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'm Andy Kutis, joined by my wonderful co host Keith Glasser, who's repping the Maris baseball shirt today. How we doing?
[00:01:21] Speaker C: I think this is back to back weeks. I'm great. How are you? But this is. This is.
I think I would consider this new old school.
It's the new logo, or at least it's the mascot. But I think this is a relatively older shirt.
[00:01:38] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:01:38] Speaker C: For those of you young bucks out there, we used to have a. We had a different shooter when we were in.
When we were in our college. The Shooter. The Fox. For that. For. For those out there that are wondering about the Red Foxes. Our mascot's name is Shooter, I think. Did we change that?
[00:01:54] Speaker B: No, I dress. Oh, geez. That's a good question. I don't know, but I dressed up in the mascot for a basketball game at one point. For all of you out there, I was the. I was the mascot for a basketball game during a winter break.
[00:02:08] Speaker C: I think Meyer dressed up as the mascot, too. I don't think it was for a ball match. I think it was just.
[00:02:15] Speaker B: Just for fun.
[00:02:16] Speaker C: Just for.
Just for fun.
[00:02:20] Speaker B: That tracks. All of that tracks 100%.
Today's topic, it's.
We're in that, that mid September range and, you know, you got all your fall schedules out.
Saw some stuff pop up on my radar with some of the scheduling and wanted to just take a second to level set on the recruiting rules to a certain extent so that people understand, like when coaches can actually leave campus. This is particularly pertinent for the 27 class and the 28s, although we've probably mentioned how the 28s are not at the forefront for evaluations at the moment for any level of college baseball. But wanted to touch on a couple things because I had some schedules come across my desk, if you will, with tournaments in the end of October and the early weeks of November.
And it jogged my memory that there'll be no coaches at those tournaments. And I think the crux of this conversation is, is understand the rules and what you're going to get out of playing those games.
You know, the dead period starts October 13th, so I believe October 12th is a Sunday and that is the last day that Division 1 coaches are allowed to leave campus to evaluate players until March 1st of 2026.
You're in a quiet period throughout that whole window, which we've defined in the past as not being able to leave campus for in person evaluations.
So any type of exposure you're going to get to a Division 1 school is going to need to happen on their campus.
This is particularly important if your tournaments fall outside of that window. There's absolutely nothing wrong with playing games.
I think me and you would both agree that I think that window is probably better served for getting stronger and, you know, working in the off season or playing another sport.
But just understand that if you are going to play games during that window, that there will be no Division 1 coaches in attendance and likely no if they're not 26s, there's not going to be any Division 2 or Division 3 coaches there either. It just snap.
It's not the norm in terms of being recruiting 27s that early at either of those levels. So important thing to understand the calendar wanted to bring that up.
Sure.
[00:05:11] Speaker C: I of note to this podcast we have changed the name of the mascot at Marist.
The. Our beloved mascot is now called Frankie the fox as of 2017.
So I was unaware.
[00:05:32] Speaker B: Eight years of unawareness.
[00:05:33] Speaker C: Yeah. No, I mean, you know, it's made. I generally speaking for us Marist alum, we, we just lovingly refer to ourselves as Foxes. So we never really referred to our. The mascot if you will.
So it has been officially changed his name to Frankie the Fox. So fun fact for all, for all the alumni out there who may have not known like myself.
No, I think the, you know, the.
This is our hundredth short by the way. So we're pushing about two years of doing this. So congratulations to us.
But the, you know, I think the. The fall schedule, especially for youth baseball.
[00:06:16] Speaker B: Right.
