What is with you guys and Gamecocks?

[Gamecock1]

Brian Roberts, Steve Tolleson, Steve Pearce, now you draft Christian Walker and Matt Price? We only have like 5 guys on Major League rosters and yall have 3 of em.

[Gamecock1]

Not sure how to edit the thread title, but it should read "What is with you guys and Gamecocks?"

[86this]

Brian Roberts, Steve Tolleson, Steve Pearce, now you draft Christian Walker and Matt Price? We only have like 5 guys on Major League rosters and yall have 3 of em.

And hopefully in 2 or 4 years, there will be another one in Ripken.

[Frobby]

You guys have a very good program, I'm surprised to hear there are only 5 or so Gamecocks in the majors.

[waroriole]

You guys have a very good program, I'm surprised to hear there are only 5 or so Gamecocks in the majors.

With 3 straight title game appearances there will probably be more soon.

[Hank Scorpio]

Wasn't Smoak a Gamecock?

[Crazysilver03]

Wasn't Smoak a Gamecock?

Smoak was a Gamecock, though apparently he might be playing for Tacoma soon.

[Jammer7]

I believe Justin Dalles was a Gamecock too.

[paulcoates]

http://espn.go.com/mlb/players?college=2579

http://www.thebaseballcube.com/draft/research.asp?College=20091

[Trackmaster]

Teams tend to have their favorite schools. They tend to be close though. While SC isn't extremely close, it's not that far away.

[Gamecock1]

You guys have a very good program, I'm surprised to hear there are only 5 or so Gamecocks in the majors.

Well, we tend to find diamonds in the rough. We haven't been even close to the most talented team in College the last few years. We just find scrappy dudes who can play. Michael Roth came here as a 1st baseman and left as perhaps the most accomplished pitcher in college history, for instance. Christian Walker is an exception, he was very highly regarded out of highschool, but we mostly just find Diamonds in the rough and turn them into ball players. Jackie Bradley Jr is probably the best example of this, no one even knew who he was when we signed him and then he was All American as a freshman, and is currently one of the top prospects in Boston's system. But we just don't recruit a lot of super talented players, we're just good at making what we have work.