I knew a couple of freshmen had gone elsewhere, but I did not expect a couple of transfers to drop off. Justin Herbstman from Va. Tech is not on the roster and Tony Rossi from DIII is also not on the roster. I had looked forward to seeing both as I heard they were both very talented. On the other hand, there are some in from JC now on the roster. Will Hector do a piece on the roster?
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I don’t know what happened. I do know with the two freshmen that dropped out one from New Hampshire was drafted high and signed to pro contract while the one from South Jersey went to a small school.
As to these transfers, I stopped by when they were playing an inter squad exhibition, and the father of the one from Susquehanna told me his son was out that day with a minor injury, but was raring to go. I can’t find anything more recent on the web about him. Hopefully, it was just an oversight because a guy who is that big, leads his team in stolen bases and bats over .400 piques my curiosity, even if it was DIII.
I also can’t find anything more recent on the Internet about the guy who transferred back home after redshirting at Virginia Tech. I heard positive things about him as well. Maybe Hector can help if he reads this.
There are certainly plenty of bodies now, not many we have seen here before though.
I was a bit confused about something else – – I googled one of the transfer names and saw that he had been the number 12 overall prospect in the United States, regardless of position, and had three years of eligibility. I was about to post about him. Turns out it is another transfer with the same name that came here — but hopefully he is pretty good too.
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I’m really curious myself. I still hope that Hector writes something up on the roster at some point.
I guess that yearly roster turnover is going to be the theme going forward in baseball even more than in the other sports. So every year will be a surprise.
Last year just seemed odd because most of the numbers seemed OK bud didn’t translate to wins and losses. One glaring exception was passed balls — RU amazingly had 20 to the opponents six. Wild pitches were also about 50% higher, even though the walks were not higher, so I’m guessing RU did not make as many good blocks even where it did not go down as a wild pitch. And the ball always seemed to find its way to the back stop at the worst time. I wonder how much effect that had on the bottom line. And I wonder if they have cured that with the roster changes.
Someone who seemed knowledgeable posted a lot of admonitions on here to not underestimate the importance of solid catching to the bottom line – – I forget who it was.
Great pitchers NEED to feel like they can hold on to that 2 strike slider or curve a little longer and bounce it.
If they have the slightest fear their catcher isn’t adept at blocking the “throw it in the dirt” breaking ball it will result in hitable pitches at the worst times.
I’m old, you couldn’t throw a ball past Grote, Bench, Fisk, Carter, Yaeger etc….
They were human walls
So you also think that this fear will keep a pitcher, consciously, or unconsciously, from throwing his sharpest breaking stuff? I don’t know anything about these nuances, so I am curious. I also wonder if a batter will sense all this and change the approach at the plate.
Thanks – – I’m just thinking back on what I watched this past year and putting it into context with the above. Besides the WP’s and passed balls, the other guys just always seemed to be so clutch, beyond what their numbers said they should have done against RU. I guess you are saying it’s part of the same domino cascade. So now I wonder what kind of effect the changes they made in the off-season will have.
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The was a DL in the portal that was discussed here that entered the portal 4 times and changed committment 3 times from Dec '23 to May '24. I guess it happens if you never signed whatever LOI.
Perhaps they never sign anything anymore?
You know when they’re enrolled in school
I know that in college baseball, a greater percentage of the signees wind up not coming than in other sports. But this is still strange. Tony Rossi was a big transfer signing from what I read, and I heard his father talk about his status and the fact that he liked it here so much. And now nothing shows up on him at another school when I Google. Also nothing on the New Jersey left-handed pitcher who went to Virginia Tech, redshirted, and then transferred back here. That’s why I’m still wondering if leaving them out of the roster could have been a mistake. For the freshman that signed but did not show up you can see that one went pro and one went to a lower division.
Ididn't know baseball players bounce around that much. Sounds like FB and BB although I guess they also can sign pro contracts. Is that until they start school or the season starts?
I will be at the First Pitch Dinner on Saturday and expect to have a clearer picture of the upcoming season.
Also curious -- is the rumor that Zack K. is out for the year with Tommy John surgery correct? What happened to the transfers who signed and enrolled but are not on the roster? Any other buzz? Thanks!
Sort of related, but my son’s summer club coach last year has been a JUCO coach for 30 years.
He said anytime you see a catcher get drafted in later rounds - like 20+ - the MLB team doesn’t have any expectations he’ll “make it” as a player.
They are drafting him 100% based on how he catches. Literally catches, not even throwing. They could care less.
If a guy projects to be able to catch, hit and throw, he’s definitely gone in the first 10 rounds.
But pitchers are so important, there’s so many of them, and they are pretty temperamental - so a guy who receives the ball well is in very high demand.
So...they are literally drafting guys who they hope will one day develop into being a quality bullpen catcher.
It is such a unique position and so technical.
Passed balls are pretty unacceptable at the high D1 level, in my opinion. We had way too many last year. But in their defense this is probably a byproduct of changing pitchers with greater frequency. Everyone’s ball moves differently.
Technically you’ve got less than a handful of bonafide MLB prospects on every minor league team, including AAA.
“The best of the rest” are there so the prospects can play.
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