I can’t for the life of me understand how we can’t sign a ton of quality transfers. We should not lose these except to a few teams.
1. NC
2. Tradition
3. Extreme support
1. NC
2. Tradition
3. Extreme support
Baseball transfers
- Thread starter Bagman.sixpack
- Start date
Lot of good programs out there. Plus scholarship money and NIL issues in addition to intangibles (kid may want to be closer to home which is on the west coast). Its crazy to think we can just pluck whoever we want which is why this wont get fixed with the portal. And I’m not sure using the portal in large numbers is a sustainable path for the future unless we start getting more guys with more than a year of eligibility.
Now I'm wondering if his family knew Jerry Clower... **
[FONT="]Im happy to announce I am going to be transferring to Mississippi State in the fall to further my academic and athletic career. I cant thank Samford and all of my coaches and teammates enough. Go Bulldogs! @HailStateBB pic.twitter.com/MCc21PKFlc— Colton Ledbetter (@ColtonLedbette9) June 8, 2022
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Who says we won't? It's only been 2 weeks since the end of our season, 1 week since the conference tournament, there were still 64 teams playing 3 days ago and still 16 now. Did you expect 8 announcements right away? Before anything can be announced paperwork has to be filed w/ ncaa, transcripts sent from old school to new school and said paperwork reviewed by new school before transfer can be considered. Chiiiiiiiiiiilllllllllll
Player A:
1.076 OPS
19 doubles
5 triples
11 HR’s
65 RBI’s
Player B:
1.057 OPS
15 doubles
1 triple
18 HR’s
56 RBI’s
1.076 OPS
19 doubles
5 triples
11 HR’s
65 RBI’s
Player B:
1.057 OPS
15 doubles
1 triple
18 HR’s
56 RBI’s
Player A is SEC player of the year Tanner Allen in 2021. Player B is RJ Yeager in 2022. I’d say we’re doing just fine at bringing in quality transfers.
I imagine that is better numbers than the any of the guys that have left. NIL has created a whole new world in which we are going to have to recruit year-round as heavily as we can. It almost would call for one or two guys to do this full-time just watching numbers on players on other teams that might come our way.
You’re acting like there are like 50 All-SEC caliber players just hanging out in the transfer portal. How many out there do you think can really play at this level?
And also, players in the portal and in general don’t give two ***** about playing in a pretty venue with condos in the outfield. Its a nice perk, but not a deal-closer for recruits. They just want to play, and will go where they have a spot. We are a premier program with premier facilities in a conference full of premier programs with premier facilities. In a few years, we’ll be in a league with LSU, Florida, Texas, Arkansas, South Carolina, Vanderbilt, Ole Miss, and now Tennessee who is a top program. Every one of those programs has been to Omaha in the past 10 years, most have multiple trips. All but OM and Tennessee have either a natty or runner-up finish (or both) in the past 15 years, and OM has a final 4 finish. Then you have A&M and Oklahoma on the up and up as well, with UGA and Auburn being really good from time to time.
Simply put, we aren’t head and shoulders above any of those programs. We’re a big fish in a pond full of big fish. We’ll land solid recruits and transfers when we need them, but everyone else in our league is going to be able to do the same thing.
I don’t have that data, but player A only had 9 more RBI’s than Player B in 15 more games played. So I’d venture a guess that Player B held his own in that department.
We do still have some significant pitching needs to address but I’m confident we’re not done bringing in transfers. Gartman (Memphis transfer) should be a contributor for us next year. Could probably use another outfielder and a catcher as well (unless Hancock comes back). I think we’re in the mix for the catcher from Air Force that’s also a pretty good pitcher, though he’s being pursued by some other big schools too.
Supposedly we have a pretty good chance of getting 3-4 Top 100 freshmen to campus so that should help as well.
Supposedly we have a pretty good chance of getting 3-4 Top 100 freshmen to campus so that should help as well.
We didn’t have much playing time offer anyone. Kids don’t want to go have to win a job. Plus our offensive production in conference wasn’t far off last year. 7 fewer runs.
We should have brought in a pitcher or two but again it didn’t look like we had many innings to offer. This year is much different.
We should have brought in a pitcher or two but again it didn’t look like we had many innings to offer. This year is much different.
Yeah when you’re transfer shopping in summer 2021 you can’t exactly foresee all the pitching injuries that were on the horizon in March and April 2022.
My concern/ question has been - what was the plan for pitching in 2023 anyway? Had we had guys throw like we hoped and stay healthy it was very possible 2023 only returned the following that threw in 2022- Cade, Pico, Auger, Tepper, And Walker. And Pico, Auger and Walker throw far fewer innings in 22. Seems like we should have brought in more arms in the class of 21. You can just never have enough.
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I don't think they will, but if Ole Miss fires Bianco and players are looking to transfer, Hunter Elliott is getting a call. No idea if we would transfer because of a coaching change, but he looks like Nikhazy part II.
CF was a huge need. SS was a need. We failed with our transfers at one and didn't go get the other. We had depth issues pitching wise too.
Its just not that easy. We had 2 glaring positions of need and filled one with the best portal player of the year. And no one is gonna come have to battle the kid who started at SS for the cws champs.
We had depth issues bc of injuries and Walling. We literally started the year thinking we may have 4-5 weekend guys. Again. Guys aren’t going somewhere to fight for time. And everyone wants them all. Dollander visited Ark and TX Tech. TN had all 3 weekend spots open.
I reiterate. Its just not feasible to go to the portal every year for every position of need. Or to rebuild a roster.
