Report: Chris Sabo to Be Named U-M Baseball Coach (update2)
It looks like it'll be a Michigan Man after all. Per Skippers Dugout:
Hearing reports Chris Sabo will be named new HC at #Michigan. Several reports today on this story. Something's up.Stay posted.
— Skippers Dugout (@SkippersDugout) June 23, 2012
Update: Matt Slovin of the Michigan Daily recently tweeted this:
Michigan asst. baseball coach Wayne Welton told me earlier today that Twitter is the only place he has heard Chris Sabo will be new HC.
— Matt Slovin (@MattSlovin) June 24, 2012
Update2: Skippers Dugout posted a series of tweets last night about his supposed "scoop." Here there are in the order in which he posted them:
FYI:lots of people blowing us up on Sabo to #Michigan.We got three emails from people in the game tipping us off on this. We just (cont)
We said we were hearing reports of this. Not us coming out saying this. We just pass on scoop of what we here. We try to confirm (cont)
Only person that probably knows about this job is Brandon. We r working our connections but like we always said this is tight to the vest.
We know the people that tipped this story to us. Connected in baseball and connected to #Michigan felt was worthy of throwing it out there.
We r interested 2 see if the "reports" end up being true. Take it for what it's worth. We guess whoever is hired should b this week.
GTFO of MGoBlog and go put some werk in.
just sayin'
.. hence why I didn't notice this until now, still screwed myself harder by getting negged though.. Damn!
He may turn out to be a great coach, but shouldn't we have someone who's coached baseball before especially with the team in the dumps the past few years.
It doesn't matter if it works as long as it makes everyone go
huh?
/DB
I believe Barry is advising DB on this hire.
is that the B1G is a very below average college baseball conference. You really expect any B1G school to pluck some hot proven or up-and-coming baseball coach? How many CWS appearances does the B1G have? This isn't football.
The hires make sense because both guys apparently showed some "work in progress" potential combined with major league baseball experience and a willingness to take the job.
This is the B1G, not the MIAA or the GLIAC or even the MAC. Schools in the MAC and the Horizon and the Summit league don't hire people with no college experience to be their head coach, and schools in the B1G shouldn't be doing that either.
I don't expect them to hire away Stanford's head coach, or even their pitching coach, but somewhere out there is a coach who (1) has been working his way up the college ranks, (2) is currently a head coach in the Horizon league or the Summit league or the MAC or a top assistant in the B1G or the MAC, (3) has a good reputation as a teacher and as a recruiter.
The last time Michigan had a coaching search, they got Rich Maloney, who was the head coach at Ball State. The last time Michigan State had a coaching search, they got Jake Boss, who was the head coach at Eastern Michigan. The last time Ohio State had a coaching search, they got Greg Beals, who was the head coach at Ball State. What do these people have in common? They all had experience recruiting from Big Ten territory, they all were successful head coaches at a lower level school, and they all had at least a decade experience coaching college baseball in the B1G footprint.
I guarantee that the job of baseball coach at Michigan is more attractive than the job of baseball coach at any MAC or Horizon or Summit school in the Big Ten footprint (except maybe Kent State), and I guarantee that Michigan can offer a much better salary than any of those schools. I just don't buy the idea that Michigan has to hire somebody who has no college baseball experience, because all evidence shows that it simply isn't true.
I also want to point out a June 20 tweet from the "Skippers Dugout" feed linked in the OP:
"Some great coaches called Brandon and didn't get call backs. So something is up. Seems to me waiting for their guy."
You obviously prefer a good coach from a lower level school that's worked the B1G region. I agree that neither Michigan or Nebraska "has" to hire a Sabo or Erstad type.
I'm just saying given the relatively weak level of baseball and fan support in the B1G, it's not weird or incomprehensible that a Michigan or Nebraska would seriously consider taking a flyer on these guys They'd really be very similar hires and apparently neither Michigan or Nebraska (who has a better program than Michigan) sees much difference between that and hiring some midmajor college coach.
