SIAP: Bakich is lowest paid coach at CWS (and it is not close)
Article is a few days old. Did a search and didn't see anything else referring to this, but obligatory SIAP.
PAY THE MAN HIS MONEY!! Bakich is at $450K/year with next lowest CWS coach at $600K/year. I'm thinking if FSU is paying the outgoing Martin $700K, that needs to be the floor to keep Bakich. Best recruiting class in the history of the Big Ten, 1st CWS in 35 years, National Coach of the Year? There is going to be a ton of interest in him, but Warde needs to step up and get a deal done (with a high buyout this time).
The AD is swimming in money. They should overpay for every decent coach on staff. Michigan should be a destination job for any coach in any sport.
We should NEVER lose a great coach because we don't pay them enough.
I agree that they can and will offer him as much money as required. Unfortunately, it will be hard to keep him up North. B1G schools are not destination schools for good coaches (also, he really has no ties up here).
Weather will always prevent the B1G schools from being a destination job for baseball.
That's why you need to pay more.
"Yeah, you're offering me 50% more than Tennessee, but I'm going to go ahead and turn you down becomes the weather sucks"
--- No One Ever.
There are 9 college baseball coaches that make over a million per year. Vandy's Tim Corbin is the highest paid coach making $1.3 million. Bakich makes less than half that. I doubt Manual is going to triple his salary, but I could be wrong.
Alright Jerry... we'll show him the money.
Wow!! I didn't realize Martin's resume was that impressive. I've heard the 40-years stories, but had no idea that he won almost 50% of the ACC Tourney's in that time span! And 16 CWS' out of 40 seasons is pretty special, as well. I'd say he's earned a $700K salary...
But I still want him to lose in the CWS again. Tonight. Fuck him...
Unfortunately, all of this pay talk is probably not going anywhere as Bakish will probably be headed south after the season (i.e. hello FSU)
He'll have offers. I wouldn't be suprised to see him gone sooner rather than later.
I think Manuel had to Warde off Clemson a few years ago.
I'm confused. Are we firing him or running him out the door? Can we stick to one strategy at a time please?
He got a nice increase two years ago and I am sure Warde will increase his salary this year. I think 500K will be the new salary.
Extend Bakich!!!
I thought we were firing ?Bakich‼️ LOL
Warde needs to get creative. I say zero salary, but one of those prepaid debit cards linked to the endowment. And a biplane.
Cool story moment, not worthy of its own thread. We ended up staying at the same hotel as the baseball team, in Omaha. My kids were in heaven! My two oldest were able to give Kerr a high five and tell him that they love his hitting.
Later, at the pool, the kids were swimming and Carol Hutchins came out to the pool area. My wife, god bless her, sat there and had a long conversation with her. My wife had no clue as to who she was talking to and my oldest (9 year old) came up to me and asked why "mom" was talking to the women's softball coach. So, apparently I am doing something right, if my 9 year old knows the softball coach. However, I feel I may have failed my wife a little bit. Sucks that I have to be back home and couldn't hangout longer in the Big O.
You're doing it right. Keep her in the dark on as many important things as possible.
How's 1950 treating you?
Haha!!! You're always going to e called out on the blog!!
Misogyny dies a hard death, Wendy... A hard death...
Bakich Abides.
Pay the man.
A school like Michigan should pay competitive salaries for all of its coaches. I know there are comparative metrics across conferences, but if UM wants to be a top-5 school for athletics then they have to play in that space.
We'll probably want a donor to fund any raise he receives. It's hard to justify throwing that much money at a Big Ten baseball coach.
I doubt Bakich is seriously considered for the FSU job. (Quickly) reading the tea leaves, it sounds like Martin's son is likely to take over for us dad. If not him, then they have alums that they would look closely at, or they'd probably try to steal a coach from another powerhouse before looking at a Big Ten coach with 1 trip to the CWS.
Let's just ruminate on the fact that this thread is carping about a guy being underpaid, but he's still making $450,000.
College athletics!
Amen to that.
Before I opened this thread, I would have guessed the U-M baseball coach was making more like $250K-$275K.
I mean - Bakich's current base salary is more than Pearson's. That shocks me. Hockey (I think) at least makes a little bit of $ for the U-M athletic department. Baseball definitely doesn't. U-M hockey is also more visible than U-M baseball locally and nationally.
