UVA’s Connor Jones kicked off this year with a gem. Photo via UVA sports
Welcome to the 2016 College Baseball Season! Despite there still being snow on the ground here, D1 programs all over the country played their first series this past weekend.
I know; I’m one of the few guys out there (at least in DC blogger-land) covering the College game. So i’m ok if you keep moving on. I probably got really turned onto the College game as I started to really look at the college arms the Nats were drafting, and the focus the Mike Rizzo establishment puts on college players. Its a very “Billy Beane-esque” strategy; college players have more ABs, more consistent stats and more experience playing against “known quantities” of talent (especially those guys in the top baseball leagues like the SEC and ACC). Now with two very good local programs (UVA and UMD) and a ton of local guys who i’ve been following long enough to track them from HS draft prospect to College draft prospect, I continue coverage of the College game.
Quick rundown of the top local prospects first weekend in action;
- UVA’s Connor Jones threw 7 shut-out innings in a UVA win over Kent State.
- Maryland’s Mike Shawaryn gave up 2 runs on 3 hits in a loss at Alabama
- UVA’s Matt Thaiss went 6-13 in the kickoff tournament down in Myrtle Beach.
- Ole Miss’ Error Robinson (a dc-native but quickly rising on the draft boards) went 2-for-7 with 3 walks and 4 runs in a their opening series sweep against FIU.
- UNC’s J.B. Bukauskas had 9 Ks in 4 2/3’s innings but got a hook after showing some wildness in an eventual UNC loss.
I have a comprehensive post about all DC-area prospects coming, headlined by these four guys but also including all the local prep and college players, which we’ll post once HS season starts up.
Meanwhile, here’s some pre-season top-X lists for the new year: you’re going to see the same 4 teams at the top of every list. There’s only 5 or so main sites covering the game, so we’ll go back to these blogs and sites constantly. D1baseball.com and BaseballAmerica.com are the leaders but the other Collegiate Baseball sites are good as well.
- D1Baseball’s pre-season top 25: Florida, Louisville, TAMU, Vandy, Oregon State.
- Baseball America’s pre-season top-25: Florida, Louisville, TAMU then surprisingly UVA #4.
- College Baseball Daily pre-season top 25 from 2/1/16: Louisville #1, TAMU #2, Vanderbilt #3 and Florida #4. Virginia #8, Maryland #22.
- College Baseball Central’s pre-season top 25 January 2016: Florida #1, Louisville #2
- Collegiate Baseball News pre-season top-40 announced in Dec 2015. Florida #1, Louisville #2, which isn’t surprising since both teams have multiple pre-season first team all-americans on their team. Local teams mentioned: UVA #9, Maryland #28.
- NCBWA (National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association)’s pre-season top-30: Florida, Louisville, Vandy and TAMU.
And here’s some pre-season All-America lists. You’ll recognize a lot of these names if you’ve followed any pre-2016 draft coverage, and this list will eventually comprise a huge percentage of the first round draft this coming June.
- Collegiate Baseball News announced in Dec 2015 their pre-season All Americans and it contains a whole slew of names in contention for 1-1 in 2016. A.J. Puk, Alec Hanson, Corey Ray along with other big-time names such as Kyle Funkhouser, Nick Banks. Maryland’s Mike Shawaryn is a 1st teamer, UVA’s Connor Jones and the Navy’s Luke Gillingham a 2nd-teamer, and Matt Thaiss (UVA), Charley Gould (W&M) and Michael Morman (Richmond) are 3rd teamers.
- D1Baseball.com’s pre-season all American list: the two aces for local college teams UVA and UMD are listed (Jones and Shawaryn). UVA’s Thaiss is a 2nd teamer. D1baseball also has a list of the Top 300 College draft prospects for 2016.
- BaseballAmerica’s pre-season All American team is here. No local guys on 1st team, Shawaryn, Jones and Pavin Smith are on the 2nd and 3rd teams.
- USA Baseball pre-season Golden Spikes watch list: includes most major D1 prospects and local guys Shawaryn, Jones, Thaiss and Gillingham.
A full overview of D1Baseball’s coverage is here. BaseballAmerica’s College index is here.