With the win on Monday night over Kansas State in the Corvallis Super Regional, the 2013 OSU baseball team not only secured a fifth all-time spot for the school in the College World Series but also tied the school record for wins in a season at 50.

How does this team compare with other OSU baseball team performances?  Clearly the 2013 team has been on track for greatness much of the season, beginning with the 15-0 start, the best since 1962.  Then there was a three-week period in late March and early April where the team recorded 5 of the team’s 11 losses on the season in playing series against ASU, San Diego, UCLA, and Oregon in a non-conference game.  The prospect of a historic season started was diminished at that point.  Nevertheless, the team persevered and set new records for winning percentage and number of wins for the number of games played after that time.

Then to some, a disaster took place in Seattle, two losses on one Saturday in April where the hopes for a conference title and national seed were considerably dimmed.   I counseled that there was still time for this team to bounce back, and they did, recording only two more losses en route to the club’s first Pac-12 Championship and only the 4th conference championship for OSU in the various incarnations of the conference.   With the the championship came school records for regular season wins (45)  and conference wins (24) as well as OSU’s second all-time national seeding in the post-season baseball tournament.

Hank Hager of OSU’s Athletic Communications Department has put together a table of the best records of past OSU teams by game number.  This can be found in OSU’s Baseball Media Guide.  If you compare records and winning percentages for the best OSU teams of the past with the 2013 team, you’ll quickly see that the 2013 team has for most of the season generally matched or exceeded the composite records of OSU’s best ever teams with the exception of the 3-week period in late March and early April.  Moreover, at the present number of games into the season (61), no OSU team has a better winning percentage than the 2013 team, not even the 2006 National Championship team.

I’ve made a chart of Hager’s table of school record winning percentages by game number (black bars) and have also charted the 2013 team’s winning percentage by game number (orange bars).  Click on the graphic to enlarge.  This graphic illustrates the progress and performance of the 2013 team as compared to the best ever teams at OSU (1952, 1962, 2005, 2006, 2007, etc.).  With every game played, a new record is set by the 2013 team.  There is no question that this team is among the best ever here at OSU and that fans of OSU baseball are fortunate to be living today during the Golden Age of Beaver Baseball.

Click to Enlarge

No, not really.

Radio commentators, fans in the stands, and writers in the media all seem to issue cautionary statements regarding OSU baseball games where OSU strands more runners than their opponents. Continue reading →

The RPI or Ratings Percentage Index is a metric used by the NCAA Selection Committee as an aid in choosing schools for the 34 at-large spots in the post-season tournament.   But starting with the 2013 season, a new RPI is being employed.

The purpose of the change in the RPI this season is to reduce the road disadvantage faced by northern teams that must play a large part of their early season schedules on the road while southern teams play mainly at home.  Now the RPI is  weighted for wins and losses, on the road and at home.  A road win is now worth 1.3 instead of 1.0 in determining the RPI rankings and a home win is 0.7 instead of 1.0.  Under this formula weighting, a home loss counts as 1.3 in reducing the RPI and a road loss will count as 0.7 in reducing the RPI.  A neutral site game will count as 1.0 and will not be weighted.  Bonuses that used to be part of the RPI formula have been eliminated as well.

Michael Conforto at 1st base (click to enlarge)

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