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Mike Silvestri: Welcome to episode nine of the
John McCormack: Yes, sir.
Mike Silvestri: recruiting roundtable. Today we have the culmination of our college coach series where we started with Division III and NAIA and JUCO and Division II, and we wanted to end it with the grand finale of Division I baseball. And we're excited to have longtime friend. I've known him for a long time, we'll get into that a minute. head coach of Florida Atlantic University, one of the longest Correct me if I'm wrong, but I did my research. One of the longest tenured Division I head coaches in college baseball today, and also the American Baseball Coaches Association president, John McCormack. Welcome, John. Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule. I know fall has just started and
John McCormack: Thank you, Mike. I appreciate it.
Mike Silvestri: we appreciate you taking the time this morning to to hopefully educate some parents, or we know we're gonna educate some parents and players and families about what's going on in Division I baseball today. So I'll start off with this. So And Mac and I were actually talking about this probably a couple months ago because there was a player involved that was tied into the whole thing. But and it and it's gonna get into how college baseball is so different. John McCormack in 1994 was an assistant coach at FAU, correct? And
John McCormack: Yes.
Mike Silvestri: randomly, right, I'm a young assistant coach at at Monsignor Pace High School in Miami. And I I'm an assistant in '94. Gonna take over the program in 95. and John just shows up to a game at Dade North. I don't know who I don't remember who we're playing. Like Division I recruiting coordinators are not showing up randomly to high school games in March anymore or April, right? I mean, there's just no need to do that anymore. So, and it's
John McCormack: No. No.
Mike Silvestri: ironic because this is how this relationship really started. and I remember John coming up to the dugout, we were not very good. that year that team I think went 13 and 14 and then I took over the program the next year and you're like hey you got anybody and I'm like for who? For FAU I'm like no for Division I baseball no I go center fielder can hit you're like yeah we're good there I'm like he I he can't play I go our right fielder's going to Nova center fielder went to Florida State College Jacksonville right fielder was going to Nova back when Nova was an NAIA program it's Mark Groeneveld who's been a long time travel coach he's a he's a Davie police officer And his son's gonna gonna be probably an impact guy for Tulane University this year, AJ Groeneveld And I'm like, that's really all senior class. It's just it's pretty thin. I go our junior class, the highlight of our junior class, and we'll get a chuckle out of this, was Norberto Lopez. He was the catcher on that team. and Norbert is now, I believe, with a title change, right? Associate head coach or something like that at University of Central Florida. And Norbert, ironically,
John McCormack: Yes, yes. Yeah.
Mike Silvestri: Norbert Norbert wound up playing at Broward, playing at Nova, and began his college coaching career for me at BCC when he got released by the Angels and then eventually becomes an assistant coach for you on your first staff. Is that I w what year was that exactly, Mac?
John McCormack: That was 08. Norbert never made it to the season.
Mike Silvestri: really?
John McCormack: He got hired by Coach Cooney two Januaries at previous and I got hired in 08, hired him and the first day of classes he left and went to UT Pan America. No, no. He was
Mike Silvestri: Right. I didn't realise he didn't make it through the spring. that's right. He went with Freddy Mantana
John McCormack: He was at FAU
Mike Silvestri: over there.
John McCormack: for two seasons as an assistant along with me. And then when I took over, I hired him. And then he got this opportunity at UT with Manny and he left. and he's,
Mike Silvestri: Gotcha. Okay.
John McCormack: it's worked out fine. He's got a good gig going right now. yeah. Yeah.
Mike Silvestri: Yeah, he does. And he's still super high energy and and all that stuff. I talked to him on on occasion. So let's let's go back to, you know, that initial meeting in ninety four. We remember you saying, Hey, you want to grab something to eat afterwards? We do, and we we start this friendship for over thirty years. Tell us, tell tell the audience why that doesn't happen today. Like why Michael Cleary's not gonna randomly you're your recruiting coordinator, right? Longtime college coach. Dad was a longtime college head coach at Cincinnati. I believe he's still scouting. Brian, one of your best friends, if not your best friend. Tell us why Michael's not just gonna randomly go to to some evening game with no target list and just start. start fishing in in today's college landscape at the division one level.
John McCormack: You don't have to with what goes on in the summer and the fall and the way travel baseball has it's no longer guys doing it because they love it. They do it because they can make money at it. So they're working at it year round, right? The high school game on Tuesday night, if someone shows up, it's not really to make a decision. It's more to maybe show the player that you love them a little bit. And there's so much communication. Back in 94, cell phones weren't a thing, computers weren't a thing. So you had to go meet people to get lists and find out who was a good player. And now you get emails, get lists on lists and everybody's doing it on a full-time basis. you don't have to, some of the work is already done for you.
Mike Silvestri: Okay.
John McCormack: So showing up is... No one randomly shows up anymore. There's no random.
Mike Silvestri: Michael, so Mike Michael goes out to a game, he's obviously going out there, you know, and and parents understand this. He's going out there with a target. He's
John McCormack: 100%.
