Episode Transcript
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[00:01:11] Speaker B: Welcome to this week's edition of in the Clubhouse with EMD Baseball. I am Andy Kira Kidis, joined by my Wonderful Co host, Mr. Keith Glasser. How we doing?
[00:01:20] Speaker C: Great. How are you?
Good.
[00:01:22] Speaker B: It's that time of year. We're creeping up on the college baseball season and we're going to hit you over the head with one of the things that we think is very, very important when it comes to college baseball recruiting and just the general knowledge of college baseball.
Go watch some college baseball. Get out there, go find some games, get your ESPN plus your flow sports. Maybe.
People out there, but it's probably the worst streaming package for college baseball.
[00:02:00] Speaker C: They get the best college games the first weekend of the year and it's like, yeah, pay 75 to watch this. Thanks.
But.
[00:02:10] Speaker B: Everything'S heating up here in a couple weeks.
College baseball for the Division 1 level will kick off on February 13, and that's the start of being able to watch a lot of really good college baseball.
The the scope has been increased pretty significantly in terms of access, especially at the Division 1 level. It is easy to find, easy to watch. There's plenty of games that are now being televised on on different networks.
Division 2 and Division 3 are continuing to up their game and their ability to tap in and stream games live.
And then you've always got the option of going to see it in person.
Yeah, I think it is absolutely paramount for people to spend some time understanding the level of play, the type of players, the physicality, the speed of the game, the nuance, the detail.
And you would be remiss to not take advantage of the access that you have it wasn't long ago where you might not really be able to watch a college baseball game on television until you got to the NCAA Tournament. In most cases it was the super regionals. And now you can, you can tune Into Tennessee Tech vs. Mississippi Valley State on a Tuesday night at 7:30 if you want to.
I have no idea if those two teams play, but seems like a potential.
[00:03:35] Speaker C: It seems like they could, it could be, it could be a midweek matchup.
[00:03:38] Speaker B: Could be a midweek matchup.
[00:03:41] Speaker C: No, I, I think that it's, it's super important for people to be able to get out and watch college baseball and, or watch it on tv. You know, we've been beating this drum for, since we've been doing this podcast and I think it sets a, at least a baseline for what it looks like at all three levels. I think it's important to search out all different levels, all different levels within the levels.
You know, it's, it's February 2nd that this podcast is coming out. So you know, Division one I believe, or excuse me, Division two, I believe can open up this like either opened up this weekend or they can start games this week because usually it's like February 1st I think is their first day or you know, the, the Friday or Saturday preceding it if it's a Sunday. So you know, being that it's, it's Sunday was the first, they might be able to play the last weekend in January, first week in February, Division 2 level. So college baseball is already in swing. Division 3 will be kicking up here soon. Division 1 starts 13 February, you know, is the uniform start date for all Division 1. So we're going to have plenty of college baseball to, to be able to sit down and watch which is the most exciting time of the year for us.
I have ESPN plus on pretty much 24 7, watching as many baseball, college baseball games as I possibly can just because I obviously we love college baseball but you know, the flip side of it is like you get to kind of see a whole slew of games. Just like you know, Tennessee Tech and Mississippi Valley State you can watch, you know, the, once you get, we get into SEC and ACC play. That's fun, you know, and I like obviously being a homer. You get the, the Marist Red Foxes and Mac baseball.
You also get Maxion, which is the, the single A Mac, you know, your Ohio schools tussling it out out there, you know, but I think that, you know, it's, it's important for people to be able to go watch college baseball. So that you kind of see what everything looks like for what your goals are, right? Like, if you want to play in the sec, you have to legitimately sit down and evaluate guys at the SEC level and be like, I think I fit there. Like, if you're watching the, the, the velo meter on all the SEC arms and it's 89 plus and you throw 70, the likelihood of you playing in the SEC is, is almost zero, you know, but if you're in that realm, yeah, man, like, you, you got a fighting chance. You got a chip in a chair, you know, so I, but it, it's important for you to be able to watch it. And when you do watch it, I, I, you know, we, we talk about this all the time again, but I think that you need to be critical about what the level is and what you're watching, but also where you think you fit into that level.
And that's where, you know, I think that you can, like, that's where the honest evaluation piece comes in. And being able to have conversations with people that can kind of tell you, like, hey, this is where I think you fit things of that nature so that you can kind of narrow down the types of the baseball it is that you're watching to see, like, hey, this is, this might be where I want to go. The other side of it is like, obviously you can watch it on the interwebs, you can watch it on ESPN plus flow sports, things of that nature. But if you're in an area where there are a lot of colleges and college baseball is being played, like, get out and go watch it, you know, like, especially early in the year or, you know, even middle of the year. Like, most weekends are kind of off for high school baseball. You, like, there's not a lot of Saturday games being played, and even if they are, you're off on Sunday. College baseball still being played on Sundays.
So, like, go out and watch, find a game somewhere close where you can drive up and watch them play. Not only does it. Do you be able to get to see it live and in person, but you also get to see the interaction between the players and the coaches. You get to see the interaction of the coaches with the umpires and how the coaches interact with the team, and you get really get a feel for what that looks like. And if that it might be a program in which you want to go play for.
And that answer might be no. That my answer might be yes, you know, but you can really get a feel for what that looks like. You get a feel for you get the vibe for what's going on from a fan standpoint, probably talk to a handful of parents about their son's experience and, and what they have going on, you know, things like that. So you, you can discern a lot of information by taking a, you know, half hour, 45 minute hour drive, you know, to go watch a team that you might, a program that you might be interested in and cfa, you might fit in at that level and be like, is that a place that you might like legitimately feel as though you can fit into that program and play for that coach?