I'm not particularly knowledgeable about college baseball, but I certainly remember Sabo being an MLB player. That's got to give him some credibility on the recruiting trail, if nothing else.
After winning the World Series, didn't Sabo say "We've got the money, we've got the ring, We've got fucking everything" ?
I've been hoping for Stricklin since Maloney was fired. I really don't want Chris Sabo to come coach at Michigan, because I feel that every other candidate was more worthy of the job, and would do a better job.
Let's look at this, Stricklin has spent eight years at Kent State, and has been incredibly successful. He's gotten great recruits, and he's taken his team a long way, and has been especailly unstopable in the MAC.
Next is Tom Walter, he's coached at three different baseball programs now, entering his fourth season at Wake Forest next year. He turned around George Washington in the A10 conference, then went to New Orleans of the Sunbelt conference and turned their program around, and now he's at Wake Forest where he's starting to get success in the ACC. Walter has been the head coach of a divison 1 college baseball program since 1997, and has been quite successful, posting a career head coaching record of 502-420, as you see Walter has been around for a while.
Now onto Erik Bakich. The guy will be entering his fourth year as head coach at Mayrland, and has recently helped turn the program around. Bakich has one of the best recruiting classes of all college baseball in 2010, so the guy can obviously recruit in the south. Bakich was also an assistant coach at Clemson for the 2002 season, and was the Vanderbilt assistant coach from 2003-2009. He has quite a few years of college coaching experience, even though he has only three years of head coaching experience.
As you can see, all three of those coaches have multiple years of coaching experience at the college level, and have been proven to be phenomenal recruiters. But then if you look at Chris Sabo, you see that his coaching experience was in the minor leagues, he has never been the head coach of any ball program, and has ABSOLUTELY NO RECRUITING EXPERIENCE. It's very important to get a coach that can recruit, because in my opinion, that was the sole reason that Maloney got fired, was because he lost Jake Boss JR., who got in some of the best recruits in Michigan baseball. Maloney in my opinion was a great baseball coach, and I think that Chris Sabo will be a bust. I think if you hire Sabo, you'll have to wait a few years to get an above .500 Michigan team.
I have high hopes for next year, if Michigan hires Walter, Stricklin, or Bakich, because Michigan will have five of the top eight baseball recruits in the state of Michigan coming in next year, especially Travis Maezes. Also, not to mention Michigan will have Biondi returning for his senior season, Michael O'neil coming back for his junior year, and Brett Winger for his junior year. I bet that Maezes, and Jacob Croenenworth will start next year. I don't think the lineup will have as many holes. Pitching is the main concern for next year. Brandon Sinnery in my opinion would be a pitcher for any college baseball team, is leaving because he was a senior. But, some more of the Freshman and Sophmere's who had less experience will be better next year, such as James Borque, and Alex Lakatos, so that'll be exciting to see how they fare out. Not to mention Cam Wysocki, Evan Hill, and Jacob Balicki will be added to the pitching staff for next year, in which all three of those players throw 88-89, and should be able to throw 90-91 next year.
Let's just hope for the best, and not hire Sabo. Go Blue!
Don't ever think velo in high school comes to college. I've seen maybe 1 or 2 guys maintain velo from high school to college. Most drop 3-5mph. Not to mention, most of these kids are used to throwing a flat fastball that blows kids away, with average offspeed, but no control over it. It's always funny to see the first couple of outtings they have in fall ball (they are not pretty).
Maloney didn't get fired because he couldn't recruit.
So I noticed a few days ago that Ricky Babcock and Matthew Husted are no longer on the U of M coaching list. I saw that only Merriman and Welton are left, did Babock and Husted just step down?
Babcock and Coach Husted were "let go" immedietly after Maloney's "resignation". From what I have heard, there had been tension in the front office and one way or the other Babcock would've have gone regardless of Maloney's status.
Reports claim that Coach Husted will be working again with Maloney at Ball State, hopefully not in recruting like before- history tends to repeat itself. As for Babcock, no clue. I don't envision him catching another big break like he did with Michigan.
