StateFan2001 said:

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ncsupack1 said:

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Nairo said:

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What has happened with youth sports is depressing with all the greed, selling false hopes and depriving kids of childhood

ncsupack1 said:

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Nairo said:

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Travel club baseball parents often aren't the type to care about ethics and integrity.

StateFan2001 said:

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FourOaksWolf said:

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StateFan2001 said:

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Jtilley said:

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FourOaksWolf said:

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Texas A and M coach reported to be taking the Texas Longhorn job. Wow.

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That was a done deal no matter if he won last night or not. They fired HC yesterday and they have moved very fast on all their big hires of late. Texas AD was his AD at TCU.

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Seems like a bit of conflict of interest to be managing A&M in Game 3 while knowing you will be the HC at their biggest rival the following day. You wonder if the players knew this was coming as well. Not an ideal situation to say the least.

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Yep, freaking wild.

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Not sure I would be comfortable sending my kid to Texas to play for this guy given the way this has been handled.

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We have kept our boys from playing travel ball. Power to those that do.

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Agree. We've seen this happen to a couple of people we know. Wife and I have decided that we aren't going to do this.

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I think you are looking at this wrong. You, as a parent, determine how much involvement your kid has in travel ball. But to just say the whole thing is bad would be incorrect. Some of the best memories my son will have when it is all said and done will be playing travel baseball with his buddies growing up. At the end of the day, it is just another form of playing baseball during the summer. It doesn't have to be focused on chasing a scholarship. The scholarship piece shouldn't even be a consideration with travel baseball until your kid is in HS and has shown an advanced skillset. The rest is just playing ball. Can it be expensive? Yes, sure.

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This. I have coached numerous players who have played competitive travel ball through the middle school and high school years with zero intention of playing college baseball. It used to frustrate me, because many of those kids could've played college baseball on some level. The longer I coach, I realize life is bigger than baseball and if these kids just want to go be a student and chase a degree.. go ahead. If the parents understand that along the way, it can make for some fun years of growing up.. expensive, but lifelong memories.

I made a point to say "often" to avoid a sweeping generalization as I have many friends who are involved in it, and my daughter was briefly until we saw through the bull***** One family we now has spent six figures (by their count) on their kids softball stuff. There are far too many parents falling prey to the cut throat, succeed at all costs, to hell with childhood ethos that permeates youth travel sports. What the A&M coach did, if true, is sadly unsurprising given where we are with society and sports.

StateFan2001 said:

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Nairo said:

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Travel club baseball parents often aren't the type to care about ethics and integrity.

StateFan2001 said:

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FourOaksWolf said:

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StateFan2001 said:

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Jtilley said:

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FourOaksWolf said:

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Texas A and M coach reported to be taking the Texas Longhorn job. Wow.

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That was a done deal no matter if he won last night or not. They fired HC yesterday and they have moved very fast on all their big hires of late. Texas AD was his AD at TCU.

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Seems like a bit of conflict of interest to be managing A&M in Game 3 while knowing you will be the HC at their biggest rival the following day. You wonder if the players knew this was coming as well. Not an ideal situation to say the least.

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Yep, freaking wild.

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Not sure I would be comfortable sending my kid to Texas to play for this guy given the way this has been handled.

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Not sure I understand what you are saying. Everyone plays travel baseball these days. I would venture to guess there is virtually nobody playing college baseball that didn't play travel ball to some extent. So, you are basically saying nobody that plays baseball has any integrity??

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To each his own-If you want to play in college, you have to go this route. It definitely sacrifices some family vacations and some organizations are not run very well.

To call it "all BS" sounds a little like you were in the wrong program or your kids did not enjoy it-pretty blanket statement

BigLefty24 said:

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FLWolf said:

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To each his own-If you want to play in college, you have to go this route. It definitely sacrifices some family vacations and some organizations are not run very well.

To call it "all BS" sounds a little like you were in the wrong program or your kids did not enjoy it-pretty blanket statement

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Not true, you don't HAVE to go this route if you wanna play college ball.

I've spent a lifetime in baseball, including over 25 years in coaching at various levels. If you are college material, college coaches will find you. Our county legion team puts almost 100% of its players in college ball, and a large majority of those are D1 and/or major D2 programs.

Parents are getting fed line by these major travel ball programs in order to line the pockets of a select few coaches and administrators, as well as having multiple lower tier teams in the organizations pay exorbitant fees to fund their one true showcase team.. I could go on an epic rant about this, but I'll save that for a day I've been drinking. lol

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I know someone personally that played triple A ball and never did travel.

ncsupack1 said:

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BigLefty24 said:

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FLWolf said:

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To each his own-If you want to play in college, you have to go this route. It definitely sacrifices some family vacations and some organizations are not run very well.

