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Wake Baseball 2021 | Cusick (1st) + Fleming, Seymour, Menendez, Muntz Drafted

You'd think the Bill James number crunching sabre metricians would have accounted for defense in their calculations.
 
DiamondDeacs said:
SDDeac is spot on 100 percent correct. Unfortunately not enough people care about Wake baseball and it comes down to economics. It would be a costly buyout on Walter's contract. He's probably not going anywhere until his contact is up in 2024, then he will ride off into the sunset. The only variable would be Currie's ego. Not sure how much he cares about baseball in the big picture. If he was a big baseball guy he might pull the trigger now because if you are a baseball guy you want your baseball program to make you proud, make you look good.

At the very least though if I were Currie I would let Walter know crystal clear that this fucking bullshit in unacceptable and you need to do things differently now. That means you have to change your approach and even clean house and bring in a new assistant coaching staff to change the culture and Currie handpicks a young coach who could come on as the new hitting coach/associate head coach and could be groomed to take over the program when Walter "retires" after the 2024 season. You could bring in that strong smart younger coach now to be the "associate head coach" or whatever they call it and tell Walter that basically this new guy is running the show and you are now the figurehead administrative coach moving forward for the next couple years until your contract is up. That helps Currie avoid eating Walter's salary and getting the program set up for the next phase now and allows for a very smooth transition in a couple years.
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I think Wellman likely knew he was going to retire and threw walter a bone and gave him a long term contract after basically one good season. Friends helping friends even tho the prudent move would have been to let Walter show it wasn't a fluke which it turned out to be.

Anyone have any candidates that would be a good fit at Wake?
 
I think Currie wants to win and in the sports that have been well funded like baseball he will expect results. My gut says that Currie gets rid of him or says NCAA or gone without a buyout next year. Currie is going to run things much different from Wellman. He’s not just going to be a great AD...he’s a effigy Wake fan and like us wants to win games.
 
Deacs86 said:
I think Wellman likely knew he was going to retire and threw walter a bone and gave him a long term contract after basically one good season. Friends helping friends even tho the prudent move would have been to let Walter show it wasn't a fluke which it turned out to be.

Anyone have any candidates that would be a good fit at Wake?
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Currie hired a young assistant to lead Tennessee in his short stint there. He’s gone on to lead the program to a first seed, and take the program to arguably its all time high. It wouldn’t surprise me if he applied the the same formula at Wake. Still doesn’t seem likely he makes a move this year, but if the 2022 season replicates what we just saw in 21, Currie will be hard pressed to move on.

Here’s a couple of guys that I’d bet Currie would look at:

Skylar Meade, Pitching Coach @South Carolina

Jake Gautreau, Assistant Coach @Mississippi State

Jeff Palumbo, Assistant Coach/Recruiting Coor. @ECU

Kevin Schall, Assistant Coach @Coastal Carolina

Bill Mosiello, Assistant Coach @TCU

Shawn Stiffler, Head Coach @VCU

Robert Woodard, Head Coach @UNC Charlotte
 
Why should Currie wait another year? Before COVID shut the season down last year, we were headed down the same path as this season.

Walter was crowing about the #17 pre-season ranked Deacs and the potential to host a regional and then we don't even make the ACCT. :mad:
 
morrison2951 said:
Why should Currie wait another year? Before COVID shut the season down last year, we were headed down the same path as this season.

Walter was crowing about the #17 pre-season ranked Deacs and the potential to host a regional and then we don't even make the ACCT. :mad:
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Money would be the reason.
 
I think baseball is becoming more popular for college fans and is an emerging revenue sport nationally (TV exposure being the prime reason). I think it would behoove us to "get in early" and be good while this sport grows. Like football, there will be tiers of clubs wrt recruit attractiveness. We want to be in the first tier by being really good, really soon. The pitching lab indicates that this is our intention. Let's not waste it on a coach who does not know how to use it properly. I think exchanging Walter for a better coach would be a pennies on the dollar decision, and to not do it would be foolish and have a lasting impact.
 
That is a damn good looking list below and Wake would be lucky to get any of them.

I also agree with what someone else said that college baseball is getting more and more popular. The teams that actually make money off baseball is growing and you can see it in the majestic and bigger stadiums in the SEC. Arkansas, Miss St. Old Miss, LSU, USC (maybe nicest stadium in country) all hold from 8K up to around 12K. Miss St has dorms that overlook the baseball field.

Minus the size Couch ballpark is insanely nice and there is no reason whatsoever Wake can't compete except for the coaching.


