The Podcast About Division-III Baseball

Welcome to Episode 67 of The Podcast About Division III Baseball. The coronavirus pandemic cancelled the 2020 championship season and will make the 2021 season the craziest and most unpredictable D-III season we've ever seen (and hopefully will ever seen). We begin with some broad caveats about how we will be covering this season and why it will be as challenging as ever. Then we preview the West.

• ASC (at 11:00)
  • Concordia (Texas) brings back all of their main dudes and even added an arm from a regional rival -- they could be one of the best teams in the country
• SCAC (at 16:30)
  • Trinity (Texas) is primed to be excellent again, hopefully lead by #SeniorYearRafe #5thYearRafe
  • Texas Lutheran has more than enough coming back to compete with the Tigers
  • Southwestern lost two of their biggest arms but may have the bats to stay around at the top of the conference
• SCIAC (at 25:00)
  • The conference that might be one of the least likely to play based on state restrictions/regulations...is looking now like they may be able to play some baseball this spring, so we'll see
  • if they play, Chapman is obviously still the favorite -- defending champs!
• NWC (at 30:20)
  • We never know what to make of this conference but are encouraged that they've got schedules for this spring and we could see it being a wide-open race

Follow us on Twitter @d3baseballpod (DMs are open if you want to reach us there) and @CespedesBBQ.

Send us your best D-III stories or any other comments or questions to [email protected]

Subscribe + rate/review on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-podcast-about-division-iii-baseball/id1342691759

Welcome to Episode 67 of The Podcast About Division III Baseball. The coronavirus pandemic cancelled the 2020 championship season and will make the 2021 season the craziest and most unpredictable D-III season we've ever seen (and hopefully will ever seen). We begin with some broad caveats about how we will be covering this season and why it will be as challenging as ever. Then we preview the West. 

• ASC (at 11:00)
  • Concordia (Texas) brings back all of their main dudes and even added an arm from a regional rival -- they could be one of the best teams in the country
• SCAC (at 16:30)
  
  • Trinity (Texas) is primed to be excellent again, hopefully lead by #SeniorYearRafe  #5thYearRafe
  • Texas Lutheran has more than enough coming back to compete with the Tigers
  • Southwestern lost two of their biggest arms but may have the bats to stay around at the top of the conference
• SCIAC (at 25:00) 
  • The conference that might be one of the least likely to play based on state restrictions/regulations...is looking now like they may be able to play some baseball this spring, so we'll see
  • if they play, Chapman is obviously still the favorite -- defending champs!
• NWC (at 30:20)
  • We never know what to make of this conference but are encouraged that they've got schedules for this spring and we could see it being a wide-open race

Follow us on Twitter @d3baseballpod (DMs are open if you want to reach us there) and @CespedesBBQ. 

Send us your best D-III stories or any other comments or questions to [email protected]

Subscribe + rate/review on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-podcast-about-division-iii-baseball/id1342691759 

Welcome to Episode 66 of The Podcast About Division III Baseball. The coronavirus pandemic has officially ended the 2020 championship season, but the show must go on. This week's episode features two special guests:

• Justin Meekins, senior OF at Salisbury on:
  • finding out the season was cancelled during the 7th inning of a game
  • hitting a dinger in his final game and pimping it
  • whether he will try to come back for a 5th year
  • playing for head coach Troy Brohawn, former big leaguer, who apparently dominated Barry Bonds?!?!?!
  • favorite moments from his D3 career (two epic regional pitching performances)
  • of course, the monocle, and everything that came with it: the inspiration for the hair and mustache, where he got the monocle, taking the photo with the women's tennis team, pissing off the photographer, being on ESPN.com, becoming accidentally famous on campus, and so much more
• Ben Owen, junior C at Wesleyan (at 34:25) on:
  • rescheduling the spring trip last minute once stuff started getting crazy
  • being on a plane when finding out their biggest rival's season was cancelled
  • being in denial about the season actually
  • having a teammate that might be coming back for a SIXTH YEAR
  • and more!

