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Dugout Dish: In the Clubhouse with EMD | Transfer Portal PSA · Dugout Dish Baseball Recruiting Podcast powered by EMD Baseball

• 0:00
  Speaker A: Foreign.
• 0:11
  Speaker B: Welcome to this week's edition of in the Clubhouse with EMD Baseball. I'm Andy. Kira Kidis, joined by my wonderful co host, Keith Glasser. How we doing today?
• 0:19
  Speaker A: Great. How are you?
• 0:20
  Speaker B: Good. We're going to talk about transfer portal a little bit here. Maybe not the way that a lot of people talk about it, but I think we want to have a little bit of a discussion around kind of the why. And I think that that's the big question in my head that I want to pose to, to players and families who may listen to this or players and families in general who may consider using the transfer portal in the future is you got to really, got to really understand your why and think about the reason that you're going into the portal. And I think there's a lot of reasons to go in the portal. I think me and you have both been. We have not been taking the anti portal stance like a lot of people have and claiming that it's ruining college baseball and all that kind of stuff. I think we're a little bit more supportive because we have some legitimate experience as to what happens behind closed doors and, and how it used to work, you know, 10, 15 years ago when guys would just get run out of programs and not really have options and that kind of stuff. But with that being said, the portal is. It's going to be popping, as the kids say, come June 1st. You're seeing posts all over the place. You know, a lot of college baseball team seasons have come to an end as of yesterday Sunday there. Yeah, Sunday the 18th, a lot of seasons came to an end. You're seeing guys going to the portal or announce that they're going into the portal they can't formally enter themselves in. And until June 1st. I believe it's June 1st. But I think there's some things to unpack here and I think we want to kind of pose some questions and talk through a little bit of it. So I'm going to kick it over to you to kind of open it up and let's see where this takes us.
• 2:06
  Speaker A: Sure. I think the first thing is if you're planning on jumping in the portal or intend to, what's the end game? Right. What's the end goal for you transferring or getting into the transfer portal and trying to transfer out. Now, it could be a multitude of things. It could be something as simple as, you know, I didn't really get an opportunity to play here and I'm going to get in the transfer portal and try to go somewhere, you know, Maybe linearly or down division two, three, if you're at the Division one level to have more opportunities to play, maybe it's not going to work out. There might be that, you know, coaching staff change or you don't like the school, whatever it might be. But I do think that you have to have some sort of end game in mind if you're just going to enter the transfer portal. To enter the transfer portal to see what's out there. There's not, it's not the best strategy, if you will, for figuring out whether like with where you're going to ultimately end up. And I've seen a lot of tweets on both ends of the spectrum from players and from people who follow it, you know, and it is, you know, I respect some of the people for putting out what their numbers actually are when they're getting into the transfer portal, but also understand that at the college baseball level some of those numbers might not be good enough for you to be recruited at a multitude of other schools. You know, so what is, what is the reason as to why you're getting into the transfer portal and what's your end goal? You know, if it's more playing time and finding a better fit, those types of things. Like, you have to understand that the, there is a very high likelihood that you will be going down in divisions. Right. I think the other thing too is that specifically surrounding the transfer portal and what we've seen over the last couple years is that, and we talk about this from time to time, but more specifically in the transfer portal and I do not think, to be clear, I do not think that this is just unique for baseball. Right. Like I think that this is across all sports with how the transfer portal is, is being utilized. But you know, we're making the outliers the rule. We're making the guys that are going from, you know, Division 3, all Americans and going and pitching at the Division 1 level and finding a lot success and guys who are going from mid major division one and you know, making a decent amount of money from an nil perspective and increasing their draft stock and doing those types of things at an SEC or an ACC school. But those guys are not the rule. Those players in other sports are not the rule. The vast majority of people are not getting into the transfer portal and going straight into the SEC accident, getting some nil money and improving their draft stock. It's just not, it's just