Robby Gutierrez - NAIA Ball

[00:00:04] Speaker A: Welcome to the ABCA's podcast. I'm your host Ryan Brownlee. Our sponsor is Core Energy Belt, the trusted source of professional baseball players in both Japan and the USA. With over 700 professionals, including two former MVPs, relying on these belts, Core Energy has established itself as a leader in performance and durability. I've been wearing their belts for a while now and the added back support has made a noticeable difference both on and off the field. They offer free shipping and a 30 day satisfaction guarantee. Go to corenergybelt.com and use code ABCA2025 to save 15 on your first purchase. I'll repeat that, go to Core Energy Belt and use the code ABCA2025 to save 15% on your first purchase. This episode is sponsored by Netting Pros. Netting Professionals are improving programs one facility at a time. Netting Professionals specializes in the design, fabrication and installation of custom netting for backstops, batting cages, dugouts, BP screens and ball carts. They also design and install digital graphic wall padding, windscreen turf, turf protectors, dugout benches, dugout cubbies and more. Netting Professionals is an official partner of the ABCA and continues to provide quality products and services to many high school, college and professional fields, facilities and stadiums throughout the country. Netting Professionals are improving programs one facility at a time. Contact them today at 844-620-2707 or infoettingpros.com visit them online at www.nettingpros.com or check out NettingPros on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn for all their latest products and projects. Make sure to let CEO Will Minor know that the ABCA sent you. Now on to the podcast. Robbie Gutierrez and Cody Butler established NAI ball eight years ago. In 2018, Butler and Gutierrez launched the Nai Ball Podcast. Nai Ball exclusively covers NAI Baseball across the national landscape. It's been recognized as an iTunes Sports Top 100 podcast featured in Baseball America and this is year six for Robbie and I recording the NAI Preview. The Nai Ball staff also includes Connor, Darnell, Taylor Thomas and Tyler Norris, all of NAI Baseball and proud to shine a light on the sport. Cody Butler passed away in 2022 and then a ball staff carries the torch for him every day. Let's welcome Robbie Gutierrez to the podcast. Here again with Robbie Gutierrez. Nai Ball I think this is Year six for us doing this so it doesn't seem like it, but it's always great having every one of you guys that comes on every year with me, so it's great to see you again, Robbie. [00:03:12] Speaker B: Absolutely, Ryan. I mean, I'm really excited to do this every year. I feel like, you know, my. My annual appearance every year gets better and better. Definitely excited to be here and really break down NAI baseball from an AI ball. [00:03:26] Speaker A: You know, another west coast school won the NAI championship last year in Hope International. Are we going to see another one, or is this a year where we're going to see somebody else win it? [00:03:37] Speaker B: Wow. You know, so last year, I feel like the last two years, we've really seen the West Coast, a West coast team, just catch fire right when they had to. Right when they needed to catch fire. And I think that, that that's half the battle. You know, when you're getting into the postseason, it's being really, really solid when you need to be really, really solid. And we saw HIU just click on all cylinders in the postseason. I actually think that my. My preseason prediction to win the national championship. Now, I've only been right off the bat one time. I want to say it was 2018 or 2019. I picked Tennessee Wesleyan to win the national title. I think they started the year at number 12 in the nation. They ended up winning the national title. My pick this year was not a West coast team. It was, I mean, you could say east coast, but they're, they're. They're from the south, kind of right in the middle of the country. So I went with a different feel this year, but it would not surprise me if one of those teams out in the west coast gets hot. I think, hi use another team to watch again to get back into the Nash, you know, back into the national tournament, back into the playoffs, and really have a chance to go back to World Series once you get loose and anything can happen. [00:04:57] Speaker A: And I'm an advocate of the way that they play. If you look the last year, Misericordia won the Division 3 National Championship, and they play a West coast style also. And I think it's, you know, and that park flies in Lewiston, I was there again last year, and it does fly a little bit, but not all the time. And I. Teams that can pitch and play defense and put pressure on the opponent, I think they do well in that type of setting. And that's what you saw at a Westmont two years ago, and that's what you saw at Hope last year, is they play a West coast style where you're going to see better pitching. So you may not score as many runs as you used to. If you look at the power numbers at Nai, historically, there's a lot of teams that can drive the ball out of the ballpark. That's not always going to play when you face the better pitching that you're going to see. [00:05:41] Speaker B: That's something. I talked about it this weekend with just parents. When I go out to these games and I get out to these games, what does it take to win a national championship? What does it take to get to the World Series? And so much of it at this level is just depth. And we really see it. And I'm not talking, like, just scratching the surface depth. I mean, I'm talking like your sixth or seventh kid in the bullpen has to be solid, you know, and, and really, we see that from a lot of these clubs. And then you get to the world, it's about getting to the World Series and they get Lewiston. And you provide, you know, you. You