I was going to post this in the Bianco poll thread but figured it would get lost in that debate...... I'm aware people who know more than me seem to say we're 8th/9th in the SEC in NIL budget.... bare with me cause this will be long, but I think that's a bullsh!t argument. This team has plenty of actual talent. Actually, we have more talent than plenty of teams in the league. I know baseball recruiting is less of an exact science than football or basketball... but that's exactly why evaluation is so much more important.
Even with a bottom half NIL budget we were able to accumulate talent. D1 baseball had us with 6 of the top 130 transfers in the portal on top of multiple top 250 ranked HS recruits.
- Pitchers: 6 top 250 overall recruits(Quinn, Saunier, Elliott, Brayden Jones, Mendes, Mason Morris), retained Rivas over an MLB free agent deal, and picked up Doyle.
- Catcher: 2 top 250 recruits in Smithwick(#64 overall) and Lyons
- 1B: 1 top 150 recruit in Will Furniss.
- 2B: signed a P5 starter in Luke Hill.
- SS: 1 top 250 player in Markle and Randle who was wanted by TX
- 3B: 1 top 250 recruit in Utermark and a top ranked transfer in Fisher
- OF: 2 highly ranked transfers in Groff and Hughes(who we signed over other SEC teams) and a draft returnee in Lege.
- Utility: Jackson Ross was a top 130 transfer on D1 Baseball
We have SIX top 250 Pitchers and FOUR top 250 fielders getting playing time to go with several high end transfers. We are finding and signing talent. Period.
For reference here's a rough look at a few teams in the league we compare with talent wise. **Disclaimer: I put transfers original rankings in this so it isn't 100% perfect but it's close**
Miss St: 1 top 100 player in the field, 1 top 100 player on the mound
6 starters in the field were #390 overall in the country or worse with 4 of them being outside the top 500.
South Carolina: 4 top 300 players in the field, 2 top 300 player on the mound
Most fielders were unranked recruits(500+) and pitchers were lower level transfers. 2 originally top ranked fielders are transfers.
Kentucky: 1 top 100 pitcher, 2 top 300 fielder
Almost Kentucky's entire starting lineup are unranked or had no Perfect Game profile. 1 Catcher was #269 overall and SS was #259 and transferred from Texas. 1 Pitcher was top 100.
Georgia: 3 top 250 fielders, 1 top 250 pitcher
Majority of UGA's lineup were all 400+ ranked recruits. Transfer evaluations and DEVELOPMENT of hitters has them winning.
This took way longer than I want to admit, and there's more to compare, but I was bored on a Sunday night..... point being.... I don't believe NIL is our problem. It's development and evaluation. Period.
NIL is a problem if we want to be where Arkansas, Texas A&M, and Tennessee are in talent aquisition... but if we want to get back into the hosting conversation, we have more than enough talent to do so. A coach that wins will generate NIL support to win. We've proven that as a fanbase.
Even with a bottom half NIL budget we were able to accumulate talent. D1 baseball had us with 6 of the top 130 transfers in the portal on top of multiple top 250 ranked HS recruits.
- Pitchers: 6 top 250 overall recruits(Quinn, Saunier, Elliott, Brayden Jones, Mendes, Mason Morris), retained Rivas over an MLB free agent deal, and picked up Doyle.
- Catcher: 2 top 250 recruits in Smithwick(#64 overall) and Lyons
- 1B: 1 top 150 recruit in Will Furniss.
- 2B: signed a P5 starter in Luke Hill.
- SS: 1 top 250 player in Markle and Randle who was wanted by TX
- 3B: 1 top 250 recruit in Utermark and a top ranked transfer in Fisher
- OF: 2 highly ranked transfers in Groff and Hughes(who we signed over other SEC teams) and a draft returnee in Lege.
- Utility: Jackson Ross was a top 130 transfer on D1 Baseball
We have SIX top 250 Pitchers and FOUR top 250 fielders getting playing time to go with several high end transfers. We are finding and signing talent. Period.
For reference here's a rough look at a few teams in the league we compare with talent wise. **Disclaimer: I put transfers original rankings in this so it isn't 100% perfect but it's close**
Miss St: 1 top 100 player in the field, 1 top 100 player on the mound
6 starters in the field were #390 overall in the country or worse with 4 of them being outside the top 500.
South Carolina: 4 top 300 players in the field, 2 top 300 player on the mound
Most fielders were unranked recruits(500+) and pitchers were lower level transfers. 2 originally top ranked fielders are transfers.
Kentucky: 1 top 100 pitcher, 2 top 300 fielder
Almost Kentucky's entire starting lineup are unranked or had no Perfect Game profile. 1 Catcher was #269 overall and SS was #259 and transferred from Texas. 1 Pitcher was top 100.
Georgia: 3 top 250 fielders, 1 top 250 pitcher
Majority of UGA's lineup were all 400+ ranked recruits. Transfer evaluations and DEVELOPMENT of hitters has them winning.
This took way longer than I want to admit, and there's more to compare, but I was bored on a Sunday night..... point being.... I don't believe NIL is our problem. It's development and evaluation. Period.
NIL is a problem if we want to be where Arkansas, Texas A&M, and Tennessee are in talent aquisition... but if we want to get back into the hosting conversation, we have more than enough talent to do so. A coach that wins will generate NIL support to win. We've proven that as a fanbase.
