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2013 Commitments

redbird5redbird510,000+ posts
2013 Andy McGuire, Madison SS/RHP, committed to Texas.

Andy plays for the Canes and previously played for the Stars.

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PISPIS1,000+ posts
VaPreps has reported that Nick Walker (Tidewater Drillers, Kellam H.S. - 2013) has committed to Old Dominion University.

The article can be found on the VaPreps baseball site. You may need membership to access full story.... http://virginiapreps.rivals.com/default.asp?type=6

If you don't know Walker, you can see him and the rest of the talented Drillers here....
http://www.playinschool.com/drillers/walker.html

Rich
www.playinschool.com
Midlo DadMidlo Dad10,000+ posts
"Irrelevance" is not right. I would say summer travel ball is a bigger part of the process now, but school play will always be important.

Though it sounds like this kid actually did quite well as a sophomore, there are times when someone is hurt during the school year and then fine during the summer; there are times when a high caliber soph. is stuck behind some strong seniors on his school team, but finds a summer team where he can get a good opportunity; there are even times when the HS coach is just not the sharpest knife, and you would never want that one guy to roadblock a kid's future. So, it can indeed happen that a junior who didn't play much the prior year might well get recruited.

But to do so, he would be well advised to cultivate his HS coach as a positive reference, at the very least. It'll still be important whether the coach knows that he's doing well in school, whether he has a positive, team-oriented attitude, etc.
redbird5redbird510,000+ posts
Nick Walker played behind Justin Lee last year at Great Bridge so his ABs were limited. ODU saw him several times this summer with his Tidewater Drillers team. They were impressed enough to make an offer. Nick is a very talented middle infielder who moved to Virginia Beach this summer and will play at Kellam.

Good kid and good player. Congrats!
Last edited by redbird5
D dblemup100+ posts
quote:
Originally posted by sullyfan:
As far as High School being irrelevant, I would say that any kid who isn't a MAJOR contributor for his High School team, is a complete reach by the college scouts.

It's the same as the combine mentality in the NFL.


Please explain your analogy to the NFL combine v HS baseball? I have some experience at both and I am not sure what you are saying, other than you have been very negative here.

Please make a point...I mean other than you are not happy with the recruiting process.
Last edited by dblemup
D dblemup100+ posts
quote:
Originally posted by bballdad2016:
quote:
Originally posted by luv baseball:
That's pretty good for kid who I don't think has played an inning of varsity ball yet.


Kellam HS and The Drillers both have great programs and excellent coaches. I have seen both. So yes, it is pretty good for Nick Walker. Congrats to the Walker family. ODU is a great school.


Agreed...we lost site of the original post...Congrats to Nick and his family!
Midlo DadMidlo Dad10,000+ posts
Congratulations to Luke Scherzer, RHP/1B from Powhatan, on committing to Virginia Tech!

Luke will join Va. Cardinals classmate Mac Caples as cornerstones for the Hokies' 2013 recruiting class. They will also join 2012 LHP Kit Scheetz as Cardinals off this year's roster to head to Tech.

Luke makes the 12th Division I commitment off this year's Cardinals roster thus far, and the 3rd 2013 player.
Last edited by Midlo Dad
redbird5redbird510,000+ posts
I think it is due to a couple of things:

1) The growth of playing on college campuses (increased exposure)
2) The accelerated recruiting timeline (See a school like VT for example...last year, only had 1 early commit. Already has a handful right now)

I wouldn't necessarily say the 2013 class is more talented, though. (Even though, it could be).
Midlo DadMidlo Dad10,000+ posts
I think the talent in the Richmond area was a bit thinner in the 2010-2011 classes than in the surrounding years of 2007-09 and 2012-14. Whether that went on statewide is hard for me to say. That being said, there were certainly lots of top notch guys in those 2010-11 classes, just didn't seem like as many of them, and in particular I don't remember as many 90+ pitchers then.

But I think the numbers of commitments are up strictly because of the acceleration of the recruiting time line in recent years. I myself was caught off guard at how quickly college coaches moved on players when summer play started last June. For those who get a lot of their spade work done during the summer preceding, and the fall of their junior years, early commitments are getting pretty commonplace.

