My QB Has Moxie

Oregon State has been playing ‘eh’ baseball lately thanks to series losses to both UCLA and USC.  Despite last weekend’s series victory over high ranking Arizona State, OSU still has work to do to get into the NCAA tournament field.

The people at Baseball Prospectus are smarter than you (and probably me).  They list ASU as the only lock out of the Pac-10 to make the tournament with several teams, including OSU, on the bubble.  

Pac-10 Conference
In: Arizona State.
Bubble: Oregon State, Washington State, UCLA, Stanford, and USC.
This is the conference that is the most confused, and also the one without a conference tournament. Below is a table of the bubble teams, their remaining weekend opponents, and how Boyd Nation projects each must finish to land in the top 45 in RPI:

School            W-L   Remaining Series
Oregon State      6-5   @Wash, WSU, @Stan
Washington State  8-1   Oregon, @OSU, Wash
UCLA              8-3   Cal, Fullerton, @ASU
Stanford         12-1   NM, @USC, OSU
Southern Cal      9-1   @Northridge, Stan, Cal

Oregon State is close to a lock with those numbers, and one of the final four should get in. UCLA needed the least wins, but has the toughest schedule. I also like Washington State to squeeze into the final spot.

OSU close to a lock?  While I find that slightly reassuring, I am still worried about the OSU starting pitching.  The starting staff, particularly Tyler Waldron and Greg Peavy have not been good lately.  Waldron was even removed from the rotation last weekend against ASU.  Not that it matters when you are going up against a pitcher like Mike Leake.

At any rate, it looks like the Beavers probably need to win two or their final three series.  Heres to hoping the Pat Casey and OSU figure it out in time to ensure themselves a spot in the field of 64 (and hopefully make a run in the tournament).