re: LSU Baseball 2021 (and beyond) Recruiting Thread - OLD THREAD

Baseball America’s quote on Connor Simon.

quote:

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A gamer with an impressive internal clock, Simon has all the physical tools you would look to see from an SEC shortstop. He has reliable hands and good footspeed and is a plus runner underway, having clocked multiple 60-yard dash times in the 6.65-6.70-second range. Simon also has above-average arm strength and even lets loose plus throws at times when he wants to. He can throw from multiple angles and coaches who have seen him believe he is the type of player who is cool under pressure and doesn’t get fazed by the big moments. With a more consistent approach at the plate, scouts see a player who could fit in the second or third round thanks to his poise and glovework.

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He was the starting pitcher, as a freshman, in the state championship game against John Curtis when Ripol was pitching and they lost 2-1. That’s a lot of pressure to handle as a freshman.

Yes, he was the starting pitcher in the semi game and came in, I believe, to strike out the side, in the state championship game. I think he pitched the final 2 innings.

Baseball America just released an updated top 100 college players for the 2021 draft.

Marceaux and Hill are on it.

The thing I was most interested in was that 25 of the 100 players were eligible for last year's draft.

I know the draft will be longer, but with a larger player pool, fewer affiliates, and pretty much no short season baseball option for draftees, more HS kids are going to continue to get pushed to college in the upcoming classes.

Whether the draft goes 20 or 30 rounds, I think you'll see very high percentages of drafted players signing. I don't think we're going to see flyers taken in late rounds on guys that probably won't sign. Especially if the draft is only 20 rounds, I think each draft pick is pretty much only going to be used on guys that have the intention of signing. Those later round guys are probably going to be coming more from the college ranks than the high school ranks, in my opinion.

LSU picked up a big time JUCO commit in Jason Bollman from Wabash Valley. I have his stats aggregated from his first two juco years and summers, as well as a scouting report that I’ll post tomorrow.

ETA: we are recruiting a couple of his teammates there as well.

He is a COVID sophomore right now. He will come in as a junior in the 2021 class.

As previously stated, Bollman is a Covid Sophomore that will come in as a junior in next year's recruiting class. He played 2 years at Danville Area CC in Illinois before transferring to JUCO powerhouse Wabash Valley. He was originally headed to Toledo before gaining the extra year of JUCO eligibility.

He's thrown 98.2 innings across 4 seasons (2 JUCO, 2 Summer) and struck out 131 batters with a 1.58 WHIP. Early on he had some issues with walks, but both of his 2020 seasons saw vast improvements there. He burst onto the scene this summer pitching in the pop-up Kernels Collegiate League hosted by a Prospect League team in Normal, IL.

His fastball sat 92-94 but was touching as high as 97. He also throws a curve, changeup, and slider.

I don't expect him to be the last JUCO pitcher added to the 2021 class.

Yeah
New Orleans did something similar for high schoolers in the area through NOCA
They played and televised them and had the stats and trackman set up for talent evaluation to get some high school kids noticed
That's what's gonna have to happen and who knows when NCAA is going to allow campus visits in any sport

Tiger Rag has writeup on the new juco pitcher commit Bollman

LINK