rely on your horses over and over and over again. You go back to your horses. You're never going to have a kid. And I, I lived it, you know, you're never going to have a guy say, I'm not ready to go today in the World Series. Like, I'm ready to go. I'm ready to play ball right now. Like, what do we have to do to win a national championship? How do I go out there with my brothers and create a memory that's going to last forever? We see that relied on a lot. But again, like you said, that west coast style of baseball has just gone out there and been triumphant last two years, and we've seen a lot of success from it. It would not shock me. I don't, I don't know if it'll happen this year, but it would not shock me to have one of those teams really be super competitive again. [00:06:56] Speaker A: And it seems a lot of the same teams have been there, you know, year in and year out. Are we going to see any new teams have an opportunity to maybe make it this year? [00:07:05] Speaker B: Oh, I hate to have a lot of recency bias, you know, but I was just in Victoria, Texas, watching uhv. I have no fear in saying this, that their staff is. Their pitching staff is one of the best in the nation at this level, if not multiple levels. They've got some arms that are truly, truly elite, that would be aces on many other clubs, not just at this level. And I think that, that if they can, you know, keep everybody solid, they are going to be a really good ball club and a force to reckon with. I think this year the, the playing field is going to even out just a little bit. We'll see a little bit of a less of a gap between that, that those mid tier teams in the upper echelon. So just based off of recency bias, I, I really, really do think that, that UHV will, will likely be into a team to watch and a team that, that could do some, some really interesting things. It's crazy because the Red River Athletic Conference, it has a, is, has a good baseball history. You know, in, in overall it's got a good baseball history. The last couple of years it's, it's been okay. But you might have the number one, number two pitching staffs in the nation at this level in the RRAC overall. [00:08:29] Speaker A: Because you had Brady Parker as your pitcher of the week last week, correct? [00:08:33] Speaker B: Yeah, he threw a no hitter against Wiley. He was, he was up to the mid-90s from the left side. You know, he's solid. I got to see Jon Jones this weekend. I mean the definition of, of competitor and, and really just he stepped off the mound. My favorite moment. He stepped off the mound in the, in the fourth inning, vomited twice, got right back on the mound and struck the hitter out. You know, I mean he was, he was definition of guy who just does not want to come out of game. Didn't want to see the trainer, didn't want anything to do with it. Got back on the mound, it was like ready to go. And after the game when I talked to him, he was like, yeah, just a little bit too much Gatorade this morning. Heart rate got too high. You know, just, just too much. Yeah, just too much going on. But he's really solid also. You know, a guy that's, that's working that high eights into the low nines. I mean all of their arm, they had a lot of arms that were really impressive. Central Methodist who I got to watch this weekend as well, a lot of arms who are really impressive in an offense that can slug. [00:09:31] Speaker A: And you got your top 25 out. Pretty standard for you as far as what we've seen in the early going as far as who you've picked in your top 25. [00:09:40] Speaker B: So the, the coaches poll has come out. Our top 25 actually will be released later this week. I can tell you that it's going to be pretty straightforward with what, what the coaches poll has. But the advantage we have is is this didn't release in, in November and so I can tell you there are, there will be some changes. I would, I would when ours comes out Wednesday or Thursday of, of this week, whenever we're, you know, as we're recording this Wednesday or Thursday of the week that we're recording this, I would expect three to four new teams in there. [00:10:15] Speaker A: And for people that are wondering, you can go on our website and see the coaches polls. So since collegiate baseball is not around anymore, you can go on the ABCA, ABCA.org and see all the coaches polls for every level. I like that our coaches are involved with the voting portion and nothing against, you know, some of the other polls out there, but I do feel like the coaches have a pretty good pulse of who's got teams come, who's got players coming back that are going to be decent. So I think our polls that we have on the website are pretty similar. I did the, the D3 show and our, our top 25 was very similar to what Jim Dixon had with D3. And Jim Dixon knows more about D3 than anybody. He's kind of similar to you, Robbie. You know more about any I baseball than anybody in the country. Jim Dixon knows more about Division 3 in the history of Division 3 than anybody else in the country. [00:11:05] Speaker B: You know, it's, it's good to be compared to great, you know, great mind. So I'll take it. [00:11:11] Speaker A: Who you got playing then? So I, if, if you had to put your, your Lewiston bracket together, who do you think's going to make it? [00:11:21] Speaker B: Oh man, that's a tough one. I, I think that Tennessee Wesleyan, I think talent wise is just super deep. I think Tennessee Wesleyan is one of those ball clubs that is going to be really, really solid this year. I think they've got a really deep staff and, and you know, just extremely talented. LC State back in it, back into the World Series. I've got them in there. I think that this is, you know, they've, from what I've heard we had, we didn't get, I haven't gotten to really hone in and see them yet, but from what I've heard, you know that the offense is solid, they've got some really good