Four members of the UVA Baseball program, including the one that hurts, Tomas Valincius, have hit the transfer portal, Carla Williams has issued an AI statement, and, no, I’m not hearing anything about the coach search.
Busy day here, with no actual baseball to write about.
“Our national search began moments after he informed me of his decision on Sunday evening, and we are making significant progress,” Williams said in a statement, which of course began with lavish praise for Brian O’Connor, who skipped town like a thief in the night, on a plane that departed Starkville at 6:24 p.m. Central Time on Sunday, or right about the top of the fifth inning of the Mississippi State-Florida State game in the Tallahassee Regional, which MSU was leading, 2-0, at the time the plane got in the air.
Which is to say, the Mississippi State folks didn’t even wait for the season to be over, which it was, at 9:14 p.m. Eastern Time, with the final out down in Tallahassee in a 5-2 Bulldogs’ loss, and with the MSU Learjet on the tarmac at CHO, ready to fly back to Starkville, to move on.
Classy.
And O’Connor apparently didn’t take the time to tell each of his guys personally; the guy sent a group text.
Also, classy.
***
Part of me wonders if Williams is telling us the whole truth when she says she didn’t begin her search until he told her last night that he was leaving, but then the other part of me remembers how I reported on Saturday that the money folks were thinking the rumors were overblown, and that their focus was on what it had been for a while, making sure there was enough money for O’Connor, who can’t seem to get enough of it, to have to work with going forward.
All of that said, I probably shouldn’t give Williams too much heck for the AI statement praising him after her baseball coach pulled a Bob Irsay on UVA Athletics.
She’s got a big job on her shoulders, without having the five months lead time that she had to figure out a replacement for Tony Bennett.
What she and Wally Walker and his committee did in five months, Williams and whoever the baseball whisperer is in the inner circle need to do in two or three days.
To answer the question that I know is coming, no, I’m not hearing anything.
I will say, if indeed she didn’t begin her search until last night, it could very well be that the list of eight guys that I would target that I came up with yesterday afternoon waiting for Mississippi State to get bounced and what was going to happen to happen might be the working list.
And, hey, it didn’t cost UVA the $60,000 they would have paid a search firm.
(Baseball America has its own list. Note to the folks at BA: we’re not hiring somebody else’s assistant.)
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Last item: the portal.
We had to expect this.
Unlike O’Connor, from whom I never want to be made aware that the word loyalty came from anywhere near the vicinity of his mouth ever again, his guys committed to UVA to play for him, not necessarily to play for him and get a degree from UVA.
Henry Ford is probably the biggest name in the portal, but that’s just an insurance policy, because he’s draft-eligible, and he’s a projected second- or third-round pick, so he’s not playing college ball next year.
Baseball America has him as the #70 prospect; the #70 draft pick is slotted for a $1.2 million signing bonus.
Evan Blanco is draft-eligible, and is Baseball America’s #248 prospect, which translates to the eighth round, and that pick is slotted for a $217,000 bonus.
I can see a guy in that position going either way, back in school for a year to go back to the draft, albeit with no leverage, or declaring for the draft and seeing what happens.
James Nunnallee and Tomas Valincius are both rising sophomores, so, not draft-eligible, and Valincius would have been the Friday-night starter next year, and Nunnallee would be the early favorite to be the leadoff hitter.
Those two are almost certain to join O’Connor in Starkville.
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Chris Graham
