• The KillerFrogs

2021-2022 TCU Baseball Thread

flyfishingfrog

Active Member

ok so I will admit - confused by this.

Not that he is not a good ball player - He was on the same team as my grandson at the Showcase that TCU held this weekend and he looked solid for sure. Plus I know the 12 Black team has some great pitchers - so obviously he has a lot of talent.

But if he is class of 2025 - that makes him a Freshman - so does this announcement mean he asked to commit on his own and we just accepted? or is there some other process that is allowed during a "camp" that is not allowed outside of it? because I thought schools were not allowed to offer until September of an athlete's Junior year of high school.
 

flyfishingfrog

Active Member
Here's one for 2024: <iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https://www.facebook.com/MetaPrimePWR/posts/407553221104831&show_text=true&width=500" width="500" height="441" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share"></iframe>
Not surprised by that commitment at all either honestly other than my question above about how underclassmen "commit" exactly.

Mason throws lefty with a motion that makes the ball hard to pick up, hit 90 mph on the big board (yes I know it is juiced 2-3 MPH) and was in the 87-89 range all inning - plus on top of all that he is only a sophomore.

His breaking ball had a ton of movement and whatever his third pitch was (assuming slider or maybe just a two seam?) was mid-80's with a lot of life arm side.

He was the most impressive pitcher all weekend in my uneducated opinion.
 
Last edited:

Pharm Frog

Full Member
NCAA Rules Update: New rules passed by the NCAA in 2017, 2018 and most recently 2019 have made it illegal for college coaches to offer scholarships to recruits before August 1 or September 1 of their junior year. These new rules apply to all sports except football, W/M basketball and baseball.

The above from a recruiting website. That said, I believe these “offers” are really nothing more than “I’ll have a spot on my team for you.” and are not in any way binding on either party.
 

flyfishingfrog

Active Member
NCAA Rules Update: New rules passed by the NCAA in 2017, 2018 and most recently 2019 have made it illegal for college coaches to offer scholarships to recruits before August 1 or September 1 of their junior year. These new rules apply to all sports except football, W/M basketball and baseball.

The above from a recruiting website. That said, I believe these “offers” are really nothing more than “I’ll have a spot on my team for you.” and are not in any way binding on either party.
interesting because Kirk gave his version of the recruiting speech to start the weekend and he not only brought up that outside the camp environment - they can't talk to high school kids until September of Junior year and about official/non-official visits

but he also mentioned how the visits concept is becoming a thing of the past simply because most kids are committing long before their junior year - and he thought that was ruining college baseball at some level because kids were not allowed to develop personally and in their relationships with multiple programs to see where they best fit through their junior year before making decisions.

Definitely got the feeling that any commitment before signing day is more of an agreement based on expected continued development and performance for the player and stability in the coaching staff, continued need by the team for the players role, etc on the school side.
 
Last edited:

Pharm Frog

Full Member
interesting because Kirk gave his version of the recruiting speech to start the weekend and he not only brought up that outside the camp environment - they can't talk to high school kids until September of Junior year and about official/non-official visits

but he also mentioned how the visits concept is becoming a thing of the past simply because most kids are committing long before their junior year - and he thought that was ruining college baseball at some level because kids were not allowed to develop personally and in their relationships with multiple programs to see where they best fit through their junior year before making decisions.

Definitely got the feeling that any commitment before signing day is more of an agreement based on expected continued development and performance for the player and stability in the coaching staff, continued need by the team for the players role, etc on the school side.
FWIW - I think KS is correct.
 

hometown frog

Active Member
interesting because Kirk gave his version of the recruiting speech to start the weekend and he not only brought up that outside the camp environment - they can't talk to high school kids until September of Junior year and about official/non-official visits

but he also mentioned how the visits concept is becoming a thing of the past simply because most kids are committing long before their junior year - and he thought that was ruining college baseball at some level because kids were not allowed to develop personally and in their relationships with multiple programs to see where they best fit through their junior year before making decisions.

