Angelina Alcantar/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK

Tony Vitello rejoining event this month that will give the Tennessee Vols' baseball program a lot of free and excellent publicity

Originally posted on A to Z Sports | By Craig Smith | Last updated Jul 10, 2025 1:40 PM ET

There have been a couple of telltale signs that Tony Vitello has been building a monster of a program in Knoxville since his arrival. Obviously, the first has been the three trips to Omaha over the last five years and that shiny national championship trophy that's now on the shelf at the team's facility.

The other - and as a natural cause of the former - is a ton of talent finding its way into Major League Baseball over the last several years. From Red Sox ace and Cy Young Award frontrunner Garrett Crochet to up and coming star Christian Moore, the Vols have started to become a steadier presence in Major League Baseball.

And, as the 2024 Major League Baseball draft showed, that's not going to change anytime soon. Eight Vols from the 2024 national championship team were drafted, including Moore at #8 overall by the Los Angeles Angels.

And who was there to hug him and discuss the pick on the MLB Network? Vitello himself. And that's where he'll be again for this year's draft, which gets underway on Sunday, July 13 at 6:00 pm ET in Atlanta.

Coach V is back as a guest analyst for this year's @MLBDraft!

He'll join the @MLBNetwork crew in Atlanta on Sunday night to help break down this year's picks.

ℹ️ https://t.co/CJDWkJa5oc pic.twitter.com/PvGqJF4DGG
— Tennessee Baseball (@Vol_Baseball) July 10, 2025

Vitello will assuredly be talking about and hugging three more players during the first round of the event in Liam Doyle, Gavin Kilen, and Andrew Fischer. Tennessee will should still have a large number of players who will hear their names called later on as well, with Marcus Phillips, Dean Curley, AJ Russell, and Tanner Franklin all listed inside MLB.com's top 125 prospects as of three days before the draft.

Being able to attend the draft and discuss players he's churning out into the pros is something that is invaluable for Vitello as he works to build a roster that can take the next step and return to the College World Series in 2026.

Not that he's not doing a terrific job already, with immediate impact players like Virginia 1B/OF Henry Ford and LHP Evan Blanco, Rutgers RHP Landon Mack, and most recently Duke LHP Mark Hindy, among several others.

We'll see if Vitello can keep the momentum going through the summer. And some extra publicity sure won't hurt.

This article first appeared on A to Z Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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