Baseball Roster

Blame it on Maineri! He led the charge for the
roster change.

Got to meet Manieri the other day at work. Very nice guy, he had to excuse himself at one point when a recruit called. I had to refrain from asking who it was though, but it was killing me.

quote:

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Some changes on the roster. It is still not down to 35. Both the walk-on are gone and one catcher from DeRidder. Someone said Chad Jones will no be back. That should put it at 38. Who will be the unfortunate 3???

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It was down to 38 two weeks ago this Thursday. From Paul Mainieri's own mouth.

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Leggett speaks out against new NCAA baseball rules
By Greg Wallace (Contact)
Tuesday, May 1, 2007


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CLEMSON — The NCAA is trying to improve college baseball’s academic performance, but Jack Leggett and other baseball coaches are furious about the methods it is using.

College baseball has underperformed in the NCAA’s APR (Academic Performance Rate), which tracks how well programs retain and graduate their student-athletes and doles out punishment, including stripping scholarships, to those who fall short.

Last week, the NCAA’s Board of Directors adopted four rule changes designed to improve college baseball’s APR. Beginning in 2008-09, athletes must be eligible in the fall semester to compete in the spring semester. They won’t be able to transfer between schools without sitting out a season (as football and basketball players already do). Teams’ roster sizes will be limited to 35 players, with only 27 receiving scholarships. And, most importantly, each scholarship player must receive at least 33 percent of a full scholarship, dramatically changing how college baseball programs divide the 11.7 scholarships currently allotted to them by the NCAA.

“I think this will be a sea change in the academic culture of baseball,” Walter Harrison, chair of the NCAA Executive Committee and president of the University of Hartford,” told USA Today.

Leggett disagrees — and he’s hopping mad about it. He spoke with state reporters for nearly an hour Tuesday morning about the subject.

“One thing that’s always been a big deal in the NCAA is student welfare,” Leggett said. “This may be the most damaging thing I’ve seen, student-welfare wise.”

Leggett and other coaches are angriest about the scholarship limitations. In college baseball, full scholarships for a single player are a rarity; coaches divide them as many ways as possible. Leggett said that “30 to 31” Clemson players are currently on scholarship.

For example, former Clemson All-American and current San Diego Padres shortstop Khalil Greene came to Clemson on a 20 percent scholarship, and Chicago Cubs first-round pick Tyler Colvin signed for even less than that. Greene and Colvin are just two of a long list of former Tiger stars — including Jeff Baker and Steve Reba — that Leggett said never would have come to Clemson under the new system.

“In Khalil’s case, we signed him in April and had a certain amount of money to give,” Leggett said. “If we had 30 percent left and found a great player in April, we wouldn’t be able to sign him. We wouldn’t be able to give (Greene) 20 percent and he comes here and becomes a great player.

“Colvin was a tremendous player, a tremendous example of what this baseball program is all about. But out of high school, we took a chance on him. He was thin, developing his game, and we gave him an opportunity to come to Clemson, and he took full advantage of that opportunity. (He and Greene) weren’t 33-percent players at the time.”

According to Leggett, the new rules also limit roster flexibility. Because each player must receive one-third of a scholarship, that makes nine scholarships spoken for, leaving 2.7 scholarships to be spread out over the roster.

That leaves little room for creativity, he said, especially with the major league amateur draft, which leaves many incoming freshmen and juniors uncertain whether they’ll attend (or leave) school for pro baseball each June.

“Anytime you have a definite number in baseball, with the pro issue, it makes it very difficult,” he said. “If I were at 27 scholarships going into next year (it would be tough). For example, say with Stan Widmann’s injury, he had 12 hours of surgery and spent three months in a neck brace and he wants to come back to school, I’d either have to call him (and say) no or call an individual up and say they can’t come back to school next year and finish their degree.

“Or I’d have to call some freshman who’s painted their room orange and is excited about signing their national letter of intent and say they can’t come on scholarship. It’s unethical.”

Leggett is hardly the only coach upset.

Mississippi State coach Ron Polk, one of the NCAA’s biggest critics, was furious when he heard the news.

““They give us chump change, and now they’re trying to tell us how to spend the chump change,” Polk told The (Jackson) Clarion-Ledger last week.

He added that the NCAA was “the declared enemy of college baseball” and called the legislation “the death blow to college baseball as I see it.”

APR penalties are also built into the new rules. If a team’s APR falls below a 900 average over a four-year period, the NCAA can take away 10 percent of its scholarships and cut 10 percent of its schedule, turning a 56-game slate into 50.

Clemson’s newest baseball APR, due to be released today, is 978, school officials said.

Leggett thinks that if the APR is given a chance, it will work without affecting scholarships. He suggested a limit of 15 recruits per season and keeping the same 11.7 players on scholarship in the fall and spring semesters, limiting what he called “tryouts” that he says some schools run, in effect chasing players off between fall and spring semesters.

“APR, if given a chance to work, will take care of most of your problems. There have been abuses, too many problems, people moving in and out, running kids off at the end of the fall,” he said. “That is unethical, it’s wrong, it shouldn’t be accepted. It should be something APR penalties will take care of if given a chance to work. I think what’s happened is an overreaction.”

Three college coaches – LSU’s Paul Manieri, Florida’s Pat McMahon and UNC-Greensboro’s Mike Gaski – were on the 27-member committee that recommended the rules.

Leggett hopes to start a grass-roots movement to change those rules before they take effect in 2008-09 — particularly those affecting scholarships.

“We’ve got to have a groundswell of people who understand what college baseball is all about, the value of college baseball, and get together and revisit that idea,” he said.

“We have to get everybody together, do it in the right manner and have them take a common-sense approach. Understand there are some real problems in this. I want everybody to understand where I stand, how college baseball could be affected, how kids could be affected. We have to take a look at this before it becomes concrete.”

So Kevin Farnsworth is gone, who else?

i know that mainieri has had to call the inning because he cant get anybody out and is walking people left and right.

I also think taylor davis is on his way out too

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I also think taylor davis is on his way out too

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Wow, really? I thought he'd be in competition with Matt Gaudet for first base duties. Both dudes are big.