What will next year look like?

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fldore
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What will next year look like?

Post by fldore »

Cooper, Gonzo, and Fisher are seniors. Juniors include Rocker, Murphy, Keegan, Vaz, Kolwyck, Isaiah, and Ethan Smith. Didnt realize Murphy was a junior. That'll be a big loss. Assuming all of the juniors are leaving. Any reason to think any of them would come back? Of the Sophs, I know Leiter is eligible and likely gone. And didnt realize until I read on the board that CJ Rodriguez is also eligible. Any chance CJ comes back? Would love to keep that defense one more year.

So of our hitters that got over 100 atbats this year only Bradfield, Noland, Bulger, and Young are returning. We saw Jones and LaNeve get more atbats as the year went on so I assume we'll see more of them next year. Bradfield and Young both had great years. Going to assume Young's problems late in the year were due to injury. The rest of those guys had moments but were up and down. Thats 6 players I expect to see in the lineup. With CJ out I assume we'll see a combo of Max and Espinal. Not sure if they'd both be in the lineup and rotate C/DH.

As far as pitchers, this is the first time in awhile I don't feel confident about our staff going into next year. I know everyone has high hopes for Little but he struggled throughout the year even during midweek games at times. A lot of potential but has to put it all together. Reilly showed flashes but had trouble with command at times. I watched one of Schultz's starts early in the year (that friday start against UIC) and I was thinking we had our 3rd starter locked down but he never looked as good after that. Is there someone else on the staff, or a freshman coming in, that will make a run for a weekend spot? Thankfully Maldo is coming back. McElvain had his moments in the CWS. Assuming we'll see a lot more of Berkwich, Evans, and Garrett. Not sure what Hliboki's return would look like. Doubtful we'll ever see the likes of Rocker and Leiter again on the team at the same time. Will be a big drop off but Corbin seems to find a way.


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Re: What will next year look like?

Post by cjdore »

You forget that Corbs reloads every year. who ever thought we would replace Sony Gray and David Price recently? Yet now we have the probable catastrophic loss of Rocker and leiter.......

https://14powers.com/sec-recruiting/202 ... mmit-list/

I believe I count at least 4 - 5* pitchers in this list.......we will be alright!!!
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Re: What will next year look like?

Post by DivergentDore »

One of the biggest question marks will be replacing Thomas in RF. He has a pretty good arm and I'm not sure who we have that can step in out there. I'm hopeful CJ returns behind the plate (love watching him receive the ball!). Jones will be a two way player at P and 1st if fully recovered from his surgery, he was actually starting 1B in 2020. Noland will likely move back to his natural spot at 3B is Vaz or Kolwyk come back (or if Lawler bypasses the draft like some in the DFW area are starting to think). I think we'll have much improved offensive and defensive outputs next year.

Little will greatly benefit from a full off-season. I'm expecting Reilly to take the next step and become a little more confident in his pitches. Those two with Berkwich sandwiched between should be a very solid rotation that will continue to improve as the season goes. Hopefully Owen will continue to progress and find the zone more often. His pitches are wicked but tall, lanky southpaws are notoriously slow to develop across all levels of play. Maldo would be a staple anchor in the pen for any team.

I was excited for this year and the Boys made a run to the finals. I'm also excited for next year.
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Re: What will next year look like?

Post by geeznotagain »

In addition to the unknown number of committed players who will sign a pro contract, this year there is the increased presence of the dreaded "transfer portal monster" to worry about.
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Re: What will next year look like?

Post by Minoadoc »

i think Kowalczyk, Smith, and Vaz would come back, the first two because of injury interrupting their season, Vaz to be a full time contributor, all three to improve draft stock. Hopefully, Doolin is recovered, Hliboki probably too soon to recover. Spencer Jones can start throwing and maybe pitch/1B, used to touch 94 before surgery. Hewett saw some midweek time, as did O'Dowd. And you figure at least 1-2 of the incoming pitchers, and 1-2 of the incoming position players will contribute. Would be suprised to see CJ come back. The draft is 20 rounds this year, have to believe he gets picked and catching is too physical. His emotions in the dugout looked like someone who had played his last college game.I think Romero sees time at DH if not full time C. HCTC seems to be great at sorting it all out
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Re: What will next year look like?

Post by roanoke »

I have no insider info: but I would expect Vaz to come back and be a full-time contributor next year. He and Bradfield together will be a dynamic outfield.

CJ is a hard call. He stayed in the dugout a long time when it was over. Either to soak in the feeling of a being a Vandy baseball player one last time - or to remember the feeling of losing to fix it next year. I guess we'll find out. Normally I would say leave and take the money - but a good catcher at Vandy gets seen by more scouts than your regular AA catcher and catches some special pitchers. We have had some catchers stay.

I wonder if Ethan Smith comes back to improve his stock since he barely got to pitch this year?