arms that they could stay healthy. Wouldn't have, you know, wouldn't have a problem saying that they're a loose in team. I like hope to get back there. I really like hope to get back there. I think that when they're healthy they're going to be good. I know they had some injuries this weekend. Hope if everybody's okay, I think that they probably, you know, have a couple arms that can get them there. So what do we got there? What is that? 3. LSU Shreveport 4. I, I think they were my pick. [00:12:36] Speaker A: And that's Red river also, right? Shreveport? [00:12:38] Speaker B: Yes. [00:12:39] Speaker A: Okay. [00:12:39] Speaker B: They were my pick. Shreveport was my pick to, to win the World Series this season. Georgia Gwinnett always. I think that, that the Grizzlies are super talented. I think Weber International's got some dudes this year that can compete. You know, I, I don't know how their bullpen, I'm, I'm still a little bit suspect on their bullpen, but I think some of their frontline arms are, are extremely talented. So that's six. I'm gonna go with Cumberland's Kentucky. [00:13:09] Speaker A: They've, you know, they've been rolling. [00:13:10] Speaker B: They've been rolling. They've gotten, you know, they couldn't get over the hump. They couldn't get over the hump. Back to back years going to Lewiston. I'd love to see them get back there. [00:13:18] Speaker A: Finally won a game last year. [00:13:20] Speaker B: They did, you know, so they're, they're going to be. That experience keeps turning. They got, they got Muniz coming back who was our national player of the year. I mean we had somebody, we had Joey Garbanski break the NAI baseball home run record, a career home run record last year. Muniz is about to break that again. You know, in, in back to back seasons, we're gonna see that broken. I love Reinhardt's club and, and really what, what Burton does there. So they're going to be my eighth team and then for nine and 10. [00:13:47] Speaker A: You'Re hard pressed because there's some teams that, that are on the outside looking in right now that, that have gotten there here recently. [00:13:54] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:13:55] Speaker A: And. [00:13:57] Speaker B: I'm going to take Babe Grinder in southeastern for my ninth and then for number 10. That's a tough one. I feel like there's a ton of teams that could be there. Central Methodists. Bellevue is always a great one to watch. Faulkner, you never know what, you know, they've got some guys that are coming in that are going to be absolute thumpers. You know, there's, there's a ton of different. [00:14:20] Speaker A: Carey's been there. I mean William Carey's been back to. [00:14:23] Speaker B: Back seasons, you know, I mean, but for the sake of, of not having. [00:14:28] Speaker A: Everybody tell me Christian, I mean, you. [00:14:30] Speaker B: Guys, you know, for the sake of, of just being like, oh well, he's only got teams from the South. I like Indiana Southeast. I thought they played really well this weekend against lsu. Shreveport, you had a little bit of a battle of the brothers there between Brad and Brett Neffendorf. It was really Cool to see, but I do think that, that Indiana Southeast is going to be a competitive team this year. They competed well against Shreveport. In Shreveport, which, as I know personally, tough place to play. There's a few. There are few places at this level that create really tough home environments, and that is one. [00:15:08] Speaker A: The good thing is the winter. I mean, I know we had a couple cold snaps there, but it wasn't awful where teams have probably been able to get outside a little bit that historically maybe aren't able to get outside. [00:15:19] Speaker B: Well, you know, I was getting. We were seeing messages and posts from like, I think it was Aquinus that was in Michigan talking about being outside, but then this weekend talking with. With Nate Breland that they were outside for just the fifth time on Sunday and that was their second day of games, you know, and so I think that, you know, you could tell a little bit on that first day, but that, you know, that second day they looked a little more solid. Now, granted, they. They saw some really solid arms and it's great to see early on in the season. [00:15:52] Speaker A: You know, last couple of years we've had some teams make it for the first time. Do we have anybody out there laying out there who hasn't ever made the World Series that might make the World Series? [00:16:04] Speaker B: There could be. I do. Again, going back to Recency Bias, because I just saw them this weekend. I really like that UHV staff. I love. [00:16:14] Speaker A: And they've never made it. [00:16:16] Speaker B: They've never made it. No. I'd love to see their offense grow a little bit more and see what that could look like, you know, but it's like you said, there's been a lot of teams recently that have just continued to make the World Series over and over and over. I think we're going to have a lot of evenness across the league this year. So I'd love to see some teams get back there, have the potential to get back there that haven't been there recently in the last several years. I think St. Thomas is one of those teams that if they stay healthy, could really be there. Loyola has never been there out of New Orleans. They could. They could be one as well. So there are. Are definitely a couple of teams across the nation that could get there. I think USAO Science and Arts of Oklahoma is going to be much improved. You know, they were for many years under Mike Ross, just an absolute pitching factory, just developing professional players. You can watch the Caribbean World Series right now and see, you know, a player from USAO out there. You can see Central Methodist, Robbie Merced out there, also playing for Puerto Rico, you know, so it's like there. There's definitely some really good