Thanks to Justin and Ben for joining us and sharing their D-III stories.

Follow us on Twitter @d3baseballpod (DMs are open if you want to reach us there) and @CespedesBBQ.

Send us your best D-III stories or any other comments or questions to [email protected]

Subscribe + rate/review on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-podcast-about-division-iii-baseball/id1342691759

Welcome to Episode 66 of The Podcast About Division III Baseball. The coronavirus pandemic has officially ended the 2020 championship season, but the show must go on. This week's episode features two special guests: 

• Justin Meekins, senior OF at Salisbury on:
  • finding out the season was cancelled during the 7th inning of a game
  • hitting a dinger in his final game and pimping it
  • whether he will try to come back for a 5th year
  • playing for head coach Troy Brohawn, former big leaguer, who apparently dominated Barry Bonds?!?!?!
  • favorite moments from his D3 career (two epic regional pitching performances)
  • of course, the monocle, and everything that came with it: the inspiration for the hair and mustache, where he got the monocle, taking the photo with the women's tennis team, pissing off the photographer, being on ESPN.com, becoming accidentally famous on campus, and so much more
• Ben Owen, junior C at Wesleyan (at 34:25) on:
  • rescheduling the spring trip last minute once stuff started getting crazy
  • being on a plane when finding out their biggest rival's season was cancelled
  • being in denial about the season actually
  • having a teammate that might be coming back for a SIXTH YEAR
  • and more!

Thanks to Justin and Ben for joining us and sharing their D-III stories. 

Follow us on Twitter @d3baseballpod (DMs are open if you want to reach us there) and @CespedesBBQ. 

Send us your best D-III stories or any other comments or questions to [email protected]

Subscribe + rate/review on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-podcast-about-division-iii-baseball/id1342691759 

Welcome to Episode 65 of The Podcast About Division III Baseball. The coronavirus pandemic has cut the 2020 championship season short. We delve all the madness of how we got to this point, what we'll miss about this season, and more. Topics include:

• An obvious preamble about how you should all wash your hands and stay home, if possible, and how there are far more important things being affected than D-III baseball
• A general timeline of how this went from a few Spring Break trips being cancelled to the entire season being done in about a week
• The four D-III teams that never even got to play a game: Tufts, Wesleyan, Ripon, Western Connecticut
• Which storylines are we sad we won't be able to see with the season ending now?
• What does this mean for seniors and eligibility? How is it different for D-III players vs. D-I players? What kind of players could we expect to see back in 2021?
• Shout out to the D-III hoops players who had the tournament cancelled right before the Sweet 16
• Presenting the Small Sample 1st Team All-Americans (mostly West and South players, and we obviously left out a ton)
• Who are our hypothetical World Series picks?
• We are joined by our friend and senior LHP at WashU, Jack Besser, to give us an active player's perspective of watching the season crumble in a matter of hours

Follow us on Twitter @d3baseballpod (DMs are open if you want to reach us there) and @CespedesBBQ.

Send us your best D-III stories or any other comments or questions to [email protected]

Subscribe + rate/review on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-podcast-about-division-iii-baseball/id1342691759

Welcome to Episode 65 of The Podcast About Division III Baseball. The coronavirus pandemic has cut the 2020 championship season short. We delve all the madness of how we got to this point, what we'll miss about this season, and more. Topics include: 

• An obvious preamble about how you should all wash your hands and stay home, if possible, and how there are far more important things being affected than D-III baseball
• A general timeline of how this went from a few Spring Break trips being cancelled to the entire season being done in about a week
• The four D-III teams that never even got to play a game: Tufts, Wesleyan, Ripon, Western Connecticut
• Which storylines are we sad we won't be able to see with the season ending now?
• What does this mean for seniors and eligibility? How is it different for D-III players vs. D-I players? What kind of players could we expect to see back in 2021?
• Shout out to the D-III hoops players who had the tournament cancelled right before the Sweet 16
• Presenting the Small Sample 1st Team All-Americans (mostly West and South players, and we obviously left out a ton)
• Who are our hypothetical World Series picks? 
• We are joined by our friend and senior LHP at WashU, Jack Besser, to give us an active player's perspective of watching the season crumble in a matter of hours

Follow us on Twitter @d3baseballpod (DMs are open if you want to reach us there) and @CespedesBBQ. 

