Yeah.
Yeah, we're back.
Did you think we would leave in all
summer long?
No, not
at all.
We wouldn't do that like we did last year.
Yes, there, that that is true.
We will call it out.
We said we were gonna do some off season episodes last year.
Never got a chance to, but here we are, episode 20 on the year, changing.
Yes.
So yeah.
So welcome to Hudson Homers.
For those of you still subscribe.
Thank you.
If not, we're back.
We're gonna have right three or four of these over the course of the
summer, then rolling into fall ball.
So appreciate you all sticking around through the season and listening to
us for now, the 20th time in 2025.
Appreciate that.
But sure.
CB, I know you've been traveling around catching a lot of baseball,
but have you been last few weeks?
Oh yeah,
I've been good.
Yeah.
Went, yeah, went and saw the state, uh, championship for the Class five.
It was, um, ocean Lakes and Cox, a couple local teams, a few kids.
Actually a couple kids that I had, uh, when I was a middle school sub,
um, were a couple of my students.
So one of 'em had a walk off.
Um.
Sac fly in the bottom of the ninth to win in Croatian Lakes.
That was pretty neat.
And so, we'll, we'll get to see him, Ryan, cio, we'll get to
see him with, um, JMU next year.
So I'll be root against him next time I see him, but I was,
yes.
I know you've caught some pilots games as well.
Uh, yeah.
I think you, you mentioned this in a text to me, but the pilots
have done a fantastic job with their media that's out there.
Yes.
Video quality graphics.
Yeah.
The way they're engaging.
Uh, a lot of Scotty, a lot of Kyle, which is Yeah.
Things we love to see.
No, you go to a game and like I went, I went, it was like the, the second,
you know, week of the season's, like the third, they've only been playing
about a week and they already had, like, the guy would come up and he'd
be like, you know, Kyle Edwards and it's got video of him hitting the,
getting hits from the week before and like a walk off celebration they had.
And it's all, I mean, it's, it's high level stuff.
Yeah.
Um.
Aiden out there.
Aiden Cantwell is, he does a lot of stuff with them.
And then, and then Matt, Matt Mitchell's, of course, the gm and they're really
getting after it and trying to make some, so it's, it's cool, it's cool to see
people who are passionate about something and trying to make it really good.
And they already, they already have the best atmosphere for
baseball and the Hampton Roads.
It's, it's, it's neat.
It's out to pilot game.
Yeah, we got, uh, Kyle and Scotty are out there right now playing
in, they both playing pretty well and so it's, it's always fun.
Yeah, I think I've circled a couple potential dates in July when I can
get down there to go catch the game.
Obviously harass Kyle and Scotty as much as humanly possible
from there we go, the stands.
Uh, but Awesome.
Well, we, we've got a fun episode today, focused a lot on recruiting.
Uh, we have Coach Hera here in a second, and then Coach Finney will join us,
uh, towards the end in a little bit.
But we know that you all had a lot of questions on, some of you sent
me your recruiting questions and portal questions, so we're gonna
try and get those answered for you.
So without further ado, we'll bring on assistant coach Jonathan Hadra.
Haage, thanks so much for hopping on.
Hey guys, thanks for having
me.
Yeah.
Appreciate you being here.
Hey, how Paige is.
Awesome.
Just before we start anything, Paige is awesome.
Paige was, you know, he would come through a VMI and he was
always just a, a good dude.
And you know, it's nice when, when they hire a coach and
you're like, oh, I know that guy.
He's great.
We're gonna have a good time.
And so, so three years of being here now.
Hey, you haven't changed my mind a bit.
I still think you're awesome.
So.
Well, I appreciate that cb we, uh, we have thoroughly enjoyed our three years here.
Um, it's been a fantastic move, uh, not just for me personally,
but also just for the family.
Uh, we love Norfolk and um, yeah, just really been enjoying it.
A lot of opportunities here for the kids and the family and
fantastic people in the program.
Yeah.
Well we appreciate you taking a few minutes out of it, but it is a very, very
busy time of year for you if you haven't checked the transfer report and all that.
But we love, we would love to, uh, just to kind of get some background on you.
I know you were your head coach at VMI prior to coming to us,
uh, played at VMI as well.
But tell us a little bit of that experience, uh,
coaching for the key debts.
Yeah, I, first of all, it was, uh, tho I mean I spent 14 total years at VMI
13 and I spent one year right after I graduated, and then I went out to the
Midwest for four years, worked three years for Finney at Western Kentucky
University and then came back here after a year of Bradley, or came back
to VMI after a year of Bradley, and for 13 years, five of them as an assistant
and then eight of 'em as a head coach.
And, um, man, it'll always be a highlight of my career, uh, those 14 years of
VMI because I was very fortunate.
Um.
To have a chance to be the head coach at your alma mater.
And that, that to me, that that's something that, you know, and this
business doesn't happen very often.
Um, tremendous people there.
We loved it there, loved the kids that we recruited there and coached there.
Um, the wins mean a little bit more.
The losses, they heard a little bit more, you know, when it's your alma mater.
Um, but man, like that, it was, it was incredibly, um, humbling to be able
to be in that position because a lot of, you know, people that I look up
to in this business were also in that position as the head coach at VMI.
And just to kind of be able to continue their legacy, build on what they had built
onto and just see the program continue to get better, long after I'm gone is
even, I mean, it's just what an honor, you know, it was just awesome to see.
And you had two
big leaguers, is that correct?
Did
you have more?
Uh, actually just picked up, uh, no, we had a few more.
We had, uh, just picked up another one, Zach Kent with the Guardians.
He just made the big leagues a few weeks back.
The funny thing about Zach Kent is that he pitched, and I forgot, he pitched
it here in, on a Tuesday, um, against, against Old Dominion, and he couldn't
get out of the first inning here.
Um, and now you look up and he is into big leagues and, and big leagues.
Those was a really cool, really cool thing.
Um, but we had, Josh Winder was a big leaguer.
Mm-hmm.
He's from Richmond and Nathan Eaton, he's with the Red Sox.
Um, and Reed Garrett, who's having a fantastic year with the Okay.
Mets right now.
He pitched for us and I mean, he's got a shot to be an All star this year.
Yeah.
Um, so there was, there was a few of them.
And, and yeah, it was really cool to see knowing Yeah.
You know, that they went to this small military school in southwest Virginia and,
and they're playing at the highest level.
It's, it's fantastic.
Yeah, it's pretty May.
The list of, uh, VMI, alums of the big leagues is not long.
So be able, say you put four of 'em, there's, that's pretty cool.
It's pretty, yeah.
Yeah.
There's a lot of moving parts that helped get those guys there, you
know, so that was, um, a lot of moving parts, a lot of guys played a role in,
in those guys development, for sure.
And I mean, it's, it's tough just to get someone to come to VMI as well,
like you're facing more recruiting headwinds and say you might be at ODU
or somewhere else just because it's not just class in practice and playing games.
There's an entire other component to your time, VMI.
And of course you gotta survive the rat line as a, as a newbie coming in.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
It's a whole nother level of commitment.
Um, it really, you know, it makes you, it makes you find guys like, you gotta
love to play the game of baseball.
Um, and if you're not passionate about it and, and it's not, you
know, if it's just more of a hobby, like it's just, it's not gonna work.
You know?
Um, which is why when you find those guys that go there and they stick it out
and they just grind through the entire experience and they just sell out for
the program or for the school, it's just so rewarding to see 'em go on and have
success, you know, after graduation or, or drafted if they're drafted as juniors.
Um, so, but you know, in a lot of ways, like.
In a lot of ways, you know, it is different recruiting there
versus here, maybe anywhere else.
But it, in some ways, it's, it's not, I mean, at the end of the day,
you're still trying to find the right guy for the place that you're at.
And what we had to do there is, you know, we had to find a guy
that maybe, maybe we had to win in the margins a little bit more.
Uh, maybe we had to find a guy that's being a little under recruited
because of this or because of that.
Maybe he's undersized, maybe he couldn't quite run well enough, but we
thought we could, we could develop 'em.
Um, and it was just taking shots on those kids.
But at the end of the day, like, I mean, that's really no different
than what we're doing here.
We're trying to find the right fit or old dominion.
Um, and it, and also like the character piece of it, right?
It's like finding just the right type of human being that's
gonna fit in that locker room.
I mean, that is such a big part of recruiting, um, wherever you are,
because you're talking about culture.
You're talking about a whole nother, like, whole nother like list of,
of things that are so important for a program to be super successful.
Yeah, the culture piece is huge.
I feel like we had a, a really strong team culture this year, and we definitely
needed it because being on the road so much, if you were gonna have a
culture issue, that thing would've blown up quick, fast, and in a hurry
probably sometime during that, uh, Alabama trip there in Mississippi.
Yeah, that was a great trip.
That, uh, that nine hour delay at the airport, that'd been, oh
man.
It was, uh, yeah, it was, um, look, this, this group of guys, um, I for me,
will always go down as really special group, um, you know, led by some of those
older guys like Eddie and Luke, um, you know, Bryce, some of those older guys
that, you know, they played a huge part in kind of driving this thing forward.
And Blake and Dylan, I mean, Ben, like those guys, man, they like, we, they
knew from the jump that it was gonna be a year, it was gonna be a unique year that
was gonna full be full of challenges.
Right.
And just be ready for it and just accept it and just move
through it and battle through it.
And we knew it wasn't gonna be easy.
Um, and the thing about I, I couldn't be, probably the most thing
I'm most proud about those guys about is like, never complained.
Like you never heard 'em complain about, oh God, here we go, we gotta go to Auburn
now we gotta to Southern miss, you know, you have to come back from Charlotte.
You know, like they, all they did is they just kept playing.
And you know, at first, you know, what, seven weeks of the season?
Yeah, it was a grind.
But you know what, like, it prepared us for those last six weeks of the season
when we really needed to win some ball games to put ourselves in a position.
