Every good college team, much like every big-league team, or any team in any sport at any level, needs a lot of things to go right for them to be successful.
Much of that success begins and ends with the overall health of the ballclub. Even the best and deepest of teams, even those with a seemingly endless payroll, cannot overcome injuries to multiple key contributors.
Like last year’s surprise team in the Majors, the Detroit Tigers, teams need help from everyone: Rookies, young established players with breakout seasons, veterans with comeback years and proven leaders holding steady.
The success of the Vanderbilt Commodores has been well chronicled this year, and they are receiving significant contributions from members of every class. The team undoubtedly boasts the best junior in the nation, arguably the best senior and sophomore, and a rising freshman is quickly making his mark.
Junior David Price of course is the player that is drawing the most attention. His presence alone has made Vanderbilt contests well attended by regional crosscheckers and scouting directors, along with a few General Managers sprinkled in.
Pedro Alvarez entered the spring as a near unanimous pick as the game’s best sophomore. After being named the college freshman performer of the year, he led Team USA in batting and has continued his tremendous success into his sophomore season.
Few freshmen have performed as well as left-handed pitcher Mike Minor has, whose success has allowed him to be moved from the team’s mid-week starter to the team’s Saturday starter, replacing talented sophomore Brett Jacobson while following Price in the order against a very tough SEC conference schedule.
And then there is senior closer Casey Weathers, who has continued to dominate with his power arsenal late in games, making close contests nearly impossible for opposing teams to overcome.
The success of the entire Vanderbilt club again illustrates just how much any team needs just about everything to go right to be successful. But similar to big-league organizations relying on the success of their farm systems to continually cultivate talent for those teams to remain competitive, college programs rely on their recruiting efforts to supply them with a rich pool of talent.
Vanderbilt is building a reputation as one of the nation’s toughest schools for professional organizations to pry high school recruits away from. Jeremy Sowers may have started that success, as he turned down several million dollars coming out of high school in 2001 to attend the prestigious university. Price, Alvarez, Jacobson and Minor have all followed, joined by other talented recruits including Jonathan White, Ryan Flaherty, Josh Zeid, and Alex Hilliard. Weathers transferred from Sacramento City College in California , another area all college recruiters must focus on to succeed.
Professional teams scouting Vanderbilt’s next recruiting class, which includes Sean Bierman, Curt Casali, Taylor Hill, Joey Manning, Chase Reid and Aaron Westlake, I’m sure have taken notice.
From top to bottom, the Commodores under the direction of Head Coach Tim Corbin have certainly built something special.
Volunteer Talent
The cross-state, SEC rival Tennessee Volunteers have a similar talent base to Vanderbilt, but everything has not gone their way this spring.
While Julio Borbon’s broken ankle may have seemed like the first big blow to the program, although he is now back patrolling centerfield while assuming his usual leadoff spot, top recruit Bryan Morgado may have been the first sign that this may have not been Tennessee’s year. The hard-throwing lefty was lost for the season when it was determined last fall that he needed to have Tommy John surgery.
Team leader J.P. Arencibia was also slowed to begin the season with a strained lower back. His bat has started to wake up, but his slow start along with Borbon’s meant a slow start for the entire team.
The Volunteers have had a couple of strong freshman contributors this season in first baseman/catcher Yan Gomes and first baseman/left-handed pitcher Jeff Lockwood. A couple of other highly touted freshmen recruits, left-handed pitcher Nick Hernandez and right-hander Ryan Butner, have struggled, but offer hope for bigger and better things in the future.
Talented sophomore shortstop Tony Delmonico, son of Tennessee Head Coach Rod Delmonico, is starting to come around this year, while junior left-handed starter James Adkins has enjoyed a good yet inconsistent season.
The Volunteers season hasn’t been a disaster, as they are 22-17 through last weekend’s play, but only 6-10 in the SEC, as I think many expected them to be more of a force in the conference given their talent base. Fortunately that talent base is young enough to not rule out the Vols down the stretch and heading into years to come.
Freshmen get the boot
Last month talented freshmen Lonnie Chisenhall and Nick Fuller’s dismissal from the South Carolina program received quite a bit of attention.
According to the Mississippi Clarion Ledger, Ole Miss Head Coach Mike Bianco has dismissed talented freshman first baseman and former Aflac All-American Andrew Clark from the Bulldogs baseball team for violating team rules. No specific details have been released, but it sounds as though the dismissal may have been decided upon after a series of behavioral incidents.
It doesn’t sound as though Clark’s dismissal was based on criminal actions as Chisenhall’s and Fuller’s were, but it is still a disturbing trend to see such talented, young players completely blow an amazing opportunity so many other young players would die just to be considered to have such an opportunity. Clark may easily take one great opportunity to another, as he has already announced that he will transfer to Louisville , but I hope he realizes that one only gets so many chances.
I’m a firm believer that everyone learns the most from their biggest mistakes. How these three young players overcome their freshmen trials could ultimately determine what kind of people they become in the not-so-distant future. I wish all of them the best, as long as they do indeed learn from these incidents, and hope other players, young and old, can look and learn from their mistakes as well.
The thoughts and opinions listed here do not necessarily reflect those of Perfect Game USA . Patrick Ebert is affiliated with both Perfect Game USA and Brewerfan.net, and can be contacted via email at pebert@brewerfan.net.