Mike
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Silvestri: he's seen that player before, he's probably seen him live before. and maybe it's during the summer that he saw him or during the fall, he's following up an evaluation. What are what are some of the things and now keep keep in mind, families as well, that we all have a million different stories. You know, I found Dan Rovetto at Nova High School because I had signed Michael Morse a future big leaguer, his shortstop. And here was this third baseman. I would always go to the third base side and watch the game from the fence at Nova High School. And here's this third baseman literally telling this future big leaguer where to stand in every pitch. This is a breaking ball coming. Make sure you step to the left in your pre- make sure you do this. And wound up, Danny became our leading hitter, you know, his freshman year at Browden, an all-conference player. He was found. not because he was a target. so parents, yeah, when there's a school there, there's there's always those same stories. When when Michael's going out to a game today, or even yourself, because I know you're, I mean, to me, you're one of the best evaluators in college baseball. And that's why
John McCormack: Thank you.
Mike Silvestri: that's why every major league team when you were a young assistant kept coming and offering you scouting jobs and and you you said I'm a college coach and that's what I want to do in my future. and obviously it's worked out really well for you. When you or Michael are going out to a game, let's just let's start with high school because there's different levels of games you're gonna go to, junior college and so on. When you go into a high school game, what are you what are you looking for? What's Michael looking for, you know, at that particular time of a player that he's already seen? What is he trying to accomplish by you touched on a little bit by going in for that second or third look?
John McCormack: Well, if Brad Weiser once told me the only reason you go back for a second and third look is to decide on the money. When you see somebody you either know, yes or no, they're going to fit. I think for younger guys, it's to go back and make sure that your eyes saw what they saw two months ago to make sure there's no red flags, make sure that he's still healthy. Maybe It's a good matchup. You want to see if he can hit better pitching or he's going to throw against better guys. And sometimes it's just to see him interact with his teammates. I try to get there early and I try to not to wear FAU stuff. I want to see him get out of the car. I want to see him interact with his teammates. I want to see him warm up. I want to see all of that before he even plays the game because that stuff is more important than the game. To be a good player, those things have to be in line. And then the baseball is the easy part. If guys have a hard time off the field, they will have a hard time on the field.
Mike Silvestri: So and and I mean you couldn't have said it any
better. that that in itself, I was just gonna ask what are some of the the other things besides the skill set and the tools and all that type of stuff. College baseball is a long season, right? I mean, it's you the guys are with each other every day more than they're with their girlfriends. You're with your team more than you're with your your your wife and family. And those types of things really come into play throughout the course of the season. what about, you know, let's talk a little bit about when you the difference when you guys go see a JUCO player, right? There was just a big JUCO tournament in Florida, the Auburnale tournament. I I I read a post where there was over 150 college coaches and pro scouts outs there. I had talked to a few college guys about some of our our clients and I know they were heading that way. what what is it the same process for the JUCO player or less because you have more history on that guy?
John McCormack: The it's less, the thing with the Juco player, it's you walk up, you watch him play, and in your mind you go, he's in our rotation or he is gonna start for us next year because we have a hole, and it's a simple process. When you're recruiting high school guys, there is a little bit more dreaming, there's a little bit more projection, there's a little bit more of, well, let's see what this guy can be in two years. So we're recruiting off potential. When you recruit junior college, it is complete plug and play. It is plug and play. If you have to change their swing, you don't want them. If you have to change their arm action, you don't want them. Everything has to be good and they plug and play and you just keep moving along. Because you don't have the time to retool a guy that's 20 years old and be ready and remember our window. of development for junior college guys three months. Three months. So we have to get them up to speed, right? We get three months, September, October, November, to get them up to speed to be able to play Division I baseball. Because there is a little bit of a gap between junior college and Division I. High school guys, you could take a little bit more time, not as much as you could back in the day, so to speak, because no one sticks around anymore. Everybody talks about development and what they really mean is am I going to play? And development is a two-way remember players and parents that are listening Development is a two-way street sure we can hit your ground balls and we can throw you BP and we can set up a weight program But if you guys are not Sleeping eating hydrating and taking care of yourself. It's a waste of time. It's a waste of time your body is your moneymaker so to speak and you've got to take care of it. You've got to take care of it and guys have a hard time with it in college because no one's there to wake them up. They have to go to the cafeteria on their own etc etc and their bodies start to break down because they don't take care of it because we do this from August 23rd to end of June and if you're good even go further along. So the body has to remain at a peak performance and that's sleeping, eating, hydrating. And I talked to a young man the other day about you should learn that stuff before you learn another go to another hitting guru. You should learn you should teach yourself that that'll be better for you in the long run than another hitting guru or another pitching guru.
Mike Silvestri: Well makes that makes a lot of sense. And I hope I hope parents and players are listening to that because those are the things people generally don't think about, but you're hearing it from a division one head coach who's been doing this quite a long time and has seen the evolution of the game and how it's changed. The physical demands of the game have changed. With regards to recruiting, so we talked about a little bit about a high school player, a little bit about a about a JUCO player. Is the transfer portal recruiting? I know a lot of it's done on Synergy, which parents, that's a video mechanism that is now tied into trackman I saw that they formed a partnership together.
John McCormack: Yeah.