And, and the guys did.
They got, they fought like heck to get into that, the top six seat,
you know, which we hadn't done in the, in the last three years,
you know, it was the first time.
So like, I, I mean, you know, was the overall record what we wanted?
No.
It wasn't, but man, like you'd look at the leadership from that group.
Like it was a tough group.
It was a gritty group.
Um, I mean, like, for example, this kind of says everything about this group.
Like I get a text from Scotty Young yesterday last night, and it
is a video of him getting smoked in the head at the pilot game.
Did you see it?
Cb
No, I didn't see that.
I didn't see that.
Yeah.
He got smoked in the head.
It was a pitch or whatever, right?
And it all a sudden, or neither was grip ball monarchs.
That's like, that's like, that defines the group.
Like that's what it was about.
Um, and you know, like those guys, like, it wasn't easy.
They didn't complain.
They just kept playing.
Could have won some ball games up late, you know, and maybe
played better in some areas.
But man, that group was, it was a, it was a good group of guys.
They, they turned it on at the right moment too.
'cause like you said, we got into that top six, something we hadn't really
been able to do in a while and against a really tough Sunbelt because if
you haven't paid attention, coastals two and oh, they're one win away
from the College World Series final.
Uh, and you know, we got knocked out by Southern Miss who was right there hosting
Regional and pushing through on their end.
I mean, the Sunbelt really legit this year.
And to do what we did Yeah.
With all the headwinds was impressive.
So yeah, you have to, you have to do a little, uh, little clicking in
there on our, our record to see how good this team really was this year.
Yeah.
The Sunbelt's real, like it's not, I mean, there's not a weekend that that is off.
Um, and that's what it's, that's what's so fun about the
Sunbelt and, and being here and.
Playing at this level is you, I mean, literally every weekend is a grind.
And if you, if you like to compete, if you love to compete,
like this is what it's all about.
You know, it's like to put yourself in these situations where you get
tested literally every single weekend.
Um, and that's, you know, that's, that's what makes this whole
thing fun and makes it go, um, so, and it, and gets you better.
It prepares you for the postseason when you get there.
I mean, look at Coastal.
They're rolling right now, Southern miss, you know, playing in a regional
final and you could sit there and argue that Troy should have been
in there and, I mean, makes sense.
Like they probably should have been in there and should have, you know.
And so, um, I mean that team, they're one every weekend.
What, except for one and then their top 25 for.
13 out of the 14 weeks or something like that.
Right.
I mean, incredible
fared better against Coastal Carolina than anyone else we've seen.
They did so far this year.
They did.
Yeah.
Little.
I think they only wants to beat 'em or something, right?
I mean, maybe.
Yeah, I think so.
Something like that.
Yeah.
They were one of the few teams that were, they were able to, because I
mean, coast Coastal's loaded, I mean, and they're in the driver's seat
now to go win the whole damn thing.
So
we're rolling right now.
You know, as much as, uh, I know CB is not a fan of Coastal Carolina is
not gonna be put on any, uh, yeah, ch they're not a huge fan, you know?
Uh, but, you know, it does elevate our, our conference so
you don't have to root for 'em.
I guess.
You don't have, be mad if they win.
Yeah.
Great.
Congrats.
Way to go.
Yes.
All right.
Well for that, we, we want to definitely talk about the transfer portal,
and I'm gonna knock on wood because the portal is still very much open.
Uh, but I, I think at last check we had about eight guys
that were going in the portal.
I. There are currently 5,100 players in it, 3,100 of them are at the D one level.
Where do you even begin to try to narrow that list down to find
someone that you even want to call?
Man, I, I tell you what I, I think the way it's starts for us is, is
I think we gotta give credit to the three young guys on our staff.
Um, because they have been tremendous in helping narrow down as whatever
it is, 5,100 names of Brandon Pond and John Keane and Ryan Moore.
Those guys have been tremendous for us, for Paul and Mike and myself with, um,
scouring, you know, scouring the names, checking stats, doing initial evals,
and then kind of passing them off to us.
Um, I mean, they've narrowed down a lot of a lot of guys, so that makes our
time when we have the phone calls or the visits or we go evaluate a guy in person,
like we're going to watch guys that we.
Have already kind of vetted a little bit.
I mean, at the end of the day, I mean, you know, I think when it comes to the
portal recruiting, it's finding a guy that we're connected to ideally, okay,
maybe he's a guy that we previously recruited and maybe he just decided to
go somewhere else for whatever reason.
Okay.
Maybe it's a local guy that, that is coming back that decided to go
somewhere else, but he, he has, you know, understands Old Dominion.
Or like, the third thing is, if it's a guy that's, that we have a third party that
we trust that is connected with a guy, and typically the guys that we're, for the
most part, the guys that we have gained in the portal or the guys that we're actively
recruiting in the portal, they check one of those three boxes for the most part.
Because at the end of the day, like I said earlier, like, like it, the, the same,
the, the thing that still applies here versus VMI versus other places, like we
wanna find people that value Old Dominion.
Right.
Like, and that's just the reality of it is like finding somebody that
cares about this university and takes a lot of pride in this program
and understands the history and tradition of this program because
it's an extremely prideful program.
And the alumni are, they have a ton of pride of the program and
all of the successes come with it.
And it's just finding guys that want to add to that legacy and add
to the history of this program.
And the, we found that the best way to do that is to find guys that
we're kind of already connected to.
It doesn't always work out that way.
Right?
I mean, there's guys that we have on the roster that we didn't have a connection
we just kind of stumbled upon, but, you know, but for the most part, I mean
that's kind of how, that's our strategy.
It's kind of how we're narrowing down.
Um.
All of those names that you see in there.
Um, when,
when I've looked at it, you know, and this, you could tell me how accurate
this is, but you know, we are not the big like NIL school, right?
We're not one of these big SEC schools that's got like a, uh,
whether they have four or five, $12 million budget gonna go out.
I mean, they're out there, they're like shopping at Tiffany's, right?
They're just on the portal.
They're looking at, they're looking at the stat line like that guy's
all, and you see like last I noticed last, like about this past weekend, a
lot of names started all of a sudden committing to these bigger schools.
Yep.
Um, and to me it feels a lot like regular like MLB free agency, right.
Where like a lot of the big guys signed first and then it kind of trickles down.
And so now it's like, okay, well now we're getting some
of the big guys outta the way.
Now you're gonna get down to guys who wanna play some ball and guys who,
you know, it's not about the money.
And I think reality is like, we don't have, there's no, there's
no NIL bro baseball, right.
We, you, you have to find those guys that want to be here.
Um,
correct.
And so I'm assuming it's a little more like.
You know, we're not the Dodgers or the Yankees or whoever.
We're more like, I'd be more like the Rays or the, you know, the, I can't know.
The team that's good at finding Royals have been pretty good.
You gotta find those guys who, maybe you look at the stat line.
I mean, I think about some of the guys we had running last year, like
Hunter Baes and uh, Tyler, Dallas.
Right.
They didn't really have, their stat line is nothing, you know, Bains just kind
of heard Dallas didn't play much, but you gotta know the potentials there.
So we're kind of like that Moneyball thing of like, we have to like maximize.
The potential, uh, and right when you're looking out, looking for guys.
So is that, yeah.
Do you feel like that's a little kind of accurate?
Yeah, for sure.
And, and it also, and the other thing that it, va it varies with guys is like,
it depends on if a guy's got one year left or he is got three years left.
Mm-hmm.
Right?
Like, because if it's a guy that's got three years left, it's like, all right.
Like maybe, maybe, maybe this guy does something like false,
maybe doesn't have numbers, right?
But there's something in there that he does really, really well and we
can help develop and help, you know, get him better to the next level.
So maybe he is not a guy that helps out that first year, but maybe being
in the system for two years, maybe three years, like you're, that second
and third year, you start to see the return on your investment, right?
Like, so it, it, that varies.
And then there's guys like, all right, hey, this guy's a grad transfer.
He is, got one year to go.
Like, those guys are the guys where it's like, they're more kind of, they
need to be a little bit more polished.
Come in, help you because it's, it's one year.
Um.
And you know, that's like, for example, like you, you know,
one guy that was a one year guy.
Like, like those guys need to be kind of, you know, a known commodity.
So somebody like Toron Hammond, right?
Like, like Ron, like what?
He's a, he was a fantastic kid.
I've known him now for a couple years, like a fantastic human being.
And you look back at the history, at his track record in college and the one
thing that that guy never did is he never punched out and he always just hit okay.
Was it at the division one level?
No, it wasn't.
But so what, you know, and like when he got here, you know, it, it wasn't
the three 30 hitter that he was previously, but everything still felt
like he, he was on base at a 400 clip.
He played a, played a pretty good second base and he just like, we knew
exactly what we were getting with him.
And that's exactly like, that's what it is, is you just, I. You
get a guy, it's like, all right, I know exactly what I'm getting.
This guy.
And he was a fantastic teammate with just infectious energy.
I mean he just, some days like that dugout was just electric because of Teron.
And it was like, he's just an incredible teammate and just
has this positive energy.
Like so even though he is only for here for a year, like that guy's
left his legacy on this program.
That guy's still talking.
I'm, he's actually gonna be back this fall helping out.
It's gonna be awesome.
Oh, let's go.
That's great.
I'm really, he's gotta finish it up.
He's got a couple classes he is gotta take and he asked, uh, well
when we talked to him about it, he asked if he could help out.
I was like, man, this is a no brainer.
Like this guy, we need to have this guy around our program
as much as possible, you know?
So That's awesome.
He's awesome.
Love that.
No, I love that because that was the, the other side of it too is the guys that
were more likely to get that do have those stats behind them or just like you said,
it's the guy like Hammond who was at the D two level guys like, um, Alex Hunt and um.
Frankie Wright, who were at kind of smaller schools who
are then wanna kind of move up.
