Tristan Pompey
- Thread starter jseebold
- Start date
Ok scratch that. The 4 captains are Collett, Marshall Gei, Ryan Shinn and Brett Marshall. So, Im guessing the one who didnt travel was Marshall since the other 3 played yesterday.
Cant remember word for word but was asking why name someone a captain and not let them travel with the team. Im also thinking it is Brett Marshall
Gotcha. My understanding is that the players voted for captains. Really it makes no sense for Marshall to be one.
Outside of other issues, I think this team has a leadership problem. I don’t think they have that vocal leader for them all to rally around. Not only that, but usually leaders are respected for their knowledge or because of what they are done, but this team is so new that none of the guys have really done anything to be greatly looked up to. Collett has kind of the name, but hasn’t played a full season. Shinn was pretty solid, but nothing spectacular last year. Gei has been around the program and that is good as a leader, but he also doesn’t seem like a big time vocal guy and doesn’t have the resume. Marshall is well liked, but how do you listen to a guy who barely plays? The dugout seems quieter than in years past and I wonder if this is a part of that.
CB3....I think the only guy on the team that can qualify as a leader is Thompson and that is because he is by far the only top player on this team. I wish Collett was , but he only can be a DH I guess because of his legs. I really like Shinn a lot. With that being said...the problem with this team is not leadership! This is a pure and simple thing that the COACHES have not recruited SEC caliber players. As much as I thought GH was not a good HC, the one thing he could do was recruit. Mingione has/is proving he cannot do that so far. I have resigned myself that this is going to be a really, really bad season...I just hope that this is not going to set the program back to where it is going to take a major rebuild because it would be a shame with all the excitement that is/was around the program with the new stadium.
I HATE feeling this way , but I don't see experience/leadership as being the problem with this team. If there was some legitimate SEC talent on this team we wouldn't be having this issue or discussion.
I am not sure about the recruiting aspect at the moment. By the numbers, Mingione is better than Henderson. Mingione had classes ranked 6 (’17), 11 (’18) and 31 (’19). Henderson was 50 (’13), 39 (’14), 30 (’15), 26 (’16). So, by these numbers UK is much better at recruiting. However, there are some different styles. Mingione loves to recruit JUCO and transfer guys. So far, in just two years we have had 17 different guys that are JUCOs or transfers on our roster: ARod, Aklinski, Macciocchi, Haake, Dawson, Miller, Maley, McGeorge, Shinn, Johnson, Heyer, Shelby, Curtis, Reed, Daniel, Holen, and Thompson. We have few freshmen play, especially in the field, in the two or three years that Mingione has been here. Schultz may be his first every day starter as a true freshman before the year ends. Now, I don’t know if this is by design or if he is trying this strategy long term. Still, I think it is a very poor way to develop a program. I don’t think it is sustainable to always try to get JUCO kids in to perform early in the SEC at a high level. We need to develop talent, and so far… that hasn’t really happened much.
On the flip side, we are relying on a lot more freshmen rather than JUCO pitchers, but what we have not really been able to do is recruit replacements, or develop replacements for guys like Zach Thompson. To be fair, Thompson is largely irreplaceable give that he will be a top 10-15 draft pick, but we really haven’t found even a guy that is reliable. For all of Henderson’s faults, one thing he was quality at was finding guys that could be quality SEC starters. He struggled at putting together complete bullpens with enough SEC quality arms, but he always at least found 2 or 3 real good quality starters. Even in years where I thought we’d be royally snookered because we lost two or three starters, we seemed to have some others really step up and become starters. Hjelle is a good example. He appeared a lot as a freshman and seemed to be a closer, but he comes in (and this was Ming’s first year) as a sophomore and wins SEC Pitcher of the Year. So, does Ming and Belanger have the ability to basically refit a starting lineup? This is the first year he has had to do it, and so far we really haven’t had anyone step up. That is concerning.
**I want to note that 2017 is a between year. I imagine that more credit goes to Henderson for that class than Mingione. I know Mingione actually lost several big time recruits that year, but I think he brought in some JUCO guys**
Lol kind of. I see problems with this team, but I think a part of it is more about recruiting style than it is lack of talent. We've relied too heavily on JUCO talent.
