Does anyone have a sense for how good Penn State Baseball is going to be this year?
- Thread starter OldFrog26
- Start date
Trivia question. How many BigTen schools have a baseball team?
Answer: 13.
Question: Which one discontinued their baseball program in 1991?
Answer: Wisconsin.
"Penn State may profit by their example. If this be trolling, make the most of it." (Awakening my inner Patrick Henry)
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Both Penn State baseball and softball have relatively new, impressive and expensive facilities ($30+ mil and $10+mil, respectively, if memory serves) that Penn State is not going to allow sit idle. Additionally, baseball and softball are two of the most watched (TV) college sports in the spring. We don't need to drop either sport, we just need to improve at each. (And softball seems to be doing that this season.)
If Penn State eventually decides to drop some varsity sports (and I think that's inevitable, sadly), I'm confident neither baseball nor softball will be on the final cut list.
I agree that Penn State will never drop baseball, but I am firm in the belief that it will never be much better than it currently is and that, of course, is not very good.
The collegian article is ehh. College sports are about recruiting and development. The recruiting part, while they mention not being able to get many players from the south or far west, is only part of the problem. There are plenty of Division I caliber baseball players within a four hour drive of State College. Just two years ago there were two first round draft picks from the state of Pennsylvania, New Jersey is loaded with talent every year and northern Virginia and Maryland have lots of talent as well.
The recruiting issue to me, is that they are not active in finding some of the better prospects early to make them even think about attending Penn State. Somewhere earlier in this thread someone showed a young kid that they offered as a 15 or 16 year old and I said that I had multiple players on my team who had better numbers via velocity and power than that kid.
Cooper’s other problem is taking too many average guys and thinking they can develop them. I know the kid Jake does a lot of new age development things with spin rates and launch angle but overall these kids coming in or not significantly gaining any kind of key attribute to make them better. At some point they have to be able to take these kids throwing 85 miles an hour and get them up into 90+ guys.
The recruiting issue to me, is that they are not active in finding some of the better prospects early to make them even think about attending Penn State. Somewhere earlier in this thread someone showed a young kid that they offered as a 15 or 16 year old and I said that I had multiple players on my team who had better numbers via velocity and power than that kid.
Cooper’s other problem is taking too many average guys and thinking they can develop them. I know the kid Jake does a lot of new age development things with spin rates and launch angle but overall these kids coming in or not significantly gaining any kind of key attribute to make them better. At some point they have to be able to take these kids throwing 85 miles an hour and get them up into 90+ guys.
Sadly they should be near the top of the chopping block if sports were to be cut. However, you are correct in that they won’t be given the facilities.
The thing is we can't keep in state or local talent. The leading batter in D1 in Jack Hurley. He plays at Virginia Tech. He is batting .464. He went to State College high school. Sad we couldn't get him to stay.
Sandy Barber and Baron have been a disaster for the school.
Where I live, SE Pa., there used to be a high quality presence for PSU along with an invisible Pitt. Now, I think both the quality andcquantity of kids from here has declined.
There is no way to justify the very expensive PSU education over others. A disaster.
And the season record rises above .500. Cooper must have read the writing on the wa..... er, board.
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Baseball is 22-21, 9-8 with a third game today against the Spartans and then 8 more in the regular season, including a road series against tOSU and a home series versus Illinois. Penn State has won 10 of the last 13 and five in a row. No idea what Cooper's status will be if he finishes below .500 or above, and with Kraft coming in as the new AD.
Softball just finished the regular season yesterday with a series win at Illinois and a 31-21, 13-10 record. Earned the seventh seed against Indiana in the B1G tournament that starts Wednesday in East Lansing. Great turnaround season by coach Clarissa Crowell and her squad.
Softball just finished the regular season yesterday with a series win at Illinois and a 31-21, 13-10 record. Earned the seventh seed against Indiana in the B1G tournament that starts Wednesday in East Lansing. Great turnaround season by coach Clarissa Crowell and her squad.
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Good lord. That's crazy. He's a 5'10" frosh throwing 84 from the bump with no reliable secondaries. I watched his PG video and his bat isn't very impressive. His glove and OF throwing motion are awkward. Unless his dad is 6'5" and his mom is 6'0", why would they offer this kid as a frosh? He's already fairly filled out at 172 lbs. He's a follow, at best.
Apparently I need to do a better job of marketing my kid.
I agree. Team is filled with kids tat fit this type of physical profile. By no means do they “look the part” as they say.
It figures that a good baseball player for PSU is named Cease. Now get Joe Desist hitting behind him.
In the vicinity where he was expected to be drafted, Good news is that he winds up with a team that isn't loaded with catchers in its minor league system. Neither are noted for their bats, but one is probably better behind the plate than Matt projects.
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