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Texas Baseball 2025 - Show Me A Schloss


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2 hours ago, BillyGoatHill said:

Roster spots have actually gone down for 2025 as of a ruling in July.

34 players now but ALL can be on FULL scholarship (up from the BS 11.7 restriction and mostly only 1/4 scholarship or less) 

For the 2025 Spring season, the roster limit remains at 40.  Starting in the 2026 season its 34 (used to be 35 pre-covid) and, as with all sports, all roster spots are allowed to be on full scholarship.

However, its up to each conference to set their scholarship limit and it looks like everyone will end up being under 34 for baseball.  Talk about the SEC, which will likely allow for the most baseball scholarships, is that they will initially limit it to around 25 full baseball scholarships for 2026.  But, unlike today, the teams will now be able to split that number however they wish among the players.

A key issue still to be determined for 2026 is when the teams must have the roster down to 34.  Some are arguing to have it at 34 before any Fall 2025 practice begins and others want there to be a higher Fall limit and allow the coaches to cut down to 34 sometime during or after Fall 2025 practice.

Edited by HTXfan
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1 hour ago, HTXfan said:

For the 2025 Spring season, the roster limit remains at 40

I thought that too but I saw today ( before posting) two sites saying that it was agreed upon this last July to move it back to 34 this year 2025. The NCAA site was painful looking for an update there. Not arguing, I hope it is 40. Just what I saw on the other websites.

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Thanks for that info Hookem2147.  Regarding the progress pitchers in rehab are making, what pitchers are actually part of that group?

I don't necessarily mind that there may be future bunts, but I hope they still continue routinely practicing how to bunt.  It is amazing how bad some guys are at bunting and if they are the ones that you need in the 9th inning as he suggested you might as well forget about it.

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7 hours ago, .45s said:

Thanks for that info Hookem2147.  Regarding the progress pitchers in rehab are making, what pitchers are actually part of that group?

I don't necessarily mind that there may be future bunts, but I hope they still continue routinely practicing how to bunt.  It is amazing how bad some guys are at bunting and if they are the ones that you need in the 9th inning as he suggested you might as well forget about it.

It was nice hearing Mercer in that little update. Would be huge if he got his mojo back. 
 

Basically agree on the bunting and needing to practice. I do just a tad bit miss getting out to early 1-0 or 2-0 leads with those elite Augie teams. Getting a run or 2 in the first and immediately putting the pressure on was nice. I’m all for swinging away though. Was beyond annoying watching aggys approach and swings at the plate vs ours the last few years. 

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39 minutes ago, TrashMaster G said:

Houston? Seriously?

 

Head coach Todd Whiting was on Schloss's staff at TCU and his ace recruiter.  Clay Van Hook and Woody Williams (analyst to pitching coach) are first year assts.   Whiting may be on the hot seat at his alma mater after 14 years.

I miss playing Rice regardless of their recent decline.   Even going there,   Reckling is such a nice venue.

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1 hour ago, torre said:

Head coach Todd Whiting was on Schloss's staff at TCU and his ace recruiter.  Clay Van Hook and Woody Williams (analyst to pitching coach) are first year assts.   Whiting may be on the hot seat at his alma mater after 14 years.

I miss playing Rice regardless of their recent decline.   Even going there,   Reckling is such a nice venue.

It's too bad about reckling, and it's also too bad Santa Clara won't be a home and away.

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Maine was never that good of a team or program. Back in the late 1970's through the mid 1980's the NCAA required that Regionals be played in all sections of the country. Maine was the best of the teams in the Northeast Region and hosted for several years. The NCAA also required that teams from the region be in the Regionals. So, for these years Maine would win this Regional and go to Omaha. They would usually go 0-2 and be eliminated. They were coached by a crusty old guy named John Winkin. He was a gruff guy that was an old school baseball coach. He was friends with Coach Gus and Maine would come to Austin to play the Horns fairly often and usually get beat badly in those games.

The one-year Maine did well in Omaha was in 1982 behind the arm of future MLB pitcher Billy Swift. He was a nice guy and us Texas fans always got along well with the Maine players and fans; they just usually weren't there very long. This year they made the final four teams before their nemesis Miami, eliminated them, after Maine had beaten them earlier. 

Then in the late 1980's the NCAA allowed other schools to go to other Regionals, as the top seed there. The first year this happened of all teams Miami went to the Maine Regional and easily won it. Then the NCAA dropped the rule that there had to be Regionals in all regions of the country and that was the end of Maine as sort of a baseball power. They haven't been back to Omaha or even been that good since the days of when they would host and be the #1 seed of those Maine Regionals.

I still got some things those Maine players and fans gave me back then. Those were great years watching Texas Baseball, other teams also at Disch-Falk and then in Omaha, or as we called the Horns, the University of Texas at Omaha. I knew Abe back then too. We used to stop in Oklahoma City on the way to Omaha for the CWS and talk to him, when he was coaching there.

