2025 Baseball thread

[david ficken]

Haiden Leffew just committed.

Are you talking about the same guy from Wake Forest that Baron and I put out and talked about on Thursday?

 

[david ficken]

A high ERA with that kind of velocity may indicate he can be predictable. I think a good pitching coach can fix that. At any rate with that K/W ratio, he is worth the risk.

His ERA may be due to him relying on the fastball and him really only using his breaking ball as a secondary pitch. But looking at his summer league numbers, with an ERA under 2, they maybe working on a couple of other pitches.
Plus, with him coming in to work with Weiner, he should learn how to use different release points and arm angles. He seems to look like another Grubbs and/or Riojas only with a fastball that is MLB ready.

 

[david ficken]

From Texassports.com, Dylan Volantis has been named the national freshman of the year by Baseball America. He is the 4th Longhorn to receive the award. He joins Greg Swindell, Kirk Dressendorfer, and Brooks Kienschnick.

 

[david ficken]

Sorry for the late reply, been busy with family the last several days.

BW55 has good information on the 2 and added some for the young lady from Tech.

I will add that Kaiah Altmeyer, the OF from Arizona, who will be a senior, is telling me Coach White may be looking to move one of the existing OF's (Stewart maybe?) to 3rd or maybe even Altmeyer to 3rd. The reason I suspect Stewart is because she's the slower of the 3 OFs that played for Texas last season.

Taylor Anderson from okie lite will probably be used primarily as a pinch runner this year (as previously stated) but with her speed, she can easily be a threat to play OF her last 2 years however she will need to work on her hitting since that's her weakest link. She's a local product from Dripping Springs who ran track in HS. I'm liking the potential of this young lady, but I've always been a fan of speed in the OF.

Thanks bud,

That is what I was looking for. Some of my friends felt that at least 1 of the outfielders was a little to slow or didn't read how well the softball was hit or if the coaches just had her playing in the outfield because she was the best option this past yr.

It looked like they got a veteran to come in for 1 yr and allow the young lady from Dripping Springs to get some time, but not have to be thrown into the fire.

But outfielders need to have some good speed

As for the young lady pitcher, either she can come in and show that she can pitch and pitch consistently or she won't get much playing time.

 

[Sirhornsalot]

Are you talking about the same guy from Wake Forest that Baron and I put out and talked about on Thursday?

Maybe so. My bad.

 

[david ficken]

Maybe so. My bad.

All good bud. I just wanted to see if i had missed a new addition from the portal.

There could be upto 5 guys the staff is checking on, I believe. But won't really know until after the draft in 2 weeks.

BTW, in case anyone missed it Aiden Moffett hit the portal late Friday. But it could be that at least 1 team if not more really liked what he was doing in the summer league until the last outing as for some weird reason the team he is on; decided he needed to start a game and didn't last more than the 1st inning. He is a reliever and teams need relievers to develop in their farm system.

 

[david ficken]

We are now up to 14 players hitting the the portal and could have another 1 or 2 more hit the portal before it closes.

We are looking over the portal for anymore additions as well.

If you would like a list of those that have left and the additions. I will post a little later.

 

[david ficken]

Welp it's 15 in the portal:

Oliver Service (C)

Cole Chamberlain (C/infielder): by all accounts the staff really liked him, but wanted a catcher with starting experience.

Carson Luna (infielder)

Sam Richardson (3rd baseman/infielder)

Jaquae Stewart (1st baseman/infielder)

Tommy Farmer IV (OF)

Will Gasparino (OF)

Donovan Jordan (OF)

Matt Scott (OF)

Easton Winfield (OF)

Ace Whitehead (LHP)

Chance Covert II (LHP)

Bryce Navarre (LHP)

Aiden Moffett (RHP)

Easton Tumis (RHP)

Still watching for possibly hitting the portal:

J. Duplantier, Blake Peterson, Conner McCreery

That is 3 guys that portalled in before last season and 1 signee from this staff. The rest were signed by David Pierce.

This doesn't include O'Hara that this staff apparently told didn't have a spot for him.

 

[Sirhornsalot]

Welp it's 15 in the portal:

Oliver Service (C)

Cole Chamberlain (C/infielder): by all accounts the staff really liked him, but wanted a catcher with starting experience.

