Baseball Recruiting

[ZedFedder]

If you have not been paying attention, we are recruiting at an ELITE level in baseball. Beating TN left and right for guys.

[3dawgnight15]

I think we have a shot at keeping a few of them vs draft

[AlSwearengen]

the OF from Florida that just committed gives us 5 top 100, I believe. He and the pitcher are in the top 10, so they probably don't make it; but it is good for perception.

I'd like to see us get a few in the 30-50 range. We would have a chance of them coming to school.

[Todd4State]

O'Connor had a better track record than Lemonis of keeping guys if I remember correctly. Our new hitting coach- Kevin McMullen- used to be a manager in the Braves minor league system. He has a good eye for talent and likely has good connections to evaluate signability.

See Jack Bauer.

Hopefully we can get Trent Buckley, Deuce Jenkins, Rocco Maniscalco, Will Brick, and Develan Daniels in the boat soon.

[AlSwearengen]

O'Connor had a better track record than Lemonis of keeping guys if I remember correctly. Our new hitting coach- Kevin McMullen- used to be a manager in the Braves minor league system. He has a good eye for talent and likely has good connections to evaluate signability.

See Jack Bauer.

Hopefully we can get Trent Buckley, Deuce Jenkins, Rocco Maniscalco, Will Brick, and Develan Daniels in the boat soon.

Will Brick; i think i saw that name on the PG twitter page. Unless I am mixing players up, he reclassified to graduate a year early. Thanks for mentioning some names, Todd.

ETA: Brick did reclass, so I’m assuming he has every intention of going pro?

[Todd4State]

Will Brick; i think i saw that name on the PG twitter page. Unless I am mixing players up, he reclassified to graduate a year early. Thanks for mentioning some names, Todd.

ETA: Brick did reclass, so I’m assuming he has every intention of going pro?

Maybe. He certainly is a draft risk. There certainly have been plenty of guys like Bryce Harper, Blaze Jordan, Konnor Griffin off the top of my head that reclassified and all went pro except for Harper who went JUCO. I think he got his GED or something like that if I remember correctly.

The thing is high school catchers are notoriously risky picks in the MLB draft so I wouldn't say it's necessarily a slam dunk that he goes pro at this point. His mother is a teacher and his Dad is a pilot for Fed Ex so he has the family background of a typical college baseball player.

That said, I do think he is an elite and special talent and someone taking him high enough isn't out of the question.

As far as MLB goes, whether you go to college or not as a player it's always with the intention of eventually getting to MLB faster. Brick in this case, he has bounced around from several high schools so he isn't tied down really and for elite players like the ones I mentioned above another year of high school doesn't really do much for them unless they just want to play one more year with their friends or something. So, if he went to college it would definitely benefit him more than playing another year of high school especially since we're talking about the SEC. And if he graduated high school at 17 he could be drafted at 20 which is a year ahead of most players plus he would have advanced baseball experience.

Now, if you go pro and you're 17 I'm not sure that most guys are going to really save much time. Sure, Konnor Griffin it was a good decision but then you have Blaze Jordan who is just now getting to AAA and I'm not sure that he really saved himself much time by going pro.

[ZedFedder]

Rocco Maniscalco is in the same category. I think O Connor can get more guys to campus. He already proved it to a degree with Jacob Parker and Jack Bauer.

[AlSwearengen]

Oak had quite a few kids that you would think would go pro out of hs come to college; but I always attributed a lot of that to Virginia’s academic reputation and the type of kid that it attracted. I guess we will see how it plays out.

[EdwardDrayton]

the OF from Florida that just committed gives us 5 top 100, I believe. He and the pitcher are in the top 10, so they probably don't make it; but it is good for perception.

I'd like to see us get a few in the 30-50 range. We would have a chance of them coming to school.

So one of them must be Kyler Meccage. What do we know about him? Do these top draft prospects commit as a fallback in case their draft position deteriorates?

[AlSwearengen]

So one of them must be Kyler Meccage. What do we know about him? Do these top draft prospects commit as a fallback in case their draft position deteriorates?

Yes, he was the most recent. It is unclear if he is expected to be an OF or P going by the various baseball sites; some refer to him as an OF and others a P. Regardless, I wouldn’t expect him to make it to campus if these ratings are accurate.

[Coach34]

Do these top draft prospects commit as a fallback in case their draft position deteriorates?

That was the case for decades but now NIL gets more kids in college. It's actually been a blessing for baseball. Kids are no longer taking that 75K to go in the 9th round when they can go to college and make more than that while playing in much better facilities in their 18-22 range. Top pitchers can go to the SEC and get a million or so over a couple of years to develop instead of playing in the bus leagues at 19

[Todd4State]

That was the case for decades but now NIL gets more kids in college. It's actually been a blessing for baseball. Kids are no longer taking that 75K to go in the 9th round when they can go to college and make more than that while playing in much better facilities in their 18-22 range. Top pitchers can go to the SEC and get a million or so over a couple of years to develop instead of playing in the bus leagues at 19

This is accurate. Also the draft is becoming more and more college heavy anyway and MLB isn't offering "life changing" money as much as they used to especially after you get past the second round.

[Todd4State]

Yes, he was the most recent. It is unclear if he is expected to be an OF or P going by the various baseball sites; some refer to him as an OF and others a P. Regardless, I wouldn’t expect him to make it to campus if these ratings are accurate.

He will be given an opportunity to play both if he comes to MSU.

[Todd4State]

Best thing to do is recruit the best players you can. If you sign 16 elite players and you get hit hard by the draft and you lose 4-6 then you're still left with 10-12 elite players. And the odds of that many players being drafted high out of high school and MLB hitting their number is low.

That's why I was so confident last year about our class last year not getting decimated by the draft.