Baseball Recruiting: Quadruple Hello
Pretty good recruiting run for Erik Bakich and his Michigan baseball staff over the last 10 days, picking up their first two commits in the 2018 class and two more 2017 commits, bringing the total for that class up to five. It may seem a bit early to be talking about 2018 recruits, who won't play for Michigan until the 2019 season, but (1) early commitments have become the norm in baseball and (2) I can think of only two players who committed to Michigan during the Bakich era and then decommitted, so any worries about players not sticking with their pledge seem overblown.
Here's a quick rundown of the four players who committed:
Riley Bertram: 5-11, 165-lb. SS/3B, Zionsville HS (IN). Prep Baseball Report (PBR) has him ranked #5 in Indiana and #41 overall in the 2018 class.
Jack Van Remortel: 6-2, 205-lb. 3B/1B, Carmel HS (IN). Not currently ranked by PBR in the 2018 class, but their page on him has some scouting reports.
Jeff Criswell: 6-2, 175-lb. RHP/3B, Portage Central HS (MI). Ranked #5 in Michigan and #151 overall in the 2017 class by PBR. Perfect Game has him ranked #213 nationally for 2017 (relevant tweet embedded below).
Isaiah Paige: 6-2, 170-lb. RHP/OF, Damien HS (La Verne, CA). Perfect Game page (PBR doesn't yet cover California). A brief Prep Sports Bulletin item reports that he also visited UCLA, UC Irvine, Loyola Marymount, San Diego, and the University of the Pacific, with his finalists being Michigan and UC Irvine. Also says that he grew up a Michigan fan, which is never a bad thing.
September 22nd, 2015 at 2:05 PM ^
#Michigan gets a big commit from in-state w/ athletic 6'3" RHP Jeff Criswell, up to 90 this summer, ranked #213 per @PerfectGameUSA in 2017
— Jheremy Brown (@JBrownPG) September 20, 2015
Also, Michigan4Life will be displeased to learn that the use of the split M in commitment tweets continues:
Proud to announce that I've verbally committed to play baseball at the University of Michigan#GoBlue pic.twitter.com/cWFoOB5trm
— Isaiah Paige (@isaiahpaige20) September 22, 2015
September 22nd, 2015 at 10:47 PM ^
You are right that I am displeased with the picture.
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September 22nd, 2015 at 2:10 PM ^
Criswell was very impressive at a Perfect Game tournament down in Georgia over the summer. He's a big, in-state get for Bakich and crew.
September 22nd, 2015 at 2:17 PM ^
I predict...that Criswell will be outstanding at Michigan.
September 22nd, 2015 at 2:19 PM ^
Can someone give me a quick rundown on how baseball scholarships work. Are these guys on "full" scholarship?
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September 22nd, 2015 at 2:37 PM ^
Basically, NCAA baseball teams don't give full scholarships to anybody.
You only get 11.7 scholarships to split among your 35 or so players. I think about 10 or so will be walkons, a few others will only be on "book scholarships" (ie, enough money to pay for your books and not a penny more), and the rest will be on 20-75 percent scholarship, with drafted players obviously getting a little bit more than their undrafted teammates.
September 22nd, 2015 at 3:08 PM ^
Good summary from Alton, but just to clarfiy a couple of points: Out of the roster maximum of 35, 27 can receive athletic scholarships (so the 11.7 scholarships can be divided between as many as 27 players). And the minimum for an athletic scholarship is actually 25 percent.
September 22nd, 2015 at 3:13 PM ^
That's right--they increased the minimum to 25 percent to avoid the "book scholarship" thing. I knew they were talking about it but I wasn't sure they had actually approved it.
Thanks again, Raoul.
September 22nd, 2015 at 3:33 PM ^
Thanks for posting this. My cousin's kid just got a "scholarship" to play at Stanford. He's a senior pitcher in Cali, not drafted yet and i was assuming that he got something smallish (maybe a 50% ) or a partial academic ride but sounds like it could be less than that. He choose Standord over a full ride to a very good (not Ivy) east coast school so I assume that they think it's worth it to be at Standford paying big bucks vs. getting your ride paid for at a smaller school.
I hope to be shopping for baseball colleges for my son in about 5 years so I need to figure this stuff out. Seems like baseball is hardly worth getting a scholarship vs. walking on at the right school for you.
September 22nd, 2015 at 4:23 PM ^
This question comes up frequently, and I always need to look it up to make sure I have the numbers right. Seems my Google searches inevitably lead me to this page: Baseball Scholarships 101, which you might find useful.
