Canes Baseball Assistant Corch Tracker

[JD08]

“Minor league pitching coach” is all that’s needed for some of you r-tards to ooh and aah over a hire. Pathetic.

Same people sucking off the miami boys club miami bull**** (aka wheelchair boy) that is literally killing this program in real time. Shame on your ***** asses

And bookmark this one for an explanation of why you're a piece of **** who will never have an alt allowed on here again.

 

[kanin81]

i don’t understand the hate for Laz. His background seems pretty good to me. Red Sox system then takes over Nova and does a pretty good job. I know we all hate the JD pick but this seems okay to me. We weren’t getting the Wake pitching coach or someone like that so not sure who you were expecting here

 

[MaketheUgreatagain]

Cannot deny that. Another area data analytics could really drive some change if they know how to use it. I know they're tracking spin and movement at the facility and in the stadium - the data is there to map the effectiveness of everyone's pitches in specific locations, counts, etc.

They just didn't do a lot with it as recent as 2021 when I was around. Not sure if that's starting to change or made any improvement in 2022-2023.

I've seen a lot of people speculate that Gino was the one holding back data analytics and JD wanted to do it. He all but said it in his presser. I'm eager to see it.

this is what I heard too but most my sources are admittedly on JD's side

 

[CTCanes]

i don’t understand the hate for Laz. His background seems pretty good to me. Red Sox system then takes over Nova and does a pretty good job. I know we all hate the JD pick but this seems okay to me. We weren’t getting the Wake pitching coach or someone like that so not sure who you were expecting here

Is he known to recruit and develop? That is what is needed badly for this program. Let's get some guys in here with plus velo and then develop them

 

[Pitcher in the Rye]

Ok so it’s been a while I get that but it’s
Not like he’s Never done it. Would you rather he poach from somewhere? A juco guy low end d1?

He was in short season A ball in 2007. That means he was a minor league pitching coach for all of two and a half months.

 

[canesstevealum08]

He was in short season A ball in 2007. That means he was a minor league pitching coach for all of two and a half months.

Not denying that

 

[DimePlayer]

Baseball uniforms being changed to Huracanes.

 

[Pitcher in the Rye]

Maybe he’ll be a good a PC, maybe not. I think his real qualifications is that he’s a UM guy, part of the Miami private school cartel, and JD’s buddy. Otherwise I doubt he’d be considered for this job in the first place. If the idea was to surround JD with an “All-Star” staff, then I think we all know that’s BS and this is just another Old Boy Network move. Also, I keep seeing really good players getting scooped up in the portal and nothing but radio silence from UM.

 

[theribdoctor]

I really want him to succeed...but so far this is underwhelming. I'm cautiously pessimistic.

 

[TheOriginalCane]

Listening to these guys all vomit over themselves about the scholarship challenge you would think the program has never had any success in the sport at all. They talk like we’re Texas A&M football of college baseball it blows my mind.

Everyone wishes tuition was cheaper. It certainly presents a challenge but to continue to sit here and blame the scholarship limitation every **** year after not getting out of a home regional with Numerous top Tier mlb prospects who were big time HS prospects and will be drafted high in draft very soon is embarrassing.

The argument has become worse than the facilities argument in football as the reason why the likes of Duke and UVA have had our number since joining the acc. It’s a challenge. But has nothing to do with why this program has seriously underachieved over last 15 years.

To be clear, I am one of the people who has accurately and consistently pointed out the issue with rising Miami tuition and its impact to ALL of our equivalency scholarship sports, not just baseball. And I've pointed this out for 15 years.

And I've got a lot to go on. I've been a UM student from back in the days when the tuition was less than $10K per year. I had multiple friends and roommates who were athletes in various UM sports, some with "head-count" scholarships (full rides) and others with "equivalency" scholarships. Had a roommate who got supplemental funding from the US Olympic program. So I'm very familiar with the economics.

What has happened is complex. Sure, some people want to mock because of the oversimplification of "11.7 scholarships, man". But it is a problem that has been accelerating for the past 15-20 years and it is becoming more and more problematic each year.

And issues are complicated by the rise of REASONABLE ALTERNATIVES. If a kid is concerned about having to pick up 65-75% of the cost to attend Miami, then there are quite a few state-school alternatives out there which are much cheaper.

Finally, Miami is a program that is getting squeezed on both ends. The absolute best players are draft-worthy, and many of our commits do not make it to campus (including one of our biggest donors). Many talented "less-draft-worthy" players can go to a wide variety of as-good (UiF/F$U) or nearly as good (UCF, FIU, FAU, USF) state schools that are much cheaper. Miami must over-rely on prep school kids whose families can afford to pay the tuition differential. We've already heard that Miami is not a big player in the baseball NIL space, which has surprised me due to the Ruiz family connection to baseball. And we **** well know that UM is way behind other strong private schools in lowering the EFFECTIVE cost to students (not just student-athletes) by having a larger endowment for need-based scholarship money.

