UVA and VT early commits?

I doubt they are finished with the 2011 class. Both schools lost players to the draft, and Virginia Tech lost their recruiting coach to Boston College. Perfect Game lists 8 commits for Virginia and 3 commits for VT. For Virginia, Nathaniel Abel (Haymarket, VA), Christian Binford (Hagerstown, MD), Derek Fisher (Rexmont, PA), Nicholas Howard (Olney, MD), Kevin Matthews (Richmond Hill, GA), Barrett O'Neill (Ashland, MD), Mike Papi (Tunkhannock, PA) and Kenny Towns (Burke, VA) are listed as 2011 commits including four pitchers, two outfielders and two middle infielders.

For VT, Beau Bowen (Indianpolis, IN), Brendon Hayden (Twin Lakes, WI) and Kyle Prats (Miami, FL) are listed as 2011 commits including a pitcher, corner infielder and outfielder.

Good luck. With Gambino's departure from Tech, suspect Virginia may be further along with their recruiting. They tend to recruit out of state first, and in state second. I am sure there are other commits that Perfect Game has not listed.

It may not be too late. PG lists 14 players in the top 500. Eight are already committed, including Jake Cave (LSU), Leland Clemmons (UNCC), TJ Costen (South Carolina), Matt Kianka (VCU), John McConnell (ASU) , Shawn Morimando (ECU), Nick Thompson (ECU) and Kevin White (South Carolina). The other six are not (according the dated list), including five pitchers - Nick Christopher (Dinwiddle), Deshorn Lake (Menchville), Joe McGillicuddy (Woodson), John McGillicuddy (Woodson) and David Spinosa (St. Anne Belfield). Some of those may have recently committed and shortened the list, but there are plenty of other arms out there if the schools are interested.

Obviously, two or three of the players will never see college, making room for others to attend college.

McGillicuddy boys have verbally committed to Marshall.

Thanks for the update bxbomber. Any words on the others?

Josh Sborz from McLean is a 2012 but made his decision to commit to UVA earlier this month.

Id expect this recruiting cycle to maybe be a rather tough one for VT with all of the recent turnover on their staff, but that program has come along nicely under Hughes the past two years. Hope they can keep it up!

Don't worry about VT! They will have a decent team next year. While VT lost two recruiters and several players, Coach Hughes is still the "head" recruiter and knows how to get it done and there were a number of talented players that did get much playing time this past year due to injury or being behind one of the kids drafted.

At least half of the drafted players from this year's team were never pg top anything before arriving at VT........

I agree and I look for Andrew Rash to have a break out year for Tech.

Philly Inquirer reports:

Mark Zagunis/Holy Cross-NJ/2011/Catcher/Virginia Tech

Tech will be fine, they have the pitching. When Turgeon was there he really didnot do much in development of the secondary pitchers, these are the guys who are now ready to step up and get this done, thats how you continue a successful program. The ones who were behind the ones that got drafted are not the ones who will make the difference it will be 2-3 incoming freshman and the catcher morgan. Rash will have a big year mixed in with Shaban & Smallings that will be the 3-4-5 guys, they will match up well with any others in the ACC. They will make the ACC tounament they will finish in the top 20again and they will continue to be over looked and under respected and will continue to have 3-5 players drafted, as far as PG rankings they really don't count for much, if you don't participate in any PG event or WWB then how will they rank you and the more events the better your rankings going up.Hughes has things in the right direction and all of his 2011 have committed and ready to be Hokie

A whole lot of good things have happened in Blacksburg, but when you lose your starting catcher and your entire weekend rotation in a single year, you have to expect a bit of regrouping to go on. So look for good things, but maybe not another top 25 ranking in 2011.

I think VT be ok at the catching position and will have some depth like they did last year. You may even see one or two of the catchers playing in the outfield or dh. They have some decent experienced pitching coming back with Zecchino, Fisher, Joyce and Mantiply. Plus I assume Labitan will be coming back from his injury, he threw a lot of ininings as a freshman 2 years ago. I am interested to see what Matt Blow does. If he has a big year the offense will put up a lot of runs as they will have at least two three legit power bats from the left side.

quote:

as far as PG rankings they really don't count for much, if you don't participate in any PG event or WWB then how will they rank you and the more events the better your rankings going up.

