We all know that some commit as early as Middle School. But, what's the latest you ever saw someone commit?
Is it November of their senior year? Later? Ever see someone commit during or after their senior year of High School baseball?
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I know a bunch of D3 kids commit during their senior year.
I've seen a couple 2021 kids we know commit over the summer.
**Those kids could be walk-ons for all I know, but they said they committed and are enrolled at the schools.
My kid's class mate committed to a A10 school recently
There was someone (might have been TR) on the board about ten years ago whose son committed to a successful mid major in early August for that year.
Due to an injuries my son committed days before leaving for school. But it was for the following year. He was told to try to walk on the first year. He lost out to a late bloomer pitcher now in the majors. He was a bullpen catcher the first year to be around the team.
Until this late breaking situation with the help of his travel coach making a couple of phone calls the plan was to showcase in the fall and take a couple of JuCo classes. We were informed two classes wouldn’t start the clock.
@Francis7 posted:We all know that some commit as early as Middle School. But, what's the latest you ever saw someone commit?
Is it November of their senior year? Later? Ever see someone commit during or after their senior year of High School baseball?
A HS teammate of sons committed to a HA D3 in March his senior year.
I would think that D3s could commit later because there are no athletic scholarships and some D3s don't care about having 50 kids on the roster in the fall.
I also think those elite blue chippers that any school would love to have can wait long, if that's their plan.
But, for the D1s and D2s, I would think you want to be committed by November of your senior year or else you are losing options.
But this is all just me guessing.
I hear of kids committing to D1's every year during the summer of their start year but as has been said you never know if that is legitimate or walk-on or preferred walk-on. What kids say is not always the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I also know of people who say if I'm walking on then I'm committed.
@Francis7 posted:I would think that D3s could commit later because there are no athletic scholarships and some D3s don't care about having 50 kids on the roster in the fall.
I also think those elite blue chippers that any school would love to have can wait long, if that's their plan.
But, for the D1s and D2s, I would think you want to be committed by November of your senior year or else you are losing options.
But this is all just me guessing.
You keep mentioning November, I'm guessing because of the NLI signing day. Many commits aren't signing NLIs, and there are some that don't sign in November.
Son #1 committed to a mid major in October of SR year. After pitching well at Connie Mack the next summer (late July), he was offered 2 year full rides by several major JC's in Texas. He honored his commitment to the mid major (wonder what if.........), but one of the kids that he was going to roommate with didn't make it to campus. Seems as if he got on the "gravy" train after committing, gained weight, pitched awfully during HS season and summer ball and was politely told "there were better places for him". Replacement roommate committed after pitching against us in the CM regional qualifier in Enid that summer.
So it did and can happen late. At least it used to pre-covid and transfer portal.
August post senior year at a decent mid major. A few days after classes started actually, but before the add/drop period for classes ended.
He was also an ACC commit who didn't get into the school he had been committed to since he was 15. He had borderline grades for an athlete at the school and if I remember correctly he was told he either needed ____ GPA or ______ on his SAT but couldn't have neither. They gave him until June to get the SAT score up and he couldn't do it.
Apparently he got that score up at some point over the summer and the right people passed his information along. He ended up with 3 offers in August post senior year. First year as a walk on, the rest at 50%. I was happy to see him splitting time as a freshman and going 4-4 against the school that dropped him. He's an everyday player batting in the middle of the order a year and a covid season in.
I would also think that there are many more pitchers who are a "late commit" than position players. Schools can always use another good arm. Throwing hard can get you in; throwing strikes and getting swings and misses will have you stick.
Summer after senior year. Kid was an extra arm on my son's loaded team. New JUCO school picked him up. He dropped out soon after, but he did get an opportunity after HS.
I saw 2 kids commit to a D1 during spring of senior year, only one a pitcher. Neither has played more than 1 inning in 2 years.
MidloDad knows the exact story, but a catcher from the local HS was at beach week after graduation and got a call from an ACC program. Apparently the MLB draft took more players than planned, and after the coach made a few contact calls, this player was going from a D3 to an ACC (at the time) school. He was on a 5 year plan and got drafted.
Footnotes: his HS team had just won the state championship. He was drafted in the 39th round and played 2 seasons in the minors and 1 independent.
My son committed to Iowa in September of his senior year. He turned 18 then and for some reason he wanted to wait until then.
Son's old travel teammate (2022) just committed to a Patriot League school
Committing late is in the eye of the beholder. There is a significant difference between a late D1 P5 recruit and a late D3 HA recruit. Each "category" within the college baseball universe has its own recruiting window. Over the years, that window has gotten earlier, but the categories are the same as the talent hierarchy doesn't change.
In @keewarts example above, a similar situation happened to my son. An SEC coach reached out a year after one of his pitching recruits had a legal situation and determined that it is extremely difficult for his recruit to pitch from prison. So, a year later the SEC coach who had recruited my son's travel team catcher was now offering him (academic money) in the middle of the mid-major D1 recruiting cycle as well as Ivy and Patriot recruiting period. Not long after that, the D3 HA recruiting cycle kicked in. I do subscribe to @Ripken Fan's pitcher late commit comment, as I think it is easier to add arms and see what sticks.
