Class of 2021 - Baseball Commits

eokerholm

Helluva Engineer
Messages
1,592
Only two commits, one of whom is top 100. That ranking will not stand.

I like the average points per player best. Shows the depth of the class. Some will develop and some won't but starting at a higher potential level.

At some point, I'll add up Vandy's number of commits for the last four years and our and a few others. @eokerholm is right, the private schools like Vandy and Stanford have a tremendous financial advantage. Couple that with academic reputation / diversity and ability to get players who go onto the MLB and that explains the overall strength of their programs.

I agree. Avg Pt per player is my favorite for depth and breadth of ranked skill on the team

Didn't see the Alabama commits. Ha! Who in the hell would commit early to Alabama?
Same is true for Univ of Hou (I saw another freshman commit there yesterday). WTH? Why.
I also saw that Florida grabbed an 8th grader yesterday???

I do think the '23 & '24 commits will change, which is exactly what Coach Forbes at UNC said at camp. They don't recruit that far out, as they don't stick and you can't judge what the guy is going to look like or be at 18 when he gets him when they're 13-14.
Those are kids who have typically peaked early and may not improve or grow or get bigger/taller. We knew some guys coming up that were studs in 7th and 8th, tall, etc and fizzled afterwards and didn't grow and the other boys passed them.

For those that don't know - Opportunity Vanderbilt, is an endowment that picks up the difference to students and athletes for the private school tuition to that of public school, or even less. It is seriously cheaper to attend Vandy than Univ of TN.
That is tough to compete and recruit against. Nashville is one helluva town and Vandy a great school. But let's don't sell GT short here. With the influx of new coaching and facilities, and competitive players flocking ATL, you will see GT rise in the ranks and compete for recruits. I told you before and it's already happening.

Christian said he would choose GT over Vandy. He liked coaches, campus, and city better. Vandy was very small and limited on majors. One of the national recruits for Vandy was the kid ranked directly in front of him. Others are kids behind him in rank. GT is getting top talent and we see that in the 21, 22 and even 23 classes already.

Stanford has an endowment that makes their $60K tuition cost about $10-11K a year for their athletes. Seriously.
Hard to compete with that but the academic rigor and reputation of that school is what made Christian decide to not go there.
Amazing school and degree, but he didn't want the stress of the academics there (confirmed from people we know there) on top of the stress of being a full time baseball player, while in college.

GT and GA and other GA schools have a similar advantage. The HOPE scholarship and can give you all the same advantage and price breaks and frees the coaching staff to recruit out of staters and help with the tuition difference. Especially when the GA local kids don't need to eat that much, if at all, into the 11.7 scholarship spots.

Vandy and Stanford have basically 25-30+ scholarship spots compared to the rest. Same is true for GA-based schools and the athletes coming in. but GT doesn't abuse the advantage and keeps recruiting classes smaller, meaning more opportunity to play and compete for a spot. Vandy's avg recruiting class size is 17.3 (with 8.5 pitchers) since 2018. Ark is 19.3 (9.5). Louisville is 16.5 (8.0). GT is 13.0 and 6.5. Huge difference. Math matters.

That's a huge advantage and leverage and VERY ATTRACTIVE to recruits. The national school reputation @GT in on point and on Par with other top schools. National leader, school, and top degree with huge ROI!
No one else has ATL in their backyard. (Not even GA, to jump on the FB bandwagon, lol). That too is a huge selling point. Stellar and amazing businesses and Corp HQ to intern with.
Easier for parents and teams to get in/out. The guys only miss 6 or 7 days/season of school during season. That's amazing and attractive.

VA was amazing school, reputation, campus and program, but when they over recruit and commit, early, with little money left.
I kid you not, it was going to be over $130K in loans AFTER scholarship, in order to attend there for 4 years, out of state. We loved the campus and facilities, but hell....an easy no brainer.

Same is true for Vandy. Tim Corbin may be an amazing human and outstanding coach and I would have loved for Christian to go and play under him, but they are way over recruited - with little no chance of playing and HUGE risk of being cut just like VA or Arkansas. Lots of transfers OUT. Extremely limited Majors and nothing Christian wanted to do, no business or finance, so that hurt their chances for him.