not happening at a high rate while it seems like it does because you hear about it, they're not the rule, they are the exception. And I think sometimes too specifically surrounding some other SEC schools, and we've talked about it before, I think we talked about it on a podcast that's going to come out in the future. A lot of Ivy League guys, you know, and you've heard about a lot of them who have left the Ivy League, transferred out and went and played in the acc, SEC and had a lot of success, they're not leaving Ivy League schools because of playing time or the school or whatever. They're leaving because they have years left and they can't be grad. You can't be in graduate school and play. So that's why they're leaving. They're getting really good players that have years of eligibility left from a, a playing standpoint that are transferring into those schools and finding a lot of success. They've already had a lot of college success. And I think that that's, it's a, it's something that you have to keep in mind when you get into the transfer portal or you're opting into it, is that generally speaking, the guys that are going to, quote, unquote, level up or potentially find some more success are guys that have already had a lot of success at the level or the school in which they're at. You know, if you're somebody who's getting into the transfer portal and you have seven at bats and you have one hit and six punch outs, there's not really a market for that guy in the transfer portal at the Division 1 level. Really, you're going to have to do something exceptional, aside from the offensive aspect of the game, for people to really want to dive into what you could potentially do to help them, you know. So I think that. I do think, and I'm on record on here as saying that I do not think the transfer portal is a bad thing the way that it's set up. Do I think that we could tweak it and do some better things? Absolutely, I do. But I do think it gives kids more of an opportunity to get out of bad situations, to help themselves out, to potentially level up if they're capable of doing so without any repercussions of having to sit out a year and do all those things. But I do think that it gets used in a way by a lot of kids that like, why just this is tough and I don't know if this is going to be great for me. So I'm going to get out of here and try to go somewhere else where it might be a little bit easier or I might find a little bit more success. And you and I have talked about this and I'll let you expand on it a little bit more. But, like, there's. It doesn't matter what level of college baseball you're going to play at. It's going to be difficult. You're going to have to face adversity and you're going to have to stare it down and work through it. And I think sometimes it gets used more as like, wow, this was tough. And I think I could find. I could find an easier landing spot to end up to have some more success instead of, what do I have to do in order to actually get better? Now, the flip side of that, too, to be fair, is I think in some of those instances, kids are getting told like, hey, it's not going to work out here, so go ahead and jump in the transfer portal. But I do think that there is a large segment of people who are getting into the transfer portal because it's difficult. And let's face it, like, college baseball is hard. Baseball in general is hard. It hasn't gotten any easier. Like, it was hard when you and I played, right? And not, not to sound like old guys, but like, 20 years ago when we played, it was tough. It's gotten more difficult. And you have to have the want and the willingness to. To put in the time, the energy and the effort to be able to get better at these things and not just jump ship to try to find something that might be better. And again, I don't think that it's. I don't think the transfer portal is a bad thing. I just think that if you're going to get into it, you need to have an honest conversation with yourself, with your coaches, with your parents, whoever it is that supports you as to why you're doing what it is that you're doing instead of just, hey, you know what? Not. It's not. This is a tad bit too hard. I think I want. Because I can promise you, like, you could think that it might be easier at the Division 3 level. It's not going to be easier. It's going to be just as difficult because you still have to perform, right? Like, you still have to go out and get out. You still got to go out and get hits, you still got to produce. You still got to be able to play defense. All of those things still hold true. So at some point, you're going to be faced with. You just have to get better at baseball in order to be able to find a place where you're going to be able to fit in and, and find success. But I just, I have a hard time thinking that we're making the outliers the rule that anybody who gets into the transfer portal, you're going to level up and find yourself in a far better situation. When I think that that is just a fallacy.
