Soil Compilation

Music
The Fruit Bats and Matthew Logan Vasquez Raise The Crowd

By

Article by Myles Ackman and Kade Grierson | Cover Photo by Cat Dooley For the first time in fifteen years, Fruit Bats returned to Iowa City on October 21 for a performance at The Englert Theatre, with support from Matthew Logan Vasquez. “Iowa City was the first place I ever traveled far to, and I thought, ‘this place resembles freedom,’” – Fruit Bats and permanent member Eric D. Johnson. The three of us—Elle, Myles, and Kade—were the youngest people in the audience by far, and sat near the front on the edge of a sea of double denim, floral shirts, … Continued

Online Content
Rob Sand and Zach Lahn Go Head-to-Head One Final Time Ahead of the Iowa Gubernatorial Election

By

With the midterms just one week away, Iowa Gubernatorial candidates Rob Sand (D) and Zach Lahn (R) went face-to-face in their third debate of the season. Both candidates are competing to replace Gov. Kim Reynolds, who chose not to run for reelection after nine years. As Sand and Zahn settled into their podiums ahead of the debate, both were given one minute to provide their opening remarks. Sand, who has heavily emphasized cross-partisan viewpoints through his campaign, did just that to kick off the evening debate. “There are a lot of people in leadership in both the democratic and republican … Continued

Sports
In Defense of Not Watching

By

To watch or not to watch? Ryan Paris recaps his experience taking in Iowa’s devastating loss from the Minnesota student section.

News
 Miller-Meeks and Bohannan Face Off in One Final Push Ahead of Iowa Elections

By

Former state representative Christina Bohannan (D) and U.S. Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R) met at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa, on October 20 for Iowa’s First Congressional District debate. Both candidates discussed issues weighing on Iowans’ minds, including agriculture, healthcare, and the economy. Once opening statements concluded, Bohannan and Miller-Meeks were questioned on what immediate actions they would take to lower the cost of living for Iowans. Miller-Meeks voted for no tax on tips or overtime back in May of 2025, when she voted in favor of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. In reference to lowering the cost of … Continued

Sports
Robert Frey

Determining Cards’ Pitching Attack By Quality of Contact

By

Based upon my last article, I feel the Cardinals could make a strong approach to the “modern bullpen approach”. In this article, I will discuss the difference between players who will pitch to start an inning, and the players who will pitch when there are runners on base, based upon quality of contact. Thanks to the people at Statcast, there is a measure for this, called expected weighted on base average(xwOBA). xwOBA measures the wOBA of a given player, along with their exit velocity and launch angle, giving more points to players who make outs, but hit the ball hard … Continued

Keep reading...

High Strikeout Batters Can Still Provide Value

By

A hitter striking out a lot means the hitter is not a good hitter right? Well, it depends on what one is evaluating on a given hitter. I used to think that strikeouts greatly affected my judgement on a player. I would generally look at walk-to-strikeout ratios as a basis of determining how effective the player was at hitting. Not putting the ball in play does nothing to help a team win. My thinking differed slightly when MLB.com’s Mike Petriello mentioned on Friday’s show of “MLB Now” on MLB Network that strikeouts are not that important anymore. There may be something … Continued

Keep reading...

Schaumburg Boomers: Frontier League Champions

By

The longest running independent baseball league is the Frontier League, and its 25th season concluded Saturday. The Schaumburg Boomers(66-30) became the first team in the Frontier League to garner its third title(2013,2014). They defeated the opposing Florence Freedom(61-35) in four games in a best-of-five series that began Tuesday. Many in the industry had expected Schaumburg to win it all with excellent hitting and pitching. In fact, Schaumburg was second in the Frontier League in Weighted On-Base Average(wOBA) with a .345 clip, 21 points above league average. Also, Schaumburg was first in the league in Opponent’s wOBA allowing only a .300 … Continued

Keep reading...

OPS+, wOBA, FIP-, and ERA- leaders in the Big Ten Conference

By

For the first part of this article, to learn about Park Factors, OPS+, and FIP-, click here. Digging into the park factors, other than Penn State, there were no large changes that caused a park to go from a pitcher’s park to a hitter’s park and vice versa. They went from a 97 park factor(slight pitcher’s park) to a 116 park factor(hitter-friendly). Nebraska is no longer the most hitter-friendly park and Purdue remains as an extreme pitcher’s park with a 63 park factor rating. There are seven teams who have a pitcher-friendly park and six teams who have a hitter-friendly … Continued

Keep reading...

Introducing OPS+ and FIP- in the Big Ten

By

NCAA Baseball can have sabermetrics, too. The “sabermetric revolution”, or the application of using objective methodology to determine and understand player performances, is swirling all around Major League Baseball. Statistics such as  On-Base Plus Slugging Plus(OPS+) for hitters and Fielding Independent Pitching Minus(FIP-) with pitchers, among many more sabermetrics. All these unique stats determining player performance are great ways to understand the game of baseball from a unique perspective. The MLB and everyone working with it/alongside it make these stats easily available. I thought to myself, why not do some digging and research to have these metrics present in NCAA … Continued

Keep reading...

The Continued Importance of Jackie Robinson Day and His Legacy

By

Your legacy lives on, Jackie. April 15th, 2017 marks the 70th year in which Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier, becoming the first African-American player in the game. In 1997, the MLB officially retired number forty-two. Since 2009, Major League Baseball has praised Jackie for his efforts, declaring April 15th Jackie Robinson Day, in which all players will wear the number forty-two in his honor. Why is he so important in the baseball culture? Well, aside from his talents to become the first African-American player in the MLB, he also resembled a person with great character as well as … Continued

Keep reading...

The World Baseball Classic Was Much More Than Excitement

By

USA! USA! USA! Team USA can finally scream “We Are the Champions” after high expectations to win the World Baseball Classic. It did not come easy though, as Team USA had to beat highly-skilled opponents in the Dominican Republic, Japan, and WBC runner-up Puerto Rico in consecutive games. Team USA was aided greatly by their starting pitching, going 3-1 with a 1.25 ERA in the tournament. Puerto Rico did not stand a chance against Marcus Stroman, who no-hit them through 6 innings. Some key hitters for Team USA were Brandon Crawford and Eric Hosmer, who both had an OPS over a … Continued

Keep reading...

High Intensity Baseball Comes in March

By

Time to get excited, because the World Baseball Classic is back in action. Many stars from the MLB are committing to their respective countries or heritages, as this may be the most profiled World Baseball Classic to date. Some stars include Manny Machado of the Baltimore Orioles (Dominican Republic), Jose Altuve of the Houston Astros (Venezuela), Adrian Gonzalez of the Los Angeles Dodgers (Mexico), and Nolan Arenado of the Colorado Rockies (USA). While most are excited that baseball is back and would rather wait for the MLB season to start, hear me out. The World Baseball Classic is a great … Continued

Keep reading...