I appreciate the list above: Andruw Jones is a name that jumps out - as we continue to get star players' kids. It is a good trend. Some have suggested Kolwyck will come back - and I just don't know - but if he did, we would have a pretty good infield: the one we had before all these injuries set in. Noland at 3, Young at ss, Kolwyck at 2nd. The list of new pitchers is impressive - but so is the list of pitchers who missed this year who may be healthy next year. We will be ok.

There is a history of a couple of surprise draft-eligible guys coming back - and I hold out hope a couple of them will. The key one would be CJ - but he could be a pretty low round choice.

There is some chatter that Lawlor could be deciding to skip the draft. That would also be huge, impactful news....
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Re: What will next year look like?

Post by Minoadoc »

i think Lawlor is projected as one of the first five picks in the draft. that would be huge if he comes to Vandy, would cause some position movement. i thought the Jones kid was a '22 signing, but i may have read he reclassified to '21. Also, another 5* is Joshua Baez, slugger/pitcher who is also projected first round. maldonado is draft eligible. And I think Vaz played 2B in JC?
Last edited by Minoadoc on Thu Jul 01, 2021 4:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: What will next year look like?

Post by VandyManners »

Are the 3 M pitchers coming back? Murphy, Maldonado, McElvain
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Re: What will next year look like?

Post by Minoadoc »

Murphy and Maldonado are draft eligible, not sure on McElvain
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Re: What will next year look like?

Post by egbertsouse »

Isn't LaNeve draft eligible also?
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Re: What will next year look like?

Post by MrMemorial »

Didn't the MLB draft used to be like 60 rounds and then last year because of covid it was only 20? (That and the reduction in minor league teams).

Thus if it stays at 20 rounds, guys who used to get picked in the 23rd round and usually mistakenly leave school early, would now be back? Unfortunately that means other teams get more veteran players back too. Is there a way we can get our best players back but they still lose theirs?
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Re: What will next year look like?

Post by Haptown »

The MLB draft had 40 rounds in 2019. Not only is it limited now to 20 rounds, but the max undrafted player bonus allowed is just $20k.

The clubs use to be able to draft a player that had indicated he was going to school in the lower rounds and give him a much larger bonus if the club had money left over from their bonus pool. That is no longer possible.
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Re: What will next year look like?

Post by Commodoredave »

roanoke wrote: Thu Jul 01, 2021 1:16 pm I have no insider info: but I would expect Vaz to come back and be a full-time contributor next year. He and Bradfield together will be a dynamic outfield.

CJ is a hard call. He stayed in the dugout a long time when it was over. Either to soak in the feeling of a being a Vandy baseball player one last time - or to remember the feeling of losing to fix it next year. I guess we'll find out. Normally I would say leave and take the money - but a good catcher at Vandy gets seen by more scouts than your regular AA catcher and catches some special pitchers. We have had some catchers stay.

I wonder if Ethan Smith comes back to improve his stock since he barely got to pitch this year?

I appreciate the list above: Andruw Jones is a name that jumps out - as we continue to get star players' kids. It is a good trend. Some have suggested Kolwyck will come back - and I just don't know - but if he did, we would have a pretty good infield: the one we had before all these injuries set in. Noland at 3, Young at ss, Kolwyck at 2nd. The list of new pitchers is impressive - but so is the list of pitchers who missed this year who may be healthy next year. We will be ok.

There is a history of a couple of surprise draft-eligible guys coming back - and I hold out hope a couple of them will. The key one would be CJ - but he could be a pretty low round choice.

There is some chatter that Lawlor could be deciding to skip the draft. That would also be huge, impactful news....
I saw CJ's parents after the game and just thanked them for sharing their son with us. I wished him the best at going pro and dad just nodded.

We'll be really good up the middle, and I could easily pencil out a defensive lineup of returning players. I assume Romero is catching. Jones will either play RF or 1B, depending on the depth of the outfield. I do expect Bulger and Vaz to take those spots. Noland can move to 3B with a healthy Kolwyk.

Pitching is a question mark for sure. You have to assume Little is in the rotation, and I believe we saw enough from McIlvain to feel good about him getting a weekend spot. Reilley and Schultz need to step it up to a new level of consistency.

We should be better offensively with a little progression.
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Re: What will next year look like?

Post by OldDude »

MrMemorial wrote: Thu Jul 01, 2021 7:50 pm Didn't the MLB draft used to be like 60 rounds and then last year because of covid it was only 20? (That and the reduction in minor league teams).

Thus if it stays at 20 rounds, guys who used to get picked in the 23rd round and usually mistakenly leave school early, would now be back? Unfortunately that means other teams get more veteran players back too. Is there a way we can get our best players back but they still lose theirs?
Easy. Just appoint a totally unbiased OldDude as Commissioner of Extra Year Eligibility. Problem solved !
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Re: What will next year look like?