Mike Silvestri: Synergy Major League Baseball uses, college baseball uses it became more more popular during COVID for obvious reasons. It's a video system that can really get specific and break down things. When you're recruiting that transfer portal player, we know it's a bit of a frenzied pace with a small window, and the competition's great, and there's a lot of supply of players because I I don't know, the numbers were probably what. I'm gonna go with not including NAIA players. People don't forget NAIA players, there is no transfer portal. JUCO, there is no transfer
John McCormack: Yeah.
Mike Silvestri: portal. It's only NCAA players one, two, and three. I'm gonna go with, and if I'm a way off base, please tell our audience. I'm gonna say that number's in the 12 to 14,000 range range when you include all of those groups together. Okay, that's
John McCormack: 100%. 100%.
Mike Silvestri: a lot of players with not 12 to 14,000 opportunities out there, not even close.
John McCormack: No. No.
Mike Silvestri: When you're looking at a transfer portal guy, that's is is a similar process to the JUCO guy, plug and play, how does he fit in our lineup immediately or in our rotation?
John McCormack: it's even more tight because we know exactly who you are, especially if you come from a division one, everything you do, just so you know, is logged. Everything that every game is on, every game is on synergy or true media. there's companies out there that will go through your whole, everything that you do and we know exactly who you are. There's even a company last year that And I'm sure it's AI or I'm pretty sure it's AI. They will take a player and they will plug them into what they consider your conference and they will spit out this is what he will do for you in your conference. So there is no more potential. There is no
more we think it's a fit. It's either you can play or you can't. All the numbers tell us what you can and can't do. You can't hide from, if you're in the transfer portal, you can't hide. from what you did. know exactly what pitches you can hit, what you can't hit, what you can land, what you can't land. There is no, there's very little, well, we'll take a chance because of the fact that maybe we knew you previously because there's only 34 spots in the Division I roster and the ability for us to take a guy and kind of flip the coin, those days are over. Those days are.
Mike Silvestri: Hmm.
John McCormack: Those days are over.
Mike Silvestri: So so all those kids that we see, and and it's it's interesting, we we had probably ten transfer portal guys last year. I actually transfer portal a couple of them JUCO guys, so they don't count on that and they're they're back at school for their sophomore years. We helped them navigate that process, but How many guys you see on Twitter in particular? We know Twitter is the main tool, more so than Instagram, a social media tool that players will use. And it's amazing to me how many pitchers in particular that you saw always showing you a video of some sort of bullpen throwing 98 miles an hour, not a lot of strikes. And he's a redshirt sophomore or a junior, and he's up to 98. His spin rate's 2400. He does this with his slider and his changeup does this with the gyro spin and all, but there's no body of work to go back. There's never
John McCormack: No.
Mike Silvestri: a mention of innings. pitched and batting average again all the measurable tools that a college coach needs to say can he help us win? Because at the end of the day that's all that matters, correct? And and all you see on Twitter is all of that all the time.
John McCormack: 100 % like I. I see it and I'll I'll forward it to as long as the arm works good. I'll forward it to you know we have a guy in our office that's there in the office all summer that all he does is look stuff up. That's all he does is well he works camp and look stuff up and so he'll go coach. He had a 70 ERA through 12 innings walk 15. He's out. He's out. You know we don't even bother calling him. Because everything is, the internet is great because everything is there and all these services and metrics, we have it all. So the junior college schools are getting more into it. So there is a little bit of that. The junior college guys, you still want to go see play. The division one transfers. You can watch every at bat on Synergy or True Media and you'll know exactly who they are. You know exactly what they can hit. could, mean, you know, Mike, you could type in, you know, what do they swing and miss on? They'll tell you, you know, what did he do? 0-2 It'll everything is there for the taking and you're not going to fool anybody. Not, not a lot of people by putting a video out of, you throwing 98 or supposedly 98. And the other thing is some of you guys, please. check those videos and make sure you're throwing strikes, right? Velocity is a gimmick, know, control or being able to throw strikes is a real tool. We want that more than anything, you know,
Mike Silvestri: Yeah.
John McCormack: we want strikes more than anything.
Mike Silvestri: Tell tell our guys all the time, even even back in the coaching days, the you know, you ask a player, what's the best pitch in baseball? it's a it's a hard to it's strike one. It's it's it's
John McCormack: Strike one.
Mike Silvestri: that simple. Strike one is the best pitch in baseball, then we can go from there. And talking about, you know, accountability, and it's actually come up with us, and there's look, high high school baseball in particular, especially on depending upon schedules, a full season of A Bs maybe 50. maybe in
John McCormack: Yeah.
Mike Silvestri: an program that's playing into the state tournament today, you know, maybe it's 80. You know, my last year as a high school coach, we played 38 games. The the you don't do that anymore. Guys had 120 at bats. So there are sometimes things you can explain, like little Joey. I always like to use little Joey as an example. Little Joey, you know, he hit 250 and but it was a 48 at bat sample size. You know, he had walked 10 times, so that doesn't count against, the overall plate appearances, you know, four more hits and all of a sudden that 250 is 350. Like there are certain, you know, and to me the reference point would be then. the number one indicator for me and parents, please listen is what's the strikeout rate at high school baseball? I mean there's thresholds. We we had this and we still have this in professional baseball. Obviously I still do that. You know, there was a threshold that came up with, you know, one of one of the smartest men I've ever worked with was Paul Di Podesta when we were at the Mets and he had a formula for division one strikeout ratios based off conference and how that was going to equate to potential success at the big league level. And then where does that guy fit in the slot for the draft? It's no different in high school baseball. You know, to me, the elite guys, and again, competition subjective, right? who Player A is facing on a on a regular basis and player B is different. But if you're in that 30 to 40% range at the high school level, I don't care who you're facing, that's really high. It's probably not going to get better at the higher levels. So
John McCormack: No.
