No not even close. He will more than likely restock with JUCO players as long as he is here
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Yeah, I really expected Cherry to be a big two way playerâŠâŠ really expected more bat than pitchâŠ.didnât seem like he got much of a chance.
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And thatâs part of the attendance problem. With jucos, very few friends and family can attend, and for diehards, really hard to build an affinity for the team when the faces are constantly changing and have no local flavor.
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A freakn warehouse full of pitchers and we only use five
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It makes perfect sense though FunkâŠ.
A) you missed on all the top rated guys and the talent level is not high enough to consistently get outs.( which I donât think is the exact case, bc there is some talent there)
Or
B) you actually recruited all these pitchers and thought they were going to be greatâŠ.but in the fall you realized they werenât and therefore only pitch a handful of guys.
Either way does not look favorably on you as a coach.
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When you frame it like that its pretty damning.
I guess I always thought major college baseball programs were run tighter and more seriously. Its kind of an eye-opener. And not in a good way.
WTF do you do with all this personnel?!? You just let the university house and feed them and give them a uniform to sit around in? And no one (Iâm assuming here) ever asks you why you have a packed roster and 70% of it never sees the field. And your record sucks?
Where TF is the quality control? I guess we have to wait for Renu to walk across the street, insert herself, and straighten this out. Might as well make her the janitor and parking director, too.
Pitchers not skilled enough to pitch and not developed to change it. And I assume some are perfectly ready to pitch but have a reservation in TWs dog house?! Shaking MF head!!!
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I actually didnât realize that this was going on in the pitching staff. Surely doesnât look efficient for all the points that Funk stated.
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Yeah. Iâve been to almost every game this year, and watched or followed most of the out of town ones I could. I just looked at the roster and didnât recognize a good half of the names on there.
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Its always been an expectation that college kids leave college better than when they went in. Just using the universityâs resources to seat a bunch of kids you know you wonât play is dumb. Youâre the professional on salary. If the kidâs not throwing strikes then work on his mechanics and give him an improvement plan. If it means spending extra hours away from your family then so be it. The kids are away from their families, too.
(All this is my assumption - Bunn could be the hardest working man in baseball. I just donât see a bunch of Coogs playing and I see starters being used as relievers and set-up, etc.)
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From what you guys are saying, it almost sounds like the recruiting philosophy was take as many pitchers as you can and hope that some pan out. Crazy if true.
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Baseball has just 11.7 scholarships to give. Most kids play on their (largely) own dime. Out-of-state players can pay in-state tuition. Thatâs it. Most play for love of the game.
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Jazz knows the real deal.
100% accurate. Football and basketball have full rides. Even if youâre the 85th man on the football team youâre on a full ride.
Baseball has 11.7 scholarships split among its roster. Itâs sad and, quite frankly, stupid. Hopefully the NIL will help alleviate that gap somewhat. I know some programs are actively working on helping their baseball players receive NIL money to help offset the difference. Some schools talk NIL just a bit as part of their recruiting pitch to prospects.
Thereâs a hierarchy, a pecking order if you will. The most scholarship money goes to arms, then shortsops/centerfielders, catchers ⊠so on and so forth. LHPs are in demand. MIFs that swing from the left side are higher on the pecking order than MIFs that bat righty, etc.
Basically, thereâs almost a âslot valueâ for lack of a better term for each position out there. A scholarship offer is going to be anywhere from 25%-50% for most players. Often 25-35%. Yeah, there are some full rides out there. I know a kid who got a 100% from a mid-major and took it vs. taking 55% from a P5 program. And heâs a corner OF. Not a CF. Big bat and the mid major school thought heâd make an impact that is worth the 100%. But that is exceedingly rare.
A really good pitcher might be 70% in a lot of cases. Itâs a travesty from where I sit to see 85 football guys on full rides. A large portion of which will never see the field beyond being on the practice squad.
