Latest / Dugout Dish Baseball Recruiting Podcast powered by EMD Baseball / Episode 119: 2025 College World Series and the House Settlement

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Episode 119: 2025 College World Series and the House Settlement · 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 the Dugout Dish Podcast. I am Andy Kirakidis, joined with my wonderful co host, Keith Glasser. How we doing?
• 0:18
  Speaker A: Great. How are you?
• 0:20
  Speaker B: Another college baseball roundup with our main man, our frequent guest, resident college baseball expert Jonathan Grasse. What's up, man?
• 0:29
  Speaker C: What's up, guys? How are you?
• 0:31
  Speaker B: Good. Before we get started, two topics that are very relevant to college baseball right now. So I want to give. Let's each a quick minute to kind of give our thoughts on a couple things. First things first, House versus NCAA settlement kind of made it through its first hurdle. I guess it's, it's been passed. There's going to be some challenges. There's already been one that has been submitted around Title 9, but obviously some implications for Division 1 baseball on a couple of different fronts. So, Jonathan, what are your kind of takeaways on this? Any. Any specific thoughts?
• 1:13
  Speaker C: Yeah, I think it's interesting, you know, they got, it's interesting. They got it through, right. Like you said, they got over the first hurdle, and four to five days later, you know, as we sit here on June 11, they already had their first, you know, appeal to it. I thought all along, just working in college athletics, that that was going to be a hurdle that they were going to have with the Title 9 stuff, because I think we, you know, when you're looking at it and you're reading into it and you're kind of, look, you're sifting through it when people were talking about it, I think you saw, you know, and I know, I think I was on this show at one point, we talked about it like, you know, the Olympic sports were going to be drastically impacted by this, and whatever your, you know, argument for or against, they were going to be affected. That. That's just, you know, there's no way around that. I think the interesting part is, like, you know, baseball's kind of moving into, you know, this realm, and I know we'll get up to this in a second, but, like, you know, you can turn on, you know, five networks, you know, a week and a half ago and watch college baseball. That wasn't the case 10 years ago. So, you know, baseball's turning into that third, that next, behind men's basketball and football, that next big, you know, sport and, you know, revenue and, you know, and distribution of the money is. It's gonna, it's gonna, it's not going away. So I think it'll be interesting to see, you know, with some of these appeals how it all, you know, Kind of unfolds, you know, and then ultimately what's passed and what's not.
• 2:50
  Speaker B: Yeah, there's a lot to unpack here. I mean, for me, I think there's a couple things that I gravitate to specifically from a baseball perspective is like we obviously we got the roster stuff right, And I think that that was one of the things that was going to happen. So we got to get down to 34, right? So you're having kind of an or cut from 40 to 34. You know, you're looking at, you know, what 1800 roster spots are going away. The caveat to that I think is really interesting is this grant, this idea of grandfather and kids in, right. If you can designate somebody as one of those grandfathered in athletes, they typically, they will not count against your roster unless you're giving them money. In that case they would. So if you give them scholarship money or nil money or any kind of distribution from the revenue sharing, they would count against your roster. I think it's going to be really interesting to see what kind of loopholes how schools navigate this because if you can, you're going to get extra guys on your roster. It's just that simple. It helps you practice better, gives you a little bit of a buffer for injuries, so on and so forth. So there's that piece of it. But from a pure scholarship roster management perspective, I actually think doing away with the scholarship minimum is one of the more impactful things. It's not going to impact the big schools that much because they're going to have so many scholarships that they're able to allot. I don't know how many schools are going to go to 34, but I think you're getting in that like mid 20s, upper 20s range in terms of scholarships. But if you're a low division or a mid Division 1 type school B, you're probably not going to see a significant increase in scholarship money that's allotted to your program, if any. But the fact that you now have total control of how you distribute that money, I think it really, really helps people manage their rosters because there are a lot of cases like where the math doesn't fully add up and it can get hard to actually spend 11, 7 when you have a 25% minimum of athletic money that you have to distribute to somebody in order to give them that money. Now being able to give a kid five grand, eight grand, ten grand, I think that that's going to help and I think it's something that should have happened a long time ago. But for me, the grandfather in thing and then the doing away of the roster, the scholarship minimum, I think is a huge step in the right direction for college baseball. What do you got on this, Keith?
• 5:17
  Speaker A: I think the all of the things that you two just talked about, I think are widely accepted amongst people who are in this industry. I also think that the NIL Collective or the, excuse me, the Nil Clearinghouse that they're trying to set up coming out of this house settlement is going to be interesting to follow. What does that look like? It's in its infancy, obviously. I think they just named the president of said clearinghouse last week, right before this settlement was agreed upon last Friday. So, you know, there's going to be a lot of bumps in the road. You know, what is market value look like, you know, anything over $600 needs to be approved. What quote unquote will get approved faster than other things, you know. But I think it's the return back to what the NIL was originally intended for, where student athletes can benefit from their name, image and likeness while they're in college. Not necessarily collectives of boosters that are pooling money and then, you know, essentially paying student athletes to pay for their play for their colleges. So, you know, I think that's going to be a wildly interesting thing to follow because I think that that's probably going to end up with litigation surrounding that because you're going to have people that are saying, well, what, you know, market value is what people are willing to pay, not what you tell me it is. So that stuff I think to me is going to be very interesting, especially at some of the upper levels and, and some of the numbers that I've been heard throw, I've heard thrown around, you know. But I wanted to say one thing before we kind of dive into the next topic. But Jonathan, you were talking about like, you know, you didn't get to watch the amount of regionals and supers that we saw baseball 10 years ago like we did this past weekend. And I was thinking about it this morning, I was at the gym and SportsCenter was on and they were ranking their top five who they thought in Omaha fan base was going to be able to take the most jello shots in Omaha. Which watching that and being in this business for as long as I have, that is a foreign concept to someone like us five years ago or even 10 years ago. Like you'd see it on Twitter, right? Like you'd blow up on Twitter, like. But SportsCenter designated a segment to taking the teams that are there and being like, all right, what fan bases are going to be able to pull, you know, are going to be able to buy the most jello shots in Omaha. And for those of you that don't know, it is a tradition at Omaha where they have, you know, jello shots are bought at a bar. And then the vast majority of that money is donated to very good causes once the College World Series is over. So it does go to good cause. It is. You know, obviously you have to be 21 years old to buy set jello shots, but there are some fan bases out there that are regularly in Omaha that show up and show out when it comes to the purchase of said Jell O shots. So I thought it was interesting that, you know, SportsCenter designated a segment to that win, you know, that that's something that would not even be thought of, you know, five years ago or even 10 years ago. So, like, the growth and where college baseball is at is. Has been super fun to watch, you know, obviously being in it and I said coaching it, but watching it now on the outside of, like, how big it's gotten and how, how many people are at these games and what you see on social media and all this stuff, I think it's awesome for this game.