And so yeah, it's, it, it, yeah, we're, like I said, we're not
gonna go out and get there.
Some SEC guy, we're not, probably not even like another Sunbelt.
I saw somebody moving laterally from like, uh, I think Louisiana to Southern miss.
Like I said, that's miss.
Yeah.
That's not the level we're kind of hunting at, probably.
Right.
I mean, it's, and nothing wrong with that.
It's just who we are.
Like you said, we're gonna find the guys who want to be here,
which I, I think is awesome.
I'd much rather have that, I think.
Yeah.
Having a team full of like high price mercenaries.
That's great.
I'm sure that's cool.
There's, there's the real star of the show.
Yeah.
There
you,
there you go.
Thanks for being here.
Um, your dad's awesome.
I hope, you know, I hope you tell him that all the time.
Um, but, but yeah.
I mean, but I, I'm with you.
I think as, as a fan, that's what you want is those guys.
I mean, yeah.
It's great to have all those talented guys that show up.
It's like, at the end of the day, it's like, do they really care?
They're getting paid either way.
Right.
And have having a team full of, like you said, grit guys who are fighting for it or
want to be here, that that's fun to watch.
And that's what we, we like here.
No doubt.
And that, because you know, like when you look at the, the, when you look at
the history of the program, like this program has been built on, on overly
competitive players that love to work and are tough and are gritty and are blue
collar and like, we've got this incredible stadium coming and it's gonna be awesome.
Yeah.
But it's not gonna change like, who we are or what has made us successful.
It's, we're gonna recruit the same guys, the same type of guys.
Like, like maybe Okay.
Like, can we go, like, maybe is there a, a guy that maybe we can attract before?
Maybe we could like, maybe Yeah, right.
But like the character and the makeup of those individuals are gonna be the same.
Um, because this program is, that's what it's been built on.
Um, and that's what we're finding, trying to find in the portals.
Like that's what we're working towards, you know?
And it, I mean, look, it's about, it's, it's.
All relationships, all quality relationships are built on trust, right?
Like, and it's trying to make sure that they understand.
Like, we are going to, we are gonna learn how to trust each other.
We are gonna learn how to be vulnerable with each other and be
real with each other because we're gonna love the heck out of you.
But we're, we're gonna coach you too.
Like, it's gonna, we're gonna tell you the truth.
Um, and we want guys that want to be here for Old Dominion, be here for their
teammates, and they wanna leave a lasting legacy, not a guy that's just kind of
a one and done and, and bounce, right?
I mean, that's, it's just, that's, it's too transactional that way.
And unfortunately that's kind of what has been created.
But it's the world that we live in and it doesn't, you know, we can still double
down and have really quality relationships with our guys and with our recruits.
I mean, that's something that we can be very intentional about, uh, because.
It's what has worked in the past with players, you know, it's what's worked
in the past and that's why those guys are so loyal and they care so much about
this program is because it's, it's, it's not, it's been more than that.
It's been more about just, Hey man, how far can you hit the ball?
Or how hard you can you throw it.
It's like, how can we help you get prepared for when you leave here?
Um, and that's what it's all about, you know?
And that's, that's what we're chasing, have.
That's why you have those three coaches you mentioned in, in Keane and, and Ryan
Moore and, and Pond, pond helping you out.
Why Caron can't wait to come back and help out.
I mean that's, that, that exact thing you're, you're working on
is, is showing itself just in the guys that are helping you out.
No doubt those guys came back over there, decided to work for free.
Yeah.
It's like, alright, cool boys, you know, and they're, and they're awesome.
Like they've been, they've had a huge impact on our program.
Um, and they've been, they've been great.
Um, but that, that's what we're looking for in the portal.
That's what we're looking for in high school ranks.
Like, I don't think, you know, like just because we have the portal and
it's there and it's a real thing, like it doesn't change how we.
Like, like the, the nuts and the bolts of what makes this program special.
Like, we're still looking to build from the inside out.
Like get some high school players, develop our high school players, you
know, maybe from the middle out, right?
Like get the middle, middle of the field guys from a positional standpoint.
Yeah.
Develop them, right.
And then trickle in some, some JC hitters.
And then, you know, if we need portal hitters, portal hitters, that's gonna
be the plan for on the mountain.
It's been, you look at the track record since Coach Marin's been here,
that guy's been incredible about developing our high school arms.
Okay.
And that, that's always gonna stay our bread and butter.
We're gonna go get high school arms, we're gonna develop 'em, we're gonna coach 'em.
And then if we need to, then we can go mix in the portal arms, you know, which
is what obviously we're doing right now.
So, um, it doesn't get, and we're not gonna get away from who we are.
It's just like anything.
It's just times are different.
So we need to just, you need to get creative, understand who you are
as a program, you know, buy into that identity, and then just adjust
slightly where you need to, you know.
Absolutely.
Well, we, uh, we have Coach Fenwood backstage.
I'm gonna go ahead and bring him on to join the party here.
There you go.
Hey, Vinny.
How's it going?
What's up guys?
Hey, what's up man?
How
I doing?
What's up, dude?
Doing good.
How you been?
Great.
Had a great Father's Day weekend and, um, I was looking on a thing while I was
listening to h Um, this is episode 20,
episode 20 this season.
I think we did 13 or 15 last
year.
How about that?
That's pretty cool.
Yeah,
man, it's, it's wild.
I know the, the fans were definitely excited to, uh, hear, hear from both
of you in terms of like, recruiting and portal and, and all of that good stuff.
But, uh, you, you've mentioned a lot about the, the pictures that have come
outta here from, from Marin and can't go without talking about the guys that are
going to the combine starting tomorrow with Ben Brown will be out in Arizona.
I. Um, I know they got that invite I think, when we were in Montgomery.
Uh, but it's pretty cool to kind of see that come to fruition now
where they're gonna be up there with kind of the top 300 draft eligible
guys, uh, showing what they can do.
Yeah.
And, and we're the only team in the Sunbelt that's got two pitchers going.
Um, only, only a couple teams have two players going.
Um, but we've got two arms and you know, I think it's, you look around and, you know,
we got a chance to have three pitchers drafted in the top 10 rounds, I think
solidly this year with how Blake's kind of moving up people's boards as well.
So, um, that's kind of neat.
Uh, and there won't be a handful of teams probably that can say that.
In, in the country, no matter what level.
Um, so that's, that's nice.
And like I heard h talking about it, you know, Mike does a really good
job with those kids developing 'em.
And I think the other part of that is, is so far they've stayed, uh, even the good
ones have stayed and, you know, we haven't had any money to bribe him to stay.
Uh, we're work, working on working on that.
Hey, I was on the phone with Kevin Gibbs, um, this afternoon for a while talking
about some fundraising things, and he said he's heading out with a bunch of guys.
He played, you know, uh, with here, that they still stay in touch constantly and
they're going out to see Mac C and they're taking their wives out for the weekend.
Yeah.
And watching the Royals play, and they're all gonna have dinner.
And those, those are the things that, that, you know.
Make you feel good about your alma mater.
And, uh, we were talking about that with a couple, you know, we've had a few kids in
on visits in the transfer portal and, you know, where's your homecoming gonna be?
Like, what's gonna, what are you gonna consider your alma
mater and those relationships?
And, um, we are still looking for the right fit, you know, in that like, like
h said, the fit is, is a big part of it.
And we've had a few kids in on visits and it's funny, you know, you
text, uh, hey, thanks for coming.
Really appreciate it.
Uh, hope you wanna be a monarch.
Um, we're, we're obviously checking them out while they're
checking us out to see about fits.
And it's usually very telling, uh, the text you get back, you know, is the
kid genuinely interested, uh, you get a certain text, is you just kind of like
dating,
playing the PT game.
Yeah, totally.
And, uh, get, send you the kind of generic vanilla.
Deal.
And you're like, all right, well that, well that one's probably not gonna work.
But I, I think, you know, to echo what, what h said regarding, I mean,
I'm telling you, h and Mike and Paul and Ryan and, and John Keane and
Brandon Pond man, them dudes have been grinding in there for two straight
weeks since this portal opened up.
Uh, and even before that, 'cause you had the grads and, um, you know, the
under, uh, other, other school guys that were already in it, but just to,
we've learned some good lessons, I think through the first few years of
this and applying those and kind of filtering what we were looking for.
And, um, it's amazing the job they've done.
I mean, just today I was talking to an agent and he mentioned the kid's name
from the school, uh, uh, that, and, and the kid put up fantastic numbers.
And I went in and, and asked Ryan Moore.
And he said, yeah, I banged him because the numbers are great.
But when I looked at the video, he just looked like a kind of a
first face only kind of clogger, and we weren't looking for that.
He showed it to me and I was like, you know what?
You're right.
And this is such a great experience for these kids, like to get to do this,
um, at this level and have to vet. I mean, how many players probably Hayes,
have, have those guys gone through?
I mean, every,
every bit of probably a thousand, you know?
Yeah.
At least.
I mean, at least like it's, and they're, it's could be more than that.
And they're learning.
'cause they're like, all right, hey, this guy looks pretty good at Hadra, or Paul
or Mike will get on there and go, all right, man, I, I'm not, I don't like it
because of this, you know, this number or this visual or, or whatever it is.
And that's a fantastic learning tool for them as young coaches.
They're gonna be much better recruiters because of this process as well.
So it's helping them out too.
And they, they, you know, to their credit man, they dove right in and
they, they've done a fantastic job.
I mean, the kids we got coming in are all really good and, and seem
to be really, really good kids.
So we're excited about that.
Am I correct that you have already had at least one guy?
Um, we've had a
few, yeah, we've had a few.
Okay.
We've got more coming this week and, um, you know, hoping to have some news on a
few of 'em here in the next, you know.
Week certainly.
So, uh, it's a busy time, man.
