Connor McCaffery Baseball Prospect

Hawkfnntn said:
Yeah makes you wonder if a player like Ozzie Smith would even make it to the big leagues nowadays. Baseballs changed quite a bit in 20-30 yrs
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A young Ozzie Smith would definitely have a tougher time getting his career going today. There's more money the line, for one thing. Ozzie probably didn't make $100,000 during any of the years he played for San Diego. And shortstop in the National league was seen as more of s defensive position than in the American league.
 
Northside Hawk said:
A young Ozzie Smith would definitely have a tougher time getting his career going today. There's more money the line, for one thing. Ozzie probably didn't make $100,000 during any of the years he played for San Diego. And shortstop in the National league was seen as more of s defensive position than in the American league.
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Fielding is a total non issue in all levels of baseball for the last 20 years. I can tell you for a fact that fielding ability isn’t even looked at, let alone considered in evaluating baseball players anymore.

Any private evaluation is strictly batting cage, live hitting, and 90’ time. If you’re a standout and get scouts to come to your high school or USSSA games, they are going to be at concessions or the shitter until you’re up to bat.

Want to walk on at a college? You’re going to get exactly 5 minutes to sell yourself during a little live BP no matter if you’re the best fielder on the planet or not. They literally only care if you can hit line drives and go opposite field on command.

I was at a high school level coaching clinic last year and heard numerous times from scouts and college coaches that if we have players who are exceptional and have the desire to go further, direct 100% of their time to hitting. No base running, no fielding drills, nothing. They used the words “we don’t care about their glove.” I talked to Taylor Zeutenhorst a couple years ago and he flat out told me that the reason he got to the level he did was because he put the glove away at an early age. The only work he did was taking infield before games, period. Fielding is just what you do between at bats nowadays, and it’s hard to argue against that because today’s hitters aren’t putting the ball on the ground. It’s either line drives, home runs, or strikeouts. Sucks, but it’s not the game we played.
 
Fryowa said:
Fielding is a total non issue in all levels of baseball for the last 20 years. I can tell you for a fact that fielding ability isn’t even looked at, let alone considered in evaluating baseball players anymore.

Any private evaluation is strictly batting cage, live hitting, and 90’ time. If you’re a standout and get scouts to come to your high school or USSSA games, they are going to be at concessions or the shitter until you’re up to bat.

Want to walk on at a college? You’re going to get exactly 5 minutes to sell yourself during a little live BP no matter if you’re the best fielder on the planet or not. They literally only care if you can hit line drives and go opposite field on command.

I was at a high school level coaching clinic last year and heard numerous times from scouts and college coaches that if we have players who are exceptional and have the desire to go further, direct 100% of their time to hitting. No base running, no fielding drills, nothing. They used the words “we don’t care about their glove.” I talked to Taylor Zeutenhorst a couple years ago and he flat out told me that the reason he got to the level he did was because he put the glove away at an early age. The only work he did was taking infield before games, period. Fielding is just what you do between at bats nowadays, and it’s hard to argue against that because today’s hitters aren’t putting the ball on the ground. It’s either line drives, home runs, or strikeouts. Sucks, but it’s not the game we played.
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Baserunning is a lost art. Partially because runners don't want to risk outs on the bases and partially because, like you said, scouts don't want to pay attention to it anymore.

It's a shame. It's probably driven a lot of good baseball men right out of the game. Men who would ride busses and drive through the night to places like Bainbridge Georgia and Couer d'lene Idaho and teach for next to nothing. They're being replaced by baseball actuaries, well educated geeks who couldn't hit a wiffle ball with a fat albert bat and who sit at desks all day studying databases and computer readouts. These actuaries will eventually do to baseball what they did to the workforce.

Then you have the player agents, who are telling their clients not to advance to third on a ball to the right side and not to care if the left fielder is left handed and not to worry about any aspects of baseball that cannot be quantified as yet another stat for the actuary geeks to soak up. If you came up in the fifties or sixties and did not have a sound fundamental base, learned from playing in Sumter South Carolina and Salinas California and living on pizza slices and baloney sandwiches, you stayed in the minors. Now there isn't enough American talent to fill major league rosters. They go all over the world to find it.
 
Hawkfnntn said:
Tony Gwynn, Kirby Puckett, Ricky Henderson were my favs growing up as a kid... I'm a Twins fan so that kinda dates how old I am ;)
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Gwynn, believe it or not, played basketball at San Diego State (like Graig Nettles about fifteen years earlier) Tony and Kirby were similiar players. One a lefty, one a righty, both gone too soon. Kirby hit more homers, Gwynn was mostly a singles and doubles hitter.
 