• 10:23
  Speaker B: No, you're spot on. And we'll get this, this circumstance out of the way because I don't think that this bears a ton of talking, but if you're in a situation where you're at the end of the year and the coach sits you down and says, hey, man, it's just not going to work out here, right? You know, I don't see a ton of playing time in your future. That's a different circumstance. Like, use the portal to your advantage. You need to have an honest conversation about what you're trying to get out of it, right? If playing time's important to you, you need to pursue a level or a program that's going to give you an opportunity. And I think that that's probably the key word in that sentence, an opportunity. Because to your point, you still got to go earn it, right? There's guys who go from Division 1 to Division 3 and they get on a Division 3 campus and they can't play, right? Because there's certain things required of you from a playing perspective that they might not do well, right? Throwing off strikes or maybe they swing and miss too much. And that still hasn't changed. Just because you have Division 1 tools doesn't necessarily mean you're going to put up Division 1 numbers at the Division 3 level. If you're that kid and you're that family and you're going through it and the coach sits you down and it's very clear. It's clear as day. Hey, it's just not going to work out here. That's been happening for a long, long time. Guys, you now have a free. You have a free out where you can transfer, right? Most likely you're going to have to transfer down not necessarily levels, but levels within the levels. You know, there's. There's guys who are on SEC rosters right now who, when their seasons end up, those coaches are going to sit them down and they're going to say, hey, bud, it ain't going to happen here and those guys are going to have to go somewhere else, right? It's happening at all levels of college baseball. That's an easy situation to handle because to a certain Extent, easy. It's a more straightforward situation to be in because you're being told, hey man, it's not going to work here. The kid who's leaving a program on their own volition, if you don't stick out like a sore thumb, right, if you're playing in the Mac, you need to do it. Ethan Conrad did. And you need to hit.400 with 20 doubles in 10 home runs if you're going to move up a level, right? Being in one of those lower level Division 1 conferences, if you are not the best player in the conference, you're probably a lot less marketable than you think you are. And that's a tough thing to come to terms with that. The jump between that level and the ACC and the sec, it's huge. Make no mistake about it. It's a massive jump, right? So understand where you fit in the grand scheme of things. But I think the biggest question, especially for young guys who are going into this, right, guys who haven't had a ton of success yet, because I think there's a difference there, and you mentioned it, guys who are going in and are going to have a success going up a level, most of those guys have already been really, really good at the place that they were, right? And that's kind of where that conversation starts. But if you're the freshman who's thinking about going into the portal right now and you got 40 at bats and you know, you, you hit.210 and whatever or your freshman arm and you threw 12 innings and you got to ask yourself, why are you leaving that program? Are you leaving, are you running away from the competition because you think it's going to be easier somewhere else? Because if you're doing that, I think you need to have a law of conversation about what college baseball really is and the expectations, because most freshmen don't get a chance to play that much. It's just the reality of it, right? Once again, we stick with outliers and we, we fixate ourselves on the pieces of information that are going to validate our opinion, right? And you see freshmen who go and start 45 games, those guys are the outlier. If you're running away from competition, you need to, you need to acknowledge that and you probably need to go to a place that's going to be a little bit more surefire for you. Because I can promise you that moving parallel, the grass is not always greener, right? So if it comes down to that, that why becomes really, really important. And it's a tough conversation to have and for the kids who are in this situation, there's going to be a lot of people who are going to tell you what you want to hear and they're going to say that the coaches got it wrong or you didn't play consistently enough to get into a rhythm, or they weren't using you in the right role out of the bullpen and those coaches don't know what they're doing. I can tell you with almost 100% certainty, the people who are not in those dugouts rarely, if ever, no more than the people who are making the decisions in that dugout. And be careful what you listen to, because that person doesn't have the whole picture. They don't see you operate on a day to day basis. They don't see what the quality of your practice habits are. They don't see the quality of your teammanship is not a word. But I'm driving at like what kind of a team teammate you are, how are you acting in the dugout, Right? How do you show up every day? Right. That's all a part of it. It's all part of a maturing process. Most guys need to figure some stuff out as freshmen so they can set themselves up as sophomores, juniors and seniors to get some playing time. It's just the reality of college baseball. And if you're the freshman who's thinking about going into the portal because you felt like you didn't play enough, you need to ask yourself, did you actually do enough to warrant playing? And you need to be honest about what the answer to that question is. Right? Because if you only got 30, 40 at bats as a freshman, which is a decent amount as a freshman for a lot of Freshmen, you start 10 games as a freshman, that's pretty good, right? That coach saw something in you to run you out there that