SDDeac said:
Currie hired a young assistant to lead Tennessee in his short stint there. He’s gone on to lead the program to a first seed, and take the program to arguably its all time high. It wouldn’t surprise me if he applied the the same formula at Wake. Still doesn’t seem likely he makes a move this year, but if the 2022 season replicates what we just saw in 21, Currie will be hard pressed to move on.

Here’s a couple of guys that I’d bet Currie would look at:

Skylar Meade, Pitching Coach @South Carolina

Jake Gautreau, Assistant Coach @Mississippi State

Jeff Palumbo, Assistant Coach/Recruiting Coor. @ECU

Kevin Schall, Assistant Coach @Coastal Carolina

Bill Mosiello, Assistant Coach @TCU

Shawn Stiffler, Head Coach @VCU

Robert Woodard, Head Coach @UNC Charlotte
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awaken said:
I think baseball is becoming more popular for college fans and is an emerging revenue sport nationally (TV exposure being the prime reason). I think it would behoove us to "get in early" and be good while this sport grows. Like football, there will be tiers of clubs wrt recruit attractiveness. We want to be in the first tier by being really good, really soon. The pitching lab indicates that this is our intention. Let's not waste it on a coach who does not know how to use it properly. I think exchanging Walter for a better coach would be a pennies on the dollar decision, and to not do it would be foolish and have a lasting impact.
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College baseball will never be a revenue sport. Most D1 schools fund their programs through alumni donors who earmark funds specifically for baseball.
 
DiamondDeacs said:
College baseball will never be a revenue sport. Most D1 schools fund their programs through alumni donors who earmark funds specifically for baseball.
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Agree. The "revenue" sports get most of their revenue from TV. College baseball will never be a revenue TV sport, except for the College WS. There are trends showing increasing attendance for college baseball in some places, but even then we are talking a fractional increase and the revenue from baseball tickets is minimal. For most home games, WF attendance is in the hundreds. The revenue that would allow Currie to terminate Walter would have to come from donors willing to stroke a check. At least until this season, the baseball donors liked Walter; so, I don't see a change coming after this year.
 
People speak of the size of our park as a minus. I'd guess hitters like it, pitchers maybe not. If principals agree we should be making a change, since we have no outfield seats or major obstacles, just move the fence 10-15 feet further out.
 
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raldeac said:
People speak of the size of our park as a minus. I'd guess hitters like it, pitchers maybe not. If principals agree we should be making a change, since we have no outfield seats or major obstacles, just move the fence 10-15 feet further out.
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Good point:

o.jpg
 
raldeac said:
People speak of the size of our park as a minus. I'd guess hitters like it, pitchers maybe not. If principals agree we should be making a change, since we have no outfield seats or major obstacles, just move the fence 10-15 feet further out.
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Or make the wall tall as fuck in the corners lol. That would probably be way easier than moving it back as the turf was just replaced and the warning track has a slope. Dead center at The Couch (400 ft) isn’t any different than other ballparks. The problem is it’s 300 and 310 in the corners and the walls are only like 8 feel tall.
 
raldeac said:
People speak of the size of our park as a minus. I'd guess hitters like it, pitchers maybe not. If principals agree we should be making a change, since we have no outfield seats or major obstacles, just move the fence 10-15 feet further out.
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Need to add 15 ft to LF foul pole distance and 25 to RF foul pole distance to meet 325 foot minimum size. CF at 400 feet just meets the minimum.
 
SDDeac said:
Or make the wall tall as fuck in the corners lol. That would probably be way easier than moving it back as the turf was just replaced and the warning track has a slope. Dead center at The Couch (400 ft) isn’t any different than other ballparks. The problem is it’s 300 and 310 in the corners and the walls are only like 8 feel tall.
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That sloped warning track is so JV, it isn't even funny.
 
Wake is going to continue having a player talent deficit along as the de facto "no junior college players accepted" rule is in place.
 
Deaconblue said:
Wake is going to continue having a player talent deficit along as the de facto "no junior college players accepted" rule is in place.
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relative to whom?

Duke just won the ACC with zero junior college transfers

Vanderbilt has two national championships since 2014 and had zero junior college transfers on those rosters
 
Liberty is up 11-1 on Duke. Yikes. Pretty shocking as duke was one of the hottest if not the hottest team in the country.
 
Deaconblue said:
Wake is going to continue having a player talent deficit along as the de facto "no junior college players accepted" rule is in place.
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Talent deficit hasn't really been the problem. FWIW, Duke, UVA, GT are all in the NCAA Tournament this year, and there are no JC players on any of their rosters. ND had the best ACC record this year, and is hosting a regional, they have two JC players, and both of those players started at D1 schools; so, they would've also been eligible for WF. Don't agree with WF's current JUCO policy, but there are plenty of strong NCAA baseball programs that don't use JCs at all.
 
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