After reading all these posts along with yours I’ve decided to add Coastal to my non-official Top 40 list.
I understand your concerns. I think I mentioned the fact that Coastal is a top team. In fact, many would consider them a top 40 team. Some might even consider them a top 20 team.
I was talking about a top 40 program (whatever that is, I didn’t invent the term). I think Coastal has done an amazing job and I really like their coaching staff. I may not know as much as you about Coastal, but I do know they have a great program. We might be a little more knowledgable about them than you think. They come to several of our events and we like those guys.
quote:Sorry for losing my cyber-temper a bit but these types of ad-hoc analysis by an acknowledged expert can do harm imho.
What does ad-hoc analysis mean?
Are you serious. Acknowledged expert? Do harm?
I follow players, Allan Simpson from pgcrosschecker could maybe be called an expert on college baseball. His opinion of the top 40 programs would mean much more than mine. Heck, he probably would have included Coastal for all I know. I really spend most of my time on high school players. I don’t even have any idea who all the top high school teams are posted on our site or pgcrosschecker.
This was simply my opinion based on no research. Guess I don’t feel so important that I could somehow “harm” a program by not including them. I mean, not even you could say the Big South is one of the top conferences, can you? It wasn't meant to cut down any program within the conference.
Here is what I think…
If you ask 10,000 players around the country including high school prospects what the top 40 programs are, what programs would they most like to attend… I think that would be the mysterious top 40. That would include how many wins and how far they went in the tournament, but so much more than that. Resources, climate, tradition, facilities, media attention, fan support, players drafted, academics, coaching, administrative support, the list goes on and on. Yes, the football schools can have an advantage because most of them have more money/resources among other things. That is especially true in the South and West (good climate areas) when it comes to baseball.
One thing that has become very obvious to me is that college baseball is all about coaching. The best coaches can win anywhere. Coastal has one of the best. So maybe there is a legitimate reason for calling them a top 40 in addition to good players and winning lots of games..
Listen, we all know that things get decided on the field. I probably could have easily put Coastal on the list originally. But believe me, I’ve made much bigger mistakes than omitting Coastal from this list that was thrown together quickly. I was expecting some discussion and disagreement, but didn't think it would cause anyone to actually get mad.
quote:If you are going to talk about them please get the facts straight however. Birmingham Southern is no longer in the Big South and are now a D3 school. Winthrop has recruited SEC type talent in the recent past. Alex Wilson could play for any team in the country and is as good as any pitcher. He recently transferred to Texas A&M.
Yes, sometimes those darn facts are important.…
I was just going by the Big South records from there website, didn’t notice it was from two years ago. Was referring to schedule strength. Birmingham Southern was listed and they didn’t finish at the bottom of the conference that year. Once again just referring to the conference strength. I know that there are some real good teams, just not one of the top "conferences" in the country.
Also, because of what we do, we get lots of questions regarding colleges. There are players who signed with Coastal this year that have parents who have asked me about the program. I’ve told them that Coastal is a power and they should seriously consider that school. Also mentioned the great coaching staff. In fact, one of those parents posts right here I believe. Pitcher from your neck of the woods.
quote:Lately, it seems that "rankings" especially from high profile showcases are what dominate the site. We have gone from a site where a kid announced what school he signed with to now announcing what their "rankings are" in addition to where they signed. Perhaps if you don't have one of those rankings you are not any good. I don't believe the rankings cover every player, and I don't believe they predict who the best teams are simply by adding up who scored the highest ranking recruits. Somewhere, someone has to play and perform. I will agree that the rankings often follow the best teams but I know for a fact they do not always predict who the best players are nor do they predict exactly who the best programs are.
I would agree with a lot of that, we all know that predictions are not always correct.
I really don’t understand your reference to rankings. I’m sure that Coach Gilmore would love to recruit the highest ranked players away from Arizona State, Florida State, Clemson, Stanford, etc. Heck, he just signed a player we have ranked fairly high.
More importantly, I don’t understand why you feel this site is dominated by rankings or showcases, guess I haven’t noticed that. In fact, I personally never talk about showcases on this site unless if asked a question. Never have, it’s not why I spend time here. Also never talk about player rankings and until this thread didn’t bring up any rankings of teams either. I’m a bit confused as to why you would bring that up. I don’t post when we have events or advertise anything that we do. Never have! Didn’t even want an ad on this site. Never posting our events or trying to get kids to attend them on here. Never put links to our scouting service or even our site! I can’t stop what others might post, but I’m not part of the rankings or showcases dominating this site. Not even a very small part. No part in fact! I wish they would take all showcase information and ranking discussions off the site. It would actually make it more enjoyable to me.
Anyway, I have always liked your involvement here. You sure haven’t worn out your welcome as far as I’m concerned. I believe you are one of the favorites and most important people here and you have added so much to this site. You’ve also brought up some very good points in this thread. I wish you would have just said “I disagree with that list, Coastal Carolina has done such and such and belongs. But I understand and can even appreciate your passion. Then again, why not get mad at Boyd’s list because he spends ten times as much time following colleges than I do. He even has a formula he uses and it doesn’t pertain to rankings or recruiting. How did he escape your anger?
Anyway, once again, after doing a lot more research and hearing what has been said here I’ve decided to add Coastal Carolina to my list. I really don’t think it will mean anything to anybody, but just in case I’ve added them to my original list through that wonderful editing feature. Sorry for the mistake.
Also, I’m pretty sure you have done much more to help your son and have done nothing here that could ever hurt him. Here’s hoping both he and Coastal Carolina have a big year.
I hope my good buddies from U of San Diego don’t see the list or I’ll be in even more trouble.
Now would someone else please be kind enough to post there list of that "top 40" everyone always talks about and take some of the heat off. In the meantime I'll think twice before doing something like this again.