• 8:39
  Speaker C: I know there's a lot of people happy that, that LSU got in there.
• 8:43
  Speaker A: Oh, there. There are a lot of people that they got.
• 8:47
  Speaker C: There's gonna be some jello shots that will be had by some of those bayou bangles.
• 8:51
  Speaker A: Oh, yeah, baby.
• 8:53
  Speaker C: When. When, you know, when they, when they get in them in Arkansas, when they get in, there's some people that are pretty, pretty excited. So.
• 9:02
  Speaker B: Yeah, it's a wild time up there. I. I've never been. Probably need to make that a part of the old baseball bucket list one of these days, though. Another hot topic. There are about 5,500 young men who have entered the transfer portal, and less than 400 of them are currently committed right now. Wild times in college baseball for a lot of reasons, some of which we just spoke about with a lot of the changes that are coming, but the transfer portal is certainly a hot topic. Coach Glass, like, any thoughts on what's going on right now? I know we've covered it a little bit, but it's. It's chaos in there right now and the math isn't math. And for a lot of these, these boys that are going in and. Yeah, what do you got?
• 9:59
  Speaker A: I think it's a multitude of things and I'm probably not going to touch on every single one of them that, that are currently happening. But it's not just the, the proverbial, you're not good enough to play here so you should go to play somewhere else or the, you know, I'm not happy where I'm at and I want to go and find a better landing place for myself. I think with the amount of money that's involved, I think there are a lot of third parties behind the scenes that are trying to work deals for people to get them in into spots where they're making more money and maybe being able to increase their draft stock, things like that. And quite frankly, I think there's some people who don't, who are doing it that you know, don't necessarily know what they're doing. If you want my honest opinion, I've had some conversations with people where, you know, they're getting calls to get nil money increased on guys that pitched at a 12 they this year. And you know, that's just not going to happen. You know, and I think that, you know, there's, there's some people who have one foot out the door and you know, I think there's a decent amount of programs that are going to help you take that second foot right out the door and it's going to be a hard landing spot for people. And I think that, you know, there's, there's a lot of things that, that go into your decision to get into the transfer portal. There's a lot of, you know, reasons to the why you might do, whether you were told, whatever it might be. But I think that if you are one of the 5,500 kids that are in the transfer portal and if you're listening to this like, you need to have an honest self assessment of where you're at. And I think that, you know, I see it every day on Twitter, multiple times a day where, you know, I'm 94 to 96 and I have an 82 mile an hour slider. And with that said, I'm entering the transfer portal and there's zero stats. And I can tell you unequivocally as somebody who still thinks like a college baseball player, I know that your stats are not good because I go and I look you up and I immediately see that you pitched at a 15 and you had three innings and you walk 12 guys and you hit six and you had nine hits. Like you need to understand that that doesn't play. And I think that we're in an era where we have people that are, I don't want to say that we conflate how good we actually are and what it is we're capable of doing. And I think that's in part where we, we kind of land with some of this stuff. And I think that we're looking at the outliers of the guys that are transferring from lower divisions or lower mid major division ones, programs up and finding success and thinking that that is for everyone and that's just not the case. Those are the outliers. There's not a lot of guys that are going to transfer from a mid major division one to the ACC or SEC and then all of a sudden be first or second round draft picks. Like there's only 32 of them, 64 of them if we want to add them up. And we can probably sprinkle in a couple of comp picks in there if we want to, but it's less than 100 dudes and a good portion of those guys are already at some of those schools. So you know, I think that, you know, there's, there's a multitude of issues and you know, I think it's probably a PSA for a lot of people that we need to get back to actually playing baseball and understanding that your metrics, while, yeah they're, you can put them out all you want but you need to understand that once you actually have in game stats and video and things like it's going to show up and you might not end up at a place where you think you should and that's okay. Like you might have to transfer down, you might end up at a place where you think you might be better than. But you know, you have to. If you're going to enter the transfer portal and you want to go up like you need to have shown up when the lights are on and done it and that's just the straight facts of the matter like that that's currently where we're at. Like you have a lot of guys that, that don't really have the stats to match the metrics and are in the transfer portal and there's a reason. So you need to figure out what it is that you need to do better and find a spot where you can develop those things to get yourself to be a better baseball player so that you can find the spot that you ultimately can succeed for the next three, four, you know, two, three, four years as a student athlete in college. But you know, I think there's a lot of things that are going on. You know, I've talked to a lot of guys over the course of week, you know, and I. I just think that that's kind of where we're at. It. It. Obviously it. It bothers me to this point. Like, I didn't think I was going to get this fired up about it, but like, it. It bothers me with where we're at because I think we've gone so metrics driven and this is where we're at. And, and you know, honestly, I think we're going to get better once the rosters get down to 34 and this grandfathering thing, you know, however that kind of sorts itself out from the house settlement thing. But, like, there's going to come a point in time where, like, there's not going to be a lot of guys that are going to get plucked out of the transfer portal. And I think the last thing I'll say is, like, you need to understand going in, if you don't necessarily have those stats that, that are going to show up that coaches are looking for, like, you might not find yourself a spot at the level in which or even at all for what you want to do. So, you know, juco is always a great option from a development standpoint or going down a division to kind of figure out, you know, what it is you need to do to get better.