teams. I think Mid America Christian at Oklahoma City. I got to see them this weekend. They're a little banged up early on in the year. They, they're playing a good schedule. They're going to play some good teams. They're probably not thrilled with their 4 and 4 right now, but I definitely think that they're a team. They were a team that had high expectations for themselves last year. First time ever being a really high seed, having to go on the road as number one to Hattiesburg, Mississippi, play William Carey. Like, I get it. I've done that as a player, been the number one in, in Hattiesburg and it's tough to, to go there and play at Milton Wheeler and, you know, take on Bobby and, and really just see what that, what that ball club looks like. And they, they feel like they fell a little bit flat. But I'd like them to get back, I think Central Methodist, the way their offense works. They're. They're going to be an interesting team to watch and there's always going to be like, we're going to be sitting here in March talking about, man, how did we not see so and so, you know, they're going to be really good. So I think that there's going to be some. Somebody's going to come out of the woodwork that we're going to be like, okay, they're solid. I feel like just kind of the way that Arizona Christian has been. Arizona Christian, good, good, good, good. And then last year it's like they took a jump, you know, and they go to Lewis, the Lewiston opening round tournament. And you think, oh, man, we got, we got the Lewiston opening round tournament. Like, you know, the odds are already stacked against us and they did something really great. They were able to be competitive there, won that opening round tournament, got to stay in Lewiston, go to the World Series, and they were competitive there. So there's always one team that just jumps out and surprises you. [00:19:08] Speaker A: Do you feel like the tournament's in a good place with the opening round? I know they switched it a little bit here last couple of years. Do you feel like it's in a good place as far as who gets in and who advances? [00:19:17] Speaker B: So if we look at the whole encompassing tournament from, from start to finish, I am a big proponent of this tournament is fantastic for what we want to do. I think that we are really, really, really as, as league overall tournament Wise, like the way the tournament is set up outside of Division 1. In my opinion, it is the next best thing because we're not bound to regions. And I, I get it. You know, in, in other places that that's what they've always done. That's what they're used to. That's what they do. Like junior college, I understand, like you got a billion teams out there and, and you know, you can only have so many get to, you know, whether it be Division 1, Division 2 or Division 3 of NJCA, you know, the junior college can only have so many teams get there. But I love the way ours is set up. I'd love to see the tournament format expand so we go to every bracket having five teams right now we've got some brackets with four, some brackets with five. I'd love to see every bracket go to five teams or every bracket go to four teams just so we have evenness. Part of that is selfishness because I want to play bracketology. And you're trying to figure out who's got five, who's got four, who's got five, because the team, the, the brackets, the better teams get five teams in their bracket, you might be thinking, what the heck, that's more. It's like, no, they get to play the winner of that four or five game. That winner, that four or five game. Yeah, they have to come back and play again later and play that number one seed later in the day. So, you know, I'd love to see that expanded one way or another. I know that there's, there's interest from a lot of coaches on that. I know that there's also some trepidation about do we want to do this, do we want to expand the field? You know, we're already, we're. We would be allowing too much of a percentage of the league in. At the same time, I'm a big proponent of going to a division one model of every conference gets one bid. Right now the way that the NAI does it is the, if you have more than 10 or more teams in your conference, you get two automatic qualifiers to the tournament. That leaves us right now, when you include LC states, you know, entrance into hosting an opening round, that leaves us with 15 at large bids, which is in my opinion just a little backwards the way we do it. You can, you can change it, have all of the conferences get the bid, continue to have lc, which, I mean, let's be honest, either way they're going to get in there is, is the ball club is going to Be really good this year. No, no exception. They're going to be really good ball club again, but you're going to have that opportunity. You're going to open it up more and continue to have the best tournament possible. Making sure. I don't, I don't think a 40 win team should be at home, you know, or we're making decisions on, on this or this, you know, or, or having to dig so far into, into everything. And it's like, okay, well, if we open it up, we can have, we can have more, more clubs that deserve to get in. We'd love to see it. And that way you're not rooting against the Cinderella story because conference tournament time comes around and you're like, oh no, the Cinderella story is happening. But if that happens, this team is hosting, so they're in. And we lose an at large bid. Like, you shouldn't be rooting against that. Like, yes, we want to see the nine seed win. Win the heart. We want to see the nine seed when, you know, enter conference here. We want that. It's good for the game. Let those kids have that moment instead of saying, yeah, those kids get that moment. But now a really good ball club has to go sit at home because at this level, we don't have high major, mid major, low major. Like it's all one thing. So you can't