Long-Term Plan -- Building For Baseball Titles
Pete DiPrimio | IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Jeff Mercer coaches for baseball championships, not short cuts. Let’s start with that when assessing where the Indiana program is, and where it’s going.
The Hoosiers won the Big Ten title in Mercer’s Cream and Crimson coaching debut in 2019. He’s building for a second, and it could come this season, which opens this weekend with a three-game series at Auburn, which advanced to the 2022 College World Series.
IU combines talent and depth, experience and youth, in its quest to improve on last season’s 27-32 rebuilding record.
Roster construction is crucial, and it starts, Mercer says, with a commitment to high-school recruiting.
“I’ve always been an adamant believer in the high school model (of roster construction),” he says. “If you have a quality process and system, the longer someone is in it, the better they get.
“If you have a guy in the system, it’s much easier to help him become a star player, a great player, a game-changing player before you lose him to professional baseball.”
IU has 11 freshmen on the roster this season -- seven pitchers, two infielders, an outfielder and a catcher.
“We will never deviate from the high school model, even if it takes longer to build,” Mercer says. “It’s harder to do, but the ceiling is so much higher when we operate that way.”
Roster building also includes the transfer portal to help offset players lost to the Major League Baseball Draft as well as those who graduate or transfer to other programs. The NCAA now allows players to transfer once without having to sit out a season. More than 1,500 players from across the nation took advantage last year.
College players at the NCAA Division I level are eligible for the draft after their junior seasons. Major League Baseball also drafts players coming out of high school.
“There’s a time and a place where you have to impact your roster immediately,” Mercer says. “With onset of the transfer portal, there are a lot of downsides, but also a lot of good things.
“There are players in the transfer portal who want to be coached, who are good kids, who are searching for relationships, for their education, for the investment in technology to help them become the players they want to become.”
In other words, they’re searching for a program like Indiana.
“As long as the player fits in character and mentality, has a desire to learn and to grow, and still fits with the high school players, I’m open minded to it,” Mercer says.
IU has had eight pitchers drafted in the last two seasons. College transfers are the fastest way to replace them.
“It’s about using the portal wisely and judiciously with kids of high character and integrity to impact in a positive way,” Mercer says. “When you lose players to the draft, sometimes it’s hard to replace them immediately. You can use (transfers) to fill in those spots.”
Outfielder Carter Mathison and catcher Matthew Ellis showcase what elite high school and transfer portal recruiting can do.
Mathison had a huge Hoosier debut last year -- earning freshman All-America honors -- after an all-state high school career at Homestead that included winning Indiana Mr. Baseball honors and leading the state in home runs (16) and runs scored (64) as a senior. Perfect Game rated him the state’s No. 7 overall prospect and No. 2 outfielder.
Mathison’s 19 home runs last year led the team and set an IU freshman single-season record, breaking Alex Dickerson’s mark of 14 in 2009. That was second in Big Ten history among freshmen after Iowa’s Brad Carlson (21 in 1999). Mathison hit .273 and drove in 58 runs.
“IU was always super high on my list being from Indiana and growing up a Hoosier fan,” Mathison says. “It’s an honor to play here. That was big for me. It’s been awesome so far.”
Ellis transferred from Walters State Community College after starting his college career at Tennessee following an all-state high school career in Kentucky.
Last season, his first as a Hoosier, Ellis hit 18 homers and drove in a team-leading 65 runs batted in. He also had 123 total bases, and made third-team All-Big Ten.
“My journey was different than Carter’s,” Ellis says. “Coming from junior college, I didn’t know what to expect coming to a four-year school.
“Once I got here, I was shocked at how good the player development is. It’s unmatched. I made the best decision of my life coming here.”
That includes absorbing what it means to be a Hoosier.
“It’s grabbed me. I’m a Hoosier for life. That’s important.”
So is winning a Big Ten title, and prospects are promising. It starts with such returning veterans as outfielder Jesse Hunter (.353 average last season), shortstop Phillip Glasser (.346), third baseman Josh Pyne (.327, 6 home runs, 57 runs batted in, freshman All-America), outfielder Bobby Whalen (.283, 22-for-25 on stolen bases), first baseman Brock Tibbetts (.266, 9 home runs, 43 RBI, freshman All-America), pitcher Luke Hayden (4-1, 5.27 earned run average) and pitcher Ty Bothwell (3-2, 4.47 ERA).
Then there’s a solid freshman class that includes catcher AJ Shephard and outfielder Devin Taylor.
“It’s a talented group,” Mercer says. “Three to four years ago, you think about where you want to be in your fifth year, and now you’re building and recruiting it. It’s where we need to be. I’m excited to put this kind of group on the field. We’re young, but talented. Now it’s time to compete well.”
This team, Ellis says, is better equipped for a championship, and not just because of physical skills.
“The biggest difference is how competitive the guys are. We’ve got transfers who have done it for a long time. We’ve got freshmen, like (pitcher) Connor Foley, who’s a great guy and super competitive. We’ve got (pitcher) Gabe Levy, (a senior transfer from Davidson) who has been through it all and is super competitive. That’s the good thing about our team, and it’s great for our pitching staff.”
And so the roster building continues.
“I will always default to high school players or young transfers, if possible,” Mercer says. “The longer we have them, the better they are.”
