| 18 February 2011
Ben Johnson is a former three-time All-PAC-10 shortstop at Oregon State University and was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1990 MLB Draft. A four-time conference Coach of the Year in the Midwestern and Mt Hood Conferences while leading Sheldon High School and Hood River High School to conference championships, Johnson also coached at Willamette University and served as an Associate Scout with the Kansas City Royals. A featured baseball writer with Beyond the Beat, Johnson is also the creator of College Baseball Stars.com.
Several teams in the western region are playing monster schedules to open the 2011 college baseball campaign, and the University of Portland Pilots just happen to be one of them.
A simple glance at the schedule reveals the Pilots – with 21 letter winners and 8 position starters returning – will have to win the WCC to get an NCAA Invite, even if they match the 34 win total from 2010, which was the second most all-time in the history of the program behind the 1980 squad (36-12).
Portland plays a slew of PAC-10 schools – Oregon (3), Oregon State (2), Washington (1) and Washington State (1), as well as Hawaii (4) and BYU (2) from the WAC and Mountain West.
For most programs – even those who live on the bubble every year anyway – a 34-18 record would earn NCAA post-season honors. For the Pilots, who have failed to understand the inner makings of the formula, another potentially great season will go down the drain yet again. The only saving grace this year for the Pilots if they don't end up winning the West Coast Conference is to sweep their PAC-10 opponents and accumulate a .500 or better record against Hawaii and BYU. Even then Portland would need a 40 win season to overcome such a low RPI.
The odds of that happening are not great.
On the bright side, the collection of talent this year for the Pilots will be tremendous to watch considering premier closer Chris Dennis, who went 5-1 with a 1.88 ERA and 14 saves last year was one of five national finalists for the National Congress of Baseball Writers Association "Stopper of the Year" Award, returns for his senior season.
He earned NCBWA 2nd Team All-American and Louisville Slugger 3rd Team All-American awards last year and is a 2011 Pre-Season NCBWA All-American this year.
Another hot prospect, Kyle Kraus - a Junior right-hander - was 10-3 last year, becoming the second pitcher in program history to record double digit wins, while second-baseman Riley Henricks returns to lead the batting order.
Henricks hit .302 with 13 doubles, 7 triples and 6 home runs in 2010. His 7 triples matched a program record and his 43 runs scored led the team.
The talent is there for the Pilots. Although they finished fourth in the Pre-Season WCC Conference Voting by the coaches, they did receive one first place vote to take the title.
At the end of the day, however, anything less than a WCC championship will go unrewarded due to Middle Tennessee State, VMI, Seattle University and Air Force being on the schedule as compared to the programs of similar stature they are competing against across the country for one of the final bubble spots come June.
If the Pilots expect to be a post-season regular on the Road to Omaha, coach Chris Sperry needs to come to grips with the RPI Index and design it to work in their favor.
After all, if you are going to travel 2500 miles to open the season and work so hard in the off-season to bring your dreams to fruition, why not make it count in the end with a quality schedule that matches the quality of the players on the Pilots' roster?
You can read Ben Johnson's full column, "Pilots Schedule Equals More RPI Woes - Yet Again in 2011", at College Baseball Stars.com
photo: oregonlive.com
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