• 15:19
  Speaker B: What do you got on this topic, coach Grasse?
• 15:23
  Speaker C: Well, I think Keith makes a lot of really good points. I think there's, you know, just. There's three categories of the transfer portal. There is a player that is out of mid at said mid major, that was conference player of the year, was first team all conference, that is looking to transfer up to potentially make more money, you know, or get paid or whatever. There are players that are at higher levels or even the mid levels that are saying I'm better than what my stats are, like, kind of what Keith said. And then there's guys that are told that they have to go in there. So there is also that. So I always get, you know, frustrated. I know it's 5,500. It's a huge number, but there's also. There's probably a third of the players in that thing that have been told you're going in it, like by the coaching staff. So, okay, yes, that number is too high. But let's also remember there are kids that are, you know, kind of getting looped into this, that they're just looking to make money, they're looking to go up a division, but they're. They didn't really have a choice in the matter they were told they're going into that thing. I think one and I know me and you talk about this last week and you blew me away by it, to be honest with you, Andy, when you said it and I saw it today for the first time, I saw so and so per his agent has committed to blank place. And I'm like, wow, that's where we're at. His agent leaked to a, you know, a Twitter handle that, you know, reports college baseball news. And it said, per the agent, so and so is committed to blank place. And I thought, wow, like again, kind of like, you know, what Keith said like five years ago, 10 years ago. We have come a long way, but we got guys that have agents that are leaking information on Twitter about. And it was a player that was a conference player of the year and he was going up and he's going to a major school. But it just, it just really surprised me that like, we've come a really long way and again, you know, some of it is, is a good thing and for those players that, you know, did maybe commit to that mid major and you know, maybe now the opportunity to get paid, like, you know, I think for a long time the coaches were in the driver's seat and they held all the control. Well, we have pulled that E brake and that E break is now 180 degrees the other way. And the players hold all the control for the most part. So, you know, do we probably need to land somewhere in the middle? Yeah, I would say so. You know, and I don't know what it is. I don't know if it's, you know, you can transfer once it limits that. Like, you know, I know there's talk obviously with the house settlement with contracts that you, you know, you can lock these kids into contracts with buyouts, but I don't think that's going to work because the high end player is going to just negotiate with the school he originally commits to to not have a buyout. So I know Jay Billis has been big on that with, you know, you know, you were just going to put buyouts in these kids contracts. Well, okay, yeah, that's great on paper, but like, we all know how it works, right? Like when you recruit a kid, you need leverage. It's just like negotiating any contract like you need, you want to have leverage. So if Ole Miss tells me I don't have to have a buyout, but Tennessee says I do, well, I'm gonna have to play that, you know, into my cards when I make a decision. So to just blanket statement say that. And I know he has good intentions in what he's trying to say with all the, you know, the contract and the buyout will, you know, will slow it down. But, like, I mean, I read it, you know, the first time this morning, and I'm like, well, I'll just. Now I'll just go somewhere I don't have a buyout, and somebody will. Somebody won't. Somebody will put in. I don't have. I don't have to have a buyout. So good intentions. I don't think it will slow much down maybe a little bit, but. Yeah, I mean, it's crazy. Like, it's crazy. You pop on Twitter and it's your whole feed.
• 19:29
  Speaker A: Well, even the guys that you had. I mean, you saw before the transfer portal even opened, we had people reporting that guys were committed before the portal was open to other schools. Like, I mean, listen, I.
• 19:45
  Speaker C: The new one, which I. Which the loophole is. Which is great, right? Is they go in with the do not tag or do not contact tag.
• 19:54
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 19:55
  Speaker C: Then they just have an agent negotiate with the schools that they want to talk to. So basically what it does is it alleviates them to having to hear from 55 schools, and they can just. Basically just reach out to those staffs because the agent and say, hey, he's. He's available. This is what the number is. This is what we have to get to.
• 20:12
  Speaker B: Right.
• 20:13
  Speaker C: Like. Like what?
• 20:15
  Speaker A: Our portal. The portal wasn't opened yet, and the was like, quote, unquote, is committed. Like, I mean, I'm not the smartest guy in the world, but you can't commit yet. It. How is this happening? But it goes to show, like, that what's going on behind the scenes. Like, this is something that, again, 10 years ago was foreign. This is what's happening right now. And it's. You know, I don't want to say that we have to completely embrace it, but I do think there's some middle ground in there where, like. Because if you. If we don't adapt, we die. But I think that there's got to be some guardrails put around what this is. Where, like, hey, if there's. If this is what's going on, I mean, you've heard it from. We've all talked to coach. You've heard it, like, yeah, so and so reached out to this guy on my team in March. Like, you know what's happening?
