Looking ahead?

[bamamick]

I know it's really early but now is a good time to think a little about next year. We will probably lose Rut and Ross, we know we lose Clay and Jake, and I am thinking Jimmy leaves. Anyone else have a feel for next year's team and who can fill in the gaps?

The whole outfield should return and Bennett should be back. Most of the staff should be back. But dang, to have to field an completely new infield at one time?

Anyone have some good news to share?

rtr

 

[baseballfanatic]

Good news is Matt Lipka is a heck of a shortstop... Bad news is he may not ever make it to campus due to the draft.
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[bamamick]

That always seems to be the way of it. I was listening to some UF fans at the Joe awhile back talking about the biggest reason for their great success this year being the fact that they got almost all of their signees into school for a change.

Baseball recruiting must be the toughest gig out there for the coaches.

rtr

 

[baseballfanatic]

It's rough. No doubt. You recruit these kids for 3 years,get them to sign in Nov or May. Then they get drafted in the 2nd round and they're gone. And you don't even get the chance to recruit someone else to replace the ones who sign. At least with football or basketball they have to declare they're entering the draft.
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[baseballfanatic]

I'd love to see the MLB get rid of a couple minor league classes, and just let college ball take the place of those classes. Let college ball swing wood bats.

Get rid of say, the low A and high A divisions. And draft guys as they become eligible out of college. By that I mean just draft guys out of college, or guys who meet the age requirements of those guys who go to college.

It will never happen, but as a guy who will take college sports over pro any day, I think it would be the best thing for the college game.

 

[pcfixup]

I'd love to see the MLB get rid of a couple minor league classes, and just let college ball take the place of those classes. Let college ball swing wood bats.

Get rid of say, the low A and high A divisions. And draft guys as they become eligible out of college. By that I mean just draft guys out of college, or guys who meet the age requirements of those guys who go to college.

It will never happen, but as a guy who will take college sports over pro any day, I think it would be the best thing for the college game.

Wood bats would be good but also more scholarships (treat it like football mind you) and a longer season which would end just before football practice would start (The season could start later which would not benefit the SEC as much as say the Big 10)

There are two big obstacles that I see:

• the MLB does not have any interest in players going to college. Smarter people may correct me on this, but between the short seasons and the use of metal bats, college baseball players develop slower relative to ones that turn pro out of high school.
• College baseball loses money.

 

[JoJoforHeisman]

[*]between the short seasons and the use of metal bats, college baseball players develop slower relative to ones that turn pro out of high school.
[/LIST]

That makes sense, and it does apply to some players, but it's not necessarily true. In fact, many players actually accelerate their development at the collegiate level, and are able to advance rapidly through the minors once drafted. This is particularly true in the case of pitchers. College pitchers are a safer bet to make it to the big leagues, whereas the rate of high school pitchers who flame out in the minors is much higher.

An example of a player who would have benefited from playing college ball rather than turning pro out of high school (but couldn't turn down the huge signing bonus) is Destin Hood.

Also, at the lowest levels of the minors (Rookie League), where most high school draftees spend their first couple of years, the seasons aren't much longer than the college season, so there's really not much of an advantage as far as the opportunity for more game experience.

 

[crimsonkelly]

Hey why not have a mlb team pick a school or schools and get an ex-pro player or 3 (assistant coach and pitching coach) to coach the players and recruit them to school. If a kids wants the opportunity of going into the draft, the mlb team could steer him to school if they think he isn't ready or wants him to mature there. You would get the coaching expertise of a pro then the mlb team would have the opportunity to draft these kids later on in the usual draft (or have a supplementary draft where you could pick 1 player from your school) and the the rest would be free to be drafted by whomever. This could do away with lower levels of ball, reduce the # of rounds in the draft, and then it could be used to encourage kids to go to school and get an education to fall back on if they don't make it in the show. Another thing is the MLB teams could foot the bills for scholarships, they have enough money, so why not. Hey it ultimately helps the economy!

There also needs to be a salary cap put on the draft like football does. This could help get some kids into college too.

Just some thoughts on something that would never happen.

 

[baseballfanatic]

That would probably hurt the athlete's "amateur" status and make him ineligible for college ball. But I like the idea about placing a cap on the draft. Of course there would have to be a cap for the MLB before there could ever be a draft cap.

Another thing that we can file under the "wish it would happen, but never will" pile is that the NCAA increase the number of scholarships for baseball. To, I don't know... 1 scholarship per player? That would create a bigger incentive for guys to actually come to college to develop. As it is now, they can either pay a lot of their tuition (that which the scholly doesn't cover) to play baseball in college, or they can get paid to play and get a signing bonus on top of that.

Pay out of my own pocket for three years vs getting paid to play ball for three years?

Most of the time that's not a tough choice to make unless you come from a family like mine that valued education above all. In which case it's slightly tougher. (like the choice between apple pie or chocolate cake)

 

[mbil]

I really enjoy reading you guys posts. Great insight into Bama baseball and college ball in general.

 

[crimsonkelly]

That would probably hurt the athlete's "amateur" status and make him ineligible for college ball. But I like the idea about placing a cap on the draft. Of course there would have to be a cap for the MLB before there could ever be a draft cap.

Well, if you make these sweeping changes, why not just do away with that amateur status junk anyway

Another thing that we can file under the "wish it would happen, but never will" pile is that the NCAA increase the number of scholarships for baseball. To, I don't know... 1 scholarship per player? That would create a bigger incentive for guys to actually come to college to develop. As it is now, they can either pay a lot of their tuition (that which the scholly doesn't cover) to play baseball in college, or they can get paid to play and get a signing bonus on top of that.

I agree, there is like a total of 13 scholarships given. Teams like UGA and LSU who have HOPE grants and other grants of the sort that players can also get have a huge leg up on other programs like Alabama and Auburn.

Pay out of my own pocket for three years vs getting paid to play ball for three years?

Most of the time that's not a tough choice to make unless you come from a family like mine that valued education above all. In which case it's slightly tougher. (like the choice between apple pie or chocolate cake)

Well, lets see go to college for 3 years or take a $750,000 signing bonus plus contract (and that isn't even an extremely high draft pick there either)!

The bold is my answers to those....really screwed that one up!