It still may end up being true...but have we changed the definition of "scoop" and "report" in the electronic age? You can't scoop anyone with a rumor, and it's funny how report goes from not needing quotes to needing quotes later. Apparently you scoop everyone by throwing everything you hear out there, and then hope they only remember the stuff you get right.
Ah, of course...Skippers Dugout is really one of Roll Damn Tide's many identities....
Yes, I found his later use of quotes ("reports") a bit weaselly, as it's clear he's backing down from his earlier tweet.
To be fair to him, though, at least in this case it's not like he made a series of claims about different people getting the job. Prior to that first Sabo tweet I posted in this thread, he mentioned the names of several people who were in the running for the job or who had interviewed for it, and had also tweeted that Scott Stricklin had told Michigan he wasn't interested. Nothing he had tweeted previously contradicted the idea of Sabo getting the job.
As far as his tweet on Stricklin, it's possible that Stricklin changed his mind since that time or that he had told Michigan he wasn't interested in discussing the job at the time but might be after the College World Series. I'm sure these "reports" or "rumors" or whatever you want to call them are sometimes garbled as they move from source to source. (I'll still be surprised if Stricklin takes the Michigan job.)
I made the mistake of putting "Report" in the title of the thread--probably should have said "Twitter Rumor" instead.
His first tweet says reports. And I don't expect you or anyone to go through his history of tweets to find his accuracy. He may be 99% right and get this one wrong; or 99% wrong and get this one right. And I don't think anything he's posted or we've heard negates the possibility.
It's more about phrasing and backtracking. Weaselly, as you say. There have been other threads with debates of the merit of "scoop" in an electronic age, where it's all practically instant once it's announced, but you can still put it out there in a way that one doesn't feel the need to backtrack and hedge their bets, and still be "first". I mean, Fox 2 was right that Rich Rod was going to be fired....of course they tweeted it before he was actually fired. In that case that wasn't a bold prediction. This isn't as likely on face, but it can be said it's sounding likely without making it sound like a done deal.
But as this is the only thing we're hearing from anyone, there's nothing wrong with posting it. Guy just either has to have the courage of his convictions, or choose better language.
"FYI, Stricklin will be in today for an interview..." Great news! Where'd you hear that? I sure hope Michigan gets Stricklin, but here's another interesting name that I should put out there. What about Jake Boss JR? Think about it, he's been all over the place in the state of Michigan, he's very well respected. He can definitely recruit very well, and got Michigan some great recruits. Jake Boss JR was head coach at EMU for one year before leaving for MSU, so what if he left MSU to U of M. I mean, Michigan would definitely offer some great money for that guy, he's proven to be a great head coach, can get in good recruits, and will change Michigan around. What do you guys think?
I was told Stricklin will be in today interviewing from a source inside the program. Boss is at his "final destination" as they sey. MSU is to Boss as UofM was to Hoke, it is where he always wanted to be. He was a lifelong MSU fan and grew up in the area. He has built that program back up and will not be leaving anytime in the near future.
Stricklin will be the ideal candidate for the program, just not sure if they can get him. It will take a pretty good sell job and a lot of money from DB to get him here.
I hope the Sabo talk is complete mumble jumble. Not many young kids will know who he is, so the "name" will not sell the program. No experience recruiting, or coaching, does not bode well unless he can hire a hell of a staff.
I was told Stricklin will be in today interviewing from a source inside the program. Boss is at his "final destination" as they sey. MSU is to Boss as UofM was to Hoke, it is where he always wanted to be. He was a lifelong MSU fan and grew up in the area. He has built that program back up and will not be leaving anytime in the near future.
Stricklin will be the ideal candidate for the program, just not sure if they can get him. It will take a pretty good sell job and a lot of money from DB to get him here.
I hope the Sabo talk is complete mumble jumble. Not many young kids will know who he is, so the "name" will not sell the program. No experience recruiting, or coaching, does not bode well unless he can hire a hell of a staff.
What do you guys think is Michigan's chances of getting Stricklin? I really want him. Do you think DB can sell him on the job?