Every offseason, the college baseball transfer portal gets louder and messier. More names, more movement, more claims about 'who' won the portal. There is one phrase that will always ring true, most of the portal does not and will not matter. It's the simple reality of the Roster Building: Wild West system. Smart teams utilize the portal properly, others chase volume. Let’s dig in.
Total Players: 3,343
Uncommitted: 1,091 (33%)
Mid-Major -> Power 4 School: 277
63% of those 277 players are pitchers... and this is VERY evident when we get to regionals and beyond that the P4 schools have such an advantage on pitching depth while mid-majors have to continue to develop the next guy.
Looking at the portal list at first glance, it is overwhelming and chaotic, but don't kid yourself, Omaha builders are hidden in the list. Pitchers make up a big majority of the portal as you can expect with a lot of them being relievers, and failed starters who never fit the role they were previously slotted into. There is something about the portal that always makes me realize, it's not an avenue of opportunity, it's just a telling sign of demand.
The Omaha builders know exactly how to utilize the portal, aka the rich get richer mantra. But there are still plenty of Omaha caliber programs that don't know how to use the portal. The good ones chase specific needs, and don't bite more than they can chew, such as specific bullpen roles, 5-hole OPS hitter, and depth at premium positions. Those are the things that get exposed in June.
Duke’s change of guard with new head coach (Corey Muscara Wake Forest) will cause roster turnover. Georgia just had a laundry list of needs that we will find out if they are addressed. The Paul Mainieri experiment in Columbia needs to be studied as 19 left, and 19 more came in.
Ohio State brought Haire in a year ago and had a disastrous first year, so you can assume there will be major changes in that clubhouse. Tennessee watched Vitello leave for the Big Leagues, and goes to show you, no program is bigger than the head coach. Western Kentucky straight up lost 30 guys and a few to big programs such as Virginia, Arizona State, Troy, Texas, South Carolina, Kentucky, Arizona and so-on. Mid-major feeder program in full effect.
Jay Johnson, coming off a national title, continues to trust his development of players and use the portal to address specific needs as LSU landed a few splashes in Trent Caraway (SS, 2B) from Oregon State, Brayden Simpson (UTIL) from High Point, Santi Garcia (LHP) from Oregon and Zach Yorke from Grand Canyon. Simpson and Caraway will seamlessly replace the departures of Jones, Braswell and Dickinson.
Longhorns had a lot of freshman/sophomores transfer out but addressed those moves with quality over quantity. Texas got quality pieces in Dariyan Pendergrass from CofC, Ashton Larson from LSU, Carson Tinney from Notre Dame, and Temo Becerra from Stanford and a few others. Haiden Leffew (Wake Forest) could be one of their highest upside arms while Pendergrass should win the CF job.
The Hurricanes have had one major flaw the last 10 years: pitching. No team made as big of an improvement on the mound than Miami in the portal from a depth standpoint. They got Lyndon Glidewell from Austin Peay, TJ Coats from Nebraska, Frank Menendez from Florida and Packy Bradley-Cooney from Alabama. All 4 of those guys excel in one area or another so let’s see if J.D. Arteaga can help them tap into their full potential. Another name, Alex Sosa, is a big get behind the plate from NC State.
Logan Reddemann (RHP) San Diego -> UCLA
Will Gasparino (OF) Texas -> UCLA
Joey Volchko (RHP) Stanford -> Georgia
Henry Ford (1B) Virginia -> Tennessee
Chris Hacopian (SS) Maryland -> Texas A&M
AJ Gracia (OF) Duke -> Virginia
All in all, the portal lets the Power 4 schools poach and address their needs, and makes mid-majors really tap into developing their underclassmen as their draft-eligible studs get poached. I think college baseball should adopt the European soccer blueprint and make the major schools have to buy the contract of the player so the mid-majors can financially be rewarded for finding and developing good players.
Every offseason, the college baseball transfer portal gets louder and messier. More names, more movement, more claims about 'who' won the portal. There is one phrase that will always ring true, most of the portal does not and will not matter. It's the simple reality of the Roster Building: Wild West system. Smart teams utilize the portal properly, others chase volume. Let’s dig in.
Total Players: 3,343
Uncommitted: 1,091 (33%)
Mid-Major -> Power 4 School: 277
63% of those 277 players are pitchers... and this is VERY evident when we get to regionals and beyond that the P4 schools have such an advantage on pitching depth while mid-majors have to continue to develop the next guy.
Looking at the portal list at first glance, it is overwhelming and chaotic, but don't kid yourself, Omaha builders are hidden in the list. Pitchers make up a big majority of the portal as you can expect with a lot of them being relievers, and failed starters who never fit the role they were previously slotted into. There is something about the portal that always makes me realize, it's not an avenue of opportunity, it's just a telling sign of demand.
The Omaha builders know exactly how to utilize the portal, aka the rich get richer mantra. But there are still plenty of Omaha caliber programs that don't know how to use the portal. The good ones chase specific needs, and don't bite more than they can chew, such as specific bullpen roles, 5-hole OPS hitter, and depth at premium positions. Those are the things that get exposed in June.
Duke’s change of guard with new head coach (Corey Muscara Wake Forest) will cause roster turnover. Georgia just had a laundry list of needs that we will find out if they are addressed. The Paul Mainieri experiment in Columbia needs to be studied as 19 left, and 19 more came in.
Ohio State brought Haire in a year ago and had a disastrous first year, so you can assume there will be major changes in that clubhouse. Tennessee watched Vitello leave for the Big Leagues, and goes to show you, no program is bigger than the head coach. Western Kentucky straight up lost 30 guys and a few to big programs such as Virginia, Arizona State, Troy, Texas, South Carolina, Kentucky, Arizona and so-on. Mid-major feeder program in full effect.
Jay Johnson, coming off a national title, continues to trust his development of players and use the portal to address specific needs as LSU landed a few splashes in Trent Caraway (SS, 2B) from Oregon State, Brayden Simpson (UTIL) from High Point, Santi Garcia (LHP) from Oregon and Zach Yorke from Grand Canyon. Simpson and Caraway will seamlessly replace the departures of Jones, Braswell and Dickinson.
Longhorns had a lot of freshman/sophomores transfer out but addressed those moves with quality over quantity. Texas got quality pieces in Dariyan Pendergrass from CofC, Ashton Larson from LSU, Carson Tinney from Notre Dame, and Temo Becerra from Stanford and a few others. Haiden Leffew (Wake Forest) could be one of their highest upside arms while Pendergrass should win the CF job.
The Hurricanes have had one major flaw the last 10 years: pitching. No team made as big of an improvement on the mound than Miami in the portal from a depth standpoint. They got Lyndon Glidewell from Austin Peay, TJ Coats from Nebraska, Frank Menendez from Florida and Packy Bradley-Cooney from Alabama. All 4 of those guys excel in one area or another so let’s see if J.D. Arteaga can help them tap into their full potential. Another name, Alex Sosa, is a big get behind the plate from NC State.
Logan Reddemann (RHP) San Diego -> UCLA
Will Gasparino (OF) Texas -> UCLA
Joey Volchko (RHP) Stanford -> Georgia
Henry Ford (1B) Virginia -> Tennessee
Chris Hacopian (SS) Maryland -> Texas A&M
AJ Gracia (OF) Duke -> Virginia
All in all, the portal lets the Power 4 schools poach and address their needs, and makes mid-majors really tap into developing their underclassmen as their draft-eligible studs get poached. I think college baseball should adopt the European soccer blueprint and make the major schools have to buy the contract of the player so the mid-majors can financially be rewarded for finding and developing good players.