Send us your best D-III stories or any other comments or questions to [email protected]

Subscribe + rate/review on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-podcast-about-division-iii-baseball/id1342691759 

Welcome to Episode 64 of The Podcast About Division III Baseball. This is our first podcast of the regular season and features mostly discussion of the latest Top 25 poll, plus a couple other individual shout outs.

• Top 25 chat (at 3:25), including but not limited to:
  • Quick hits on all 25 teams (sorry for no timestamps -- we go in order from 1-25) in the latest poll
  • Whoa, Jake's WashU Bears are no. 1, that's cool!
  • How to judge teams against each other when some teams have played 10+ games (SCIAC teams) and some have played zero (Southern Maine)
  • The super hot fire Babson/Trinity (Texas) series
  • Slow start for some Mideast powerhouse teams
  • The teams outside the Top 25 that we like the most (at 32:50) AKA show Concordia (Texas) some respect SHEESH (plus some NWC chat)
• A discussion (at 39:45) of how 2020 Golden Spikes Award watch list finalist Luke Summers (RHP, Fontbonne) could win the Golden Spikes Award over all the obvious D-I contenders. What does he need to do? How many perfect games does he need to throw? Does he need to go viral? Does it even matter how many games Fontbonne wins? What other D-III players could win the Golden Spikes in this absurd scenario?

Follow us on Twitter @d3baseballpod (DMs are open if you want to reach us there) and @CespedesBBQ.

Send us your best D-III stories or any other comments or questions to [email protected]

Subscribe + rate/review on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-podcast-about-division-iii-baseball/id1342691759

Welcome to Episode 64 of The Podcast About Division III Baseball. This is our first podcast of the regular season and features mostly discussion of the latest Top 25 poll, plus a couple other individual shout outs. 

• Top 25 chat (at 3:25), including but not limited to:
  • Quick hits on all 25 teams (sorry for no timestamps -- we go in order from 1-25) in the latest poll 
  • Whoa, Jake's WashU Bears are no. 1, that's cool!
  • How to judge teams against each other when some teams have played 10+ games (SCIAC teams) and some have played zero (Southern Maine)
  • The super hot fire Babson/Trinity (Texas) series
  • Slow start for some Mideast powerhouse teams
  • The teams outside the Top 25 that we like the most (at 32:50) AKA show Concordia (Texas) some respect SHEESH (plus some NWC chat)
• A discussion (at 39:45) of how 2020 Golden Spikes Award watch list finalist Luke Summers (RHP, Fontbonne) could win the Golden Spikes Award over all the obvious D-I contenders. What does he need to do? How many perfect games does he need to throw? Does he need to go viral? Does it even matter how many games Fontbonne wins? What other D-III players could win the Golden Spikes in this absurd scenario? 

Follow us on Twitter @d3baseballpod (DMs are open if you want to reach us there) and @CespedesBBQ. 

