Kentucky Baseball 2022

[FtWorthCat]

I nominate Terry Shumpert for next UK manager (too bad we aren't actually looking for one). He is one of the top players in UK history. I think he is a volunteer assistant at McCracken County now, and that is the best program in the state over the last five years. A fine human being by all accounts from anyone I've ever known that came into contact with him (my brother-in-law is a former legion coach in the area). His first cousin is Mookie Betts' mother, and he was an early mentor to Mookie. Certainly wouldn't hurt to have Mookie putting in a good word for UK on the recruiting trail.

Terry Shumpert - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[SeanCain]

Would have been the incoming freshman JULIUS SCEARCE. Committed to UK a long several years ago. Was allegedly told by the staff that they wouldn't have a spot for him at UK.

I understand that this is a part of college baseball, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth and probably hurts UK in recruiting. Kid is committed to UK for UK for 2-3 years and then gets told by the staff just prior to school starting that they don't want or can't use him. They could have told him this in the spring when he had a chance to get into other schools and be more selective, but instead they wait until the last minute. Now he has to be scrambling to find a new school, probably a JUCO school at that. Kid should be planning and preparing himself for the excitement of going to college and all that comes with that, and instead he's left last minute panicking about even finding a college to take him.

This to a kid that went to Fredrick Douglass in Lexington. So, I would imagine that this decision also leaves a sour taste in the mouth of those involved with that program and will leave them not trusting UK and this staff moving forward.

Isn’t this the second time this has happened to an incoming freshman in the past two years? I’m really surprised it’s a Frederick Douglass kid considering who their coach is.

 

[DFBJR11]

11.7 is likely a product of title 9 as you say.

The rule applies to everyone, but there are some ways that certain schools can kind of work around it. Vanderbilt has done this.

Essentially, Vanderbilt as a university has a program where any family making under a certain amount of money is eligible for a scholarship of some sort. It is needs based. I don't remember the number, but it is pretty high... something like a combined income of under $200,000 or $300,000 is eligible for a scholarship. So, they can give the allotted 11.7 to certain players and then give needs based scholarships to those that don't get a baseball scholarship. They cannot have both, only one or the other. Vandy would argue that their school is extremely expensive and this levels the playing field by lowering the cost of attendance and making it similar to what other schools might have to pay. Others might argue that it gives them an unfair advantage as they can sell to more players that they will be on some sort of scholarship.

An interesting thing going forward will be what happens regarding NIL and how that effects someone like Vandy. Might not hurt them at all, but it could in many ways level the playing field as players can get a lot of money from a larger fanbase than Vandy might offer.

Hey on a different matter can you give us a rundown of all the players that left UK after this past year, where dd they end up?

 

[Comebakatz3]

Hey on a different matter can you give us a rundown of all the players that left UK after this past year, where dd they end up?

This is what I've got:

Trae Harmon - Stetson

Cam Hill - Stetson

Cole Daniels - Michigan

Jimmy Ramsey - Oklahoma State

Dillon Marsh - Oklahoma State

Brendan Hord - Evansville

Jack Hicks - ???

Ron Cole: ???

Drew Grace - Maryland


Don't see anything on where Hicks and Cole are going. JUCO would be my guess, but I haven't seen any article saying anything and their Twitter still has UK stuff and doesn't mention new schools.

 

[DFBJR11]

This is what I've got:

Trae Harmon - Stetson

Cam Hill - Stetson

Cole Daniels - Michigan

Jimmy Ramsey - Oklahoma State

Dillon Marsh - Oklahoma State

Brendan Hord - Evansville

Jack Hicks - ???

Ron Cole: ???

Drew Grace - Maryland


Don't see anything on where Hicks and Cole are going. JUCO would be my guess, but I haven't seen any article saying anything and their Twitter still has UK stuff and doesn't mention new schools.

Thank you

 

[enjyretirement2020]

This is what I've got:

Trae Harmon - Stetson

Cam Hill - Stetson

Cole Daniels - Michigan

Jimmy Ramsey - Oklahoma State

Dillon Marsh - Oklahoma State

Brendan Hord - Evansville

Jack Hicks - ???

Ron Cole: ???

Drew Grace - Maryland


Don't see anything on where Hicks and Cole are going. JUCO would be my guess, but I haven't seen any article saying anything and their Twitter still has UK stuff and doesn't mention new schools.

Interesting how a couple of players ended up at the same schools. (Stetson and Oklahoma State) Seems like those schools targeted our players....just waiting for the opportunity. Wonder what kind of money the two guys got at Stetson with it being a private school like Vandy. Cole Daniels went home I see.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Interesting how a couple of players ended up at the same schools. (Stetson and Oklahoma State) Seems like those schools targeted our players....just waiting for the opportunity. Wonder what kind of money the two guys got at Stetson with it being a private school like Vandy. Cole Daniels went home I see.