We had depth issues bc of injuries and Walling. We literally started the year thinking we may have 4-5 weekend guys. Again. Guys aren’t going somewhere to fight for time. And everyone wants them all. Dollander visited Ark and TX Tech. TN had all 3 weekend spots open.
I reiterate. Its just not feasible to go to the portal every year for every position of need. Or to rebuild a roster.
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SS was a need? Pretty sure we got exactly what we needed at SS from Forsythe this season.
At CF we got a guy who could play defense, steal bases, and hit .255ish, which was enough for the lineup we had, and about all we could have asked for. There may have been 1 or 2 better CF’s than Jess Davis in the portal, but I don’t know who they were.
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Definitely should have brought in more, but 2021 class had some bad luck with pitchers. Signed 6 pitchers. Bruns gets drafted in the first round so he’s out. Pico Kohn looks generally legit. Walker wasn’t ready to contribute right away. Jackson Conn never even made it to campus….wound up at NECC. Haines and Montiel were nonfactors and entered the portal. So out of 6 guys we have 1, maybe 2 who will factor in at all and even still be on the roster as sophomores.
As much as it sucks to say, 2023 is setting up to possibly be the same type of year that 2015 was after our 2013 run. This year should have been more like our 2014 year, but injuries made that impossible. Its not yet as dire as 2015 was necessarily because there was no portal then, but there is a challenge ahead of us. I’m looking to 2024 as the year we may return to elite status as these roster kinks get worked out. I’d be absolutely thrilled with any sort of regional appearance next year. If we can somehow get 2 out of 3 between Loftin / Holcombe slipping through the draft and/or Preston Johnson coming back, we may be OK.
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I think that's the biggest failure of the staff. It's either a development issue or an evaluation issue. But obviously we were extremely thin on the pitching staff. If having all these big arms that can't throw strikes is going to keep us from being competitive for transfer pitchers, that's another reason to shy away from the Waller/Cerantola type projects because you hope you'll be able to teach them to throw strikes.
This is an ignorant question, but how do transfers from service academies work? I thought they had commitments to fulfill?
Good question. Service academy students do not have to commit until after their sophomore year, as I understand it.
If you leave or are separated (expelled) any time before the start of your junior year, you’re under no obligation.
Yep I think the days of taking the project pitchers with 'tools' is over. Same with Mikey Tepper. I really think those type guys are better off just going in the draft out of high school, because in general, college pitching coaches aren't much for development. In all honesty, college in general isn't good for development. You have to win. But you have a better shot at getting those reps as a hitter than a pitcher. At least at the SEC level. Maybe you can do that at Samford or Ga Southern, and just hope they develop.
Most all those guys could have signed early too. Brandon Woodruff is another. Tepper just got screwed by the short draft. Cerantola was drafted out of high school. Waller was on the radar. Evan Mitchell was another, can't remember if he was actually drafted or not.
If I have any complaints about this staff, it's Foxhall. But he's really no different than other pitching coaches. They are up there wanting to call pitches and what not, he's kind of opposite of Lemonis' approach of trying to get them playing best at the end of the season, by moving guys around early and seeing what happens.
You can look at it all over the country. If you have the opportunity to go out of high school as a pitcher, you do it. I bet Kumar Rocker and Gunner Hoglund would agree. It's just not worth it if you're a known commodity. And college coaches will absolutely abuse their best arms.
Well for one thing, I think even the best of the best recruiters in college baseball probably miss on about 50% of pitchers. It’s the nature of the beast when you’re jockeying to get 9th and 10th graders to commit and lock in their spot, and then you’re just hoping in most cases that they continue to develop like you think they will. There’s just a ton that can go wrong between ages 15 and 19 at that position. You project a kid who’s throwing mid-upper 80’s as an underclassmen will be low to mid 90’s as a senior….and he just stops growing or mechanics don’t allow for it. Or an injury. Or control issues. So much can go wrong and that’s why its so much harder to project pitchers than hitters, unless they are the elite draft risk types.
In our case with the 2021 class and 2023 staff, it also shouldn’t be the 2021 class that we are relying on next season. The 2019-20 high school classes will be juniors and seniors next year. Those are Cannizarro classes for all but the JUCO’s and transfers. We are literally left with 2 high school pitchers from those two classes put together - Cade Smith and KC Hunt. That’s it. Loaded with offensive talent from those years, but you see the cost of that imbalance. It’s also pretty telling that even though we lost Bruns, the staff still saw fit to shoo Conn off to JUCO. The obvious implication is that we didn’t even have room to bring in more than 4 guys.
I get this thought process, but I'll counter with a couple of things:
- 2020 was really supposed to be the 'up' year, with Allen/Jordan/Foscue/Westburg/Hatcher as juniors. So 2021 was more of the 2014, but better because of Allen/Jordan returning via the short draft.
- Since 2022 went ahead and fell apart, Lemonis won't just let it coast into 2023 like we did from 2014-2015, i.e. he's going out and getting the impact transfers now. When I say coast I'm not saying Cohen was lazy, I'm saying that it was obvious there was an issue after 2015 so he went and got Kruger and Lowe and Rigby, etc.
All that to say, I'm hopeful 2023 returns us to prominence. I'm not worried about the lineup at all, with the new additions, and considering that our hitting was generally fine. Pitching wise, geez, we literally only have Hunt, Fristoe, Cheatham, Cade Smith and Kohn. And the Memphis guy. Who knows if Brandon Smith and Johnson come back, I kinda wish they would, just to have some strike throwers.
But you do have to pay for the first two year's tuition don't you? Or am I wrong about that?
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