2024 Softball Portal

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As we softball fans wait in fear for who could wind up on the portal to transfer out, it is worth mentioning that to date, the Gophers have net-gained by transfers over the past 10 years or so in my opinion. The Gophers have done a really good job, through the instability of two coaching changes, to retain players who were already in the starting lineup at the time they transferred out.

To my memory the big losses of regular starters were Lindaman to Florida in 2018 and then Leavitt to Texas A&M and Evans to UCF in 2022 (and even as of yesterday, that Evans can hit).

That is a quite good record of retention in this world. Let’s hope the retention work is again well done by the Gopher coaches this Spring and Summer.
 

MacKenzie Denson had a good year at Tulsa. Wish she would have gotten more of a chance at MN.
 


Addie Leschber has entered the portal. The portal officially opened today. There will be many more players entering in the next few days. Hopefully, the Gophers will keep theirs. Thanks, Addie. Good Luck!
 
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I do not like that transfer. I was always pro-Leschber. I though she has a beautiful swing with a lot of upside potential on our team.
 

Yes, I always thought her potential far exceeded actual results. She had some good games early in both her seasons but never could really get going in conference play.

I think she needs to play where she is the bona fide starter and I didn’t see that happening here.

On the flip side, portal losses = opportunities to pick up even better players from the portal.

So we will see when everything shakes out whether this was a net gain or net loss.
 

rwlarson said:
Yes, I always thought her potential far exceeded actual results. She had some good games early in both her seasons but never could really get going in conference play.

I think she needs to play where she is the bona fide starter and I didn’t see that happening here.

On the flip side, portal losses = opportunities to pick up even better players from the portal.

So we will see when everything shakes out whether this was a net gain or net loss.
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I liked Addie and hoped that she would improve. As a lefty, her chances to play in the field were the outfield or first base. Unfortunately, she was not able to win a position in the field and was in a battle for the DH. She won the battle part way through the season. However, she hit around .210 with mediocre power. A DH needs to do more than that. I wish her the best of luck wherever she lands.
 



Now that 48 teams have been eliminated from the tournament, there may be more activity in the portal.
 

The portal window closed on Monday. Schools had 48 hours to enter the athlete's name. That ended last night. Unless no one has been looking or adding names recently, Neither Oakland, Krapf nor Chavez entered the portal. I hope that is the case.
 

I'll be the first to admit I was wrong; thought those girls would be long gone. Guess we can't always believe what we hear! Go Gophs!
 

Canady to Texas Tech with a $1,000,000 NIL deal. In this case, I guess money is everything.
 



dlw4gophers said:
Canady to Texas Tech with a $1,000,000 NIL deal. In this case, I guess money is everything.
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Wow. TX Tech looking to elevate themselves in the BG12 with Oklahoma and Texas exiting.

On the one hand, I'm really glad that fastpitch women can make some money at the popular college level. Opportunity at the professional level is sketchy at best. On the other hand, the whole restriction-free transfer portal thing will take some getting used to. Not sure if it helps the sport in the long run.
 

Maybe it all matters. Maybe it doesn't. Allister leaves Minnesota for more money (and maybe other reasons we know nothing about). Canady leaves Stanford for more money (and maybe other reasons we know nothing about). Maybe some people in need somewhere will benefit from part of that money? Who knows. Anyway softball will continue to be played. We'll probably all be there to watch it.
 

I don't understand the angst of some people about Jamie leaving to go to Stanford. It is her Alma mater for God's sake and..... its freaking Stanford. Don't know anyone who wouldn't go back to their Alma mater for more money, especially to a place like Stanford. Ok, rant over.
 

TNGophfan said:
I don't understand the angst of some people about Jamie leaving to go to Stanford. It is her Alma mater for God's sake and..... its freaking Stanford. Don't know anyone who wouldn't go back to their Alma mater for more money, especially to a place like Stanford. Ok, rant over.
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Agreed, although now what is happening with Stanford may not allow that to happen again.
 



PreacherRoe said:
I'm sorry but who is Jamie? and "What is happening with Stanford"?
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Stanford is now in a terrible conference for money and their sports. They may become no different than Boston College is now. Almost irrelevant.
 

mngolf said:
Stanford is now in a terrible conference for money and their sports. They may become no different than Boston College is now. Almost irrelevant.
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I simply cannot imagine a world where Stanford University (with all that west coast technology money) will ever be irrelevant in anything, including sports. Any other school may struggle under those circumstances, but Stanford is special, whether we like it or not. Life just is not perfectly fair; I expect Stanford athletics will be just fine.
 

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