Post by MrMemorial »

Commodoredave wrote: Fri Jul 02, 2021 9:36 am
roanoke wrote: Thu Jul 01, 2021 1:16 pm I have no insider info: but I would expect Vaz to come back and be a full-time contributor next year. He and Bradfield together will be a dynamic outfield.

CJ is a hard call. He stayed in the dugout a long time when it was over. Either to soak in the feeling of a being a Vandy baseball player one last time - or to remember the feeling of losing to fix it next year. I guess we'll find out. Normally I would say leave and take the money - but a good catcher at Vandy gets seen by more scouts than your regular AA catcher and catches some special pitchers. We have had some catchers stay.

I wonder if Ethan Smith comes back to improve his stock since he barely got to pitch this year?

I appreciate the list above: Andruw Jones is a name that jumps out - as we continue to get star players' kids. It is a good trend. Some have suggested Kolwyck will come back - and I just don't know - but if he did, we would have a pretty good infield: the one we had before all these injuries set in. Noland at 3, Young at ss, Kolwyck at 2nd. The list of new pitchers is impressive - but so is the list of pitchers who missed this year who may be healthy next year. We will be ok.

There is a history of a couple of surprise draft-eligible guys coming back - and I hold out hope a couple of them will. The key one would be CJ - but he could be a pretty low round choice.

There is some chatter that Lawlor could be deciding to skip the draft. That would also be huge, impactful news....
I saw CJ's parents after the game and just thanked them for sharing their son with us. I wished him the best at going pro and dad just nodded.

We'll be really good up the middle, and I could easily pencil out a defensive lineup of returning players. I assume Romero is catching. Jones will either play RF or 1B, depending on the depth of the outfield. I do expect Bulger and Vaz to take those spots. Noland can move to 3B with a healthy Kolwyk.

Pitching is a question mark for sure. You have to assume Little is in the rotation, and I believe we saw enough from McIlvain to feel good about him getting a weekend spot. Reilley and Schultz need to step it up to a new level of consistency.

We should be better offensively with a little progression.
People are saying Romero is in the transfer portal but that Bulger is a good catcher who filled in as an outfielder and DH.
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Re: What will next year look like?

Post by bornadore57 »

In the last 10 years that the College World Series has been held, Vandy has appeared in five, including four championship series, and two championships. That is amazing and such a credit to Coach Corbin. That success makes you believe a 2020 appearance might have been possible, too.

Looking quickly over the 2019 national championship team, it is also amazing to see how little carry over there was from that team to 2021. Of the non-pitchers, it appears Cooper Davis (35 game appearances in 2019); Jayson Gonzalez (25); Dominic Keegan (15); Tate Kolwyck (4); and Isiah Thomas (21) were the carryovers from 2019 to 2021. Of the pitchers, it appears only Kumar Rocker, Ethan Smith, and Hugh Fisher pitched in both 2019 and 2021.

To me, that provides credence to the thought that Vanderbilt baseball is a program which is built for success year-in and year-out. I'm grateful to have such a program to back. I've enjoyed this season and look forward to next. Thanks to all who make this program the continual success and epitome of college baseball competition that it is.
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Re: What will next year look like?

Post by Minoadoc »

Bulger was the 4th ranked catcher coming out of HS by Perfect Game.
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Re: What will next year look like?

Post by commadore »

VANDERBILT (3)

(Photo: © George Walker IV / Tennessean.com, USA TODAY Sports)
6
COMMENTS
Like with Mississippi State, the Commodores are still playing, so there may be more players who opt to transfer once the season is complete. Neither player saw much action, but Hogan did play in 19 games with no starts. He had 13 at-bats but only two hits with a pair of strikeouts.

Will Duff: 6/28
Matt Hogan: 6/15
CJ Pittaro: 6/9

For more see: https://247sports.com/college/south-car ... 167051775/
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Re: What will next year look like?

Post by Ndorefin »

Interesting fact:

Leiter has 3 more years of eligibility and Rocker has 2 more. I don’t believe for a second either returns, but money isn’t a big concern for either. I also don’t believe they could improve their status by staying.
CJ has 3 more years, but he was so impressive he will probably leave. Kolwyck and Smith have 2 years remaining and I believe they could improve their status and may return. Smith is an interesting case….we don’t know the full extent of his situation and, if he gets healthy, could have a great year in a prominent role.

Our juniors have 2 years left and our sophs have 3, so it will be interesting to see what happens. The extra year gives all of them extra bargaining power. Unfortunately, not every team has to deal with players being drafted every year, therefore, most teams will have more returning players than usual and will make our path much more difficult than prior years.
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Re: What will next year look like?

Post by fldore »

Heard on Chris Lee's podcast that they've heard CJ may be coming back. If so that could be one reason why Max Romero threw his name in the transfer portal.
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