• 21:07
  Speaker B: Yeah, there's definitely some nefarious activity that's going on. I mean, you get some of these mid major kids, you start to blow up in the middle of the year. Like some of this stuff's done well before the Portal, right? I mean, for people who don't think that that's the case, you're pretty naive to how this all works. For me, I think, like I'm on record saying this, I think the Portal is a really good thing for a lot of reasons. Kids go to school, sometimes it doesn't work out for a variety of different reasons. And I like the idea that kids have the ability to move to a place that might be a better fit for them. The one caveat to that is that if you're not one of those guys who was told you have to go into the Portal and Johnathan mentioned that. Right? And you're seeing more and more of that right now because of the impending roster cuts. Right? Guys have to make decisions. They're hard decisions, Coach don't want to have to make them. But you have to have those conversations with kids at the end of the year. I was in the room when we did that stuff in college. They're the worst conversations you have to have. But you do it from a place of, hey, it's not going to work out here, man, but you can play in college. Like, we'll help you try to find another spot. The thing that I have a problem with is that kids bailing from competition, right? And not getting exactly what they want right away with the expectation that like I'm a freshman, I'm supposed to play, you know, and then you start nitpicking on, well, I didn't get consistent at bats and how am I supposed to get into a rhythm or I didn't, you know, I'm a starter and I threw out of the bullpen. And you start to make a lot of excuses as to why you weren't successful and not really being able to look in the mirror and just say, hey, I need to get better. Like most freshmen don't play. And I think that I struggle with that because the guys who are willing to stick it out in some of these programs and they're not leaving because they were told to leave, but they're leaving because they think that the next place they go, the resistance to get on the field is going to be less. I think kids who shy away from the competition and the, the fact that you need to earn yourself playing time at the college level, those kids, it's not going to work out for them. The kids who were willing to sit down with a coach and gather the feedback and figure out, well, what do I need to do over the next three months to make sure that my sophomore year goes the way that I want it to go? Those kids will be successful. The kids that run from that competition, it's not going to work out for them. The next place that they go, I firmly believe that. I've watched it happen plenty of times. Um, so I think that's the thing that trips me up with the transfer portal. I get the mid major guys moving up, like, yeah, go get paid, man. You hit 21 volts and 360, like, and you're a sophomore, like, yeah, Tennessee's calling, like, go, absolutely. Go get your money. Go play in the sec. Go play with the big boys and see what happens. Good for you. But the kids that run from it, that makes me a little bit sad because I think it's. It goes against the spirit of college sports where sometimes you get to dig in and you got to find a way to get on the field. And the kids who have that kind of grit usually works out for him. So that's really all I got to say on the subject. Let's get to the fun stuff. We got Omaha coming up, fellas. We were dreadful with our picks. I mean, shouldn't say dreadful. I think each, each of us had at least two or three teams in our preseason pick that made it to Omaha. I can't speak for everybody here, but my, my preseason national championship pick is. Is still in the mix, but we got a heck of a field. We got some really awesome storylines. I'm going to list the teams here real quick, and then I want to take a second and kind of recap some of the drama from the supers. So we got Coastal. They continue to just freaking play. Went into Auburn. Awesome. Arizona made it through, Oregon State, made it through Louisville, ucla, Murray State, lsu, and the Omaha from Arkansas. That's our field of eight. But Jonathan, give me, give me some thoughts on the super here. What do you got? What fired you up? What disappointed you?
• 25:20
  Speaker C: I thought it was a really good weekend. I was disappointed we only got one game on Monday just because I know in years past that's been a fun Monday where, you know, if you get three games, they'll usually like, stack them like 14 and 8 or something like that. So that was a little disappointing. But I mean, you know, that happens. You know, you got the long standalone game with, you know, Murray State. I'm absolutely blown away that they. They got it done. Kudos to that coaching staff. You know, I Mean, that is as impressive of a job as you're going to see. I mean, to win game three on the road, you basically empty the bullpen the night before to get there. Really cool. So that would, that was my first one. I think you hit the nail on the head. Like the, Coastal is just, Coastal is just a unit right now. Like, they're a problem. They're playing really, really, really good. That coaching staff has done it before in Omaha. So, you know, and I say this all the time, and I've said in the last three years, I think when we've done this, having gone to Omaha and having been there and knowing the timeline, the way that the rest works, the practice, the fans, all that stuff is a huge advantage. So I think even though coach wasn't the head coach on that team that won it all, they'll know what they're doing out there. You know, where teams that are, you know, doing it for the first time or coaching staffs that are doing it for the first time, I think it's, it makes it a little bit trickier to go into it. So that would be my second takeaway. Like, you know, they're playing awesome. Like, you know, they're going to be a problem. Arkansas, you know, wash, rinse, repeat. You know, I mean, I know I had Tennessee winning last weekend, so I missed on that one. But I mean, in that building, I thought, I thought that was going to play a factor. Big time, big time performance out of them. I was very impressed with them. I would say they might have been the most impressive in terms of them and Coastal, I would say, you know, really, really, really look good. You know, Arizona did a phenomenal job in the fact that they came back when they were basically left for dead on, I guess that was Saturday, come back, make a huge rally and then take it on Sunday, which was pretty legit, you know, and I still have my, my pick to win it all. So I think LSU's, they're going to be a tough out with that, pitching with the, with the, with the rest. In Omaha, we've talked about before, if you, if you're a loyal listener and you've heard us, the rest is different because you got it. You got every other day. You can line that bullpen up, they can finagle the starters a little bit. They got two that obviously the two at the front that are big boys, like, they're going to be, they're going to be a tough, tough, tough, tough out. So.
