Lots of articles and tributes for Coach Swimley. Congratulations.

I loved Swim as a coach. Upbeat and very competitive. But, this program is now in very bad shape. I will not blame the coaches, however we were much better some years back for unknown reasons. I think this program has to be on Blues front burner for fixing. Big west is a VERY BIG MBB league and we are struggling and, frankly, look very weak and unfocused in recent play. Way too many errors lately and poor strategy led to defeats that should not have happened. Cal Poly (who we measure ourselves against) is doing much, much better in all the sports we both play. If CP can do football and all the rest, why cant we? Good luck Dr. Blue.

They have been aimless for 10 seasons now. Great gesture, but the baseball fan in me dreams of seeing the Aggies in a (Super)/ Regional or the CWS, with the star player being drafted by my beloved Oakland A's. Well we can always watch Descalso and hope for more talent. Maybe dream some more.

Strangely enough the A's seem to be the team that doesn't draft from UC Davis. I know they have in the past, but not in the last 20+ years. I can look it up. It's funny because the A's build their teams with the types of athletes the Aggies recruit.

I think the struggles do have to do with the coaches to some extent, but I think you won't see any change to the head coach until Vaughn's contract is up.

Edit:: According to Baseball America's draft database none of the 49 players drafted from UC Davis Since 1970 were chosen by the A's. Some of those 49 were drafted twice, so the actual number of players is less than that.

It would be inaccurate, however to say that no UC Davis ATHLETE had ever been drafted by Oakland. There was a football player, I want to say his name was Billy Zeier (sp?) who was selected by them as a pitcher. The key element here is that he was drafted as a HS senior.

One reason I think you haven't seen more Aggies end up in that organization is that the draftworthy Aggies haven't fit in well with the Moneyball scheme. During the height of that era they were all about two things: saving money and stats. They would draft all sorts of college guys w/good hitting or pitching stats w/o much regard for potential. The other side of that was that they drafted mostly college seniors because they had little bargaining leverage. That's one reason Billy Beane was said to have thrown his phone through the wall when his scouting director chose a 19 year- old 11th grader named Jeremy Bonderman (Can you tell I've read most of the book..haha). Bonderman was draft- eligible as an 11th grader because of his age and the fact he earned his GED.

Some of the D- II era stars like Justin Reid, Luke Steidlmayer, and Ryan Coultas would likely have been Moneyball- type players except that the 1st two really played before it, and Coultas was signed as a junior (also drafted as a rs sophomore). The funny thing is Coultas would likely not have driven as hard of a bargain as most juniors. I remember reading in the California Aggie that he said he had finished his degree and didn't really have anything to gain by coming back for his senior season.

The Giants have been known to go the other way and draft players w/big potential and perhaps subpar college careers like Ray Black and everyone's favorite Toronto Blue Jay Joe Biagini.
Let's face it, Joe barely pitched for the Aggies, and his best outing was his first.

Moneyball had a terrible result on the A's farm system. It really showed when only guys from the 1st 3 rounds would play for the River Cats. The rest of those Sacramento teams would be comprised of either minor league free agents or trade acquisitions because the "stat guys" they filled the minors with weren't good enough to get out of Double- A. It shocked me when A.J. Griffin, who was drafted somewhere between round 30 and 40, made the majors. He's still pitching with Texas if memory serves.

Anyone who thinks the A's don't still play Moneyb all, albeit to a lesser extent, are kidding themselves. Overall I think former Cal Poly slugger Grant Desme made the right call in joining the priesthood after a 30+HR season in Single- A. He probably has better job security, pay, and benefits in the church- hey oh !

Of course there are also some organizations that just don't like drafting from certain schools because they don't think the players are well- coached. I read that there used to be kind of a bias against Stanford hitters for a long time. I know the Giants hadn't drafted a Stanford position player for 30 something years before they picked Brian Ragira and in Austin Slater in more recent years.

The A's are still playing moneyball, but the methods change every few seasons depending on what skills are valued or undervalued in MLB. They had a HS drafting phase for a few years but seem to have switched back to college now.

