River Avenue Blues » College Ball

Teixeira among the NCAA’s best of the decade

Mike Axisa — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 19:30:18 +0000

Baseball America put together a list of college baseball’s All-Decade Team, and as you can imagine it features several prominent big leaguers and some big time prospects. Current Yankee and former Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket Mark Teixeira made the squad, but not as the first baseman. He played third in college (and early in his pro career), hit .427-.547-.772 with a 23-67 K/BB ratio and 18 homers in 66 games his final year (yawn), and was voted as the NCAA’s best at the hot corner in the aughts. Tex also finished third in the Player of the Decade voting, coming in just behind Buster Posey but a mile behind Dustin Ackley.

The only other player with Yankee ties to make an appearance is Scott Bittle, who was the team’s second round pick in 2008 and got some consideration for the Reliever of the Decade spot. He, of course, did not sign with the Yanks.

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Teixeira among the NCAA’s best of the decade

Cole dominant in first start

Mike Axisa — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 03:00:27 +0000

Gerrit Cole, the Yanks’ famously unsigned first round pick, made his collegiate debut for UCLA this afternoon, one hitting UC Davis over six innings. His final line was 6 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, with the lone run coming in the 4th inning on a single, two-base error to move the runner to third, and a sac fly. It’s a shame he choose not to do this in a Yanks’ uniform, but what can you do. Such is life when you gamble on uber-talented but tough to sign players.

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Cole dominant in first start

Baseball on TV … today!

Mike Axisa — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 22:00:00 +0000

Mo bless Brian Foley of The College Baseball Blog for pointing this out: MLB Network is going to be showing a doubleheader from the MLB Urban Invitational straight outta Compton this afternoon. The first game between San Diego and Bethune-Cookman will air at 5pm Eastern, and they’ll be followed by San Diego State taking on Southern at 8:30. I’m not sure what the pitching matchups will be, but I know that Stephen Strasburg won’t be taking the mound for SDSU; he struck out eleven in 5.2 IP yesterday. If you’re looking for a way to occupy some time on a lazy Saturday afternoon in February, thee’s not much better than college baseball.

Post from: River Ave. Blues A New York Yankees blog

Baseball on TV … today!

Oliver wins case against NCAA

Mike Axisa — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 03:00:38 +0000

Andy Oliver, a LHP at Oklahoma State, won his lawsuit against the NCAA today, and he has been deemed eligible for the upcoming baseball season. There’s a chance you remember hearing me speak about Oliver the end of an early January edition of the RAB Radio Show, but if not, let me review succinctly: Oliver sued the NCAA because he was ruled ineligible after it was discovered that he had used an agent to negotiate on his behalf back when the Twin’s drafted him in the 17th round of the 2006 draft. Today’s ruling abolished the “no agent” rule, so amateur players can now hire representation without consequences.

Players hired agents anyway, so why is this such a big deal? Because now Scott Boras can hold a press conference and officially say “Stephen Strasburg will not sign for anything less than $12M.” That’s an extreme example, but it gives you can idea how this can affect the already broken draft system.

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Oliver wins case against NCAA

TCBB’s Top 50 Players

Mike Axisa — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 20:29:46 +0000

Brian Foley over at The College Baseball Blog has completed his list of the top 50 college baseball players for the 2009 season. San Diego State superstud Steven Strasburg tops the list, and this gives us a nice glimpse into some of the top talent for the June draft. Check it out.

Post from: River Ave. Blues A New York Yankees blog

TCBB’s Top 50 Players

Jeremy Bleich takes on Georgia

Mike Axisa — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 18:00:25 +0000

If that exhilarating Dan Giese-Daryl Thompson matchup in the Bronx doesn’t do it for you, flip on over to ESPN at 2pm EST to check out sandwich rounder Jeremy Bleich try to save Stanford’s season in the College World Series. If the Cardinal wins today, they’ll take on Georgia again tomorrow, winner goes to the CWS Finals. If Georgia wins today, Stanford goes home and Georgia will take on either UNC or Fresno State in the Finals. Talk about the game here if you want, here’s the Game Tracker if you can’t get in front of a TV.