To call it "all BS" sounds a little like you were in the wrong program or your kids did not enjoy it-pretty blanket statement

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Not true, you don't HAVE to go this route if you wanna play college ball.

I've spent a lifetime in baseball, including over 25 years in coaching at various levels. If you are college material, college coaches will find you. Our county legion team puts almost 100% of its players in college ball, and a large majority of those are D1 and/or major D2 programs.

Parents are getting fed line by these major travel ball programs in order to line the pockets of a select few coaches and administrators, as well as having multiple lower tier teams in the organizations pay exorbitant fees to fund their one true showcase team.. I could go on an epic rant about this, but I'll save that for a day I've been drinking. lol

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I know someone personally that played triple A ball and never did travel.

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I grew up during a time with no travel ball. We played different leagues depending on age. Termite League, Little League, Pony League and Babe Ruth League. We played one game on Saturday. We played 2-3 games a week in Jr. High and High School. When school was out we played American Legion Ball. I never played HS ball. I did play all the other leagues including Legion. My HS has historically had very good baseball teams with 2 3-A State Championships with the 1974 team being considered one of the best ever in NC. Just seemed like all the teams in every sport were clicks. Everyone had to play every sport. Not my style.

we all did in the 80's

We played Little League, HS and Legion Ball. I coached LL and 3 travel teams for 15 years.

95% of kids play travel and that is where the college scouts come to watch them. Like it or not, that is how it was played

FLWolf said:

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we all did in the 80's

We played Little League, HS and Legion Ball. I coached LL and 3 travel teams for 15 years.

95% of kids play travel and that is where the college scouts come to watch them. Like it or not, that is how it was played

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College scouts come to watch about 5% of the travel teams. Travel teams (moreso organizations) sell that dream to the parents of the other 90% of kids knowing they'll never see a scout. They're just milking that money from parents.

70% of the kids on the team I coached during the summer received college baseball scholarships. I'm not sure we ever played in front of a college scout unless his kid was on an opposing team.

BigLefty24 said:

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FLWolf said:

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we all did in the 80's

We played Little League, HS and Legion Ball. I coached LL and 3 travel teams for 15 years.

95% of kids play travel and that is where the college scouts come to watch them. Like it or not, that is how it was played

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College scouts come to watch about 5% of the travel teams. Travel teams (moreso organizations) sell that dream to the parents of the other 90% of kids knowing they'll never see a scout. They're just milking that money from parents.

70% of the kids on the team I coached during the summer received college baseball scholarships. I'm not sure we ever played in front of a college scout unless his kid was on an opposing team.

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You are right to an extent. The part you are missing is those orgs are trusted by college coaches. They have relationships. For example, the State staff has a lot of comfort with the South Charlotte Panthers. If the guy who runs SCP tells Bo or Hart they need to take a look at a guy they are going to do it. I have personally seen Bo Rob at games (at my son's game in fact) last fall. They go to watch specific guys and many times they are watching those guys because the Canes or SCP or whatever reached out and said you need to come see this guy.

wilmwolf said:

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My personal travel ball anecdote is of a family friend who played on a well known team here. He got offered by a JUCO and a community college at a showcase. He committed to the JUCO, and stuck with them despite getting more offers off his play his senior year. He had almost a dozen high school and Post teammates get offers, including one who eventually ended up at State. Now, some years later, he laments giving up the other sports he played in order to accommodate year round baseball. I think there are some good things that can come from travel ball, but a lot of times it's just parents with too much money and delusions that their kid is going to have any kind of baseball career. If you play good high school ball in any decent sized town, someone will find you. There was even a discussion by the announcers during the super regional about how much coaches like kids who play more than one sport over doing the travel ball thing. There's also little doubt that year round baseball is responsible for the huge rise in arm issues and surgeries in younger and younger kids.

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spot on.

BigLefty24 said:

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StateFan2001 said:

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BigLefty24 said:

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FLWolf said:

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we all did in the 80's

We played Little League, HS and Legion Ball. I coached LL and 3 travel teams for 15 years.

95% of kids play travel and that is where the college scouts come to watch them. Like it or not, that is how it was played

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College scouts come to watch about 5% of the travel teams. Travel teams (moreso organizations) sell that dream to the parents of the other 90% of kids knowing they'll never see a scout. They're just milking that money from parents.

70% of the kids on the team I coached during the summer received college baseball scholarships. I'm not sure we ever played in front of a college scout unless his kid was on an opposing team.

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You are right to an extent. The part you are missing is those orgs are trusted by college coaches. They have relationships. For example, the State staff has a lot of comfort with the South Charlotte Panthers. If the guy who runs SCP tells Bo or Hart they need to take a look at a guy they are going to do it. I have personally seen Bo Rob at games (at my son's game in fact) last fall. They go to watch specific guys and many times they are watching those guys because the Canes or SCP or whatever reached out and said you need to come see this guy.

