Today we continue our March Madness coverage with the results of the West Regional. Yesterday we covered the East.
As a reminder of the format, each school’s best MLB player, based on WAR*, will represent them in Round 1, their second-best in Round 2, and so on. Whichever school’s player had the higher career WAR score wins.
(*Note: Yes, I recognize that WAR is not intended to be an absolute measure of a player’s career value, and that there are multiple versions of WAR. But we needed a stat that both hitters and pitchers had and was also readily available. Plus, we’re just having fun here.)
WEST - Round 1
1 North Carolina vs. 16 Wagner: Sadly for the Seahawks, only five players from Wagner have reach the big leagues. Easily the best was Curt Blefary, one-time Rookie of the Year for the Orioles. I hope he was happy with his World Series ring from 1966, because he won’t be getting another title. He was blitzed by the Tar Heels’ Kyle Seager, 36.9 to 11.1, in the first round.
8 Mississippi State vs. 9 Michigan State: Wow, what a juggernaut matchup in Round 1. If this was a series instead of single-elimination, the Bulldogs would have advanced given their much deeper lineup with Will Clark, Buddy Myer, and Del Unser. But their top man, Rafael Palmeiro (71.9 WAR), just happened to run into Hall of Famer Robin Roberts of the Spartans. Roberts’ 86.1 WAR was too much for him.
5 Saint Mary’s vs. 12 Grand Canyon: With very few alums making the big leagues, GCU still had a puncher’s chance of getting out of Round 1 with former Antelope Tim Salmon and his 40.5 WAR representing them. Unfortunately, Saint Mary’s has a sneaky-deep roster of major leaguers, included Hall of Famer Harry Hooper (53.6 WAR), so they advance.
4 Alabama vs. 13 Charleston: Not unlike Grand Canyon, Charleston had a shot because former Yankee Brett Gardner had been a Cougar once upon a time. And, also not unlike Grand Canyon, it didn’t do them any good because Alabama had Hall of Famer Joe Sewell leading off for them, leading Bama to a 54.7 to 44.3 victory. Roll Tide.
6 Clemson vs. 11 New Mexico: The Tigers’ Jimmy Key brings a strong 48.9 career WAR to their opening round match against the Lobos, overpowering poor Mitch Garver (9.8), who hasn’t put in enough time to come anywhere close to that.
3 Baylor vs. 14 Colgate: The Bears don’t have great depth. Quite a few Baylor alums have reached the majors, but their top contributors are surprisingly weak. Still, they have Hall of Fame pitcher Ted Lyons representing them in Round 1, and his 70.6 WAR obliterated Colgate’s poor Bill Hunnefield (1.8 WAR) in the most lopsided victory of the first round.
7 Dayton vs. 10 Nevada: The Wolfpack are living right. Their best player, Lyle Overbay, had just 16.5 WAR in his career, so it looks like they should be heading home. Lucky for them, Dayton has a surprisingly thin group of major league alums. Pitcher and former Flyer Craig Stammen could bring just 10.0 WAR to the matchup, allowing the lucky Wolfpack to move on.
2 Arizona vs. 15 Long Beach State: Boy, this was a battle. Long Beach has a deep roster of major leaguers, including Troy Tuolwitzki, Jason Giambi and Jered Weaver. Their top man is Evan Longoria at 58.6 WAR. Sadly for them, Arizona has some pretty salty alums as well, including Kenny Lofton and his 68.4 WAR that sends the Wildcats to Round 2.
WEST - Round 2
1 North Carolina vs. 9 Michigan State: This one came down to the wire. The top-seeded Tar Heels sent B.J. Surhoff to represent them, and he posted a strong 34.4 WAR. In response, the Spartans sent a guy who mostly thought of himself as a football player, Kirk Gibson. The 1988 NL MVP and World Series hero barely nudged out Surhoff by four points, 38.4 to 34.4, to take Sparty into the Sweet Sixteen. That’s our second #1 seed to be knocked out.
4 Alabama vs. 5 Saint Mary’s: The Gaels had a strong team, with Duffy Lewis, Ed Morris, Von Hayes, and Dutch Leonard, among others. They had Tom Candiotti’s knuckleball and 41.1 WAR in Round 2, but Bama was just a bit better. Del Pratt, durable second baseman for several American League teams during the Dead Ball Era, barely outpointed Candiotti with his 45.6 WAR to advance the Crimson Tide.
3 Baylor vs. 6 Clemson: Like I said in the first round, Baylor has a surprisingly thin top of their MLB alumni. After Lyons, their next-best player is Max Muncy. If this was the 2025 Tournament instead of 2024, with an extra year of WAR accumulated on his total, he might have come out on top, but Clemson’s Billy O’Dell barely had enough, beating Muncy 21.8 to 20.0 in our closest game yet.
2 Arizona vs. 10 Nevada: Nevada was lucky to get out of Round 1, advancing only because Dayton put up no fight at all. Chris Singleton and his 9.7 WAR were no match for Hall of Famer Trevor Hoffman, who sent the Wolfpack packing with his 28.0 WAR. Hell’s Bells indeed.
WEST - Sweet Sixteen
4 Alabama vs 9 Michigan State: The Crimson Tide were the higher seed, and had the underrated Riggs Stephenson’s 32.8 WAR on their side, but Michigan State had Steve Garvey, all 38.0 WAR of him, sending Bama home and advancing the Spartans to the Regional Final.
2 Arizona vs 6 Clemson: The Wildcats have a pretty deep bench. No one is in the same zip code as Kenny Lofton, but they could still trot out Scott Erickson in the Sweet Sixteen, which was more than enough to send Zona to the Elite Eight with a 24.8 to 12.0 victory over Clemson’s overmatched Denny Walling.
WEST - Regional Final
2 Arizona vs. 9 Michigan State: Mark Mulder didn’t lose many games at Michigan State, or in the big leagues with the A’s and Cardinals. Injuries finally caught up with him, but the two-time All-Star, and near Cy Young recipient, posted a solid 20.0 career WAR despite being done as an effective starter when he was just twenty-seven.
Unfortunately for him, little 5’8” Milt Stock, scrappy third baseman for several National League teams and five-time .300 hitter, represented his Arizona Wildcats with pride. In a back-and-forth battle, Stock’s 22.9 WAR barely edged out Mulder, sending the Spartans packing and the Wildcats into the Final Four where the Aztecs of San Diego State are waiting for them.
Tomorrow, the South Regional.
For those reading the email version, apologies for inadvertently identifying this as the South Regional instead of the West Regional. I've corrected it in the main post, but not until after the email was already sent.