College Walk-Ons making it to MLB 2012

Brett Gardner, attended tryouts and walked-on at the College of Charleston, out fielder for the New York Yankees.

You'll see more walk-ons from the past because in the past, there simply wasn't that much scholarship money to be had in baseball.

And there is more scholarship money now? With 11.75 now I am curious exactly how that equates to things previously.

I know that previously many colleges used to give small amounts to kids to "try out" in the fall and then would sometimes give uplifts to the ones that made the cut. With amounts being as low as $500 or so it equated to dang near everyone being on "scholarship". With the new rules of 25% and 11.75 and no more than 27 out of 35 then would this not make for more "walk-ons"?

I guess it depends on how far back you want to look.

The 11.7 limit (once upon a time, it was 13.0) was installed to keep a few highly funded programs from monopolizing all the talent. But there has never been a time when every D1 program was fully funded for the maximum. You see full funding in major conferences as a rule, and at strong mid-majors as well, but many mid-majors have only some of the limit budgeted even to this day, and indeed there are still many D1's with no scholarship money to offer.

It really wasn't until the 1990's that scholarship money became more plentiful for baseball players.

Here's a question though, that is slightly off topic but related to the scholarships. I am curious how many of the seniors have their scholarships drop off when they hit their senior year? Is it common to still keep a senior on scholarship? In the business sense that player is essentially out of options. If they were an impact player then they would probably have been drafted already and there really isn't much sense in staying for your senior year to "improve" your draft spot since the pros would look at it as you having now lost the ability to negotiate since once your have finished your eligibility you are truly out of options. So why would the college keep you on scholarship as opposed to giving the dollars to an incoming freshman?

Just curious how that piece normally plays itself out...

First of all, just because you are an impact guy at a college doesn't make you a pro prospect. Just like being an impact guy at your high school doesn't make you a college prospect.

Secondly, I'm sure schools drop scholarships (some schools are notorious for it - I will not name names) but that is a pretty low class move. Considering the blood, sweat and tears a 4 year player has given a program if coaches start pulling money they will start losing players.

Every athletic department has turnover but baseball's crazy long schedule tends to create even higher turnover then some other sports. So again, punish guys for sticking around and you will soon have to recruit 20 guys a year because you will never keep players.

If anything, many coaches will throw these guys a bone for sticking it out. Like that NCAA commercial says, everybody is going pro in something - most will not be going pro in sports.

Rich
www.playinschool.com

Some schools are more cutthroat than others. You need to do your homework before you commit.