be like, well, Indiana State got left out or this guy's got left out for sec. Everybody's pretty much getting on the same playing field. And it's really like, how many teams can you get into your, into your conference so we can get that extra bid? Let's play for the best brand of baseball. [00:23:34] Speaker A: Is Adrian Dinkle leaving? Is that the biggest coaching switch of the year, man? [00:23:41] Speaker B: I think so. You know, going out to pro ball and making a move like that, and we've seen that a ton. And really, I think it's great on the Yankees to make that switch happen sooner rather than later because, you know, and you know this, we get into the spring and it's like, okay, we're starting to fill out minor league coaching spots and this guy's gone, this guy's gone. We just saw Rich Benjamin, you know, take an affiliated job, leave Warner, and I don't blame these guys for that opportunity. If anybody from the Houston Astros is listening, I'm available, you know, so it's one of those things where it's like you jump at that opportunity because it's the dream. I mean, who doesn't want to say they've Coached in affiliated ball. And. And I think it is the biggest story. You're. You're lo. For me, I'm not losing much because I. That's. That's a. That's a personal friend and, and him and I talk on a regular basis, but for the league, you know, you're. You're losing a ton in. In just experience. You know, there's five guys at this level, maybe six. Six. I. I think, for sure. I know off the top of my head. Five. And. And I can probably name at least three of them off the top of my head. [00:24:54] Speaker A: And honestly, historically, here in the last 10 years, it's your best route back in if you want. And that's what I. Coaches all the time now. Like, it used to not be that way, but now if you do want to try to get back in at some point, because your resume looks a little bit sweeter on that side of it, it is your best draft to get back in. [00:25:16] Speaker B: It is. You know, and we. We lose a lot as a division there because like I said, you know, there's only like, five guys ever who have taken two different programs for the World Series. You know, that's a hard thing to do. And he's one of them, you know, and I think there was only. At the time, there was only like, there's six now. I think Jonathan Burton's the other one. So right now, actively, you only have Burton and Jeremy Kennedy that have ever done that. And you had Dinkle. You lose Dinkle. It's a big loss for, for our game, but we still have just. The plethora of good coaches is incredible. There's so many good coaches. I'm. I'm glad that Southeastern went out and got Gabe Grinder and, and brought him back into the level he's at his alma mater. I mean, we. I could spend an hour and a half talking about the guys at this level that I just. Absolutely. [00:26:03] Speaker A: Very impressive. [00:26:04] Speaker B: Yeah. Billy Barry. I'm a huge fan of Nate Breland. Huge fan of Billy Barry. I mean, Brad and Brett Neffendorf and Jeremy Schiedinger and just, you know, my two coaches who did a lot for me, the whole reason that this is happening, Jeremy Kennedy and Robert Garza at Loyola and Texas Wesleyan, respectively. Guys that we interact with on a regular basis, like Joe McDonald at Arizona Christian, you know, Bill Neal at Kansas Wesley. I mean, there's a list I'm going to forget somebody and they're going to say, well, you hate me. And it's like, no, it's just. I'VE only got so much time. Dwayne Monlux at Bellevue. I can't forget that one because I love Dwayne and if I forgot anybody that I talk to on a regular basis, I'm sorry. Just please send your hate mail to con. [00:26:47] Speaker A: Brian Mahalic now is our. He's our NAI chair for, for the abca. So Brian Weddy rotated off so voted on at the convention this year. So Brian Mihalik is, is actually our NAI chair this year. He'll be the chair for the next three years and six years if he wants it. So I'm happy because I've known Brian for a long time. He and I go way back to the Midwest days. So very happy that Brian decided that he wanted to be the committee chair for the abca. [00:27:10] Speaker B: You should have no shortage of people wanting, wanting to do that's a harder. [00:27:14] Speaker A: Job than you think. Like it's not. [00:27:16] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:27:17] Speaker A: It's just some people that's not their thing. You know, it's not. It's not real time consuming, but there is some time deal with it. And obviously you got to come to the convention every year. You got to be involved. And I think Brian's going to do a tremendous job just because he's a really good person. Person too. So I was very happy that Brian said yes. [00:27:36] Speaker B: Oh, no. Please don't make me go to the ABCA convention. Oh, no. Yeah. How terrible. [00:27:44] Speaker A: You came out with your, your preseason player watch. So what other players are you excited about coming into the season? [00:27:50] Speaker B: Oh, there's, there's a lot, lot, lot lot. Nationally, there's some guys that haven't played yet that we're waiting to make sure that they are on, on the, on rosters that are Division one guys that are, that are getting second chances. I think just off the top of my head of guys that we've seen early on in the season. You know, Brady Parker over at UHV is, is incredible. We just named Alex Tolbert at Simpson. I think it's the first time we've ever had a player from Simpson be, you know. Yeah. The national player of the week for us at our level. You know, there's, there's guys across the nation like Freeman at, at Ottawa like nobody's going to talk about. He's played four games and stole eight. Eight bases. You know, that's, that's crazy. There's, there's just things like that, that, that go on. I think that they're going to be arms that we haven't seen. I'm excited and he was on the team. So you'll have to