I remember firmly that in the class of 2008, only three players in the state were holding offers before Christmas of their junior years. So it's been a rapid and pronounced change in approach by college coaches.
joemktgjoemktg5,000+ posts
quote:
Originally posted by PIS:
I for one am over the 2012's, 13's, heck all the way to the 2016's


Rich's tongue is firmly planted in cheek, but although joemktgson is a 2016, the accelerated timeline has not escaped my attention (nor has it escaped a few of the other 2016 Dads). And it's a concern. We're starting to see the bell curve shift to earlier times, starting with the outlier 2014s committing. I'm looking at a continued shifting timeline, and working backwards, it says that joemktgson (given his collegiate baseball aspirations*) needs to start to be seen during the summer after his freshman year(!), which means that he needs to work on his physicality now so that one year from now he is competing at his highest level possible going into his HS winter workouts. It also means that if he wants to be seen during that summer after his freshman year, he needs to identify whom he desires to see him, after 8th grade. My god, the fact that I have to consider these variables now borders on some level of insanity, before he is even in high school.

At some point the earlier looks/commits will need to settle down: let the kids hit puberty first.

We're getting off topic, but since the notion of "earlier" was raised, wanted to communicate to the more experienced forum participants what this parent of a next gen player is contemplating, and I'm not alone.

*joemktgbride and I have post-HS aspirations related to academics and strength of alumni network. We also have aspirations relative to a rich and learning HS social life, i.e., balance. We can't let the shifting timeline impact balance.
Last edited by joemktg
Midlo DadMidlo Dad10,000+ posts
When the trend towards earlier and earlier commitments was discussed here regularly say, 2-3 years ago, my opinion was that it was perfectly OK as long as both sides to a deal had done their homework and were mature enough to make the commitment then and there. But I also said that to me, the trend had to stop somewhere, because obviously there's a point beyond which the risk of the college's mis-evaluating a kid (either too highly or perhaps not highly enough) was just too great. And the same thing works in reverse. Heck, I don't know how the coach, the player or the parents can know if the kid can hack it at a particular school even academically, until the player posts a few semesters' worth of grades at the HS level.

To me, junior year is plenty early enough. Summer before junior year should be reserved for a literal handful of top prospects. Going beyond that is just not smart for either side.

The flip side of this is that there are always going to be "late bloomers." I'd hate to see colleges start closing out the slots in their recruiting classes so soon that too many deserving kids have opportunities foreclosed.

I also don't see how coaches can go but so far, since recruiting a class has to involve some projection of what your needs in that class will be, and beyond the obvious point that you'll always need several pitchers, I don't see how anyone could have a crystal ball back but so far.

All of which is to say, I think this trend will reach its end point on its own, by coaches, players and families putting the brakes on all on their own.

I'm not a big fan of the NCAA's penchant for regulating everything (and typically making things worse in the process), but if the parties actually don't put on the brakes on their own, I will make an exception and start rooting for the NCAA to step in and establish some sort of rule on earliest possible time to do more than watch a kid play.
N NOVABBall13100+ posts
My guess is that as colleges move to get the commitment of players earlier and earlier that you will, at some point, then see more schools and athletes opting out of the agreement and changing their minds. Currently its rare and considered bad form to do it but you see it in other sports such as football and basketball all the time.

Every time you regulate you're going to have the unintended consequence so its always better to let the "market" figure it out. If "figuring it out" means that a commitment isn't really a commitment until the NLI is signed and the kid attends school then I guess that's what will be the new standard...
Midlo DadMidlo Dad10,000+ posts
To clarify, I don't think there's any need for further rules at this point.

If the time table moved up as much in the next 3 years as it has in the next 3 years, we'd be heading for problems.

I'm betting that won't happen, because I think we're going to see that neither coaches nor players will be interested but so early. At some point we'll hit a wall. I for one can't see either a player or a coach wanting to commit to someone prior to their sophomore season. Maybe there'll be a rare exception here and there, but I just can't see recruiting kids off the JV squads.
LB luv baseball5,000+ posts
quote:
Originally posted by Wildcats17:
Congrats to Nick Walker and wish him well at Kellam. He played on the JV squad last year and did not have any at bats, but he could have played for several varsity teams in the area.


Interesting quote. At programs like Great Bridge you could probably say that about 3-4 kids every year. In the last 4-5 years they've had kids that would have been 3-4 year starters at as many as 20 schools on the south side that didn't crack the lineup until JR or SR season.
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