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I'm not missing that part. Those guys have a lot of pull, and I'm sure a lot of them have the best of intentions. The point I'm making is that those same guys are speaking on behalf of of a very minute portion of many of the kids in those organizations. My brothers son played for the Canes National team. They played all over the United States. They FLEW kids in to tournaments from other states. Guess who paid for all those expenses? The 80% of the kids in that same organization that weren't playing on their top tier teams.

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That is all true - agree.

The bottom line with baseball recruiting (for me) is you need as many people in your corner as possible (that have connections with college coaches) unless you are just a mega talent. These programs provide that for players at the highest level of their organizations (think Canes National and Canes American). Recruiting baseball is hard and there are misses everywhere which is why you see so many guys playing for ACC or SEC teams that are transfers from D3 or Juco or low level D1. In some cases these guys just bloomed later but in many cases they were just misses from a recruiting standpoint. We have the flip side as well. A guy like Chance Mako - anybody paying attention to his HS career could see he had electric numbers but really couldn't pitch.

StateFan2001 said:

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The bottom line with baseball recruiting (for me) is you need as many people in your corner as possible (that have connections with college coaches) unless you are just a mega talent. These programs provide that for players at the highest level of their organizations (think Canes National and Canes American). Recruiting baseball is hard and there are misses everywhere which is why you see so many guys playing for ACC or SEC teams that are transfers from D3 or Juco or low level D1. In some cases these guys just bloomed later but in many cases they were just misses from a recruiting standpoint. We have the flip side as well. A guy like Chance Mako - anybody paying attention to his HS career could see he had electric numbers but really couldn't pitch.

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Same as Creed Watkins from last season. Dude was throwing high 90' s every pitch. Could not throw a strike it seems.

Glasswolf said:

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StateFan2001 said:

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The bottom line with baseball recruiting (for me) is you need as many people in your corner as possible (that have connections with college coaches) unless you are just a mega talent. These programs provide that for players at the highest level of their organizations (think Canes National and Canes American). Recruiting baseball is hard and there are misses everywhere which is why you see so many guys playing for ACC or SEC teams that are transfers from D3 or Juco or low level D1. In some cases these guys just bloomed later but in many cases they were just misses from a recruiting standpoint. We have the flip side as well. A guy like Chance Mako - anybody paying attention to his HS career could see he had electric numbers but really couldn't pitch.

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Same as Creed Watkins from last season. Dude was throwing high 90' s every pitch. Could not throw a strike it seems.

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Yep, there are a lot of those guys out there that get every opportunity to show they can't pitch.

StateFan2001 said:

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Glasswolf said:

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StateFan2001 said:

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The bottom line with baseball recruiting (for me) is you need as many people in your corner as possible (that have connections with college coaches) unless you are just a mega talent. These programs provide that for players at the highest level of their organizations (think Canes National and Canes American). Recruiting baseball is hard and there are misses everywhere which is why you see so many guys playing for ACC or SEC teams that are transfers from D3 or Juco or low level D1. In some cases these guys just bloomed later but in many cases they were just misses from a recruiting standpoint. We have the flip side as well. A guy like Chance Mako - anybody paying attention to his HS career could see he had electric numbers but really couldn't pitch.

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Same as Creed Watkins from last season. Dude was throwing high 90' s every pitch. Could not throw a strike it seems.

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Yep, there are a lot of those guys out there that get every opportunity to show they can't pitch.

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Funny that you mention that..we had a kid that pitched for us. Great kid, one of our best players and pitchers. High school season ended (probably his sophomore or junior season), we went into legion ball. We were playing in Rocky Mount and he could not throw a strike. You could see it all over his face. The head coach and the assistant coach for the high school team were helping coach the team. After the game, the two were talking off to the side, I walk up and they're talking about pulling him off the mound and not pitching him anymore. I had a good relationship with the two, but it kinda ticked me off, and I dug my heels in. Told them if they wanted to accomplish anything with that high school team, he needed to be their ace, and we needed to figure it out. A week or so later, his spot came up in the rotation. He's down in the pen, and I'm watching him warm up. I could see the stress all over his face. I walked down, told him "dude, I need you to relax..you are trying to throw the ball through a brick wall and you're losing all of your mechanics..this entire game, I want you to throw at 80-90%, and approach it like a glorified BP session..this crowd we're playing can't hit you throwing at 80%". He shook his head, and I walked away. Breezed through the lineup first time through, and you could see his confidence back on his face by the 4th inning. By the time the game ended, he was having fun and throwing gas again, dotting the strike zone. I think he gave up one hit and probably had 10-12 K's.

Fast forward towards the end of his senior year, he's having a great season.. I'm talking to him pregame out by the outfield, asked him if he had decided on a college yet. He said "man, I haven't gotten an offer.." He had gotten some partial scholarship stuff from some smaller Community College type schools, but nothing of any significance and he couldn't afford to make up the difference.