many times, you got to really ask yourself, did I actually warrant more or do I just need to get better? To your point, and for most guys who are in this situation, the answer is going to be you need to get better. And a lot of times the best place to get better is an environment that you're familiar with and being able to stay put. Now, if it's clear as day that you ain't going to play, or you've got a serious issue with the coaching staff, or you're too far from home, these are all outlier. I shouldn't say outlier, but these are different reasons to leave a program. I'm talking purely from a playing time perspective. People need to wrap their Head around and players and parents. You need to wrap your head around that everything you get on a college campus is earned. And those coaches aren't making decisions in a vacuum about whether you should play or not. They're going to play the best players. They're going to play the players that give them the best chance to win. All right? And if you're a freshman and you're one of them, you're in, you're an outlier, you're not of the norm. Most guys, it takes time to get acclimated to the game. You need to learn the finer points. You need to be able to do things that help you win games, especially in good programs. Right. Programs that win consistently. It's very hard to break through as a freshman and be really good because it's hard. And it's supposed to be hard because you're playing Division 1 baseball. And Division 1 baseball is supposed to be the best of the best in amateur baseball in the United States. So you're going to have to compete for it. And the thing that I always come back to is making sure that kids understand what the expectations are about when you get to college and that you need to go and take it. Right. You need to. You. You need to make it beyond a doubt that you belong on that field. And for a lot of guys, it takes more than their freshman year to do so. So having that hard conversation, looking yourself in the mirror, really taking into consideration, like, what's the best path forward. For me, the non baseball reasons are different. Right. Kids can be homesick. I get it. Fine. If you need to be closer to home, that's a valid reason to go into the portal. But just understand what you're getting into when you get there, because there's going to be a couple thousand kids. And if these roster cuts come through the way that they could, which we should hopefully find out something this week, that transfer portal is going to be even crazier than we thought. And I would tread lightly with it. And I would be very thoughtful about whether you're entering that transfer portal or not and not fixating so much on thinking the grass is going to be greener on the other side and coming to the realization that sometimes you got to water the grass where you're at. And for a lot of kids, that means that you just need to get after it. You need to find a way to get better and you need to be able to be a mature college athlete who goes in and is willing to compete for a spot.
• 19:22
  Speaker A: Yeah, I think the there's a lot there. But I think ultimately it comes down to if you're trying to go somewhere better, you need to have the requisite skill set, slash numbers to do it. And I think that it's important to remember, especially within the context of baseball, that, like, it doesn't get easier when you level up. You know, it doesn't get easier when you go from college to pro ball and then from a ball to double A to triple A to the big leagues. Like, it generally gets tougher because the players are better. It's the same concept within college baseball. If you're trying to go from, you know, a mid major and you think that you're going to jump in and go to a higher end, mid major slash, you know, into a Power 5 conference, it's. It's only going to get more difficult. So if you don't have the numbers or the, or the skills to be able to do it, you're likely not getting recruited there. So then you're going to have to either go sideways, laterally, or you're going to have to go down. And I would imagine that in most, most cases, like, if you tell somebody that you're leaving, your roster spot is not available at that school any longer because they can't wait for you to get, you know, decide what you're doing. They're going to have to go recruit other guys. So you want to think long and hard about what it is that the, the reasons as to why you're. You're looking to get in there and what the end game is for, where you ultimately end up, you know, and this doesn't take into account the JUCO guys that are out there or the high school guys, you know, and I think, you know, on the front end and look like we've heard this a billion times. Like, I shouldn't say heard. I've seen it a billion times on Twitter. Every time something comes up about the transfer portal, about the transfer portals ruining high school recruiting. And no one recruits high school baseball players anymore. Like, everyone, stop with the hyperbole, all right? Until somebody gets on Twitter and says hashtag blessed to commit to the transfer portal. You still have to get to college to then get into the transfer portal. You have to, you have to be an enrolled student athlete to get into the transfer portal. You can't just commit to the transfer portal and hope that someone takes you out of it. That that doesn't happen. No one coaches the transfer portal, so you're not getting any money to get in there. Can't do any of it. You still have to recruit high school baseball players. They're going to continue to show up on campuses. Now, does that mean that in some instances, like the transfer portal, like people are going to pick out of it? Absolutely it is. But it also means that there's a lot of kids that are going to go into the transfer portal that are going to have nowhere to go because they're not going to get recruited out of it. Because coaches are going to look at it and say, okay, this guy played at a highish level similar to ours and his numbers are not good. Why would