Yeah, for all my HATED of the Giants, they do scout local teams pretty well outside of CAL/Stanford/St Marys/Santa Clara (all of which the A's cover too). The A's and Aggies both have to play moneyball in the sense that Long Beach or Fullerton have the titles and the fanbase in a great league (if Power Conference isn't a requirement). Way back...ten years or so, I took a college tour of Fullerton and our female tour guide was a DIEHARD baseball fan who kept mentioning her Titans and the stadium experience. Keep in mind that this was a college tour for freshman & transfer students. It surprised me. Granted when you think of CSUF, you think baseball and not academics but still.

How can Davis take advantage of their relative isolation without letting the no-lights & no-clubhouse kill them in recruiting? What can we offer recruits that the powerhouses of the Big West don't have? How can we beat Cal or Stanford in recruiting too?

Do all other BW MBB stadiums have lights? Do cal and Stanford have lights? Frankly, I would. Not go to an aggies night game on the weekend because. . . It would be an issue with a significant other; and I really doubt that a night MBB game would be top of the list for a big date in davis for lots of reasons . Most students would not sit out there in the night cold and watch the slow progress of a MBB game; much better a game in the sun! Lights, not a real good point to advance Aggie MBB. Clubhouse: maybe. . . .IMO

69Aggie. I think all of the other BW teams either do or They're close to getting them. Santa Barbara had a recent fundraiser to get them; I think they succeeded. I haven't been following it. Northridge is getting some big upgrades, which include lights.

Long Beach, Fullerton, and Hawaii's ballparks have all hosted professional baseball in the past (independent teams for the first two and a winter league for the third, which Buster Posey played in before he hit full- season ball) so we don't have to ask about them. Hawaii hosted a AAA team long ago, but I don't know if they played at Murakami Stadium. Long ago (as recently as 1992 I think), Riverside had a Single- A team called the Pilots, but I don't think that park was on the college campus. Also the Highlanders have gotten anew stadium since then. Who does that leave ? Cal Poly has them. That leaves Irvine. They're kind of a big deal, so they probably do. A look at the game schedule will confirm that.

I agree with you. I would come to fewer games if there were night games too. I'm old by my standards, and don't like being out of town at night unless I'm on a trip and staying in a hotel. I'll see a night game at Raley Field, Sac State, or Sac City because these are all a quck trip home.

Let's not forget too that nighttime is study time at Davis, even if it's Saturday, and our students are pretty devoted. You also have a fair number who hop on Amtrak or Yolobus and skip town after Friday classes because it's easy to do and they're bored. I suppose if you had a big event once a homestand you could drag a lot of Segundo/Primero dorm kids. Tercero maybe. Cuarto ? Forget about it. I lived there during summer sessions . Once you cross that street (Russell) after classes, you aren't going back to campus !

And that brings up one other struggle- off- campus students. If you live off campus more than a couple blocks away, the school might as well be on the moon. I remember my senior year I lived at F and Covell, barely a mile away. What an ordeal to get to/from school ! These students will make it out for something where they can drink and engage in boorish behavior to let off steam. That might not mix well with an event officiated by Ken "Full of Bull" Durham, and where you're supposed to golf clap and refrain from discouragin' words.

I think the number one question the athletics dept has to address w/students when marketing baseball is, why should I care ? The team needs to hold up their end of it by playing better. Maybe they lack the athleticism to make the diving and bang- bang plays of a Fullerton, but they can play smarter and play as a team. Right now I don't see a team; I see a bunch of guys who like to hang out and showcase their abilities. The massive hiccups on plays involving multiple infielders tells me all I need to know.

Here's the question. What is needed more: a clubhouse (to recruit good players) or lights to host big matchups or regionals?

Lights. They serve additional purposes besides attracting fans. They would allow the team more flexibility in scheduling games +practices, allowing students to miss fewer classes. Also, when weather is a consideration, they may help to avoid games getting scheduled for other days or cancelled altpgether.