• 28:28
  Speaker B: It'S your opening statement here, Coach Glass.
• 28:33
  Speaker A: I thought What Arizona did at UNC I thought was pretty impressive, especially after being Boat Race 182 on Friday night, come back and win 108 on Saturday and then got out a 43 win on Sunday, which it kind of went in reverse. For those of you that follow college baseball, where usually Sunday's your hit day, they gutted that out. I thought that was really impressive what they did. Coastal is a juggernaut right now. I went through and did the free 90s for the eight College World Series teams right now and they're averaging 6.13 90s a game. So I was, I'm really impressed. Like they, they can flat out stuff it on the mound, which can really help and to Jonathan's point that you're, you've been there before, you know how to kind of stack this up. Like I think that they're a force to be reckoned with there when I didn't necessarily, you know, Ali Crow here and I didn't think they were going to get out of the Conway Regional. So the fact that they're just shoving it right down our throats, that they're really good is, is pretty impressive. Arkansas, I mean, can't say enough good things about them. The lsu, I thought they were super tough. I thought the Oregon State, Florida State series was actually really good, especially with Florida State going literally across the country diagonally to play up in, up in Eugene or excuse me, in Corvallis. You know, they lost 5, 4 on, on Friday night, then they won I think 3 or 4 to 1 on, on Saturday. And then there was Oregon State exploded I think for seven in the first and not that that game was put away, but they ended up winning, you know, relatively easily. You know, Louisville, Miami was an electric series. You know, I watched a decent amount of that because that was a 12 o' clock game every day. You know, Louisville was packed. I thought the atmosphere was awesome. It was cool to see that many people turn out to the super regional. I mean they were all the way around the field, stacked up in like 30 rows in the outfield, sitting on the wall, so, or the hill, I should say. But lastly, you know, I thought what Murray State has done, you know, with, with what they've done with that team being out of the, you know, a mid major conference. They won it. They, they, they got through an Ole Miss, a Western Kentucky and Georgia Tech regional that was stacked and then went into Durham and took two of three from Duke and you know, that game Monday night, like I was disappointed to Jonathan. The, I was, I was hoping For a bunch of Monday games. But I mean, that game was a really great game to watch. Even with some drama at the end with the controversial interference call that I didn't think it was interference live. I texted, everyone said I don't think that's, that's actually interference. And they ultimately got the call. Right. You know, but that's a, that's a 50, 50 call, you know, but to then dogpile reset and then get a rollover ground ball out to get out of that in a one run game with the tying run on first base in the bottom of the ninth on the road, you know, I think shows how tough those guys are. And that coaching staff's done a phenomenal job and I'm excited to see what they can do in Omaha.
• 31:43
  Speaker B: Yeah, for me there's a couple things that stuck out. One was how thin the margins can be when you get two really good teams on the field together. And I watch pretty much start to finish the first game in the Oregon State, Florida State game up in Corvallis. And there was a couple, a couple pieces of that game that I thought were really interesting. I think it's something that you two would really appreciate is the Bellini kid from Florida State is just absolutely stuffing it on Oregon State. I mean, it's super high level command. It's a couple different breaking balls for strikes. He was burying it, the fastballs up, it's down, it's in and out. I mean, he was putting on an absolute clinic of how to dice up an incredibly talented Oregon State team. He ends up getting pulled after six and two thirds. He went up to about 114 pitches. But I thought the reason that Oregon State ended up winning this game was Oregon State was able to an extended inning in the fifth and they probably tacked on an extra 16 or 17 pitches to Bellini's pitch count by bunting for hits. And for those of you who watch, Felini is a big boy. Wouldn't call him when you get him off of the dirt. I wouldn't call him a plus athlete. And the Oregon State offense took advantage of it and were able to extend that inning to the point where they were able to get him out probably an inning earlier than Link would have liked. Which led to them going to their, one of their stud relievers, the Charles Kidd, who was absolutely nails for two innings. He's throwing two different shape breaking balls. One's at like 84 miles an hour. The ones like top, bottom at 78 and he's carbon dudes up and Oregon State is battling. They're like really, really tough offense in terms of how they go about their business. And the, the other margin here that I thought was really interesting is that the Creed kids up, they just throw in a wild pitch to get the tying run to second base and the creek kids up and Charles throws two absolutely just sexy breaking balls. Probably a half ball off the edge. He gets Craig to swing over the top of both of them and he throws another breaking ball and he misses by maybe 2 inches and he just catches a little bit too much of the plate and Craig's able to get that ball in the left field. Our cat comes up the next inning, doubles. And that was kind of the end of the game. But when you talk about how thin the margins are, like two bunt plays in one pitch that misses by two inches was probably the difference in that series. I thought that was fascinating. That Florida State team is really, really good. But Oregon State was able to do some stuff to get out of there. And then the other thing that struck me on Sunday with Arizona and UNC was some of these young bucks in the composure that these kids have, right? You're talking a winner take all to go to the College World Series. And UNC in Arizona run out two freshmen, Ryan lynch and Smith Bailey. And those two did not bat an eye. And I was blown away not only with their ability to pitch. This stuff is awesome. Both those guys have a chance to be first round picks here in a couple years. But the composure of those young men I think really stuck out. And I think it's something that separates good players from really, really good players and great players is it takes a special kind of kid. And Jonathan, me and you have talked about this, I think Keith, me and you have as well. It takes a different type of kid to be able to play in that type of environment and to see two 18 year old kids go and do that. I was pretty blown away by the what those guys were able to do. I think my other takeaway you guys touched on Murray State, obviously. It's awesome. Arkansas, Arkansas looks really tough. Coastal looks really tough. UCLA quietly took UTSA to the woodshed out on the west coast this weekend. And that UTSA team is playing as good as anybody in the country. In UCLA, just from first pitch 18 consecutive innings, just flat out outplayed a really, really good and hard to play against UTSA team. John Savage looks like he's got that UCLA program back. I'm really interested to see what they do this week. The way they play typically translates pretty well to that park. But yeah, I thought that was one of the things that they might not be getting enough attention right now for what they did out there because there was some other really cool stuff that happened, particularly Murray State and Coastal. So those are my big takeaways. Couple fun facts that are probably worth discussing. The SEC is not dead. They still have more teams in the World Series than anybody else. But you've got representation from the Missouri Valley, the Big Ten, the ACC and Independent School, the Big 12, the SEC and the Sunbelt Conference. It's seven different conferences if you count independent. And this is the first time since 1999, which is the first time we went to a super regional format, that a team who had played in the College World Series the previous year. Let me, let me accurately phrase this. Nobody in this year's field played in Omaha last year, and that is the first time that's happened since 1999. And the Pac 12 really jacked up that football conference because if they just stayed together, they'd have three teams in the College World Series. So, Keith, I know you got some interesting numbers and we talk about this. We've talked about it here, we've talked about it around pitching, we've talked about the importance of defense. But you took some time to dig into a couple things here around free bases, right? Which is walks, hit by pitches, wild pitches, stolen bases, errors. I think you have a pass balls.