Mike Silvestri: no different than why you measure those things out in in in professional baseball as well. Let's so again, you know, parents and players, there's accountability to what you do. Every like, you know, when when we're sending stuff out and, you know, You're you're explaining to the family, like, hey, this is the target level. One of the reasons is the body of work's not a we can't hang our hat on the body of work. We've got to go a little bit on projection, maybe lower your aspirations. Hey, look, in today's
day and age, if that means going to a level that you weren't dreaming about, you know, my opening line every year at Broward Community College is the head coach was, and it was literally the first week of practice, nobody grew up wanting to be a Seahawk. That's a fact. And I didn't expect my coaching career to take me here, but we're all grateful for the opportunity. And if you do what you're supposed to do in the classroom and on the field, development-wise, the options and scenarios that are be provided for you will be endless because you're using this opportunity. So, but moving moving into a little bit of a transition here, talk to us about you're on you're the ABCA president, Division I head coach for a long time. You've seen recruiting evolve over the years and how much it's changed that we touched on. Talk to us about the new five for five rule, in addition to what you talk about a lot, the 34-man roster limit. How is that impacting your recruiting with the 27 class or the industry as overall and then moving forward 28 and beyond? Because it's gonna be pretty similar, I would think.
John McCormack: Well, right now, I don't know when on this show you've explained the DSAs. Okay, so that
Mike Silvestri: A little bit, but go ahead, please.
John McCormack: right now you're allowed a 34 man roster and you would allow you get extra spots for DSAs, designated student athletes that came out of the court case from a couple years ago. I think our number is 36 because we have 34 and two DSAs. Going forward.
Mike Silvestri: And the DSA are are the 25 class, because they were the ones that were affected. Are there still to that 25 like we have a DSA at a Division I school right now that transferred in the portal an outfielder are there still because there were some current college players that were allowed to be DSAs as well. Are those guys still around or is it just the 25 class at this point?
John McCormack: Well, it's not the whole class. It's only if the school that you were attached to had a conversation with you because it was and they made a big deal about it and some people skirted the issue and made stuff up. We only designated six guys that were in our program that we sat and had a meeting with and said, hey, if this 34 goes through, because you remember the season had ended and they didn't do the 34 until sometime in the summer. So we did preemptive conversations. If this 34 goes through, your spot will be in jeopardy. So those guys were able to turn in and they kept telling you, this is a legal document. You cannot fib it, you know? So there are older guys that were talked to about that. So there's DSAs on all different classes. And on the 25 grads, They were only given it if the school talked to them about it and turned their name in.
Mike Silvestri: Correct, yeah.
John McCormack: And the kids couldn't turn their own names in. Yeah.
Mike Silvestri: Which which most kids were d were DSA'd at that point? I would say the majority, correct? Yeah.
John McCormack: And guys like DSAs because it gives you an extra roster spot. 34 is a tight number. We were hoping for two more. But 34 is kind of a tight number when you have guys go out and throw in the summer. You don't have enough pitching for the fall. so the 34 man roster, we've told most 27s other than pitchers were on hold until we see what the guys on our current roster are going to do. We've talked to some of them. We're going to have a meeting in November once fall baseball's over about we recruited you. We gave you money. We didn't even know five for five was the thing yet. And We have to make decisions going forward because we already had 27s committed. so there's going to be some messy, messy roster stuff for everybody. You know, that's a common thing amongst division one coaches is man, the DSAs are winding out. Now we're getting closer to 34. I got 37 on my roster. got 10 signed, but because of the five for five, I don't, only got two guys leaving. You know, this summer is going to be a little messy in terms of where kids are going to end up because the DSAs are getting less and less and they're almost timed out. It's going to get messy and.
Mike Silvestri: So do do you think for for the twenty sevens, like and this is something that we wanted to get across to parents and families today, like we have a couple, we we have a division one commit already, a a catcher. and there's a couple a couple of our of our group that Two years ago would probably have been committed already, that are still actively looking. And one of the things that we're explaining to them is it's not that people aren't recruiting and evaluating. They just can't make the offers yet because they don't know. Right. You just
John McCormack: 100%.
Mike Silvestri: you just said that. So let's stay the course, let's make sure we have plan B in place, whatever plan B may be. because there may be opportunities in June. There may be is that a accurate on your end?
John McCormack: 100 % 100%. I played junior college, I played NAIA Division two coached at FAU we were division two then went division one. The whole division one thing and I say this, don't worry about it. If you love college baseball, go play, find a place to play. It doesn't matter where you're playing. It only matters that you are playing. Because you want to play Division 1 baseball and you're sitting on the bench and you're going to go, stinks. I should have gone somewhere where I can play. Right? I can't stress that enough. And I hate to even say this because I don't, I'm not a fan of it. You can use the portal to your advantage after your first year. Right? You cannot, you can't do it. And I understood the reluctance of it. five years ago where there was no movement, right? You either had a, if you went to a division two school and killed it, you had to go to junior college or go to division one school and sit out, which you saw happen once in a blue moon.
