"Baseball adds talented class"

[SCTiger2011 1,297]

Good summary of the current 2018 class by Bryan Matthews.  Anyone else excited about the future of this program??!!

https://auburn.rivals.com/news/baseball-adds-talented-class

Butch Thompson and his staff took another big step forward in rebuilding Auburn’s baseball program Wednesday, the first day of the early signing period.

Auburn, which signed and enrolled the nation’s No. 4 2017 class according to D1 Baseball, has added 14 players to the 2018 class including a top junior college pitcher and five talented left-handed pitchers.

The standouts of the class are right-handed pitcher Blake Rivera from Wallace-Hanceville Community College and left-handed pitcher Garrett Wade from Hartselle (Ala.) High.

 

Thompson has signed in another talented class in 2018.

Wade Rackley/Auburn athletics

Rivera, who won a Class 7A state championship at Smiths Station, was 7-1 with a 1.94 ERA and 72 strikeouts in 55.2 innings as a freshman at Wallace. He was drafted in the 32nd round by the San Francisco Giants earlier this year.

Wade had a 2.24 ERA and averaged eight strikeouts per game as a junior. He throws a fastball in the low 90’s with a late breaking slider.

The other southpaws joining the class include Carson Skipper from Hewitt-Trussville in Trussville, Ala., Brooks Fuller from Auburn (Ala.) High, Dawson Sweatt from Starrs Mill in Fayetteville, Ga., and Bailey Horn from McClennan (Texas) College.

Skipper threw a complete game shutout to help Hewitt to the 2016 7A state championship, earning tournament MVP honors. He was 8-1 with a 1.31 ERA and 91 strikeouts as a junior.

Fuller, who is also the starting quarterback for the football team, has led Auburn to back-to-back state championship game appearances. The son of former Auburn pitcher and assistant coach Mark Fuller was 8-1 with 2.70 ERA and 48 strikeouts in 49.1 innings as a junior.

Stats weren’t available for Sweatt but Horn was 7-0 with a 3.86 ERA and 77 strikeouts in 77.0 innings as a freshman. Right-handed pitcher Richard Fitts from Helena (Ala.) High, who missed his junior season with an arm injury, is also part of Auburn’s 2018 class.

The Tigers also added seven position players including shortstop Ryan Bliss from Troup County in LaGrange, Ga., infielder/outfielder Jarret Eaton from St. Paul’s in Mobile, Ala., and third baseman Devin Warner from Cartersville (Ga.) High.

Bliss hit .420 with 32 runs scored and 30 RBI as a junior. Eaton, who is also a standout receiver for the football team, was hitting 418 with 30 runs scored 26 games into his junior season. Warner is a switch hitter.

Outfielder Kason Howell from Liberty Christian in Lantana, Texas, shortstop Ed Johnson from Hewitt-Trussville, shortstop Brody Moore from Oneonta (Ala.) High and catcher/first baseman Troy Beardon round out the class.

Howell, who lived in Auburn for several years before moving to Texas when he was 11 years old, hit .466 with six home runs, 36 RBI and 27 stolen bases as a junior. He turned down offers from Oklahoma, Texas A&M, TCU to sign with the Tigers.

Moore is the son of former Auburn All-SEC shortstop Brandon Moore. Beardon batted .378 with six doubles, three home runs and 29 RBI as a junior.

Auburn’s class includes nine players from Alabama, three from Georgia and two from Texas. It includes seven pitchers and seven position players.

Auburn had 10 commitments when assistant Brad Bohannon was hired as head coach at Alabama June 1. Karl Nonemaker, who was hired by Thompson 11 days later, was instrumental in keeping the class together and adding several top players including Rivera, Horn and Howell.

The Tigers wrap up fall practice this weekend with the Orange vs. Blue World Series with games Thursday at 5:15 p.m. CT, Friday at 3 and Sunday at 4.

[PowerOfDixieland 3,226]

We lost one of the better catchers in the country out of this group...Anthony Seigler from Cartersville, GA signed with Florida.  Hoping the Williams kid will nail it down behind the plate and be there for two or three years.

[AU64 10,122]

That is quite a list...is there any limit on how many that can be signed?  Surprised we had that many slots open from last year.  Impressive group.  Looks like we had 16 pitchers carrying over from last year and some good infielders.  Outfield not as much?  

[PowerOfDixieland 3,226]

"Only 27 of the 35 roster spots are eligible for scholarship assistance. Each player on scholarship must receive at least 25 percent. Do the math, and you’ll find that most players are in the 25- to 50-percent range."

27 is the limit.  The most ridiculous scholarship distribution in the history of the student athlete.

http://www.omaha.com/sports/with-scholarship-limit-college-baseball-careers-come-with-a-cost/article_9c27f775-3564-5051-b7f9-f258c8c37fd1.html

[AU64 10,122]

8 hours ago, PowerOfDixieland said:

"Only 27 of the 35 roster spots are eligible for scholarship assistance. Each player on scholarship must receive at least 25 percent. Do the math, and you’ll find that most players are in the 25- to 50-percent range."

27 is the limit.  The most ridiculous scholarship distribution in the history of the student athlete.

http://www.omaha.com/sports/with-scholarship-limit-college-baseball-careers-come-with-a-cost/article_9c27f775-3564-5051-b7f9-f258c8c37fd1.html

I saw that softball only had 3 or 4 commits......are the recruiting rules that different or just a matter of staying in the limit for total number of players? 

[PowerOfDixieland 3,226]

6 minutes ago, AU64 said:

I saw that softball only had 3 or 4 commits......are the recruiting rules that different or just a matter of staying in the limit for total number of players? 

I'm not familiar with softball, but doing a quick search shows that they have the equivalent of 12 scholarships available annually.  That compares to 11.7 for baseball as you know.  I assume pitching staffs in softball are significantly smaller than for baseball which makes 12 total scholarships much more reasonable.

[AU64 10,122]

1 hour ago, PowerOfDixieland said:

I'm not familiar with softball, but doing a quick search shows that they have the equivalent of 12 scholarships available annually.  That compares to 11.7 for baseball as you know.  I assume pitching staffs in softball are significantly smaller than for baseball which makes 12 total scholarships much more reasonable.

Pitchers....yep...usually just a handful on the roster for softball ...but AU baseball really has a lot of them at the moment.....guess it will get thinned out in February and may be a bunch of walk-ons too..   

[saminbama 741]

Both sports have 11.7 scholarships.  Any difference would be a Title IX violation.  Not sure why we didn't sign any pitchers in this signing period for softball.  One reason may be the new staff didn't have enough time to recruit pitchers.  One of the insiders may have some info about that.   Next season we'll have 5 pitchers on the staff and that's pretty much a full load for softball.  We'll have 2 senior pitchers next season that will need to be replaced in 2019.