There have been a bunch of games rained out and postponed so far this year. I wanted to wait until Sacred Heart and Raymond had played each other last week to make my Class C rankings, but they were rained out and are now scheduled for June 1st. So, with no further ado, here are my rankings and the rankings of Jim Buesgens and Andy Johnson:
Buesgens Johnson bnbaseballguy
1 Midway Fort Ripley Fort Ripley
2 Raymond Midway Midway
3 Howard Lake Raymond Howard Lake
4 Sacred Heart Sacred Heart Winsted
5 Lastrup Lastrup Dassel-Cokato
6 Fort Ripley Blue Earth Sacred Heart
7 Loretto Dassel-Cokato Blue Earth
8 Big Lake Howard Lake Raymond
9 Winsted Winsted Green Isle
10 Blue Earth Milroy Belle Plaine
Johnson’s Notes:
New to my rankings: Fort Ripley (The had a very impressive last 2 weeks - enough to move them to #1) and Milroy
Dropped from my rankings: Green Isle and Sartell
On my radar: Northfield, Opole
Bnbaseballguy’s notes:
Fort Ripley won the head to head with Midway in Moorhead tourney. Green Isle still keeps carving up the Crow River (5-0). Belle Plaine (4-2) still solid this year.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Monday, May 23, 2011
Class B Update
I should have posted this last week, but things got out of hand here. Tom Elliot has been sending some updates to me about the teams in his area and sent this to me last Friday.
Class B rankings:
1. Shakopee
2. Sauk Rapids Cyclones (there’s a Class C Sauk Rapids Jimmy’s, too)
3. Mankato
4. Savage
5. Dundas
6. Cold Spring Springers (there’s a Class C Cold Spring Rockies also)
7. Miesville
8. Austin Greyhounds
9. Rochester Royals
10. Burnsville
Both the Cyclones and Springers appear to be improved this year. Sauk Rapids has Jeremiah Piepkorn back from the Fargo-Moorhead Redhawks and he brought along a friend, Matt Petrusek, a fine pitcher who once pitched for the St. Cloud River Bats of the Northwoods League.
The Springers have added Drew Anderson, a power-hitting first baseman/outfielder who played in AAA for the Milwaukee Brewers last year, and left-handed pitcher Ryan Morse. Morse was with the St. Paul Saints last year after five years in the Tampa Bay Rays organization, where he reached AA.
Besides those two, I think the Southern teams are stronger than anyone else north of Minneapolis. Tom Elliott
Tom has been covering amateur baseball for a long time. He even covered me in the early days. He was right about Fort Ripley, in Class C, as they won the Moorhead Tournament this weekend. I will try to keep ranking B teams one week and C teams the next. If you have suggestions send them to me at: bnbaseballguy@gmail.com.
Class B rankings:
1. Shakopee
2. Sauk Rapids Cyclones (there’s a Class C Sauk Rapids Jimmy’s, too)
3. Mankato
4. Savage
5. Dundas
6. Cold Spring Springers (there’s a Class C Cold Spring Rockies also)
7. Miesville
8. Austin Greyhounds
9. Rochester Royals
10. Burnsville
Both the Cyclones and Springers appear to be improved this year. Sauk Rapids has Jeremiah Piepkorn back from the Fargo-Moorhead Redhawks and he brought along a friend, Matt Petrusek, a fine pitcher who once pitched for the St. Cloud River Bats of the Northwoods League.
The Springers have added Drew Anderson, a power-hitting first baseman/outfielder who played in AAA for the Milwaukee Brewers last year, and left-handed pitcher Ryan Morse. Morse was with the St. Paul Saints last year after five years in the Tampa Bay Rays organization, where he reached AA.
Besides those two, I think the Southern teams are stronger than anyone else north of Minneapolis. Tom Elliott
Tom has been covering amateur baseball for a long time. He even covered me in the early days. He was right about Fort Ripley, in Class C, as they won the Moorhead Tournament this weekend. I will try to keep ranking B teams one week and C teams the next. If you have suggestions send them to me at: bnbaseballguy@gmail.com.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Rankings for the Week of May 19
Here are my advisors and my picks for the top ten in Class B the week of May 19, 2011. Chad Wiesner of Rochester, Jamie Heipel of Blaine, Jim Buesgens and friends of Belle Plaine and yours truly all picked the top ten. If you have questions or comments feel free to contact me at bnbaseballguy@gmail.com:
Wiesner | Heipel | Buesgens | BNbaseballguy | ||
1 | Shakopee | Savage | Sauk Rapids | Sauk Rapids | |
2 | Sauk Rapids | Sauk Rapids | Shakopee | ||
3 | Cold Spring | Shakopee | Miesville | ||
4 | Savage | Shakopee | |||
5 | Savage | Savage | |||
6 | Cold Spring | Cold Spring | |||
7 | Miesville | ||||
8 | Cold Spring | ||||
9 | Miesville | Chaska | Red Wing | ||
10 | |||||
Jamie Heipel Notes:
Savage - been knocking for the last couple of years.