excuse me, but John Ponder hasn't played in a year from, from Georgia, Gwinnett coming back. That's a guy that I'm really excited about because he was huge for GGC in 2023. Getting back into it and really having that opportunity to jump in there and, and play the game again. And it's so hard for me to just kind of pick and choose because let me tell you, this year was one of the years that we had the biggest debates about who should be here, who should be there for our, our preseason teams. Usually it's just plug and play, return to return a return a returner. This year we actually really sat down and said, okay, where are we at? Where this is, this is what we're going to do with this and, and this is who we're going to take. So I was really, really excited to see the guys hone in on that and jump into it. I, if you ever get a chance, I mean, I'd catch an Isaac roadie start from lsu Shreveport, and he's a guy that I would watch every, every time if I have to, you know, so there's going to be a lot of arms nationally that you can watch. Ben Harris from GGC is going to be a fun one also. That's a guy that's been at this level for a long time and is just consistently provided over and over and over and over. So there's no shortage of good ballplayers. And one of the things is, I was chatting with a couple of my summer kids. I was like, you know, I went this weekend and I didn't see an arm below 86. You know, it's like outside of the, outside of a side armor, I didn't see an arm below 86. And, and this level continues to get good talent, continues to bring in kids that get overlooked at other places. And that's one of the things that I've talked, I talked to multiple players about this weekend is, you know, everybody in some way at this level is a second chance guy. Whether you were overlooked, whether you, you didn't have that opportunity and somebody brought you in and took that chance on you. Division one bounce back juco guy, you know, guys coming from D2, D3, guys coming from other institutions for run one reason or another, you know, the, the level of talent at this level is, is massive. It's continuing to grow and we're, I think we're getting back to where we were at. We just, you know, coming off of a year where we had, I want to say eight players, eight or nine players drafted, which since the draft changed was our highest amount. We were so used to in the 40 round draft having 20 plus guys get selected. And then when the format of the draft changed, the level had to change with it. And some of the arms at this level are really, really solid and they'll continue to be really, really solid. I think just throughout the years, you. [00:31:42] Speaker A: Know, last couple years there's been some really good early season tournaments. We got the same, same deal going on with, with early season tournaments. Seems like there, there's been some really good ones the last couple years. We got some good early season tournaments coming up. [00:31:55] Speaker B: Yeah. So we just had the east west, which the east dominated. So that's why, you know, that, that early west coast question, I was like, ah, you know, but you know what, the east has either won or tied every year with the west and that's, I think this is the third year of that, of that showcase and the last two years that this, that this has happened, we've had west coast champion. So maybe this is the best thing to happen to the west is that exposure early on. But we're really excited for the Cajun Collision. You know, we've got this partnership going on with the Show Me League guys and really being the sponsor of our coverage there at the Cajun Collision at the Sterlington Sports Complex. And I just think that, you know, the city of Sterlington, the Sterlington Sports Complex, multiple fields, video on all fields. You know, just really, really great environment that they put together. My entire team will be there this weekend in Sterlington for, for that. I mean we kick it off with a good one, Central Methodist, Louisiana Christian, but you're also going to see Tabor. Mark Standiford is a figure in this league. LSU Alexandria, who had a couple of early season upsets. He had Nelson University in there. The artist formerly known as Southwest Assemblies of God. Now Nelson University, Kokomo, who had some big upsets early on in, in the year, Georgetown College, McPherson and of course, I mean how could you complain about, you know, your first, your first matchup of, of the, the tournament. You, you know, Friday you're going to get to see lsu Shreveport take on Mid America Christian which is a ranked, on ranked matchup. Park University, who had a big year last season, Dakota State usa. You know, there's going to be some really, really solid ball clubs out there this year. The field is not as big as it has been in previous years, but we are really Excited for the field of teams this year, and there's not going to be any sort of shortage of talent out there. If you're in the Northern Louisiana area, I would definitely, definitely, definitely take an opportunity, go out there, see the caliber of baseball, go watch LSUs, go watch Macu, go watch USAO, you know, go watch Central Methodist, slug it out. But also take a look at what, what Matt is building at Nelson, Take a look at Georgetown, take a look at park and what, you know, what they're capable of doing in Dakota State and McPherson and Tabor. I mean, there's going to be some really great baseball there this weekend. [00:34:28] Speaker A: Who else is helping you now? Who's on your staff? [00:34:31] Speaker B: Absolutely. Really, really cool. So I've. My right hand is Connor Darnell. So Connor handles all the background things and he takes the brunt of the force from me. I feel like he's been doing that since he was intern Connor, you know, But Connor Darnell is a huge part of our staff. He's a Columbia College guy from, you know, there in