Carson Luna (infielder)

Sam Richardson (3rd baseman/infielder)

Jaquae Stewart (1st baseman/infielder)

Tommy Farmer IV (OF)

Will Gasparino (OF)

Donovan Jordan (OF)

Matt Scott (OF)

Easton Winfield (OF)

Ace Whitehead (LHP)

Chance Covert II (LHP)

Bryce Navarre (LHP)

Aiden Moffett (RHP)

Easton Tumis (RHP)

Still watching for possibly hitting the portal:

J. Duplantier, Blake Peterson, Conner McCreery

That is 3 guys that portalled in before last season and 1 signee from this staff. The rest were signed by David Pierce.

This doesn't include O'Hara that this staff apparently told didn't have a spot for him.

Why so many? Are we cleaning house to restock with Schloss types? Thats just a lot of transfers for baseball, IMO.

 

[david ficken]

Why so many? Are we cleaning house to restock with Schloss types? Thats just a lot of transfers for baseball, IMO.

I think you answered your question with the staff getting their guys in. They went out and got 3 OFs from the portal and have upto freshmen OFs with the incoming class. They got 2 catchers out of the portal with 1 incoming freshman catcher. 3 LHPs with multiple pitches to go with a high end fastball with possibly 8-10 incoming freshmen pitchers that are both LHP and RHP and most have multiple pitches they can use. Plus they added 3-4 Infielders to go with what is already here.

Also, remember that the roster size is now at 34 instead of 40.

 

[david ficken]

A couple of other items of note about those in the portal. Chamberlain may have thought he should be the starter, but the staff wanted 1 with more starting experience. Aiden Moffett, has been doing really good in the summer league and might have been given word that a team or 2 would draft him, and even if after the 10th rd. him might get a larger signing bonus than the 150k they get. Not really why Navarre is hitting the portal after 1 yr., but the staff liked his stuff during the fall and winter workouts, but it didn't really show during the season.

 

[david ficken]

Now, for the additions via the portal:

Carson Tinney (C)

Andrew Ermis (C)

Josh Livingston (1st/3rd baseman)

Kaleb Freeman (infielder)

Jack Moroknek (outfielder)

Aidan Robbins (outfielder)

Luke Dotson (LHP)

Cal Higgins (LHP)

Haiden Leffew (LHP)

Temo Becerra (SS)

Welp it's 15 in the portal:

Oliver Service (C)

Cole Chamberlain (C/infielder): by all accounts the staff really liked him, but wanted a catcher with starting experience.

Carson Luna (infielder)

Sam Richardson (3rd baseman/infielder)

Jaquae Stewart (1st baseman/infielder)

Tommy Farmer IV (OF)

Will Gasparino (OF)

Donovan Jordan (OF)

Matt Scott (OF)

Easton Winfield (OF)

Ace Whitehead (LHP)

Chance Covert II (LHP)

Bryce Navarre (LHP)

Aiden Moffett (RHP)

Easton Tumis (RHP)

Still watching for possibly hitting the portal:

J. Duplantier, Blake Peterson, Conner McCreery

That is 3 guys that portalled in before last season and 1 signee from this staff. The rest were signed by David Pierce.

This doesn't include O'Hara that this staff apparently told didn't have a spot for him.

Now, add Drew Rerick to the list of those hitting the portal.

There has to be some sort of behind the scene issue going with both Bryce Navarre and now Drew Rerick hitting the portal this late into the portal entry closing for players getting the paperwork to those that need to know to get them in the porrtal. The school has 48 hrs to put the name on the portal list.

 

[Sirhornsalot]

 

[david ficken]

Some good news before the MLB draft starts on Sunday as Harrison, Riojas, and Grubbs are all returning for next season.

 

[Sirhornsalot]

Is Jared Spencer healed up now or still rehabbing? Is he coming back to Texas?

 

[david ficken]

Is Jared Spencer healed up now or still rehabbing? Is he coming back to Texas?

Spencer is a senior. He was moving up the draft from what I had heard prior to the injury, but he is back around the top 100 draft picks.

Have not heard anything about how he is doing from the injury.

 

[TB14]

Some good news before the MLB draft starts on Sunday as Harrison, Riojas, and Grubbs are all returning for next season.

Wow! That should be 2 weekend starters and a closer for next year! (I want Volantis being a starter so he can pitch more.)

 

[Kmed]

Do we have any prospects in danger of being drafted in the first couple rounds?

 

[BWilk55]

Gavin Fien and Kasey Cunningham both go in the 1st round. Both were expected to do so. Fien has already stated he will sign with the Rangers. Cunningham will almost definitely sign.

 

[BWilk55]

Max Belyeu drafted #74 overall by the Rockies.