Cycle31,

Someone should ask coach Hughes if he thinks PG rankings are very accurate or if they're just based on how many PG events a player attends? We have known him for a long time (since Boston College days) and have great respect for him.

It gets old when people who don't have any idea say these things. We don't just scout PG events. A player would need to be completely unknown by nearly everyone for PG to ignore him. Truth is that well over 80% of those in college world series rosters were ranked by PG. Also close to 80% of all those drafted by MLB clubs. That doesn't mean that no player is ever missed.

Chris Lambert who Pete Hughes recruited to Boston College almost went unrecruited and was ready to give up on getting a baseball scholarship. He later became Boston Colleges first and only first rounder under Pete Hughes.

what other event does PG scout when you say the player would have to almost completely unknown for you guys to miss him?

Interesting question! Anyone who attended and watched the Eastern Regionals would certainly have different opinions and rankings about some of the players.

Cycle31 PG has scouts that see many HS players each year playing HS baseball. They have baseball contacts from coast to coast that provide them with very valuable information on players. They also attend many tourneys and showcase events each year. There are many players each year ranked that have never attended a PG event.

This is just one example. I called Jerry Ford to tell him about a 2007 RHP that played for me in HS. I told him the kid was for real and he needed to get someone out to see him. One week later we were playing at Roxboro Person HS and there were two men there that scout for PG. The next time the rankings came out this player was ranked. He never attended a PG event prior to this ranking. He was later drafted by Tampa.

I could give you many more instances of players being ranked by PG that never attended a PG event prior to being ranked and in fact some never attended a PG event period.

How credible would PG be if they only ranked players that attended their events? Most of the top players ranked have attended a PG event and its because most of the best players in the country every year attend a PG event. But the fact is they see many players that do not. And when they do see a player that deserves to be ranked they indeed are ranked.

There are scouts not affiliated with PG that constantly tell PG about players. There are college coaches not affiliated with PG that provide information on players all the time. There are HS coaches that do the exact same thing. And every travel team coach that has a player they believe should be ranked makes sure PG knows about them.

Do some guys fall in the cracks and get left out from time to time? Do some guys simply fly under the radar for certain reasons? Are some guys better than they are ranked? Of course this stuff happens. But its not because PG is not trying everything in their power to make sure the rankings are as accurate as possible and every kid deserving to be ranked is ranked. And if you have not seen a kid and no one has told you about a kid then its pretty hard to get a ranking on him. But those kids are few and far between.

If you know of a kid that deserves to be ranked in your opinion email PG and tell them about the kid. Give them some contacts to reach out to and ask about the player. Give them a scouts name that has seen the kid play. Give them the summer teams , HS coaches contact information.

I have no idea why anyone would want to think they dont want to get it right as they possibly can. The fact is they do.

First of all, I was writing the following when Coach May posted above. I really appreciate his support. However, it's amazing that we said the same thing in a different way. I don't know why I reply to these things, guess I tend to take things too seriously. It's been a long road!

Cycle31, pretty much every event out there that has a proven track record of having lots of talent.

This of course would include at the top, events like USA Baseball including TOS and Junior Olympics, East Coast Pro, Area Codes. PG has people in charge of every state. Also, we deal with the top teams from nearly every state. These programs tend to know most all the talent in their area. We also have a strong relationshipwith MLB Scouting Departments and most top DI recruiters.

Keep in mind that MLB scouts run the East Coast Pro. They are looking for the best talent in the eastern part of the country. The players they invite become somewhat of an unofficial list.

El gato, I haven't been following this very closely. Which Eastern Regional are you referring to? Anyone can have opinions, in fact, anyone can even have their own rankings. Some just have more credibility associated with them. Sometimes I think people believe that we just pull names out of a hat. Truth is we actually see more players than any scouting organization in baseball. Everyone is wrong at times, including us!

Of course, once talent is recognized we try hard to get that player to a PG event. That is why such a large percentage of the top players end up at PG or WWBA events.

Yes, we still miss some, but not many. People really need to see a large number of highest level players from everywhere in order to rank players. It should be obvious to anyone who follows this stuff that most who publish or post player rankings simply work off the PG list which is always first and proven to be the most accurate. We do the work (see and evaluate), they become experts (read and copy). One costs a fortune while the other way is very inexpensive. Pretty much use the same names, just switch them around a little to make it look different.