Definitely got the feeling that any commitment before signing day is more of an agreement based on expected continued development and performance for the player and stability in the coaching staff, continued need by the team for the players role, etc on the school side.
Think KS is spot on. Most of these underclass ‘commitments’ are nothing more than window dressing for Twitter and Instagram. Showcases and camps allow for conversations to start much earlier and for many of these elite players their paths towards college are getting developed well before some yahoo at NCAA compliance office thinks the player and school are first being introduced.

Having said that, most players still have to get seen their junior and senior summer seasons in order to get any tangible offers at any college or to get draft evaluations that generate any buzz. (Either thru the showcase events, scout days or summer ball tournaments.)

I get little excitement for 2025s and 2026s claiming any acceptance offer. (That changes if my 2026 kid gets ‘an offer.’ Then all bets are off and this whole process is proper and legit!!!)
 

flyfishingfrog

Active Member
Think KS is spot on. Most of these underclass ‘commitments’ are nothing more than window dressing for Twitter and Instagram. Showcases and camps allow for conversations to start much earlier and for many of these elite players their paths towards college are getting developed well before some yahoo at NCAA compliance office thinks the player and school are first being introduced.

Having said that, most players still have to get seen their junior and senior summer seasons in order to get any tangible offers at any college or to get draft evaluations that generate any buzz. (Either thru the showcase events, scout days or summer ball tournaments.)

I get little excitement for 2025s and 2026s claiming any acceptance offer. (That changes if my 2026 kid gets ‘an offer.’ Then all bets are off and this whole process is proper and legit!!!)
my grandson is 2026 and frankly even though he got "asked" if he could attend the Showcase this weekend - I can't imagine any serious offer that would still be commitable by either side 4 years from now coming his way at this point. Even Mason Brassfield throwing high 80's at 16 has a lot of work to do to get to a point where he would make it out of the bullpen at TCU - so a perfect example of a kid that has the metrics and intangibles to be a quality D1 baseball player but I would think has to continue to evolve and grow for that to commitment he made to turn into anything real.
 
Last edited:

TXTXFrog

Active Member
There are a million ways to get around the rules. Coaches cannot call the kids. True. Coaches can ask a travel coach to have a kid text them and say, "This is xyz, and I'm going to call you at 5pm." Kid calls. If coach answers, it's totally legal. Yes, offers are made at that age and contact is usually made through the HS or travel coach.
 

flyfishingfrog

Active Member
There are a million ways to get around the rules. Coaches cannot call the kids. True. Coaches can ask a travel coach to have a kid text them and say, "This is xyz, and I'm going to call you at 5pm. Kid calls. If coach answers, it's totally legal. Yes, offers are made at that age and contact is usually made through the HS or travel coach.
I know about the "can you have him call us" aspect of it - was more asking on exactly how a commitment happens when an offer is not really allowed. My assumption is at some point there has to be an exchange where a player proactively says to a coach I want to commit to play baseball for your school, would you accept my commitment? and the coach would say yes we do accept - because I am feel confident a coach can't outright offer a kid and ask for a commitment as a HS freshman.
 
Last edited:

TXTXFrog

Active Member
Coaches make offers, with scholarship amounts. I can guarantee that happens. Unlike football, most baseball players do not advertise them, however other coaches may ask who else has offered you. When a kid "commits" it isn't legally binding by either side until they sign the NLI. That said, baseball is supposed to be more of a gentleman's sport and coaches (in unwritten rules) are not supposed to talk to kids who have committed to other schools, and kids are probably not very well respected if they jump from commitment to commitment without stating that they are "decommitting" which again, was never binding but more like a handshake.
 

flyfishingfrog

Active Member
Coaches make offers, with scholarship amounts. I can guarantee that happens. Unlike football, most baseball players do not advertise them, however other coaches may ask who else has offered you. When a kid "commits" it isn't legally binding by either side until they sign the NLI. That said, baseball is supposed to be more of a gentleman's sport and coaches (in unwritten rules) are not supposed to talk to kids who have committed to other schools, and kids are probably not very well respected if they jump from commitment to commitment without stating that they are "decommitting" which again, was never binding but more like a handshake.
well kids definitely advertise it in baseball - to be honest the guys who own the select programs advertise it for "the kids" like it is going out of style and not just on signing day - so if our coaches are making verbal offers to under grads that are resulting in commitments - even if they are only verbal commitments - than our staff are idiots given how easy that would be to track via social media and how much of a direct violation that is of NCAA recruiting rules.

