Thursday Morning Brews: Midnight shift

Happy Thursday, folks. Welcome to Morning Brews. One of the things that I love about this time of year is leaving work in the evening when the sun is still sinking low, as opposed to leaving after dark. It means that spring is on its way, and with spring comes baseball and spring football practices. Baseball is one of the teams we check in with this morning, in addition to looking at some macro recruiting trends in football and a few other items.

As usual, there is a song referenced in this morning’s Brews. There are at least two clues this morning. Clues may be words, phrases, or photos and may reference lyrics, the artist, or the album on which the song appears. If you think you know today’s song, fire away down in the comments.

Let’s get to it:

Remember how one of the story lines about the resumption of the Michigan/Notre Dame rivalry this fall was that the all-time best winning percentage title crown was on the line? Well, not so much anymore. Michigan currently holds the crown with its .7291 mark, and Notre Dame was in second place with a .7288 winning percentage. After having 21 wins vacated from the 2012 and 2013 seasons they’re not in second place anymore, they’re in sixth with a .7123. There’s still plenty to play for on September 1st when this historic rivalry begins again, but a battle for the best winning percentage in college football is no longer on the table.

Our colleague over at the SB Nation mothership, Jason Kirk, did what one does in the depths of the offseason - he went to the sportswriting well and came up with an idea that turned out kinda cool. He aggregated the rankings from what he calls the ‘Rivals era’ or the age of internet recruiting rankings to see what teams have done best during this period. His data goes back to to 2002 and the top ten goes something like this: USC, Georgia, Florida State, Florida, LSU, Texas, Ohio State, Alabama, Oklahoma, and Michigan. In other recruiting analysis, Bill Connolly, who runs MnB’s favorite ranking system the S&P+, warns that recruiting might be getting top heavy again. For thought provoking recruiting content, I recommend giving both of these a read today.

Pitchers and catchers on Major League teams reported for workouts this week, and spring trips for college teams are getting underway as well. Michigan baseball has a new pitching coach this season, Chris Fetter, who is returning home to Ann Arbor by way of the L.A. Dodgers. Fetter graduated from Michigan in 2009 and spent four years in the Padres’ minors program before beginning coaching. Most recently, he coached pitchers in the Dodgers’ minors program. For more on the Wolverines’ new pitching coach, check out the profile above. Michigan opens its season with a three-game series against Army starting tomorrow.

The Kevin Conry era is underway for Michigan men’s lacrosse, and it’s off to a good start. The Wolverines have recorded two victories to open their season, a 15-5 victory over Cleveland State and a 9-7 victory over Bellarmine. The more formidable tests will now start in earnest though, as Michigan next travels to take on No. 18 Penn this Saturday. Michigan’s Big Ten schedule opens with Maryland on March 31st. There are seven non-conference games scheduled between now and then.

As I’ve highlighted in Brews before, the great video content put out by the athletic department that started during the football season has continued on with other sports. This morning we have a video commemorating hockey’s win and shootout win over Michigan State this past weekend.