Send us your best D-III stories or any other comments or questions to [email protected]

Subscribe + rate/review on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-podcast-about-division-iii-baseball/id1342691759 

Welcome to Episode 63 of The Podcast About Division III Baseball. This is our eighth of eight regional preview pods -- this one covers the Mideast region and its four conferences. Topics include:

• AMCC
  • La Roche (at 2:00) returns their entire pitching staff as they try to win a 7th consecutive conference title
• HCAC
  • Franklin (at 5:15) proved capable of competing with the big boys in the regional last year, but have a ton of arms to replace
  • The HCAC always has a competitive middle of the pack, including (at 9:15) Rose-Hulman, Anderson, Transylvania, and Earlham
• MIAA
  • Adrian (at 10:45) is super mega-loaded, perhaps as much as ever, but will still need to prove it come regional season
  • Hope (at 15:15) had a gaudy win total last year thanks to a poor SOS, but there's real talent present
• NCAC
  • Wooster (at 19:55) will continue to be known for their elite offense featuring two All-Americans, but their success will depend on the development of their young pitchers
  • Denison (at 25:05) returns almost every starter in an excellent lineup, but will need to replace some key arms
• OAC
  • Heidelberg (at 29:15) returns a healthy portion of their World Series team from a year ago
  • Baldwin Wallace (at 34:15) gets a potential All-American back in their lineup, but the offense may need more than that to score enough to compete
  • Obviously this conference could go in any direction, as teams like (at 38:15) Otterbein, John Carroll, Ohio Northern, Mount Union, and even Marietta are capable of reaching the conference tourney and making some noise
• PAC
  • Washington & Jefferson (at 43:35) is fresh off their second World Series appearance in three years -- probably time to stop doubting them
• UAA
  • Case Western (at 45:00) is playing another crazy schedule, so don't be surprised if they get in again at-large with 22 wins!

We concluded (at 50:30) with a few other notable player shout outs, our player and pitcher of the year picks for the region, and our teams to beat. Then we say goodbye. Thanks for listening!

Follow us on Twitter @d3baseballpod (DMs are open if you want to reach us there) and @CespedesBBQ.

Send us your best D-III stories or any other comments or questions to [email protected]

Subscribe + rate/review on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-podcast-about-division-iii-baseball/id1342691759

Welcome to Episode 63 of The Podcast About Division III Baseball. This is our eighth of eight regional preview pods -- this one covers the Mideast region and its four conferences. Topics include:

• AMCC
  
  • La Roche (at 2:00) returns their entire pitching staff as they try to win a 7th consecutive conference title
• HCAC
  
  • Franklin (at 5:15) proved capable of competing with the big boys in the regional last year, but have a ton of arms to replace
  • The HCAC always has a competitive middle of the pack, including (at 9:15) Rose-Hulman, Anderson, Transylvania, and Earlham 
• MIAA
  
  • Adrian (at 10:45) is super mega-loaded, perhaps as much as ever, but will still need to prove it come regional season
  • Hope (at 15:15) had a gaudy win total last year thanks to a poor SOS, but there's real talent present
• NCAC
  • Wooster (at 19:55) will continue to be known for their elite offense featuring two All-Americans, but their success will depend on the development of their young pitchers
  • Denison (at 25:05) returns almost every starter in an excellent lineup, but will need to replace some key arms
• OAC
  • Heidelberg (at 29:15) returns a healthy portion of their World Series team from a year ago
  • Baldwin Wallace (at 34:15) gets a potential All-American back in their lineup, but the offense may need more than that to score enough to compete
  • Obviously this conference could go in any direction, as teams like (at 38:15) Otterbein, John Carroll, Ohio Northern, Mount Union, and even Marietta are capable of reaching the conference tourney and making some noise
• PAC
  • Washington & Jefferson (at 43:35) is fresh off their second World Series appearance in three years -- probably time to stop doubting them
•  UAA
  • Case Western (at 45:00) is playing another crazy schedule, so don't be surprised if they get in again at-large with 22 wins!

We concluded (at 50:30) with a few other notable player shout outs, our player and pitcher of the year picks for the region, and our teams to beat. Then we say goodbye. Thanks for listening!

Follow us on Twitter @d3baseballpod (DMs are open if you want to reach us there) and @CespedesBBQ. 

Send us your best D-III stories or any other comments or questions to [email protected]

Subscribe + rate/review on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-podcast-about-division-iii-baseball/id1342691759