It's like, you know, every morning we're talking about it and, um, we
were all at Freight House coffee this morning, breaking it down on, on where
we're at and all that, and hopefully the next couple weeks will give us some
clarity on, on some of these things.
And you got, you still got another trickle down effect coming, um mm-hmm in the next,
you know, portal's probably open for a couple more weeks and you're gonna get
some other guys that, you know, some teams sign these guys outta the portal, right.
So now that guy coming, I gotta, he's going in the portal and, you know,
you still got some of that happening.
Certainly.
Um, and we're just trying to stay on coaching changes, just things like that.
Stay on top of all of it.
Yeah.
There's a lot moving.
And I feel like the portal is kind of like the coaching carousel just
with, you know, 5,000 people instead of usually, you know, 20 to 25.
Uh, but there, not to veer off ODU too much, but there was a pretty big
coaching change that impacted Virginia with Oak going to Mississippi State.
And then Chris Pollard coming in from Duke to UVA, brought
really his best hitter with him.
Uh, what were your thoughts?
And you saw that Oak was heading down to, uh, to Mississippi State.
Yeah, I mean, he, he
doubled his salary.
That's my first thought.
It's 2.9 million is a lot more than 1.5.
I guess you can, uh, say that.
Um.
But you know, just Mississippi State's, one of the probably top 10 resourced
programs in the whole country with um, definitely a top 10 in, in facilities and,
you know, they're used to winning there and obviously you gotta, you have to win.
Um, 'cause they're coming off firing a coach who won the national
championship three years ago.
So, uh, Oaks got a national championship of his own.
He brought his whole, basically his whole staff down there with him.
They'll do just fine.
They know what they're doing and I, I think Virginia hired a good guy,
hired a, you know, guy from Virginia and he's done a fantastic job at Duke.
Um, you know, Chris is a good person.
He is a good coach, obviously.
And, um, you know, I think that was a, a really good hire for them and they
got it done fast, which they needed to.
So, so you,
you already, uh, knew Chris Pollard?
You'll be, you'll be talking Yeah,
it is how old I am.
I, I saw Chris Pollard pitching high school.
He, he went to, I don't even know if it's still a school anymore.
He went to VES Virginia Episcopal School in Lynchburg.
And, um, Annette and I actually, Annette actually went with me and,
um, we went, I still remember driving across that mountain from Lexington.
I was at VMI and, uh, he wasn't very good.
Um, true was, uh, and, and so we didn't, I think he ended up walking on at Davidson.
He was a very good pitcher at Davidson, uh, kind of developed himself and then,
uh, has had a fantastic coaching career.
Well, Hager, I'll, I'll tee one up for you here.
'cause there is at least one publicly known transfer portal.
Commit to Old Dominion and I I tee you up.
That's Marcus Van Stein from VMI.
Yeah.
We're we're pumped
about Marcus.
Uh, he, um, he committed to us while we were there.
And, um, you'll talk to CB man.
I cannot wait for you to see his energy.
His energy.
No, I Have you seen, so I, have you seen any pictures for the chili peppers?
No.
So I, I saw him in high school.
'cause back we, we had a couple of Hanover kids who were supposed to
come to us, you know, one kind of, uh, screwed us and one got drafted.
Uh, but I saw him pitch several times where Hanover, I've seen him pitch
several times for the chili peppers there.
Yeah.
In the summer.
I saw him pitch, uh, this spring with VMI.
Yeah.
I'm, I'm, I love it.
I'm a big fan.
Um, was he, now, was he a guy that you had recruited and then he He was.
So he left when he got there.
He was, so, he, um.
He was at Hanover and uh, they were playing Lee Davis, who at the time was,
was the time Lee Davis on Mechanicsville.
And I was there to watch a kid pitch for Lee Davis and this kid comes
out, is that plumber just sinking?
Yep.
And just sinking and sliding it.
And he uh, man, I was like, man, like this guy's good, this guy's awesome.
Like who's this guy?
And you know, and just athletic and just a fast mover and um, and just the first time
we talked to him as a staff, it was clear like this, this dude's energy was awesome.
Um, and he is an ultra competitive kid.
Um, and, and it was what's really cool is you don't see a lot of guys
graduate from VMI in three years, but he came in with so many credits
that he was able to do it in three.
Which is why we're able to, to land him right now.
Um, so we're pumped about him.
And, and Brandon Pa had a connection 'cause Brandon
pitched with the Chili Pepper.
So they had that connection and, um, so, and he is, it's, it's a,
he's gonna be a really cool fit for the staff because he can kind of
look, do a little bit of everything.
He can start, he's closed before he is been that long relief bulk guy.
Um, but he's a strike thrower that can sink it and slide it and
he's ultra competitive, so it's gonna be, it's a fantastic fit.
I love that.
Yeah.
I, and he is one of those guys, I think when you look at his.
Numbers at VMI, you know, it was like ERA and stuff seems a little high, but
then you, you kinda think about like, well, it's not an easy place to pitch.
And then his summer numbers like at all, like, and his summer numbers
have been really, really good.
I know Toms I know he had, I didn't get a chance, it was Rain the
other night, but he pitched three scoreless the other night up a year
in, in Hampton against the pilots.
I mean, he is, he's pitched really well and I, I, I'm with you.
I think I'm excited about it.
I always liked him.
Um, guy, I've never, I've never really had a chance to talk to him.
I'm looking forward to get to meet him so that, that that's, yeah.
You'll really like him.
You'll really like it.
Yeah.
Love that.
Sounds like he could slide into that old Jacob Gomez role of
he can come shut a game down.
He can start, he can do whatever.
He is just gonna go out there and battle.
He
is,
he is definitely gonna battle.
Um, so it's gonna be, yeah, he's, he is, it's gonna be a really good fit.
You guys will really enjoy watching him.
A
couple of VMI guys bringing in a VMI guy.
What a shocker.
He didn't, he
didn't get enough of it.
He needed one more year of it.
Yeah.
Well, speaking of, of Jacob Gomez, obviously he got promoted up
to high a ball with, with Rome and the Braves organization.
I don't, I, I'm hesitant to say this because I'm gonna knock on wood and
I need everyone else do as well.
He's still yet to give up an earn run in aid innings pitch since moving up
to high A and I think that's really important for a guy who was undrafted
to just continue to flourish like that.
Have y'all been able to see any video or catch up with him at all?
I haven't talked to him this summer to, you know, since he was here right before
Spring, uh, working out with our guys a little bit, but man, he, he is that guy.
I mean, he is good enough.
Like yeah.
You know, he, he's, he's that weird, weird lefty with that low release
height and he, he can be tough.
So it doesn't, I'm not, I don't think any of us are surprised by that.
And he is mean enough to get out there and, and, and fight you.
So I, I think, no, no one's surprised by that.
He could be that guy that keep, just keep on moving on up, uh, and end
up, you know, surprisingly, all of a sudden you look up and all of a sudden
he is at aaa and then you never know what can happen, you know, double.
I'm a brace
fan, I'm all for
it.
I,
I'm
my Gomez
and he stays healthy, you know, he is been very durable.
So he, he is not one of those guys that's been banged up and
you gotta worry about that.
I mean, he's gonna post like, he's gonna be ready to throw when you need him to.
And I think that's pretty cool.
Um, I was reading a thing somewhere, I saw it on Facebook today, it was a
unbelievable stat and said whatever the year was, uh, Wal Walter Austin threw an
18 inning complete game and they said, uh.
They didn't keep pitch counts by then.
Who knows how many pitches he threw.
He said the, the manager said the only number he cared about was two.
And he said, why two?
He said, because he is got two big balls between his legs.
Oh, there's our pg pg joke for there, there we go.
Different game back then.
For sure.
I mean, think about 18
inning.
He threw like, yeah, he threw two complete games in One.
In one Audi Probably wouldn't have,
uh, broken a window if he threw the ball at it at that point.
Yeah.
But you know, back then they, they weren't there.
No one, no one was finishing your game.
No.
No, that was your deal.
So,
no, that was, that was your day to pitch when you were the pitcher.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
Well,
I wanted ask you guys, you know, you're in the middle of the portal, but then
we also had, I think yesterday, uh, the 15th was the first day where you all
were allowed to talk to 20, 27 graduates.
So did you have to also start in the middle of that?
Like, uh, start calling up some guys, sending some emails?
No.
Okay,
okay.
I didn't even, I didn't
even know that was the first day we could talk.
But that tells you like how much it's changed, right?
It used to be the biggest day of the recruiting year was the first day
you could talk to rising juniors.
Um, horizon Soft, whatever it became, and now it's just another Tuesday, right, as
the song says, because they're not, you know, the value of those guys is much less
because they're not gonna help you for a long, long time, if ever, and people are
spending their time, you know, because in essence, what you're doing now, you know?
Yeah.
We'd love to have the backbone of our program always be high school kids.
We're, we're trying hard to do that.
Um, it creates a little bit of consistency, but you are building a
different team every year now, and you're just gonna have to marry yourself to that.
And, but when you, when you can have some, a core group of guys that have been
in your program for a few years, that's gonna help the message be more consistent.
Um, and that, that's, you know, that's what you're always shooting for.
So, but you're gonna have to have those, you know, you're talking about a guy
that you're gonna call that maybe isn't shaving yet, or driving, or you gonna call
a guy that's, uh, you know, yeah, got a beard and tattoos and hit, hits the ball
out in the road, uh, when in the swings.
So that's, that's the, the, you know, the what you're trying to, right now,
we.
I'm sorry.
H what was that?
I was just gonna
say, you know, it's a, it's a time thing too, right?
Like there's only a certain amount of time.
It's like you, you can chase chase those guys now, but that's taken up time from
guys that can help you in two months.
Right.
You know, so like those guys, there's still plenty of time
to get on those guys mm-hmm.
And develop those relationships and recruit those guys.