Post from: River Ave. Blues A New York Yankees blog

Jeremy Bleich takes on Georgia

CWS kicks off today

Mike Axisa — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 17:40:54 +0000

The College World Series (aka the most exciting two weeks in baseball) starts today, and Yankees’ fans get a primo matchup right from the get-go. Sandwich rounder Jeremy Bleich takes to the mound and faces Florida State, where 13th round pick Jack Rye bats cleanup behind 5th overall pick Buster Posey. The game begins at 2pm EST, and can be seen on ESPN. If you can’t watch, you can follow along via CSTV’s ridiculous Game Tracker.

Make sure you check out The College Baseball Blog’s CWS preview to get your head around all the upcoming action, then check out all the box scores and game recaps at NCAA-Baseball’s calender. Baseball America also has a ton of CWS content up on their site, including a 12-page preview, player highlights, and a breakdown of all eight participants. You can find the bracket for the double elimination tournament here.

I can’t recommend the CWS enough, the game is so much more exciting when the goal is to win as a team, not to land a big contract or a postseason award. DotF turned into a game thread the last time a Bleich start was televised, so feel free to comment on the action here.

Post from: River Ave. Blues A New York Yankees blog

CWS kicks off today

The Road to Omaha

Mike Axisa — Thu, 29 May 2008 20:00:46 +0000

Not Yankee related, but exciting nonetheless. The NCAA baseball postseason starts tomorrow night as the double elimination Regionals kick off in 16 college towns across the country. The NCAA postseason is some of the most exciting baseball you can find (the College World Series has been far better than the actual World Series for about 5 years running now), and I can’t possibly recommend spending a two week summer vacation in Omaha for the CWS any more highly. It’s unbelievable (and scorching hot).

The crew over at The College Baseball Blog have done us all a favor and posted previews of each regional, as well as their picks for Omaha. Two-time defending CWS champs Oregon State are left sitting at home this year, thanks to a paultry 11-13 conference record, and 27-24 overall. The team they beat for those two titles, North Carolina, was ranked in the top 5 all year and locked up a top 8 national seed. A bunch of games are going to be on ESPNU, CSN and various FSN channels, and the primo pitching matchups to look out for on Day One are Aaron Crowe (Missouri) vs. Lance Lynn (Ole Miss), and Brian Matusz (San Diego) vs Tyson Ross (Cal.)

Baseball America is having another Bracket Challenge this year, where the winner takes home a rather expensive DeMarini bat and a BA book (there’s a bunch of other prizes as well). If you’re interested you can check out my brackets here. Arizona State has just been too good all year, and I went with the underdog Mizzou as the runner-up because of their Aaron Crowe-Kyle Gibson-Ian Berger rotation. No team in the country can match that.

I know I’ve linked to this clip a billion times before, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t link to it again for all of you that haven’t seen it: here’s current Yankee farmhand JB Cox closing out Texas 2005 CWS Title. Enjoy.

Post from: River Ave. Blues A New York Yankees blog

The Road to Omaha

Vandy’s Alvarez out at least 6 weeks

Mike Axisa — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 19:50:37 +0000

3B Pedro Alvarez, one of if not the best prospect for the 2008 draft, broke a bone in his hand during his first at-bat of the year. He’ll be out at least 6 weeks, which is basically half the college season. The injury unquestionably hurts Alvarez’s draft stock, but will it be enough to get him to the Yanks at #28 overall? I think so. If he comes back and plays like a mere mortal, there will be tons of questions about how bad the injury was, if he’s fully healthy, will it be a long-term thing, etc. Elite players have fallen for far less. The real question is whether or not Alvarez will decide to return to school for his senior year to try and build his stock back up. Even with the potential questions, he’d be a no-brainer at #28.

