Wake Forest Extends Contract for Baseball Head Coach Tom Walter

[Henry Chinaski]

I think the point made earlier about how other universities would treat the situation is generally valuable. Extending Walter to reward for the season plus increase likelihood we keep him is a pretty standard decision across the board I’d imagine

Yeah probably right - and as said i don’t pretend to walk in Currie’s shoes. I’m probably just being grumpy about it all, but it feels kinda LOWF to throw big money for finally over-performing after so many years of not.

 

[mersk862]

I don’t know if we can say that last thing. We do actually have a national championship in baseball!

Let's re-phrase that last line to be the best WFU season in most of our lifetimes.

 

[DeacWatcher]

Lets not forget that we were within an eyelash of Omaha in 2017 and this year within an eyelash of the Natty. I think that warrants an extension.

We really had the gaytors on the ropes after game 2 where we killed them. If not for the dreaded rain delay that gave them an extra day to get a starter back, we would have been in Omaha sooner.

 

[Pilchard]

Yeah probably right - and as said i don’t pretend to walk in Currie’s shoes. I’m probably just being grumpy about it all, but it feels kinda LOWF to throw big money for finally over-performing after so many years of not.

WF is definitely buying high right now, which is often a mistake. Walter's stock will never be higher. So, if there was a feeling that this past season was a fluke, WF could have decided to not offer an extension at this time.

If WF had elected to not extend Walter, he would have taken the offer from Miami, which would have more than doubled his compensation under his existing contract. The WF baseball program has momentum right now, and losing Walter the week after the run to Omaha would have been a gut punch to the baseball program, and to the athletic department overall. WF would have felt minor league. So, extending Walter makes sense, but for those that still have issues with him as a baseball coach, not extending Tom Walter was the chance to get another baseball coach.

So, for those questioning why WF extend Tom Walter, if you still want another baseball coach after this season, feel free to make that argument.

Not a "keyboard warrior", but that is why the Manning comparison does not work. When WF extended Manning, he had no other offers on the table. Manning was not going anywhere even if WF had not agreed to the lucrative extension binding WF to Manning for six+ years after sliding into the First Four. WF was bidding against itself, and somehow the Manning extension didn't include standard buyout terms as the contract went on. There was no reason to extend Manning's contract at all. If WF wanted to extend as a "good faith gesture" for making the NCAA First Four, add an extra year at the back end of the deal on the same terms. Instead, WF committed to Danny Manning for six more years without a buyout. Insane.

The point was not to ridicule anyone opposed to extending Tom Walter; the point was that even if you disagree with the decision to extend Walter; this situation is not analogous to extending DM.

 

[DeacWatcher]

Locking up Walter is just smart. The dude can flat out coach and recruit with the best of them. As I mentioned in the off season thread we should have been in Omaha in 2017 as we had Florida on the ropes and could not apply the knock out due to a rain delay.

If he would have left for Miami or SEC for big money, we would have had a serious dilemma. Is Muscara really ready for the big time because thats what this is. F$U canned their coach last year and hired the guy from ND and for the first time in 45 years the Noles didn't make the tournament.

 

[Buttermaker]

Anyone with an understanding of P5 college baseball coach salaries got a ballpark idea what Walter's compensation likely was and is now?

 

[saltydeac]

Good for him - the “Danny Manning extension” after one amazing (or ok-ish in DM’s case) year always makes me a little uneasy but i guess they had to lock the staff up.

Are you kidding me??? Sneaking into ncaa tourney into play-in game and losing out of the gate vs. being #1 team in country for weeks and one game away from the championship game??? Not to mention Tom got to supers before, so could not be more different. Way to go Currie.

 

[Pilchard]

Before the extension, IIRC, Walter made somewhere around $500 to $600K per year.

