So, what ails us?

[Seadog73]

Baseball wasn't my sport growing up so I admit I know nothing about it. That said, I recall that Corb's has had a decent number of assistants get promoted in other programs or poached in some way. Is our problem the quality of the assistants?

I recall hearing / reading we are VERY young. So is that the problem, and we will outgrow this next year?

Is there something wrong in the locker room? How do we go from pre-season #1 (I think) to where we are?

Are we being out-spent in recruiting somehow? Not enough NIL deals for our folks?

Was this just a blip on the radar screen? All of the above?

[vandybrad]

All of the above.

[Haptown]

Here are my thoughts and I am doing this from memory and not doing any research, so I might be wrong. Also not doing much of a proof-read either.

When Jewett left to go to Tulane, Corbin replaced him with a Yankee scout that lived in Franklin that had none or very little college coaching experience. Just a strange hire that only lasted a year. Then Corbin hired Baxter, a former Vanderbilt player who played a couple of years under Corbin before getting drafted. Played for 12 years in the pros before being hired as the assistant position coach at Vandy. BTW, David Macias, who was already here as the strength coach, was moved to the volunteer assistant coach at that time. David left after last season and might be the 1st base coach for the San Diego Padres now. Maybe David was under appreciated as a coach and his loss is greatly felt.

Covid has really messed things up due to giving players extra years of eligibility and reducing the MLB draft from 42 rounds to 20. Florida and Vanderbilt are the 2 youngest teams this year in the SEC. Look at the rosters of the successful teams and you will see players up to 24 y/o that have played college ball for 6 years. Also not uncommon to see more than the usual 4th & 5th year players. Older players means more strength, more batting prowess, and better defensive ability. As an example, Kevin Kopps was a 6th year and 24 y/o player for Arkansas last year who was the 2021 SEC Pitcher of the Year.

As for Brownie, can anyone tell me a pitcher that improved appreciably from their freshman year? Or developed a reliable out pitch?

Chris Ham is no longer the S & C coach. You could always depend on the players being stronger the next year under Chris, but except for Spencer & EBJr, I am not sure about anyone else this year.

Either the actual bats are worse, the players not as strong, or the batting technique has regressed, but something is wrong here. Especially telling when teams like UT & TAM are all-world this year and Vandy looks like the weak little sister.

[charlestonalum]

Mainly we are very young and our hitters can't hit when we have players in sciring position and lately we have made uncharacteristic errors and pitching has dropprd off. This has been a down year and it remains to be seen if using the portal like some teams do will outweight our strategy to recruit high school players and develop. Need to turn it around for sure and nobody knows that better than Corbin who hates losing and probably is going nuts over the late inning collapses.

[commadore]

So you say our recruiting isn't up to par. According to Perfect Game, our recruiting rankings from 2015 through 2022 are as follows:
2015 1
2016 9
2017 1
2018 1
2019 1
2020 1
2021 2
2022 2
So yeah, we have slipped from 1 to 2 so it is a wonder we made the SEC tourney.

[Vandybird]

Yes .... the Perfect Game .... is so accurate (joke) ..... Vandy gets the very best and sucks because they got the very best. The Perfect Game and other ranking sources are the problem. Coaches are not doing analysis ... allowing the "pay to play" kids to buy exposure. Coaches used to recruit amd analize prospects but have switched to using services to do what had been their jobs.

[Go Vandy!]

2020 1
2021 2
2022 2

2 #2 classes and 1 #1. And we aren't playing like a top 50 team.

[Minoadoc]

Baseball is undeniably a team game. But here are some of the players who didn't step up or make the expected jump. Maldonado, Reilly, Young, Kolwyck, and probably 1-2 others. None of the freshman except for Futrell? Those are the players who would fill out the lineup and help cover the any weaknesses. Next year looks bleak if there is more of the same

[Vandybird]

Baseball has 9 individuals playing together .... but its the individual making the play or getting it done at bat that wins for the team. Team sport is soooo over used. How much of a team sport is a 1 to 0 no hitter win where the winning team score was a BB stolen base etc score ?

[Ndorefin]

2020 1
2021 2
2022 2

2 #2 classes and 1 #1. And we aren't playing like a top 50 team.

Most of the players are who make us 1 or 2 never make it to campus as they sign pro contracts. I have no problem with the rankings, but they need to be reworked after the draft and players make their decision.

[Ndorefin]

Yes .... the Perfect Game .... is so accurate (joke) ..... Vandy gets the very best and sucks because they got the very best. The Perfect Game and other ranking sources are the problem. Coaches are not doing analysis ... allowing the "pay to play" kids to buy exposure. Coaches used to recruit amd analize prospects but have switched to using services to do what had been their jobs.

You are so full of it! To say coaches don’t analyze players is ridiculous and you are the joke…you have no idea what you are talking about. Did you ask Corbin or any other coaches if this was their approach to recruiting? You didn’t mention any VU players by name, but you’ve already stated to me that’s how the target of your animosity achieved his high school accolades….his parents bought it!! As for Perfect game….you lost any credibility with that statement! Check the players at the top of their rankings and you will find most are early round draft picks, unless they have made it known they are going to college.

[Go Vandy!]