I take this kid when I could take a younger kid who's better, a high school kid who's better right now and get him even better over the course of the next four years? It's just, it's. That's how everyone's mind work. I shouldn't say everyone. That's how the vast majority of people's minds work when they go through this. Like, why take a guy who has a nine ERA in three innings pitched when I can get a high school guy who can come in and pitch out of five and get better over the course of the next four years? Like, you're going to take that guy. And I think you, like, there's a lot of people that think, well, I throw hard or, you know, I was good in high school. Like, yeah, man, high school. Like, the second you leave and you get on a college campus, like, your high school stats don't mean anything anymore. What matters is what you're doing at the collegiate level. And that's when you get in the transfer portal. That's what people care about, and that's what matters. What have you done against similar competition? Because if it's not good, you're running the risk of not even getting a phone call out of the recruit out of the transfer portal. And that's just the reality. Now, does that mean that, like, you know, maybe you were recruited by multiple schools and you went to a school, you went to the highest level school that you could and you couldn't get in, you didn't play much and hey, the writing's on the wall. You're not going to like, yeah, you could probably reach out to a handful of people that recruited you before. I mean, like, hey, I. I'm getting the transfer portal. Didn't work out here. Do you have any spots? What do you got? Like, you'll probably get a little bit of love. There's. But you also got to remember, those guys had to move on too. So there, there's people in their programs that might have had really good years. And it's like, yeah, we don't really have room for you, or I saw your numbers, like, we'll give you a chance to make the team in the fall, but you're going to have to come in and do really well in the fall in order for us to keep you in the spring. And that's just the reality of it. You need to have a legit look in the mirror moment of where you are and where you potentially fit in. If you're looking to just get in from a straight up athletic standpoint, because if your numbers aren't there and the ability is not there, you're. You could be in for a rude awakening because you might not get any love out of the transfer portal whatsoever. And that, that's just the reality, you know, and we can complain about it all we want, but this is what it is right now. And again, no one can commit to the transfer portal. You have to be recruited out of high school to get to a college to then enter your name into the transfer portal. It's not something out of high school. You can be like, you know what? I'm not going to go to a school. I'm just going to enter my name in the portal. This isn't the draft, you know, where you actually have to be put in by somebody. You know, you have to actually go to college beforehand. It's not going to ruin high school baseball recruiting. Everyone's still going to recruit high school baseball players. You know, there's a lot of other factors that have gone into this that we've talked about a lot. You know, the draft being shortened, the transfer, like, all of these things play a factor. The roster limits being cut down, all of these things play a factor into why it's gotten more competitive. But because it's gotten more competitive, you need to understand that would before you make these decisions. And again, if this is, you know, if you've been told or you have other issues, you're homesick, you know, they got rid of your major or you're switching your major and they don't have it at the school, like, those are all legitimate things to get in the transfer portal and be like, hey, you know, I'm leaving the school because I'm a history major and I want to be an engineer and they don't have engineering here, like, okay, those are legit reasons. But if it's just straight up to be like, ah, you know, it was tough Here and I don't really know. And you know, I want to find myself a better place where, you know, I, you know, you, you might want to take a long hard look just to understand if that is the best move for you if you continue to aspire to play college baseball.
• 26:50
  Speaker B: 100%. I was watching and I told you this story the other day. And I think it, it's a little nugget that I think is worth thrown out there in this conversation. Not directly related to the portal, but I think it's a, I think it's a really mature way to go about things. And there's a young man who pitches for University of North Carolina. He was just the ACC pitcher of the year, Jake Knapp. And he gave an interview mid game. And if you can find this, it was a mid game interview, game two, Florida State game. If you could find this somewhere. And I'm going to figure out a way to post it, hopefully like no copyright infringement or whatever like that. But this interview was so mature and it was such a representation of the reality of college baseball. It was really refreshing for this kid to articulate it the way that he articulated it. This is a six year guy. So I believe he went to UNC Wilmington out of high school, red shirted, didn't pitch there, left UNC Wilmington, super, super competitive program. He goes to junior college called Walter State. And the best junior colleges in the country, they win a ton. They produce guys that go on and do really good things in college baseball and professional baseball. He's now in North Carolina, ACC pitcher of the year. They got as good a chance as anybody to win a national championship. But what he said, because they asked him about it, they asked him about Walter State and he came to the realization that when he got to Walter State, that he wasn't tough enough and that he wasn't good enough yet and that he needed to work for it. And he thanked the coaches at Walter State on this broadcast wearing UNC Wilmington