This is one of my favorite blogs of the baseball season, and the first big post is here! Very detailed and makes me optimistic about this coming season. I especially liked the analysis of what provides the structural foundation of Corbin's success: Corbin Calculus.

quote:
Reportedly, Coach Corbin’s recruiting strategy involves keeping an idea of what number they would consider life-changing money, but not disclosing that number to MLB teams even after being drafted, so as to maintain maximum negotiating leverage. This was well exemplified by Tyler Beede and Jason Esposito in the past. Both reportedly held firm in the face of seven-figure offers from Toronto and Kansas City after being drafted highly. In each case, it is believed that last minute offers actually came close to the “magic” number the families were looking for, but that both stood firm with their commitment to Coach Corbin. The end result of this strategy is that a team will not draft a Vanderbilt signee highly unless they know or feel confident that they can sign them. This is one of the reasons guys like Sonny Gray were able to drop to the Cubs in the 20th Round of his high school draft year and fellow likely future Major Leaguer Curt Casali went undrafted despite being a top 60 prospect per Baseball America. Signability is also the main reason that draft selection spots are not the best gauge of actual talent, and yet, despite this fact which tends to depress the draft status of many Vanderbilt signees, Coach Corbin’s 2013 Commodores will include an NCAA-high 18 players who have been previously drafted.