It may take some NIL $$$, but there's a clear solution for our pitching woes. We need to move quickly before another team beats us. Prospect VERY highly rated. https://tinyurl.com/mr2cpjar
South Carolina hasn’t been to the WCWS in 26 years. Which means they haven’t even won a Super Regional in 26 years. Their team batting average last year was .255. Like I said, I hope Vawter enjoys watching the WCWS on tv.
At least we know Ericksons heart is with the sport and not money cause it's obvious she could've ended up with money at OU.
All of this bashing of USC.....uh.....as I count it now, they have five pitchers on staff including Vawter. They have a very good incoming freshmen pitcher in Sage Mardjetko. I wish we were in their shoes regarding a pitching staff. And, unless memory fails me, they took last years series from us and averaged about 1900 fans per game. I'm no happier than anyone else about yesterday's overall disaster but losing logic and common sense isn't going to change anything.
Georgia just added 3 players from the portal, including 2 pitchers. Man, oh, man!! Georgia Bulldogs Add Three Incoming Transfers to 2024 Roster - Extra Inning Softball
This isn't something that happened in the last day or so.....this covers what they have done since the portal opened.
Oh, OK. I just saw the article hit Extra Innings Softball today, so assumed it was new information. It's still discouraging that another rival added 2 good pitchers from the portal and we haven't gotten any yet.
Discouraging is about as diplomatic a description as possible. While yesterday's double disaster hurts, what really concerns me is how we have ended up being the only program in the country, big or small, that as I type this has ZERO pitchers on staff. It is ludicrous and should never have been allowed to happen and there should be recognition of that. I don't know where we go from here. Hope we can find something left in the portal that everyone else has missed? Unlikely. Hope there is a quality grad out there on staff somewhere else that thinks jumping to us now or in the near future is a good decision? That's a wish and a hope. What else is there?
Yes, the grad transfer option is the best since the portal time frames don't apply and there are no quality pitchers left in the portal. I'm sure TW is doing what he can to find a pitcher or two, but you're right in that we should never be in this situation to begin with.
maybe in the future he needs to stay here and not coach overseas, did not help us at all this year, has it in the past?
We have a new pitching coach…I would have thought she could have brought along at least one pitcher with her, or knows of one that wants to pitch for her. Has anyone heard if she’s been working possibilities? (I wonder if she ever met with Vawter or Maxwell?). She must surely be concerned about having only two freshmen.
There is another issue. I believe my engineer friend, who I have mentioned before, has joined the board. He'll fit right in because he is old and normally sane. He believes there is another factor involved in the Vawter saga. I have to give it some thought because he does very well know how the Engineering Department works. He says, and perhaps I'm stealing his thunder although I doubt he would just jump in here with a first post as the "doubting thomas", that he heard early on and from his understanding how the department works, that Vawter could not get in to the grad program she wants. He says that is Engineering Management and there are very few grad openings for that. He says that getting Vawter in, at the last minute just before classes begin, is virtually impossible. Has nothing to do with her academic qualifications. Just impossible timing. And further, if somehow that happened, there would be hell to pay in the entire engineering community that she was slid in while other deserving people were left out. I supposed that makes some sense since I doubt the engineering community cares one lick about what the softball program wants. The thing that troubles me with this scenario is....then why would USC have to pay that kind of NIL money to get her if she was locked out of UF? Or were they worried that she would still go somewhere else? I have no idea if any of this was truly a factor but he is sane, rational and has insight into an important area the rest of us don't likely have. I just still think that money issues that seem in play, and the entire timing factor involved (that she wasn't immediately out of the picture), seem to negate that issue as a factor. I wonder if notexgator ever heard anything like this.
Yes. There are a variety of reasons why it makes good sense for him to be coaching USA National teams but I'll leave you with just one extremely good reason.....Skylar Wallace. There is a reason why she left Bama and was even willing to sit out a year to come to UF when she could have gone elsewhere and played immediately. She spent two months traveling the globe and being coached by Walton. I don't believe losing Vawter or Maxwell have anything whatsoever to do with him spending 10 days or so in Ireland.
We will never know of course, but it would be interesting to know what TW is telling the current players. He has to be addressing the elephant in the room.
All of these what ifs and NIL money numbers flying around made me wonder how much NIL money has already been promised to the highly regarded prospects coming in. I'm sure we didn't get three of the top players coming out of high school because of CTW smile or Jason Williams telling his daughter what to do. The implication is we might have already spent more than we anticipated getting the signing class we got. I'm not here pointing fingers to find fault but only asking what anyone does know about our NIL money available each year.
From what’s been posted, the new pitching coach wouldn't have changed anything with Maxwell’s decision. Maybe wouldn’t have mattered with Vawter either. Both seem to have centered around money and program availability beyond our means. That being said, I certainly hope we have a pitching coach that is an analyst/mentor that’s savvy and aggressively active. I would have thought that current pitching support would have been a key factor in vetting the new coach. Agree with others that this vacuum of having no current pitchers is beyond explanation.
Well, at the risk of inundating you all with fancy technical analysis, this is really kind of a bummer.
