2025 NCAA Baseball Portal Thread

[basedog]

**** that. We dont rebuild at State. We reload. We should have one of the best weekend rotations in the SEC- that alone means you arent rebuilding

You can blame King Bucket Coach, he was awful with recruiting as far as what you say about who we are. We are most definitely reloading. BOC > Bucket Coach

[Coach34]

You can blame King Bucket Coach, he was awful with recruiting as far as what you say about who we are. We are most definitely reloading. BOC > Bucket Coach

We arent rebuilding- the roster will be Omaha good. Now what does have to rebuilt is the HS recruiting portion of the program. Lemon did a really good job in the portal- but the HS portion killed him

[basedog]

We arent rebuilding- the roster will be Omaha good. Now what does have to rebuilt is the HS recruiting portion of the program. Lemon did a really good job in the portal- but the HS portion killed him

I agree

[AlSwearengen]

We arent rebuilding- the roster will be Omaha good. Now what does have to rebuilt is the HS recruiting portion of the program. Lemon did a really good job in the portal- but the HS portion killed him

for the most part. He was a year late getting if figured out and then last year, we didn't sign any weekend starters or an ace type pitcher, which we obviously needed. We did get some really good players out of the portal though.

[Tater]

**** that. We dont rebuild at State. We reload. We should have one of the best weekend rotations in the SEC- that alone means you arent rebuilding

I'll say it like this. With the money we're throwing around, my expectations are Omaha this year. Y2 and onward, natty appearance every year. In that sense Y1 does need a bit of building. But the worst rebuilding years at state moving forward need to be in Omaha anyways. No excuse.

[Activated Alpha]

Just here to post that C34 was wrong. Carry on

[Todd4State]

for the most part. He was a year late getting if figured out and then last year, we didn't sign any weekend starters or an ace type pitcher, which we obviously needed. We did get some really good players out of the portal though.

I think part of the problem was he believed too much in the players he already had. We should have absolutely gotten another catcher in the portal with Ross coming off of Tommy John surgery. That was a major risk. He was still recovering in the fall.

The first four weeks of the season are for figuring out what your players can do. And we had guys that ended up starting for us like Powell and Gatlin Sanders that didn't play much at all during the first four weeks of the season. And then he decided to let a couple of guys appear for the first time against Troy and that turned out to be a disaster.

[Todd4State]

I'll say it like this. With the money we're throwing around, my expectations are Omaha this year. Y2 and onward, natty appearance every year. In that sense Y1 does need a bit of building. But the worst rebuilding years at state moving forward need to be in Omaha anyways. No excuse.

My expectations haven't changed. We should at least be in a SR every year. I do agree that Omaha is the expectation and we should be in Omaha most years. If O'Connor wins a couple of NC's I would be very happy with his tenure as anyone else should be which I estimate to be 10-12 years if everything goes well.

I just want to also avoid what Mike Rooney was talking about earlier this year- the rock bottom WTF? seasons after we have a special season or time period. Happened under both Cohen (2015) and Lemonis (2022-2023, 2025). I mean- LSU isn't going to go from winning the NC to like 22 wins next year with a bunch of losses to random midweek teams like Air Force, Northern Kentucky, and Central Arkansas. Now if I am wrong about LSU I won't complain- LOL.

The good thing about it is- we have the NC monkey off of our back. It has been done here before now. There is no more "can we win one or can we not." Also, O'Connor has won one before as well. So, we know he is capable of winning one. I think that takes a lot of pressure off of everyone. Like, I can't imagine the pressure someone like a Link Jarrett has at Florida State or Bakich at Clemson and Van Horn probably has the most at Arkansas- he has been eliminated or lost NC's in some absolutely brutal ways or even a guy like Schlossnagle who has never won one and is essentially being measured up against college coaching legends like Augie Garrido.

[NWADAWG]

My expectations haven't changed. We should at least be in a SR every year. I do agree that Omaha is the expectation and we should be in Omaha most years. If O'Connor wins a couple of NC's I would be very happy with his tenure as anyone else should be which I estimate to be 10-12 years if everything goes well.

I just want to also avoid what Mike Rooney was talking about earlier this year- the rock bottom WTF? seasons after we have a special season or time period. Happened under both Cohen (2015) and Lemonis (2022-2023, 2025). I mean- LSU isn't going to go from winning the NC to like 22 wins next year with a bunch of losses to random midweek teams like Air Force, Northern Kentucky, and Central Arkansas. Now if I am wrong about LSU I won't complain- LOL.

