*****Portal Watch

[Pawleysvol]

You must have listened to the 247 podcast. Those guys do a great job.

Indeed I did. I couldn’t listen with Wes Rucker on it. Was not a fan. Ben McKee is the go to when it comes to all things Tennessee baseball. He said the other day he can then taking 3-5 more transfers which surprised me

 

[VolFan_stuck_in_the_901]

Been gone a couple of days for 4th activities, did I miss out on any new portal nuggets?

 

[BruisedOrange]

. Outside of top 150, these are likely meaningless. Leveraging algorithms that have no material inputs due to redshirts or limited to no PT.

But, but... algorithms are smarter than people! Right?

 

[volfan411]

Vols have add at least 1 more left hand pitcher. They have Blanco and Chandler Day. That’s it. Unless we get lucky and get one of our two blue chip lefties on campus. They really need to add 2 more lefties from the portal.

And Blaine Brown

 

[CAVPUT]

Need a baseball portal fix. Anyone?

 

[SPEDVoL14]

Hopefully we can close our Brodie Purcell from USC. Would be a nice bullpen addition

 

[WGWTFA98]

Ben McKee at 247 said we will add 3-5 more transfers

Too high imo

 

[WGWTFA98]

Think Ford is more of a corner OF/IF. Don't think he has the speed to play center.

I think Levi (if Ford doesn't make it to campus) will get the first crack at 1B.

Per the norm with CTV, there will be a guy we don't see contributing that comes out of nowhere and surprises us all

Ford is playing CF in the cape this summer. He’s an athletic kid.

It’s essentially impossible to predict a lineup right now because 1) we don’t know who’s going to be on the team post-draft and 2) almost every single guy on the team can play numerous positions

 

[CAVPUT]

But, but... algorithms are smarter than people! Right?

 

[Pawleysvol]

Too high imo

Are you thinking 2-3 more?

 

[cardvolfan]

Are you thinking 2-3 more?

I would think 2-3 more unless we somehow find an extra lefty or stud righty. Doubt there is anything that will magically appear.

 

[wku vol]

 

[Bigun]

Purcell hopefully.

 

[SPEDVoL14]

Doesn’t sound like it’s Purcell

 

[931Vol]

I’m trying to rack my brain over who else has visited but all I can remember is Purcell and Conrad.

 

[SPEDVoL14]

Left- handed relief pitcher. My bet is Mark Hindy. Kivett recently followed.

 

[931Vol]

Left- handed relief pitcher. My bet is Mark Hindy. Kivett recently followed.

Would be a nice pickup. #81 on 64Analytics. Veteran guy from Duke. 4.66ERA in 29 relief innings.

 

[Cosmo Kramer]

It’s not Purcell. It’s a relief pitcher per GWB who is a very credible poster on VQ

 

[WGWTFA98]

Pitcher with ACC experience

 

[Bigun]

Some rumor it could be Alton Davis from Bama/UGA.

 

[931Vol]

Some rumor it could be Alton Davis from Bama/UGA.

He’s an anomaly. Went 5-0 with an 8.14ERA. Abnormally high in the portal ranking imo. Ranked #38 player in the portal.

 

[SPEDVoL14]

Mark Hindy from Duke, formerly at William and Mary

 

[ProjectP]

Chase Silseth is a good example of this. He had trouble getting on the mound here. Went on to pitch in the CWS and the big leagues.

To further illustrate who the top two coaching staffs are in the country, Silseth pitched in the CWS under Jay Johnson and Nate Yeskie.

Watching the end of the Mainieri era, it was crazy seeing guys transfer out of LSU and effectively fall off the map (meaning they never should have been in the program to begin with) was frustrating. You could see Tennessee building a huge amount of talent at the same time because the guys that were transferring out were contributing wherever they landed, and Tennessee was still winning. I apologize I don't remember names, but there was the kid that went to Cincy and one that went to Charlotte, plus Silseth. I used those guys as examples to try to convince other LSU fans that recruiting/evaluation had fallen off under Mainieri. It fell on deaf ears, until it didn't.

 

[Christian Lowe]

To further illustrate who the top two coaching staffs are in the country, Silseth pitched in the CWS under Jay Johnson and Nate Yeskie.

Watching the end of the Mainieri era, it was crazy seeing guys transfer out of LSU and effectively fall off the map (meaning they never should have been in the program to begin with) was frustrating. You could see Tennessee building a huge amount of talent at the same time because the guys that were transferring out were contributing wherever they landed, and Tennessee was still winning. I apologize I don't remember names, but there was the kid that went to Cincy and one that went to Charlotte, plus Silseth. I used those guys as examples to try to convince other LSU fans that recruiting/evaluation had fallen off under Mainieri. It fell on deaf ears, until it didn't.

this is all true but Tre Morgan and Dylan Crews were Mainieri's guys too

 

[ProjectP]

this is all true but Tre Morgan and Dylan Crews were Mainieri's guys too

They were. They were part of the only class Nolan Cain had full control of while the recruiting coordinator (due to the way classes used to be built several years out). Cain was hired as a the recruiting coordinator from the OPS role, neither of which he had experience with before taking on. With OPS, that's generally an experience gathering position anyway, so no issues there. But I had an issue with Cain being brought on as the RC with no off campus recruiting experience. This was also at a time when Mainieri was only hiring former players and refusing to go outside his bubble, because of being burned by Andy Cannizaro.

So there were several years of Cain finding his way in the role. He gets a ton of credit for Crews, who he got primarily because he was first on him. Jordan Thompson was another good out of state pull. The other holdover guys were all in-state, which I will give credit for the evaluation and picking the right guys, but recruiting in state guys to LSU hasn't been an issue for 40 years.

And that staff did a pretty bad job on pitchers. We went 2 or 3 years with no lefties. And toward the end they were very poor at developing pitchers. With what has come out recently about Mainieri at South Carolina, the pitcher injuries at LSU under him make a lot more sense.