Freshman and sophomore pitching staff besides 14 and new position players everywhere. It’s not easy to come out and be a top 25 machine right away. It is what it is.
So, I really go back and forth with it all. On one hand I see that we failed to make the post season a year ago despite having a boat load of talent. On the other hand, I also understand that we lost some major contributors to injury. Still, we didn't really develop anyone who has and is stepping up to become our newest pitching prospects. On the other hand, we had three major pitchers in last year's class with injuries. Yes, but at least a couple, if not all three, of the injuries were known to have happened in high school and we still didn't seem prepared for that.
Lol I could probably do this all day. I personally worry that we are going to have this sort of issue regularly. I think Mingione prefers players who are JUCOs and he prefers players that are older. He doesn't seem to favor many young players. So, that means it is hard to develop experience with those guys and when you have JUCO guys, you have very quick turnover. They can be one and done if they play well enough (Dawson), or if they are just a good enough prospect (Haake). So, we could see ourselves with really young and inexperienced teams quite frequently.
Pitching is a bit difference because we have favored some young pitchers this year, but the scary part of that is that so far none of them have necessarily given me a lot of confidence that they will be reliable weekend starters in the future. It is early, and people often take huge strides, but so far it is concerning.
I see the fb program is recruiting Jackson Hensley from Pikeville who is supposed to be an outstanding bb player. Is the bb team doing that as well or is he being promised to play both. What about Gilmore as well?
We have 2 lights out JUCO pitchers signed for next year, but I highly doubt either one makes it here after the draft. Oh well.
We Oraj Anu, right? A top JUCO 1B/OF who hit .390 a year ago with 11 home runs in JUCO. I am doubting he makes it as well.
Baseball as a sport is very difficult to recruit for in college baseball - toughest sport by far. You have to go after the top level guys, but the risk is you could lose them to the draft which creates holes on your roster very late in the game. If you go after JUCO’s you may lose them to the draft or only get one year out of them if they blow up.
Best balance is go after top HS players who are not top 5 round prospects, have a staff who can develop pitchers, hitters, and have a strong core up the middle. You also need to get lucky and have some kids who develop late so they don’t get drafted out of HS but play well for you in college. The other thing is don’t recruit kids who are small town kids who tear up their local HS pitching hitting against 78-82 mph fastballs and play on 290 foot fields.
Best balance is go after top HS players who are not top 5 round prospects, have a staff who can develop pitchers, hitters, and have a strong core up the middle. You also need to get lucky and have some kids who develop late so they don’t get drafted out of HS but play well for you in college. The other thing is don’t recruit kids who are small town kids who tear up their local HS pitching hitting against 78-82 mph fastballs and play on 290 foot fields.
I triple checked to make sure. He's listed as a sophomore and now has 12 bombs. See if this link will work for you.
http://njcaa.org/sports/bsb/2018-19/div1/teams/wallacecommunitycollegedothan?view=lineup
Okay, good deal. For some reason everything I was seeing was mentioning May games and stuff like that, so I was kind of confused.
Looks like he may be primarily playing outfield for them.
SEC baseball programs have been filling rosters with JUCO players as long as there has been SEC baseball.
It is just the opposite of a “poor way to develop a program”.
Filling rosters and making up a large portion of your roster with are entirely different. This year we have 5 of 9 positions that are JUCO. Most programs might have one or two.
It can work, but we seem to be relying very very heavily. Last year we had Haake, Shinn, Johnson, Aklinski, Dawson, Heyer, Rodriguez, and Maley at the very least... so 7 or 8 guys that played somewhat regularly. We aren't talking about padding rosters, which is fine, but making almost entire rosters of JUCO kids.
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^^Great Post, thanks!^^
Just got home from Gulf Shores. Plan to attend the UofL game at our new park. Oh, figured our dismal SEC record would bring out 'Brown is the new Blue'!
What is amazing is that Vandy seems to bring in those top 100 pitchers consistently. I don't know if it is solely based upon their school being great at academics, but it is impressive that they are able to have those guys come in year after year instead of losing them to the draft.