New 2015 Baseball Commit

[TheRef]

Colorado OF Greg Pickett.

Ranked #26 Nationally by Perfect Game.

Here's his profile: http://www.perfectgame.org/Players/P...aspx?ID=353089

I think he goes to the draft, but a good commit regardless.

[Dawg61]

Nice power, great commit

[messageboardsuperhero]

The 2015 Amateur Draft is going to be pretty damn big for us. If we could somehow get two of Riley, Padgett, or Pickett to campus... Look out.

This guys is supposedly the top left-handed power bat in the entire 2015 class, so keeping him will be pretty tough. Either way, this is a nice get and the kind of player we should be going after- regardless of whether he goes pro or not.

[engie]

Cohen can't recruit**

This is the most elite commitment(at the time of their commitment) that we've gotten yet in baseball. Pretty likely that's the national #1(pre-draft) recruiting class. I'd say it's almost locked in already...

[messageboardsuperhero]

Good Lord, this Pickett kid can just flat out mash. Skip to the 40 second mark and listen to the ball explode off his bat while putting very little effort into his swing and staying balanced. Anyone who still thinks Cohen doesn't like/recruit power is just dead wrong.



ETA: For you gif lovers out there-

[RossDawg82]

I wonder if he was at the theater when the Joker came in shooting.

[Todd4State]

Not a lot to add other than I hope we get him. Elite power guys like this are usually highly sought after by MLB though as we all saw with Vallot and even Burdick to a degree.

Our OF group for this class is loaded though.

RF Pickett
CF- Mangum
LF- Blaylock

[maroonmania]

Good news I guess. After the Vallot and Burdick losses its getting harder for me to get very enthused over a guy that we have about a 5% chance of keeping.

[CadaverDawg]

This is HUGE news. Even if he doesn't make it to campus, it makes recruits from all over the country turn their head towards State and pay attention. Nice work yet again by Cohen and Co.

[KB21]

Good news I guess. After the Vallot and Burdick losses its getting harder for me to get very enthused over a guy that we have about a 5% chance of keeping.

You have to sign them to be able to get them on campus. Hopefully this is a player that will tell teams that he wants to be a 1st round pick and wants 1st round money like Mac Marshall and Joe Godfrey, LSU's two commitments that will make it to campus.

If this team gets these guys on campus, John Cohen may be able to put together a line up similar to the one that had him, Tommy Raffo, Tracy Echols, Pete Young, Burke Masters, Richie Grayum, and Jody Hurst back in '88.

[reddog]

a little Will the Thrill in him

[Todd4State]

You have to sign them to be able to get them on campus. Hopefully this is a player that will tell teams that he wants to be a 1st round pick and wants 1st round money like Mac Marshall and Joe Godfrey, LSU's two commitments that will make it to campus.

If this team gets these guys on campus, John Cohen may be able to put together a line up similar to the one that had him, Tommy Raffo, Tracy Echols, Pete Young, Burke Masters, Richie Grayum, and Jody Hurst back in '88.

Good points. And we need to stop having our fans tell them to take the money instead of go to college.

We need to tell them to come to MSU so that they can make more money after they get drafted after their junior year.

[Todd4State]

Here's some more Greg Pickett info.

He was one of five players from Colorado invited to the PG showcase.

His high school team looks like they only played 10 games the whole year. In those ten games, he hit 5 home runs, had 19 RBI's and hit .387.

[MsStateBaseball]

This is the result of last year playing for NC. Kids like this see us and want to play for us. It is time that we get a whole bunch of great recruits, some will go MLB but the ones that are left will have a huge impact. Just need to do this every year. You are seeing just the beginning.

I foresee great players coming and then a new stadium going up. Just wait.

[RattStevens]

He will only see campus from a TV. First round pick - a lock in the #mlbdraft and he has a better chance of winning the Heisman than Dak Prescott does.

[RattStevens]

There is a better chance of me getting a beat writer job at Alabama than there is of him ever playing baseball at State.

[maroonmania]

Good points. And we need to stop having our fans tell them to take the money instead of go to college.

We need to tell them to come to MSU so that they can make more money after they get drafted after their junior year.

Excellent point. And I'm still peeved about the Burdick deal because its ridiculous that we lost him. Either he wasn't being honest with our coaching staff or our coaching staff was just hoping against hope that his attitude toward playing college ball would change but we can't bank our future on HS guys willing to forgo their college career for 150K.

[Homedawg]

Excellent point. And I'm still peeved about the Burdick deal because its ridiculous that we lost him. Either he wasn't being honest with our coaching staff or our coaching staff was just hoping against hope that his attitude toward playing college ball would change but we can't bank our future on HS guys willing to forgo their college career for 150K.

He was completely honest w our staff in the last 3 months. He wanted to sign.

[State82]

What is the max scholly we could conceivably throw out to someone like this? 75%? More?

[Todd4State]

Excellent point. And I'm still peeved about the Burdick deal because its ridiculous that we lost him. Either he wasn't being honest with our coaching staff or our coaching staff was just hoping against hope that his attitude toward playing college ball would change but we can't bank our future on HS guys willing to forgo their college career for 150K.

Unfortunately, that's how it goes in the business of baseball. And it is a business at some point. I don't like it because I think it's outdated and I think it hurts baseball players as far as long term education goes, which you need nowadays more than ever and the money is less and less life changing than ever. If it were up to me, I'd have it so that the only guys that went pro out of high school were guys like Bryce Harper or Mike Trout- have an advisory board from MLB that tells these players their draft stock and if you aret a first or second round pick you can choose college or pro and the rest go to college. I'd also have it so that college players play for four years instead of being able to leave after three.

That said, I don't think Burdick misled our staff or anything. Cohen is really good about monitoring players signability, which is one reason why we haven't lost a lot of guys while he has been here. I think Burdick really wanted to come to MSU IF he went to college and we granted that wish- and came pretty darn close to getting him just from the standpoint that he almost went undrafted.

But for every Dale Burdick, there's a Hunter Renfroe, a Reid Humphreys, a Dakota Hudson that were drafted and came to school. Or even a guy like a Cole Gordon and a Jesse McCord that were draftable prospect that didn't sign.

It seems to me though that the new thing to do is just sign as many high end prospects as you can and then hope that a few come to school. I think the idea is, they won't come if they aren't committed. KB21 mentioned LSU as kind of an example of that, and I think North Carolina had the same philosophy and came out with a couple of high end players of their own. That may be what we start seeing Cohen do as well- with Riley, Padgett, and now Pickett.