[00:06:16] Speaker C: And I'll I'll bracket in 27s, eights, nines, and anyone younger than that, you know, from a recruiting standpoint, one like, you know, you. You have to at least have a feel for what the calendar looks like. It's worth asking these questions to the coaches as well, because it's not, you know, if you're an upstate New York kid and you're trying to go down to Florida and play in November, like, no one can be there. It's not to say that no one can, right, because division twos and threes can. But the reality of there being a plethora of division twos and threes that are going down to that tournament is. Is very slim, right? Like, they're going to exhaust the recruiting budget during the course of the summer. So you're not going to get a lot of threes down there. Like, you'll probably get a handful of local division twos. By local, I mean, you know, your, your Florida division twos, which, you know, are really, really good programs. And that's a maybe, right? You know, it depends on what their, their fall schedule looks like, you know, and I think one of the things that gets lost in a lot of the fall recruiting stu, too, especially outside the confines of the. The Division 1 calendar, is that these coaches, it's. It mirrors the spring a little bit where they're on campus coaching their kids, right? Like, there's going to be, you know, depending on how they set their fall up, but you're going to be practicing, you're going to be playing. You might have individuals, they might be having game dates, you might have inner squads, things like that, where it's a lot more important for those coaches to be on campus coaching their kids up during the fall than it is going out and seeing a bunch of 27s and 28 that, you know, they're in the same boat as a lot of these other schools where they don't really know what the roster looks like at the end of the year. They're probably going to go transfer portal first before they get into the high school realm, you know, so they're looking at it as like, why, why am I going to go waste time and money to go watch 2728 when you know they're not one, they're not recruitable for another year or two. And I don't even know what my roster is going to look like at that point.
I'd rather stay with my team, develop my players and be here for our inner squads and such so that we can be really good in the spring, you know, so there's a lot more that goes into it than just like, well, we're going to go down there, we're going to play and there's coaches there. Like you could be spending a decent amount of money to go down to some of these tournaments and you're not going to see one college coach, not one.
Like there might be some pro scouts there, but I mean, let's be honest, the pro guys that like, they don't really care, like unless you're a legit first round draft pick right now is a 27 or 28, they're not evaluating you. They're just kind of there to see if someone's throwing, you know, nitro on the bump.
And at this point in the year, there's probably not a ton of guys that are doing it, you know, So I just think that it's being smart about it. It's asking those questions like, and you know, not necessarily just accepting like, well, this is what it is. Well, you know, might cost you 35, $4,000, 3,500, $4,000 to go to this for what?
No one's going to see a play. So like what, what does it matter?
You're better off saving that money and investing it in something else. From a development standpoint, from a weight room standpoint, from, you know, whatever it might be otherwise, just light it on fire in your front yard because it's not, it's not going to be beneficial or useful to you in that process. So, you know, having an idea of what that looks like, you know, and I think the other thing is like, especially at the youth levels, like you have fall baseball going on all the way down to like seven, eight, nine, you like, it's fall baseball, like getting to compete, have some fun, love the game, keep them in the game for as long as we can. You know, it's, it doesn't need to be a year round sport.
Not every sport needs to be year round sport to begin with. But baseball specifically does not need to be a year round sport. Let kids be kids. Let them go play other sports in the fall. Let them do stuff.
It's not going to hinder their chances of going and playing college athletics. If they play other sports, it likely will actually increase their chances because they're going to develop other skills in other sports that are going to be beneficial to the sport they ultimately settle on. But you know, I just think that there's, we've gone, the pendulum has swung so far to the other way and We've, you know, now with new recruiting rules and calendars and shorter calendars and what's going on. Like, you have to be aware of what that looks like and, you know, be smart about where you're spending money and where you're going and who's going to be seeing you and. And what this ultimately looks like. And, you know, the end of the day, like, it's still going to happen. I. I'll beat this drum for a while. It's still going to happen that people are going to do it, but you just have to be okay with spending the money and going down there and not being seen by anybody or, or then wondering, like, why was nobody there? Like, well, this is the landscape and this is what it looks like. Like, you should. You need to do a little bit of investigation on your end, too.
[00:11:13] Speaker B: Yeah. And there's only certain parts of the country where you can play baseball in November. Right. So for vast majority of the country, you're legitimately traveling. Like, if you're from Miami and there's a tournament down the road and all you do is play baseball and it's just a weekend tournament and it's not getting in the way of what you're doing. From a lifting perspective, what you're doing in the gym, then, yeah, like, by all means, go play. But if you're traveling down to these tournaments and you're sacrificing your ability to get in a gym, which is where 99 of kids need to focus, is how big and fast and strong can you get in the off season? We've talked about this a ton of times.
