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Recruiting TOO WELL in college baseball?
Posted on 5/10/15 at 5:38 pm
Posted on 5/10/15 at 5:38 pm
Was taking a look at the FanGraphs Top 100 Draft Rankings for the upcoming MLB Draft. Obviously it includes college and HS players but one thing that jumped out to me was the number of SEC commits listed.
Commits by School
Vanderbilt 6
Tennessee 4
Florida 4
Mississippi State 3
Kentucky 2
Texas A&M 2
Georgia 2
Alabama 1
South Carolina 1
Missouri 1
LSU 1
Arkansas 0
Auburn 0
Ole Miss 0
I know it seems like Vandy usually gets a fair share of their guys to campus, but most of the time the majority of these guys sign.
Tennessee is obviously perennially terrible at baseball and it seems like under Serrano we've consistently been losing signees to the draft.
I don't follow college baseball too closely outside of legit prospects, so my question is how common is it for coaches to consistently recruit too well? Serrano may be fired next year and it seems like he's never changed his recruiting philosophy. Every year he aims high and even when he signs these guys he never gets them on campus. Would he not be better off signing projectable guys who he can get to campus?
Commits by School
Vanderbilt 6
Tennessee 4
Florida 4
Mississippi State 3
Kentucky 2
Texas A&M 2
Georgia 2
Alabama 1
South Carolina 1
Missouri 1
LSU 1
Arkansas 0
Auburn 0
Ole Miss 0
I know it seems like Vandy usually gets a fair share of their guys to campus, but most of the time the majority of these guys sign.
Tennessee is obviously perennially terrible at baseball and it seems like under Serrano we've consistently been losing signees to the draft.
I don't follow college baseball too closely outside of legit prospects, so my question is how common is it for coaches to consistently recruit too well? Serrano may be fired next year and it seems like he's never changed his recruiting philosophy. Every year he aims high and even when he signs these guys he never gets them on campus. Would he not be better off signing projectable guys who he can get to campus?
This post was edited on 5/10/15 at 5:40 pm
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Posted on 5/10/15 at 5:53 pm to volfan30
quote:
Would he not be better off signing projectable guys who he can get to campus?
yes. sometimes it's easier said than done but the top rated guys pretty much use the colleges as Plan B. since there are less than 8 schollies for the entire baseball team it's better signing the guys projected to be drafted lower or not at all.
Posted on 5/10/15 at 5:55 pm to volfan30
It happens every year in college baseball to every major team. You effectively are recruiting against other schools in the SEC and the MLB.
In LSU's case Smoke Laval and Turtle Thomas's final seasons were marked by consecutive high ranking pre draft classes that "depended" on getting the high ranking prospects (let's say top 350 prospects).
There is nothing wrong with going after 2-3 kids who are on the fence between college or pro but in no way what so ever should these kids be counted on. You end up losing your job and looking bad when you don't recruit kids who are projectable but need to be coached up a year or two.
In Serrano's case it may be a hint a desperation to try to get an influx of talent immediately into the program with a little luck.
In LSU's case Smoke Laval and Turtle Thomas's final seasons were marked by consecutive high ranking pre draft classes that "depended" on getting the high ranking prospects (let's say top 350 prospects).
There is nothing wrong with going after 2-3 kids who are on the fence between college or pro but in no way what so ever should these kids be counted on. You end up losing your job and looking bad when you don't recruit kids who are projectable but need to be coached up a year or two.
In Serrano's case it may be a hint a desperation to try to get an influx of talent immediately into the program with a little luck.
Posted on 5/10/15 at 8:37 pm to volfan30
Believe it or not, this was UGA former coach, Dave Perno, biggest fault. Case in point, the current #1 overall prospect in MLB Byron Buxton. EVERYONE knew he would be a top 5 selection, but Perno recruited him balls to wall. In the end, he committed to UGA but it was obvious Perno should have spent time recruiting elsewhere. If I’m not mistaken he had 3 or 4 verbal commits drafted in the 1st or 2nd round in the 2012 draft. We all know the ending of this book, UGA baseball sucks arse
Posted on 5/10/15 at 9:33 pm to volfan30
I cannot remember when the last time SCAR did not have a Top Ten class .... but we usually lose a couple to MLB. Right now they have a Top Ten Class committed for this year and a Top Five class committed for next year .... we'll see.