GT coaching staff was extremely welcoming, FOCUSED ON CHRISTIAN and preparing him for future (MLB and life - more than any other school) and made GT feel like family and home (more than any other school) and that is what impressed Christian and me the most. The players we met were very engaging and friendly with them and us. The facilities are good, nice tight campus with lots of amenities and options, in ATL, way more Gluten Free options (he's got Celiac), the new pitching lab and Borrell/Ramsey/Hall are all going to serve as beacons to pitchers and top talent as the kids know it is better to come to college before going pro and get a major quality education while you're at it. The draw of the "swarm" of pro athletes and working with and being surrounded by pro atheltes was/is very cool. Wonderful opportunity to be come and surrounded by greatness. We are very much looking forward The Swarm.

It will be exciting to watch this program continue blossom, compete, and "snowball" to become a national talent and threat.
Buckle up, y'all!

The Swarm is building!
The Swarm is strong!
The Swarm is home!
 
Last edited:

griffin mizell

Georgia Tech Fan
Messages
54
I agree. Avg Pt per player is my favorite for depth and breadth of ranked skill on the team

Didn't see the Alabama commits. Ha! Who in the hell would commit early to Alabama?
Same is true for Univ of Hou (I saw another freshman commit there yesterday). WTH? Why.
I also saw that Florida grabbed an 8th grader yesterday???

I do think the '23 & '24 commits will change, which is exactly what Coach Forbes at UNC said at camp. They don't recruit that far out, as they don't stick and you can't judge what the guy is going to look like or be at 18 when he gets him when they're 13-14.
Those are kids who have typically peaked early and may not improve or grow or get bigger/taller. We knew some guys coming up that were studs in 7th and 8th, tall, etc and fizzled afterwards and didn't grow and the other boys passed them.

For those that don't know - Opportunity Vanderbilt, is an endowment that picks up the difference to students and athletes for the private school tuition to that of public school, or even less. It is seriously cheaper to attend Vandy than Univ of TN.
That is tough to compete and recruit against. Nashville is one helluva town and Vandy a great school. But let's don't sell GT short here. With the influx of new coaching and facilities, and competitive players flocking ATL, you will see GT rise in the ranks and compete for recruits. I told you before and it's already happening.

Christian said he would choose GT over Vandy. He liked coaches, campus, and city better. Vandy was very small and limited on majors. One of the national recruits for Vandy was the kid ranked directly in front of him. Others are kids behind him in rank. GT is getting top talent and we see that in the 21, 22 and even 23 classes already.

Stanford has an endowment that makes their $60K tuition cost about $10-11K a year for their athletes. Seriously.
Hard to compete with that but the academic rigor and reputation of that school is what made Christian decide to not go there.
Amazing school and degree, but he didn't want the stress of the academics there (confirmed from people we know there) on top of the stress of being a full time baseball player, while in college.

GT and GA and other GA schools have a similar advantage. The HOPE scholarship and can give you all the same advantage and price breaks and frees the coaching staff to recruit out of staters and help with the tuition difference. Especially when the GA local kids don't need to eat that much, if at all, into the 11.7 scholarship spots.

Vandy and Stanford have basically 25-30+ scholarship spots compared to the rest. Same is true for GA-based schools and the athletes coming in. but GT doesn't abuse the advantage and keeps recruiting classes smaller, meaning more opportunity to play and compete for a spot. Vandy's avg recruiting class size is 17.3 (with 8.5 pitchers) since 2018. Ark is 19.3 (9.5). Louisville is 16.5 (8.0). GT is 13.0 and 6.5. Huge difference. Math matters.

That's a huge advantage and leverage and VERY ATTRACTIVE to recruits. The national school reputation @GT in on point and on Par with other top schools. National leader, school, and top degree with huge ROI!
No one else has ATL in their backyard. (Not even GA, to jump on the FB bandwagon, lol). That too is a huge selling point. Stellar and amazing businesses and Corp HQ to intern with.
Easier for parents and teams to get in/out. The guys only miss 6 or 7 days/season of school during season. That's amazing and attractive.