September 22nd, 2015 at 4:49 PM ^
50% ride at Stanford is a pretty good chunk of change. Of course, the remaining 50% is also a pretty good chunk of change.
September 22nd, 2015 at 3:33 PM ^
Thanks for posting this. My cousin's kid just got a "scholarship" to play at Stanford. He's a senior pitcher in Cali, not drafted yet and i was assuming that he got something smallish (maybe a 50% ) or a partial academic ride but sounds like it could be less than that. He choose Standord over a full ride to a very good (not Ivy) east coast school so I assume that they think it's worth it to be at Standford paying big bucks vs. getting your ride paid for at a smaller school.
I hope to be shopping for baseball colleges for my son in about 5 years so I need to figure this stuff out. Seems like baseball is hardly worth getting a scholarship vs. walking on at the right school for you.
September 22nd, 2015 at 3:56 PM ^
Thanks, I thought it was something like that. Makes it tough for Michigan to grab elite out of state talent I assume.
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September 22nd, 2015 at 2:26 PM ^
Thanks for the info, Raoul. Please keep up the good work.
September 22nd, 2015 at 2:33 PM ^
Baseball scholarships are mostly partial. And they divide one scholarship up into 2-4 pieces.
Partials
25%
50%
75%
100% rarely
September 22nd, 2015 at 2:37 PM ^
Is a stud! Damien High is a all boys catholic school. I love like 10 minutes away and he plays in a very difficult league for baseball and football. One of the better leagues in Southern California. The schools in that league average about 3500-4000 kids. Cabral from Osos who we offered in football plays in that league as well.
I'm hear to tell everyone here that there is so much talent in Southern California that Michigan could RAKE when it comes to recruiting if they hit the pavement more and more. I know tons of kids who are 13-17 years old and are monsters on the travel ball circuit. My 13U team has kids that throw in the 80's all day every weekend out here
September 22nd, 2015 at 3:03 PM ^
Again, important to not that PBR doesn't take into account the biggest talent producing states for baseball so their ranking is more of a regional thing. Also, it's surprising that the #5 Michigan player would be the #213 nationally. Maybe the number 2 player but I didn't think Michigan had that much baseball talent.
September 22nd, 2015 at 3:09 PM ^
I will be down at the Extreme World Series in San Diego again this year. So much talent out here is sick....
September 22nd, 2015 at 3:28 PM ^
I keep hoping PBR will expand into California given how many players Michigan is getting out of there, but it's a bit unfair to call their rankings "regional" when they now cover about two dozen states (including Florida). I've always used the same term they use for those rankings: "overall."
September 22nd, 2015 at 3:26 PM ^
Great to hear! Looking forward to baseball season already!
September 22nd, 2015 at 4:22 PM ^
My son is a high level 2020 kid and the amount of development I see in Southern California from year to year is significant. Not sure I would be taking 2018 kids and to top it off if they are that good, they should be drafted high and he is going to have ot complete with 7 figure signing bonuses.
September 22nd, 2015 at 7:35 PM ^
I just checked the PBR 2018 rankings: 28 of the top 50 have already committed. That's just the way baseball recruiting has been going for several years now. And these are all major programs getting these commits—Florida, FSU, Kentucky, Louisville, Duke, Wake Forest, etc.
Michigan got a commitment from Charlie Donovan in August 2012; he's in the 2015 class, so that's the same 3-year gap between commitment and arriving on campus that holds for a 2018 player committing now. He was one of the top-ranked players at the time of his commitment, and he remained so right through being taken in the MLB Draft. He spurned the chance to go pro and is now on campus in Ann Arbor.
Bakich has gotten commitments from other players with similarly high rankings, and so far he has yet to lose a single one to the draft. Baseball recruiting is incredibly complicated, and I think Bakich has proved pretty adept at navigating his way through it.
September 22nd, 2015 at 8:20 PM ^
For? Mine also is a 2020 kid from Cali
September 22nd, 2015 at 4:55 PM ^
2018? That's nuts. I coach a travel team of kids that age and I can't believe some of these guys are getting offers and committing already. Hard to be a just a kid playing ball these days.
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September 22nd, 2015 at 10:49 PM ^
Baseball recruiting starts really early because if you don't get an offer by your junior year, it's basically nearly impossible to get one in your senior year
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September 22nd, 2015 at 11:27 PM ^
Kid was still a boy. Have no idea how one can evaluate talent, heart, potential accurately when boys are 15 -16.