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I have noticed a recent trend with the NC State baseball program with top players transferring to other schools across the country. After the 2006 season, Matt Mangini transferred for his junior season to Oklahoma State where he ended up getting picked up by the Seattle Mariners with the 52nd overall pick. This past summer Mike Roskopf transferred out of NC State to the University of Southern California for his senior season. Roskopf showed me some major power this past season when the Wolfpack visited Boston College. What is Elliot Avent doing to these kids? Is it just a random occurence that these players have transferred out the last two seasons? I hope someone has some insight into the reasoning these players have left.
6 comments
Since you’ve already asked and gotten an answer from the guy who follows NC State baseball about as closely as possible at http://www.packbaseball.com I have to assume this question has some other motive.
Another question you might want to ask is why a draft-eligible senior doesn’t get drafted and decides to transfer and why the draft-eligible senior who was drafted by the O’s in the 10th round decided to return for his senior year. Or why the Home Run champion from the Cape Cod league would pass up 8th round money to come back to school for another year with Elliott Avent coaching him a year after losing his father.
It’s not as sensational of a story, but probably just as telling.
Now that you mention it, I wonder what Danny Hall did to make Micah Owings leave GT for Tulane a few years ago? Matt Spencer transferred from UNC to Arizona State before last season too, so Mike Fox must be at fault I guess…
You can hardly find a baseball program that hasn’t dealt with this same issue over the years – including big-name schools in the major conferences – so it’s a little curious why you focused on the two from NC State. Roskopf had power but wanted to play first base instead of DH, which wasn’t likely to happen. Mangini talked transfer from the time he stepped on campus in Raleigh, so that wasn’t much of a surprise. By the way…the Wolfpack picked up a few nice transfers this year too – wonder what their old coaches did to make them leave?
Hey…I just am seeing a trend. I understand the Roskopf thing but Mangini was a local kid for the Wolfpack.
The reason why I picked on NC State was the fact that I follow the ACC so much and have seen both Mangini and Roskopf play.
I believe you actually got a very underrated coach in Avent and hope you guys do well.
The McConnell situation is really interesting because he is a sidewinder which leads to elbow issues later in his career. I saw your Wolfpack in 2007 and McConnell was good but tenth round looked to be a reach from my point of view.
Seems like you guys have issues with GT that I am not going to comment on besides the point that I saw them being extremely cocky when they visited BC two years ago. They killed BC on Friday but then promptly lost the final two games. They had no life and Danny Hall just was lackadaisical.
Keep up the comments guys. I want to know more about your transfers but I am not seeing anything on them.
Right…Mangini was a local kid who talked about transferring from the time he got to State. Who knows, maybe he wanted to get away from home? Regardless, I just thought it was a stretch to call Mangini and Roskopf (who was undrafted last June) as a “trend of top players leaving NC State”. I really like the site, but think the shot at Avent was uncalled for.
Issues with GT? Not at all – just trying to make the point that many programs have experienced high-profile transfers over the last several years.
On another note, Eryk McConnell is not a sidewinder…you may be thinking of Kyle Rutter who also pitched in Sunday’s game in Chestnut Hill last season. That was the only game that McConnell pitched against BC in 2007. McConnell had a 1.72 ERA with 11 saves last season and his 10th round selection was about where most people thought he would go.
Mangini crushed the ball in the Northwoods league and in the Cape League and at Oklahoma State. He started off well the first 15 games of the 2006 season, but hit something like .225 after the UCLA series.
Oh and Billy Jones recruited him to NC State. The same Billy Jones that recruited him to Oklahoma State.
I never checked my scorebook but for some reason I thought McConnell was a sidewinder.
I am not perfect. I just make observations. I actually think Avent is one of the underrated coaches in the conference.
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