You know, so I think it's uber important and I think it's important to be able to know what it looks like at the Division 1 level, what it looks like at Division 2, Division 3 Junior College. Like there's plenty of that baseball being played all over this country and you know, the ability, like just taking the time to be able to go do it. And if you, you really want to go do it, I, I implore you, if this is a goal of yours, to go watch it so that you can kind of see where you fit in or at least see the level and what it takes that, what those guys look like, right?
[00:09:16] Speaker B: Like I think that's one you're going.
[00:09:18] Speaker C: To see the physicality of it. You're going to see how fast the game is.
Like you're, and if you're objective about it, you're going to see like this is a lot faster game than what I'm currently playing in. Like guys are getting down the line faster, guys throw the ball harder, guys hit the ball harder, guys, you know, plays are being made like this, right? Like it's, it's a bang bang, it's a bang bang game where you got to get rid of the baseball a lot faster than you do at the high school level because the guy's getting down the line a lot faster and you know, things of that nature. So I think like being able to see those things and seeing that it's not the same game is just as important as seeing like these guys are bigger, these guys are faster, they play. You know what I mean? Like it's to understand that it is a far different game than the game in which you're playing currently.
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[00:11:11] Speaker B: Yeah, I think one of the things that a lot of people will come to understand if you take the time to go watch some of the different levels is that I think you'd be pretty, I don't want to say shocked because that's not the right way to put it, but I think you'll be pretty impressed with the level of play across college baseball. Like it's easy to go look and watch the SEC and the ACC play and be like, oh, those guys are really good. Yeah, of course.
But you can go to the local Division 3 game and walk away and be like, oh, I didn't know that right handed pitchers were 87 to 89 at that level and that's like pretty common these days.
Or that, you know, they have guys who run 6, 5, 60s who can steal bases, run and hit.
[00:11:50] Speaker C: It's.
[00:11:52] Speaker B: I think that that's one of the bigger gaps when it comes to the knowledge of, of college baseball is not understanding the talent that exists across the board and always going to kind of the easy thing, the easy access point and say, all right, well you know, I don't throw 95, I can't play in the SEC, but I could probably play, you know, at this school that's in, you know, Conference usa. Well, go watch Conference USA game. The gap's not that big and I think that that's pretty eye opening for people when they go and watch some of the, the quote unquote lower levels and you walk away and you're like, oh, okay, those are 21 year olds. They're physical, they play really hard, they play the game really well. This is well coached, it's well played, it's intense, the game moves fast, it's crisp.
There's just elements of it that I think people don't easily understand until they have it in front of them. So if I was going to tell you like, yeah, you should go watch the best because I think it's just a really Good brand of baseball to watch.
But if you have the opportunity to go watch a local Division 3 matchup or a local Division 2 matchup, you should 100 go. Because I think it'll, it'll surprise you at the level of play and the level of talent and just the quality of the baseball that's being played.
[00:13:10] Speaker C: Yeah, and I think like, you know, it's so much, I, I say it's so much faster because it is. But I also think the time spent on the field is so much faster too. Right. Like you can go watch a nine inning game and with today's rules, with the pitch clock and the on and off the field, in 90 seconds you're gonna watch a 9 in game and you catch a 219 in a game. Now on a Sunday, we might not catch a 219 in a game, but like you might, you can be in and out of there in an hour and a half and be like, that was the fastest nine man game I've ever seen. It's faster than our seven games that we have in high school.
And like, it just that the, you got to get off field. The pitch has to be delivered in 20 seconds. All of these things where I think like, you know, and it's a complaint of mine and you know this and so do a lot of the people. It's been a complaint of mine for a very long time. You go to high school games and like I put people on the watch. People are, I mean you have kids that are 34 seconds in between pitches.
Like you were dragging the pace of this game.
Dragging the pace of the game.
Right? Like, and you go to college and it's like, yo, this, this arm is like, he's delivering pitches every 17 seconds. And just like the, the pace and the crisp, crisp, crisp.
I can't say it, crispness, that's a tough one. Crispness of it is I think can be eye openening for people because it, it, it is just played at a faster pace of like, oh wow, it's not 37 seconds in between every pitch. It is, we're delivering three pitches every time this one high school guy delivers one, you know, so it, it's, I, I just think that it's an I, it's an eye openening experience and being able to get out and experience it is, is something that everyone needs to do 100%.
[00:15:08] Speaker B: Anything else you want to add?
[00:15:10] Speaker C: No, sir.
[00:15:13] Speaker B: Well, you know where we stand on this topic. Go watch college baseball, get after it, Go see some local games, tune in on espn plus get educated. Enjoy it above most, above all. You know, enjoy watching some good baseball.
But get out there and watch it. Thanks everybody for listening. Tune in next week. We will talk to you then.
Thank you for listening this week. If you're watching on YouTube, go ahead and hit that subscribe button and smash that like button for us. Check us out on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, as well as Spotify. You can follow us on Twitter and Instagram MD Baseball. If you want to find out what me and Keith do to help families and players navigate the recruiting process, go ahead and check us out on emdbaseball.com take a few minutes to check out our new online academy. I promise you'll get some good information out of that. Thanks again for listening. Check in with you next week.