A few weeks later, we're playing in the Eastern Semi Finals, and he's on the mound. First inning starts, he's dealing, mowing down the other team..Someone put out a Tweet along the lines of "Unsigned Senior ___ is sitting 92-94 in the first inning..12-6 curveball that falls off a table". Literally, within two innings, college scouts and a scout for the Florida Marlins show up. The following day, he had full offers to Virginia Tech, Charlotte, and a host of other schools.

Ended up pitching four years at App State, 6th all time in appearances in school history.

And he almost got taken off the mound of a 1A high school baseball team before his senior season if I hadn't showed my ass after some meaningless summer game. LOL. Crazy.

Interesting that I can't find where he transferred to another school but he was retweeting an bunch of Pack 9 stuff from Omaha

BigLefty24 said:

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StateFan2001 said:

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Glasswolf said:

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StateFan2001 said:

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The bottom line with baseball recruiting (for me) is you need as many people in your corner as possible (that have connections with college coaches) unless you are just a mega talent. These programs provide that for players at the highest level of their organizations (think Canes National and Canes American). Recruiting baseball is hard and there are misses everywhere which is why you see so many guys playing for ACC or SEC teams that are transfers from D3 or Juco or low level D1. In some cases these guys just bloomed later but in many cases they were just misses from a recruiting standpoint. We have the flip side as well. A guy like Chance Mako - anybody paying attention to his HS career could see he had electric numbers but really couldn't pitch.

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Same as Creed Watkins from last season. Dude was throwing high 90' s every pitch. Could not throw a strike it seems.

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Yep, there are a lot of those guys out there that get every opportunity to show they can't pitch.

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Funny that you mention that..we had a kid that pitched for us. Great kid, one of our best players and pitchers. High school season ended (probably his sophomore or junior season), we went into legion ball. We were playing in Rocky Mount and he could not throw a strike. You could see it all over his face. The head coach and the assistant coach for the high school team were helping coach the team. After the game, the two were talking off to the side, I walk up and they're talking about pulling him off the mound and not pitching him anymore. I had a good relationship with the two, but it kinda ticked me off, and I dug my heels in. Told them if they wanted to accomplish anything with that high school team, he needed to be their ace, and we needed to figure it out. A week or so later, his spot came up in the rotation. He's down in the pen, and I'm watching him warm up. I could see the stress all over his face. I walked down, told him "dude, I need you to relax..you are trying to throw the ball through a brick wall and you're losing all of your mechanics..this entire game, I want you to throw at 80-90%, and approach it like a glorified BP session..this crowd we're playing can't hit you throwing at 80%". He shook his head, and I walked away. Breezed through the lineup first time through, and you could see his confidence back on his face by the 4th inning. By the time the game ended, he was having fun and throwing gas again, dotting the strike zone. I think he gave up one hit and probably had 10-12 K's.

Fast forward towards the end of his senior year, he's having a great season.. I'm talking to him pregame out by the outfield, asked him if he had decided on a college yet. He said "man, I haven't gotten an offer.." He had gotten some partial scholarship stuff from some smaller Community College type schools, but nothing of any significance and he couldn't afford to make up the difference.

A few weeks later, we're playing in the Eastern Semi Finals, and he's on the mound. First inning starts, he's dealing, mowing down the other team..Someone put out a Tweet along the lines of "Unsigned Senior ___ is sitting 92-94 in the first inning..12-6 curveball that falls off a table". Literally, within two innings, college scouts and a scout for the Florida Marlins show up. The following day, he had full offers to Virginia Tech, Charlotte, and a host of other schools.

Ended up pitching four years at App State, 6th all time in appearances in school history.

And he almost got taken off the mound of a 1A high school baseball team before his senior season if I hadn't showed my ass after some meaningless summer game. LOL. Crazy.

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Pitching whisperer

I kept telling people last season when Creed was pitching that it seemed as if he was just trying throw everything top end 98 mph. he had no control at all. He just needed to take a step back and take about 2-3 mph off his fastball and he'd find his control. It never happened

Looks like Texas A&M is set to hire the hitting coach Michael Early as their next HC. I wonder if this was a move to stop some of the portal entries?

Some scoop on the @AggieBaseball search:

* A&M made a very furious run ($$) for Tony Vitello. It shot its shot, but TV stayed put and loyal to a program that has given him the keys to the castle.

* A&M also went after UVA's Brian O'Connor, but very dififcult to get him out of…

— Kendall Rogers (@KendallRogers) June 30, 2024

Sounds a lot like a guy I played with that went to Carolina. Consistently mid-upper 90s but would lose confidence the minute he lost the zone. Super talented, but dealt with injuries at unc