And there's so much, there's so many more events for those guys well into
the fall and then next summer, you know, like we only have this, we've got this
two month, you know, three month period essentially where we've gotta finish
this roster, you know, and that's, that's where this thing has changed so much
is it's, it's expedited this recruiting process for, you know, I don't know,
maybe a quarter of our roster roughly.
Like, and it's like champ packed it in a couple months where it
used to be, you know, literally years here, recruiting guys.
Yeah.
You know, so that's where it's so different and kind of learning
the job as we go, per se.
And
what is, I'm glad they're not, uh, committing the eighth graders anymore.
That that was, you guys never, ever did that.
But that was, that was one always crazy to me.
I think, I think the only I can even think off the top of my head that ever
worked out was Ethan Anderson, UVA.
He was, 'cause he was also like, he, he had tattoos and, and that beard
when he was eighth grade anyway.
And Yogi Bear would say he was old when he
was young.
Yeah, exactly.
Uh, what, what is the drop dead date?
Is it basically the enrollment date for the fall drop dead For what?
Uh, to have guys who would be playing fall ball for you?
Is it basically just when you have to be enrolled in the school for fall semester?
Well, yeah.
I mean the transfer portal guys, you've got to, what is it, July 2nd, H
Yeah, that's when the portal closes.
But we can still.
Right
to get into the portal is July 2nd, and then after July 2nd, they
can't get into the portal anymore.
So Yeah.
But once they're
in, you can get 'em up.
It's, every school's probably different on deadline here.
I mean, I don't know what the latest we've gotten somebody in, uh, is,
but there's some flexibility there, obviously, um, you know, with guys,
but every school, I mean, there's, there's some places they've gotten
guys in a week before school starts,
you know, that's the thing.
People say, oh, you got miss.
I mean, there's a lot to do.
I mean, you gotta find a place that's a lot of stuff you got.
It's not just snapp your fingers and it gets done.
There's logistical things.
I mean, we're working on housing, you know, for our guys now.
Um, figuring all that out.
So, you know, when you guys are off campus, there's a little bit more
for us to try to help with than just sticking 'em in the dorms.
Yeah.
Uh, do you guys feel, and again, let me just, I know, I know you'll tell me.
No.
Uh, but if, do you feel comfortable talking about some of the high
school and guys we have coming in the fall now, or are you able
to, or you save that for later?
Maybe?
Yeah, let's save that for a little.
That'd be a great conversation for a little later in the summer.
I know we haven't big release yet.
You know who the, who they are.
Ccb.
I know, but maybe, um, that's good.
That would be a fun episode.
Maybe we'll get it all up and on the website and we could elaborate on it.
Um, sounds great.
That'd be, that'd be fun.
That's a teaser right there.
There we go.
We love
it.
That works too.
Yeah.
There we go.
Look at, look at, look at this guy.
What a good manager of human beings.
Finny is.
What a, he gave me a no.
That sounded like a yes.
Look at that.
You should be a head coach or something.
Yeah, we just, we just keep massaging the.
You know, people stay tuned, right?
Like the tick one.
Yeah.
It's easier.
There we go.
So,
yeah, that's right.
We got, we got all the promo we need for, whether that's episode
21 or 22 or whatever it may be.
Yeah.
How's the, um,
construction going right now?
Oh, sorry.
Yeah, yeah.
No, look, uh, we can talk about that.
Uh, uh, still, still look slow 'cause they're still doing the
underneath stuff, but the, okay, you can actually see the footers,
um, and the layout of the buildings more clearly now, which that's cool.
And then all the, you know, that park avenue's torn up.
You got all the pipes running through there, they're connecting everything.
And you know, the hope is by the time guys get back here at the end
of August that some stuff is going up because although we're gonna have to
work around it this fall as well, I think it's gonna be really exciting.
To every day walk out there and see something else go up and then,
oh, cool, look, the roof's going on, or finish the locker room,
or, that's gonna be really neat.
I've never been a part of that from that standpoint.
When I was at Auburn, we built the, the, the sidelines out down
there and, um, you know, the stands went all the way down the lines.
That was kind of cool, but it wasn't anything like this is gonna be, um,
and, and you know, hey, you know, you guys got, when they did the VMI, uh,
stadium, I mean, all of that is just fun.
I think it'll be exciting for this group, you know, as they gotta kind
of work around some things this fall for practice and all of that.
We're still going to be having to, to do that.
But you know, when they finally say, Hey, you guys can move in.
I mean, what a cool, exciting, fun day that's gonna be for everyone.
And we're telling all these portal kids that are in on visits, you know, Hey man.
Like when you go sit in that locker next February or January, whenever
it is, um, you're gonna be the first guy to ever be in that locker.
Like there's only, only one group can ever say that and you'll be a part of that.
Like, that'll be yours, like brand new.
Um, so I was like, you ought to carve your initials in the corner or something.
You know, CB
was here, there's some donor that's like losing his mind right now.
Some car, brand new locker room.
I was thinking
about something.
I, I know that people have done different things with lockers.
I, I think it'd be a neat legacy thing.
You know, some people get people to sponsor lockers and I think it's
something we want to pursue for potential rev share money as well.
But, um, I think it'd be neat to have a smaller plaque and you put it somewhere on
the facing, um, you know, CB Wilkins 20.
Two to 2025.
Mm-hmm.
2025. And then the next guy that's in there is that.
And so each guy Oh, yeah.
You know, has his big name on it, gets to see, hey man, I was in Vinny
Paquantino who had this locker.
Yeah.
You know, you got some stuff to own, you know, to, to live up to.
Um, and, and there's a, you know, a brotherhood there, so to speak.
And I think that does create some, some neat continuity within the, the alumni.
Well, that kind becomes a
thing too, then that guys want to have that locker.
Oh, I wanna be at that locker.
'cause all the guys that been in this locker have been the best.
And that becomes, you know, some, somebody graduates and a guy who's been,
there's like, okay, that's my locker now.
You know?
Yeah.
That's,
yeah.
Yeah.
I, I think that, I think that'd be neat.
I think that's something we're gonna, we're gonna try to look for, and
then we're gonna have a space in, somewhere in the, the coaches area,
maybe in the hallway, wherever.
Um, Mike, Mike actually came up with this idea where the guys can come in
and sign the board, the alumni, so.
They'll, uh, they'll connected to the new, new place as well.
I love that idea.
I think we, and another, another teaser.
So my, my call with Kevin Gibbs was a, a fundraising call.
He is gonna help be, um, kind of our help me and John spearhead this.
Um, we're gonna put together a, a list and a, a letter and just talk
to people about how important the, the rev share piece of this is.
It's gonna be kind of like a, a monthly pledge, you know, the old Clemson model,
IPTE, I pay 10 a year or whatever.
Mm-hmm.
But,
um, it, it'll be, you know, based on can you give us 25 bucks a
month or something like that?
Yeah.
We're gonna hit our alumni.
We're gonna have our players, um, hit people that are close to them.
Um, anybody that we can think about.
And so maybe that's something, uh, we can work on, you know, together as well.
Sure it's here.
It's, it's, uh, necessary.
You know, we're, we're, we're trying to get in that space and, um, where we can
have the ability to, to offer some rev share money with, with, with these kids.
And we are doing that.
Um, we just have to raise it.
I mean, we're not getting the, you know, the thousands of dollars
from, from the school that some people are, but that's okay.
Um, we're, we're able to, and, and we're allowed to.
And so we're gonna do it.
We're not gonna sit there and complain about, they're not giving it to us.
We're gonna go out and get it.
And so most of the things that we're doing now are gonna be geared towards that.
You know, the golf tournament, money's gonna go to that, uh, the first pitch.
Dinner money's gonna go to that.
We're gonna try to have another event, maybe a fish fry next
summer in the new stadium.
Uh, that'll be geared towards that.
And so, um, if you guys want to help us out with getting that word out as
we get a little more organized with this, I know we've got the dollar
dollars for dingers that are going into.
Into the pot right there.
Mm-hmm.
And that, that's going awesome, man.
Thank you guys again for, for doing that because those are the same
people that may be wanting to, you know, help us out with, with this.
And I think all of it is super important for our program's future.
Yeah.
E everything that really our group morphed into from like a DM text
chain tailgating group to being more of this fundraising arm being more
involved is because of ODU baseball.
It's because of that run in 21 that we just somehow started dollars for dingers.
I think Aaron Zelensky came up with it and now it's become an every year thing.
Uh, our last update was three days ago.
We were over 2,500.
We got a goal of 5,000.
So if you're, if you needed a reminder to go dollars for dingers, go for it.
It's on all of our social channels.
Mm-hmm.
It's on the O DAF website.
Uh, plenty of options.
Pick the stat that that meets your budget.
I think, uh, CBU and I did 140 for 140 extra base hits.
Uh, there's all kinds of things in there, but.
Things like that are things that can now go towards rev share.
So that's a way where you can get your tax receipt, you can donate
that way, and it can go and it can really help, like even that 2,500 to
5,000, that can go a long way with, with how things are, are set up now.
So you haven't done dollars for dingers.
Here's your reminder.
We'll get plenty more.
Don't worry, we're not gonna lay off this in some time.
Yeah, please
do it.
And you're right, it goes, it goes to the school now.
And so it's not like the NIL money.
You don't have to battle yourself.
You, you can't get your, your tax, you know, credits for that.
And, and it's, it's money that's gonna go directly to the, to the players.
It's not going to a third party.
Um, that's why they wanted to put the schools more in control of it.
Yeah, I think that's, we'll, we will, uh, cut down on some of the
tampering that we know is occurring.
I don't know if you paid attention to Texas Tech softball, but they're
basically blatantly out saying, yeah, we have people call kids that are still
on teams playing, offer 'em money, and then they're signing, coming over.
So not even, not even thinly veiled these days.
Yeah,
no.
Yeah, hopefully.
I mean, there's always gonna be those, those guys that are
trying to skirt the system.
