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Wake Forest 2023 baseball season thread (Deacs end historic season with extra inning loss to LSU: Final record 54-12 and top 4 finish nationally)

Damn. I completely missed that Sullivan and Hawke are draft eligible. I’m not sure Hawke goes high enough to sign. Have to assume Sully is gone.
 
I would never have guessed that MLB scouts would grade Wilkin's arm as the best among his tools. I would have expected better than a 60 Power grade.

I genuinely hope McGraw still lands somewhere in the first couple of rounds. It's got to be incredibly stressful to just be waiting and hoping that the injury didn't cost you million(s) of dollars.

Even if everyone on that list leaves, I still feel good about 2024. Hartle as the Friday guy is pretty much a lock, but the Saturday/Sunday guys will have to be worked out. I think Massey has a good shot at taking one of those spots. Kurtz will be back as the feature piece in the lineup, and if guys like Bennett/Cecere/Johnson come back as well that would be a big boost.
 
deacon14 said:
I would never have guessed that MLB scouts would grade Wilkin's arm as the best among his tools. I would have expected better than a 60 Power grade.

I genuinely hope McGraw still lands somewhere in the first couple of rounds. It's got to be incredibly stressful to just be waiting and hoping that the injury didn't cost you million(s) of dollars.

Even if everyone on that list leaves, I still feel good about 2024. Hartle as the Friday guy is pretty much a lock, but the Saturday/Sunday guys will have to be worked out. I think Massey has a good shot at taking one of those spots. Kurtz will be back as the feature piece in the lineup, and if guys like Bennett/Cecere/Johnson come back as well that would be a big boost.
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70 grades don’t get tossed around lightly
 
IAppreciateIt said:
fwiw, draft eligible sophs come back to school way more often than juniors
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Well yeah, because they can still get significant signing bonuses the following year.

Even still, can't imagine any of our draft eligible sophs coming back if they land in the first 3 rounds.
 
Pilchard said:
He has continued to excel this spring, challenging for the NCAA Division I ERA lead by permitting just three earned runs in his first 38 2/3 innings.
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Keener has been ridiculous.
 
I can see a difficult decision for guys drafted late. Take a modest signing bonus and spend summers in a bus and cheap hotels playing baseball nearly everyday, or take some NIL money, stay in school play games 4 days a week and go to class. With Wake's pitching lab, I suspect a very difficult choice for pitchers.
 
Deaconblue said:
I can see a difficult decision for guys drafted late. Take a modest signing bonus and spend summers in a bus and cheap hotels playing baseball nearly everyday, or take some NIL money, stay in school play games 4 days a week and go to class. With Wake's pitching lab, I suspect a very difficult choice for pitchers.
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If drafted late then it’s not a difficult decision. They return and raise their draft prospects.
 
I don't think it's smart for any of us (or Walter) to even hope that Lowder, Wilken, McGraw, Sullivan, or Keener will be back. In my eyes those 5 are almost certainly all gone. It might be wise to even assume that Hawke and Minacci are gone.

The more interesting decisions will be the lower profile juniors, such as Bennett, Costello, Wade, Johnson, and Cecere. Those are all guys that lose any chance at a significant signing bonus if they come back, so even if they get drafted in something like the 9th round they could still make the decision to go.
 
Do we have any grad transfers declared to join next year ?

IIRC, JJ was still on the ‘Pards roster and had committed to Wake already
 
deacdixieboy said:
If drafted late then it’s not a difficult decision. They return and raise their draft prospects.
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that sounds logical in theory, but is overwhelmingly conflicted by the evidence.

over the past ten drafts, WF has had 10 players drafted in the first 10 rounds of the draft (where slot money is allocated) -- all of them signed.

we've had an additional 19 guys with eligibility (including covid years) drafted after round 10. of those, only four returned to school:
chris lanzilli (soph)
griffin roberts (soph)
parker dunshee
chris farish (soph)

on top of that, we've actually had guys with eligibility who weren't even drafted go ahead and leave school as UDFA (most recently, shane smith and dj poteet).

maybe NIL will change things, but i'm not holding my breath.
 
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IAppreciateIt said:
that sounds logical in theory, but is overwhelmingly conflicted by the evidence.

over the past ten drafts, WF has had 10 players drafted in the first 10 rounds of the draft (where slot money is allocated) -- all of them signed.

we've had an additional 27 guys drafted after round 10. of those, only four returned to school:
chris lanzilli (soph)
griffin roberts (soph)
parker dunshee
chris farish (soph)

on top of that, we've actually had guys with eligibility who weren't even drafted go ahead and leave school as UDFA (most recently, shane smith and dj poteet).

maybe NIL will change things, but i'm not holding my breath.
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I didn’t realize the numbers were that bad! That’s pretty surprising. Juniors do tend to leave more than sophomores because their bonuses will be higher that year than ever again. No reason to give a senior a big bonus. They don’t have another choice. Sophomores have another chance at the big bonus.
 
Here is the list of WF regular contributors that are 2023 draft eligible and how many college seasons for each, all of whom have the option to return to WF:


Tommy Hawke - 2
Justin Johnson - 5
Pierce Bennett - 4
Brock Wilken - 3
Lucas Costello - 3
Adam Cecere - 4
Jack Reinisch - 3
Bennett Lee - 3
Jake Reinisch - 3
Rhett Lowder - 3
Sean Sullivan - 2
Seth Keener - 3
Reed Mascolo - 4
Crawford Wade - 3
Derek Crum - 4
Teddy McGraw - 3
Cole Roland - 5
Cam Minacci - 3

Of this group, Lowder, Wilken, Sullivan, McGraw and Keener are almost certainly going to get drafted and sign with an MLB team. With the MLB draft limited to 20 rounds,, not clear how many of the remaining group will get drafted.

Of the remaining players, would guess the most likely draftees would be Minacci, Bennett, Cecere, Hawke, Roland and Johnson (in that order from most likely to least), but would not expect all of them to be drafted. For the group that does not get drafted or does get drafted and does not sign, returning will come down to whether they have graduated, what playing time looks like in 2024, portal options, maybe NIL, health status.

Kyle Joye will have exhausted his eligibility (he graduated HS in 2017). Not sure about Chase Walter's status.

Also, I assume (which is dumb) that all of the sophomore's not listed above (Kurtz, Corona, Cueto, Ray, Hartle, Massey, Katz) aren't draft eligible, but the only one that I am certain is not 2023 draft eligible is Nick Kurtz (barring injury, he will be a first round pick in 2024).
 
WindyCityDeac said:
JJ gets a 6th season ?
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Pretty sure he falls into the Sam Hartman/Van Wilder 6 years of college category with a COVID year (2020), and then he did not play in 2022 because of an injury, which would be his RS year. Again, not positive, but even though it's his 5th season of college baseball only three count (2019, 2021, 2023). FWIW, the same reasoning would apply to Cole Roland.
 
I’m curious how RS works. I know Lafayette doesn’t offer RS at all…can you still get a medical RS at a different school ?

And top notch with the Van Wilder reference
 
WindyCityDeac said:
I’m curious how RS works. I know Lafayette doesn’t offer RS at all…can you still get a medical RS at a different school ?

And top notch with the Van Wilder reference
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That is an NCAA compliance issue. He did not play in a game for Lafayette in 2022. So, even though the Patriot League (like the Ivies) don't recognize red shirt status, don't think the 2022 season would count as a used year of eligibility, but would guess that WF would need to get the issue clarified by the NCAA. Even if JJ is eligible for WF in 2024, he may not want another year of college.
 
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