 

Wild Bunch Memories and Abe's Army.jpg

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Wonder what Schloss thinks about the recent juco ruling. If its applied to college baseball, and it appears that it will, its going to have a bigger impact than even NIL

Big teams like Texas and other SEC teams are largely gonna be made up of 1st round prospect types and 26 year olds. MLB teams are already increasingly preferring to draft college players so these prospects will end up in juco or mid major colleges and then transfer to the SEC for their "contract" years.

Kentucky always gets the top basketball one and done basketball guys, but the teams lose because they are talented 18 year olds going against slightly less talented but more experienced 22 and 23 year olds. Hurley at UConn figured it out and thrives in the new system, where titans of the old system crumbled

Super interesting to think about and watch play out from a talent acquisition/identification standpoint

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Wouldn’t surprise me if mlb is all for others footing the bill for development between 18 and 23, and then having more prospects start their mlb service clock closer to 26 or 27 and have their prime years be pre-arb and arb years. 
I’d say it’s not great for free agency, but teams are paying big bucks to players over 30 and for long contracts in some cases. 

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On 12/24/2024 at 3:49 PM, cmontexas said:

Wonder what Schloss thinks about the recent juco ruling. If its applied to college baseball, and it appears that it will, its going to have a bigger impact than even NIL

Big teams like Texas and other SEC teams are largely gonna be made up of 1st round prospect types and 26 year olds. MLB teams are already increasingly preferring to draft college players so these prospects will end up in juco or mid major colleges and then transfer to the SEC for their "contract" years.

Kentucky always gets the top basketball one and done basketball guys, but the teams lose because they are talented 18 year olds going against slightly less talented but more experienced 22 and 23 year olds. Hurley at UConn figured it out and thrives in the new system, where titans of the old system crumbled

Super interesting to think about and watch play out from a talent acquisition/identification standpoint

This article gives context for those who want practical examples of what might happen. It's in line with your hypothesis and what we're already seeing with the progression away from "one-and-done" stacking, as well as guys transferring two to three times for NIL and development/PT/exposure reasons. 

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/43107847/baseball-2024-junior-college-eligbility-ruling-diego-pavia-mlb-draft-shake-up

Spoiler

How junior college ruling could impact baseball, MLB draft

Kiley McDaniel, ESPN MLB Insider - Dec 23, 2024, 07:00 AM ET

A recent college football ruling against the NCAA could end up having a sizable impact on the future of college baseball.

On Wednesday, a federal judge in Tennessee granted an injunction to Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia, allowing him to pursue another year of NCAA eligibility. That means a college athlete's time in junior college doesn't count toward his overall years of NCAA eligibility.

If upheld, this would mean that a player who spends two years at a junior college could start his NCAA career as a freshman with four years of eligibility left instead of the current two.

While Pavia's case is tied to an SEC football player, pending a final ruling, the change could impact college baseball, MLB draft and even the minor leagues in a profound way. I spoke with a dozen MLB scouts and college coaches about the potential fallout.

An ACC assistant baseball coach summed up his thinking: "I wonder what's coming next from administrators. College baseball will be a whole lot different if juco doesn't count."

Here is how the impact could be felt by everyone involved across every level.

The players

This decision is a clear positive for amateur players. If seasons at a junior college stop counting toward that NCAA standard of four playing seasons in five years, players could use the path to better line up their best college seasons at the best schools for the most playing time and best monetary outcome (NIL, salary or draft signing bonus), with flexibility to change schools each season and likely getting a free graduate school degree or two along the way.

Here's one scenario:

High school (age 18): The player turns down a low-six-figure signing bonus in the draft out of high school.

College Year 1 (age 19): The player doesn't have a starting spot at the Power 4 school he committed to in high school and, instead of playing part time, asks for a redshirt to preserve his eligibility. (This player is also draft-eligible every year of this scenario except this one.)

College Year 2 (age 20): The player moves to a junior college, where he starts and makes progress as a prospect with regular reps.

College Year 3 (age 21): The player's progression continues, and he commits to a mid-major college during his second junior college year.

College Year 4 (age 22): The player is a redshirt freshman and has a great year at a mid-major school.

College Year 5 (age 23: The player transfers to an SEC school as a sophomore and gets a $100,000+ NIL package.

College Year 6 (age 24): Returns/transfers to SEC school as a junior.

College Year 7 (age 25): Returns/transfers to SEC school as a senior.

There are other scenarios such as a postgrad year after high school, a junior college redshirt, a medical redshirt, etc., that mean we could someday see a player celebrate his 30th birthday while still playing college baseball.

