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2017 Summit League Tournament


theeagleman5

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He wasn't voted first team all conference.... but could win the Johnny Bench Award for the nation's outstanding catcher.

 

 

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How likely is it that a guy like him goes pro early? Obviously he's one of the top prospects at catcher. Any chance he's lured away from us? 

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Have to think he is gone.... he's regarded as one of the top catching prospects. 

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I think most of the mock drafts have Whatley going as high as the 3rd round (#77 overall):

Baseball America Top 100 MLB Draft Prospects

That's pretty high for a catcher. I would imagine that immediately makes him one of the top prospects in whichever organization he ends up with.

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That draft list is old.  I've heard that Whatley will go in the first 2 rounds.  No one thinks he will be back to ORU next year.

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Yeah...Whatley is gone....ORU catcher is probably a late 2nd early 3rd round selection....:oru-logo:

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MLB Properties came to one of the late season games to video Matt.  They said that they go out and video those players that are most likely to be drafted in the top three rounds and distribute the video out to all MLB teams so that they will have the clips available on draft day.  Matt will make it to The Show one day if he can get a consistent bat; otherwise, he will be a minor league journeyman.  With Matt's work ethic, my money is on Matt showing up on a MLB roster some day.

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College hitters have a way of climbing up draft boards, with established track records against a baseline of talent that can give a perception of safety. Especially if they get hot or show signs of breaking out in the run-up to the draft(see J.B. Woodman). Below are some players who aren't ranked as consensus second rounders, but could still go there or be options later on:

  • Matt Whatley, C, Oral Roberts: One of the stronger defensive catchers, and a track record of hitting in a mid-major conference, but struggled last summer with wood bats on the Cape.

I'm curious to see what happens to a few of the other 3 yr players -- Ausua, Snypes, and Hernandez. 

To ORU's depth, they've got the 2016 OK Gatorade player of the year to plug in for Whatley in Cacy Harper who red-shirted this season.

Anyone know if Wommacks will get a med re-shirt and have another yr?

 

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Womacks was in the dugout with a "blue shirt" (ORU baseball's version of the red shirt) during the Regionals and did not participate in the Senior Day festivities.  I believe that he will return for the 2018 season.

Also, Nick Rotola is expected to get a medical redshirt and be back for the 2018 season.

Ausua, Snypes and Hernandez may be high round choices, but I think that they would be better served with one more year of college ball.  Hernandez, as a redshirt sophomore, would still have a chance to return to the team in 2019 and doesn't lose the marketability, like the other juniors.  At the end of the day, though, the whole purpose of playing college ball is to play pro ball and they could still take their baseball abilities to the pros this year, regardless of whether they last long there or not.

If these guys decide to go, we have some quality backups in Harrison Smith (3B), Spencer Henson (1B), Trevor McCutheon (1B/UTL) and Alex Schmidt (UTL), as well as recruits to handle the defense, but would still prepfer to have all of our guys back for another run in 2018.

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due to partial scholarships and tuition at ORU, i bet anyone that gets drafted will jump to pro ball instead of returning.

looking at the roster there were a few guys that i thought were seniors that actually have another year of eligibility -- Cummings, Stout, and Varnell

imagine the team ORU will have if even half of these guys return for another year --- Ausua, Stout, Womacks, Snypes, Hernandez, and Cummings

 

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So somehow I missed this.

Whatley is a Bench finalist. So that means some group of experts believes he is one of the best three catchers in ALL OF COLLEGE BASEBALL!!!!

Whatley is a 3rd round draft pick. He's the tenth catcher taken. He's the 6th college catcher taken. So somebody who scouts baseball players for a living thinks he's one of the best catchers among draft eligible players. 

But he gets second team Summit League to some dude from Western Illinois??  That dude is a senior.  If he's so great why wasn't he drafted ahead of Whatley?  Why isn't he a Bench finalist?  What do the boobs that vote for the All Summit League team know that is lost on the Bench Committee and all of Major League Baseball?  They are in the 25th round and Adam McGinnis hasn't been drafted yet.

Nothing against Mr McGinnis.  I'm sure he's a fine young man.  I wish him nothing but the best in life.

WE ARE IN SUCH A BUSH LEAGUE CONFERENCE.  This is so stinking ridiculous.

 

 

 

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+100 Otis....I thought the same thing when I saw it but for some reason was busy and didn't comment....I checked his stats at the time and the only thing McGinnis had going for him was a better batting average....whoever votes on this in the Summit League are total idiots.....TheEagleman has to believe that the ORU coaching staff and squad had to laugh when this was announced....but it's bizarre......:puke:

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This is such a glaringly obvious case of the conference office justifying some sort of a "participation trophy" to a league player to avoid an entirely-ORU Summit League First Team that I'm guessing Whatley might even find it funny; or at the very least ironic.

At any rate, Matt remains a 3-time all-conference player for his college career, and he now has 500,000 reasons to close the book on that chapter of his life and launch his professional career.

Here's hoping we get to see him with the Frisco RoughRiders the next summer or two when they swing through Tulsa to play the Drillers.

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