So you have to take ALL of the factors together. This is a perfect storm that has been building for two decades. It's not just "11.7 scholarships". It's the overall refusal to acknowledge that equivalency scholarships ARE GARBAGE. Particularly for a revenue sport that feeds the league that is "the American pasttime". There's plenty of money in baseball, and to be made in baseball. Somehow, though, we've had decades worth of poor TV deals, poor facilities, poor scheduling, poor exposure, poor integration (yes, I hate the aluminum bat), and other oversights that make COLLEGE baseball a puny weakling when compared to Major League Baseball.

Yes, we have to address 11.7 scholarships. It's terrible. And it is having a growing impact on private schools that are not well-positioned to offer alternative methods of bridging the difference between private and state school costs.

That does not mean "11.7 is why Gino failed" or anything else. I would also point out that even Jim Morris' accomplishments declined over time. He was much better at UM in the early part of his career. Even a college baseball Hall of Famer faced difficult challenges due to the limit on scholarships and the rising cost of college attendance.

 

[WanderFranco]

i don’t understand the hate for Laz. His background seems pretty good to me. Red Sox system then takes over Nova and does a pretty good job. I know we all hate the JD pick but this seems okay to me. We weren’t getting the Wake pitching coach or someone like that so not sure who you were expecting here

Red Sox system - He didn't coach baseball. He helped guys with the mental aspects of being a pro athlete.
Nova Southeastern - He did a "pretty good job"? He went 26-23 and didn't make the postseason at a school that had national title hopes.

So if we can't get the guy from Wake Forest we just settle for JD's friend? No other interviews are possible?

 

[WanderFranco]

Maybe he’ll be a good a PC, maybe not. I think his real qualifications is that he’s a UM guy, part of the Miami private school cartel, and JD’s buddy. Otherwise I doubt he’d be considered for this job in the first place. If the idea was to surround JD with an “All-Star” staff, then I think we all know that’s BS and this is just another Old Boy Network move. Also, I keep seeing really good players getting scooped up in the portal and nothing but radio silence from UM.

I mean, LSU knew they were going to have an opening for a new pitching coach. Does anyone think they thought about Laz Gutierrez for even half a second?

 

[DimePlayer]

Maybe he’ll be a good a PC, maybe not. I think his real qualifications is that he’s a UM guy, part of the Miami private school cartel, and JD’s buddy. Otherwise I doubt he’d be considered for this job in the first place. If the idea was to surround JD with an “All-Star” staff, then I think we all know that’s BS and this is just another Old Boy Network move. Also, I keep seeing really good players getting scooped up in the portal and nothing but radio silence from UM.

Better find some money for "Hollywood"

 

[Tad Footeball]

This thread leads me to one conclusion.....we need a General Manager of Baseball Operations....and I know the perfect alum...

Ugh. Wake me up when we fill out the staff with a current assistant manager at Midway Sports that played for us 15 years ago and was briefly a grad assistant at Rollins and Barry but more importantly is friendly witb ARod and Alex Cora.

 

[TheOriginalCane]

Can we all agree none of our "how to fix baseball" is gonna happen without a big infusion of $$$$. We aren't going to have the Vandy scholly fund system, so recruiting kids without having them pay tuition is going to take NIL money... Facility improvements will take $$$.. Recruiting budget to fly where ever / when ever is going to take $$$.. I'm looking at it like football, so not sure if it's allowed in college baseball, but since there's a limit to on field coaches, can we have a huge staff of Analyst??? that will take money... a whole recruiting staff that scours HS, Juco, and portal....

Until the school takes baseball serious and puts the money behind it, we are playing catch up and frankly playing the game 20years behind everyone else.. IMO...

Let's just be honest.

Football, which has 85 headcount scholarships, is going to have a 7 story building for all the people that football employs.

Baseball, which is JUST NOW allowing us to pay a THIRD WHOLE ASSISTANT, instead of requiring him to volunteer, and which has 11.7 equivalency scholarships, has an operating budget of $4.5 million per year.

It would be GREAT to have all of these scouts and analysts and every other resource devoted to baseball. How much does that cost, and is it even allowed under the rules.

We must acknowledge, that if we NEED to get players who can pay for part of their college costs, and we do NOT want to over-rely on SoFla prep school kids, then we have to scout nationwide. Yet we are at the bottom of Florida (geographically) and we simply don't have the funds to run the type of scouting operation that MLB clubs do.

So, yeah, it's a Catch-22. I have spoken of the scholarship-money problems because that is a hindrance for less-wealthy kids to be able to pick UM (and I'm one of them, I would never have been able to go to UM without academic-scholarship money). And I think the equivalency-scholarship issue IS fixable. But I have NEVER offered a solution to the issue of scouting/analyst staff, because I'm not sure there is a solution that doesn't begin and end with "more money".

 

[TheOriginalCane]

that biggest donor in UM history didn't seem to be putting big money into baseball or athletics... Not saying he didn't put anything or care, but all the NEW BIG MONEY (given, mostly all football), seems to be coming from other sources and other donors. So point is, the Dimare family didn't value putting serious money into baseball even with Geno on staff and HC... So yes, now we need to find donors that want to catch us up to the rest of the programs that want to win championships. Here's my financial priority list as a fan.
1) Not one player on the team should have to pay for tuition. (NIL should be covering all tuition)
2) Budget for bigger support staff (ie: Analyst&trainers / Recruiting & Scouts)
3) Proper budget for Recruiting/Scouts to actual travel and see players up close, and not just show cases. As been said, identify real baseball players.
4) Whatever facility enhancements we need. I haven't been to other baseball stadiums or locker rooms, so I have no idea where we compare and how far we are trailing.