I was glad to see a lot of the freshmen come alive this weekend. They actually lived up to their billing, as a class, this weekend.
I was glad to see a lot of the freshmen come alive this weekend. They actually lived up to their billing, as a class, this weekend.
Posted on 5/10/15 at 10:24 pm to scrooster
It has nothing to do with recruiting "too well", it's shitty recruiting because other coaches know they have ZERO chance of getting these kids to campus.
Posted on 5/10/15 at 10:44 pm to volfan30
I think it was the 2013 draft that really killed one of Bianco's classes at Ole Miss. There's a lot to consider for college baseball coaches when it comes to recruiting.
Posted on 5/10/15 at 10:47 pm to volfan30
What's nice is that slowly, but surely, more and more guys are foregoing the draft and going to college. For example, LSU struck gold recruiting Lange, Godfrey, Deichman, Latz, and even Mac marshall.
Recruiting too well in college baseball is what led to Smoke Laval's demise at LSU. We always had the best class pre-draft, but it got gutted every year, which eventually came to haunt us
Recruiting too well in college baseball is what led to Smoke Laval's demise at LSU. We always had the best class pre-draft, but it got gutted every year, which eventually came to haunt us
Posted on 5/11/15 at 6:19 am to tigerbait2010
Increase the scholarships to 12. Who would really pass being drafted for 500k to take a partial college scholarship?
Posted on 5/11/15 at 6:30 am to STUPIDFACE
Well, a lot of kids get free tuition as part of their contract when they sign with MLB teams. That's how so many former minor league baseball players are able to play college football. Teams don't have to spend a scholarship on them.
Posted on 5/11/15 at 7:59 am to Bench McElroy
Reputation also takes its toll on recruiting. The MLB draft has like 10,000 rounds so these scouts can't see everybody play. I think they rely on top college teams to do some of the footwork.
When Skip Bertman led LSU it wasn't uncommon to see recruits drafted several rounds higher than projected simply because of Bertman's reputation. Kids who likely would be drafted between rounds 12-16 were being selected in the top 10 rounds and decided to go pro.
It's the price you pay when you're consistently a top 10-15 program. You almost need to focus your efforts on the "next" level of players as many of the top 100 or so will never see the field in college.
When Skip Bertman led LSU it wasn't uncommon to see recruits drafted several rounds higher than projected simply because of Bertman's reputation. Kids who likely would be drafted between rounds 12-16 were being selected in the top 10 rounds and decided to go pro.
It's the price you pay when you're consistently a top 10-15 program. You almost need to focus your efforts on the "next" level of players as many of the top 100 or so will never see the field in college.
Posted on 5/11/15 at 8:04 am to volfan30
You can absolutely recruit 'too well' in college baseball. I was shocked 2hen we got Wil Crowe, who turned down a 7 figure signing bonus.
Posted on 5/11/15 at 9:57 am to CockInYourEar
quote:
You can absolutely recruit 'too well' in college baseball. I was shocked 2hen we got Wil Crowe, who turned down a 7 figure signing bonus.
But that wasn't recruiting "too well." That was simply excellent recruiting.
Posted on 5/11/15 at 10:00 am to scrooster
I think most coaches go after 1 or 2 on the off chance something happens and they wind up in school. But if you go after too many you run the risk of leaving your recruiting class pretty bare.
Posted on 5/11/15 at 10:00 am to barry
quote:
It has nothing to do with recruiting "too well", it's shitty recruiting because other coaches know they have ZERO chance of getting these kids to campus
That's ridiculous.
SCAR has signed and enrolled a ton of kids who had big signing bonuses offered yet they still wanted to play college ball.
I remember Drew Meyer had Tommy Lasorda visiting him the night before he enrolled at SCAR.
No one else recruited Drew because everyone thought he was going pro ... it was excellent recruiting on behalf of Tanner.
There have been many many others.
Recruiting in college baseball is a calculated risk.
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