Missouri, from Oklahoma and, and works at this level. And then on top of that, I've got Taylor Thomas, who is a product of Southwest, Southwest Christian, Southwestern Christian there in Oklahoma and scu, and he's. He's from Oklahoma. And then right now, living in Indianapolis, but played in Kansas, at McPherson from the great state of Colorado is Tyler Norris. So those, those three guys kind of round out our team. Tyler and Taylor host our, our podcast. Connor does a little bit of everything as. As do I. I do a little bit of everything. But that's the cool thing about our team is every single person on our team is a product of this level. Tyler from McPherson, Taylor from SCU, Connor at Columbia, myself, all those guys went to one school myself, Northwood, Texas and Kaiser, you know, and so it's, it's really, really cool to see that these guys all want to give back to the level. I'm much older than these guys. I say much older, but I'm five, six years older than them at the least. And I remember the days when my parents would only be able to know what was going on via DAC stats. And these programs are starting to evolve. They're starting to get better. We've got, I mean, GGC has got one of the best camera, you know, production quality events going on when they play baseball. Loyola's got multiple angles also in their broadcast. There's multiple teams with better broadcasts. It's getting better and better every single year. And so we evolve with that. We get better and better. You know, we've got a partnership this year with the KCAC where we are going in depth in coverage of the KCAC and really taking a look at what's going on every single Wednesday, except for this Wednesday from the time we record this. But every single Wednesday for the rest of the year, we will be live on X with the coach from the KCAC talking about their program, giving them access, giving everybody access to say, this is who we are and this is what we're about. And so there's going to be some really exciting stuff in there when you talk about, you know, every single program is getting that opportunity to say, this is what we're looking for. Like, if you're a recruit interested in coming here, this is what you need to do. And so it's. It's that. It's. This is who we're highlighting. This is who our players to watch are. It's giving everybody access to say this is who we are as a program, and that's what we're doing. It's something we did in the summer also with some incredible guests that, that we just had from across the nation, you know, through our On Deck series that we're going to continue to do. I mean, we even had our first ever coaches roundtable, which was one of the most nauseating things for me to put together. [00:37:55] Speaker A: Why was that? [00:37:57] Speaker B: Because these coaches wanted to do it. They wanted to talk about. It was like, I hit live and it's like, okay, I've got to figure out how to get everybody. [00:38:05] Speaker A: Somebody's got to steer the ship. [00:38:07] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. So I've got to run this thing. [00:38:09] Speaker A: Somebody steer the ship. [00:38:11] Speaker B: Right. I've got to run this thing, but I've got to make sure that. That Jake knows how to get on, that Jake Taylor knows how to get on, and that. That Jonathan knows how to. How to, you know, do this and. And all that. And I'm like, all right, we're definitely not ready to do this on YouTube yet. But. But it's. It's one of those things that we continue to grow. This is our largest intern class ever. Also, you know, a lot of these guys come and say they need the experience or they want the experience. They're interested in graphic design. They're interested in writing articles. I mean, we've already got articles up on the website that are written by. By our interns who write one article a week. You know, they're interested in learning operations, how. What it takes for us to tick. They want to be part of the, the group for the year, we have basketball players. You know, for the first time ever, we've, we've got, you know, last year was really the first year we did it big. We had three or, excuse me, we had to. This year we've got seven. And we've got two baseball players, you know, one or three. One at Columbia, one at York and one at Baker, you know, and then we've got a basketball player, you know, at Spring Arbor, we've got a. Somebody who's a student at lsua. We got somebody who's not even a student in the nai. Student at Liberty, you know, so we've got, and I'm sorry if I missed anyone, but we've got people all across the country. We've got, you know, we had hired two females to help us this year. For the first time ever, they're going to be doing some work with us. It is incredible to see the outpouring of people who are interested. It's such a hard decision to make every year on who gets to help us. But it's been exciting to see people buy into what we're building and buy in what Cody Butler started. [00:40:05] Speaker A: Love it. Love it. All right, final shout outs or. And where can people find you? Reach out to you. [00:40:11] Speaker B: Absolutely. So I guess from. For my, my final shout out, I just want to, you know, anybody who's never watched anything at this level, who's never interacted with us, I honestly believe we are the only platform that puts out every single score, every single day onto social media. If you have our notifications on and it's a Friday or a Saturday, I'm so sorry. But we do this because, and some people have asked me why we do that. We do that because we don't have a platform. There is no API written for me to skim from the website and create a scoreboard for, for our website. There's, there's not. This doesn't exist. We are the scoreboard. And it's tedious. I have to give credit to my guys for continuing to buy into the system because, you know, you could see that. That daunting list on a, on a