2019 College Baseball Thread

No kidding. All Dave Brundage ever did for the Braves, Mariners and Giants was win games, at every level. Looked like a sure-fire MLB manager at 34, still at triple-A 20 years later, while so many other with less credentials flamed out at the MLB level.

 

It might depend on the organization. The Braves gave Brian Snitker the major league job after he'd spent about 30 years managing every team in their farm system. Mike Shildt also worked his way up through the Cardinals' organization.
I don't think there are a lot of guys who go straight from the minors to the pros, though. The general career track seems to be minor league manager to MLB assistant coach to MLB manager.

 

Even Snitker spent several years in Atlanta as bullpen coach (1985, 1988-90) and several more (2007-13) as third-base coach before going back to manage in the minors.

 

Or the broadcast booth to the MLB dugout. Seems to be working well for Aaron Boone. Never thought a guy with his Jan. 1 roster could be considered for Manager of the Year. But with what they’ve done in the face of attrition is amazing. And I say this as someone who despises that team.

 

Veering back to college baseball, I thought it was kind of wild that all of these things converged not just at the College World Series, but all on the same side of the bracket. The four teams in Bracket Two of the CWS are Mississippi State, Auburn, Louisville and Vanderbilt and their coaches and programs have some weird six degrees of separation stuff going on among them:

• Auburn coach Butch Thompson grew up in Amory, Miss., about 45 minutes from Starkville, and spent seven seasons as a Mississippi State assistant coach.
• Thompson also recruited a lot of the players on Mississippi State's current roster, including pitcher Ethan Small. Small will start when MSU and Auburn play each other on Sunday night.
• The wives of Louisville coach Dan McDonnell and Vanderbilt's Tim Corbin are good friends.
• McDonnell and Mississippi State's Chris Lemonis are best friends. They played together at The Citadel, were on that school's coaching staff together, and then McDonnell hired Lemonis as an assistant when he was hired at Louisville in 2007.
• McDonnell is the godparent of Lemonis' two daughters.
• McDonnell was also an assistant at Ole Miss from 2000-06. That has nothing to do with anything else, other than it's a third coach in this bracket with some sort of tie to Mississippi and makes it a bit of a shame that Ole Miss couldn't have made it to Omaha as well. Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco has a son playing for McDonnell right now.

 

I was watching the FSU-Arkansas game in a bar and had no volume, so I don’t know what the commentators were saying. But I’m curious as to why Arkansas lifted its starting pitcher when it did. The guy’s pitch count was up, so I guess that’s why, but just like Parrish for FSU, he was throwing lights out. For those who didn’t watch, that was a hell of a game.

 

He was well over 100 in his final inning. Parrish was more efficient and was at 97, I believe, heading into the eighth.

I was at the game, so that’s the best of my recollection and without knowing the commentator analysis.

 

It does nothing to tarnish his legacy at Florida State, but I am gobsmacked that Mike Martin didn't win multiple national championships -- let alone even just once -- with the quality of the program he built at Tallahassee. No matter our rivalry, I have the utmost respect for what he did for FSU. It will be difficult to find someone his equal.

 

Yeah, when you get that many cracks at anything, and you're as consistently good as they've been, you'd think things would have broken their way at least once. That there would've been one year where they just had a superior team or got some lucky breaks that every championship team gets. That they didn't -- and never even got close, really; they only made the championship game twice in all those trips to Omaha -- is insane.

 

I find Vanderbilt's black pinstripe uniforms to be incredibly bad assed.

 

I know it's not an exact comparison, but the FSU 0-for-18 at the CWS doesn't have anything particularly close in basketball. Closest is Kansas State, which has been to the final eight on 13 occasions without a title.