Listen. shhh! LISTEN! ...

[Shmuley]

Did you hear that? It's the sound of champaign corks popping up in Indianapolis. and there went mine. Goodbye, little crusader. goodbye.

 

[HammerOfTheDogs]

Right now, they're trying to keep USC off probation, and find out which mascot is considered "offensive".

I also have an unsubstantiated theory- I believe Major League Baseball probably has more to do with the limited scholarships than the NCAA. I say that because they have an established minor league system, and they like developing their players through their leagues. The last thing they want is colleges snatching some of their best prospects, or at least a lot of the mid-level projects. So, they lean on the NCAA and, naturally, they'd fold like a cheap suit.

Ron Polk's vision of amateur baseball is long dead. The Olympics is using Minor League players, college baseball only has 11.7 scholarships, and I'm looking for the NCAA to soon ban players on non-athletic scholarships (Hope Scholarships, etc.).

 

[RebelBruiser]

uscreb over on Nafoom says that the rumblings on campus are that they could be facing potential LOIC due to the football and basketball issues coming up back to back. He said it's definitely looking like a loss of scholarships at least to some extent even if they avoid LOIC.

We'll see. The USC case will be a good chance for the NCAA to prove they aren't always out to protect the big boys.

 

[Todd4State]

they would support college baseball since that is where most of the best American players come from anyway. I don't know how much it would cost MLB to donate wooden bats, have coaching clinics, and do things to encourage the NCAA to give out more schoalrships. Most MLB teams have clauses in player contracts to pay for their degrees or education when they sign them out of high school, so I'm guessing that the money is there that they could fund 12 more scholarships per D-I team, especially if every team is required to put so much money towards "the scholarship fund". Also, shutting down about two minor league teams per team and having only four levels of the minors would help recoup some of the cost. Any brand new players could be assigned to their spring training complex for further evaluation.

Even if the wooden bat thing is far fetched financially because I don't know the exact numbers, and in that case just keep using metal, I think MLB is neglecting using the NCAA as a resource, and that is probably where the NCAA baseball teams need to look to as far as helping their sport out, rather than the NCAA, which has shown time and time again that it's not willing to help. I don't know why Polk never thought to try to forge a bond with MLB.</p>

 

[DiamondReb1083]

Chipper Jones
Derek Lee
Johnny Damon
Eric Chavez
Greg Maddux
John Smoltz
Tom Glavine
Jeff Francouer
Scott Rolen
Jake Peavy
Cole Hamels
David Wright
Scott Kazmir
Roy Hallady
Carl Crawford
Grady Sizemore
Josh Hamilton
Matt Holiday
Gary Sheffield
Justin Morneau (may be Canadian?)
Justin Upton
BJ Upton
Josh Beckett
Matt Cain
Prince Fielder
Derek Jeter
Alex Rodriguez
Ken Griffey Jr
Joe Mauer
Brian McCann
Jimmy Rollins
Delmon Young

And those are just from highschool and off the top of my head. That's not even counting junior college which would probably double the count. Now granted there are tons of great college players but to say most is far from accurate. Another point against your argument is why would major leauge teams want to do away with their own minor leauge teams to fund college baseball for players that are more than likely going to another team. They contorl all the players in those teams that you would have them do away with, Of the players they would help by adding scholarships they would say less than 1% of them. No way that ever goes down.

 

[Todd4State]

</p>

"As the 2007 Major League postseason enters its final - and biggest - stage, young players from throughout the nation need look to further than the makeup of the top playoff teams in order to get affirmation that college baseball is a proven path to big-league dreams. In fact, a sampling of the 100 players who were competing in the 2007 Major League Baseball league championships series shows that nearly two-thirds (61) were college baseball alums while the 39 non-college players included 23 foreigners and only 16 who made the jump to pro ball directly out of high school. (Note that this statistical sampling was based on the 25-man rosters in the divisional series, with minor changes to some of the rosters in later rounds.) "

I couldn't find any stats for the entire MLB, but this was from the top eight teams in the playoffs last year.

I think there are some benefits to baseball as a whole supporting college baseball. You talk about being able to control and develop their players- it would be cheaper for them to have college coaches do this. It seems to work fine for the NFL and NBA. Plus, the minors would still be around- just the top four classifications, so they would still be able to control and develop players. By having their players go to college, they can get a better idea of how they are going to develop and mature, the players will be more mature from going to college, and will have an education- or at least are working towards that when they leave baseball. They also won't have to waste bonus money on a Brien Taylor or a Kirk Presley (Damn, that hurt me to type that). A lot of times the high school kids that get drafted high don't pan out because they were physically more mature than everyone else in high school, but things balance out once everyone catches up to them. College players also tend to develop more quickly often times.

And yes, Morneau is Canadian.</p>

 

[DiamondReb1083]

My point isn't really to argue that college players aren't as good or better than highschool players. It's really just to say that I don't think it would benefit MLB to support college baseball and therefore I don't think your scenario won't happen. If I were a major leauge team I would live and die off highschool players. This may be my bias for the Braves but I just think it works better. It would be my guess that highschool players drafted are able to help your pro team at a younger age (and therefore, presumably for a longer period of time) than could a college player. I absolutely dispise the rave of money ball. It can work if you get extremely lucky. But more than likely it won't. Those teams were good because of the big three pitchers, and Giambi and Tejada and Eric Chavez. Now I may be wrong but those three offensive players I believe are all highschool players. I know Chavez and Tejada are. So really they had success off college pitchers and highschool hitters. You look at the draft in the actual book and it's terrible. Blanton is ok but Swisher was pretty much a bust and has since been traded. Jeremy Brown has retired (The fat catcher from Alabama that Paul de Podesta's computer loved). I just am not really impressed with the whole thing. The Braves are the apex of success as far as developing a team goes. That is without debate. And their business model is and has been almost exclusively highschool players. Their team right now has two college players (Tiexera and Kotsay). Jones, McCann, Francouer, Kelly Johnson. Those guys were helping them in the Pros when they would've been college juniors.

Look at Ole Miss. We've had some absolute super star college baseball players with Head, Pettway, Holliman, Maloney, Coghlan. Pettway has since been turned into a pitcher and sucks, Head is wallowing at AA with crappy numbers, Holliman and Maloney have had some success in the minors but neither have pitched the first major leauge inning. Those guys are what 25 years old and they haven't begun their major leauge career? Same goes for Brad Corley and Thomas Berkery. They were great in college but have done nothing. I don't know. It's a crap shoot anyway.