Illinois native Joey DeBernardis (.372 BA, 1 HR, 17 RBI) from Lake Zurich.  Joey played sparingly as a freshman last year but is having a breakout season this year.  He’s taken over the first baseman’s slot vacated by four year starter (and coach’s son) Cory Wine.  Joey is carrying a very hot bat right now with eight multi-hit games in his last 12.  He did have an eight game hitting streak come to an end last Friday but he has reached base in 19 of 21 games so far this season.  He’s also backed that up with an error-less performance in the field 

Another kid who has come on strong of late is freshman Elliot Searer (.341 BA).  Elliot is normally a middle infielder but coach Robbie Wine has moved him to the outfield to try and get some more offense into the lineup. 

Also, watch out for leadoff hitter Sean Deagan.  If he gets on, he’s going to run.  He’s currently 14-14 in stolen bases.  Unfortunately, he’s only batting .245 with an OBP of only .311, a little low for what you’d like at the top of the order.

As far as pitching goes, I’m having a hard time finding much good to say.  The ace of the staff should be Mike Wanamaker (1-2 W/L, 5.62 ERA), who missed all of last year with an injury and who still looks a little rusty.  The bullpen has really struggled but David Lutz (1-1 W/L,3.97 ERA) had a good week in long relief, putting up 7.1 consecutive scoreless innings. Starter Ryan Ignas (2-1 W/L, 5.34 ERA) had a good outing on Saturday with a seven inning complete game. 

IBR:  Tell us about your blog, Happy Valley Hardball.  It’s pretty unique college baseball blog in that you have a focus on sabermetrics. 

HVH:  The sabermetrics thing is probably something that I ought to remove from my tagline since I’m doing less and less of it all the time – not so much from a lack of interest as from a lack of time. If I could find a better way of automating the data collection and number crunching end of it I might do more. I’ve found myself doing far too much cutting and pasting into Excel spreadsheets when my automated web queries fail. 

One thing that I will do though is use Bill James’s Pythagorean Expectation formula to calculate what we might expect the Big Ten teams winning percentages to be.  For those who aren’t familiar with it, James says that a teams winning percentage can be expected to be equal to their runs scored squared divided by the sum of their runs scored squared and their runs allowed squared.  It’s called the Pythagorean Expectation because of its similarity to the familiar c squared equals a squared plus b squared.

I’ll publish my first expectation results sometime in the next couple of days. My experience with the Pythagorean Expectation highlights some of the problems I have with my sabermetrics stuff.  Ideally, I’d like to plot out the teams winning percentages based on Big Ten stats only.  I think the percentages are distorted by the different caliber of competition that the Big Ten teams have faced during the early non-conference play (Iowa has the toughest SOS at #89 while Purdue has the softest at #280 – that’s a pretty big disparity).  That all goes away if I just use conference results.  However, I have been unable to find a source that can provide me with the runs scored and runs allowed just in conference play (the conference provides conference game stats only for basketball, I don’t know why they don’t do it for baseball).  So to publish it the way that I’d prefer to do it, I’d have to go to every team’s website and pull out their conference numbers from the box scores.  Not going to do that so I have to settle for a non-conference Pythagorean Expectation.

One thing that I’ll also continue to do is experiment with ways of presenting data.  I want to see if I can find some new visualization techniques.  Things like this batting stats chart that I published last year (sometime before the weekend I should get a post up with this season’s data in it).  The chart is interactive and you can play around with it doing various comparisons.

I’ll look around the web other ideas that I can use.

IBR:  Finally, would you care to make a prediction on what teams will make the Big Ten Tournament in 2010? 

HVH:  To be honest, I have yet paid enough attention to the rest of the conference to make much of an educated guess.  I’ve been hard at work on my wrestling blog, Happy Valley Half Nelson, and it’s only now that wrestling season has ended that I can concentrate more on baseball.

***

Thanks to Larry Fall for taking the time to inform us a bit on the Penn State baseball program.  If you want to check out his Penn State baseball blog, head on over to Happy Valley Hardball.