Heading into this season, here were the top 10 salaries in college baseball (and I believe LSU coach, Jay Johnson, just got a big bump; also believe that TCU Coach, Kirk Saarloos just got a big bump as well):

1. Tim Corbin, Vanderbilt - $2.447 million
2. Mike Bianco, Ole Miss - $1.625 million
3. Jim Schlossnagle, Texas A&M - $1.58 million
4. Tony Vitello, Tennessee - $1.5 million
5. Dave Van Horn, Arkansas - $1.35 million
6. Kevin O' Sullivan, Florida - $1.29 million
7. Chris Lemonis, Mississippi State - $1.27 million
8. Jay Johnson, LSU - $1.25 million
9. Butch Thompson, Auburn - $1.25 million
10. Dan McDonnell, Louisville - $1.2 million

 

[Wakeforest22890]

I bet he's right aorund $1 million now...maybe just shy

 

[saltydeac]

Before the extension, IIRC, Walter made somewhere around $500 to $600K per year.

Heading into this season, here were the top 10 salaries in college baseball (and I believe LSU coach, Jay Johnson, just got a big bump; also believe that TCU Coach, Kirk Saarloos just got a big bump as well):

1. Tim Corbin, Vanderbilt - $2.447 million
2. Mike Bianco, Ole Miss - $1.625 million
3. Jim Schlossnagle, Texas A&M - $1.58 million
4. Tony Vitello, Tennessee - $1.5 million
5. Dave Van Horn, Arkansas - $1.35 million
6. Kevin O' Sullivan, Florida - $1.29 million
7. Chris Lemonis, Mississippi State - $1.27 million
8. Jay Johnson, LSU - $1.25 million
9. Butch Thompson, Auburn - $1.25 million
10. Dan McDonnell, Louisville - $1.2 million

So guessing he is at least @ $1+mm along with locked in for some time so guaranteeing his salary for a while.

 

[Buttermaker]

A&M just throws $ at everything in its major sports, apparently.

 

[deacdixieboy]

A&M just throws $ at everything in its major sports, apparently.

It won’t matter. They are the most glaring example of the fact that money doesn’t buy wins.

 

[PhDeac]

It won’t matter. They are the most glaring example of the fact that money doesn’t buy wins.

But money buys the perception that they should and could win.

 

[inspectah]

The moment of truth will come next season. It is rare indeed for a WF team to follow up postseason success with a repeat performance let alone any kind of sustained success over the long term. But this team is poised to do that. We shall see.

 

[deacon14]

The moment of truth will come next season. It is rare indeed for a WF team to follow up postseason success with a repeat performance let alone any kind of sustained success over the long term. But this team is poised to do that. We shall see.

Man I can’t wait until next season when we are ranked #20 instead of #1 and we have posters declaring that Walter should be fired because we lose a weekend series to UVA or something

 

[Wakeforest22890]

I'm not willing to accept losing conference series anymore. It's not in the rule book that you have to do it.

 

[TheReff]

I assume Hatch did not help either, particularly with a program that relies on being able to fund players w/non athletic scholarships?

Definitely was skeptical myself with some of the repeated patterns we'd seen over the years (lots of errors, underperforming vs expectations), but this year definitely shut me up too.

Hatch & his ilk killed baseball and other sports by stopping any jucos from coming. (They still had to go 4 years because most credits wouldn’t transfer). Now with transfer portal we have the next best thing, can fill holes with all but rising seniors which we won’t take.

 

[Deacsfan27]

I will say that I think Walter makes some bad in-game and lineup decisions that don’t make a lot of sense and I certainly don’t get. This team was so absurdly talented that it didn’t really matter, so it will be interesting to see if he can turn the corner with teams that don’t have elite talent. Hopefully Muscara helps a lot there with the pitching.

 

[TheReff]

Yeah probably right - and as said i don’t pretend to walk in Currie’s shoes. I’m probably just being grumpy about it all, but it feels kinda LOWF to throw big money for finally over-performing after so many years of not.

Hard to say or know because none of us know exactly what is in the contract extension, nor the payout amounts, right? But give a Super in 2017 & a CWS in 2023, this type extension in no feels like the overreach of the Well-Man/Manning hose job done on us! This feels like a “keep getting business done” extension.

 

[BlackjackMc]

Two aspects of this years team stand out as improvements. Minizing unforced errors and the improvement in team defense. Mix the wild pitch, passed balls, hit batters and baserunning blunders with poor defense and you get a recipe for failure. That seldom happened this year. Add a pitching staff that could throw strikes and miss bats and you get consistent opportunity for victory.