Michael Clements @_mclements

I love talking about the swing as much as anybody, but at some point you have to hit. Understanding situations, recognizing tendencies, and knowing where your leverage is matters. The swing is the tool. Knowing how and when to use it is what allows you to hit at a high level.

@CodyMCramer you might have a new best friend. Appreciate it man! @TPABaseballTX @StixBaseballTX

@schiner @AndrewJBone You want Z. Brown catching balls with Rico?

athleticism in baseball only as dead as the people who don't watch the game.

Prospect Camp 2027’s and 2028’s August 16th.

The tradition continues, come be apart of it 🐶 #TLC

Committed!!! @UTAMavsBSB

Jordan Walker’s Advice to Kids on having fun and loving the game🗣️🔥 Plus some of the kids around the shop doing self toss, wiffle ball home run derby, home run derby at the field

@TheEXECUTlONER_ The rule says you’re “not allowed to assist a runner”. Know the rules or stop posting for engagement. @balkwhisperer chime in here.

@TheEXECUTlONER_ @JUSTTHETIPAGAIN You are 100% wrong. If you aren’t “technically supposed to touch anyone….” then why isn’t every batter called out when then high 5 the 3rd base coach?

Committed!! @WKU_Baseball

Absolutely crazy someone hasn’t picked him up yet.

Tyler Sessions @TylerSessions32

a month ago

💣 3 of the summer

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Committed! @Lamar_Baseball

Due to recent changes and unforeseen circumstances I will no longer be attending Oklahoma University this fall. My recruitment is now open. 2 years of eligibility remaining FB 92-95 T96 SL: 82-85 CB: 80-82 CH: 85-87 Trackman data available upon request Bullpen Video below: youtu.be/3ArwMFf0sMM?is… @TreadHQ @bulldawgs2011 @connorteykl

MLB combine C’s throw. Talent level amazing/strength, exchange-Super impressive.Would like to see at showcases throws they let it eat to see arm strength/mph.Then game like w/batter. Proper distance get accurate times. Mix throws that are not center(Down in/down away, pick throw)

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It has been amazing to watch PG turn kids into a brand at 13 that forces them to try to live up to hype that was built by random guys with zero care for the player and controlled by private equity with $$$ as the only end goal. These kids are turned into marketing machines before they can drive and people wonder why it turns ugly. Most importantly, and a little secret, PG will cook the books on their rankings. For example, I coached a player that wasn't in the top 100 in the state of Texas his entire HS career. The kid was off the charts talented and tooled up. He didn't attend one showcase and only played in a couple of PG team events we were in. Scouts were all over him at an early age, they didn't care about what PG said, they were the ones in the trenches watching. His HS season ended and Baseball America listed him as a top 50 player in the country for the upcoming draft. Immediately PG moves him into the top 10 in Texas and top 60 in the nation. This player was drafted in the 1st round out of HS and PG could then claim they had his ranking correct when in reality, they didn't scout, they didn't know who the kid was, and they only followed the helium once everyone else made their lists. Spending tens of thousands of dollars with PG to force ranking movement means absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of things. If it weren't so sad to watch parents chase rankings at the detriment of their child's development, it would be one of the funniest things to watch.

Aria Gerson @aria_gerson

2 months ago

None of the freshmen pitching for Oklahoma or North Carolina were even in the top 200 of the Perfect Game rankings, nor were they in the MLB Pipeline draft top 250. Not regarded by scouting services, not wanted by pro teams...but they're on the verge of a championship

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Lookie Here! Yesterday…. Lives Forever!!

Had the privilege of covering the entire Skip Johnson tenure at Texas. He arrived a down-to-earth baseball junkie and accomplished JUCO coach who was a pitching savant and an underrated talent evaluator for hitters, too. The guys who could come to Austin to throw bullpens... pretty incredible. I think Cliff Lee wore sandals for his. Anyway... Over the years, he slowly started doing a little more media each year (if I remember right, Augie might've encouraged this) and you knew people believed so highly of him that they wanted him to start doing things assistant coaches needed to do to get head coach opportunities. And as great of a pitching coach and evaluator of overall talent he was, he was also a humble sponge that soaked up the winning wisdom from Augie Garrido. But the more we had time around Skip on and off the record, the more you appreciated he was exactly the guy he is now. And that's why he is where he is now - a national champion. In an industry that can sometimes encourage coaches of status to stray away from who they are and try to become something they're not, he's as authentic as they come. I have no doubt you could drop him into any baseball setting at any level and he'd excel and the way he brings the best out of and manages people is commendable. People use to marvel at how quickly he could have the other dugout's signs and how he could simply watch a guy run and move and know that player had upside on the mound. The stories are endless. Congrats to one of the all-time best baseball minds and teachers of the game for winning the big one.

