Recruiting Notebook: Austin Cousino appears on PBR's The War Room
Kentucky recruiting coordinator Austin Cousino joined Shooter Hunt of Prep Baseball Report to discuss a variety of topics.
Kentucky recruiting coordinator Austin Cousino was a guest this week on Prep Baseball Report’s The War Room with Shooter Hunt. Hunt was the No. 31 overall pick out of Tulane by the Minnesota Twins in the 2008 MLB Draft and is now the Vice President of Scouting for PBR.
Cousino, who will enter his second season on the Wildcats’ staff, discussed how he got into college coaching, why he chose to leave Xavier for scouting in the MLB, what he learned about evaluating as a scout and much more. He discussed his role at Kentucky and provided some insight into the recruiting process in Lexington.
“…90 percent of my job is looking at the team, building out the team, the depth chart,” Cousino said. “The way I do it, you’re keeping track of each class, what you need in that class and you have to work ahead. The rules have changed. The early recurring has been really cool, and that doesn’t make it less important, I think that’s the big thing we’ve talked about before. How are we going to adjust? We still need to keep tabs on these guys going into high school, from freshman year, sophomore year, junior year, because the evaluation process never stops.”
Toward the end of the episode, Hunt discussed the upcoming roster changes to college baseball. Currently, rosters are expected to be 34 in college baseball. At a later time, I plan to dive into how this might look for Kentucky in the short-term and long-term future. But Cousino touched on the overall evaluation process of Kentucky’s staff and how the margins will be slimmer moving forward.
“...when we talk about bringing players into this program, it’s thorough and diligent,” Cousino said. “Everyone on our staff talks to them. They don’t have to all see them, but we have to have an understanding of when they step on campus, this is how this guy is going to help us based off the speed, the defense, the run, who he’s played with and against at different events. And when you’ve watched him, this is what you can expect.”
The interview is around 30 minutes long. It’s worth a watch if you’re interested in how rosters are built in college baseball and how Kentucky goes about adding players to its program. The YouTube link is below.