2024 college baseball/softball thread

[dixiehack]

Be sure and enjoy The Last Good Year.

 

[Batman]

I guess the SEC wants to make sure they can show off their new toys in Hoover, but single-elimination sucks for baseball. Or at least making it that way for the entire tournament. The oddball single-double-single format the SEC has been using is kind of fun. I'd have rather seen them find a way to expand that (maybe with a couple of extra or fewer byes) instead of a full-blown single-elimination format.

 

[dixiehack]

I didn’t know you could even get a show cause order longer than 10 years.

Ex-Bama coach sanctioned over betting scandal

Of course he and his buddy have a bit more to worry about than that.

 

[Starman]

Be sure and enjoy The Last Good Year.

Boy, that's some crazy bull****. Apparently they want to make sure their best teams hardly ever win the damn thing.

I imagine you'll probably see most of your top seed teams throw their top pitchers in Game 1, but after that just bring in a conga line from the bullpen-- no point in burning up outs from top pitchers in a tournament that doesn't matter if you win, so I'd guess second round action will be pretty much a full fledged tank fest.

Of course the flip side will be the NCAA selection committee will give about absolutely zero weight to the conference tourney results in making their selections.

 

[Starman]

I didn’t know you could even get a show cause order longer than 10 years.

Ex-Bama coach sanctioned over betting scandal

Of course he and his buddy have a bit more to worry about than that.

If I were the NCAA, I would ring up the head honchos of MLB, MiLB, NFHSA, and every other baseball organization in the world down to pee wee tee ball, and issue a joint statement:

You. Are. Banned. For. Life. No Reinstatement, No Appeal, No Return, Not Now, Not in 10 Years, Not Ever. Find Something Else To Do With Your Life. Go Away, Goodbye. Over and Out, Baseball.

PS: Hi Pete!!

 

[HanSenSE]

I was this old when I found out there was wagering on college baseball.

 

[Starman]

What kind of ****in fools would try to lay a $100,000 bet on a regular-season college baseball game, and NOT think it was gonna set off sirens all around the cyber world?

 

[Batman]

I was this old when I found out there was wagering on college baseball.

I never saw it on the books until last season. There's some money to be made in the midweek games. The odds are terrible, but the games are usually so lopsided that you can string together some ridiculous parlays.

 

[maumann]

Thought legendary FSU coach Mike Martin deserves mention here. Took over the Seminoles the year after I graduated from UF and made them a powerhouse for decades.

https://www.tampabay.com/sports/sem...tin-dies-fsu-florida-state-baseball-dementia/

 

[Donny in his element]

Thought legendary FSU coach Mike Martin deserves mention here. Took over the Seminoles the year after I graduated from UF and made them a powerhouse for decades.

https://www.tampabay.com/sports/sem...tin-dies-fsu-florida-state-baseball-dementia/

Great tributes pouring in. I enjoyed covering him.

Worth noting that FSU was already very good in baseball. Six CWS appearance and a runner-up in the 30ish years of the program that predated 11.

 

[Della9250]

Nebraska softball sensation Jordy Bahl announces she'll miss the rest of the season with knee injury

 

[jr/shotglass]

The Wagner cousins, Luke and Cole, left Georgia in the offseason. In fact, Cole, the one-time LL World Series hero for Red Land (Pa.), planned on quitting baseball altogether before he rediscovered some love for the game and signed with Penn State.

Luke will be pitching for Purdue. Draftable repertoire, shaky command.

 

[ChrisLong]

A note from a couple of weeks ago. USC baseball announced that because of renovations at Dedeaux Field, the Trojans will play all of their home games at The Great Park in Irvine. Free admission. This is probably 40 miles from campus, but it is in Orange County, which is Trojan Country. And, it is five minutes from my house. As the Daily Trojan baseball beat guy in the Roy Smalley-Fred Lynn-Rich Dauer-Steve Kemp era, I might go to some of them.

 

[micropolitan guy]

A note from a couple of weeks ago. USC baseball announced that because of renovations at Dedeaux Field, the Trojans will play all of their home games at The Great Park in Irvine. Free admission. This is probably 40 miles from campus, but it is in Orange County, which is Trojan Country. And, it is five minutes from my house. As the Daily Trojan baseball beat guy in the Roy Smalley-Fred Lynn-Rich Dauer-Steve Kemp era, I might go to some of them.

Dedeaux should be all nice and spiffy for that big series against Rutgers next season.

Has any once-prominent program dropped further than USC? They have been terrible since 2005.

