Tanner Talks About MLB Midnight Deadline

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WOLO) — How much is enough? That’s the question that several baseball players with ties to the University of South Carolina will answer before tonight’s MLB deadline. USC Head Baseball Coach Ray Tanner was the guest speaker at the Columbia Rotary Club Monday afternoon. Tanner said he expects Jackie Bradley Jr. to sign with the Boston Red Sox, gave closer Matt Price a 50-50 chance of signing with the Arizona Diamondbacks and seemed hopeful that 35th round draft pick Michael Roth would return for his senior season but didn’t rule out the All-American signing with the Cleveland Indians. Tanner had minor knee surgery last week but expects to throw batting practice when fall practice begins. When asked the one play he will remember most from USC’s second straight national championship, Tanner picked Scott Wingo’s diving play with the bases loaded to keep Florida from winning the first game in the national championship series. Tanner says Robert Beary’s back-handed scoop at the plate was more impressive than Wingo’s play because Beary had to do it with a catcher’s mitt.