I think UM should be competitive with his salary for the B1G and it looks (from the post above) like they have.
On the other hand, I'd be fascinated to know what they have spent on this team throughout the season. From what I can tell, they were in Florida and South Carolina for extended time in February, then spent 10 days in Southern California in early March. Another long weekend in Texas in March. Long Big Ten season, then week in Omaha, week in Oregon, week in LA, few days in Ann Arbor, then week (hopefully more) in Omaha.
All of that is the entire team and support staff. I don't mean to say they shouldn't do all of this, but there is no way this team is operating in the black or even close to the black.
There is no way that anyone ever thought baseball was breaking even, let alone making money! The only two sports that make money are football and basketball. Hockey probably comes pretty close most years, and probably has made modest amounts in some years.
However interesting it would be to see the numbers, nothing will change the fact that baseball (and the vast majority of all other sports) loses money every year.
Maybe we could have the baseball team sell programs at football games to raise extra cash.
Great idea. Wish someone had thought about it 30 years go.
Does he have an incentive clause in his contract for making the CWS?
Answered my own question with Google:
Looks like up to $70 K in incentives so far.
Am I reading that right to say that he can get 20k for a regular season title and up to 100k for post-season results? Seems odd to separate out a Super Regional championship and CWS appearance since they're essentially the same thing.
Yes. Kind of $45K for winning Super Regional and going to CWS. I guess there might be a situation where you took another job in between and didn't get both.
I took that as a CWS FINAL appearance. As in the final series. Then the championship money for winning it.
My man's agent needs to do something about those CWS appearance and title bonuses. I'd be like, "You'd best put a '1' in front of those, Warde."
If I were Warde, I wouldn't be too opposed to restructuring the incentive packages. Like many have said, at our best, we're a bigger fish in a smaller pond. Keep the annual salary competitive in the B1G, but provide for sufficient incentives when we punch above our weight. I'm pretty excited to see what the players will get!
Instead of giving him a big raise, we could fire him, hire a cheap replacement and then use the savings to add a "halo" around the football stadium.
Your heart is in the right place. But it is hard to pay someone in the past based on magic crystal ball predictions of the future. These results came kind of quick, and kind of out of left field. No one expected this type of result for the season.
The future will take care of itself and he will be evaluated appropriately.
Triple his salary. Then divide by two.
IMO Bakich was not being underpaid until now. He's the coach of the year and is having the best UM baseball season in decades. So this is a completely appropriate time to give him a new contract with a large bump. He's clearly earned it. Giving him a lot more before this year would have been rather speculative.
If he leaves, it will probably be because he wants to coach at some major college baseball power. But since college baseball isn't really a stepping stone to MLB for coaches, if Michigan can make his $$$ good enough, he may be happy staying here where he doesn't have to play a league full of SEC/Pac 12 teams every year. He clearly has proven he can be nationally competitive despite Michigan's large geographical disadvantage. If he can challenge for a CWS with Michigan, and he makes enough $$$, then why go somewhere else?
Warde's most serious error as AD has been not dropping a $6.5MM/yr contract on Beilein's desk regardless of whether he would sign it. It is mostly just an optics issue bc most of the fan base post-Harbaugh thinks that pulling pro-quality coaches should be normal for M (or any college). It isn't.
Do we know Warde didn't do that?
Nice. Let’s browbeat Warde for something that hasn’t happened, that’s seems to be sport on this board.
I would think FSU would just hire their current coach’s son, he’s been an assistant there under his dad for 22 years.
I don’t know but this is not a baseball school, and I’d take 450k a year. He seems to be one of the higher paid coaches in the BIG. He has done a great job, but that is what he is supposed to do. Football/basketball bring more revenue hence coaches get paid more in those sports
Unfortunately a guy of this caliber will want the mlb money and I don’t blame him. He has no ties to Michigan and has proven he can turn a team around who really had no business being turned around given the elements we play baseball in. There’s a ton of talent in the rust belt that aspires to go south to play baseball which makes what Bakich has done even more impressive. My son plays at the same juco that Jordan Brewer played at and Bakich himself made the 6.5 hr drive to watch him play when any assistant would have sufficed. That in itself says a lot about his commitment and how he’s finding kids that no one else is.
Pay the man. He has done an amazing job. The better coaches we have across our sports teams, the more pressure it drives everyone to make the ‘Final 4’. <cough> Football<cough>