Mike Silvestri: Really? Yeah.
John
McCormack: But you'd have to go to junior college. And then if it was your sophomore year, and I don't want to say you were stuck there, but that's kind of your place and you've finished your career. Now there is opportunity to move. Just go and play. One of the things I always look for is when I go recruiting is are you enjoying it? Are you having fun at it? Are you enjoying your teammates? Because ultimately that's what we're looking for. Guys that enjoy it. Too many young people play right now because they think they're going to get something out of it. Too many parents are encouraging their sons to play, their daughters and other sports because they think there's going to be some sort of reward. Take that out of it. Play because you love it.
Mike Silvestri: Which which today's what? Financial, right? We're talking about yeah.
John McCormack: Yeah, yeah, that's the reward. It always has been some version of it. But I think before it was, I just want to get something. And I can remember the good players on our team, great players that came for $500 and paid the whole thing. Now, you can't even get in the door to a good player without a full ride, right? But that's a whole nother that could be a whole podcast in itself. Go and enjoy yourself, play because you love it, play because you like you're six years old again. That will attract people to you, right? Guys that enjoy it, guys that inspire their teammates. There's always a place for someone like that on a roster, right? There's always someone's going to find you a home if you're the Energizer buddy and you make your teammates better. And that's an overlooked thing. Everybody thinks it's about spin rate, blah blah blah blah, you know, some of that yes, some of it no, you know.
Mike Silvestri: We use a we use a line to our family's Mac when we initially and we just did one with a a player out of Fort Pierce the other day. You know, and we're we're talking and they're our our role changed from two or three years ago. Used to be let's find the home and then whatever, you know, that you can fit in for the next if it's a four-year school, four years, junior college for two years, whatever it may be. Now it's and and it's not just it it's where can you impact the roster as a freshman? If you can't impact the roster as a freshman, then we're looking At the wrong level. And remember that we don't nobody chooses the level, the level chooses you. It all works out in the end, right?
John McCormack: Yeah.
Mike Silvestri: so so if we can get the answer of yes, this player has a chance to help that team win, then we go to the other questions. Does it fit academically, geographically, financially, socially, all those other things to say there's maybe something to pursue moving forward? and that to me is how our role changed dramatically, because, like you said, there is the transfer portal. And you talk about this all the time, the 34-man roster. We we we can't wait for little Joey to get that veto, you know, from the left side up to eighty-six, eighty-eight for a year or two and just pitch him a little bit midweek here or there, or not pitch him at all. Little Joey's got to come in and be able to compete because I maybe only have 16 or 17 pitchers on my roster. And guess what? Two or three guys at any point are not going to be able to throw because their arm is sore or they're hurt. Just normal attrition type of stuff. So that's what we're trying to get across to parents. Talk about with what separates for you, and it's different at every level. What separates for you from Michael Cleary, your staff going out and seeing a player? For a high school player, what's the number one thing that needs to come into play immediately that maybe gets overlooked by that family? You talked about sleep and some of those things, like the preparation of taking care of your body. Are is there something else, a component that we've got to have in order for you to be able to compete at our level? Because it's a grown man sport. The game is more physical, there's better strength and conditioning at all levels, whether it's a trainer you've hired, whether it's an FAU or whatever school you're at. I I had lunch dinner last night with a with a family friend, Craig Saxner, who played in You know Sachs, played at Florida State in the 80s, and he asked that question. He's like, Mike, what would have been like if we had? He goes, we were eating Burger King or Whataburger after a game. And, you know, we eight dollars to our name. what would we have been like as players if we had some of this stuff? So is the physic my question is, is the physicality component a huge component for you guys?
John McCormack: 100%. You're going to walk into a college locker room in Division 1. Everybody graduates high school at 19. So you graduated 18, 19. You walk in, you walk across the locker room and there's a guy 24, right? 18, 19 to 24. It's unbelievably different, your body. And there is no more time of, I don't understand when guys call me and say, hey, if you put some weight on them, why don't you put some weight on them?
Mike Silvestri: Yeah.
John McCormack: Like, I don't have time to do that, right? Yeah,
Mike Silvestri: Why is that on you? Yeah, yeah.
John McCormack: well, why don't he do it himself? You guys have to get in the weight room. And I'm not advocating that your parents hire Arnold Schwarzenegger at $1,200 an hour. You could look on the internet and get a simple workout and do it. And if you're afraid to work out, sit-ups, push-ups, pull-ups are fine. We look for physical guys that understand the weight room because guys that aren't physical, they get run over in college. They get run over in college because of everything is and we had it happen yesterday. We did ball legs at speeds. The first time we did it all fall, we give them some time and one of the guys was on the bottom and I was like, this is part two of the conversation we had three weeks ago when we did the
weight room testing. You didn't do anything over the summer and now you're going to hurt plate. Now you're paying for it and now you're not going to play guys who hit the ball harder play. They get more hits. And you know, they're again parents and students. We all have anomaly stories of the tall thin CJ Chatham who couldn't
Mike Silvestri: Yeah.