Oklahoma State has a handful of former UK players on their roster because former UK assistant coach Roland Fanning is now their Director of Player Development. So, you have both Ramsey and Marsh going there as well as Matt Golda and Jake Thompson.

Thompson is an infielder that never saw time on the field at UK. He hit .342 for OSU this past season. Golda started at short for UK and hit extremely well in 2020 for UK, but struggled this past year at OSU hitting just .175.

Also doesn't hurt recruiting that former big leaguer Matt Holliday is their volunteer assistant/hitting coach.

Stetson, I believe, gave very good deals to Harmon and Hill. Pretty sure that Hill kind of had his pick of the litter with a whole lot of schools contacting him. I think that Jimmy Belanger at Florida State was looking to get both Harmon and Hill, but they just couldn't offer the same package that Stetson was, among other things like more likely to get PT.

Michigan is a great landing spot for Daniels. Very competitive team and he'll fit in well there.

The transfer stuff is interesting because different teams treat it in different ways. I heard that one school basically was having an open tryout type thing for transfers and they would reach out to those they were interested in and then wanted them to come to campus to meet and compete against the others and then the coaches would decide who to take. Some seem to act as though the player is a commodity while others act like they are doing the player a favor by reaching out. Just very different styles from different coaches/teams.

 

[enjyretirement2020]

Oklahoma State has a handful of former UK players on their roster because former UK assistant coach Roland Fanning is now their Director of Player Development. So, you have both Ramsey and Marsh going there as well as Matt Golda and Jake Thompson.

Thompson is an infielder that never saw time on the field at UK. He hit .342 for OSU this past season. Golda started at short for UK and hit extremely well in 2020 for UK, but struggled this past year at OSU hitting just .175.

Also doesn't hurt recruiting that former big leaguer Matt Holliday is their volunteer assistant/hitting coach.

Stetson, I believe, gave very good deals to Harmon and Hill. Pretty sure that Hill kind of had his pick of the litter with a whole lot of schools contacting him. I think that Jimmy Belanger at Florida State was looking to get both Harmon and Hill, but they just couldn't offer the same package that Stetson was, among other things like more likely to get PT.

Michigan is a great landing spot for Daniels. Very competitive team and he'll fit in well there.

The transfer stuff is interesting because different teams treat it in different ways. I heard that one school basically was having an open tryout type thing for transfers and they would reach out to those they were interested in and then wanted them to come to campus to meet and compete against the others and then the coaches would decide who to take. Some seem to act as though the player is a commodity while others act like they are doing the player a favor by reaching out. Just very different styles from different coaches/teams.

Oklahoma State having that past relationship with those players really capitalized on that. I remember they red-shirted Thompson. Agree, Holliday doesn't hurt your recruiting pitch!! Like I've said in the past, most players seem to thrive once they leave UK.

I too heard that Hill had around 30-40 schools contact him. Who wouldn't want a player that would run through (or climb) a wall for you? Harmon was probably looking for the opportunity to play the field instead of consistenly being a DH. Private school=more money.

I would think most schools had a problem figuring out what to offer transfers since the draft was so late this year. Hard to know what you have when you still had that lingering possibility of keeping or losing a number of players.

A tryout? What player would do that? If you had any cred, would you really go tryout for a chance to make a roster? That just blows my mind that teams would ask for that.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Private school=more money.

A tryout? What player would do that? If you had any cred, would you really go tryout for a chance to make a roster? That just blows my mind that teams would ask for that.

Stetson is also a pretty competitive school. They have been to the NCAA tournament 18 times in their history and won a regional in 2018. They were actually a 1 seed that year and hosted a regional. So, they are a successful program that can make the NCAA tournament and be competitive in the tournament.

I forget what team it was that wanted the tryout. It was an ACC school. I want to say maybe Virginia Tech or something? Basically, the coaches didn't want to do much research and watch much film to see how good a player was, they wanted the player to prove it to them in person. Probably didn't work out very well for them. haha

 

[mrschwump]

Oklahoma State has a handful of former UK players on their roster because former UK assistant coach Roland Fanning is now their Director of Player Development. So, you have both Ramsey and Marsh going there as well as Matt Golda and Jake Thompson.

Thompson is an infielder that never saw time on the field at UK. He hit .342 for OSU this past season. Golda started at short for UK and hit extremely well in 2020 for UK, but struggled this past year at OSU hitting just .175.

Also doesn't hurt recruiting that former big leaguer Matt Holliday is their volunteer assistant/hitting coach.

Stetson, I believe, gave very good deals to Harmon and Hill. Pretty sure that Hill kind of had his pick of the litter with a whole lot of schools contacting him. I think that Jimmy Belanger at Florida State was looking to get both Harmon and Hill, but they just couldn't offer the same package that Stetson was, among other things like more likely to get PT.