Sauk Rapids - They are team to beat in their Section
Cold Spring - Zach Femrite, best pitcher in the State, including MN Twins
Shakopee - Two Time Champ
Miesville - Best team in "B" last year, now prove it
Jim Buesgens Notes:
Sauk Rapids- looks like a few guys coming together for a run or 2
Shakopee- Very tough to 3 peat
Rochester- Always solid
Savage- More experienced after last years tourney
Mankato- MSU
Gaylord/Arlington Tournament
Bill Schulte called me and said that with Chisago Lakes
Speaking of Great Parks
Here is an article from the WCCO page that features great ball fields in Minnesota: Click here to see it.
Speaking of Great Parks
Here is an article from the WCCO page that features great ball fields in Minnesota: Click here to see it.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Saints top Central MN All-Stars
On a perfect Saturday afternoon, The St. Paul Saints had their hands full with the Central Minnesota All-Stars. It was a 2-0 game after six, but then the Saints got rolling scoring theee in the seventh, two in the eighth and one in the ninth for an 8-1 final score. Click here for Tom Elliott's story in the St. Cloud Times.
"It was great...great turnout, it had to be the best day of the Spring," said Steve Huls. "Based on our raffle tickets we had between 850 to 950 in attendance...we had a bunch of different give-aways, Erik Decker signed footballs and baseballs and cards, St. Paul Saints hats and Killebrew Rootbeer prizes."
"The Saints had a lot of good things to say and based on the fact that it was early (in the season) we were proud of the way our pitchers threw, they threw the heck out of the ball," continued Huls. "We didn't swing the bats like we wanted."
"I will tell you one little story" said Huls, "Femrite started the game and threw the first three innings. He struck out two in the first and the second hitter went back to the dugout and said, This guy's an Amateur? We better dial it up a notch."
"We appreciate the Saints coming up and tried to give them the best experience possible...maybe they will come back again sometime in the next five or six years."
On Sunday, the Springers were rained out and had to postpone their game for the second straight week in. Last week they had snow on the field and it was too cold to play. Huls, a University of Minnesota alum, said that he is back playing with the Springers this year. "I like our Springer's team now with some additions we made," he stated. He said that he will also spend some time with the over 35 Cold Spring team.
"It was great...great turnout, it had to be the best day of the Spring," said Steve Huls. "Based on our raffle tickets we had between 850 to 950 in attendance...we had a bunch of different give-aways, Erik Decker signed footballs and baseballs and cards, St. Paul Saints hats and Killebrew Rootbeer prizes."
"The Saints had a lot of good things to say and based on the fact that it was early (in the season) we were proud of the way our pitchers threw, they threw the heck out of the ball," continued Huls. "We didn't swing the bats like we wanted."
"I will tell you one little story" said Huls, "Femrite started the game and threw the first three innings. He struck out two in the first and the second hitter went back to the dugout and said, This guy's an Amateur? We better dial it up a notch."
"We appreciate the Saints coming up and tried to give them the best experience possible...maybe they will come back again sometime in the next five or six years."
On Sunday, the Springers were rained out and had to postpone their game for the second straight week in. Last week they had snow on the field and it was too cold to play. Huls, a University of Minnesota alum, said that he is back playing with the Springers this year. "I like our Springer's team now with some additions we made," he stated. He said that he will also spend some time with the over 35 Cold Spring team.
Friday, May 6, 2011
Rankings for Week of May 6, 2011
Not much has changed in the last week. Most of the scheduled games from last Saturday and Sunday were cancelled because of the poor weather. My rankings remain the same, but I have received some input from others around the area that show where I might be wrong or reinforces my original opinion. Here is a roundup of the St. Cloud area by Tom Elliott: http://www.sctimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011105010012. It makes me think that Sauk Rapids and Cold Spring might both be stronger than I thought.
Here is a ranking of Class B by Chad Wiesner of Rochester:
1. Shakopee Two time champ.
2. Sauk Rapids Unseated Cold Spring as top team
3. Mankato Twins Team is solid and each year they add an arm from MSU
4. Savage Good young talent, should keep getting better
5. Miesville Some losses on Roster, but has pitching depth
6. Cold Spring Femrite is still an ace, added some good players.
7. Dundas Pitching is their strong point with some good young hitters
8. Coon Rapids Solid team
9. Rochester Solid pitching and added a great bat, Young guys from Blues.
10. Austin Greyhounds Added depth from Blue sox.. Hitting is their strength.
Did I tell you that I never include Dundas in my ratings because I have been affiliated with them for over 35 years. No matter what I say, people naturally think that I have a bias toward them, so I just leave them out and let people decide for themselves if Dundas should be rated.
Jaime Heipel emailed and said that Blaine has as good a team as they have ever had. I know that he is gung ho and wants to play baseball. He has been a good addition to baseball in that area. Good luck to the Fusion.
My Class C rankings are still the same. I did receive three emails from Belle Plaine. They were all good. It is still too early to change things but I’ll keep monitoring games and rank accordingly. Most of the leagues are starting now and things will open up by the end of the month with tournaments all over the state. I will let you know next week about all of the tournaments that have been approved so far.
I have four Class C advisors lined up and Chad and I will work on Class B with input from Jamie.
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