You know, every time you make a rule, people get right to
work on finding ways around it.
So,
yeah.
Um, less rules are probably better to be, to be honest.
And, um, you just gotta figure out a way to, you know, I, we're, we're not
trying, I mean, we talk about it every day and, and you know, I think that.
We've come a long way and learned some good lessons and are doing
this in a much more productive way.
And, you know, I mean, these, these guys do all the work.
I come in and ask who they got and they show me.
Uh, I mean, but they, they're, they've, they've figured out how
to really do a good job with this.
I mean, I, I think we're on much better players, um, that fit our need and can
help us win in the Sunbelt conference and also the right kind of kids.
Um, and it doesn't matter where they're from.
Like we don't, we don't care about the sweatshirt or the hat game.
Yeah.
You don't need to be from, you know, X School for us to think you're good.
Um, there's a lot of good players that are playing, uh, at division two schools.
Um, and you know, they're certainly good enough.
They just ended up there for whatever reason.
And kids go places they play, they get better.
And that happens all the time.
You know, you see that.
And so it's just one of those things.
I mean, I think Miami starting shortstop was at, you know, UNC Greensboro
or something a year ago or so.
You know, it is like you see it all over the place.
So, um, we're, we're working on that and hopefully in the next couple
weeks we'll have some, have some yeses and, and have some clarity a little
bit more and keep moving forward.
So we're happy about that.
Yeah, I think we're planning on doing the next podcast about the
third, uh, Monday of next, uh, July.
And think we're gonna have Marin on and we'll, 'cause we, we figured
by then we probably have a few more answers, uh, particularly on the
pitching side where they seem to be a lot more questions right now.
But, so yeah, we're, we're excited.
So that'll be a, that'll be a two hour
version of the podcast.
Maybe there are no
short, there are no short, uh, conversations with Michael Marin,
just so you guys know that.
Right.
I
feel like that's a way to get two episodes in one session.
So, hey.
Bonus episode, extended play version.
That's right.
Yes.
It'll be the EP version right there.
There we go.
Yeah.
Alright, well, uh, hey, h Finney, we, we thoroughly appreciate you guys joining us.
I know, I know.
I enjoy Gary Joy.
I know the fans enjoy getting to hear the, the, the, the perspective that you guys
have that you can't get anywhere else.
Uh, the, the look inside the ba, ODU baseball.
So we, we appreciate you guys.
Well, thank you guys.
Guys, thank you.
Y'all the best man.
You guys have made this so much fun, as I say every week, and thanks man.
All right.
We love it.
All right.
Appreciate you guys.
Y'all be safe.
Fell soon.
Thank you.
Happy.
All right, so we take a, take a quick break,
do a little commercial break,
a little one of those.
What do think
Hit a little commercial break.
We got a couple of things to talk about, including, yeah.
The Monarch being part of a no-no.
How's that for a tease?
Oh, yeah.
This episode of the Monarchist podcast is brought to you by
the pride of ODU Collective.
Their mission is to elevate the experience of student athletes through
name, image, and likeness, while also elevating the fan experience.
If you or your business are interested in getting involved,
you can reach out to us directly or go over to the pride of odu.com.
That is the pride of odu.com.
Thank you for listening.
And go Monarchs.
Alright.
Yeah.
Well, awesome having you.
I, I really like
that.
Yeah.
I love it because we, you get such a, it's a reality check, but it's also
so positive because it's that reality like Yeah, we're, it's the thing that
anyone who's has half a brand looks at and says, look, we're not going out.
And getting, you know, this, this guy or that guy or whatever guy,
we're gonna go out and get dudes who wanna play for us that have talent.
And like I said, maybe they played at a D two or D three, maybe been at a
juco that maybe if they've got stats or maybe they've been somewhere and
they haven't got a chance to play.
But the reality is, they, they're, we're gonna get talented guys.
We're gonna get good guys.
We're gonna guys who want to be here.
And I, that's what I want.
I love it.
I, I mean, yeah, if you could sign a hundred mercenaries and
have 'em all be great and awesome.
Okay.
You probably not have a very good team chemistry, but you
might be fun baseball to watch.
But I think in the long run for who we are and where we're at, you know, the
reality of what we are, this is better.
And I like it.
I do too.
And I think if you even went out and got, say, five mercenaries, right?
We
mm-hmm.
Justin Verlander comes running in out of nowhere with a million bucks
and says, have fun in the portal.
Like again, sure.
Wildest dreams.
Of those five you bring in, two of them are gonna be shitheads, guaranteed.
The two of those five are gonna be shithead, they're
gonna be a culture problem.
'cause you can't give
a 20-year-old a ton of money without them being a, a turd.
Like that's just the reality.
Not in a baseball, environ football, all right, you got 12 games, like
you can almost hide it a little bit more because of the numbers.
But in baseball, like if you are not all in on the team, you're gonna be found out
very, very, they spend so much time together.
Even just like at the field, the guys show up like hours before and just
do, you'd p like I always think it's so funny, like my mom used to, we'd
go to wrestling matches and the guys would be working out, you know, warming
up before the match and she's like, they're gonna tire themselves out.
I'm like, mom, they're working out.
They're barely working out for like 10 minutes.
The match, absolute maximum lasts seven minutes.
Like how are they gonna wear that?
But they're like, I'm like, you go to baseball all the time, but they
do like an entire practice before the game and then sit around in the
heat and then play another game.
You never once said they're gonna wear themselves out.
She's like, don't really run.
I'm like, it's, but you know.
But yeah, I, you spend so much time with each other, like playing ev, they
play 56 games no other sport plays.
56 games in college.
That's crazy.
No, and yeah, you're right.
It's.
Let's just say a game lasts three hours and be on the conservative side of things.
There's at least another three hours that you as a player are
gonna be at the ballpark minimum.
Yes.
So the three game weekend series, you're gonna spend 18 hours with that person.
And oh, by the way, there's a good chance you probably live with them.
You're gonna go have dinner with them, you're gonna hang out with them,
you're around 'em more than you're not.
Where football, like Yeah.
And,
and that's a home series if you're Yeah.
That's a home series.
I mean, yeah, like I said, the, the, I got the chance there to travel with
them on the way back to the airport.
I mean, it's just, we're sitting there, we own the entire thing.
It's just, it's just 40 ODU u baseball players sitting there, you
know, and, and the coaches and all.
It's like, yeah, if you've, you got somebody who sucks,
man, it's, it's a bad time.
Yeah.
Then that, that's where the culture outweighs the talent.
Sometimes.
You still need both.
I. But you aren't gonna sacrifice the culture for a couple talent grabs,
especially with us because we're, we're not gonna get someone that just
dumps a million bucks in to say, Hey, go on spinning spree in the portal.
Like, we might be able to steal one, maybe two of maybe those high end guys
that are fighting with the, for SEC play.
But, uh, excited for when we have that update so we can talk about
more of the guys we know we're, they're talking to quite a few.
Um, yeah, interesting how they kinda, there's 5,000 in there.
They've got like a thousand or so looking at and probably continuing to
look at 'em as they, they still roll in.
I
love that.
'cause I, I, I really like the way they said it too, that, you know, just
pointing out that like, they narrow it down because, and like as Spin pointed,
what a, what great experience for, uh, for Ryan and, and, and Keane and, and Pond.
Like what a, what, I mean, they're already awesome guys and I know
they all have a love for this and they really wanna do it as a career.
And so getting that, that chance to kind of be on the ground floor of what's
really gonna be the new way of doing things, I, I think it's really neat.
Yeah.
Well, I want to talk a little bit about some guys returning and some guys that
have already moved on to the pro level.
Mm-hmm.
You've, you've sent me a screenshot I think, of every box score that
Bailey Matela has pitched so far this
summer.
Man.
He's, he's, he was only pitched two, so it's not like, it's like
I'm throwing you 20 bucks, but Yes.
No, no, no, no.
Um, but he's, he's starting in the summer league last outing.
He's playing for the, uh,
the wave of sport cross cutters and the MLB draft league.
Yes.
So people know, which again, it's MLB Draft League, so it
sounds like it's so impressive.
It's, I don't think that that league is particularly any better
than any other summer league, but it's, it's a good league.
It's a solid league.
It's got MLB backing, so they've, they've got a lot of
good stats and tracking stuff.
Okay.
Sorry, Gary just wanted to,
it's kind of, um, it, it kind of replaced a lot of the sh
the, the short league teams?
Yeah, the short season teams.
Yeah.
The cross cutters
were a, they were a, I think a Pirates Minor League team for a long time.
Um, and that they were one of the ones that got cut in the, the 2020, um,
when they got rid of all the teams.
Uh, so they, yeah,
yeah, yeah.
But yeah.
Uh, his second outing here, five innings pitched.
One run, four hits, one walk, six strikeouts.
He has now has a 2.7 ERA and two starts over the summer.
Yeah.
As a starter.
Yeah.
Starter.
10, 10 innings, 13 strikeouts, only two walks, which I, I, I didn't double
check this, but I'm pretty sure Bailey had, if not as many, he might have had
more walks than strikeouts this year.
Um, so he's already pitched on me.
It, it, it, the kind of thing we're like, man, should Bailey have been starting
all year is I don't, I don't, yeah.
We, and we didn't really get a chance to ask some of those questions.
We, we, you know, again, we're gonna talk to Mar next, next month, so
We'll, we'll ask some stuff about, you know, I mean, Bailey might mess
around himself drafted, to be honest.
Might out a four guys losing four pitchers.
That would be,
yeah.
Would be tough for us.
We'd be happy for him, but I think we'd be missing his arm.
Certainly happy for
him, but,
yeah.
Um, but yeah, I mean, he is, he is doing exceptionally well.
And, and maybe he becomes one of the guys that replaces one of these three
starters that are, that's going, um.
'cause man, I, I'm starting to wonder now if Ben and Bailey flip flopped
like you were alluding to there.