VA was amazing school, reputation, campus and program, but when they over recruit and commit, early, with little money left.
I kid you not, it was going to be over $130K in loans AFTER scholarship, in order to attend there for 4 years, out of state. We loved the campus and facilities, but hell....an easy no brainer.

Same is true for Vandy. Tim Corbin may be an amazing human and outstanding coach and I would have loved for Christian to go and play under him, but they are way over recruited - with little no chance of playing and HUGE risk of being cut just like VA or Arkansas. Lots of transfers OUT. Extremely limited Majors and nothing Christian wanted to do, no business or finance, so that hurt their chances for him.

GT coaching staff was extremely welcoming, FOCUSED ON CHRISTIAN and preparing him for future (MLB and life - more than any other school) and made GT feel like family and home (more than any other school) and that is what impressed Christian and me the most. The players we met were very engaging and friendly with them and us. The facilities are good, nice tight campus with lots of amenities and options, in ATL, way more Gluten Free options (he's got Celiac), the new pitching lab and Borrell/Ramsey/Hall are all going to serve as beacons to pitchers and top talent as the kids know it is better to come to college before going pro and get a major quality education while you're at it. The draw of the "swarm" of pro athletes and working with and being surrounded by pro atheltes was/is very cool. Wonderful opportunity to be come and surrounded by greatness. We are very much looking forward The Swarm.

It will be exciting to watch this program continue blossom, compete, and "snowball" to become a national talent and threat.
Buckle up, y'all!

The Swarm is building!
The Swarm is strong!
The Swarm is home!
 

GTNavyNuke

Helluva Engineer
Featured Member
Messages
10,066
Location
Williamsburg Virginia
I agree. Avg Pt per player is my favorite for depth and breadth of ranked skill on the team

Didn't see the Alabama commits. Ha! Who in the hell would commit early to Alabama?
Same is true for Univ of Hou (I saw another freshman commit there yesterday). WTH? Why.
I also saw that Florida grabbed an 8th grader yesterday???

I do think the '23 & '24 commits will change, which is exactly what Coach Forbes at UNC said at camp. They don't recruit that far out, as they don't stick and you can't judge what the guy is going to look like or be at 18 when he gets him when they're 13-14.
Those are kids who have typically peaked early and may not improve or grow or get bigger/taller. We knew some guys coming up that were studs in 7th and 8th, tall, etc and fizzled afterwards and didn't grow and the other boys passed them.

For those that don't know - Opportunity Vanderbilt, is an endowment that picks up the difference to students and athletes for the private school tuition to that of public school, or even less. It is seriously cheaper to attend Vandy than Univ of TN.
That is tough to compete and recruit against. Nashville is one helluva town and Vandy a great school. But let's don't sell GT short here. With the influx of new coaching and facilities, and competitive players flocking ATL, you will see GT rise in the ranks and compete for recruits. I told you before and it's already happening.

Christian said he would choose GT over Vandy. He liked coaches, campus, and city better. Vandy was very small and limited on majors. One of the national recruits for Vandy was the kid ranked directly in front of him. Others are kids behind him in rank. GT is getting top talent and we see that in the 21, 22 and even 23 classes already.

Stanford has an endowment that makes their $60K tuition cost about $10-11K a year for their athletes. Seriously.
Hard to compete with that but the academic rigor and reputation of that school is what made Christian decide to not go there.
Amazing school and degree, but he didn't want the stress of the academics there (confirmed from people we know there) on top of the stress of being a full time baseball player, while in college.

GT and GA and other GA schools have a similar advantage. The HOPE scholarship and can give you all the same advantage and price breaks and frees the coaching staff to recruit out of staters and help with the tuition difference. Especially when the GA local kids don't need to eat that much, if at all, into the 11.7 scholarship spots.

Vandy and Stanford have basically 25-30+ scholarship spots compared to the rest. Same is true for GA-based schools and the athletes coming in. but GT doesn't abuse the advantage and keeps recruiting classes smaller, meaning more opportunity to play and compete for a spot. Vandy's avg recruiting class size is 17.3 (with 8.5 pitchers) since 2018. Ark is 19.3 (9.5). Louisville is 16.5 (8.0). GT is 13.0 and 6.5. Huge difference. Math matters.

