2025 Senior Commitments:
Ty Bonnett / Azle - Seminole State College
Wyatt Honea / Hico - Barber Scotia College
Michael McAloon / McKinney - Dordt University
Jacob McGee / Azle - Clarendon College
Jesse Orozco / Brewer - North Central Texas College
Johnny Ruflin / Aledo - Benedictine College
2024 Senior Commitments:
Riley Akins / Burkburnett - Ranger College
Matthew Clark / Clarendon / North Central Texas College
Tucker Bills / Huckabay - Richland College
Brady Brooks / Saginaw - Clarendon College / North Central Texas College
Brayden Fox / Springtown - Angelo State University
Brayden Harpole / Burkburnett - Seminole State College
Jesse Hemmerling / Azle - University of Mary Hardin Baylor
MJ Kuntz / Northwestern - McPherson College / Football
Carter Landon / Azle - Cedar Valley College
Jaxson Mitchell / Timberview - Texas Wesleyan University / Baseball & Football
Jackson Nelson / Lake Country Christian - Wayland Baptist University
Trey Ramirez / Brewer - North Lake College
Alejandro "AJ" Robles / Cleburne - Wayland Baptist University
Christian Shepherd / Azle - Seminole State College
Tanner Seglem / Weatherford - North Central Texas College
Ty Steedley / Peaster - John Melvin University, Florida
Anthony Virag / Azle - University of the Southwest
Kutter Gage Webb / San Marcus - Rice University
Briar Whitaker / Paradise - Wayland Baptist University
How Does the Transfer Portal Work in Baseball?
College sports have long allowed for athletes to transfer, so the actual process that the transfer portal facilitates isn't new. The portal itself, however, was launched in 2018.
The actual portal refers to the online database, a streamlined system for athletes looking to transfer. The portal's gained increased media and fan attention in the post-pandemic world, since the NCAA loosened certain previous restrictions on athlete movement.
Those relaxed regulations have resulted in some on-the-fly course correction that impacts all of college sports — including baseball.
The most significant of the post-COVID transfer rules the NCAA initiated was lifting the one-year redshirt rule for undergraduates. Previously, a player who had not yet graduated from their original school was required to sit out a year upon transferring.
However, the rule implemented since 2021 allows for one-time transfers of all athletes, provided they are academically eligible, to be immediately available for their new teams. This is a one-time rule, however: Undergraduates transferring for a second time typically must sit out a redshirt year.
Graduate transfer rules remain unchanged, with graduates being immediately eligible for their new programs provided they meet NCAA and university academic criteria. Graduates must also have at least one year remaining on their five-year eligibility clock, which begins upon them first enrolling with the NCAA clearinghouse.
The biggest change made in the wake of the 2021 alterations that allowed for more free movement of athletes is the introduction of a transfer window across all sports. For baseball, the transfer window opens for 45 days immediately following the announcement of the NCAA Tournament field for each division. In Div. I, this is at the end of May.
A second, more truncated window opens in December, from Dec. 1-15.
Baseball's scholarship rules present some challenges with the transfer portal. The sport's unique rules regarding scholarship distribution require both athletes and the programs recruiting transfers to know how adding players via the portal will impact scholarship allotment.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Baseball Only?
RT Staff Note: We occasionally scour Rivals message boards and came across a subject on NorCal Preps, one of the country's most active high school baseball message boards in the off-season. Maybe they are more computer and web site centric there because it's the center of the Silicon Valley, but a thread started a few days ago asking what a high school aged player should do in the off-season and nearly 40 posts later, the issue is still alive. The issue morphed into...should an athlete concentrate on baseball year round? We wish that more high school message boards would be this active. Rivals College Baseball board is arguably the most active baseball board in the off-season, but NorCal Preps had more responses to this one thread in three days than most high school baseball web sites have over the entire 3rd and 4th quarter months. Over the next few days, we will post our answers and comment on the entire subject...The following is our initial answer. For the entire thread, go to NorCal Preps Baseball Board.
The answer to your question depends on the ability, desire and goals of the player. For the purposes of this post...I will concentrate on High School only.
If a player desires to play baseball with a D-I college and has the ability, desire and work ethic to accomplish that, the choices are simple...play baseball and only play baseball...
If they want to play basketball, football, golf, tennis at the next level...the answer is the same...play only that sport, unless the athleticism of that player is so off the charts that no matter what they do, they will be recruited and sign with a college team. In conversations with D-I college coaches, it's pretty unanimous. They want dedicated, hard nosed, impact players. A well rounded athlete is nice, but baseball especially, is a very specialized sport. Plus, if a player favors baseball and coaches find him projectable, recruitable and a potential player that could impact their team...they may not want that player to risk injury and play football or basketball.
