College Baseball - Do any of you follow it much?

[Crimson's Ghost]

The new aluminum bats play closer to wood, if you look at stats from the past 3-4 season to that of 10 years ago, you won't see the inflated stats that people still think are out there. You aren't going to have 3 guys batting .400 or anything like that, the new bats have really made an impact in the college game.

Virginia is ranked #1 in the country, and they only have one guy batting over .300.

[say_oww]

D1 NCAA doesn't even compare to professional ball. I understand how many people are so fond of the college game with the slick espn coverage of the CWS. But like a famous rapper once said - don't believe the hype! The aluminum bats do have one significant advantage over wood - the 2 5/8 barrel size. Easier to barrel up the baseball than with wood. Just try to swing a wood bat with a barrel that size and you're swinging a +3 not a -3. That is why you don't see the same averages in summer wood leagues as you do in the college regular season. College kids go from the big barrel BBCOR bats to M110 and 271 models when they play in summer leagues. Tray and play a game against pro pitchers who know how to pitch to wood, and knowitall is right again. They don't even finish .500 in a league like the Frontier League.

[Crimson's Ghost]

I think one thing I would take note of, it seems top end college pitchers can be the one equalizer in a series or a game with a frontier league opponent. Because if you think about, the majority of top college prospects on a year to year basis basically are pitchers and not hitters, and judging now looking at the top 100 list heading into the draft in two weeks, that still holds true.

You guys are right, a professional pitcher even in unaffiliated ball that has some idea of what he is doing should be able to tame most college bats especially if they have to use wood. Most college hitters only use wooden bats for short seasons in the Summer like at Cape Cod and places like that, and there's no way they would be disciplined or skilled enough to consistently hit that. I'm on board with that.

But as it's been mentioned, a good college pitcher could hold his own against guys at a Washington Wild Things better than a hitter could. I mean recent guys like Cole, Strasburg, Appel still have 99 mph fastballs, and still at their college level would be able to get outs against low level minor leaguers, hence their quick ascension to the majors. Of the current top 10 draft prospects according to MLB.com, 5 are college pitchers. 2 HS pitchers, 2 HS position player, and only 1 college bat. So even in a small sample size, college pitchers are more of a sure thing above anything else in a draft, and that would translate to them going up against the Wild Things.

So I am on board with you guys the more I think about it and see what you said, but my original mindset was that as a young guy seeing the Johnstown Johnnies didn't really strike me as good players, but taken into consideration that it's still professional, I get what you all are saying.

[say_oww]

I get what you are saying as well. I'll acknowledge that a college aged version of Strasburg, or Cole, etc would be formidable to a professional hitter - that is already proven. The difference when comparing entire teams would be that the professional team has more than one way to win against a college team. Don't forget, unless the stud college draft prospect threw a perfect game the college hitters would still need to do better against professional pitchers on a daily basis. Therein lies the challenge. Baseball, like other sports sees professional level players from all levels of college not just D1. Just think of some of the no named D3 guys who are established MLB players like Cincinnati's Chris Heisey who went to Messiah College (PA). Most D1 guys go nowhere but pro ball has the best from all over and that is what I am emphasizing is that it is still professional baseball. As I mentioned earlier, the Wild Things still have 12 guys who were drafted or signed as free agents with MLB teams. They have been around the block. The rest of the guys on the roster are basically D1-D3 all-stars. Back to a the big-time D1 teams, many D1 kids have D1 bodies, but not D1 skills. Only one kid for Virginia hitting .300 with a big barrel bat against average college pitching (they aren't facing their own staff). You don't get a pro contract without some type of game.

[knowitall]

OK. World Cup kickball or CWS?

Hooooo!

[Manfred]

CWS. How many give a crap about that other junk.

[Crimson's Ghost]

Pretty wild game last night. Virginia 15 hits, 8 runs and they lose 9-8. Reminiscent of a score before they switched the bats.


UVA's middle of the lineup is tough. Derek Fisher and Mike Papi both 1st round compensation picks, have a good chance to be good pro's.

[no/excuses]

Check out the rosters of Vanderbilt & Virginia.More northern boys on those rosters than you would think.

[Crimson's Ghost]

UVA likes Pennsylvania/New Jersey a lot. They come and pluck a lot of talent up here.

[say_oww]

That's because a lot of PA kids travel to VA to play in tournaments from the time they are 14U.