Mm-hmm.
Because Ben has been, you said so good in relief.
Um, and, and he's, he is gonna do some special things, I think
down in the combine with the way he throws the baseball.
So, uh, pump for Bailey.
Bailey, if you sent out here this man, we're, we're pumped for you.
We are cutting tabs on you
throughout the summer.
The
kid.
Yeah.
We're root for all the guys.
Like I Oh yeah.
Ideally I'd love it if every single guy who was a junior
got drafted every single year.
I mean, yeah, it would make it hard to keep going, but I mean, at the end of the
day, if that happened, you'd be getting good guys coming into you all the time.
Uh, but yeah, so I'm, I'm all for the guys.
And then, yeah, we talked about Kyle and Scotty are playing for the pilots,
both, they're both playing pretty well.
They won their first, I think eight games.
Um, the leadoff hitter of this kid, I, Carlos Pena, I forget what school
he is from a smaller school, but he already has like eight homers.
They, they have a few guys that are really good ball players.
Sure.
Um, Tanner Schadel has been playing with the Tom Socks.
He's been pitting pretty well.
I think he's, I think he dropped off a little bit.
He's down to two 50, but he's already got as many hits as
he had the whole year at ODU.
Um, 'cause again, just sometimes he's getting to play a little bit
more, relax a little bit more.
Um, he's young.
He's young.
Yeah.
He, uh, Tanner.
I've been watching Tanner since he was a freshman in high school.
I, I'm, I know Tanner can play ball.
I'm, I'm excited for, to see what he can do the next few years at ODU.
Um, so yeah, they've been playing.
And then you, you mentioned it, um, Sam Armstrong.
He was all the way in aa.
It's only been a couple years since he was with ODU.
He's already in aa.
Um, he is mostly been started, this is his first relief appearance.
I don't know why they had him relief, but he came in and threw one inning.
Um, was it last night, night before, whenever It was in
the, to, it was last night.
Okay.
Which is now like two nights ago when the Yeah.
Time doesn't matter.
It was on Sunday.
Uh, the 15th he came in, he threw the seventh inning, uh, to finish
off a, a no hitter, a seventh inning.
It was a double hitter.
Um, so, so that's pretty awesome.
I mean, it's any, anytime you come in and, uh, finish off a no hitter, I think
he walked a guy and he struck out a guy.
Um, and then yeah, you mentioned Jacob's doing well.
Uh, hunter Gregory Guy moved up to aaa.
So he is with the Buffalo Bisons, the, the Blue Jays aaa.
I saw his, I dunno if he's pitched game, but his first appearance had you strike
outs and a scoreless hit the sinning.
Um, so he's, I mean, you're a call away from the show and he's been killing.
Mm-hmm.
He's been shoving all year.
Um, Joe Moore, Ryan's dad, he made a great point because the other day I, I,
I had a tweet where I said, you know.
I always, when I, I see these guys who are local guys that end up in the
portal, um, you know, there's a part of me, it's like I want them to come
Play-Doh to u um, you know, it's, again, it's just, it's really just, hey.
It's like, hey, come home.
You know, play in, play in front of your family.
We got a great stadium and, and I made sure I, I put the caveat on
there, it's like, look, I don't know what the school really needs.
I don't know what the play really needs.
I dunno if they all fits at all.
It's just how I feel.
I wanted to see it happen.
Um, and Joe Moore, he, he, he quotes me of that.
He made a great point.
He was like, he, he listed off all the guys that we've had playing pro
ball as pitchers the last few years.
It was like, like I, I just, we just listened a bunch of 'em.
Right?
What, what?
Uh, hunter and Sam Armstrong and, um, Jake Gomez, Trent Buchanan, John
Holobetz, Noah Dean, uh, Aaron Holiday.
I'm, I'm forgetting somebody, uh, Johnny Wilson playing pro.
Um, there, there's a, a ton of guys and that's just in the last like five
years and Yeah, it, it really is.
And, and as, as they, the guys pointed out, which I really didn't take a, a lot
to think about, most of them were guys we, they recruited outta high school and,
and help develop throughout their career.
I mean, it's, I I feel like sometimes we wanna 'em malign and, and, and
say pitching is the problem at ODU U And I think some years it's fair,
but the reality is it might be more the depth of pitching that maybe
the, the middle to the back end of things aren't quite as talented.
But the top tier, I mean, just look at this year, right?
We, we got Dylan Brown and Ben Moore and Blake Morgan.
Your three rotation guys were phenomenal and they're all probably getting drafted.
Uh, and that'll add to this giant list we have, and that's,
again, just the last five years.
Um, so Marin is, I, I'm excited.
We're gonna talk to him next month.
We're gonna bring him on.
Um, he's awesome.
Uh, he does a great job with guys.
He, he's such a good motivator and so I think it's one of those that, you
know, some people, again, people just talk and say, so there's always somebody
who has negative opinions, but, uh, they've done some pretty great stuff.
I mean, it's hard.
I would love to find somebody else who's a mid-major who can stack up
that pile of pictures like we have.
There aren't many.
And if they are, they might be like a Coastal Carolina
or somebody, but even Right.
They don't have that, that many in the pros.
And it may have been Premarin, I don't exactly know the timeline, it
was closed, but let's not forget that we can now count Jared Young as in
Monarch, who has thrown in the majors.
He, he was here with Marin osi, so yeah.
So there he goes.
So there's another, yeah, JY got, what did he throw?
One third of inning.
Uh, got a perfect era, RA in the big leagues.
Yep.
Gave up a hit and a, and a, a walk.
But he did get the final out of the game, which is more I can say for, uh,
Ryan Stannick, who was in before and who gave up three runs on two hits and
just melted down as the Mets lost, or nine to nothing to the raise, which
the Mets have been good this year.
Uh, but yeah, so yeah, I don't hate
to see the Mets lose.
I like to see the Mets lose.
I like to see JY play really well.
And if the Mets can also lose, that works out for me.
Yeah.
Instead a brave fan.
Yeah.
Makes sense.
Yeah.
Y'all got, y'all got a hill to climb right now, so.
Yeah,
yeah, yeah.
It's how, it's how it goes sometimes.
Sometimes you might need a, you, you know, you might need some change and
some things, but that's all right.
It's how it goes.
We got our World Series, we're, we know sometimes you have
to take the lumps afterwards.
Yeah.
You still hit a boatload of talent on that team.
When it's healthy, you'll, you're gonna be fine.
And let's not forget, like Jacob Gomez and Trim Buchanan should be
in the starting rotation at some point here in the next two years.
Tell you what Jacob might be on the way sooner than later.
Yeah.
Um, so we did mention Odus had eight guys go in the portal.
Um, so it's worth kind of just mentioning them real quick,
which you can see this on the.
Um, uh, pride of ODU on the, on the monarchist site.
There you can see the list that has our kind of roster churn, which shows,
you know, some of the guys we know have graduated don't have any eligibility.
Uh, we have the guys who are in the portal.
Um, we have a list of the guys that we know of that are coming
in, which I, again, obviously finning wants to wait a little bit
and talk about 'em a little later.
Um, and then we, I think we have a few guys, like we, we are pretty
positive that, that Dylan and Ben are getting drafted, you know, so
we kind of mark that on there too.
Um, so most of the guys that are leaving really didn't have
a ton of impact this year.
Um, you know, uh, like Alex Gomez and Rocky Green and Julian Areola, uh, the
three of them did not get to play at all.
Um, Alex made a few trips and was bullpen catchers sometimes.
Um, uh, Kyle Finn, I think pitched one game, um, and did okay.
I think he had, he had two innings, but nowhere and runs.
I think he gave up a few runs, but he, and then, uh, Marco Lari, we know
he had, he had kind of a tough time.
He was, he's, you know, um.
Has a big arm.
It just, just had struggled some to throw some strikes.
Uh, Ryan Thomas had some at bats early the year, didn't have a ton late the year.
I think he, I think you pointed out he had the very last at bat of the whole season.
Um, but he, so he didn't do a ton, uh, necessarily.
Um, and then the only guy who, oh, and then Luke Ridley, he also had
some appearances early in the year.
Um, he was coming off of injury as juco.
So I think, you know, again, and, and, and I'm, I'm telling these
guys, these guys are awesome guys.
I, I'm, I'm a huge fan of all them.
I hope they all get to go somewhere where they're gonna have yeah,
a spot and play really well.
Um, the only guy who really probably made a, a solid impact
this year for ODU was Kainen Jorge
Um, Kainen is gonna, the portal, I mean, we think we all know he was one
of our, one of our better players.
Um.
He had a, um, you know, he had, he had a good year.
I don't, I should have put the numbers in front of me, but I
think he had what, eight home runs and had, uh, like 40 some rbis.
He struck out a lot.
He had way too many strikeouts, I think anybody would tell you that.
Uh, but he played, played, once they put him in center field, it really
cemented things in the outfield.
He played really well.
Uh, great family.
His dad's an awesome guy.
Uh, I'm, I was, I was actually talking to his dad, uh, earlier this, this, this past
week and just tell him that, Hey, I'm, you know, rooting for Kainen wherever he goes.
Um, you know, I hope it works out for him.
You know, I hope, I hope he's, you know, I don't, I don't exactly
know why, and I didn't really wanna get to and ask, ask the guys here.
But, you know, it's just one of those things that he's in the portal.
And, and I think one thing I like that I, I hope a lot of fans have taken
over, uh, with the portals at this point is like, Hey, you know what?
Just wish the guys luck.
Just wish him luck.
You know, there's no point.
Like, Kainen's a great kid.
Family's a great family.
I want wherever he goes, I hope he kills it.
I hope he, I hope he has an awesome time.
Like I, I have no reason to have any problem with, with Kainen.
Yeah.
Getting, getting fired up and mad at 'em is not going to
bring suddenly back to the team.
Yeah.
