If MSU, Ole Miss and Southern can all have competitive programs, that tells me that we really should be recruiting Mississippi the most. Yes, it takes a few from other areas, Matt Wallner is prime example.
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If MSU, Ole Miss and Southern can all have competitive programs, that tells me that we really should be recruiting Mississippi the most. Yes, it takes a few from other areas, Matt Wallner is prime example.
The baseball recruiting system is completely screwed up. Have a relative that is a MLB scout. He says that Perfect Game is absolutely scamming these parents, kids and coaches. Basically they promise you if you sign up for their teams (pay a s**t ton of money) from 9th grade on, get ranked then we?ll get you a scholarship. And they basically threaten you if you don?t then you won?t get noticed or a scholarship.
Meanwhile mlb scouts are shaking their heads at it all. These guys are making a ton of money off these parents, while not getting the best talent noticed. He showed me a video of a kid from a small town ms this weekend (6?1? 225) who is a switch hitter. Came up to JA for a game and hit bombs from both sides. Parents didn?t want to do the travel ball stuff so he?s not ranked. And likewise, his only offers are Juco and southern.
Baseball recruiting has always been a mess. Polk was one of the worst and pissed off countless pro scouts. Polk would ask scouts who they were considering drafting and would offer scholarships. That and his camps were the extent of his recruiting efforts.
Recruiting can also be hindered by a coach with connections. I?ve seen a lot of talent wasted because the HC doesn?t recommend a player due to not seeing eye to eye. Also seen guys who have no business on a high school team get scholarships due to who Diddy knows and how much money is donated.
I think it's an information & logistics problem not a lazy coach problem. There's a whole bunch of high schools out there and there's not nearly enough information out there for the coaches to get their hands on so they can start to narrow down on who they want to go after. Football and basketball don't have this problem because there's tons of recruiting services doing lots of leg work for the coaches already. Baseball isn't this lucky so they are forced to have to automatically narrow it down themselves by relying on the local travel teams to have the best players available in that area already on their teams.
If you just recruit MS in baseball you will have a program that routinely misses the tourney and is rarely relevant.
The truth is that USM & South Alabama have better position players this year than MSU, LSU, Vandy, & Ole Miss.
The current difficulty that power programs are having in college baseball is that they are having to recruit kids so early (8th grade or 9th grade year) that they are naturally (human nature) committing & gravitating towards the more physically mature kids. Then once the non-physically mature kids (Wallner, Travis Swaggerty, etc) become good players their JR or SR years of high school, the power programs have no scholarship money left to give them or have stopped the scouting process because the class is full.
Canny will have top 5 recruiting classes at MSU, but, if most of those top recruits get drafted in the top 3 rounds & go pro, while USM & others are taking the late bloomers with real tools, then those schools will continue have better position players. LSU is terrible this year & MSU's recruiting class is about to get absolutely demolished in draft. Canny better learn to go out & find some under the radar, non-profile, quality position players that can impact the baseball but either due to speed or lack of projectable power don't appeal to pro-scouts, or like LSU, MSU will be stuck with very few quality position players. Think about this: Vandy is terrible this year but have what was 3 #1 ranked recruiting classes on their roster.
We all cheer that we are getting these big time recruits that won't make it to campus, but, if they are preventing us from being able to take late bloomers or we are stopping the scouting process because they classes are full, then it is hurting the program.
You could build the Camden Yards in college baseball & it simply won't make a huge difference. College baseball is about scouting & finding the niche of signing 4th-7th round high school draft prospects that turn into top 3 round draft prospects out of college. If you are just recruiting the top guys that are easy to scout & everyone loves, you won't get them to campus.
Just my take
Been there, tried it. It doesn’t work. We’ve simply sucked at recruiting. Cohen recruited slappers like crazy. He completely over thought the bat and ball changes, as well as the stadium. The years we had good years, we had a couple guys that could mash and good pitching depth. We have neither right now.
Football staffs have 10 coaches, grad assts, and office personnel helping them recruit 85 guys for a full ride.
Basketball coaches have 5 guys recruiting 13 guys with full rides
College staffs have basically 5 guys recruiting a squad of 35- and trying to figure out how to divide 11.7 scholarships.
It's easy to see how things get missed
Sign dirtbags. Target guys that if drafted won't be drafted till late. We can win a natty with a team full of dirtbags because we won't be scrambling to try to fill 6-8 spots a year on signees taking the money. Don't even go after them if they are high draft picks. Sign dirtbags instead.
We don't have to call them dirtbags though. It's not about how hard they play.
There is actually a profile of player that you have to target.
Pro scouts like guys that profile. Meaning, center fielders that are fast, corner outfielders hit for power, SS that can field & hit, 1B that hit bombs, etc
In college baseball recruiting you have to recruit "tweeners". Just like in football recruiting, the tweeners are the guys that are good players but don't quite fit a position.
If you can corner the market on good tweeners in college baseball, you can consistently get to the CWS.
This all day. Maybe one kid on any travel team makes it go a higher level. Two reasons are first alot of kids quit round the 11th grade and 2nd injuries, TJ, Rotater Cuffs etc. Kids who play other fall sports are more likely to move on. Alot of older major Leaguers, Dal Murph, and doctors. Anderson. hate travel ball and encourage parents to let their kids play other sports..
I am with you. I like the sound of recruiting the top talent but I do not think the reality matches up well with that. I think, being in Mississippi, with no extra scholarship money, we should be targeting the 4 star type players, or the tweeners, as you say.
The only way to entice the top guys to come is going to be money. The Floridas, Vanderbilts and LSUs will always be able to do that more readily than us. Especially Vanderbilt.
MSU has more funny money that you would think due to the school waving out-of-state tuition with an extremely reasonable ACT score. We don't really lack on scholarship money.
Vanderbilt has tons of scholarship money & LSU doesn't have much advantage over us. Thing is though, those schools have the same current problems we have. They have not gotten their top recruits on campus & thus have below average position players as a result.
Both LSU & Vandy's lineups this year are trash