Of course, Cappetta has really developed since his first season. Illini fans know of his reputation of being a a player who could play just about any position. He is versatile and can play the outfield and all infield positions.  Who knows?  Give him the opportunity, he’ll probably try catcher too.

In 2009, Cappetta began to show that he could hit, too. He is probably the most underrated offensive threat on the Illini team. Batting .384 (tops on the Illini), Pete has been known to really come through in the clutch.

And to top it off, I can vouch that Pete Cappetta is one of nicest guys on the team. Maybe that doesn’t win games but that counts for something in my book.

So without any further ado, here are 8 Questions for Pete Cappetta and his answers.

Illinois Baseball Report:  Pete, you had a breakthrough year in 2009.  The year before (in 2008) you were a backup shortstop.  Then last year, you led the team in hitting with a .384 batting average.  Not only that, you didn’t make an error in the field all season.  I know this question sounds cliche but what contributed to your success last year?

Pete Cappetta:  I put in a lot of hard work going into the year and it paid off. I have some of the best coaches here at U of I that prepared me very well for last season, and they continue to do the same for this upcoming season. I have to say they contributed a lot to my success last season.

IBR:  You are getting a reputation of being a player who can play almost any position in the field.  I’m sure Coach Hartleb probably appreciates a quality like that.  Are you going to continue to be an uber-utility player this year or are you going to settle down to one position in 2010?

PC:  I really don’t know where Coach Hartleb has me penciled in right now, but I am definitely excited for the opportunity to play anywhere. One of my main strengths is my versatility and I just want to help the team wherever possible.

IBR:  What was the most exciting moment for you personally during the 2009 season?  You certainly have a few choices between the exciting LSU series, the opening comeback win against Ohio State not to mention the whole Big Ten Tournament experience.

PC:  The LSU series was the most exciting moment for me as a player and I think our team as a whole. We really showed a lot of people that our program is on the rise and I hope we take the momentum from last year into this year.

IBR:  The Illini are going to open up at home against Bradley on February 20th.  Really??  Dang, that’s going to be cold.

PC: To be honest, we practiced outside for almost a week prior to our first tournament last year, so we will definitely be prepared for the first game no matter what the forecast looks like.

IBR:  The Illini coaching staff has brought a solid core of freshman and transfers to the team last fall.  It looks like some of them will play a big part in Illinois’ 2010 season.  From your standpoint, are they ready?

PC:  I am really excited about this freshman class. They are good ballplayers who all have the potential to be starters on this year’s team. There is a lot of versatility among them, and I have a feeling a number of them will contribute right away.

IBR:  Do you see a repeat performance from last year’s 16-8 conference record?  Do you guys look ahead to postseason games like the Tournament (or even the Regionals) or do you, as they say, take one game at a time?

PC:  Every year we go in with the mindset that we will contend for a Big Ten championship. The best approach in doing that is to take it one game at a time. Once we get ahead of ourselves, that’s when bad things can happen.

IBR:  The schedule says that you guys are going to play the University of Missouri at Busch Stadium in April.  Are players excited?  What about the Cardinal fans on the team?  They gotta be ecstatic.

PC:  We are all very excited about the Busch Stadium game. It’s going to be a great atmosphere to play in. There are quite a few Cardinals fans on the team, especially Lee Zerrusen. I don’t think he has gone a day without talking about the game. I feel bad that Brandon Wikoff is going to miss it, though. He is a huge Cardinals fan, and I’m sure he would have loved to suit up for that game!

IBR:  Finally, tell everyone one thing we don’t already don’t know about Pete Cappetta.

PC:  Being from Chicago and being a huge football fan, you would assume I love the Chicago Bears. But I am about the biggest Green Bay Packers fan there is. I was speechless for about two days after the Packers lost in the playoffs this year. But with Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay, things are looking very bright for the future. They are the youngest team in the league and I’m expecting big things from them in the next few years.

I would like to thank Pete Cappetta for taking the time during his busy schedule and doing this for us.  Good luck to him and the rest of the Illini!