2020 1
2021 2
2022 2

2 #2 classes and 1 #1. And we aren't playing like a top 50 team.

Most of the players are who make us 1 or 2 never make it to campus as they sign pro contracts. I have no problem with the rankings, but they need to be reworked after the draft and players make their decision.

To channel Allegretta, whether we (1) these kids opt for pro ball or (2) whether the rankings are off or (3) whether a half dozen other whethers, this team has not performed up to its potential.

[commadore]

2020 1
2021 2
2022 2

2 #2 classes and 1 #1. And we aren't playing like a top 50 team.

Most of the players are who make us 1 or 2 never make it to campus as they sign pro contracts. I have no problem with the rankings, but they need to be reworked after the draft and players make their decision.

Same can be said of all the top five or six.

[Go Vandy!]

But the only 1 i care about is the VandyBoys. And i care too much about them, i'll admit.

[AuricGoldfinger]

This season, when it goes bad in one aspect of the game, it's gone really bad. And lately, it all seems to go bad at the same time, in the same game--hitting, pitching, and defense have mostly been just plain awful. Pitching had been reasonably decent (if not excellent for much of the season), but it has experienced an almost total collapse of late except for Holton.

[charlestonalum]

Baseball is undeniably a team game. But here are some of the players who didn't step up or make the expected jump. Maldonado, Reilly, Young, Kolwyck, and probably 1-2 others. None of the freshman except for Futrell? Those are the players who would fill out the lineup and help cover the any weaknesses. Next year looks bleak if there is more of the same

Carter Holton is a fresman most people like and a good number of them have also had good games - they will be much better next year.

[Golddore68]

Maybe this is just speculation but it seems to me that Corbs is losing more players, he’s going after some guys who are highly ranked but they don’t feel a desire to go to Vanderbilt and choose the draft over Vanderbilt.

Whereas before he was able to keep most of his highly ranked recruits even after they were drafted.

Whatever his message was that was working before, hasn’t been working lately.

In previous years Corbs signed the best talent from the Middle Tennessee area and those guys were dedicated and had great careers at Vanderbilt and made it to the majors (Gray, Price, etc.). They wanted to play at Vanderbilt because it was close to home and their families could easily go to the games and watch them. So they were willing to say “No thanks” to the majors for a few years while they played at Vanderbilt and took them to the CWS.

Now it doesn’t seem like he’s trying as hard in the Middle Tennessee area. Last year, in fact, UT’s coach signed three or four of the best players from Middle Tennessee. One of the guys who signed with UT was Hunter High from Lipscomb Academy. The guy was an incredible hitter, batted close to .400 for his high school career. Considering hitting is our weakness this year, we could use a player like him. But I don’t think Corbs even recruited him. It’s going to stink if he has a great career at UT and is one of their top hitters and Vanderbilt didn’t even try to recruit the guy.

I do see where we have a commit from a pitcher at Columbia Academy who threw a couple of no-hitters this year, so that’s good.

[Minoadoc]

Baseball is undeniably a team game. But here are some of the players who didn't step up or make the expected jump. Maldonado, Reilly, Young, Kolwyck, and probably 1-2 others. None of the freshman except for Futrell? Those are the players who would fill out the lineup and help cover the any weaknesses. Next year looks bleak if there is more of the same

Carter Holton is a fresman most people like and a good number of them have also had good games - they will be much better next year.

Forgot Holton. Like I said, too many guys didn’t step up. Like I said, if the same thing happens next year bleak. Of course, I hope not, but we most of the consistent hitters, jones, Keegan, vaz.

[fldore]

Forgot Holton. Like I said, too many guys didn’t step up. Like I said, if the same thing happens next year bleak. Of course, I hope not, but we most of the consistent hitters, jones, Keegan, vaz.

Yea there is definitely reason to be concerned going into next year. There were a number of people on this board going into this season that were hopeful but voicing concerns. Those concerns were masked early in the year due to our easy schedule but a lot of it has come to fruition. At the end of last year our hitters fell apart and we brought the main core of them back. The hope was most we regain their midseason form from last year and others would take a step forward. But only Jones really seemed to take a noticeable step forward while most others continued to look just as they did in Omaha... overmatched. There was no real step forward. And then from a pitching perspective, obviously we'd take step back losing Rocker and Leiter but the overall depth continues to be weak. And while most years it feels like there is always one guy from each class that becomes a stud pitcher but that sophomore just doesnt seem to have one. Little should be that guy but for whatever reason hasn't put it together. Our two best pitchers have been freshman but just not enough depth to round out a good staff.

As we go into next year, it has the same feeling if not worse. Even though our hitting fell apart last year at least we were bringing back a few guys that we knew were good hitters. The only guy we feel good about coming back is Bradfield. From a total roster perspective, there are going to be a ton of unknowns. Lots of potential and raw talent but not a lot of production returning. Aside from Bradfield, the soph class, which will turn into the junior class next year, looks pretty weak overall. There is no stud ace friday night pitcher who is a junior next year. We are going to have to rely on a ton of freshman and soph. And many of those soph never got a ton of playing time this year. Next year could be our worst year in a long time. We'll need a lot of guys who come out of nowhere to post big seasons.