• 38:05
  Speaker A: Basically there's seven.
• 38:07
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 38:10
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 38:12
  Speaker C: Keith, you go first. But I got something to add with the fielding stuff too, that it's going to tie exactly into what you're saying.
• 38:19
  Speaker A: Sure. So I went through and did the free 90s, something I tracked when I was at, when I was in coaching. And it kind of gives you an accurate representation of, you know, how many quote unquote, free 90s you're likely to get over the course of the game. This does not count hits, anything at all. Right. So nothing you earn to get on. So walks, hit by pitches, errors, pass balls, wild pitches, stolen bases and box. So anything that can get you a free 90ft. Arkansas in this setting for the the eight teams that are in Omaha. Arkansas leads the pack they had. They're averaging 6.02 per nine innings. Coastal's in second with 6.11. Arizona's third, 695. LSU is fourth at 748. Oregon State is fifth with 7. 5, 66 is UCLA with 779. Murray State is seventh with 6. 797 in Louisville is last with 10. A 10 4. And generally speaking, like, again, this kind of lends itself to how many, you know, quote unquote free bases that is that you're kind of going to expect over the course of nine innings. Now, obviously it's an average, so some are going to be lower, some are going to be higher depending on what it is. But it at least gives you a framework of what you're going to get. I think the impressive thing to me first and foremost are the two at the top in Arkansas and Coastal being, you know, right around six. You know, if you go look at their walk to strikeout numbers, it's an absolute joke off the top of my head and I don't have it in front of me. You know, I think coastal walk, they're roughly 180 and Arkansas walked roughly 160 over the course of the year. And both of them were north of 500 in punch outs, you know, so. And there's, there's not a lot of hit by pitches in there as well. So even if it does, it kind of creeps up into the, you know, Arkansas, I don't even know if they're over 200 with hit by pitches. It creeps close, but I'm not sure they're over. Coastal, I think, is a tad bit over where everyone else has at least 200 walks as a staff. But, you know, it kind of tells you that, like you're going to have to earn everything it is you get against those pitching staffs when you go play them. The other side is they all defend at a pretty high clip for the most part. Where, you know, for the most part balls that are going to be put in play, like, there's a very high likelihood that you are going to be out. I think we were talking about it earlier today, India, where Arkansas, I think, is fielding 977 as a team. Is that what it was or is that the short story?
• 40:56
  Speaker B: 984.
• 40:57
  Speaker A: 984. I stand correct as the team.
• 40:59
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 41:02
  Speaker A: An absurd number from a fielding statistic over the course of 63 games at the college level. So like you, generally speaking, like, you have a 98.4% chance of getting out on any ball that you put in play. So, like it's going to be incredibly hard. And you know, you get to Omaha, the margins are thin. Like you have to earn what it is that you're going to get. So, you know, I like to look at these things and, you know, kind of see where people stack up. You know, if I was a betting man, I would not necessarily bet on Louisville to be in the championship. I would put my money on, you know, the ones that are in the sixes and the sevens as which is seven of the eight. But the sixes and the low to mid sevens of being the teams that are likely to be standing towards the end of when we get to the final series.
• 42:00
  Speaker C: All right, so I'm going to piggyback off that. So outside of Louisville because if you look at their, their metrics it's actually almost a miracle that they're there now. They do do some stuff really well but in terms of like when you're looking at the rest of the field, it's pretty remarkable. Every team in or seven of the eight are in the top 28 in fielding percentage in the country. So out of 316 or 309 teams and seven of the eight are in the Top 31 in errors per game. Pretty wild.
• 42:46
  Speaker A: Extremely.
