So, do we have any Baseball players left?

[FrogBall09]

My concern is not necessarily who is leaving - although Maxwell is not great news.

It is more that our incoming class is really freshman heavy and that’s not the way the teams in Supers have built their programs.

Guessing we don’t have the NIL to keep those we want and also attract a big bunch of portal transfers - so hoping some of the freshman can show up and contribute- high risk approach for sure especially when you look at how many guys and positions we tried that with the last few years where it didn’t work

 

[y2kFrog]

Probably year to year there is going to be a lot of turn over like other sports. That is the way things are right now. The grass is always greener for some. Some will realize that they may have to back off a bit to get playing time. Some are, "Show me the Money!!" I didn't have a pot to piss in when I was in school. Given the opportunity, I might have looked for some money, too. But with no speed, power or arm, it was always just a pipe dream anyway. The vast majority of them should be concentrating on getting an education and making contacts. Changing schools, especially if more than once, helps neither. Education did great by me.

Baseball was already the most transient of the college sports before NIL or the transfer portal, so it is not surprising that all of this is happening.

 

[FrogBall09]

In general, no. A couple of schools have a rep for paying, looking at you LSU, and a few of the draftable HS guys do, but the rest don't get much (if anything). What is going to help TCU is with the law suit settlement, TCU can choose to give every roster player a full scholarship, not just 11.7 equivalents. This starts in 2025, and will level the playing field a lot.

But will we?

TCU has a weird funding model for athletics where we ask the dept to raise the tuition $$$ - which is purely a revenue model.

It doesn’t “cost” TCU anything close to tuition to give a single player a full ride. Unless we deny admissions to a student who would pay - which we don’t- there is no loss of revenue.

And until we give out 15 full rides - forcing the addition of a new faculty member due to the ratio goal - the incremental cost of having one more student athlete on campus is negligible.

That changes when it’s not a scholarship but an actual paycheck- if we give them money to play a sport - are we also “giving”them a scholarship or are they paying tuition out of the money?

If I give you $80k and you have to give me back $75k as a requirement to have the job…that’s a lot different than paying a kid $40k plus giving them a scholarship on top of it - both financially and also because Title IX restrictions still apply for schollies

 

[Toad Jones]

There might be another side to this story. Kirk has been around for some time. A few College World Series digs and played pro ball for several years. He's no amateur when it comes to winning at the big level. Thirdly, he's a father and, I understand, a rather good one at that! So I'm poring some slack into his jar and thinking these portal kids may have needed a good kick in the rear end and told to seek another school. It would be interesting to follow some of these prima donnas and see where they end up. One thing is for sure, kids nowadays are a bit more complicated than in times past and, I think, there might be times when a quick kick in the ass would be satisfying.

 

[tcudoc]

I don’t think track record means much at all anymore.

I have no interest in trying to keep track.

I think we should try and keep our track program strong and healthy.
It has a rich history:

 

[FrogBall09]

There might be another side to this story. Kirk has been around for some time. A few College World Series digs and played pro ball for several years. He's no amateur when it comes to winning at the big level. Thirdly, he's a father and, I understand, a rather good one at that! So I'm poring some slack into his jar and thinking these portal kids may have needed a good kick in the rear end and told to seek another school. It would be interesting to follow some of these prima donnas and see where they end up. One thing is for sure, kids nowadays are a bit more complicated than in times past and, I think, there might be times when a quick kick in the ass would be satisfying.

If a player could not find a way into the line up this year and wasn’t injured- i would assume most have been told they should look for other options - especially given some of the freshman position players we have coming in

 

[The Artist Formerly Known as PhormerPhrog]

I'm watching the T20 Cricket World Cup from Grand Prairie. Maybe we can recruit some excellent batsmen and bowlers from there.

 

[BrewingFrog]

O.K. So, the consensus seems to be that: 1.) No biggie. The guys who left were Not Getting It Done, and needed to move on. 2.) We have a ton of talented H.S. kids coming in to refresh the roster.

While those are good points, I'm not terribly comfortable with doing a full line change each and every season. Kids don't magically develop overnight into monster players, it takes time and practice. The present churning of rosters works directly against this time honored model of development, and likely degrades skills. After all, who wants to put in the work when you can just transfer to greener grass?

 

[LisaLT]

O.K. So, the consensus seems to be that: 1.) No biggie. The guys who left were Not Getting It Done, and needed to move on. 2.) We have a ton of talented H.S. kids coming in to refresh the roster.

While those are good points, I'm not terribly comfortable with doing a full line change each and every season. Kids don't magically develop overnight into monster players, it takes time and practice. The present churning of rosters works directly against this time honored model of development, and likely degrades skills. After all, who wants to put in the work when you can just transfer to greener grass?

Yeah I wonder how this will play out. At this point I’m not sure who is staying from this season’s team, who graduates, and are there more transfer portal kids coming and going (I assume so but who knows). It is tough to gel as a team with a bunch of new kids unless you get really lucky or land superstars in the making. Very challenging indeed.

 

[Wexahu]

O.K. So, the consensus seems to be that: 1.) No biggie. The guys who left were Not Getting It Done, and needed to move on. 2.) We have a ton of talented H.S. kids coming in to refresh the roster.

While those are good points, I'm not terribly comfortable with doing a full line change each and every season. Kids don't magically develop overnight into monster players, it takes time and practice. The present churning of rosters works directly against this time honored model of development, and likely degrades skills. After all, who wants to put in the work when you can just transfer to greener grass?

Yet another downside to this mess. There is so much roster turnover every year that coaches will be running the most basic, dumbed down schemes possible. They have no other choice. Obviously much more impactful in football and basketball than in baseball. Can you imagine GP trying to teach his 4-2-5 in this era, where kids actually have to learn and gain experience to run it effectively? Lol.

