Bay Area World Series

I asked myself a question recently, wondering what players hear when being recruited by college programs.  When I was at USF (it is SOOO long ago now, 2000-2002) I know what we were using as our recruiting pitch and what we believed we could offer and I am pretty sure what elite universities like Stanford and Cal can pitch when recruiting.  Beyond that, I wondered, what do the other programs pitch as a reason that a baseball playing student-athlete should come to their school?

Essentially, when programs recruit, what do they say?  What SHOULD they be pitching? What stands out about their program, in their minds?  Then I started thinking about something I had to consider when I was a recruiting coordinator... What actually matters to the student-athletes?  What do they want? Can we provide that?  Do they even know what they want or what SHOULD be important to them?  Such as each school is not the same, neither are the student-athletes.  

Now, let's assume that graduation/education matters to the student-athletes and that college coaches care more or at least as much about the student versus the athlete.  In that case, coaches sell graduation rates, class size, academic support, they sell post-graduate networks.  They would also be in tune with their specific programs of study and what their school is strongest in and look for players who would be attracted to those programs.

However, I do wonder how much things such as recent draft success, exposure to scouts, player development, playing time opportunity, winning, and contending for conferences and NCAA bids are put out there as selling points (appealing to the athlete) ahead of what would appeal to the student.  At some schools, that is something they can clearly sell a lot easier than at other schools. 

What else can coaches offer?  They can offer scholarships (though it my belief, formed by Coach Giarratano, that cost only tells a student-athlete if the right fit for them is affordable or not, meaning the amount of scholarship or overall cost doesn't determine if a school is the right fit for a student-athlete), some can offer great weather, fantastic facilities, a high level of competition, stability within the coaching staff, proximity to the player's hometown, or conversely, a chance to get away and out on their own away from home.  

So what do we know about some of those things?  A private school will have a HARD time competing with a UC or CSU school in regard to affordability, simply because of 11.7 and the need to build a roster with quality depth.  We know that each school cannot lean on the same weather (however, we are in California, so to a school in Iowa, each of our schools has great weather) and some programs have better facilities than others.  The playing field, in regard to these type of things, is certainly NOT equal. 

I often get questions from parents about the tangled web of recruiting, about what is real, what matters, how their son fits, what they should be considering, etc.  I also get much more specific questions, regarding each program, their coaches, what type of people I know them to be, my opinion of how well their son will be taken care of and developed as a full person, not just a baseball playing young person.  I cannot claim to know everything about our coaches, as there are coaches in the region that I do not have longstanding relationships with.  All I can tell the parents is what I have personally experienced with each of them.  

Now, if we consider the schools (D1) in the greater Northern California region for our local players to consider, let's examine them in some different ways: Stanford, Cal Poly, Fresno State, Cal, USF, Nevada, Saint Mary's, UC Davis, Sacramento State, Santa Clara, Pacific, and San Jose State.

Obviously Stanford and Cal can stand alone on their academic standing, not just locally, but frankly, anywhere in the world.  They are among the schools that are world class.  They are in the Pac-12, they play in a conference with excellent competition, great travel experiences up and down the West Coast, good weather, strong draft success and on field success, stability within the coaching staff, and, well, that pretty much sums is up.  Those two schools can frankly recruit any student-athlete of any ability level, anywhere in the nation, so long as they believe they can get the player into school.  

This exercise really isn't about those two schools.  It's about what separates the rest of the schools from each other.  Again, we discussed that due to the scholarship situation with D1 baseball, it makes it more challenging for some programs than others.  Locally, USF, Saint Mary's, Santa Clara, and Pacific (along with Stanford) are all private schools and their price tags are significantly higher., their scholarship dollars don't stretch nearly as far.  Fresno State, San Jose State, Sacramento State, and Cal Poly are CSU schools, so they are among the most affordable of the options.  Cal and UC Davis are obviously part of the UC system, more affordable than the private schools and more expensive than the CSU schools.  Nevada is out of state, and I am not entirely certain how that affects a California resident.  

Cost, size of the schools, programs of study, etc, are known things, as are weather, quality of facilities, etc.  What is not known, until experience provides perspective, is the quality of the coaching, the quality of the player development, the care the coaches have for the student-athletes, the attention to academics and life skills vs simply what happens on the ball field.  Wins and losses (on-field success) do not always tell the story and because of that, the word success has to mean something different for each program.  

Now, graduation rates can give a glimpse into how each program values education vs baseball and can also tell us a bit about the quality of student and person each program is recruiting.  The number of players who transfer in or out of a program can also tell us some things about a program.  Those are things a family and a student-athlete can and should investigate and figure out on their own.  