John McCormack: lift. 20 pounds, but that guy could hit. He's an anomaly, right? I'm talking about the everyday player. Go and look at, go to spring training, or go to a Division I baseball game. Come and go watch anybody and see how big these guys are, right? Physically, see how big these guys are, and you're gonna go, my God, I need to get going. You don't need, Some of you guys don't need to play anymore baseball. You've played enough baseball. You need to spend more time on your body. You need to spend more time on those soft skills to make you better in the long run. And the byproduct of it is those skills will help you when you're 30, when you're 40, when you're 50. And I'm a terrible sleeper. I'm a terrible eater. I'm a terrible everything, but I believe in it. I wish someone taught me it when... I was 17 or 18. You don't understand the difference it can make in your life and your baseball ability. Because I want you to, everybody has an ability to get to a peak performance, right? Everybody has an ability to get there. If you are weak, you don't sleep, you don't eat, you don't hydrate, you're going to get to that peak performance and you're going to be there for this amount of time. What we want you to do is be physically strong. have eaten correctly, have enough sleep, because sleep is where your muscles grow, is get to that peak performance and be able to stay there for nine innings. Be able to stay there for a month. Be able to stay there for 56 games. Too much of this, you became a good player, bad player, good player, bad player. I can't play you until you become predictable. Remember that. I
Mike Silvestri: Wow.
John McCormack: can't play you until you become predictable. If I look at you and I go, I've watched you in her squad. I've watched you play. I'm going to play you and this is what we're going to expect in the range of this. I could play you if it's, if the range is this, I can't play you because there could be great. There could be too much damage to the team. Right? So you have to become predictable. Predictability is helped by strength, eating, sleeping, to be at your peak performance at a longer time, to be able to get there quicker. and stay there at a longer time. That's what the good ones do. You see it in the big leagues. You see it on every level. This gets you on the bench sitting next to me. This gets you playing.
Mike Silvestri: And that that's the the the the quote and I'm gonna write that down. And we've had a couple good ones. Eric Cruz said, Don't chase the logo, chase the fit, right? Not looking, you know, for the the shiny toy where where can I play which you addressed and now you talk about I can't play you until you're predictable. you can't you can't get any more simplistic than that and the preparation that needs to go into becoming predictable. It's no different at the major league level when you have veteran major league managers who are hesitant to play young players. It's not the skill set. It's we've got a hundred and sixty-two game season, we're being paid to try to get to the World Series or the postseason, all of those things. And if we don't know that you can handle the ups and downs of this long season, you know, there usually the veteran managers are hesitant to play younger players. you know. And it's it's why it took Mike Trout that extra season to get into the big leagues, even though the everyone already knew the talent. It's is he gonna be able to handle this coming from New Jersey, playing 18 high school games a year just two or three years ago to dealing with this? Obviously that worked out. There's outliers in life and everything, but it goes back to the predictability part. And you just talked about what are the components of the predictability part. and ironically. not talking about what your exit vela was and what your spin rate was. It was the preparation of going into becoming who you're supposed to be. The legendary Tom Kochman, and I try always to pay you know, bring him up occasionally on podcast because he's forgotten more baseball than most people will ever know.
John McCormack: Unbelievable.
Mike Silvestri: He's he He said to me one time, and the guy's actually a hitting coordinator now with the with American League team, when I drafted and signed this particular player, he was a foreign player playing in Palm Beach County at the time, so he's eligible for the draft. And his second year, and this is a level that doesn't exist anymore, Koch was the manager for short season baseball in in Utah. It was either Provo or Oram, depending upon what year it was. but he said to me after about two weeks with this particular player, he's like, Hey, Mike, Good job, you know, Koch was very, you know, very, very simplistic in his approach to you. great job on this particular place signing. Whatever he's supposed to be, he's gonna be. And I think that's the ultimate thing that we try to tell players and families: be whatever you're supposed to be. And what he meant by that was if this guy's supposed to play in the big leagues, obviously barring injury or something like that, which actually happened to him at AAA, if he's supposed to play in the big leagues, he will. If he's supposed to cap out at double A, because that's his ceiling, he will. What his work ethic, his preparation, all of those things will allow him to get to the ceiling of who he's supposed to be as a player. And that's all you can ask: be the best version of yourself. And that goes into preparation. As we start to wrap this up, Mac, what are what's a common mistake that you think? You know, we've addressed like, you
know, 27 players stay the course, 28 players stay the course. You know, we know there's no straight line in recruiting anymore. You know, to get to FAU may take you to a JUCO or another four-year school to play. At the level that Coach Mack needs to play at in the American Athletic Conference, what's a common mistake that you still see today with players and parents trying to get their son or daughter, whatever it may be, to the division one level and what the what their mistake in the process is for you?