You know, we'll ask those questions and see if it's something that needs to be
out there publicly, but there's a lot of landmines to step on me and start
talking about why guys leave the team.
Yeah.
Because I, I will say it as someone who's not plugged into the
program, like sometimes guys get cut and that's just what it is.
It gets cut.
The only way to continue playing is to go on the portal and
try and find somewhere else.
For some guys, maybe their scholarship money is different, or maybe they have
not had scholarship money and they need it and they're not going to get it.
Uh, it could be a falling out with coaches.
It could be, there are a number of different things.
I'm not gonna speculate.
I have no idea why, but you nailed it.
CB give them a, Hey, congrats.
Good luck moving forward.
Hopefully they look back at their time at ODU fondly and we'll, we'll go from there.
Uh, it does leave us a hole in center field.
Uh, TJ Aiken still very much on the roster, has played center
field, another year of development.
That might be a perfect landing spot for him to be at right there in center.
That's what he played most of the time, I think, in high school.
Uh, and then of course there's, I, I don't know, I haven't sorted the
thing by Center fielders, but I'm sure there's probably several hundred center
fielders in the, I guarantee there are
guys who play center.
They probably talk.
Yeah.
I, and, and they, we actually have a couple of, um, high school kids coming in.
I, I, which again, they'll, we'll talk about.
I don't, I, I know they both had, we, the guys, I'm thinking of the top of my
head, Nick Felton and Bennett Siegel.
Um, I don't know how much either one of 'em played center field, to be honest.
I didn't get a chance they, to schedule wise and, and distance wise
didn't get a chance to see them play.
Um, so I don't know how much they play center field.
I don't know, you know, where they're, if they're looking at them
as being guys who come in immediately play or not, you know, who knows?
But there, there are options.
You know, there, there guys are around.
Yeah.
I mean, at the end of the day, somebody's gonna play center field.
We're gonna work it out.
I, I guarantee you that, um, somebody's gonna be out there.
Um, maybe they don't exist on their roster yet, but maybe they will.
Yeah, we will wait and see how that all plays out.
The portal does close on July 2nd, so after July 2nd, no one
else can go into the portal unless there is a coaching change.
Uh, so at least know who we are.
Definitely retaining, at least from a portal standpoint after July 2nd.
Uh, honestly, I expected much larger numbers.
I think the last few seasons we have had much higher numbers in the portal.
Mm-hmm.
And they've all gone in those first couple days.
So the fact that it's not 15, 16, 17 right now kind of gives some some power
behind what Finney said, where I think we've figured this thing out a little bit
better this year than we have in years past in terms of roster management, which
I think is really important because I don't think you can consistently turn over
half your roster every year, but a third.
It's probably just, it's probably gonna be
what happens in college sports anyway is about almost a third.
I mean, that's just realistically.
Um, so I don't think that, I think that you're kind of reading in a real chance.
Yeah.
And, and, and again, Kainen was the only guy that was probably surprising.
Um, the rest of the guys was like, Hey, I get it.
You wanna go somewhere and have a chance and get to play more?
I mean, really if you're, if you're at school and you're not getting
a chance to play, that's what the transfer portal should be for
frankly, is you're, you're at a place.
It, it shouldn't be like, well, I'm good here, so let me go, they're gonna pay
me money to go be better somewhere else.
Right.
It's like, it should be like, Hey, you know what, I, I wanna play ball.
Um, I wanna go somewhere else and get to play.
Alright.
Yeah, go for it, man.
Like, that's what we want.
I mean, not everybody, like Bryce Jones is kind of anomaly.
Bryce Jones, you know, he, he'd probably, if he'd gone somewhere in
the T world, he could have played more.
Yeah.
I, I think it's reality.
But he wanted to play here at home, wanted to play with his, his, his
best friend, uh, Kyle Edwards.
And for him it was, it was the right thing to do to play here.
Right.
You know, so he didn't.
Have any reason to jump in the portal at any point.
Um, you know, but somebody else in his case, I mean, you know, a good example
of a guy, um, we had was Joey Morton.
Um, we had him as a freshman.
Uh, he was here and he, he was at the same class as, as Kyle and, uh, and Bryce.
He registered that year and he went in the portal, um, or went, I don't even
know if it was in the port at that point, but he went to a JUCO after that.
Uh, he played really great at JUCO for a couple years, and this year he
was at Campbell and he played great.
And, and the reality is like if he'd have stayed at ODU u maybe he'd have
gotten a shot, maybe he wouldn't have, but my guess is he wouldn't have had the
same year here at ODU U that he had at Campbell, uh, because he wouldn't have
gotten those two years of playing at Juco.
I mean, and 'cause Joey's a great ball player.
He is a, he is, he is really good.
I mean, we knew we, we brought him in 'cause of that.
He's a big, big horse of, if people don't wanna remember him, he didn't play big 6
4, 6 5, first base, uh, big lefty hitter.
Um, so, you know, it's, it's not always, sometimes it's the kids gotta
do what's, what's best for them.
They gotta go to a place where they can.
If you really care about playing, go to a place for you to play.
If you really care about being at the school and hanging out, you don't mind.
I mean, John Keane's a great example, right?
John Kean was here for five years.
He really did not get to play a lot.
He got like maybe what, 10 bats as a catcher, maybe like
eight innings as a pitcher.
I don't think he even got that much.
Um, but he loved it.
He's here stuck with us coaching, you know?
Because for him what was important was he wanted to be here, wanted to
be a school, wanted to be with the guys and, and playing, you know,
I'm sure he would've loved it.
We played him all the time, but it wasn't the deciding factor for him.
So everybody's gotta figure out what matters most to him.
You heard H talking about him and Pond and everybody else.
You're getting a return on that investment as a player now as a coach.
Yeah.
I don't envy those guys having to go through this portal.
'cause when I say 5,100, that's not juco.
That's not juco.
That is D one, D two, D three, and 3,100 are division one.
And then you've got, I don't know, maybe half of that.
They're JUCO guys that are looking to make a move.
I mean the, it, it's wild how many players are out there.
It's similar in complexity to recruiting high school.
Like where do you start recruiting high school?
Yeah.
You gotta stick to the, the people centers, you know,
the people that you know.
Yeah.
The teams of the prestige.
They, they aren't running up to, you know, little single a Middlesex County
where I played to come scout me.
'cause why would you, when you can go to, you pass 80 better high
school programs on the way there.
Yeah.
So it's, well, and then also like they had
was at the last few weeks they had the big tournament down in
Atlanta where like every pretty much top player in the country of
high school was down there playing.
You know, so I mean you probably had a bazillion coaches down there, so I mean
you Yeah, you're even the high school ball, it's like, you know, during high
when they're playing high school ball, the coaches are coaching, they're all playing.
So you, you got a lot of things.
So you can play at that little podunk school as long as you
play at the right travel ball and get with the right coaches.
Correct.
In the right place and get seen.
There're plenty of, there's a kid, um, uh, that I really like.
That's from one of these.
Little small towns.
It's, it's technically Hampton Roads, but it's like the edge of Hampton Roads
where it's like barely Hampton Roads.
And that kid's a guy I, I've gotten see him, 'cause he is been on the right travel
ball team and he is one of those guys.
Like I'm, I've been telling the coach like, Hey, this kid's a horse man.
This kid's a, he, I first saw him, he was like, about an incoming freshman.
And I was like, this kid looks like a grown man.
Got it.
I mean, you know, you can, you can be a nowhere school.
It's just, you gotta be in the right situations.
And that's, that's also then you get to the problems of like travel ball being
just like a giant money making scheme.
And you, the number of guys who aren't actually good coaches
or, or through the roof.
E travel ball circuit could have its own podcast episode with the
shenanigans that occur there.
Uh, it's like a 30 for 30
on the, the greatest scam of all time.
Yeah, it's, it's up there.
It's up there.
Pretty good.
Well, uh, kind of programming note for us, we're targeting kind of the
back half of July for another episode.
That will likely be the one with Marin talking about recruiting.
We have a couple other ones that we may record and release it at certain times
too, but we just wanna keep you connected to the program in the off season.
Yep.
It's the first time we're doing it.
If you've got an idea for something, shoot me a cb, a dm, a monarchist
account, a dm, uh, because we, we want bring you what you want to hear.
So hopefully you enjoy this.
Not talking about baseball in the field episode, uh, but obviously
some, some critical and timely.
This is what, it's fun 'cause nothing bad happens.
Yeah.
We cannot lose the baseball game.
We don't have to, uh, worry about that.
It's the thing I like about the right before the season starts, it's like
that, but like way earlier where it's like, oh, good stuff might happen.
Who knows?
Nothing bad happened yet.
Yeah.
It's, it's, it's fun to me.
Yeah.
And when, you know, we talk about the guys that are definitely
coming in and then we'll get some updates on them now in fall balls.
So you kind of know who to look out for even before the season starts.
I think that's really, really what we're trying to do here, but.
I don't mind interrupting my, uh, Monday evening to talk baseball.
It's sure better than working.
I can promise you
it was me sitting on the couch watching something with a cat.
That that was it.
So this is much better.
Yes, she's she's mad at me right now.
But other than that,
well, I, I will say your curtain held up better than normally.
Yeah.
Little peel.
I was waiting to see the paw prints come up and just yank that thing down.
So
she is not allowed in this room at all.
There's a gate specifically to keep her out stuff.
There's so many, so many things in there to knock off shelves.
Yeah.
No, there's so many edible things in this room.
All right, Gary.
I, I enjoyed it as always.
I'm, I'm, I love getting to talk to the guys.
It's, it's fun.
It just keeps you excited about the, the, the future load you
baseball, which I think is awesome.
I'm like, I think the opening up this new stadium is gonna be awesome.
I, I can't wait.
The countdown is on to the 2026 season cb.
Appreciate it.
Have fun.
Uh, and we will talk to you all soon.
Go monarchs.
Go Monarchs.