• 42:47
  Speaker B: It's a run prevention sport whether people like it or not. And like you get into some of the era stuff like Coastal's number two in the country, LSU is number nine, Arkansas is number 10, Oregon State's number 20, UCLA is number 23. They do the run prevention stuff playing defense, not walking people. They strike a lot of people out. Like they do that stuff at a higher clip than all these other teams. And I mean some of the field and percentages like you look at them, Oregon State 982, UCLA 982, LSU 981, Arkansas 984. I mean those are, that's a joke that these kids play defense at that type of a clip. There's big league clubs who will finish this year with fielding percentages in a very similar. And I'm not saying that they're big league quality, the game is different. But what I am getting at is they just, they don't make mistakes. I mean I was looking at it this morning. The shortstop for Arkansas, Mr. Alloy, who's just a fantastic player, he's going to make a lot of money here in a couple of weeks. But you're talking about a shortstop in the sec. It's the fastest baseball that you play. That kid has five errors on the whole year. He's touched the ball over 220 times during the course of the year and is only messed up five times. I mean that's just absurd that a shortstop at 21 years old plays defense that clean. And these other teams have guys like it, like Iva Arquette is another one. I mean you watch that kid play shortstop and it's, it's, it's poetry. I mean, the kid, he makes it look so easy. And some of the defensive talent, and we've talked about this like, you want to play college baseball, you got to be able to defend. If this doesn't tell you that good place, good teams play defense, I don't know what does. Right. Teams are still alive despite the metrics.
• 44:46
  Speaker C: But I want to say last year, I believe when we did the World Series pod, the three of us discussed something similar to this in terms of the defense and how high level it is at once you get. And, and like you said, like, you know, and even at the high school level, like, the margins are so thin, they're so tight, they're paper thin. Errors will kill you, Walks will kill you. Like it's just part of the game. And like, like back to Keith's point earlier, like, yeah, the metrics are great, but some of those guys that are, you know, in said portal are in there because they can't throw strikes. And the teams that are playing on June 13th and 14th throw a lot of strikes and field the freaking heck out of it.
• 45:44
  Speaker A: Yeah, it's, I, I, the other one that was impressive to me was the Bowdon kid at Coastal has two pass balls this entire year.
• 45:51
  Speaker C: Did you see this?
• 45:52
  Speaker A: Which is a rather impressive stat.
• 45:57
  Speaker B: Yeah, I did. I saw that. I didn't. But I would imagine the umpire to call those strikes. They need to be, they need to be sent down to freaking high school.
• 46:04
  Speaker A: But it's a him, though.
• 46:07
  Speaker B: Yeah, he. If you're watching and you want to see somebody who can receive at a, an incredibly high clip, and there's some really good catchers in this, in this tournament that are still alive. But that kid is, I mean, you're talking about a, a kid who will probably catch in the big leagues. If nothing else, he can defend at that level. And obviously he's got some, some offensive numbers that, that, that certainly jive with it as well. But I mean, that's a rare, a rare level of receiving that that kid is able to attain at this point. And he's. If you're a fan of good catchers, dial in when Coastal's playing one. They got some electric arms, but that kid does as good of a job as anybody in the country in recent years in terms of handling a staff, blocking the baseball, receiving the baseball. I mean, he's pretty special. Do we have any changes in our thoughts and who's going to make this out? Who's going to, who's going to win this thing. Are you going to shift gears on lsu, Jonathan?
• 47:08
  Speaker C: No, I'm not. I just think, like I said, I think with, you know, their staff again, they've been there. They know how the rest works. You know, Jay's been there a bunch of times. They've gotten over the hump with him. I think they'll figure out a way to navigate the rest stuff. They did it with schemes, you know, two, three years ago, whatever that was two or two or three years ago, you know, and they didn't have quite the number two. They're deeper on the mound this time around. They're maybe just as offensive. Like, I'm not saying anybody's Paul Skins, but, you know, when you got two guys now and you can kind of finagle that rotation and stuff like that, again, they know how to navigate it. I think it's horrible. It stinks that then or Arkansas won't play for a national championship because of the way the brackets are. And I would, I would love to see if we can, you know, if the ABCA can get, you know, some pressure on the NCAA to maybe recede this thing. It's big enough. It's, it's, it's as important as ever. I would love to see a receipt if we could, you know, just, you know, one through eight, easy, simple, you know, you know, you have to do for the super, but just, I think for the, the for Omaha, if we get a receipt, I think it would, it would be beneficial. So now I'm not going to budge, I think. I mean, I'm going to be tuned in, I can tell you that. Arkansas, LSU on Saturday, because that's going to be electric, just like Tennessee and Arkansas was electric this weekend. So I'm going to go lsu. I'll stick with lsu.
• 48:52
  Speaker B: What do you got? Cold class? Who's taking home the ship?
• 48:57
  Speaker A: I'm not, I'm not moving off My, my, my original prediction from the start of the tournament was that it was going to be Arkansas and Oregon State. I'm going to stick to my guns on this one. I do think that our, you know, I have Arkansas winning the whole thing. You know, obviously, given what we just talked about From a free 90 and defensive standpoint, I mean, they stuff it on the mound. They figured it out offensively, you know, I mean, Tennessee is a really good, it's a really good staff and they hand. They did a really good job with them in the supers. It was a great series, but they were, you know, up against it, against that staff. And to be able to get it done. I don't necessarily think that they're intimidated by, by much that it is that they're going to see in Omaha. Not to say that LSU is, is not good as the, the opening game, but, you know, I ultimately think that Arkansas is going to get it done. I'm impressed with Oregon State. I am. I think that that side of the bracket is tough as well. I mean, Arizona I was super impressed with. I talked about at the top and you know, Coastal is just, you know, they're, they're really, really good. I just, I'm going to stick with what I went with originally. I do think Oregon State's really good. They beat a really good Florida State team. They can pitch it, they defend, they can hit. You know, they've been to Omaha in the past as well, you know, so I don't think it's a foreign concept for them to be there and have the moment get too big. So I'm going to, I'm going to stick Arkansas, Oregon State in the finals and I'm, I'm sticking with the Omahogs to, to knock down Dave Van Horn's championship.
