BYU baseball resurgence
 

I did some research on BYU's just signed super recruit Kyle Dean from San Diego. He's pretty impressive. He has signed out of HS with BYU to play next year but there is still the MLB draft coming in June.

Apparently, MLB.com lists him as the #79 prospect in the draft. This is very impressive considering it includes both HS and college players. He will get drafted. The question is exactly where, but you would assume it would probably be somewhere between 50 and 100, which would mean 2-4th round.

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/prospects/wat...15/#list=draft

In a recent interview Dean said he's on his way to BYU and the only thing that might change that is if he's offered a "life changing" amount of money after the draft.

So I found the link below showing what happened to the 2014 players who were signed after the draft. All I can say is the MLB throws out even more money than I suspected at these high draft picks. #79 in the draft in 2014 got a $700K signing bonus. Move up to #50 and it shoots up to $1.8 million. #100 got $500K. It would seem it might be tough to keep this kid. but you never know. Every year a few of these early drafted players do go to college for a couple of years but it's the minority.

http://www.mlbdailydish.com/2014/6/9...gnings-tracker

That said, this can only be considered a MAJOR recruiting coup for Coach Littlewood, especially considering that Kyle Dean isn't even LDS. This is decidely not the kind of player Vance Law was bringing into the program, and the fact that he got him committed and signed is a very good thing even if he takes the money. A poster on another site who has watched him play said this is the type of player who would come right in and bat over .400. Those are the kinds of players BYU used to get in the 80s and early 90s. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel for BYU baseball.

So Kyle Dean apparently had his "advisor" tell the MLB he wanted to go to college no matter what and he hasn't been drafted yet. He was at one time projected to go as high as the late 2nd round on some lists. I've known some former lower level minor league players, and from those conversations it sounds like college is way more fun than the lower levels of minor league. Good for him and good for BYU baseball.

I talked to one former minor leaguer who played on my city league softball team. LH pitcher. He felt like pros was a pretty decent deal for him. Signing bonus, whatever that was. Got paid a little. And part of the deal was that they would pay for his college education later. And that's what happened. They paid for his college.

BYU baseball starts today! Playing against St. Louis U. on neutral field in Las Vegas. SLU won the A-10 conference last year and is expected to win it again. So this four game series should be a good test. BYU should be better with some highly rated new recruits coming into the program this year. We'll see.

wish they played Big 12. TCU vs. BYU would be a lot of fun. TCU is a baseball power.

http://byucougars.com/m-baseball/ruc...-season-opener

21-7 opening day win

Dean went 4 of 5, with a walk, and a homer. Not a bad start.

BYU picked to finish 5th in the WCC by the coaches.

College Baseball is fun but crazy. 21-7? That's a football score.

BYU has won its first three games of the season for the first time since 1998. St. Louis is supposed to be a pretty decent team. Kyle Dean has been as good as advertised. They also have another highly rated freshman (Danny Gelalich) expected to have an immediate impact who has not played yet because of an ankle injury.

What position does Gelalich play? When is he expected to return?

They have won four in a row, not three.

Yup, now it's four in a row as they won on Monday.

Gelalich is an outfielder expected to be out for the first 3-4 weeks of the season.

I forwarded the game boxscore link to my friend who is a SLU grad. Turns out he doesn't give a rat's ass about SLU baseball! But I had to make sure.

BYU is now 5-0 with a 7-1 win today at Samford. Samford is supposed to be pretty good and favored to win their league this year. They were 4-0 going into this game with a 4 game sweep of Butler last week. The Cougars are looking good so far. They play the same team again tomorrow and Saturday. BYU then plays Kansas next week.

http://samfordsports.com/boxscore.as...seball&id=9904

Kansas is 2-1, lost to Little Rock. A school I have never heard of.

The other non-conf are niagara, UVU, and Utah. That seems to be a pretty lame non-conf.

A&M is playing pepperdine, Texas, fresno state.

BYU is just rebuilding after terrible years with Vance Law. Give them a successful season or two. Perhaps finding a good second starter will enable BYU to make a run. Additionally, a glossy record may make it more likely for them to get into the NCAA post season.

Good points. Also, this schedule is no easier as a whole than any they've had in the last decade. The difference is they're winning against it so far. One step at a time. We haven't made the NCAA tournament in like 13 years.

They have won six in a row now. Quite remarkable for them.

http://byucougars.com/m-baseball/event/2016/samford-0

Last year Sagarin ratings:

BYU 103
Samford 116
St Louis 136
Kansas 124
Utah Valley 239
Niagara 291

This year's schedule is weakness. Niagara was almost the worst program in the country last year.