Northside Hawk said:
Gwynn, believe it or not, played basketball at San Diego State (like Graig Nettles about fifteen years earlier) Tony and Kirby were similiar players. One a lefty, one a righty, both gone too soon. Kirby hit more homers, Gwynn was mostly a singles and doubles hitter.
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Gwynn and Puckett were both sneaky athletic. For being short stocky fat guys they could really run and field too. When Gwynn was younger he was unreal. Most have the last few years of his career as their lasting images of him. But he was amazing
 
Hawkfnntn said:
Gwynn and Puckett were both sneaky athletic. For being short stocky fat guys they could really run and field too. When Gwynn was younger he was unreal. Most have the last few years of his career as their lasting images of him. But he was amazing
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I can rattle a dozen examples off the top of my head of players who had that that short stocky fat build who were above average hitters. One was a player you mentioned, Rickey Henderson. There was also Joe Morgan, Pete Rose, Bill Madlock, Ron Cey, Steve Garvey, Kal Daniels, Kevin Mitchell, John Kruk, Matt Stairs, Tim Raines, and Gwynn and Puckett. All were under six feet tall, most weighed around 200 lbs, and most had short arms. It could be argued that the short arms led to more compact swings, and better bat control, and a more compact power base. All of those hitters had good plate coverage.
 
Northside Hawk said:
I can rattle a dozen examples off the top of my head of players who had that that short stocky fat build who were above average hitters. One was a player you mentioned, Rickey Henderson. There was also Joe Morgan, Pete Rose, Bill Madlock, Ron Cey, Steve Garvey, Kal Daniels, Kevin Mitchell, John Kruk, Matt Stairs, Tim Raines, and Gwynn and Puckett. All were under six feet tall, most weighed around 200 lbs, and most had short arms. It could be argued that the short arms led to more compact swings, and better bat control, and a more compact power base. All of those hitters had good plate coverage.
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Now they all want to be McGwire/Canseco instead.... At least Bonds was a great overall hitter/player too. It's too bad he was the douche he was on top of being the steroid cheat. He was unbelievably good even prior to his hat size getting crazy big
 
ssckelley said:
Larry Bowa, 5 time allstar with 2 gold gloves and finished 3rd in the 1978 MVP voting. Could hit worth a crap, a career .620 OPS.
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Once he got to the Cubs, they should have DEMANDED that he stop being a switch-hitter. He hit okay as a righty. As a lefty? That was painful to watch!
 
Northside Hawk said:
I can rattle a dozen examples off the top of my head of players who had that that short stocky fat build who were above average hitters. One was a player you mentioned, Rickey Henderson. There was also Joe Morgan, Pete Rose, Bill Madlock, Ron Cey, Steve Garvey, Kal Daniels, Kevin Mitchell, John Kruk, Matt Stairs, Tim Raines, and Gwynn and Puckett. All were under six feet tall, most weighed around 200 lbs, and most had short arms. It could be argued that the short arms led to more compact swings, and better bat control, and a more compact power base. All of those hitters had good plate coverage.
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That’s what’s great about baseball — all kinds of body types, athletic abilities, speeds can have success in the game.
 
Not "Sultan's of Swing" by Dire Straits?

Of course if the old man strode up to the dish "Money For Nothing" might be more appropriate. :p
 
Northside Hawk said:
I can rattle a dozen examples off the top of my head of players who had that that short stocky fat build who were above average hitters. One was a player you mentioned, Rickey Henderson. There was also Joe Morgan, Pete Rose, Bill Madlock, Ron Cey, Steve Garvey, Kal Daniels, Kevin Mitchell, John Kruk, Matt Stairs, Tim Raines, and Gwynn and Puckett. All were under six feet tall, most weighed around 200 lbs, and most had short arms. It could be argued that the short arms led to more compact swings, and better bat control, and a more compact power base. All of those hitters had good plate coverage.
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Ricky Henderson was shredded. Don't let the big thighs fool you. Other than maybe Garvey the guys you mentioned were a little pudgey .
 
Maybe he will realize he isn't talented enough to play both sports in college. It wouldn't surprise me to see him turn to baseball if he is a pro prospect.
 
Robowe said:
Connor's summer plans ...

https://dailygazette.com/article/2019/04/16/mccaffery-s-son-to-play-for-albany-dutchmen

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Albany, if I'm not mistaken, is where Siena is located. That, of course, was Fran's previous stop.

Albany was also where a coaching legend got his start. Phil Jackson coached the Albany Patroons in the mid to late eighties. Won championships there if I'm not mistaken.

The CBA was a nice gig for much of the 1980's. Similiar to today's G league. I remember Cedar Rapids having a team, the Silver Bullets. The Quad Cities had the Thunder and there were the LaCrosse Catbirds. The league soldiered on through the nineties, but suffered a severe setback in 1989. Many of you may remember the Sioux City airplane crash that year. One the victims was CBA commissioner Jay Ramsdell, who wasn't even thirty when he lost his life in that accident. He might have ended up being the NBA commissioner someday. We lost him and MLB commissioner Bart Giamatti in the same summer.
 
I just checked Connor's stats and he's batting .224on 11 of 49 hits/at bats, 3 doubles, no homers and 1 rbi.

That's not going to get you drafted but maybe he just needs some time to get untracked.
 
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