John McCormack: they it's and it happened the other day is the baseball community is very small and most everybody will try to help everybody out. My advice to anybody listening is deal with people upfront and honest. Don't worry about what I'm saying. Your point has to be upfront and honest. A lot of people, parents, think that they are going to jump the shark and beat me and I'm gonna mess up and I'm gonna give their son a scholarship, right? They think that they are going to, because maybe they're a really good lawyer, maybe they're a doctor, maybe they're a car, whatever, they think because of their life experiences, they are going to jump the shark, I'm gonna mess up and offer him a scholarship. They're gonna tell me on the phone, that so-and-so offered and I have until tomorrow. Okay, well, good luck. You're not gonna beat the recruiters. This is what they do, right? And we had a situation the other day where a kid had agreed to visit, called and said, I can't come, my dad has something going on. Okay, we'll reschedule. Find out through the grapevine that he scheduled a visit with another school. Called that school, the school confirmed it. called the kid and said, we're out. Then all of a sudden it started, hey, I'm not that person. Well, actually you are because you did
Mike Silvestri: You are. Yeah.
John McCormack: it. I have the ability to call anybody in the country and say, you don't have to tell me what you've given them. You don't have to tell me what's going on. Are you the kid in for a visit? Yes or no. And most people will tell me, I know a lot of people and that's not a backslap. Don't try to, what?
Mike Silvestri: You've been doing it a long time. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. You've been doing it a long time. You got
John McCormack: I'm old.
Mike Silvestri: a you got a big network. Yeah.
John McCormack: Don't try to jump the shark and think you're going to trick somebody into doing something that they don't want to do. That's the common misconception of this whole thing. Tell people what you want. Don't change your message for each school. This is what I'm looking for. This is what I want. Be honest and upfront. Be true to the timeline. Everything that you and your parents agree to. Just stick with it, right? And if I, meaning the school, changes what they tell you, then you don't want to go there anyways, right? That's the first thing. The second thing is, if you have an opportunity to get in front of a college coach on a visit or on
a phone call, be ready, right? I have a rule, if I call you once or twice and you don't get back to me, I never call you again. Goodbye, right? And I hear it, well, kids are not good on the phone. Well, get good on the phone. I don't know what else to tell you. Like, I'm so sick of excuses for young people. It's got to stop. Answer the phone. Take the stupid message off your cell phone, right?
Mike Silvestri: Please, please, yes, yes.
John McCormack: Don't, if someone calls you, return the call. Or you could text back and say, I didn't recognize this number. Well, I didn't know, you know, I hear it all the time. Well, why didn't you call back? Well, I called twice. I left two messages. I never heard back. So I just assumed he wasn't interested. my phone, you know, stop just answer the phone. Please don't have your parents call back. Please don't have your parents email me. I don't want to hear from them. No offense, parents. Because I'm not going to coach you. I'm going to coach your son.
Mike Silvestri: Coach the player.
John McCormack: They have to be able to at least to deal with me. They have to be able to stand on their own two feet. Now there's a time and place for parents, come visit, sit in office, do you have questions? So we get to the point where we're in the office, and this boggles my mind every time, you finally get to sit down with the coach, you go visit the campus, you might talk to the hitting coach or the pitching coach, and then I talk, do you have any questions? No. This is your future, you have no questions. There's nothing you wanna know. Are you serious? Really? And some people are afraid to ask questions. If you're afraid to ask a coach a question that it might squash the deal, you don't want to go there anyways. Coach, this is great. Pull up a notepad out of your back pocket and say, hey, what about this? What about that? What about that? Every situation could be great if you know exactly what you're getting into. And I get it. Opportunities are tough. And sometimes you don't want to ask questions that you know the answers to because you know it might not be what you think it should be or what you want it to be. But the walk on thing, my God, don't show up to a school telling everybody you're going there and you're going to be a walk on unless you've talked to the coach on multiple occasions. And you know exactly when the tryouts are. You've been to the physical, whatever it is. And I had two sons that played high school baseball and college baseball. And I would talk to their parents and they would ask me questions. And a very generous person with my time. And I would tell people that is a bad deal. That's a bad deal. They have no illusions of having your son on the team. They are looking for enrollment. What was the last time you talked to the coach? Well, you know, he's at camp in January and they said he could walk on. Stop, Yeah, that's not one of their
Mike Silvestri: You you you and a hundred other players, yeah.
For a tuition drive, yeah.
John McCormack: players. And I get it, I get it, man. I'm not saying I don't get it. And I have empathy. You've spent all this money and you've spent all this time and your son says he wants to play college baseball and now you have someone offering something? That's great. Say, hey, this is unbelievable, but you've got to dig and ask questions. Don't be afraid to ask the tough questions. Hey, I looked on your roster online. There's 25 guys that were on last year's roster that aren't on this year's roster. You might ask him what happened. You know, you've got to know what you're getting into. And again, if the coach on my side of the desk doesn't like to hear that question or answer it, you don't want to play for that guy anyways, you know? So.