Even when we do make a mistake about a player, most all the others will somehow make the same mistake.

We are not perfect, our rankings change frequently. Someone we don't know about today, we could rank a top 100 player by tomorrow... Our opinions actually change over time, just like everyone else.

If there is a player who is a top prospect we might have missed, send us their name. We have the ability to check things out in a hurry.

quote:

At least half of the drafted players from this year's team were never pg top anything before arriving at VT........

Just to make it clear, my point is that Coach Hughes doesn't need to sign any of the last 5 remaiming PG top 500 players in VA to have a sucessful recruiting class.

I think all the players drafted from VT this past year do appear in the PG database and I think its fair to say that most of these players have improved a great deal over the last few years.

How does the 2010 VT class stack up in the PG data base

Cycle,

I looked at last year's Virginia Tech's roster on their website.

Here are links to the players we have reports on from there high school days, most having attended PG events.

Chris Kay
Michael Seaborn
Buddy Sosnoskie
Tony Balisteri
Tim Smalling
Luke Padgett
Marc Zecchino
Anthony Sosnoskie
Matthew Price
Danny Farris
Sean McDermott
Charlie McCann
Andrew Rash
Austin Wates
Jesse Hahn
Matt Blow
Justin Wright
Steve Domecus
Tyler Horan
Ben Rowan
Ronnie Shaban
Manny Martir
Kyle Cichy
Joe Parsons
Chad Morgan
Jake Joyce
Brent Zimmerman
Patrick Scoggin
Joe Mantiply
Clark Labitan

That's 30 players.

These are all files from when those players were in high school. Much of the scouting info is in the database and is confidential (available to college coaches and MLB scouts only.

Please don't ask for U of VA because it is an even bigger list.

impressive work.

thanks for your efforts

Interesting that VT has been able to attract so many transfers, even since the advent of the one-year sit-out rule.

I know the father of one of those transfers posts here at times, perhaps he could share why they made the move.

I also know that one of the players on that list above used to post here himself when he was in HS. Though we haven't heard from him in a while, I wish we could get his perspective, too.

Cycle31, in contrast to what VT has done with the 2011 in state class, they nabbed two of the top 500 (according to PG) in the 2010 class. They are Chad Pinder and Jake Joyce. Virginia nabbed two of the top 500 (Mitchell Shifflett and Austin Young), and Old Dominion (Cody Cox) and Richmond (Eric Mayers) nabbed one apiece.

In the 2011 class, only VCU has a top 500 in state commit (Matt Kianka). The other nine commits have gone out of state.

Eric Mayers actually ended up at VMI. He got a release from UR and then switched to VMI last spring.

Midlo Dad, thanks for the updated information. Still amazed at the statistical oddity. Six of the top 14 in state 2010 class are or will be attending in state schools, and, at this juncture, only one of the top 14 in state 2011 class will be attending an in state school.

Has anybody seen an official release from UVA or VT about their 2011 baseball commits? Perfect Game listed ten commits to UVA and six commits to VT. PG identified UVA's commits as Derek Fisher (PA), Kevin Matthews (GA), Mike Papi (PA), Nicholas Howard (MD), Barrett O'Neil (MA), Kenny Towns (VA), Brandon Downes (NJ), Christian Binford (MD), Nathaniel Abel (VA) and Nate Irving (NY). VT had Brandon Hayden (WI), Carson Helms (CT), Matt Snyder (NY), Kyle Prats (FL), Sean Keselica (NJ) and Beau Bowen (IN).

Not sure about VT, but UVa did not provide a release last year after the early signing period. A lot can happen over the winter and spring, including the MLB draft next June.

quote:

Has anybody seen an official release from UVA or VT about their 2011 baseball commits?

I don't think they are allowed to do this until the signing period closes and they verify that all the paperwork is in order.

Neat story about the Sosnoskie brothers who played for Winchester Post 21 back in 2005 and 2006.

Coach Hughes called Head Coach Jason Miller and wanted to see Buddy play during the summer of 2006. I believe it was Coach Hughes 1st summer with Va Tech.