Let me just say a quick thing on the difference between NIL paying for scholarships and "endowment" paying for scholarships (should I do a "pause" right there?)...

If you let "NIL money" pay for scholarships, it becomes taxable to the players, and it is "more expensive". You might have to give a kid $100K just to net down to the cost of attendance of $80K.

But if you change the NCAA rules to allow head-count scholarships in baseball, you then empower schools to go out to fund-raise for endowed student-athlete scholarships. The money raised is a tax-deductible donation. And the value given to the student-athlete is non-taxable (at least until a court somewhere finally rules that student-athletes are university employees).

 

[Tony4Canes]

Have to ask. Doesn't all limitations for scholarships etc. apply to Stanford, TCU & Wake as well??

 

[Pitcher in the Rye]

To be clear, I am one of the people who has accurately and consistently pointed out the issue with rising Miami tuition and its impact to ALL of our equivalency scholarship sports, not just baseball. And I've pointed this out for 15 years.

And I've got a lot to go on. I've been a UM student from back in the days when the tuition was less than $10K per year. I had multiple friends and roommates who were athletes in various UM sports, some with "head-count" scholarships (full rides) and others with "equivalency" scholarships. Had a roommate who got supplemental funding from the US Olympic program. So I'm very familiar with the economics.

What has happened is complex. Sure, some people want to mock because of the oversimplification of "11.7 scholarships, man". But it is a problem that has been accelerating for the past 15-20 years and it is becoming more and more problematic each year.

And issues are complicated by the rise of REASONABLE ALTERNATIVES. If a kid is concerned about having to pick up 65-75% of the cost to attend Miami, then there are quite a few state-school alternatives out there which are much cheaper.

Finally, Miami is a program that is getting squeezed on both ends. The absolute best players are draft-worthy, and many of our commits do not make it to campus (including one of our biggest donors). Many talented "less-draft-worthy" players can go to a wide variety of as-good (UiF/F$U) or nearly as good (UCF, FIU, FAU, USF) state schools that are much cheaper. Miami must over-rely on prep school kids whose families can afford to pay the tuition differential. We've already heard that Miami is not a big player in the baseball NIL space, which has surprised me due to the Ruiz family connection to baseball. And we **** well know that UM is way behind other strong private schools in lowering the EFFECTIVE cost to students (not just student-athletes) by having a larger endowment for need-based scholarship money.

So you have to take ALL of the factors together. This is a perfect storm that has been building for two decades. It's not just "11.7 scholarships". It's the overall refusal to acknowledge that equivalency scholarships ARE GARBAGE. Particularly for a revenue sport that feeds the league that is "the American pasttime". There's plenty of money in baseball, and to be made in baseball. Somehow, though, we've had decades worth of poor TV deals, poor facilities, poor scheduling, poor exposure, poor integration (yes, I hate the aluminum bat), and other oversights that make COLLEGE baseball a puny weakling when compared to Major League Baseball.

Yes, we have to address 11.7 scholarships. It's terrible. And it is having a growing impact on private schools that are not well-positioned to offer alternative methods of bridging the difference between private and state school costs.

That does not mean "11.7 is why Gino failed" or anything else. I would also point out that even Jim Morris' accomplishments declined over time. He was much better at UM in the early part of his career. Even a college baseball Hall of Famer faced difficult challenges due to the limit on scholarships and the rising cost of college attendance.

Once again, if it’s so hard to recruit players here, why do they reel in top 10 and even top 5 recruiting classes year after year? Both can’t be true.
Losing guys to the draft? Every single program in the top draft classes loses guys to the draft, state or private school. Corbin spent the better part of a week down here recruiting George Lombard and he’s almost certainly going pro. Ditto for Max Clark and Tommy White. It’s the cost of doing business.
As Wander pointed out, public schools like UVA have very high out-of-state tuition and many out of state players.
Remember, UM chooses to keep raising tuition faster than the pace of inflation. That is part of a larger issue that is best suited for an off-topic post .

 

[Pitcher in the Rye]

Better find some money for "Hollywood"

Yep. I’m surprised he’s not in the portal yet. Someone from Miami’s side might be taking care of him already.

 

[canesstevealum08]

Once again, if it’s so hard to recruit players here, why do they reel in top 10 and even top 5 recruiting classes year after year? Both can’t be true.
Losing guys to the draft? Every single program in the top draft classes loses guys to the draft, state or private school. Corbin spent the better part of a week down here recruiting George Lombard and he’s almost certainly going pro. Ditto for Max Clark and Tommy White. It’s the cost of doing business.
As Wander pointed out, public schools like UVA have very high out-of-state tuition and many out of state players.
Remember, UM chooses to keep raising tuition faster than the pace of inflation. That is part of a larger issue that is best suited for an off-topic post .

Those classes are overrated really.