Mike Silvestri: Mac, and that's you go along those lines. We had a player down here, and and he's one of the guys I think in the past would have been some sort of division one commit, you know, whatever it may have been percentage wise, da da da, who's still out there looking and he'll he'll find his spot. He had a call potentially lined up with a division one school and they're trying to get him to come to camp. And I said, and I know that he had sent, you know, some video stuff, obviously that we helped him do. And I said, You look at the roster. no. I said, well, we we give you a guideline of what to do. We have a college database on our website that has everything about a school, literally from cost of attendance to how many freshmen are on their baseball roster or softball roster. Like it's that in-depth. you know, our tech guy did an unbelievable job of that. It took eight months to do. and I said, Did you look? And I already knew the answer to the question. It was three. There were three high school players in the roster. I go, are you gonna be one of the three? Because those are pitchers. You're not a pitcher. So you can do the call from an experience standpoint, but you're not going to camp. Not with our blessing. You can go and spend the $1,500 and airfare and all that type of stuff. Be educated about the process, right? And that's, you know, that that's as as convoluted as this process has become, you know, parents. Players, families, you you've gotten unbelievable advice from someone who's been doing this a long time, has seen the evolution from going to that March random high school baseball game to watching you know, synergy video today for transport portal guy. He's seen it all. He's uber successful. I'm gonna leave everybody with this. I've known Coach Mac a long time, back from my high school coaching days. He recruited some of our players to my my area scout days, my supervisor days, to to today, right? And to this day, he's the only guy that I know that does this. So you talk about, you know, I say to parents all the time, which we're trying to find a place where he can fit and help a team win right off the bat. And hopefully you as a parent John McCormack and
and his staffs always follow his lead. You walk into a dugout on Scout Day, there's every bit of information that he's allowed to give about a player. Every bit of information. to this day, he's the only coach I know, and I'm not believe me, not taking a shot. Anybody, but he He's always trying to help his players who want to continue their careers after their college career is over. He still sends out the emails. John McCormack knows there's 2,100 fewer playing opportunities in professional baseball today. That may get even more so post-this new CBA that comes out.
John McCormack: Cool.
Mike Silvestri: And because there may be another elimination of a level of play, pushing guys to independent baseball or go get a job at that point. John McCormack still sends out the email. I got this guy, this guy, this guy. Here's all the information. Anything you need from an organizational standpoint, you work for the Marlins, you work for the Twins, you work for the Giants. I will help you. He really wants to play. He's always looking out for the better part of his players. But I think you guys learned today one thing about John McCormack and FAU baseball. Come in prepared. Come in to be a good teammate. Obviously, you gotta have the skill set to compete at that level. They're playing a very tough schedule, both in state and in conference and then out of state and all that type of stuff. but when you have the opportunity, you know, to, you know, as a as a parent, when you can put your kid in a place that Again, it's as simple as putting your head on the pillow at night. Can you put your head on the pillow at night? Know your kids in a good place with people that are gonna if he's supposed to play in the big leagues, he will. That's we professional baseball does not miss. We don't. If so when when little Joey's dad told you he was supposed to play for the Mets 30 years ago and he didn't, no, he wasn't. He he was not supposed to play for the Mets. Professional baseball has never missed. If you're supposed to play, you're gonna play. There's enough, you know, out there scout wise and all that type of stuff. but where are you gonna go also to get a really good college experience, play at a high level, have your your your your son or your son or daughter play for somebody who's going to be a mentor for them that they can look back on, you know, go to the reunion 10 years from now, 20 years from now, and you know, all that type of stuff. That those are the things that really matter. You know, I was fortunate enough two, three weeks ago. I had the ninety-eight, ninety-nine, about ten guys came over the house on a Saturday night. You know, Carly Andret, our old pitching coach, he came back. Obviously, we're telling stories about how great we were and all that type, but it was a blast. And to see this guy's, you know, a lead detective here, and this guy does this, and this guy, you know, what they've grown into is Nelson Lopez, right? Played for you, played for me in high school,
John McCormack: Yeah, yeah.
Mike Silvestri: played for me in junior college, and then played for you when he converted to the mound. Nelson Lopez coming over here and you know, he's a he's in the banking industry and Uber successful and you know super polished and all the other guys that came over, it was just great to see those are the things that when you're looking about this process, you know, none of those guys played the big leagues. Half of them that were here or more fine professionally. Mac, I want to say thank you so much for for taking the time out today as you guys start your your your fall work and and taking a look and evaluating your own rosters. Parents and players, you heard you're a 27, stay the course. You know, things may change coming out of Jupiter. They're going to. We know that. We're gonna see a bunch of that
John McCormack: Yes.
Mike Silvestri: stuff. Things are gonna change at after Thanksgiving with exit meetings, and maybe the JC is getting flooded with freshmen that are a victim of the, you know, that extra fifth year guy who was able to to, you know. down the road or whatever may be. and things are gonna change in the summer. Stay the course, do what you're supposed to do. have a targeted plan, have a a plan A, a plan B, and a plan C, and go where you can you can get an opportunity and play for good people. Coach, thank you so much. Wish you and the app best of luck.
John McCormack: My pleasure. I hope I helped.
Mike Silvestri: go ahead.
John McCormack: I hope I helped. Use the resources that are in front of you. Do your homework. Ask questions. Listen to people. Do not think you can do this on your own when you have help available.
Mike Silvestri: Episode nine of the recruiting round table. Coach McCormack was phenomenal. This is invaluable information. Stay tuned for we'll we'll we'll put plenty of clips out there for parents. This is great valuable information for you guys moving forward. Thank you so much. Best of luck to you and the owls this season, Coach.
John McCormack: Thank you very much, I appreciate it.