There is a poster's son (engineering major) who committed to a D3 HA school in May of his senior year. He had been recruited by D1 and Ivys earlier in the cycle but decided to keep looking. His team ended up going to the D3 College World Series at least twice that I can recall, and got his engineering degree in 4 years (which is no small feat). Sometimes committing late can be a very, very good thing. It depends on the recruit.
JMO.
Last year a previously D3 committed Catcher ended up recruited to the state's D1 school at the end of his senior year, but that was after he won Gatoraid player of the year for that senior season.
I know a couple late bloomer pitchers who played for powerhouse high school programs and didn’t get on the mound until senior year and dominated. They played for the wrong summer programs and didn’t get quality exposure. But they really developed physically and pitching wise senior year.
Area D1’s told them there wasn’t any more money available. But they would have a roster spot and money the following year.
I will preface this post by saying it was a long time ago but there is a point to the story, so… I committed to OU early in my senior year of HS. But I didn’t have a good year and OU reneged on their offer at the 11th hour. I graduated HS not knowing where I would attend college or if I would even play anymore baseball. I attended a Montreal Expo tryout camp (yes, MLB teams used to do that) and had a good enough camp to get 2 Juco offers. Being the idiot that I was I took the wrong one. I didn’t want to pitch (was tired of my arm hurting) and when Red Murff (Expo scout) told Leroy Dreyer (then HC at Blinn College) to offer me a scholarship to pitch I said no thanks. Murff said my only chance to play in college was to pitch. I told him I thought he was wrong and after hitting .220 my freshman year at another school I found out he was right. I transferred to Texas A&M and walked on with 200 other players and 2 of us made the roster - both hard throwing RHPs. I played on 2 SWC Championship teams and played with 6 big leaguers. So it all worked out fine for me. However, I would have never been successful at A&M had I not played the one year of JuCo first. The JuCo year humbled me and taught me (the hard way) that I had to work hard and get better. I would never have had the perseverance or the maturity to make it at A&M had I not gone to JuCo first. That’s one of the reasons that I push the JuCo route so hard. I know what it did for me and I see a ton of HS kids that think they are ready for the big time program - and they aren’t. Just like I wasn’t. But the moral of the story is that every path is different and you can recover from a bad decision if you have enough playing ability. It’s crazy how things work out sometimes.
Adbono … I remember going to MLB tryout camps in the 70’s hoping for word of mouth from scouts to college coaches.
This post is near and dear to my heart. My son literally got offered a spot to a D1 five minutes ago. Late to the process and no baseball money, just a spot on the team. All of their money is already committed to their other recruits. Out-of-state tuition is absolutely brutal so he’s likely going junior college.
@MuskyShane posted:This post is near and dear to my heart. My son literally got offered a spot to a D1 five minutes ago. Late to the process and no baseball money, just a spot on the team. All of their money is already committed to their other recruits. Out-of-state tuition is absolutely brutal so he’s likely going junior college.
I hope it works out for him. What seems like the last resort sometimes turns into the best possible option.
@MuskyShane, a last minute no money offer from a D1 seems exciting to most players and parents. But from the school’s perspective it’s almost always just an insurance policy to them in case a scholarship player gets injured, doesn’t make his grades, etc. If they had genuine interest in your son there would have been a money offer months ago. It’s a long shot that it works out for the player. Don’t get me wrong, long shots pan out every now and then but it’s a low percentage play. More often than not, especially in today’s recruiting environment, no money freshmen on a competitive D1 roster are gone after a year, never saw the field during that time, and end up at a JuCo the next year. That’s just the harsh reality.
@adbono posted:I hope it works out for him. What seems like the last resort sometimes turns into the best possible option.
I agree. His JUCO offer is to an in-town JUCO that made it to the JUCO D2 World Series with a good track record. So his back up plan keeps him close to home (mom loves that) and gives him time to develop more. We had a good conversation about things - his goal as is many kids is to go D1. I told him you were good enough to make a D1 team but the offer was not right. Now head to JUCO, get good grades and work hard, and you may have more schools to pick from in 2 years.
@adbono posted:@MuskyShane, a last minute no money offer from a D1 seems exciting to most players and parents. But from the school’s perspective it’s almost always just an insurance policy to them in case a scholarship player gets injured, doesn’t make his grades, etc. If they had genuine interest in your son there would have been a money offer months ago. It’s a long shot that it works out for the player. Don’t get me wrong, long shots pan out every now and then but it’s a low percentage play. More often than not, especially in today’s recruiting environment, no money freshmen on a competitive D1 roster are gone after a year, never saw the field during that time, and end up at a JuCo the next year. That’s just the harsh reality.
I agree 100%. We actually had a discussion going in that if there's no baseball money he was not going to take it. I learned a lot from this site and one of those is if there's no baseball money at a D1, there's no commitment from the coach. He has a good relationship with the local JUCO, has an offer in hand, and can stay close to home so we can watch games.
@MuskyShane, I’m gonna take a guess that the JuCo you are talking about is Madison. If so, that’s a great choice. I saw Madison play in the D2 JuCo World Series in 2019 and was impressed with their quality of play and it’s a respected program. Being close to home is a big thing. Especially if the team is having a good season as you will want (and be able to) see a lot of games. The difference between playing for a coach that wants you and one that’s willing to take you is huge.