What a postseason run for the freshman, Cord Rager. He comes up 1 inning short of matching Paul Skenes and Kade Anderson. Went 4 shutout innings after giving up 3 in the 1st. His day is done with an 8-3 Oklahoma lead. 🫡

MLB just proposed killing the high school draft. If you've got a kid who plays this game, read this, because it changes the entire path in front of him. The Cliff’s Notes version: - By 2028, if this proposal goes into effect, the MLB draft will no longer be an option for HS players. - Draft eligibility starts after your sophomore year of college if 20 years old by September 1st of that season. For anyone born after September 1st, it will be your junior year you are draft eligible. - The draft will be cut from 20 rounds to 12 rounds. - Bonuses will be cut by 50% for every pick. - The slot value will be non negotiable. The value of the pick will be the money received. Here are my immediate thoughts on the potential downstream effects. Grievance #1 - This same proposal sets up an international draft - FOR 18 YEAR OLDS. So a kid in the Dominican or Venezuela can go pro at 18 but American players will be forced to wait years as well as enter the new even more difficult terrain of college baseball. International players will have a 2-3 year head start over American players. That is wrong. Grievance #2 - Two sport players will move away from baseball. NIL money is larger in football and basketball and they will choose the larger paycheck today over the smaller amount and the hope to make it up in the draft (that is now 50% less money) that is kin to playing the lottery. You will see baseball become LESS athletic, and foreign players will begin to take over even more. Grievance #3 - Cutting the draft to 12 rounds will eliminate many late bloomers. The cut to 20 rounds in 2021 already did this to a minor degree, but cutting 8 more rounds will drastically change the outcomes for many players that could be good enough in a few years. Albert Pujols, Jim Thome, John Smoltz, Mike Piazza, and Ryne Sandberg were all drafted after the 12th round and are Hall of Famers and some of the greatest players in history. There is a real possibility that the player that wasn’t quite there physically at 18 but a monster at 22 never gets his shot - he will be too old to draft at 22 but could have been in AA/AAA at 22 if he went out of HS and developed. Grievance #4 - The MLB has moved away from development. Most orgs (not all!) are filled with coaches that think an iPad is an adequate supplement for developing a prospect. It isn’t, and it is a common complaint amongst many professional players, even the ones that make it. They typically make it in spite of the lack of development in the org. Make no mistake what this is really about, the MLB wants college to be their lower level of minor leagues. Let the schools develop the players, let the owners pocket the savings (reduced slot values), and only sign the guys who already put up numbers in a Power 4 conference. Jacob DeGrom, who went in the 9th round, was a struggling SS at Stetson and would most likely have been ignored under this system. They say it will strengthen college baseball, maybe so. I would argue that it is already strong, but what it will really do is weaken the game in its totality. Grievance #5 - Here is what very few will tell the parents: if college is the ONLY door, the recruiting machine owns the entire process. This means more showcases. More “exposure” events. More money out of your pocket - b/c they will propagandize each parent more than ever before. They will be able to do this as college doesn’t have unlimited room. There are finite roster spots with MANY more kids now fighting for these spots that would have otherwise been drafted. The math was already brutal, but if this goes through it will be an absolute bloodbath. Grievance #6 - What about the kids that aren’t school kids? What about the kid throwing 92 in HS and while not ready to be in the first 3 rounds still is able to be picked in the 5th for $500,000 and change his family’s life? I’m not anti-college, but I have enough experience to understand that school isn’t for everyone. Some guys thrive once baseball becomes their full time job. There are many players that struggled in college, got a shot, and then thrived once drafted. My college roommate, a 24th rounder, was this guy - and he played in the big leagues. To completely remove this possibility is sad. The undrafted cap would now be $10,000 with $30,000 allotted if the player makes it to a full-season affiliate. That 92 mph HS doesn’t just lose a half a million dollars but is capped at 10 grand if he goes undrafted. Grievance #7 - There will be MANY lost jobs from this. The scouting community was hurt when the draft went from 40 to 20. Reducing the rounds PLUS eliminating the coverage (college only now) will make many scouts dispensable. You won’t need a guy covering a 3A HS game in a small town, you only need a guy sitting in a college bleacher. It won’t just be the scouts that lose their jobs, it will also be professional coaches. If players are mostly developed when drafted, why would you need coaches up and down the org that were originally there to develop? Instead, you will have handlers and babysitters making sure the small group selected are acting right, getting their work in, and making their way up the org chart. This is just another area in which team owners can cut costs. They win, everyone else takes it on the chin. Grievance #8 - What about the HS seniors that are no doubters? Griffey, A-Rod, Machado, Kershaw, Jeter, Manny, Chipper, and even Harper, who got his GED so he could play a year of JUCO and get drafted at 17. These players would all have to enter the college machinery and hope they don’t get hurt and remain the top guy while passing on life changing money in the process. Some players are so talented they just need to get into the system. The MLB brand is enhanced by a HS phenom that makes it and can play for 20 years because he got into the system at an early age. They will eliminate this entirely. My Prediction: The likelihood of this getting through is low. It will also come with a HUGE fight and the MLBPA will go to war over this. They have already outright rejected the proposal. They understand that this will result in over $1 billion in lost player compensation over five years. If the MLB is dead set on following through they are at serious risk of the first strike that will eliminate regular season games since 1994. If this proposal comes to fruition I believe we will see the MLB turn into a mostly foreign league. While I believe in the free market, and if the best players aren’t American then that is the way it should be. However, I can’t support the MLB intentionally putting in a new system that would harm the American player. At the end of the day, the plan shouldn't change much for young players. You HAVE to get in the gym and get more physical. The days of growing into a program as you physically mature are dwindling. You have to be physically ready at 18 regardless if this proposal goes through or not. baseballamerica.com/stories/mlb-se…