There's a start. Not saying that BYU is good or great this year, but last year, BYU would have lost to those same teams.

UNLV took a game from #23 ranked Texas btw.

Texas was 48 last year.

No weaker than any schedule on average the last 15 or so years. Yet those teams couldn't win much against those schedules. As of this week Massey has BYU at #52. I would guess they've been in the 200s in recent years.

10-1 BYU now ranked #15 on Sagarin.

http://sagarin.com/sports/cbaserate2016.htm

[imagine a thumbs up jpg here]

Heady stuff. Not certain they are that good, but it is nice to see success after so many years of ignominious defeats.

we long argued for BYU's return to good baseball. But that ignoramus dumbass Indy Coug always argued that it was impossible for BYU to be good at baseball because of the recruiting rules changes.

The new coach, and yes I realize he is not brand new but he came from a winning program, has cleaned house and brought a new attitude. He recruited well these past two years. BYU has a great field, and simply needs to snag a few pitchers. I like what I read about the coach and his players.

The won again tonight despite not playing their best ball. Mind you I don't believe it is a top 15 team... yet. He can develop into that if he continues to get players.

We believed BYU could be good because we remembered when BYU actually was good and we could watch BYU baseball on ESPN.

I had so much fun attending baseball games when Corey Snyder and Wally Joyner were playing there. It broke my heart when BYU wilted in the Arizona sun during the regionals.

BYU was the top seeded team in the entire tournament that season yet was made to play on the road right away. I have never seen that happen to any other #1 team in NCAA baseball. Top seeds almost getting a free pass to the super regionals is more or less a given in the NCAA baseball tournament. Weird how it happened like that, but I'm sure it had something to do with the crappy field BYU's administration made BYU play in for so long. I'm glad to see the admin today is finally supportive of the team. For years I couldn't understand what the heck they seemed to have against the baseball team.

15-1 BYU goes against 3-10 Utah tomorrow in Provo. PLEASE Cougars, beat the royal crap out of the stupid utes. I think they will. Utah lost to the same Kansas team that BYU swept.

Utah lost and won against Kansas.

Baseball is cruel because the best team does not always win. BYU would win a series but nothing is for certain in a single game.

6-0 over the Utes.

Glad of it. But wish we could win in basketball and football. Did you see the CB rumors that Mika will be transferring to Utah?

new rumors about Mika? Those have been around before. The Riley Nelson rule would apply, which means he'd have to attend Utah for a whole year with no contact with the team and pay his own way during that year. He'd be free to come home and enroll at Utah if he wants, but those conditions would have to apply. I just don't see it. Off the top of my head, since the Riley Nelson rule went into effect I can't think of any player who has still transferred and endured the penalty, but maybe there is somewhere. It doesn't apply to players like Taysom Hill because they actually have to enroll and play a year before it kicks in. Stupid Utah fans are just trolling again.

http://www.deseretfirstduel.com/Page...eandscoreboard

It didn't update womens softball. We also beat them there yesterday, so the score is 21-14 now.

what is the Riley Nelson rule?

Riley Nelson played a year at Utah State before going on a mission. Then he transferred to BYU. It used to be that someone could transfer to another school right after a mission and be eligible to play immediately because the year required to sit out that applies to transfers was included in the time they were on a mission. That's what Nelson did.

But USU complained and got the NCAA to pass a new rule a few years ago. Now the rule for missionaries is that if they actually enroll and play for a team and then go on a mission, if they want to transfer they have to sit out a year like everyone else. But then to make it especially punitive, they are automatically not granted a release from the former school which means they also have to pay their own way for a year and cannot participate with their new team in any way during that year. They have to actually play somewhere first for this to take effect. Merely signing a letter of intent but never enrolling doesn't trigger the rule, so people like Taysom Hill aren't subject to it. The ironic thing about USU pushing for that rule is that it ends up protecting BYU more than any other school since they send out the most missionaries. Still, with everyone able to go on a mission at age 18 now, I doubt the rule will come into play very much.

I don't know what the official name of the rule is but BYU fans call it the Riley Nelson rule because he's the reason it was passed.

Thanks, did not know that.

BYU is 19-2 after last night's 4-1, complete game by star pitcher Rucker against LMU.

BYU is showing a lot of character as it wins with dinks and singles, it wins with defense, it wins with some timely pitching and it wins with power.

Last night was broadcast via byutv. We haven't faced a great team so I know there are hitting holes and undoubtedly pitching holes as BYU must solidify its pitching after Rucker and Buffo, but it has good potential for the first time in a long time.

Looks like BYU is two spots out of being in the top 25 rankings.

http://www.ncaa.com/rankings/baseball/d1