After finishing the season one game away from going to the College World Series two years ago, the baseball team had high expectations going into last year’s season. Those expectations, however, did not pan out, as the team struggled throughout the season and managed only a 25-31 record. But, even before having had a single practice or game, the baseball team has a lot to look forward to, because over the past year, State managed to sign 15 recruits, 11 of them freshmen and four of them juniors. Associate head coach and head recruiter Tom Holliday said this class might help make the upcoming season every bit as rewarding as the 2008 season.
“If this class lives up to its potential, we could be better or even better than we were two years ago,” Holliday said. “We had that kind of recruiting class. But they have to hold up to their end of the bargain and we have to get them in the right places to succeed.”
With the NBA instituting a rule prohibiting players to be allowed to enter the professional draft after their senior year in high school three years ago, baseball remains one of the only sports that still allows players to be drafted out of high school. This makes signing players to come and play baseball for a college tricky. Many players may sign a letter of intent to a certain school, only to be drafted and never set foot on that campus, so recruiting in baseball has two steps: recruiting the kids and getting them to sign with the school, and then actually getting them into school and making it through the draft.
Holliday said the process of getting signees to actually enroll is crucial.
“A good recruiting class is based on who shows up,” Holliday said. “Signing invisible people doesn’t do much. We could do that, and nationally, people do that to get their program on the map, and there is nothing wrong with that because sometimes, the guys you would think were going pro fall through the cracks and come to school.”
This year’s class was not an ‘invisible class’, Holliday said, because although State had eight players drafted, six of those players chose to come to school instead of making the leap to the pro level.
“It was a very relaxing day on the [day] after the signing deadline,” Holliday said. “We had five guys go right down to the wire.”
The biggest upgrade coming out of this recruiting class this year is the pitchers that are coming in. The Pack signed 10 players that are capable of pitching, including Rey Cotilla, Daniel Canela, Dane Williams, Mike Clark, and Anthony Tzamtzis, all of whom were drafted this past year. Holliday said he could not remember ever signing so many talented pitchers.
“I do not know if I have ever had a staff add this many good arms in one year,” Holliday said. “Normally, the goal is to add three high school guys and a couple junior college guys, for insurance. But this year, we not only added three to come in and pitch as freshmen, but we added four others who can pitch and then three junior colleges guys who can fit right into roles.”
One of the major oddities in this recruiting class is the amount of players Holliday was able to sign out of Florida, especially the southern part. Of the 15 recruits, nine of the players came from Florida. Holliday said this is a credit to the players recruiting each other.
“When you go into an area and sign a player out of there and he has a good experience, he goes back and tells people about it,” Holliday said. “Sometimes when you go into an area such as south Florida, and you get players of the caliber of Daniel Canela and Felix Roque, then all of the sudden you find out that they are good friends with Dane Williams. Dane had always wanted to come to school here, then one of Dane’s best friends is Danny Healey, and he had committed to go to the University of Florida, only to maybe be pushed out because of a potential arm injury, so he decided on us.”
“The ball just rolls and rolls and rolls,” Holliday said. “And as long as their buddies are good enough, we sign them.”
With the disappointment from last season and the influx of talent coming into the system from the recruiting class, Holliday said many positions will be up for grabs, which will make the fall practices very important for all of the players on the team.
“Fall baseball should be very fun to watch,” Holliday said. “When you don’t reach your success level the season before, obviously jobs are wide open. Fall baseball is not going to be about going through the motions and getting into shape; jobs are open and up for grabs and competition will be very stiff.”
