Mid Season Power Rankings for MW Baseball

After 6 weekends of conference ball, we’re seeing some separation in the standings. Fresno State has jumped out to a 3 ½ game lead over everyone else. New Mexico, Air Force, Nevada, and San Jose State are clustered within a game and a half of each other in the middle of the standings, and UNLV and San Diego State bring up the rear 7 and 8 games behind the Bulldogs.

Power Rankings

Fresno State - The Bulldogs are really on a roll, having won their last 8 straight conference games against the Falcons, Rebels, and Wolf Pack. The starting pitching is far and away the best in the conference with good depth in the bullpen to close out games. Offensively, they are a close second to New Mexico statistically, but Lobos benefit from playing home games in a hitter’s park. Right now, I heavily favor them to win the regular season and conference tournament championship. With their pitching staff, I could see them getting past the Regional playoffs.

Nevada - Coming off three losses to Fresno State, the Wolf Pack has fallen to fourth place in the standings, just behind the Lobos and the Falcons ahead of them. However the Lobos haven’t yet played the Bulldogs, and the Falcons bullpen has been shaky, so I’m giving the advantage to Nevada. Millas, Doktorczyk, and Fosher are a solid starting trio.

New Mexico - The Lobos can light up the scoreboard, but with a struggling pitching staff (last in the MW with an ERA of 8.43), a lot of runs are often required to stay in the game. However, the relentless lineup puts a lot of pressure on opposing pitchers who pitch better with the bases empty.

Air Force - The Falcons have had to scrap for runs all season. They are last in the MW in slugging percentage and runs scored, but first in stolen bases and sacrifice hits. The best lineup hasn’t been together all season with injuries to Chris Stallings and Charlie Jones, and a nagging injury to Sam Kulasingam that hasn’t kept him out of the lineup. Once Doyle Gehring has pitched his relief innings for the weekend and the starter has reached his pitch count, it’s a struggle getting through an inning without a run scoring. The Falcons probably deserve some slack for playing only 2 out of their first 32 games on their home field.

San Jose State - The Spartans swept the series from the Aztecs this weekend after losing 2 of 3 in each of their first four series. We’ll have to wait and see if that could provide the momentum to propel the Spartans higher in the standings

San Diego State - The Aztecs have some pitchers with excellent stuff, but struggle with getting the ball over the plate consistently. The staff has allowed 208 walks (65 more than any other team in the conference) and 69 hit batters in 269 innings! Opposing teams are only hitting .255 against them, second in the conference to Fresno State. They often have five freshmen starters in the lineup, and many probably need another year of college competition to mature, although freshman Colby Turner is already making a push for conference first team honors.

Mountain West Players of the Week

The Mountain West issues its picks for players of the week on Monday, well before I start my article. This week, they picked Fresno State’s pitcher Noah Beal and Fresno State’s Tommy Hopfe was selected as Player of the Week. I have no better alternatives in mind so I’ll agree with the Mountain West conference and make them the mwcconnection.com choices as well. The choices also go along with my theme of having the Bulldogs as my #1 team.