You'll see Beechwood, Paintsville and LCA mentioned as smaller schools that made it far into the state play-offs. But these schools (particularly LCA) are atypical of the vast majority of small school programs.

 

Also I was by no means taking a shot at you, just using a statement you made as an example of "potential" bias that would acompany subjective seeding. Comparisons without head-to-head competition could not possibly take into account all the potential variables such as who pitched against whom, who played their regular nine and who didn't, who was coming off two days' rest, etc. etc.

Frankly, with a blind draw, all teams stand an even chance at the beginning of the draw. In no other method can you say that. Bias, opinion, exposure, all take away form the credibility of the subjective seeding process. In your statements alone, you concede that you feel the bigger schools are usually better and thusly your bias alone would color your ability to subjectively seed teams. By taking away those sentiments and drawing blindly, you at least start out even for every team.

 

Actually Lloyd has been traditionally a very strong baseball program over the past 30 to 40 years. Villa has produced a number of good teams over the years including a pretty fair squad last year. And, need I remind anyone of Ludlow's stunner over CovCath a couple years ago that knocked the Blue Colonels out of the Regional all together? In my mind, all seeding does is provide traditional powers an un-needed leg up on schools trying to build or compete with fewer students or lesser facilities. Solve the problem and classify the sport.

 

Bulldog, you are correct. What happens at tournament time, whether blind draw or seeding, is that you are at the mercy of the strong pitching staffs. You have to beat the best sometime. Villa was stuck in a 5 team district for 10 years (Holy Cross, CovCath, Beechwood and Dixie), then during the last realignment was another 5 team district (Dixie, Scott, Lloyd, and Beechwood). Given the potential pitcher or two that can come from the smaller schools like Beechwood, Ludlow, Lloyd, or even Villa, the 4 team district finally allows them to miss the potential play-in game. I know Lloyd has made some runs the last couple of years, especially with Drifmeyer. Bellevue had good success with Lenny Bays and Gullett several years ago. I would take any of the Ludlow pitchers the last 5 years on my staff anytime. Beechwood speaks for itself. And honestly, going back the last several years, according to the KHSAA website, Villa won the 34th district last year, lost to Scott 2-1 in 2005, to Lloyd 9-4 in 2004, and to Scott 6-5 in 2003. You are only as good as the next pitcher you face.

You'll see Beechwood, Paintsville and LCA mentioned as smaller schools that made it far into the state play-offs. But these schools (particularly LCA) are atypical of the vast majority of small school programs.

 

Also I was by no means taking a shot at you, just using a statement you made as an example of "potential" bias that would acompany subjective seeding. Comparisons without head-to-head competition could not possibly take into account all the potential variables such as who pitched against whom, who played their regular nine and who didn't, who was coming off two days' rest, etc. etc.

 

Didn't take it as a shot.

 

But even with head-to-head competition, you still have the exact same variables in place. Teams' busy schedules don't always allow you to pitch your ace or #2; sometimes you play an opponent that's well-rested and sometimes it is your team that is well-rested; and on and on.

 

So then let me ask this: Why not just take all the teams in the four districts, lump them all together at the onset of tourney play, do a blind draw and let them go at it?

A part of the reasoning behind District play is location. Trying to reduce the amount of travel early in the all-team tournament is the goal here. Understand that our region is fairly compact, however a region like the 10th has some schools as far as 2 to 2 1/2 hours apart. Add into the mix the cost of gasoline today and there is your answer.