Class C Rankings--June 10, 2011

Class C Rankings—June10, 2011

	Johnson	Buesgens	Elliott	Bnbaseballguy
1	Fort Ripley	Midway	Green Isle	Howard Lake
2	Milroy	Fort Ripley	Ultimate SB & Snappers	Fort Ripley
3	Sacred Heart	Howard Lake	Loretto	Blue Earth
4	Fairmont	Sacred Heart	Watkins	Dassel-Cokato
5	Blue Earth	Raymond	Fort Ripley	Milroy
6	Nisswa	Loretto	Winsted	Sacred Heart
7	Midway	Milroy	Milroy	Nisswa
8	Dassel-Cokato	Dassel-Cokato	Blue Earth	Sartell
9	Howard Lake	Lastrup	Sartell	Loretto
10	Loretto	Fergus Falls	Spring Hill	Midway

                                        Spring Hill                                                 Belle Plaine

Andy Johnson’s Notes: New to my rankings: Fairmont, Nisswa, Loretto

Dropped from my rankings: Raymond, Lastrup, Winsted

On my radar: Isanti, Green Isle

These are Tom Elliott’s notes:

1). Green Isle. The Irish are 10-0, have a great tradition, and were even a good 'B' team when they did that.

2). Ultimate Sports Bar & Grill Snappers of Waite Park. They are 11-1 and are playing well. They have a deep pitching staff and might be the best Class C team in the St. Cloud area.

3). Loretto Larks. Loretto is 7-0 in the North Star League. That's good enough for me.

4). Watkins. The Clippers look like the best team in the Central Valley League after knocking off a very good Kimball team over the weekend.

5). Fort Ripley. The Rebels are still unbeaten in the 19-team Victory League.

6). Winsted. They are 5-1 and I think one of the best teams in the state.

7). Milroy. The Yankees won the Stearns County Challenge, beating Sobieski of the Victory League in the championship game.

8). Blue Earth. They are 7-2 and like Winsted, I think they are always one of the top teams in the state.

9). Sartell Muskies. Sartell is 8-4 and can beat any Class C team in the state with David Deminsky on the mound.

10). Spring Hill. Spring Hill has one loss and might be the team to beat in the Stearns County League.

I don't pretend to be all-knowing on these rankings. I know our area leagues well enough -- Lakewood, Central Valley, Stearns County and Central Valley. It's the rest of the state that's pretty hard to know about.

Bnbaseballguy’s Notes:  This is getting interesting.  Nisswa, a new member of the Victory League this year, is starting to get some notice around the state. Belle Plaine is a legitimate contender, beating Winsted by the ten run rule and Green Isle by one in the TigerTown Classic.  Midway has been beaten a few times but they are playing a good schedule and have already been in a few tournaments.  I ranked Howard Lake one because they have been so consistent over the years.  I still think one of the best State Tournament moments came in 2008 at Shakopee when announcer Dick Jonckowski asked the “parents of the Orphans to please stand.”

I know that Loretto is 8-0 and they also have the Mayor of Loretto, Kent Koch, playing for them, but I’m not convinced that they will win the head to head meeting.  That meeting will take place tonight, June 12 at 6:00 P.M. @ Howard Lake. 

Also tonight Cold Spring will play Sauk Rapids at 7:30 P.M. in Cold Spring. 

Rankings for B--June 6, 2011

Here are our Class B rankings for the week:

Class B Rankings—6-6-11

Heipel                                   Wiesner                               Bnbaseballguy

1)Sauk Rapids                     Shakopee                            Sauk Rapids       

2)Dundas                            Sauk Rapids                        Shakopee

3)Coon Rapids                    Cold Spring                         Savage

4)Cold Spring                      Dundas                               Cold Spring

5)Savage                             Savage                                Coon Rapids

6)Shakopee                        Mankato                              Mankato

7)Rochester                       Miesville                              Rochester

8)Miesville                        Coon Rapids                         Hastings

9)Burnsville                       Blaine                                   Chaska 

10)Red Wing                     Red Wing                             Miesville

Heipel’s notes:  Coon Rapids beat both Minnetonka and Shakopee on the road in one week. 

Bnbaseballguy’s notes:  Cold Spring is 8-1 and they are 5-0 along with Sauk Rapids 5-0 in the Lakewood League.  Chaska had a good week beating Shakopee.  They also spit with Jordan—Watch out for Jordan—they finished second in the Moorhead tournament and won the New Prague Tournament.  Shakopee beat Miesville over the weekend 7-5 and is playing a tough schedule.  Rochester seems like a much improved team over last year’s squad.  They have added Buzz Hannahan.  Josh Conley no-hit Minnetonka over the first six innings in the Dundas tournament. 

Class C Rankings--May 31, 2011

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.

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. 

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	Dundas	Shakopee
3	Mankato	Cold Spring	Shakopee	Miesville
4	Savage	Shakopee	Rochester	Austin
5	Dundas	Coon Rapids	Savage	Savage
6	Cold Spring	Rochester	Burnsville	Cold Spring
7	Miesville	Dundas	Mankato	Coon Rapids
8	Blaine	Hastings	Cold Spring	Mankato
9	Coon Rapids	Miesville	Chaska	Red Wing
10	Austin Hounds	Austin Hounds	Hastings	Moorhead Brewers

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

Coon Rapids - Outstanding Coach and fundamentally sound.

Rochester - First hand knowledge, they will be good

Dundas - Pitching, Pitching, Pitching

Hastings - Added some nice players to the mix

Miesville - Best team in "B" last year, now prove it

Austin Hounds - Two teams fold now as one

Jim Buesgens Notes:

Sauk Rapids- looks like a few guys coming together for a run or 2

Dundas- Some impressive early wins

Shakopee- Very tough to 3 peat

Rochester- Always solid

Savage- More experienced after last years tourney

Burnsville- Looked good in tourney last year

Mankato-  MSU

Gaylord/Arlington Tournament

Bill Schulte called me and said that with Chisago Lakes folding they are in need of one more team for their Miller High Life Tournament.  The dates are July 7-10. Contact info for interested teams is 507-381-1884 or email him at billschulte33@hotmail.com.  Two great parks to play in. 

Speaking of Great Parks
Here is an article from the WCCO page that features great ball fields in Minnesota: Click here to see it.

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. 

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.