That's a huge advantage and leverage and VERY ATTRACTIVE to recruits. The national school reputation @GT in on point and on Par with other top schools. National leader, school, and top degree with huge ROI!
No one else has ATL in their backyard. (Not even GA, to jump on the FB bandwagon, lol). That too is a huge selling point. Stellar and amazing businesses and Corp HQ to intern with.
Easier for parents and teams to get in/out. The guys only miss 6 or 7 days/season of school during season. That's amazing and attractive.

VA was amazing school, reputation, campus and program, but when they over recruit and commit, early, with little money left.
I kid you not, it was going to be over $130K in loans AFTER scholarship, in order to attend there for 4 years, out of state. We loved the campus and facilities, but hell....an easy no brainer.

Same is true for Vandy. Tim Corbin may be an amazing human and outstanding coach and I would have loved for Christian to go and play under him, but they are way over recruited - with little no chance of playing and HUGE risk of being cut just like VA or Arkansas. Lots of transfers OUT. Extremely limited Majors and nothing Christian wanted to do, no business or finance, so that hurt their chances for him.

GT coaching staff was extremely welcoming, FOCUSED ON CHRISTIAN and preparing him for future (MLB and life - more than any other school) and made GT feel like family and home (more than any other school) and that is what impressed Christian and me the most. The players we met were very engaging and friendly with them and us. The facilities are good, nice tight campus with lots of amenities and options, in ATL, way more Gluten Free options (he's got Celiac), the new pitching lab and Borrell/Ramsey/Hall are all going to serve as beacons to pitchers and top talent as the kids know it is better to come to college before going pro and get a major quality education while you're at it. The draw of the "swarm" of pro athletes and working with and being surrounded by pro atheltes was/is very cool. Wonderful opportunity to be come and surrounded by greatness. We are very much looking forward The Swarm.

It will be exciting to watch this program continue blossom, compete, and "snowball" to become a national talent and threat.
Buckle up, y'all!

The Swarm is building!
The Swarm is strong!
The Swarm is home!


I see someone had an extra cup of coffee yesterday morning ;)

Not over recruiting is a fine line. A school needs to recruit heavily since injuries and lack of development happens. But it does decrease the opportunity for all players since playing time is so limited. I think GT has done a good balancing job. As discussed in https://gtswarm.com/threads/2020-baseball-preseason.20618/page-3#post-679162
we need to get down about 3 or 4 non-injured players to a 35 player roster by mid-Feb so there will be some who don't make the roster. As you showed, we aren't as egregious as others.

The number of pitchers being recruited seems to be increasing. Our reserves were non-existent for a few years. Here are the numbers I have from beesball.com which is a great resource ( https://beesball.com/recruiting.html ) :
2019 - 9 pitchers
2018 - 6
2017 - 3!
2016 - 5
and 2020 maybe 5.
We've had very bad experience with pitching injuries under the former pitching coach which really hurt with our reduced numbers. Hopefully that changes.

Your enthusiasm is appreciated! We get used to a lot of these things about GT since they seem self evident. I got reacquainted with GT when my daughter went there and have to say the experience is much better now than it was before .... and getting better.
 

eokerholm

Helluva Engineer
Messages
1,592
GT 2021 class Slipped again down 1 to 15. SC up to 14. The reclassification of players I guess worked in their favor.

Keegan is liking IMG in FL. Christian is part of a group chat with 6 other commits from this class.

Here are some clips Christian of preseason. Transitioning back from Basketball. 3rd week throwing BP. 3IP across 2 scrimmages. 9 Batters: 7Ks, 1 H 0 W 1 ground out.
He pitches again next week. They're taking it slow, which is great. Basketball season just ended last night.

 

eokerholm

Helluva Engineer
Messages
1,592
Yeah, a gorgeous day for baseball in Austin. We got 2" of rain the night before but the fields dried out for this noon start.

