Van Horn Shares His Blueprint For Continued Success With Razorbacks
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Arkansas baseball coach Dave Van Horn made a guest appearance on Hot Stove of the MLB Network last week. He detailed his time during the minor leagues, why he chose the Razorbacks over any other program and the type of player he recruits.
As the Arkansas brand continues to grow nationally, adding players coast-to-coast, Van Horn knows the importance of adding homegrown players. It's well documented in other sports how in-state athletes want to represent their state and play for the Razorbacks. For the baseball team, it's the same way, and Van Horn puts an emphasis of bringing in the Natural State's best.
"[Arkansas] has a small population, but No. 1, we want the best kids out of the state," Van Horn said. "You know, we miss on one every now and then. Credit those kids for maybe developing a little later or maybe they just want to go somewhere else. But, No. 1 is to get the kids from Arkansas. Then, maybe the Boulder State. After that, it's all over the place."
"If you look up and down our roster, we've got kids from Hawaii. We get them from all over," Van Horn said.
The Razorbacks' roster currently holds eight players from Arkansas and a pair of players from Colorado. They've even reached into South Korea with the addition of Jaewoo Cho, a freshman phenom from IMG Academy. Cho comes to Arkansas as the No. 76 overall prospect in the nation and first native born Korean student athlete to play for the Diamond Hogs.
Another reason for the rise of Arkansas' success in baseball is its on-field performance over the past eight full seasons. Four College World Series appearances combined with brand recognition at the MLB level keeps Fayetteville a destination for big time baseball players.
"Those kids are appreciative of our program," Van Horn said. "We tell the players while we are recruiting them and once they get here that we're working out, practicing, we are trying to get them ready for pro ball. We are getting you ready to fight through the minor leagues. You have to be tough to get through the minor leagues to get to the big leagues. Whether you play two years in the big leagues or 12, unless you are super talented, you've got to outwork people and be dedicated. We try to teach that here, honestly.
"A lot of our guys come back and workout a couple weeks here and there because they just feel comfortable," Van Horn said. "You've got it all here facility wise."
Speaking of fighting through the minor leagues, former greats Dominic Fletcher and Heston Kjerstad drew their paths to MLB rosters last season. Kjerstad, the No. 2 overall pick during the 2020 draft finally received his call-up to the bigs and did well in 13 appearances.
The Amarillo, Texas native recorded a .233 batting average with two home runs and three RBI's in 33 plate appearances.
Arizona traded Fletcher last week to the Chicago White Sox in exchange for pitching prospect Christian Mena. Fletcher started piping hot last season once he was called up to the Diamondbacks roster. He hit .301 with two home runs and 14 RBI's in 28 games last season.
The Razorbacks had the second most players on MLB opening day rosters in 2023. It also had 13 former players play at least one game at the level last season. The number will surely remain in the top five going into the 2024 season and beyond.
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