But our staff are not idiots - thus why I assume there is some nuance I am missing.

Really was just curious since a few of the underclassmen that worked out this weekend in the Showcase were the commits we saw for Baseball today and I was expecting it to be some of the uncommitted upper classmen that attended who would have been committing instead
 

TXTXFrog

Active Member
Yes baseball advertises commitments, but not every offer (at least most kids don’t). It is legal. The statement above says it does not apply to football, basketball and baseball. They can’t make contact before, but if the kid does, they can offer.
 
Not surprised by that commitment at all either honestly other than my question above about how underclassmen "commit" exactly.

Mason throws lefty with a motion that makes the ball hard to pick up, hit 90 mph on the big board (yes I know it is juiced 2-3 MPH) and was in the 87-89 range all inning - plus on top of all that he is only a sophomore.

His breaking ball had a ton of movement and whatever his third pitch was (assuming slider or maybe just a two seam?) was mid-80's with a lot of life arm side.

He was the most impressive pitcher all weekend in my uneducated opinion.
Thank god he won't be pitching against us.
 

froglash88

Full Member
Here's one for 2024, a current sophomore:

My son’s team lost to Alpha Prime 2025 in the Freshman World Championship in early October. The rain that weekend messed up our pitching. It was our 3rd game that day and Alpha Prime’s 1st. Their pitcher was 6’5” 250 with a 85 mph FB. We jumped on them early scoring 6 in the top of the first. But gave 5 back in the bottom. Ended up losing 8-6. Alpha Prime won the whole thing. 94 of the best 2025 teams in the country. Alpha Prime has 3 kids committed. I am told we should see several offers to players on my son’s team by the end of the summer. I’m trying to enjoy these times as much as possible because I know it doesn’t last forever. 7U to 15U was like 3 weeks. LOL. Maybe someday we will have a Froglash29 :)
 

flyfishingfrog

Active Member
Yes baseball advertises commitments, but not every offer (at least most kids don’t). It is legal. The statement above says it does not apply to football, basketball and baseball. They can’t make contact before, but if the kid does, they can offer.
interesting - so basically what you are saying is if a kid reaches out to a school, then all the timing restrictions about when and what you can verbally offer him related to acceptance, scholarship, etc no longer apply.

That would probably explain why we see so many kids committing early even if it is not a firm agreement.
 

TXTXFrog

Active Member
Yes and typically the kid is told to call, but it puts the ball in their court as to if they are ready to start the recruiting process.
 

flyfishingfrog

Active Member
My son’s team lost to Alpha Prime 2025 in the Freshman World Championship in early October. The rain that weekend messed up our pitching. It was our 3rd game that day and Alpha Prime’s 1st. Their pitcher was 6’5” 250 with a 85 mph FB. We jumped on them early scoring 6 in the top of the first. But gave 5 back in the bottom. Ended up losing 8-6. Alpha Prime won the whole thing. 94 of the best 2025 teams in the country. Alpha Prime has 3 kids committed. I am told we should see several offers to players on my son’s team by the end of the summer. I’m trying to enjoy these times as much as possible because I know it doesn’t last forever. 7U to 15U was like 3 weeks. LOL. Maybe someday we will have a Froglash29 :)
That is great.

I feel ya - even with my grandkids.

Seems like it was last month that I was laughing at my grandson for running to 3B instead of 1B after his first hit.

And then this weekend I was sitting in the stands amazed at how athletic all these "boys" look and how you can put 9 guys that probably never met before together on a baseball field and because of their baseball skills and IQ - they can play some pretty solid baseball even as teenagers.
 
Top