Monday Musings: A big loss for Miami Hurricanes baseball

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTT’SSSSSSSSSSS MONDAY!!!!!!!!!!! And you fine folks know just what that means. Let’s go ahead and take those ATVs up to the top of the cliff, pull on those swimming caps, and swan dive into the ocean of orange and green-colored Miami Hurricanes thoughts, swirling around inside my mind.

1) The Miami Hurricanes baseball program is apparently suffering a major blow. According to Geo Milian, IF Blake Cyr is entering the transfer portal.

Well, that’s less than ideal. I had written earlier about how J.D. Arteaga needed to raid the transfer portal to pick up scores of quality starting pitching. I should have thought about the possibility of the portal taking away but didn’t. Now, it has taken away in a big way with Cyr, who missed much of the 2024 season with a thumb injury. Cyr was one of the core players that I saw a 2025 retool being built around. Now, if this news is true, then that rebuild just got significantly more difficult.

It’s also not a good look for the program and, at least on the surface, appears to reinforce the mess that we saw on the field this season. A bad sign. May the portal turn back towards the giving part in the coming weeks for Arteaga’s sake.

2) There has been a lot of excitement regarding the upcoming July release of EA Sports College Football 25. And hey, why shouldn’t there be? It’s only been 11 years since the last game came out. As Justin notes in his piece last week about the game, the last time the title was released, the 2013 Canes were the featured team. That actually was a pretty fun team to play with. I’ve played it repeatedly over the years, and that Miami team wasn’t all that bad to play with.

It actually was a pretty fun team to watch in person as well. The Canes toppled Florida 21-16 at (now) Hard Rock Stadium. I went to the USF game as well later in the month, which the Canes dominated 49-21. That bunch was one hiccup away from a ten-win season. I still look on them somewhat fondly (shrugs).

3) But with that being said, I’m not sure I’m quite as high on the projected player ratings as Justin is, at least in some spots. I think Ward will probably reach 90, maybe 92, but I don’t see him being at the elite of the elite 100 status. This isn’t like Tua Tagovailoa is returning for another season for Alabama. This is someone certainly with high potential but landing at a new program that’s wasted more talent than it should have over the last two decades. Lots of promise and upside, but still too much uncertainty to warrant that high of a rating.

Now, even with that being said, if EA Sports has been paying attention, then I think they should give Rueben Bain the 95 overall grade that Justin projects. He certainly earned that on the field for Miami last season, showing last year just how dominant he can be with a ton of room to still improve.

4) Oh, and the game will have kneel downs. When that nugget of info was released, the barbs at Mario Cristobal came flying from everywhere all over Twitter/X. As they should have. That absolute nonsense of an ending to the Georgia Tech game should hang over Cristobal’s head as long as he paces a sideline as a head coach. Nope, I’m not over it. Won’t be for a long time regardless. And Mario’s in-game management is why I can’t accept Miami as a true dark horse playoff contender this year. Sorry, not sorry. Until he shows improvement in that area, I can’t help but see that as an anchor to this program’s progress. May he start to prove me wrong in that area this fall.

5) Lastly, I’m going to be on vacay and off the reservation for the next couple of Mondays, so I will be back in touch with you later on this month, my loyal readers. May the start of your summers be sunny and fun(ny) until we touch base again.

Go Canes!