jersey or UNC Chapel Hill jersey, thanked them for what they did for him, to toughen him up and to prepare him for the next stage of his college career. And I think it's a really good representation of what most kids need to go through to figure out how good they can be. And this kid did not shy away from the uncomfortable conversations, from the reality that he had to do more, that he needed to get better. And he is reaping the benefits of that. Not everybody ends up pitching at North Carolina with these kind of stories, but most kids going into this process, when you get on a college campus, they don't realize that most of them need to get tougher, most of them need to get stronger, and most of them need to get better at the game of baseball in order for them to be impactful for whatever program they're. They're going to be competing for and not shying away from the competition of it. Because the guys who are willing to take that on, they will be better forward in the long run, either as players and definitely as people. And I think that kind of gets to the crux of what we're talking about with guys that are making decisions to go into the portal, that haven't really gone through that yet, and they haven't really learned that you probably just need to put in a little bit more time and that you might need to toughen up, you might need to get some thicker skin, you might need to prepare a little bit different. But it was really poignant. I was blown away at the maturity of this young man. I'm sure that his baseball career has a lot of bright days ahead of it, and a lot of it has to do with his personality and his willing to take on those tough moments. It's very easy for a lot of kids who go into this process, especially if you're surrounded with people that are always going to tell you what you want to hear, to go through it and blame other people when things don't go well. And instead this kid looked himself in the mirror and said, you know what? These coaches are right. I have to get better. I'm not tough enough. I don't do certain things well enough to be where I think I should be right now. That takes an incredibly mature athlete to do so. But if you're in this position right now, I think that's the type of conversation you have to have with yourself on why are you doing it? What is your why? Why are you thinking about going into the portal? We said it earlier. If there's other circumstances that are playing a role in this, it's a different conversation. But for the kid who has the option to stay, and staying means working through some adversity, think long and hard about whether you really need to leave or not.
• 31:16
  Speaker A: Well, I think the other thing, too, like to kind of put a bow on it, you're going to face adversity in this game. It's tough. There's no avoiding it. You're going to go through slumps and stretches where you think you're the worst baseball player in the world, but you know that's, that's part of this game. And I, and I also think that it's, it's part of life, right? Like, as, as coaches, you understand that with kids that you're going to face a lot of adversity in college, especially for younger kids, you're going from being the dude on your team to, to just being another guy in most instances where you're, you're trying to figure out school and you're trying to figure out the weight room and you're trying to figure out what your role is on the team and how you fit in. And, you know, these guys are bigger, they're faster, they're stronger, and do I belong here? Like, there's a lot that goes into your freshman year. And, you know, I, I think for some people it becomes like, well, it'd just be easier to get out of here and make it a little bit easier on myself instead of, you know, looking yourself in the mirror and being like, what do I need to do in order to actually succeed and, and get burned here? And I think that that's, you know, jumping just because it's tough isn't going to give you. Isn't going to solve your problems because it's not going to get easier wherever it is that you're trying to go, because you're still going to have to get better at baseball. And, you know, I think you're right. You know, sometimes watering the grass where you're at is. Is a far better option and a better thing for you to do to ultimately find success. And I think, you know, a lot of those kids at the end of four years, you look up and you're glad that you stayed and worked through it and got better and, you know, eventually got some burn and did all. Did all the things it is that you had kind of set out to do instead of, you know, kind of looking for the quote, unquote, easy way out, you know. And look, I think the other thing, too, that is of note is, you know, if you are struggling with some of that stuff, you're not the only guy who's ever struggled with this in the history of college baseball. Like, every freshman is at some point or every player at some point in their life has been like, I don't know if I belong here, and I don't know if this is the place for me, you know, And I would argue that probably the majority of people who stay or at the end really are happy with the decision that they had made when they were younger instead of leaving and Going somewhere else. You know, I struggled my freshman year, to be completely honest. I struggled. You know, I didn't know if Marist was the place for me. I didn't know if I was good enough to be there. I didn't know if I was going to be able to play and do these things, you know, and I stayed. I didn't, I didn't transfer, you know, and I went in and figured out what it was I had to get better at. And, you know, ultimately I ended up as a captain and played four years and started a lot of baseball games at the college level, you know, and it was, I, I love Marist College. It was the right place for me. It was just, I was so in my head on things because I went from being a really good player to not being a guy. Right. You know, so it was tough for me. That was something that I had to work through and figure out