Dabo:
"At the end of the day it’s finances, and it comes down to what they’ll put in front of him. My gut all along has been he plays football. But I didn’t think he’d be drafted that high. That was a little bit of a surprise to me.
"Until he tells me he’s not playing football, it’s been my stand all along that he’d be back. But if he’s not, we’ve got Mike Wade, who is a guy that we as a staff have a lot of confience in. And then we’ve got a freshman. … But if we’ve got to go with a freshman, nobody I’d rather be with than Tajh Boyd.
"If we lose Kyle to baseball, we won’t have a lot of depth. So we’ll have to protect well."
Basically the type of things you'd expect him to say, but he is right, we could be worse. This is still the worst-case scenario I envisioned last year. We knew if Parker solidified the job in 2009 that Korn would bolt. We knew that Boyd wouldn't elect to sit on the bench more than a year (2010) or he'd transfer as well, so the only way Boyd would be here beyond 2010 would be if Parker left by the 2011 draft. Early playing time was a prime factor in his recruitment, causing him to pick us over Ohio State and Oregon. We knew Parker would have to leave in 2011 MLB Draft if he wanted to ever play baseball, since next spring is his last year of baseball eligibility.
It just happened a year earlier than we'd prefer. Boyd was not ready this spring, though the spring game showed he can throw when he has protection. He took a lion share of the snaps this spring, and will get basically all of them in August. Parker split his last summer.
The skills difference between the two doesn't worry me, only a year of reading coverages and offensive knowledge. If the defense is as nasty as it can be, all you need to win is a game manager and a running game. Saban has two rings off the same recipe.
Behind Boyd is Mike Wade, who elected to return this year despite taking the field in the senior day celebration against Virginia last year, and preferred walk-ons Donny McElveen (Summerville) and Taylor Ogle. Tony McNeal is enrolling in January.
Parker will meet with Swinney after baseball season is over, but reports are that the Rockies are close to what the Parker family wants in terms of money. WYFF's Geoff Hart said otherwise however.
Andy Seiler, of our SBN MLB Draft site MLBBonusBaby, had this to say about Parker.
He has the tools to be a Major League regular at a corner outfield spot, but that may be the wrong way to approach his credentials this June. At the plate, he’s somewhat of a mistake hitter, having an average hit tool and plus raw power. He’s quite patient at the plate to a fault, and he goes through spurts where he’s overly passive. He’s an average runner, and when that's combined with an average arm and fringe-average range in right field, it comes together into an average corner outfielder. As you can tell, his talent has been blown a little out of proportion due to the attention, but he still has enough talent to go in the first fifty picks, though he could last into the second round on talent alone. His signability is a big question mark at this point, and no one knows what might happen.
Other links:
- Baseball America's John Manuel says KP is definitely going to baseball.
- The Rockies are quite happy with their pick, and some interesting quotes from both sides in the piece.
- Carl Parker didn't rule out any return to football, and it is feasible for a guy to continue to play football and go pro in baseball next spring.
- How the Super Regional was given to Clemson instead of Alabama. Money, as you know. Clemson was ranked higher for much of the season and may have been a "higher" 2-seed in the NCAA's eyes as well. Clemson has averaged higher baseball attendance (barely) than Alabama for the latter half of this decade, despite not having the extra 1000 seats of the Chapman Grandstand til this year. We're both in that 7-10 range nationally, so its more likely we showed a slightly higher proven gate receipt.