Update on Baseball Coaching Search
Since this previous thread on the baseball coaching search, a new name has emerged as a possible candidate: Tom Walter, head coach at Wake Forest. Per Skippers Dugout:
Interesting name thrown out to us tonight about #Michigan job.Tom Walter, HC at Wake Forest. We hear #Michigan has interest. #notimetowaste
— Skippers Dugout (@SkippersDugout) June 23, 2012
Anyone have any thoughts on Walter? His Wake Forest bio can be found here. The Demon Deacons were 33-24 overall and 13-17 in the ACC this past season and narrowly missed getting an NCAA Tournament bid.
Walter seems to be most famous for having donated a kidney to one of his Wake Forest players in early 2011.
In the meantime, several articles were published about Michigan's possible pursuit of Scott Stricklin following Kent State's elimination from the College World Series. It sounds like the KSU AD is willing to discuss sweetening Stricklin's current contract to retain him, and they're also working to upgrade the facilities there. As is pointed out in at least one of the articles, even if Stricklin wants to eventually move on to a "major" school, why shouldn't he just wait a year or two or more for an opening at one of the "more coveted Sunbelt jobs"?
I read your previous post on the subject, and I wonder: is the Wake Forest coach the mystery ACC name that was talked about, or is that someone still to be named?
I think that was a reference to Erik Bakich (Maryland head coach), because a blogger at Perfect Baseball had reported that Bakich had interviewed for the Michigan job. Maybe Tom Walter has emerged as a candidate since then.
Since you seem to be pretty knowledgeable about college baseball, what is your order of preference of these coaches?
Not Raoul, but I do follow ACC baseball pretty closesly, so my preference order: Stricklin, Walter, Bakich.
I'm happy to defer to you, as you're clearly more knowledgable about this than I am. Would you prefer all three of those over Merriman? How about Merriman as head coach and Sabo as his top assistant?
as I went to Merriman Elementary school.
I don't know much about college baseball, but if the coach is willing to donate a kidney to a player, I'm fine with him as my coach.
I wonder if they had to check with compliance first.
Only half kidding. I agree, kidney donation goes in the plus column.
The "extra benefit" issue hadn't occurred to me until you brought it up. And it turns out Wake Forest did check with compliance first. See No, A Coach Donating His Kidney To A Player Isn’t An NCAA Violation; Yes, They Had To Make Sure First
with a 98 mph fastball out of Oviedo, FL. He must be doing something right! :)
If your nephew is truly throwing 98 in high school and isn't walking the bases loaded every inning, then he most likely isn't worried about which college will take him. He should be worried about which MLB team is going to take him.
but is going to go to college. It looks like FSU will be his choice. His entire immediate family went to UF, so it's an adjustment for all. But I live in Tallahassee, and look forward to watching him pitch.
From a career perspective, why would anyone want to come to Michigan from the South? It seems that it's not an attractive job. The B1G is basically mid-major, it's hard to recruit, make the CWS, etc. Is there any good reason for people like Walter to leave the ACC, except for DB backing up a dump truck full of money in front of them?
If Michigan is offering more than he is making at Wake Forest (which is entirely possible), why would he not want to come to Michigan from the south? Yes, it's hard to make the CWS from the Big Ten, but that's not how his success will be judged when he is here--and it's not like Wake Forest has spent much time in Omaha over the last couple of decades either.
I also suspect that it's a lot easier to out-recruit Ohio State and Minnesota than it is to out-recruit Florida State and Miami.