• 50:38
  Speaker B: Yeah, I'm on the same boat. I think one of the things that can be really interesting is that there is a. If I'm, if I'm recalling the format correctly, there's a decent chance Arkansas and LSU play three times. Because if it's double elimination on that side, like that gets.
• 50:59
  Speaker A: Yeah, it's, it's essentially the revert. It's, it's the, you're back to a regional and then a super regional format, more or less. So it's four team tournament, double elimination. Winner goes to the championship, three game set.
• 51:10
  Speaker B: You could, you could see Arkansas and LSU play three times. I think that that's a distinct possibility, which would be electric. But yeah, I'm sticking with Arkansas. Like on paper, they are the best team. It's not really debatable. You know, they're top four, top 15 in every significant offensive category and they're top 12 in every significant pitching category in the country. No other team in the field right now achieves at that level across the board. With that being said, it's College World Series. Like they're going to need to play their best baseball be, you know that that first game might be the decider in terms of who makes it out of that side, whoever wins the lsu Arkansas game. Because we all know it's really tough to come out of a double elimination if you lose. Number one so it'll be interesting to see how that happens. Very curious to see ucla. I kind of said that at the top. I think they're playing really well. They've been playing really well all year, but I think they're a little bit under the radar. I think some of the other stuff that happened in the regionals, in the supers might have got overlooked a little bit, but they've been. They've been, for lack of a better term, they've kind of been taking belt to ass on people here for a couple weeks, and we'll see if they're able to. To keep that momentum in Omaha here. But, Gabby, it's going to be awesome this time of year. It's just. It's so fun to watch these guys compete. It's great to have a Cinderella story there with Murray State. I mean, it's why college baseball is so fun. It's why it's so fun to watch. It's why you have to watch it if you're a college baseball fan, because this stuff happens when it's not supposed to. Like, Murray State is not supposed to be in the College World Series, but they are. So that team plays their ass off. They got some really good players. Make no mistake. Like, this isn't a bunch of overachievers. There's some really good baseball players on this team.
• 53:08
  Speaker A: That lead up, that leadoff hitter can swat like that. Kid's got like 22 bolts and he, like, he, he's got. He generates some bats, meat. And he can lose a baseball quickly. Boy.
• 53:20
  Speaker B: Yeah, let me shoot. They're 15th in their country and run scored 17th. And on base percentage, they're in.306 as a team, and they're. They're seventh in the country in doubles per game. They're hitting two and a half doubles a game. Like, this is a really talented offense. And you could have made the case before the tournament that some of those numbers were inflated because they were playing in whatever conference. You know, you could, you could play that game. But it is. All of that stuff is held true through a regional and in a super regional. So to this point, there's really no debating. That's a dangerous offensive team. Excited to see what they do. I hope they shake some things up. I'd love to see them wreak a little havoc. I think it's, it's. This is why you watch sports like this, because cool stuff like this happens. Any closing thoughts, fellas?
• 54:19
  Speaker A: Go. Watch it. Like, this weekend's gonna be awesome for college baseball. I father's Day. Sit around watching baseball all day, can't find a better day to do it.
• 54:33
  Speaker B: Jonathan, let me out.
• 54:36
  Speaker C: Yeah, you know that I watch. I watch. I watch Murray State against Kentucky on a Tuesday in February. I got. If I get. If I get a double dip on Father's Day, man, I'm in lock and loaded, baby. Nah, they're gonna be awesome. Obviously starts Friday. Get out. Watch it, man. Just see how, like, you know, like. Like you guys said, like, just see how good some of these players are. And it's a celebration, you know, I think. I think it's so unique, I can't remember. I think it's. Ryan McGee did it on Twitter, if you can find it on espn, just like what Omaha means to, you know, the sport of college baseball, you know, and he makes a good point. You know, the Final Four moves, the national championship changes in college football, but Omaha's been. Omaha's been there for College Baseball for 50 over since the 50s, I believe it was like, It's. It's such a cool thing. The town absolutely loves it. The town eats it up. The fan bases are awesome. You obviously got two monster fan bases in terms of LSU and Arkansas that will be there. You know, Coastal should. Should travel really well again.
• 55:52
  Speaker A: They've.
• 55:52
  Speaker C: They've had a phenomenal, you know, support system there. I think they'll travel really well, especially with how well they're playing it. It's gonna be, you know, Louisville have a good fan base. I mean, you know, I think, Keith, you said it like, the. The atmosphere in Louisville was freaking awesome this weekend. So, like, you got a lot of really good fan bases. You got a lot of people. And ultimately it's. It's a celebration of an entire season, but we get 10 days of it, which is. Which is so cool because, you know, the Final Four is two days. The national championship in football. Even if you say the Final Four, it's. It's, you know, it's two days. But this is the ultimate pinnacle for these coaching staffs, these players. It's just. You don't even have to say anything, you know, and, you know, when. When you just say Omaha, it's like, ah, gotcha. So get out.
• 56:43
  Speaker A: Watch it.
• 56:43
  Speaker C: Enjoy it. Enjoy Father's Day for any dads listening, you know, that are gonna watch it and lock in on it and, you know, sit down with your son and, you know, hopefully he'll have a dream that. That will be, you know, an opportunity for him to do. To do that and go there one day. So.
• 57:03
  Speaker B: Yeah, it's electric. Tune in, carve out some time. It's awesome. Baseball, the history of it. I mean it's, it's nothing like it in college sports, that's for sure. So tune in. Thank you for listening everybody. We will reconvene on this at some point to kind of unpack what happened in Omaha. But until then, tune in next time. Thanks everybody. 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 MD Baseball. 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.