Polk's recruiting over the last 15 years

[windcrysmary]

if someone has the info, please share... but unless I'm mistaken, back in our "glory days" of baseball "success", our rosters would consist of high profile players from many different states...ohio, florida, and other places... we seemed to have a magnet that would lure players away from offers from their local schools to come to play for us... that seems to be a thing of the past...

are there other schools that are able to bring in national talent from other parts of the country these days? how's our national recruiting rankings been the last 5 years versus the 10 years prior?

have we lost our magic and can only get the few good ones from Miss?

 

[vhdawg]

...that between the evil NCAA and the states that enacted a lottery simply to dominate nationally in college baseball, that we simply don't have any way to compete for recruits anymore?

 

[Phil Wenneck.sixpack]

from small MS towns than it used to be. Not a slam at the MS talent but if you look back over the years, our better players came from far off places. With last year's CWS appearance, you'd think we'd at least be back on the map as far as catching the eye of some prospects that may have never heard much of Clark, Thigpen, etc. There's no excuse in settling for whoever impresses you at your camp when we could be recruiting nationwide. We may have fallen leaps and bounds since the glory days but compared to tons of programs, we've still got a great deal to offer. Sooner or later, somebody's got to do a better job of selling it.

 

[windcrysmary]

don't forget Palmero... even those germantown, tn players.. do we still get those guys from germantown, tn?

Polk seems to have missed out on some players that could have gone here but wound up at ole miss or UT...

if he can't lure quality players from going to ole miss, he has no bidness at MSU... anybody with half a nut sack and brain at MSU should not lose a quality baseball player to ole miss.. especially since scruggs is now out of the picture...

 

[statefanjosh]

Judging from the roster it looks like Polk may be starting to recruit national again. We have
C. Powers - Illinois
R. Powers - New York
S. Marquardt - Indiana (freshman pitcher)
and Triglia, Butler, Duffy, and Flagg from Florida

Also we signed Logon Moro from Texas but he transferred after the first semester due to not feeling as if he could beat out Freeman.

 

[Todd04State]

First of all Polk hasn't been back for 15 years.

Second of all your point that our recruiting has sucked is very valid.

The thing about Mississippi high school baseball talent is as a state we only produce a few players that are draftable a year, and those players are usually very, very raw talents.

If you look at the baseball Dandy Dozen, there are always players that end up with their top offer to go to a JUCO or Delta State to give you an idea. It's not because of scholarship limits or because State, Ole Miss and USM can't evaluate talent. It's because there is very little talent. You have to go out of state to get SEC claiber players.

Polk has gotten lazy in the past and thought that his name, the LFL and his basball camp would automatically get players to MSU. Meanwhile, Bianco and McDonnell simply outhustled him in the recruiting wars.

I do think our recruiting has gotten a little bit better the past three years, mainly because of Russ McNickle, but I think the focus was so much on getting power hitters into MSU- like Conner Powers, Jeff Flagg, Brandon Turner, etc. that we've sacrificed pitching.

We have no pitching right now, and it's going to be a LONG year.

 

[SumReb]

out of state. We have 14 players from Mississippi on our roster. Lynn is from Indiana. Button is from Missouri. We have a couple of players from Texas.

 

[RebelBruiser]

As far as Germantown is concerned, Polk used to dominate there. However, I think while McMahon was coaching, he lost the foothold there, and Bianco took it over. Mark Wright, Mark Holliman, Drew Pomeranz, Zach Miller, Zack Cozart, and quite a few others for us in recent years have been from the Memphis/Germantown area. Polk will still pull a few, but in large part we've been landing most of the best prospects from that area recently.

 

[DawgTeacher]

The CWS used to be all of the college baseball you could get on tv, now you have the entire postseason as well as most conference games on through the course of the season. More teams making it to Omaha instead of the usual suspects. All this means kids want to go to other schools not just the same powerhouses.

 

[RebelBruiser]

I think that happened simply because a lot of schools realized that there was an opportunity to actually make money off their baseball programs, so they started investing in them.

 

[Goat Holder]

take it FWIW. If we offer, we usually get the guy. Apparently we're not offering the right guys.

 

[8dog]

and that's hurting us. It especially hurts when the top guys like Jared Holloway and Paul Falkenberry don't pan out.

I believe that we get the large majority of who we want, but until recently we haven't busted our tail to figure out who the top guys are and we keep settling for very average guys. Look at the back half of this most recent class. We signed 6 guys (that kills us, but Polk is scared to death of the new rules)--the top 2 pitchers in MS and then 4 average players. We signed a pitcher that wasn't injured last year and only threw like 3 innings for his team.

I know I sound like a broken record, but with the new rules, Polk is going to destroy the program.

 

[Agentdog]

Lalor is from Germantown...Houston HS which is in G'town. I remember the Commercial Appeal had a front page article on Lalor when he was a senior. Talking about him being a future big leaguer, can't miss prospect, etc.

 

[4suredog]

I am not taking Polks side because I do think he can do better. However, VHDawg among others, you MUST look at the lottery schools. If you are from say Georgia, Lousiana, Tenn or Florida, you can go to any in state school FREE with basic highschool stuff. I think its a 21 ACT and 2.5 GPA ( not positive on those numbers). You can be a walk on to those programs. Certainly the coach has invited you to do so. You can do this, again, all free. No room and board fees, no book costs, no lab fees. FREE!!!! Or you can leave the state and come to MSU and all we can offer is books or some screwball percentage of your total costs. So, if you can travel with 25, those schools have the opportunity to take 14 in state kids on full rides, 11 out of state kids on full rides. At MSU you can take 25 kids that each get free books and must pay for the rest of it. This is not fair under the spirit of the NCAA and should be looked at. It does not affect the other sports becasue there schollie numbers are in line with the number of players on the team.
Now, having said all that, I do think Polk is getting shelled by Hotty Toddy in recruiting because they have the same issues with these limits that we do. That does concern me. I do think if Polk was spending as much time recruiting as he was fighting this issue we would be in better shape. I just think that he has a valid point when discussing those programs having an advantage.

 

[Optimus Prime 4]

Does Arizona have lottery scholarships? North Carolina? etc

I do think it should be fair, but it doesn't seem to be hampering other top teams. (If NC has them, it just started this year)

 

[4suredog]

I agree Optimus, it is not THE factor but I also think you have to say that we should compete for the top kids in the region. I would not think a kid in Arizona is gonna know who we are without doing some research. But, the kids in the SEC states should if they are serious about baseball. So now rethink your position with this thought, those schools don't have boredering lotto states so they can still go several hundered miles from campus and compete on even terms for recruits. My point is that we can't. I guess we could start sending Polk out to Oregon to find pitchers but I'm afraid he would have a layover in Indianapolis....

 

[rebelrouseri]

to improve....Signed Winson Churchill.

Quote:_________________________________________________With last year's CWS appearance, you'd think we'd at least be back on the map as far as catching the eye of some prospects_________________________________________________