ACC Elo Ratings, Week 1
A weekly update on the conference: Louisville is off to a strong start, among other things.
During the abbreviated season last year, I had a brief series that served as a weekly check-in on where Boston College baseball stood in relation to the rest of the conference in Elo rating. I’m bringing that back and it’ll likely run Wednesday mornings moving forward.
For those not familiar: Elo ratings originated in chess and have been transplanted to other sports as a “measure of team strength based on head-to-head results, margin of victory and quality of opponent,” per FiveThirtyEight. Basically, the ratings are centered around 1500 (average) and teams go up and down with each matchup based on both the quality of opponent and how close the game was.
ACC Elo Ratings
All stats as of Wednesday, Feb. 24 at 1 p.m.
Quick Hits
Rankings, then notes on three teams.
Rankings update! Decided to include where the ACC teams fall in the three major rankings—D1Baseball.com, Baseball America, and the NCBWA (National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association). Right now, seven teams rank in the Top 25 of each three major polls, while an eighth (Wake Forest) appears in two of them. Louisville and Miami are consensus top-10 teams, while Virginia is all over the place—the Cavaliers are second in BA, but outside the top 10 in the other two.
Miami took two of three from preseason No. 1 Florida, dropping the opener and then winning back-to-back close games (including a 13-inning affair). Hurricanes’ outfielder Christian Del Castillo, a transfer from Seton Hall, earned Co-ACC Player of the Week honors after reaching base seven times and driving in six runs.
Louisville is off to a perfect 4-0 start and has four more games before entering conference play. Cardinals catcher Henry Davis is off to a torrid start at the plate unsurprisingly—he’s 6-for-12 with two home runs, three walks, and eight RBIs. Pair that with outfielder Cameron Masterman hitting a home run in each game against Bellarmine and you’ve got a weekend sweep by a combined scoreline of 26-5.
North Carolina joined the Cardinals in starting the year 4-0, sweeping James Madison and beating Elon ahead of a big weekend series against Virginia. The Tar Heels—under first-year coach Scott Forbes—were pegged to finish fifth in the Coastal by the conference’s coaches. Pitching has been the key so far as they’ve allowed just five earned runs in 36 innings while striking out 50 and walking 11. Austin Love earned ACC Pitcher of the Week honors after six no-hit innings with nine strikeouts and two walks.
Featured Images Courtesy of Athletic Departments.