Great athletes don't always succeed at baseball as a part time hobby. If you look at the top 80% of college recruits in warm weather states, they all played baseball only throughout high school. There's the 20% that didn't...but stats point out that a player has a better chance of becoming better, and getting noticed, by playing more because of the plethora of available talent in warm weather states for baseball.
Now I mentioned warm weather states because in cold weather states, the option of year round baseball doesn't exist..so more players play multiple sports...and those players still get recruited and play baseball right? Right! But, unless you are a pitcher or one of those exceptional, freakish athletes like a Ryan Howard who came from a cold weather state, the level of baseball has to be put into perspective. Those players are playing catch-up and may never live-up to the talent level of an SEC, BIG 12 or Pac 10 school. Rarely does a northern school get to Omaha, get nationally ranked or have the type of OOC like a Stanford, Fullerton. LSU or Texas to prove their true rank.
That said...if a player has no desire to play at the next level or wants to try out at a smaller school or JC and wants to enjoy the total high school experience...by all means, play all sports IF you have the talent...but again, that depends on the school. You can't just walk into a Mater Dei in SoCal and tell the coach you want to play baseball, basketball and football. You'd better have credentials, a summer team coaches recommendation and a gym and field rat mentality.
There are those that believe in the total athlete, but percentages say otherwise....again if that player wants to play at the next level. If you live in California, your son is competing against a higher percentage of year round baseball players. Those year rounders will get noticed first, because they will be seen the most. And, if your son is a position player and goes to a low profile school and competes in a lesser competitive league, that decreases the chances of exposure. The next option for that player is a California based College Development Program (CDP) like Norcal, ADB, SGV Aresenal or another program that exposes that player to recruiters. And, that becomes a year round task, because many of the better camps and showcases are also in the fall and winter.
I could write for days about this subject...the bottom line is...if a player wants to play at the next level...they better step up their game to that level. Stats don't lie.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Baseball Only?...Day 2
RT Staff Note: The following is our response to a thread on NorCal Preps.com that talks about the issue of whether or not players should baseball year round. The following is our take, but for the entire thread go to NorCalPreps.com Baseball Message Board. Not everyone agrees with our viewpoint. It's a great discussion and this message board is a model for other message boards, especially during the off-season.
There are a couple of interesting viewpoints and we have written about most of them in the past. We are big supporters of what we call College Development Programs. Those are programs whose main purpose is to develop, market and expose players to get seen by college recruiters. If one is to play year round ball, they must do so in the type of controlled and mentoring environment that these programs teach. Those are also the programs that recruiters tend to trust and keep coming back to, in order to fill annual roster spot needs.
One poster mentioned pitchers. We have talked about the teams that are only concerned about winning a cheap piece of plastic at the local weekend sports complex tournament. Pitchers need to stay away from those teams. A good pitcher shouldn't have to worry about over-use if he is on a good solid College Development Program that preaches development, fundamentals and puts their pitchers on strict, scheduled rotations. Most good pitchers that want to develop and strengthen their arms, throw a bullpen or two every five days in the offseason anyway...or at least they should if they want to avoid injury. Why not throw every five days against another team in the process?
Another post said that the trend is moving towards one sport. He is right and it has been that way now for most of this decade. Many high school and college coaches will be politically correct and say they like the multi-sport athlete, but as someone else on this board mentioned...in the back of their mind they want that guy all for themselves...especially if he is a difference maker.
I applaud the athletes that are good enough to play all sports and get what they want. Unfortunately, that doesn't apply to a majority of athletes. Most athletes are not wired for other sports. Some are too short or too slow for basketball and football, but dominate in baseball. Others are still developing and may need the year round repetition to get better. Others...well you get the idea. There are a lot of variables and of all the sports, baseball in our opinion is by far the hardest to master without extensive background in the sport.
For example...a majority of freshman high school football players never played football before...yet in a few short weeks, they are running plays and look fairly competent as football players. Basketball is much harder and usually requires an AAU summer league credential or two, but there are players that start later in the sport...especially if they are of considerable height and after a while, can look fairly competent as a player.
Baseball will make you look stupid at the first attempt at an at bat if you don't have the experience, passion or fundamentals of the game down pat. And that takes an inordinate amount of time. So, whereas a basketball coach may look at a 6'9" kid and say I can work with that...most baseball coaches would shy away from a kid that is that raw and will tend to default to the player that has put his many hours in on the field.
