U Penn Baseball

JABMK,

I think most of us that follow Ivy baseball are waiting to see what the new coaching staff does in terms of recruiting and how the team performs in the Spring 2014.  I know several people that attended their recruiting camp in late Sept that walked away less than satisfied with the format, value, and organization.  It is tough to evaluate a program with a new coaching staff until they've got on the field to play some games.   Last year they had some really good players (Engelhardt and Bossart immediately come to mind) that will be returning.  Personally, I really like their campus & stadium.  It is very different, but different strokes for different folks. 

Penn plays in the Ivy Gehrig division (with Columbia, Cornell, Princeton)  which recently has been the tougher overall division.  The last 3 Ivy champions have come from the Gehrig.   Penn has some work to do to improve their conference records from 7-13, 8-12, 10-10, 5-15, and 6-13 the last 5 years.  They'll play 12 games within the division and 8 games against the Rolfe Division (Brown, Dartmouth, Harvard, Yale) which makes improving their record that much harder. JMO.

I would echo Fenway's remarks about the fall clinic.  My son actually asked to leave on Saturday because he thought it was an absolute waste of time.  The schedule called for 2 rounds of on-field BP.  They cut it off promptly on the hour before a few groups got their 2nd round leaving a few dozen kids very disappointed without explanation.  There must be some union there if they could not extend another 20 minutes to accommodate kids who paid a lot of money and came a long way.  I think the fact that he really did not like the baseball facility played into it as well.  Make sure you like NOISE when you go to a game there.  The field sits between a superhighway, a power plant (i think), and train tracks (boxcars, not electric commuter).  There is enough ambient noise to give you a real headache after a few hours.

Did I understand correctly a few weeks ago that Dartmouth's doing okay in the Rolfe?  

Sorry OP and Prepster if my wording was confusing.  Here is my point:

Penn plays in the tougher division based on results the last 3 years.   Within that tougher division they'll play 12 games out of 20 total conference games. They also play 8 games (out of 20 total) against the weaker overall conference.   This is going to make it more difficult to improve their overall conference record. 

However, the Ivy League is very unpredictable.  Recently, two teams went from last place the previous year to conference champion the following year in 2011 (Princeton) and 2012 (Cornell).  But, in order to do that there must be a significant influx of talented freshmen along with established talented players....not to mention luck in a 20 game conference season.  There is not a lot of roster turnover (except graduation or the occasional draft pick) as there is in other big name conferences.  So, freshmen can have an impact.   We'll see what Penn has overall in about 5 months.

I hope that makes more sense.

I always thought Penn's stadium was very nice. It does sit between the Schuylkill Expressway and a chiller plant though. My son played a few games there in high school and I never noticed the outside noise. Once you're in the stadium the high blacked out walls block most of the view.

For a field right in the middle of a city it's really nice IMO.

I had the pleasure to touring campus last January.

I'll say this, if you think the field being next to a highway is an issue then going to college in downtown Philadelphia is probably not going to be your best bet.  

If you are looking for an elite education and want to go to school in one of the most iconic cities in the country, then a field next to highway probably is ok.

Also, they are lucky enough to have access to a bubble for winter workouts.  The bubble is large enough to play 2 full baseball games inside!  Huge!

Rich

www.PlayInSchool.com/bus_tour  (UPenn will be visited next summer)

seventhinningstretch,

Thanks for sharing and I really appreciate your perspective, attitude, and due diligence when it comes to high academic athletic recruiting.  You only get one shot at this stuff with some of these schools.   Your son's shot landed with another academic school...congrats.  That is the best way to play these high academic schools....cast a very wide net.    Sorry, this particular recruiting camp didn't deliver as promised, but we both know that your son probably doesn't want to play for a program that doesn't have their act together at this moment. As for the money "invested" or lost (depending on your perspective ) , I guess that is the cost of doing business and finding the right fit.

I had been in correspondence with 4 others that had a similar experience all around with this camp.  Only one was local, and 3 others had flown in.  One of them committed to a west coast D1 right after the Penn camp ended on the way to the Philly airport to fly home to CA.  Two others were looking at another Ivy and had offers from NESCAC D3s.  The other accepted an offer from a top NESCAC.  I  fully understand that 50+ recruits coming in for 8-10 recruiting spots is going to leave many disappointed, however that situation can be managed with proper communication from the coaching staff.  From all accounts they did not manage expectations very well, thank the recruits for coming in, and follow up immediately with prospects.  Hard lessons to learn if you are running a camp like this and expect to do it again next year.  Clearly there is a lot of work to be done in their organization to make this successful in the future.  The new coaching staff has to figure it out.

Good luck!

I can empathize with all the points in the prior two posts.

Would like to add a fact and an opinion.

Fact: The current head coach is in his seventh year at Penn. During the previous six years he was an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator.His title is new. His tenure with the Penn baseball program is not.

Opinion: Based on correspondence I have seen from Penn, this camp was not described as a tryout for 8-10 spots for 2014s. It was described as a chance to fill in a couple of final gaps in the 2014 class and to get a look at 2015-2016. Maybe others received correspondence that would lead to a different opinion

I agree fillsfan...I could think of much worse facilities to play in.