One of the key points here that would incentive players to consider this path is that they would be draft-eligible in nearly every season of their college career. This opens up the opportunity to leave for the pros whenever their stock is highest, since MLB rules allow players to be drafted after each season at a junior college or in a college season where they turn 21 years old by Aug. 1. In the current system, players often have to decide between taking what is offered to them as a high school senior or waiting three years to be draft-eligible again. Until recently with NIL and soon revenue sharing, these players would make no money between those two decisions.

There is some downside for players though: It would become rarer for freshmen to contribute at top schools, thus top schools will likely offer fewer scholarships to high school players, and it will get very competitive for roster spots at these top colleges, exacerbating something that was already starting to happen with the recent set of roster reforms.

College programs

Junior college baseball would see the immediate biggest impact with this change as it isn't a leading path to professional baseball right now. In fact, over the past five MLB drafts, there has been only one first-round pick, one second-round pick and three third-round picks selected directly out of junior colleges. It is more common to see players transfer from junior colleges to four-year colleges and then go early in the draft, but that is still seen as a secondary path at best. Both of those paths from junior college to the pros would become more common when eliminating the two burned years of eligibility and infusing the juco level with talent looking to maximize future options.

The feedback I got from MLB scouts and college coaches on what this means for four-year schools showed the ramifications would also be felt all the way up to the highest levels of Division I baseball.

The top schools would have rosters featuring a mix of top draft prospects of a typical college age and "professional" collegiate players in their mid-to-late-20s, with the latter shuffling in and out nearly every season.

In fact, a scout texted me the Pavia headline and added: "The NCAA just got a minor league." I texted back to clarify, "The SEC will just be big draft guys and 26-year-olds?" "Pretty much."

There were already some stories this summer of top high school recruits (mid-to-upper-six-figure bonus offers from MLB teams) being dropped by top college programs late in the process in favor of a college junior transferring in to receive a six-figure NIL package, likely going on to sign a pro contract after one season.

That transfer is almost certainly a better player for that year than the incoming freshman but demands NIL resources for only one season of performance. We might see more short-term decisions like this made by coaches as their salaries continue to rise -- winning an extra series could be worth millions. There continue to be fewer incentives to develop players in college for multiple seasons from a small role to a bigger one and, at the same time, convincing a promising prospect to use a year of eligibility for a part-time role would be more difficult.

MLB teams

There's currently a pretty high bar for teams to clear when offering a bonus to entice a player to sign out of high school, often somewhere from $500,000 to $1 million. We've started seeing some examples of players choosing college over pro ball with NIL offers playing a large role. I could see a world where junior colleges are strictly for development and playing time, the top four-year college programs become comparable to Low-A in competition level and professional environment, and mid-major colleges are a way station between the two.

Seeing a top 21-year-old draft prospect facing a savvy 26-year-old college lifer regularly before the draft would let MLB teams feel better about how that top prospect will look in the minor leagues, thus raising the perceived return on investment they make on the player. Scouts I talked to were also concerned for their jobs because of the certainty those kinds of matchups would create. At the top college programs, where there's full video and charting of every pitch alongside rich data that often rivals MLB ballparks, the opinion of scouts in the stadium could matter less when analytical models would be able to quantify even more of the key information used for draft-day decisions.

If the top collegiate conferences start replicating a lot of what the lower minors will offer, then the talent in the lower minors would also decrease to some degree. I don't think this would affect Double-A or Triple-A at all -- there will just be two similar paths leading to the upper minors and the big leagues.

MLB teams would still regularly draft and sign the best players out of high school and the top four-year colleges in the first few rounds like they do now, but the potent combination of the recently contracted minor leagues, NIL/transfer portal and junior colleges as a training ground that don't use NCAA eligibility could lead to fewer players signing for lower-six-figure bonuses to develop in the minor leagues since the benefits would potentially be greater in college.

Think of it from a young player's perspective: getting a free education, a large chunk of your potential signing bonus in revenue sharing/NIL next season, and a chance to increase that eventual bonus dramatically -- when it's possibly your only big payday in baseball -- could be the smart move. The other option is taking a low-six-figure bonus for what could just be a few years of playing in the minors before being released. Teams that take a bulk approach to the draft with a number of low-to-mid-six-figure-bonus collegiate players might have to adjust their strategy.

Changing how teams are able to get talent from the amateur levels through their systems to the major leagues could be a big enough difference maker to alter both team strategies and eventually how the draft functions. You can then imagine a world where this series of changes leads to a more top-heavy draft of players that largely go straight to High-A or Double-A and may only be one year away from the major leagues when drafted. Does it lead to a shorter draft? A modified draft-and-follow system? A loan system like soccer? Does MLB get more involved with the college game, maybe by subsidizing scholarships or holding the MLB draft in Omaha around the College World Series?

 

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