If I was from Wisconsin, I may have a different viewpoint on this subject because there is not a year round option to consider. I live in a warm weather state and warm weather states have different dynamics to consider. You can play year round here...many do play year round here...and frankly, with the Arizona Fall Classic, PG WWBA in Florida, and the plethora of college camps available to prospects in late fall and early winter in Florida, Texas, Georgia, Arizona and California, it really is in a prospects best interest to play year round if they aren't one of the few blue chippers available out there.
And that brings up another point. Blue chippers like the players you mentioned are few and far between. Of course there are exceptions...that's why they are called exceptions.
Most players in high school are still physically developing and need to get better in order to get seen...They don't have the "It Factor" just yet...and that means playing more often and under the tutelege of a good coach and being surrounded by good players. The combination of a great mentor and osmosis will help a player more often than not, but in baseball it's about time, repetition and the ability to absorb the intricacies of the game. More baseball is the only answer.
Posted by Rounding Third Staff at 1:47 AM 0 comments 
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Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Baseball Only? Day 3
RT Staff Note: The following is our response to a thread on NorCal Preps.com that talks about the issue of whether or not players should baseball year round. The following is our take, but for the entire thread go to NorCalPreps.com Baseball Message Board. Not everyone agrees with our viewpoint. It's a great discussion and this message board is a model for other message boards, especially during the off-season. For the record, our stats on players that play only baseball come from our readers. We have received hundreds of e-mails from parents announcing their sons NLI and their sports exploits during their time in high school.
Everyone,
I think there's some confusion. We have written over 300 articles on our web site on subjects like this and we have tried to combine all of what we have written into two short posts. This subject is a sensitive one and must be spelled out and we apologize for any misunderstandings we may have caused.
First...TU mentioned the education part. We have written many times that college is an "education first" choice. A player must ask himself the following, "If baseball was not in the equation, would I go to school here?"
We do not advocate a player going to a university for the sole choice of trying to play baseball. College is one of those life long choices...a decision that will affect the rest of their lives. We have colleagues that have daughters that play collegiate softball and they do it the right way. For them, since there is no "after" after their college softball career is over, they always pick the school of their choice...and no matter how good they are, it is not always a D-I or high profile school. It's the school they WANT to go to.
Boys must approach baseball in much the same way and good CDP's really take this into consideration. There is a CDP in the Boston Area that we really admire (New England Ruffnecks) that helps place their players on some of the finest schools on the East Coast. Last season eleven of their roster of 15 signed NLI's to colleges like Brown, Vandy, Georgetown, Columbia, Holy Cross, Marist, Dickinson and more. These were good ball players that had more than baseball on their mind. That said, they were mostly year round baseball players that worked out with the Ruffnecks in their winter programs at Harvard's indoor facility. They knew that if they wanted to attend both the school of their choice AND play baseball their, they needed to show something extra.
When we say baseball only, it doesn't apply to the universe. There are exceptions. But, we ran an article last year and received e-mails from our readers that helped us come to the conclusion that over 80% of D-I signees this year and last only played baseball. The figure is nearly 95% in the sunbelt states.
Kids that are playing at this level and get recruited at this level are passionate players. Baseball is not only fun for them, it's a dream. Burn-out, as the coach said he was concerned about, usually only occurs to players that feel that they must do it to please Dad. Many recruiters and scouts usually can tell through body language and other non-verbal clues, which kids are "players" and which kids are just "playing". This is not unlike some of those basketball stories you hear about where the star player carries around a basketball like it is an extension of himself.
All athletes have a love and deep passion for their main sport. And, let's give kids some credit. They also know what they need to do to achieve those goals that they may have in life. The Barry Bonds of the world have that swagger and confidence built in to their DNA. He felt confident enough about his baseball game that he knew he could play football and basketball and still play his game of choice at the next level.
Other athletes don't have that built in to them and let's give them credit for making the choices to play year round to achieve their dreams. Sports are not unlike other choices kids make to get to their next level dream. A student that wants to get into Harvard or Stanford, makes school and studying his year round activity. He has to show extracurricular activities, enroll in AP classes, and then gets tutors in the summer for SAT testing, so that they can compete against the braniacs of the world where a 2300 on the SAT is not enough.
As stated earlier, we could write for days on this subject and have. The one thing everyone must realize is while there are exceptions, many ball players that play at the next level aren't always the sure bet. They are still growing and developing and know what they must do to achieve their goals...especially in the highly competitive areas in the sunbelt states. In the sunbelt states, it's not always a level playing field like it is in many cold weather states.
Our advice is for the developing, growing, "projectable" players...not the sure-fire stud. Stats show that these kids benefit by playing more. Make sense?
