Eventful week sees jump in pitching depth
By Carl James @jovian34 July 10th, 2024
In less than a week, what I had reported as a net loss of eight players to the transfer portal is now only three. One reported portal entrant was a mistake. Nathan Ball was listed in error (possibly a mix-up with a Michigan-based player of the same name). Ball pitched for Indiana last fall and served the program as a manger in the spring before graduating.
While only widely discussed in the past few days, veteran right hander Peter Haas from Stonehill announced his commitment to Indiana on June 30th. Haas enters as redshirt junior having missed his sophomore season with injury. He also becomes the sixth Hoosier with a 2024 summer assignment to the elite Cape Cod League. He has thrown multiple relief outings for the Harwich Mariners. He’s advertising a three-pitch mix with a high-80s to low-90s fastball with a low-80s change-up and a low-80s slider.
While technically listed in the portal on the last day (July 2nd), a source within the Indiana program has assured iubase.com that rising sophomore left-handed pitcher Ryan Rushing is listed with instruction not to contact and will be back with the Hoosiers for 2024-25. This is one of the portal entrants I described last week as expected to throw key innings. It also stung at the time because the program was already thin on left-handed arms with Ty Bothwell concluding his college career and Brandon Keyster entering the transfer portal.
Indiana has now further improved upon it’s left-handed pitching depth with the commitment of Deron Swanson from NAIA Saint Francis. Swanson made his announcement on Friday before starting a game for the Terre Haute Rex of the Prospect League later that evening. Rushing and Swanson will join Matt Bohnert who missed last season with an injury, as well as veteran Hoosiers Grant Holderfield and Ryan Kraft. Kraft has been having success this summer with Kalamazoo of the Northwoods League.
Indiana also picked up two more of righties from the portal. Rising Sophomore Jackson Yarberry comes to Indiana by way of Saint Louis. The Hoosiers also picked up a veteran arm in fifth-year senior Gavin Seebold who has been a part of a Southern Indiana program that has developed significantly since joining Division-I a few years ago.
MLB Draft July 14-16
Six current Hoosiers and incoming freshman Jake Hanely participated in the 2024 MLB Draft Combine last month. Today, D1Baseball ranked the top 250 draft prospects among current college players. Hoosiers that were mentioned were lead by draft eligible sophomore Connor Foley, along with Luke Sinnard, Brock Tibbitts, and Carter Mathison. D1 also ranked draft eligible sophomore Tyler Cerny who has been getting buzz, despite not participating in the combine. Juniors Nick Mitchell and Josh Pyne also attended the combine. All will be waiting to have their names called. Flame throwing Foley (pictured above) is expected to be drafted first among the Hoosiers, possibly in first three rounds.
Our projection now expects 42 players on the Indiana roster for the fall. Our projection uses the combine as a stand-in for the draft until the draft is complete. If, for example, Cerny gets drafted and goes pro that would lower the expected player count. If a combine attendee does not sign to go pro, they can come back to Bloomington for another season as a Hoosier and the number would go up. And still most players in the transfer portal have yet to commit, so more commitments are still possible.