Coach Hughes showed up in Winchester in mid June at James Wood High School after flying into Dulles from somewhere and liked what he saw in Buddy (2007 grad). Side note, his brother, Anthony (2006 grad) was making arrangements to go to (DII) Dominican up in New York on some type of scholarship.

To make a long story short after Anthony played extremely well in the Legion State tourney which was around Aug. 10-12th timeframe, some way, some how ... Va Tech got Anthony enrolled and accepted within less than 2 weeks as Momma Sosnoskie basically dropped him off with his bags and personal belongings without knowing where he was going to be sleeping at night.

If a school wants you bad enough, its amazing how fast they can make things happen.

True story about Anthony Sososkie but his career went south his senior year and his playing time went down. I've been told that Buddy transfered to Frances Marion because he did not like the way his brother was treated. Buddy was drafted by the Royals this year.

Question... For those who would know.

I take it "Buddy and "Merritt" Sosnoskie are the same person. Is that right? Merritt Sosnoskie
Anthony Sosnoskie

I believe that is correct.

quote:

Originally posted by PGStaff:
Question... For those who would know.

I take it "Buddy and "Merritt" Sosnoskie are the same person. Is that right? Merritt Sosnoskie
Anthony Sosnoskie

Yes, Buddy's proper 1st name is Merritt.

The perception is that Steve Domecus had a really solid year which affected Anthony's PT.

Somebody is keeping score/track of the commitments. PG has already ranked the top 100 baseball classes (subject to additional signings and the June baseball draft I presume). Read em and weep.

5 North Carolina
9 Florida State
12 Georgia Tech
18 Clemson
19 Virginia
21 NC State
32 Miami
40 Maryland
44 Boston College
54 Wake Forest
69 Duke
70 Virginia Tech

quote:

Somebody is keeping score/track of the commitments. PG has already ranked the top 100 baseball classes (subject to additional signings and the June baseball draft I presume). Read em and weep.

Who should be weeping?

Golfball,

I think that was aimed at Tech fans for having the lowest ranked 2011 class in the ACC--so far.

Your team has no need for tears.

Swampboy,
PG shows that Virginia Tech picked up six 2011 kids. Four of those are position players with only two being pitchers. I don't have access to the PG top 500 list but maybe there are more pitchers on the list than position players? If that's the case, maybe that's why they are farther down the list? That being said, I am very surprised Virginia Tech did not recruit any 2011 Virginia kids. There was certainly plenty of talent to be had here in-state. I only saw Tech at one of my son's summer team's games and that was at East Cobb. There was lot of talent on that team I thought would have been worth checking out. I'm not sure if they were at the Commonwealth Games in July.

A couple of reasons VT doesn't stay at home to recruit.
The entire coaching staff is not from Virginia. For that matter not from a border state either.
VT has almost as many JC transfers in each class as HS signees. They most be devoting some time and resources there.
JMO

VT recruits little to none in VA. 90% of the roster is from out of state and there are quite a few red-shirts. Pretty poor for a state school. I strongly suggest that VA players stop going to VT camps. They have no problem sending out email after email and cheap xeroxed fliers, but with only 7 Virginia residents on a 35 man roster, something needs to give or in our case, not give$$.

I'm not saying they do not have a succussful program, but UVA does quite well with 90% in-state players - just the opposite of VT. VT claims they cannot get the top players, truth is they don't even want them.

Send your kids to UVA and other VA camps that actually recruit our kids.

Before anyone goes off the deep end, please realize that PG's rankings use a point system, where points are awarded based on how highly ranked a given recruit is.

There is a flaw in this system, in that it rewards programs that recruit a lot of kids. Some programs only recruit a lot in years when they really need a lot. Others recruit a lot year after year and then cut players who're already there year after year, too.

If a program projects that it has only a handful of guys leaving at the end of the year, and if it is not one prone to cutting players already on the roster, then it may only recruit 5-7 guys in some years. With that number of recruits, you simply will not accumulate enough points to be listed among the top classes.

To answer the other question above, neither pitchers nor non-pitchers are weighted any differently just because of their positions. Though I think it's just a fact that by far, more of the top-ranked players are pitchers and more of the recruits are pitchers than any other position. But then again, most college rosters are at least 45% pitchers (or 2-way guys). So this is not a bias in the rankings, more a reflection of reality.