I guess they think the product on the field doesn’t matter and no matter how crappy it gets, if they just promote the hell out of it and slap some jerseys on kids, the public will lap it up as usual. Maybe so, but count me out.

 

[FrogBall09]

O.K. So, the consensus seems to be that: 1.) No biggie. The guys who left were Not Getting It Done, and needed to move on. 2.) We have a ton of talented H.S. kids coming in to refresh the roster.

​

While those are good points, I'm not terribly comfortable with doing a full line change each and every season. Kids don't magically develop overnight into monster players, it takes time and practice. The present churning of rosters works directly against this time honored model of development, and likely degrades skills. After all, who wants to put in the work when you can just transfer to greener grass?

Big question is why do we struggle to mature HS kids enough to make it worth paying them to stay? 2-3 a class isn’t enough - it means we are always going to be heavy portal

And since we are about 50/50 on portal success vs failure - would think we need to pick up more of those guys each year to increase our chances vs the 1 in 4 or 5 success we have with true freshman

 

[FrogBall09]

Yet another downside to this mess. There is so much roster turnover every year that coaches will be running the most basic, dumbed down schemes possible. They have no other choice. Obviously much more impactful in football and basketball than in baseball. Can you imagine GP trying to teach his 4-2-5 in this era, where kids actually have to learn and gain experience to run it effectively? Lol.

I guess they think the product on the field doesn’t matter and no matter how crappy it gets, if they just promote the hell out of it and slap some jerseys on kids, the public will lap it up as usual. Maybe so, but count me out.

Feels like you are going to see teams that can manage to put together a small group of players that consistently execute have even bigger impact in the past

Aggie has about six to eight really good players on their roster spread across four guys that play every day and pitchers - and while that is not a lot, it’s more than most teams have and thus why they are doing well

But our 15 -17 teams would have worn this years Aggy team out - it’s just no one is that deep anymore because guys leave if they don’t get a shot from Day 1

 

[Moose Stuff]

With the exception of Hoover and Maxwell (DH), I’m not bothered by the turnover I’m seeing….

Yeah, there’s literally zero to be worried about here.

 

[Froggy Style]

O.K. So, the consensus seems to be that: 1.) No biggie. The guys who left were Not Getting It Done, and needed to move on. 2.) We have a ton of talented H.S. kids coming in to refresh the roster.

While those are good points, I'm not terribly comfortable with doing a full line change each and every season. Kids don't magically develop overnight into monster players, it takes time and practice. The present churning of rosters works directly against this time honored model of development, and likely degrades skills. After all, who wants to put in the work when you can just transfer to greener grass?

We lost a handful of guys who didn't play much if at all on a team that needed more good players. Perhaps you're having a bit of an overreaction for the new transfer world. Get used to it, if people aren't playing, they are going to leave because it is VERY easy to do so now. They have only a few years left on their dream and they want to play. If you can't get used to it, I would suggest reducing the Kf.c intake to a weekly dosage rather than daily intake in the offseason.

 

[Toad Jones]

O.K. So, the consensus seems to be that: 1.) No biggie. The guys who left were Not Getting It Done, and needed to move on. 2.) We have a ton of talented H.S. kids coming in to refresh the roster.

While those are good points, I'm not terribly comfortable with doing a full-line change every season. Kids don't magically develop overnight into monster players, it takes time and practice. The present churning of rosters works directly against this time-honored model of development and likely degrades skills. After all, who wants to put in the work when you can just transfer to greener grass?

If you look at incoming players, Kirk recruited heavily with freshmen and development. It worked before. Seems to me the only way to fight this stuff is by building team loyalty. This NIL is by God's law now, and it won't change. These kids have dreams of expensive cars and suffering with the freedom it allows an 18-19-year-old male. That friend in this day and age is a recipe for uncomfortable issues.

 

[Froggy Style]

If you look at incoming players, Kirk recruited heavily with freshmen and development. It worked before. Seems to me the only way to fight this stuff is by building team loyalty. This NIL is by God's law now, and it won't change. These kids have dreams of expensive cars and suffering with the freedom it allows an 18-19-year-old male. That friend in this day and age is a recipe for uncomfortable issues.

If you are riding the pine on an average team, it probably won't change when the top rated class gets here. Should be a surprise to no one that we are going to have regular turnover in the big three sports; both exiting and incoming transfers.

 

[NewFrogFan]

Hopefully a better screening process on incoming players. Far more seem to be busts, at multiple schools.

 

[TopFrog]

There might be another side to this story. Kirk has been around for some time. A few College World Series digs and played pro ball for several years. He's no amateur when it comes to winning at the big level. Thirdly, he's a father and, I understand, a rather good one at that! So I'm poring some slack into his jar and thinking these portal kids may have needed a good kick in the rear end and told to seek another school. It would be interesting to follow some of these prima donnas and see where they end up. One thing is for sure, kids nowadays are a bit more complicated than in times past and, I think, there might be times when a quick kick in the ass would be satisfying.

The other side is he is apparently not doing well recruiting the right players initially.

Also the portal and NIL is now a huge kick in the balls for a lot of programs. It is what it now is.

 

[FROGLEGHOP]

Maybe the thing to do is to set up the players that need to stay with really hot chicks that will not transfer under any circumstances. TCU is supremely blessed with the hot chicks!

 

[HG73]

Maybe the thing to do is to set up the players that need to stay with really hot chicks that will not transfer under any circumstances. TCU is supremely blessed with the hot chicks!

Let them get their own hot chicks.