awaken
Well-known member
You'd think the Bill James number crunching sabre metricians would have accounted for defense in their calculations.
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.
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?
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.
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
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.
College baseball will never be a revenue sport. Most D1 schools fund their programs through alumni donors who earmark funds specifically for baseball.
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.
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.
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.
Good point:
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.
Wake is going to continue having a player talent deficit along as the de facto "no junior college players accepted" rule is in place.
Wake is going to continue having a player talent deficit along as the de facto "no junior college players accepted" rule is in place.