Michigan is a great landing spot for Daniels. Very competitive team and he'll fit in well there.

The transfer stuff is interesting because different teams treat it in different ways. I heard that one school basically was having an open tryout type thing for transfers and they would reach out to those they were interested in and then wanted them to come to campus to meet and compete against the others and then the coaches would decide who to take. Some seem to act as though the player is a commodity while others act like they are doing the player a favor by reaching out. Just very different styles from different coaches/teams.

Holliday's dad, at least I think the guy was his dad, coached Oklahoma St for what seemed like eons.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Holliday's dad, at least I think the guy was his dad, coached Oklahoma St for what seemed like eons.

According to Wiki, Tom Holliday is Matt's dad. He coached 7 years at OK State. Now, Tom's other son, Josh, is coaching Ok State and has been since 2013. Matt joined the staff a few years ago (2019), after he retired from playing in MLB.

 

[mrschwump]

According to Wiki, Tom Holliday is Matt's dad. He coached 7 years at OK State. Now, Tom's other son, Josh, is coaching Ok State and has been since 2013. Matt joined the staff a few years ago (2019), after he retired from playing in MLB.

Thanks, that's a long run for the Holiday family. My son played against Matt as a 14y/o in a national youth tourney in Dublin, O. Matt played for a team out of Nebraska which won the tourney. Fun times.

 

[enjyretirement2020]

Class of 2022
Bryce Blevins decommits.
Lawrence Co pitcher

 

[CockyCat3]

D1

This is what I've got:

Trae Harmon - Stetson

Cam Hill - Stetson

Cole Daniels - Michigan

Jimmy Ramsey - Oklahoma State

Dillon Marsh - Oklahoma State

Brendan Hord - Evansville

Jack Hicks - ???

Ron Cole: ???

Drew Grace - Maryland


Don't see anything on where Hicks and Cole are going. JUCO would be my guess, but I haven't seen any article saying anything and their Twitter still has UK stuff and doesn't mention new schools.

Not sure if this is just an error or what, but D1Baseball has Cole Daniels going to Toledo, not to Michigan. Everything I have seen said Michigan, but I wonder if something happened there and now he is at Toledo?

 

[Comebakatz3]

D1

Not sure if this is just an error or what, but D1Baseball has Cole Daniels going to Toledo, not to Michigan. Everything I have seen said Michigan, but I wonder if something happened there and now he is at Toledo?

Hmm... not sure. Neither the Michigan nor the Toledo rosters list him, but I am not sure they list any transfers.

This has him as Toledo:

Cole Daniels - Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League - player

Pointstreak Sports Technologies

baseball.pointstreak.com

Also looks like the commitment tweet that Daniels initially posted saying he was going to Michigan is now gone.

 

[micatz]

Hmm... not sure. Neither the Michigan nor the Toledo rosters list him, but I am not sure they list any transfers.

This has him as Toledo:

Cole Daniels - Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League - player

Pointstreak Sports Technologies

baseball.pointstreak.com

Also looks like the commitment tweet that Daniels initially posted saying he was going to Michigan is now gone.

Talked to him about a month ago when he was down here moving out of Lex... Said that Michigan had a rule that not even the coaching staff new about. Michigan will not accept transfer students who have completed more than 60 credits because you have to complete your last 60 at UM. Couldn't drop down to 60 because that would drop his average per year in school below fulltime status and he would be ineligible to play sports. New transfer rule seems cool but there are still bugs that people have to think about before transferring. Said that he found all of this out a couple weeks after he committed. I believe Toledo is correct but not sure

 

[Comebakatz3]

Talked to him about a month ago when he was down here moving out of Lex... Said that Michigan had a rule that not even the coaching staff new about. Michigan will not accept transfer students who have completed more than 60 credits because you have to complete your last 60 at UM. Couldn't drop down to 60 because that would drop his average per year in school below fulltime status and he would be ineligible to play sports. New transfer rule seems cool but there are still bugs that people have to think about before transferring. Said that he found all of this out a couple weeks after he committed. I believe Toledo is correct but not sure

Thanks for the update. That is pretty crazy. Let that happen to a football player going to Michigan and see how quickly that rule changes. haha

 

[dtjr]

Class of 2022
Bryce Blevins decommits.
Lawrence Co pitcher

Any idea why?

 

[jseebold]

Class of 2022
Bryce Blevins decommits.
Lawrence Co pitcher

Another one today.

 

[dtjr]

Another one today.

View embedded media

Ugh - Committed to us a year ago.

This guy had some impressive numbers from Illinois.
99 MPH exit velocity
6.6 60 yard dash
OF with wheels

 

[Comebakatz3]

With these happening in such close proximity to one another, it makes me wonder if they were possibly the result of the staff doing evaluations after summer camps or something like that. It could be pure coincidence and both just decided to look elsewhere, but the timing makes me wonder a bit.