The good thing about it is- we have the NC monkey off of our back. It has been done here before now. There is no more "can we win one or can we not." Also, O'Connor has won one before as well. So, we know he is capable of winning one. I think that takes a lot of pressure off of everyone. Like, I can't imagine the pressure someone like a Link Jarrett has at Florida State or Bakich at Clemson and Van Horn probably has the most at Arkansas- he has been eliminated or lost NC's in some absolutely brutal ways or even a guy like Schlossnagle who has never won one and is essentially being measured up against college coaching legends like Augie Garrido.

DVH must feel the pressure because you can see it on him any time UPig even gets close.

[The Federalist Engineer]

Heads up...

Cade O'Leary leaves MSU to Florida State

After

Duke Stone left two days ago

Nationally, 6000 players in the portal! Tennessee has 19 portal entries, is the Vitello empire crumbling? 19 dudes is not just 19 dudes. These guys represent massive recruiting effort and development. Kind of breathtaking that Vitello just loses the players that were scouted, evaluated, and recruited to just pluck strangers from other rosters.

[No BS Dawg]

Heads up...

Cade O'Leary leaves MSU to Florida State

After

Duke Stone left two days ago

Nationally, 6000 players in the portal! Tennessee has 19 portal entries, is the Vitello empire crumbling? 19 dudes is not just 19 dudes. These guys represent massive recruiting effort and development. Kind of breathtaking that Vitello just loses the players that were scouted, evaluated, and recruited to just pluck strangers from other rosters.

7 appearances and 6.2 innings pitched between OLeary and Stone. On paper it does not appear we lost much if anything. What was the story on those two this year? Injury? Just not good enough to be used ahead of others? FSU taking OLeary is a bit of a surprise seeing as how he threw two innings all year.

Tennessee will have a new roster next year!

[Commercecomet24]

We arent rebuilding- the roster will be Omaha good. Now what does have to rebuilt is the HS recruiting portion of the program. Lemon did a really good job in the portal- but the HS portion killed him

Yep, this 100%

[KOdawg1]

7 appearances and 6.2 innings pitched between OLeary and Stone. On paper it does not appear we lost much if anything. What was the story on those two this year? Injury? Just not good enough to be used ahead of others? FSU taking OLeary is a bit of a surprise seeing as how he threw two innings all year.

Tennessee will have a new roster next year!

O'Leary is pretty good. We wanted to keep him.

[The Federalist Engineer]

O'Leary is pretty good. We wanted to keep him.

Portal Hot Take on Tennessee...

The Portal has annihilated the value of the HS recruit for a program with a big NIL war chest?

(1) What is the value of spending months cultivating, recruiting, and kissing-up to families and players, if there is a 80% chance the kid simply will not be ready to play in year-1.
(2) If the kid does not play in Year-1, then they are butt-hurt and want to leave.
(3) If the kid is good, then they may still leave for more money or something else.
(4) Don't red-shirt anybody. Play them or Replace them.
(5) Just recruit the super-high end 14 year old's, that you won't be able to pry from Texas or Florida later. If they become a Parker Brother for the MLB draft, then you lose.

So the IQ-200 move by Vitello is to cut-bait early with the projects players. Bring in the new class and supplement with dudes that are collegiate performers.

Thus year-1 recruits are just a preferred Option on underclass performance. College baseball is for Performers and Minor League is for Projects.

Seems LSU did the same last year.

[3dawgnight15]

https://www.on3.com/college/mississi...issippi-state/

[3dawgnight15]

Duke Stone coming back. Has potential, wonder what kind of feedback he got from the portal?

[The Federalist Engineer]

https://www.on3.com/college/mississi...issippi-state/

Boom!

+8 ERA and more runs than Innings pitched. And SEC is batting +300 against. Why stop at 8 ERA? Gamecocks have two guys with mid teen ERAs. In the SEC 18 hits, 21 Runs, in 19 innings.

[AlSwearengen]

Boom!

+8 ERA and more runs than Innings pitched. And SEC is batting +300 against. Why stop at 8 ERA? Gamecocks have two guys with mid teen ERAs. In the SEC 18 hits, 21 Runs, in 19 innings.

Yeah, head scratcher for sure.

[Todd4State]

Boom!

+8 ERA and more runs than Innings pitched. And SEC is batting +300 against. Why stop at 8 ERA? Gamecocks have two guys with mid teen ERAs. In the SEC 18 hits, 21 Runs, in 19 innings.

South Carolina's pitching coach sucks. Now this guy may not amount to much while he is here but this is a guy Parker recruited before so I'll give him some benefit of the doubt for now.

[BigDawg81]

Do you know who had a 8+ ERA in his 1st in college and is now a top prospect in the Mariners organization? Loo