James Ramsey has added another player to the Georgia Tech roster via the transfer portal.
Rutgers starting pitcher Justin Shadek announced on his Instagram today that he is going to be continuing his college career at Georgia Tech. Last season, Shadek went 4-5 in 15 appearances with the Scarlet Knights and had a 7.78 ERA. He had 52 strikeouts as a redshirt freshman.
.@GTBaseball lands righthander Justin Shadek, who turned in a 52-37 K-BB in 59 IP w/ 7.78 ERA over 15 starts as a redshirt freshman in the Rutgers weekend rotation. Lot of upside, fastball into the upper-90s (primarily 93-96). Seems like a great fit with GT staff. pic.twitter.com/3KL701n2BT
— Bradley Smart (@fridaystarters) June 18, 2025
Yesterday, Georgia outfielder Cade Brown announced on social media that he is going to be transferring to Georgia Tech.
Brown spent one season in Athens, playing in 15 games. He slashed .171/.216/.314 this season with one home run and five RBIs. The talent is there and hopefully under Ramsey, the production will follow.
Per his UGA bio:
Batted .472 with a state-best 14 home runs, 12 doubles, 50 RBI and 53 runs in 35 games as a senior for the Panthers as they went 29-7
*A career .413 hitter with 141 hits including 30 home runs, 129 RBI and a .530 OB%
*Named the MaxPreps and Prep Baseball Georgia Player of the Year
*Named Gwinnett Daily Post Player of the year
*A 2024 All-State First Team selection
*Earned a Perfect Game 10 (PG) Grade and named to PG All-American first-team
*Rated as the No. 1 third basemen in Georgia and No. 7 nationally by PG
*Named All County Hugh Buchanan Player of the Year
*Named the 2023 Panthers Co-MVP after helping the squad go 30-10, win the region title and finished as State finalists
Monday, Georgia Tech picked up a commitment from one of the transfer portal's top hitters, Pittsburgh third baseman Ryan Zuckerman.
For a lineup that is going to return Drew Burress, Alex Hernandez, Caleb Daniel, and others, Zuckerman makes Georgia Tech an even deeper lineup. This past season for the Panthers, Zuckerman slashed .295/.382/.555 with 13 home runs and 48 RBIs, which led the team in both categories. This is a great addition for Georgia Tech and they should be one of the best offenses in the country next season.
How will Georgia Tech approach roster building with Ramsey now in charge? He addressed that topic head-on in his introductory presser:
"Where do we go in the future? So just to be clear, our roster is going to have a high school focus. We're going to use the portal as a supplement when needed. We've done a fantastic job of bringing players in that have had successful careers or not a lot of success. We've used technology and our scouting acumen to say we think this player could become a great player here. One of the most important things to know as the last two years, we've led Power 4 Baseball in the most amount of freshmen played. So recruits are seeing that, they're continuing to buy in, and we will continue to see more impactful commitments come our way in the coming days. Culture is important to us. And having a stable culture of players that come here, that buy into a vision, that stay here to see it through, and that realize they have unfinished business left, it takes time. Baseball is all about chemistry, and if we want to go where we want to go, we need to make sure that we are continuing to place players want to buy into. Coaching staff gets them better, and they know that we have their backs.
I think it's become something that, you know, once again that teams are able to look at players and project them better, the physicality is better than it has before. I think in our league, which, you know, I didn't speak on the ACC as much as I wanted to earlier having heard from Commissioner Phillips, and just knowing that this league has been made up of a lot of great coaches and great players that, you know, night in and night out in the MLB you can watch, I think that appeals to people, but nobody wants to sit the bench. And I think all these kids that come in, I think they're continuing to see track records of teams across our league or teams across the country is if you don't play freshman, you don't have a chance to really build it from within and I think if you look at the championship rosters that are about to compete for one, the hit rate on bringing in all new players is not very high and it's embedded in this place's DNA as well. We have to get people that want to be here and want to stay here. I think that's the only way that we can build it at Georgia Tech and compete with the top programs."
Being able to get a player like Zuckerman out of the portal is exactly what Ramsey is looking to do.
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