What I did, something that would take a little more time for families and student-athletes to figure out, is compiled what kind of on-field success each of these programs have had over the last 10 years.  I may be off a smidge on all the draft picks (going to a website and clicking through each round of each of the last 10 drafts... tedious to say the least), but the rest of it, should be pretty dialed in (this is not a NY Times report, it is general summary).  If on-field success, such as draft picks, winning, competing for conference titles and NCAA bids, if all that matters (and of course, it does) to high school student-athletes, below is how our programs stack up over the last 10 years.

The reason I went into all this is because my suspicion (or guess) is that many, if not most college coaches DO talk success, do talk winning, player development, pro ball, and the quality of their coaching when they are recruiting.  Now, if it is a fairly new staff at a school that hasn't had much recent success, they have to sell the NOW and the FUTURE.  Programs that would fall into that category are San Jose State (new coach Jason Hawkins), Pacific (coach Mike Neu is in his second season), Nevada (coach TJ Bruce is in his second season), and to a lesser degree Saint Mary's (coach Eric Valenzuela is in his fourth season).

Last 10 Seasons (listing determined by number of draft picks)

Stanford (Mark Marquess)
Draft picks: 58 
NCAA bids: 5
Conference titles: 0
Overall Record (not including ties): 328-245 (.572)
Conference Record: 138-140 
Coach Career Record at SU: 1585-862
Coach Conference Record at SU: 639-467

Cal Poly (Larry Lee)
Draft picks: 50
NCAA bids: 3
Conference titles: 1
Overall Record (not including ties): 325-238 (.577)
Conference Record: 138-102
Coach Career Record at CP: 455-336
Coach Conference Record at CP: 181-143

Fresno State (Mike Batesole)
Draft picks: 48
NCAA bids: 4
Conference titles: 4
Overall Record (not including ties): 344-271 (.559)
Conference Record: 157-109
Coach Career Record at FSU: 478-376
Coach Conference Record at FSU: 222-157

Cal (Dave Esquer)
Draft picks: 45
NCAA bids: 4
Conference titles: 0
Overall Record (not including ties): 299-249(.546)
Conference Record: 126-152
Coach Career Record at Cal: 500-438
Coach Conference Record at Cal: 203-243

USF (Nino Giarratano)
Draft picks: 26
NCAA bids: 2
Conference titles: 1
Overall Record (not including ties): 280-283 (.497)
Conference Record: 128-106
Coach Career Record at USF: 502-518
Coach Conference Record at USF: 238-226

Nevada (TJ Bruce)
Draft picks: 25
NCAA bids: 0
Conference titles: 2
Overall Record (not including ties): 320-259 (.553)
Conference Record at UNR: 148-116
Coach Career Record at UNR: 37-24
Coach Conference Record: 20-10

Saint Mary's (Eric Valenzuela)
Draft picks: 25
NCAA bids: 1
Conference titles: 1
Overall Record (not including ties): 243-296 (.451)
Conference Record: 92-142
Coach Career Record at SMC: 77-91
Coach Conference Record at SMC: 36-45

UC Davis (Matt Vaughn)
Draft picks: 23
NCAA bids: 1
Conference titles: 0
Overall Record (not including ties): 232-323 (.418)
Conference Record: 75-144
Coach Career Record at UCD: 116-162
Coach Conference Record at UCD: 38-85

Sacramento State (Reggie Christensen)
Draft picks: 20
NCAA bids: 1
Conference titles: 2
Overall Record (not including ties): 273-307 (.471)
Conference Record: 123-129
Coach Career Record at CSUS: 187-171
Coach Conference Record at CSUS: 84-67

Santa Clara (Dan O'Brien)
Draft picks: 18
NCAA bids: 0
Conference titles: 0
Overall Record (not including ties): 234-304 (.435)
Conference Record: 84-150
Coach Career Record at SCU: 115-154
Coach Conference Record at SCU: 44-85

Pacific (Mike Neu)
Draft picks: 17
NCAA bids: 0
Conference titles: 0
Overall Record (not including ties): 192-349 (.355)
Conference Record: 88-161
Coach Career Record at Pacific: 22-30
Coach Conference Record at Pacific: 12-15

San Jose State (Jason Hawkins)
Draft picks: 13
NCAA bids: 0
Conference titles: 0
Overall Record (not including ties): 252-325 (.437)
Conference Record: 102-157
Coach Career Record at SJSU: 0-0
Coach Conference Record at SJSU: 0-0

Now, a 5-year report might be a better barometer of the now and the future of each program.  Perhaps I should get to work on that.  

You can surmise what you will from these numbers.  I think if any baseball playing student-athlete gets an opportunity to play ball and graduate from any of these schools, that's a good thing.  

I have some other very specific thoughts about who each of our programs should be recruiting, how they should go about it, etc.  That will be a different discussion for another day.  It is increasingly clear in my conversations with summer and travel ball coaches that they are frustrated with how many college coaches go about their jobs of recruiting, or more specifically, identifying and scouting players.  It's the same thing I saw and learned when I was at USF, and it still holds true today.