Obviously football generates a ton of revenue and most baseball programs are lucky to break even. Some are profitable, but many struggle to get back to 0 or even lose money. I will say this though: college baseballâs popularity is soaring and the game is growing. TV money is coming in. NIL money is coming in. Thereâs a move between some of the P5 Conferences to more or less take over the NCAA in some ways. So maybe things will change. But as it stands baseball canât even get a paid 3rd coach. The 3rd coach is a âvolunteer assistantâ who makes money off of running camps, etc.
So at UH for example. Obviously Coach Whitting receives a salary. Coach Kivett and Coach Bunn receive salaries. But Coach Bielamowicz is a âvolunteer assistantâ. Yet look how many paid coaches are on football sidelines. The NCAA needs to do more for baseball. 11.7 just isnât right.
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The NCAA letting conferences decide this stuff will mean more scholarships for those sports. Getting the mix right to maintain Title IX compliance (which is the law) might take a while.
In a few years, scholarships will likely be unlimited. Not every school will afford to do give more, probably including UH.
Wow. I didnât realize they only had that many.
This is not the reality of most college baseball programs, unfortunately. Theyâll develop a few, but honestly, there arenât enough good pitching coaches to go around. Same is true of hitters, though - itâs mostly a sink or swim deal.
Look at how many paid coaches are on staff compared to the number of players.
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I admit that I am completely surprised. I honestly didnât know the scholarships were restricted so much. Youâre essentially dealing with a team of walk-ons.
But it actually makes it worse. Three guys in the program are getting paid and Iâm assuming the paid support staff in the AD help with as much as they can. But why does a kid want to go somewhere and ride the bench and pay his own way? And be responsible for his own development in the process? I understand its part of their upbringing that they want to be around baseball. Its probably all theyâve ever done during warm weather their whole lives. But I would want to go somewhere and play. But thatâs just me.
I had kids I coached that between a baseball piece and academic money would have been fully paid for at D2 schoolâŠ.instead took a sliver to go D1 just to say they â playedâ D1âŠâŠnever got off the bench for the most part.
Iâll save the horror stories of juco ball for another day. 
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I agree with what you said JW.
One thing I will add is the most, not all of the guys that are good enough to play college baseball are usually good to very good studentsâŠ.
Coaches will look for that and use this to help the kidsâŠ.
Ex. You have a kid that a coach really wants but can maybe only offer what amounts to a 1/3 of baseball schollyâŠ. if they were a really good student the coach will work with the people in charge of the academic scholarships to get that kid a really nice âfinancial aidâ package and get him as close to full as possible.
They have to get creative but it can get done.
My son got what amounted to about 50% athletic and 40 % academicâŠâŠafter his freshman year the baseball side bumped up enough to where with academic it covered just about everythingâŠâŠI just supplied a car and spending money.
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Yes, very true. There is leeway there for academic money. I know a lot of coaches ask âhow are his gradesâ or get transcripts before they ever make an offer so they can pair as much academic aid from the school as possible as well.
If itâs a high academic kid with a 4.0 GPA and high test scores, etc. they may only give that kid 30% baseball money because they know they can also get that kid 40-50% academic money. Theyâll then take the other 20% baseball scholly money and now they can go get that CF they really need with a 2.5 GPA and give him 70% baseball $ or whatever.
The 11.7 actually creates one heck of a super complicated jigsaw puzzle. And that money is never guaranteed year to year, either. So a kid can go to school on 70% baseball money, not perform well and the coach tell him at the end of the season heâs lowering it to 25% for the next season. Now the parents and kid have to decide whether they can afford an additional 15K next year or the kid should enter the transfer portal, etc. etc. Itâs quite a mess.
Thatâs why Iâm surprised the Big 10 isnât getting more baseball talent. The Big 10 is the only conference in the country where your athletic scholarship is guaranteed for all 4 years. Itâs in the Big 10 charter. I would have thought that would have helped the Big 10 schools get really good in baseball⊠but the weather. A kid wants to play baseball in warm weather, especially considering the season starts on Feb. 14. No kid wants to play baseball in Minnesota, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, etc. in Feb. Granted those teams go south for the first part of the season. But they also have to practice indoors when at home and are generally well behind the southern teams in February and March.
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