Post from: River Ave. Blues A New York Yankees blog

Vandy’s Alvarez out at least 6 weeks

Cape Cod League & draft signings update

Mike Axisa — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 17:13:19 +0000

The Cape Cod Baseball League is “it” for amateurs. Each summer the best of the best college players head up to the Cape to strut their stuff for scouts in anticipation of the following year’s draft, and in some cases they are trying to make themselvesÂ a few extraÂ thousand bucks if they were already drafted. Many players have headed to the Cape with little hype, but left as top notch prospects; just ask Timmy Lincecum what his 0.69 ERA & .104 BAA did for him last year.Â

One player on the Cape looking to drive up his signing bonus is RHP Chris Carpenter, the Yanks’ 18th round pick out of Kent StateÂ in this year’s draft. A second rounder based on talent, Carpenter fell because of signability (as a draft-eligible sophomore, he’s got some extra negotiating leverage) andÂ health concerns (Tommy John surgery and a separate elbow surgery to clean out scar tissue in recent years). In two starts for the Chatham A’s, CarpenterÂ has goneÂ 9 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, 4 BB, 13 K, which isn’t as great as it may look when youÂ consider that the CCBL is quite possibly the pitcher friendliest baseball league on the planet.

Carpenter won’t have a chance to improve on those numbers though; he left the A’s after experiencing pain and inflammation in hisÂ throwing elbow/forearm. Carpenter had an MRI and supposedly everything is okay, but you hold your breath when a guy has a medical history as ugly as his. Regardless of the arm trouble, Carpenter was on a part-time contract with th A’s, and had to leave the team when all the full-time contract guys showed up July 1st and took hold of any available roster spots.

Given his performance and medical issue, I think Carpenter hurt his stock this summer more than he helped it. It’s a funny situation, on one hand Carpenter could take whatever money the Yanks offer him (somewhere between $300-500k I’m guessing) and turn pro, or he could go back to school for his junior year and possibly come out as an elite prospect in next year’s draft…or he could hurt himself (again) and never see a dime of baseball money. I think he should just take the money and get himself under professional instruction and conditioning programs, but I’m not the one making the call.

Another Yankee draftee linked to the Cape Cod League is 4th rounder Brad Suttle, a third basemanÂ out of Texas. Suttle was scheduled to play with the Wareham Gatemen, but he isn’t listed on the official roster and hasn’t so much as seen a pitch on the Cape. Suttle’s camp never gave aÂ reason as to why he’s not playing, so speculation is running wild. Is he hurt? Did he sign? Who knows.

A couple of weeks ago I snuck this question in to BA’s Jim Callis during his Wednesday ESPN.com chat:

Mike A. (SD, CA): Any idea why Brad Suttle isn’t playing on Cape, even though he was supposed to? Thanks

Â Jim Callis: My guess is he doesn’t want to risk an injury that could hurt his chances of signing with the Yankees.

If true, it’s good to see that he wants to sign, but on the other hand he might have cost himself some major dough by not going out to play on the Cape. He’ll still get a ton of money if he turns pro (around $800-900k), but if he goes back to school he’s got a chance to shine without being overshadowed by Kyle Russell, whoÂ obliterated Texas’ single season homerun mark this year (and struck out 64 times in 126 AB on the Cape last year).

If you’re interested in checking out some of the action on the Cape, Brian over at The College Baseball Blog has pointed out that you can watch nearly all of the Cape Cod League games right from your computer, for free, by clicking here.Â Lemme repeat that in case you missed it: you can watch nearly all of the Cape Cod League games right from your computer, for free. Sweet deal I’d say.

Even without Carpenter and Suttle playing, you can still check out some great players (school, Cape team) like 1B Yonder Alonso (Miami, Brewster), 1B Allan Dykstra (Wake Forest, Chatham), RHPÂ The Truth (UNC, Chatham), C/RHP Robert Stock (USC, Cotuit) and RHP Brett Jacobson (Vanderbilt, Harwich). I’m going to tryÂ to make timeÂ to catch a glimpse of Gavin Brooks, a freshman at UCLA this past year who is currently with Chatham. As a Â 6’3″, 200 lb LHP with a 91-93 mph fastball and plus breaking & offspeedÂ stuff, Gavin Brooks has a chance to be a very special player.

I still have not seen any confirmation of the Carmen Angelini signing, although it’s very possible that MLB is delaying the announcement. When a signing bonus exceeds the recommended slot amount, MLB will usually make theÂ team delay the announcement so it doesn’t drive up signing bonuses across the board. Yes you’d rather have the player in uniform and playing in games ASAP, but this approach is in the best interestsÂ of baseball long term.

The uniform signing date is now less than 6 weeks away, so expect a flurry of player signings very soon.

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Cape Cod League & draft signings update