It just doesn't make a ton of sense. So make sure you're looking at your schedule.
If money's tight or money matters, then make sure you're using that money wisely. And, you know, like you said, you're talking a couple grand to go down there for a weekend. And, you know, you could probably spend that somewhere else more efficiently, more effectively.
But I guess the crux of it is, like, just understand the rules.
You know, they're out there. We talk about them all the time.
Easily accessible. You know, if you Google NCAA baseball recruiting calendar, you can get a link to the most active one that runs from August 1st, 2025 through July 31st.
All the way through July 31st.
Yeah. And you can see everything. You can see the quiet periods, you can see the evaluation periods, you can see the dead periods, you can see the shutdown periods.
But it's pretty simple. October 13th kicks off.
You know, what is essentially five and a half months where coaches will not be leaving campus. Division one coaches will not be leaving campus to evaluate players.
I'm sure we'll fire this one up again in January to talk about, you know, if you're paying to go to some indoor event, just understand that there's not going to be any Division 1 coach there. But know the rules, know the timelines, make informed decisions on where you're spending your time and where you're spending your money, and don't just, don't just blindly go and go play games if it doesn't make a ton of sense for you, I will die on this hill. That the 12 at bats, or, you know, say you go down there for two consecutive weekends, the. The 25 at bats you get over the course of those six or eight games, maybe they're not moving the needle. Being in the weight room and sleeping in your own bed and doing all that kind of stuff is gonna, is. Is going to move the needle and a few extra bats.
[00:14:01] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, and what, what's it doing? If you're an arm.
[00:14:04] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:14:05] Speaker C: Have you thrown? Where are you at? How healthy are you? Like, what, what, what are you doing there?
[00:14:09] Speaker B: That's a whole nother.
[00:14:10] Speaker C: Like, it's not even about the recruiting aspect of it. It's like, are you going to be healthy enough to, like, are you going to ever shut down? Are you ever going to take a little bit of time off? Are you going to get in the way? Like, what are you doing? If you're just going to go throw all the time and then wonder why your velo never ticks up ever again, Like, I have an idea. Maybe don't throw 12 months out of the year. Maybe shut down for a little bit. Maybe lift, maybe do something. Because eventually, if you're 140 pounds, you can only move the ball so much.
Like, you can only move it so fast at whatever your weight is, eventually you're going to have to start putting on weight to try to throw harder.
[00:14:50] Speaker B: Think about this.
There's not a professional pitcher or a college pitcher who's throwing the ball with any meaningful intent in November.
[00:14:59] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, unless you're in the World Series. But, like, there. No, like, I know for a fact most big league arms, most professional arms, are shut down come that point in time. The only ones that aren't, and let's be honest, the only ones that aren't are the ones that are.
That were hurt at some point in time, and they're. They're just on a completely different schedule of ramp up, but at some point in the very near future, they're likely going to be shutting down.
Now, obviously it's a little bit of a different animal. We're talking about the less than 1% that can do it. But when less than 1% who are the best in the world at what they do do it, I don't understand why we don't like, we want to replicate their mechanics and we want to replicate their swing and their defense and all this stuff, but we don't want to do any of the other stuff. We don't want to do their prep, we don't want to do their, their rest, their recovery. We don't do any of that stuff. And I get it. Some of it you can't do because you're not a professional athlete, but you can damn sure shut down.
You can make sure you're getting enough sleep, you can get in the weight room, you can do all of these things that these, that, that the best in the world do to give yourself a chance. But for some reason we believe that 14 to 17 year olds can, are just superhuman, can do whatever they want and not what, you know, the best in the world that are 24 to 40 are doing.
But what do I know? I'm just a retired baseball coach, but you know, at some point you're going to have to shut down. My, my point in all of it is, is like why if you're just going to continually throw all the time, then you know, you can't get mad when you plateau or you can't make that jump at some point in the future.
[00:16:45] Speaker B: Yep. 100. 100. Coach, anything else you want to add to this topic?
[00:16:53] Speaker C: No, sir.
[00:16:54] Speaker B: All right, thank you for listening everybody. Hope you learned something. We'll check in with you next week. Thank you.
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.