how, you know, what it was that I needed to do in order to make sure that, you know, I was going to be able to be better and improve my game so that it was an option to go catch and play. And I played more as a sophomore and I played a lot as a junior and I played a lot as a senior and I was, again, I was a captain, you know, so it was, you know, I turned the corner and made that adjustment, but it wasn't, it wasn't easy, you know, it wasn't easy by any stretch of the imagination. Like there was a lot of, there was a lot of times there's a lot of self doubt. There's a lot of things that go into it, but it's also part of growing up. It's part of college baseball. It's part of the game, you know, shoot. You can watch the clubhouse on Netflix. I started Brianna and I, you know, you can watch the best in the world, you know, playing with the Red Sox. And I'm not a Red Sox fan. I know you are, but like, you listen to those guys talk and like, that's why they're good the self talk. And like, even the guys that have, like, they doubt themselves, the best in the world doubt themselves from time to time. It's just the nature of this game. And I think sometimes we, we try to get the easy fix instead of, hey, like it's hard and you're going to have to put in effort, you're going to have to put in time, you're going to have to do things to make, to put yourself in a better spot. And that's just that's life, you know, and when life throws a curveball at you later on, you're going to be able to handle some of the things it is that, you know, you have to do because you, you've already done it. And I think it can get a little scary and sometimes the easy way out is what you want and it's, it's not the best thing for you, you know, But I, I empathize with people who, who, who do feel that way, especially younger kids coming out of their freshman year. Like, I felt that way too. But I stayed. I worked my ass off, I got better and I became an option. I became a captain. I played. I love that place. I still bleed. Marist Red Fox Red. And we're the seventh seed in the Mac tournament, looking to make a run this year. So, you know, we still follow it. You know, we, we have a group chat where we talk to multiple former Red Foxes all the time, you know, but it's. I wouldn't trade my experience for the world. It set me up for what I had to do later on in life. And I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt, I've. I have faced a lot of adversity in my life and specifically over the last year, you know, so it's. And I can tie a lot of it back to guys I played with, guys I played for and, you know, and what I had to go through in this game that, you know, I think allows you to grow as a person and understand that when, when bad shit happens, you've already been there and you can work your way through it. So, you know, if you're one of those kids and you're listening like, you'll be okay. I promise you. But look in the mirror and decide what your end game is and ultimately why it is you're doing, what it is you're doing.
• 37:18
  Speaker B: Yeah, I don't know if I can really add a ton more to that. It's college baseball's hard. Supposed to be. And for a lot of guys, not playing a lot for their first time ever is a tough thing to handle. It's not to diminish those feelings because it's to your point. It's a, it's a hard thing to go through when you're 18 years old and it's the first time that you haven't been the dude. But a lot of times, if you can push through those uncomfortable moments and, and find a way to get through it, the back end reward that you get can be really, really good. And I think that these are decisions that shouldn't be made on a whim. They should be made thoughtfully. And you need to really consider to your point, what's your end game? What's, what's important to you? What do you value? You know, your teammates, the school, the coaching staff. If those are all things that you're really comfortable with, then you probably should stick it out and, and try to find your way into the lineup and find a way to compete and help that program move forward. The other edge cases, I think are a lot easier to navigate because it's a lot more clear cut, but for the kids, it's not as clear cut. And you're, you're thinking about jumping ship for those reasons. I think, I think you need to take some time and, and let it marinate and, and be willing to take on something that might be difficult because there's nothing promised on the other side of it either. Right. You're going to step into a new environment with new people that you're not comfortable with, and you're going to have to do the same thing you did at the previous place. You know, and especially if you haven't done enough from a track record perspective to be a guy that's going to, you know, quote unquote, move up a level. You're, you're basically going to find yourself in the exact same situation with no track record of anything. And that can be really difficult, too. So give it some thought. Don't make decisions like this lightly because they're important decisions and sometimes doing the hard thing is, or the thing that might seem uncomfortable in the moment oftentimes is the right decision to make in the long run. Anything else you have to add there, Coach?
• 39:47
  Speaker A: No, sir.
• 39:48
  Speaker B: All right, well, thank you everybody for our transfer portal TED Talk. Tune in next week, we'll have some more topics for you. Thanks everybody for listening. Thank you for listening this week. If you're watching on YouTube, go ahead and hit that subscribe button and smash that like button for us. Check us out on Apple Podcasts, Google podcasts, as well as Spotify. You can follow us on Twitter and Instagram M. If you want to find out what me and Keith do to help families and players navigate the recruiting process, go ahead and check us out on emdbaseball.com take a few minutes to check out our new online academy. I promise you'll get some good information out of that. Thanks again for listening. Check in with you next week.