Baseball Recruiting: Hello Zach Fish
Image by Erik Holladay (Special to the Kalamazoo Gazette)
Already looking toward next year's recruiting class, Michigan has gotten it's first publically known commit from the class of 2011 in Gull Lake's Zach Fish.
Fish was a Gazette first-team all-area infielder as a sophomore, when he hit .423 with six homers, 31 RBIs and an .880 slugging percentage for the Maroon Giants. He posted a 5-0 pitching record.
As a Blue Devil, he's picked up where he left off. Fish is hitting at a .470 clip with a .909 slugging percentage, 35 runs, 33 RBIs, six doubles and four triples. He's 16-for-17 in stolen bases, and has a 1-0 pitching record and 0.66 ERA.
He's a short stop for Gull Lake, but he's also played outfield for his summer league teams. I wouldn't be surprised if that's where he was slated. The interesting other tidbit:
The junior recently accepted a significant scholarship offer from the University of Michigan, with whom he plans to sign in November.
"It's a lot of money," Fish said without revealing the specifics. "They have an All-American right now, his name is Ryan LaMarre, and he has the highest in-state offer. They said they'd match that in-state offer. For an in-state offer, it just shows a lot of respect coach (U-M's Rich Maloney) has and it's very, very, very, very nice."
North Carolina, Clemson, Louisville, Oregon, Mississippi and Tennessee were other heavy hitters with a close eye on Fish, a 6-foot, 185-pound utility player with good foot speed and a cannon-like arm.
Judging by his numbers, Fish has a pretty solid chance of being drafted, especially if he continues at that pace in his senior year. It's great to see Michigan lock down a local talent over the likes of any of those other power teams also recruiting Fish.
This makes me very, very, very, very happy.
act like we're casting a line and reeling it in when he comes to the plate?
I ain't got it. Go Fish.
or cougas who like 'em young and in stretch pants, then go ahead!!
;)
we've got him - hook, line and sinker!!!!
Welcome Zach! We're excited to have you!
(lets hope he's a Hammerhead, and not a minnow at the plate - LoL)
. . . at Ray Fisher Stadium.
Couldn't resist.
So weird to see baseball videos indoors on a basketball court. At least at my high school, we had a half a basketball gym with Astro turf installed (the other half was a weight room with rubber flooring).
Next thing we know, there are going to be golf recruits with highlight videos!
I always wonder how they divide up the money since there are only 12 scholarships for 30+ players on the roster. Do top recruits get anything close to a full ride or is it divided more evenly? How many guys are paying their own way?
Not unless they are an absolute monster. I don't think Ryan LaMarre even gets a full scholarship. It's just too hard to seperate out 11.7 scholarships to 20 or so players, if you're lucky enough to have that many. I think I could technically FOIA that info. Webb over at BuckeyeNine FOIA'd the letters of intent for OSU (long story short, but their coach absolutely will not release the names of players he has soft commitments for, much less ones he has LOI for), and it released how much each was getting. It may be an off season thing I look into.
Why do we only have 12 scholarships to divide up among the roster? Is that an NCAA limit on all teams or is that we just don't have the funding for more?
NCAA limits all D1 schools to 11.7. He just rounded up.
Seems odd. Any good explanation why?
Most non-revenue sports have limited scholarship numbers. The only ones that do full scholarships all around are football and basketball for the men. Just an idea of what a D1 team gets by sport:
Sport Men's Women's Baseball
Softball11.7 12 Basketball 13 15 Track & Field 12.6 18 Football 85 0 Golf 4.5 6 Gymnastics 6.3 12 Field Hockey 0 12 Ice Hockey 18 18 Lacrosse 12.6 12 Rowing 0 20 S****r 9.9 12 Swimming
Diving9.9 8.1 Tennis 4.5 8 Volleyball 4.5 12 Water Polo 4.5 8 Wrestling 9.9 0
Not really sure why they censor soccer, but whatever. You'll notice quite a lot of Title IX in that chart. Not that Title IX was a horrible thing, but yeah, it doesn't work so perfectly. I mean, a softball team could run on 12 scholarships a year. Baseball, with pitcihing staffs the way they have to be, no way 11.7 has each of your players covered. It's like trying to play volleyball with 4.5 players.
gets SCREWED!
Man, if I were on the Men's Rowing team, I would HATE the football team.
Well, you should hate Title IX. That's the real reason. Same thing with LAX.
There is absolutely no way that Michigan isn't fully funding a Varsity sport. All of the Varsity sports are funded as much as possible, from Football all of the way down to rowing, track and field etc.
+1 just for having ducreax as your avatar
I don't know the kid personally, I've just read a lot about in in the Kalamazoo Gazette. HIs freshman and sophomore years he attended Kalamazoo Central (Derek Jeter), then he transferred to Gull Lake H.S. in Richland for his junior year.
He's a real stud. He spent part of last summer playing with a top national team out of Cinncinati. Its a great pickup for Michigan.
Gimme back that filet-o-fish
Gimme that fish...
Had to be done.
...offer the kid huge money to play for the Yankees!
Yeah, we might have won him for college, but that doesn't guarantee he won't sign with someone next summer.
Down here at Coastal, they lost all 3 top incoming pitchers this past MLB draft. First pick of the Mets, then two others that shocked us because they went relatively late. One was going to try to play QB and pitch too.
It's a delicate balance, trying to bring in the BEST talent, yet not so good that you lose them to MLB.
Also, FA, I thought that in dividing up the schollie, there were caps. I'll try to find it. I know for sure the roster size is limited, and of it you can have 8 walk ons. Of the rest (19 I think), I think only a couple can, by rule, get full passes.
Good for him if the Yanks offer the money. A few of the baseball recruits that I've known about that get drafted have contracts that stipulate college scholarship money if it doesn't pan out. That seems to be a pretty good plan IMHO.
Steinbrenner better hope he can hit a slider.
in that conference and got to watch him. He's a player.
From a proud Gull Lake Blue Devil (class of '82) to another. I can't think of anyone else from Gull Lake who's become a scholarship athlete at Michigan. Way to go!
Roster cap is 35 players, of which 27 must receive at least 1/4 schollie. The best programs therefore use 8 walk-ons, so as to save more schollie $$ for the remaining 27.
6.25 schollies are used by the minimum of 27 x 1/4
Therefore you have 5.5 schollies left to divy up. Most top schools are only going to give 1 or 2 kids (usually stud pitchers) full rides, as it takes out another 1.5 (2 studs x additional 3/4 schollie over minimum). In that scenario, only 4 schollies are left to "boost" the other 25 players.
You can see how much a full-ride (or anything close) means in this regards.
Currently I know of (2) 90+%'ers and a couple others at the 70-75%. Gets kinda skinney at the bottom.
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