 

[ChrisLong]

Dedeaux should be all nice and spiffy for that big series against Rutgers next season.

Has any once-prominent program dropped further than USC? They have been terrible since 2005.

I think I read somewhere that they are going to convert Dedeaux Field into the swim stadium for the '28 Olympics, then revert to the baseball field afterward. Trojans might be road warriors again for a season.

Regardless, USC has been terrible and had some bad luck, too. Seriously bad coaching decisions, such as getting rid of Mike Gillespie and hiring Chad Kreuter. Kreuter was Gillespie's son-in-law but he badmouthed his wife's dad to recruits. He also was a horrible recruiter. The son of a friend of mine wanted to go to USC, but Kreuter strung him along then stopped taking his phone calls. So the kid went to UCLA instead and became an all-league player on the Bruins national championship team. He was teammates with Gerrit Cole and Trevor Bauer. But there was one year when the Trojans got signed letters-of-intent from three high school players who, a couple of months later, were all first-round draft picks. All three went pro for first-round money. I think the guy they have now, Andy Stankiewicz, is really good. Hope the program recovers.

 

[micropolitan guy]

I think I read somewhere that they are going to convert Dedeaux Field into the swim stadium for the '28 Olympics, then revert to the baseball field afterward. Trojans might be road warriors again for a season.

Regardless, USC has been terrible and had some bad luck, too. Seriously bad coaching decisions, such as getting rid of Mike Gillespie and hiring Chad Kreuter. Kreuter was Gillespie's son-in-law but he badmouthed his wife's dad to recruits. He also was a horrible recruiter. The son of a friend of mine wanted to go to USC, but Kreuter strung him along then stopped taking his phone calls. So the kid went to UCLA instead and became an all-league player on the Bruins national championship team. He was teammates with Gerrit Cole and Trevor Bauer. But there was one year when the Trojans got signed letters-of-intent from three high school players who, a couple of months later, were all first-round draft picks. All three went pro for first-round money. I think the guy they have now, Andy Stankiewicz, is really good. Hope the program recovers.

If they get good again, they've got a chance, because the Big Ten is horrible. Their RPI is going to sink like a stone in 2025, though, with so many bad league games.

I'll be interested to see how the local UC and CSU schools use the Big Ten against SC and UCLA in recruiting. Unlike football or basketball, there are plenty of local options for an outstanding SoCal baseball recruit besides USC and UCLA who won't be going halfway across the country for league games.

 

[HanSenSE]

If they get good again, they've got a chance, because the Big Ten is horrible. Their RPI is going to sink like a stone in 2025, though, with so many bad league games.

I'll be interested to see how the local UC and CSU schools use the Big Ten against SC and UCLA in recruiting. Unlike football or basketball, there are plenty of local options for an outstanding SoCal baseball recruit besides USC and UCLA who won't be going halfway across the country for league games.

The schools lost one recruit from this area because of the conference change for that reason.

No one is slumming playing in the Big West though. Should be a very interesting opening weekend series between UC San Diego, last year's champ but ineligible for postseason while transitioning to D1, and MW regular season and tournament champ San Jose State.

 

[micropolitan guy]

The schools lost one recruit from this area because of the conference change for that reason.

No one is slumming playing in the Big West though. Should be a very interesting opening weekend series between UC San Diego, last year's champ but ineligible for postseason while transitioning to D1, and MW regular season and tournament champ San Jose State.

That's exactly my point. Going forward, after a couple seasons and the real impact is known, a great SoCal prep can perhaps have a better experience at Fullerton, Irvine or Santa Barbara or Northridge than at UCLA or USC, where he'll be flying halfway or completely across the country at least 4-5 times every spring, and playing his conference tournament in Nebraska, Minnesota or Iowa. His/her (softball, volleyball) parents will sure have an easier time attending road games.

 

[HanSenSE]

That's exactly my point. Going forward, after a couple seasons and the real impact is known, a great SoCal prep can perhaps have a better experience at Fullerton, Irvine or Santa Barbara or Northridge than at UCLA or USC, where he'll be flying halfway or completely across the country at least 4-5 times every spring, and playing his conference tournament in Nebraska, Minnesota or Iowa. His/her (softball, volleyball) parents will sure have an easier time attending road games.

Don't have the link handy, but the recruit also cited the expense to the parental units, flying to Ann Arbor, Columbus, ect., vs., say, Pullman or Tucson. Big West? Biggest flight is to Hawaii every other year.

 

[jr/shotglass]

Hats off, my man. Hats off.