Saturday. I mean, just, just this past Saturday, we had 140something games on the list and say, nah, we don't want to do this. We give up. But at the same time, we're doing that score. And that kid might be the only time that he gets highlighted all year. You know, it might be the only time that he gets any sort of recognition all season long. And we that's what we do it for. [00:41:24] Speaker A: You know, we do one. Baseball started, by the way. [00:41:27] Speaker B: It is. It is. [00:41:28] Speaker A: That's how they got there. I mean, that's how they got going is because they were the. Really, the only place you could. Could find every score you wanted to for Division 1 baseball. [00:41:36] Speaker B: It is. And. And, you know, we're building that interest. We just hit 40,000 followers. I think we've already grown several hundred since the season started. We're excited to continue to build. If you've never checked us out, if you've never listened to the show, I mean, we are highlighting players constantly. We're talking about the growth and the talent on the level. And at the same time, we are all about this level of baseball. We all either played in it or coached in it or love it. You know, I'm a true believer of the talent and the people and the coaches and the players at this level. And I. I wholeheartedly believe you should check us out because we're opinionated on the direct. And you know this right, too. [00:42:18] Speaker A: I mean, I honestly, coaching vision one, I didn't really know much about Nai, and now that I've been able to go watch and. And it's just. It's a very good brand of baseball, and everybody should be proud at the Nai of the product that they're putting on the field. They do a tremendous job. It's very good. [00:42:32] Speaker B: Yeah, we're. We're. You know, we're gonna always gonna tell it how it is. We're. I like to say we're advocates, just like y'all are for coaches and players and. And the game. That's. What we are, is we're advocates for the game. And so this. Because this matters to us. So that's. That's the thing. If you never checked us out, I. I encourage you to do so. I encourage you to watch us and. And take a listen or follow us on X. So you can find us across all major platforms at naiball, on X, Instagram, Facebook. You can check us out on those three. The podcast will be starting up this week. Our first top 25 poll will be starting up this week. I have to give credit to. To everybody who's been a part of this. Nai Ball was started in 2017 by. By Cody Butler, who's no longer with us. He's one of, you know, one of my best friends in the world. I. I have to thank Mickey and Melissa Butler, his parents, for. I was just in Atlanta in October with them, sitting down with Them talking about where the direction that we are going in, in updating them on what we're. What we're doing every single year. They are listening, they are paying attention because this is their boy's legacy then their boy. [00:43:42] Speaker A: Proud of you, by the way. [00:43:43] Speaker B: I hope so. You know, that's, that's. That's what I, I carry with me every day. And I do this because of him. I do this because of him. And so, you know, I think that, that everything we do is for Cody. He loved this. He loved baseball at this level. He was the most rabid GGC fan on the face of the earth that will ever be. You know, he was in is and forever will be the former, the foremost authority on NAI baseball. I mean, he could pull things out of a hat like, like just remember things from years ago. I mean, he made what I know look minuscule compared to him. And we, we do all this for, for, for that purpose and to continue the. His legacy as well as build on the brand of any eyeball and continue to build an AI baseball up to a level that is never seen before. And we started, we were the first one at this level, the first out, you know, the first outlet to really hone in on. On what's going on. And now we've got the NAI Hoops report. You see NAI football, you know, there's, there's things I've seen. Lacrosse, softball, soccer, I mean, it's. It's really cool to see because for so many years it was underserved and, and we're not to that point anymore. And so people love this level. I, I'm. I've got group chats that, that blow up, you know, about Kaiser baseball, you know, and, and things like that. I've got coaching friends, group chats. I've got my two coaches that I played for, you know, that will text me things that, like today when we were choosing player of the week and saying, you know, hey, you should look at this guy. Not even always their own player. It's like, hey, man, this guy went off this week. And so, you know, there's so much camaraderie at this level and there's so much want of this level to be. Continue to be great and continue to produce good baseball. And that's what we're here to do over at NAI Ball and continue the legacy of Cody Butler each and every day. [00:45:42] Speaker A: Thanks again for your time. Robbie crushed it again. I appreciate you, my friend. [00:45:46] Speaker B: Thanks, Ryan. [00:45:48] Speaker A: Always an entertaining interview with Robbie. I love his passion for the naia. So happy for him and the entire Nai Ball staff on the big things they have coming up. Thanks again to John Litchfield, Zach Hale and Matt west in the ABCA office for all the help on the podcast. Feel free to reach out to me via [email protected], twitter, Instagram or TikTok coach Brabca or direct message me via the MyABCA app. This is Ryan Brownlee signing off for the American Baseball Coaches Association. Thanks and leave it better for those behind. [00:46:19] Speaker B: And the world keeps on turning and your life is not for yearning and you know that way Yep, Wait. [00:46:32] Speaker A: For another day. [00:46:37] Speaker B: And the world will always return as your love is never for yearning and you know that way Wait for another day.