MORGANTOWN — The question of the day: Do professional drafts accurately reflect the type of talent a college coach is collecting?
We’re not exactly sure where college athletic directors or, more to the point, WVU athletic director Wren Baker lands on this subject.
If his answer is yes, then he’s got to get on board with making WVU baseball coach Steve Sabins one of the highest — if not the highest — paid baseball coaches in the Big 12.
Like, he needed to do that yesterday.
The MLB draft just concluded Monday and its summation of the talent pool that was offered up by the Mountaineers was sort of eh.
Logan Sauve was drafted in the seventh round, the 200th selection overall.
Now, we’re not throwing mud on Sauve’s accomplishment, and it is an accomplishment, but it’s only been one year since J.J. Wetherholt went seventh overall, a far far cry from celebrating guys getting picked in the seventh round.
Kyle West and Robby Porco were the final two picks of the 13th round.
WVU’s ace, Griffin Kirn, went in the 14th round as the No. 410 overall selection. Center fielder Skylar King, one of the most athletic guys on WVU’s roster, was taken in the 15th round.
The MLB draft is only 20 rounds, so the bulk of WVU’s selections were on the back side of who scouts and general managers felt were the best players available.
And Sabins took that team to a super regional, which constitutes the final 16 teams alive for a national championship.
It’s not like he was working with a roster that had four guys selected in the first three rounds and another in the sixth round.
That would be what LSU had, the team that ultimately knocked WVU out of the NCAA tournament and went on to win a national title.
WVU finished with five players getting drafted. LSU had five guys in the top 200 and nine guys overall.
Both Arizona and Arizona State had nearly twice as many players drafted — nine each — than WVU.
Oklahoma State had five players selected with three of them going inside the first 140 picks.
All three of those Big 12 schools were looking up at WVU in the conference standings by the end of the regular season.
On the field, Sabins proved this season he’ll find a way to get WVU to compete with the best.
Just imagine what Sabins could accomplish if he had the same types of recruiting doors open to him that are open at a few other places.
Some bigger baseball school is eventually going to realize that, so it just might be time for Baker to loosen up the purse strings a bit — Sabins is set to earn $425,000 next season, plus incentives — and get a new deal done.
That is, unless Baker feels there is no correlation between pro drafts and his school’s talent pool.
What now for WVU?
Of the five guys drafted, Sauve, Porco and King still had college eligibility remaining.
Sauve is going to sign, no doubt.
The general sentiment I hear is that both Porco and King will sign, too.
The interesting one will be pitcher Owen Puk, a transfer from Florida International, who signed with the Mountaineers out of the portal prior to the draft.
Puk was drafted in the 18th round by the Washington Nationals.
In any case, Sabins and the Mountaineers came away from the draft in pretty decent shape.
Not having utility man Sam White and pitcher Carson Estridge getting drafted is a true blessing for the Mountaineers.
In theory, Sabins can now go into next season with his entire infield intact with White at second base and Brodie Kresser at shortstop.
Ben Lumsden will likely remain at first base and freshman standout Gavin Kelly now has the door open to replace Sauve at catcher.
Armani Guzman is the wild card. Sabins can keep him at third base, which is where Guzman played in the NCAA tournament, or put him back in the outfield, which is where he played the majority of the time.
WVU did sign nationally ranked prep third baseman Colton Sims, so it’s possible Sims goes to third and Guzman goes back to the outfield.
Sims, from Shawnee Mission East High School (Prairie Village, Kan.), signed with WVU after first committing to Vanderbilt.
WVU’s outfield will be the issue, but you’d rather have an issue in the outfield as opposed to pitching.
Sabins did get two very interesting outfield prospects in Georgia Southern transfer Sean Smith and Division II transfer Paul Schoenfeld.
Smith batted .352 with nine home runs and 36 RBIs for the Eagles last season, while Schoenfeld hit .420 with nine home runs and 55 RBIs at Colorado Mesa.
WVU’s pitching depth looks solid with the return of Estridge, David Hagen and Maxx Yehl, who sat out last season after Tommy John surgery.
Chase Meyer just may be the top returning pitcher in the Big 12.
And there is much hoopla around transfers Dawson Montesa and Ian Korn.
Both were Division II All-Americans last season, with Korn being named the Division II Pitcher of the Year after going 11-2 with a 1.81 ERA at Seton Hill (Pa.).
Montesa, from Adelphi University (N.Y.), wasn’t far behind, finishing 8-1 with a 1.99 ERA.
If Puk decides not to sign with the Nationals, then WVU just added a guy who went 4-1 at Florida International last season who had 51 strikeouts in 40 1/3 innings pitched.
And also keep an eye on incoming right-handed freshman Ben Goodacre, a product of Canada who already possesses a fastball that hits 95.
Add all of that up and it looks like the Mountaineers just may be poised for a third consecutive run at a super regional.