Christian had a legit No Hitter going into the 6th and LF couldn't catch a Pop Fly (ran past it and then missed it). The other team recorded it as an error, but our book didn't.
Vs Austin Maroons who beat us 10-4 last year.

I'll see if I can upload the highlight reel I sent DBo....https://share.icloud.com/photos/0MSMhu8PYJlZ7NQPYALVIh9gA
Cool that worked.

A good outing for him. Picasso painting corners again this week.
  • 6IP 9Ks 1H 1BB. 82 pitches/55 strikes. 19 Batters 18 Outs
Good season so far. 13 IP with 21 Ks (On pace to shatter more school records again this year.)

He wasn't driving off his back leg, so velo was down this week, but he was still throwing 88 in the 6th. Pulled at 82 pitches since he's still transitioning from basketball.

Another good looking arm in this class that is kickin ***. Keegan Allen @KeeganRay10 goes to IMG Academy in FL and doing well.



The class is talking about all going to https://www.perfectgame.org/Events/Default.aspx?event=13163
Christian wants to go, not to draft, but to show well given he's only doing 2 PG events this summer and WWBA Jupiter in the fall.
He wants to solidify and improve his ranking and I can't argue with that. DBo thought it would be good to get together with this class at an event and hang out. So we're leaning on attending the national showcase.

The other 2 events we're doing with East Cobb Astros this summer are: Team USA National Team Championship in Cary, NC and Wilson Premier Championship down in Aurbundale, FL.

So summer looking like this:
  1. 6/11-14 Team USA National Team Championship Cary, NC
  2. 6/17-21 National Showcase St Petersburg, FL (seems most of the class will be here and would be cool to get them together)
  3. 6/26-29 17U PG Elite Invite Championship Hoover, AL
  4. 7/6-10 Wilson Premier Championship East Auburndale, FL
  5. 7/17-7/22 PG 17U WWBA Atlanta, GA (Practice 7/15 @ECB) go visit GT 7/16?
 
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eokerholm

Helluva Engineer
Messages
1,592
Less stupid videos and poses and I'm collecting 1804 offers from these programs...... See me, love me! Let's do this!
 

GTNavyNuke

Helluva Engineer
Featured Member
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Williamsburg Virginia
Boy. This baseball recruiting stuff is a lot more exciting than the football recruiting stuff.

Has been for decades. Maybe that's why the baseball team has been ranked higher overall for decades?

But football and basketball are where the money is. Thit ironically is one of the things I like about college baseball. They guys who want to go pro out of HS can. They don't have to do the 1 and done for basketball or put in the fake 3 years of classes for football (at other institutions).
 

eokerholm

Helluva Engineer
Messages
1,592
Just picked up our 11th 2021
Logan McGuire
https://www.perfectgame.org/Players/Playerprofile.aspx?ID=442464

Not afraid of PG events or showcases...
upload_2020-3-13_15-16-27.png


that gets us 8 points for his #249 and jumps the class to 11th
https://www.perfectgame.org/rankings/Recruiting/Rankings.aspx
 

eokerholm

Helluva Engineer
Messages
1,592
And boom #11
https://www.perfectgame.org/rankings/Recruiting/Rankings.aspx
upload_2020-3-14_8-59-47.png


Still puts us #9 based on Avg player (higher like 6ish when schools like Kansas, SoCal, Alabama State grab more players in their classes....
upload_2020-3-14_9-0-42.png


Christian is going to bust his butt and work on upping his rank and numbers this summer so that should help the cause and points as the all the boys' rank increase.
The pitchers in our class are kicking butt and taking names....LEGIT arms coming with this crew. Though I do expect a few to Draft. At least 2-3 Pitchers is my guess.
 

eokerholm

Helluva Engineer
Messages
1,592
Looks like a stud! But with 40 events and a ton of showcases and all American stuff, I don’t see Logan attending. I would assume he’s doing all those showcases and events to draft not get a degree. Same is true for a few others.

We’ll find out this summer. He’s also an East Cobb kid but the Milwaukee scout teams he’s on is stacked.

Would be really cool if he was on the astros with Christian, Harry Ford, and Kristen Campbell. Great chance for the guys to hang out this summer at a few events.
 
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