 

[enjyretirement2020]

With these happening in such close proximity to one another, it makes me wonder if they were possibly the result of the staff doing evaluations after summer camps or something like that. It could be pure coincidence and both just decided to look elsewhere, but the timing makes me wonder a bit.

Could they be having conversations with past/current/transfer players? Could they be thinking Mingione will not be there when they arrive on campus in 2022? Could they have been told we don't want you?

 

[Comebakatz3]

Could they be having conversations with past/current/transfer players? Could they be thinking Mingione will not be there when they arrive on campus in 2022? Could they have been told we don't want you?

I suppose it could really be anything. Still, just thought it was strange/interesting that the two happened relatively close to one another.

 

[dtjr]

With these happening in such close proximity to one another, it makes me wonder if they were possibly the result of the staff doing evaluations after summer camps or something like that. It could be pure coincidence and both just decided to look elsewhere, but the timing makes me wonder a bit.

According to PG we had 13 high school commitments in the upcoming class.

7 Pitchers
3 OF's
2 catchers
1 SS

Now we have 11 high school commitments

 

[SeanCain]

According to PG we had 13 high school commitments in the upcoming class.

7 Pitchers
3 OF's
2 catchers
1 SS

Now we have 11 high school commitments

I’m anxious to watch them practice this fall.

 

[enjyretirement2020]

I’m anxious to watch them practice this fall.

I think the class they are referring to is 2022.

 

[Comebakatz3]

 

[SeanCain]

View embedded media

You heard anything going on so far this fall with the team?

 

[Comebakatz3]

You heard anything going on so far this fall with the team?

Nope. Fall is pretty quiet until we get later into the year. After the fall series and they do player assessments and coaches and players rank the players at certain things. Hard to get those though. Lol

 

[dtjr]

You heard anything going on so far this fall with the team?

KSR has a pretty rosy article on the team over the weekend.

Mostly pumping up the new transfers and how they will all potentially start.

Hopefully the offensive numbers they each put up in the lesser conferences transfer to the SEC.

https://www.on3.com/teams/kentucky-...ll-kentucky-baseball-wildcats-look-like-2022/

 

[enjyretirement2020]

KSR has a pretty rosy article on the team over the weekend.

Mostly pumping up the new transfers and how they will all potentially start.

Hopefully the offensive numbers they each put up in the lesser conferences transfer to the SEC.

https://www.on3.com/teams/kentucky-...ll-kentucky-baseball-wildcats-look-like-2022/

Where does Church fall into this lineup?
Didn't they have a juco transfer that was also an infielder other than Harris?

 

[dtjr]

Where does Church fall into this lineup?
Didn't they have a juco transfer that was also an infielder other than Harris?

I would have had Church starting at 3B but he got pushed aside middle of last season.

Jase Felker from Rend Lake College originally from Caldwell County. Plays 3B.

 

[enjyretirement2020]

I would have had Church starting at 3B but he got pushed aside middle of last season.

Jase Felker from Rend Lake College originally from Caldwell County. Plays 3B.

So again, you have a log jam in the infield. I guess you will always need a pinch runner. haha

 

[Comebakatz3]

Where does Church fall into this lineup?
Didn't they have a juco transfer that was also an infielder other than Harris?

If I had to guess, Church may move to 1st while Church backs up 1st. Felker stays around 3rd and backs up. Both pinch hit.

 

[CockyCat3]

KSR has a pretty rosy article on the team over the weekend.

Mostly pumping up the new transfers and how they will all potentially start.

Hopefully the offensive numbers they each put up in the lesser conferences transfer to the SEC.

https://www.on3.com/teams/kentucky-...ll-kentucky-baseball-wildcats-look-like-2022/

Funny that article didn't talk about pitching at all?!

 

[Comebakatz3]

Funny that article didn't talk about pitching at all?!

You expect good baseball reporting from KSR? Lol it would be nice though.

 

[CockyCat3]

You expect good baseball reporting from KSR? Lol it would be nice though.

D1baseball has Ryan Ritter as the #2 position player in the Cape Cod league this summer! That's big!

 

[Comebakatz3]

D1baseball has Ryan Ritter as the #2 position player in the Cape Cod league this summer! That's big!

He had one heck of a summer at the plate. Not sure what he ended up with exactly but something like .370 is what I saw at one point. Will be interesting to see if he can keep that hot streak alive. I thought it was interesting that he largely played 2nd in the Cape.

 

[mrschwump]

Funny that article didn't talk about pitching at all?!

Maybe they'll come out with an article exclusively on pitching.

 

[SeanCain]

Maybe they'll come out with an article exclusively on pitching.

Mitch Barnhart is on KSR today at 11am. Jones said yesterday one of the questions he is going to ask him is why has so many kids left the baseball program. I’m interested to see how that goes.