The CBB finishes our countdown today with our number 1 player in the country. After evaluating every player in the country, we decided to select junior RHP Stephen Strasburg from San Diego State as the best player.
Stephen is a native of San Diego who attended West Hills High School in Santee California. He ended up playing three years of varsity baseball under Scott Hopgood. His senior season saw him have a tremendous ERA of 1.68 in 62.1 innings while striking out 74 batters. He ended up finishing the season with a remarkable seven complete games. He broke the school records in ERA and complete games while his strikeouts and innings pitched finished third in school history. He was named to the second-team all-Grossmont League North and team MVP while picking up the 2006 West Hills HS Scholar-Athlete of the Year. He turned down offers to Arizona State, Arizona, UNLV, Stanford, Yale and Harvard to attend San Diego State.
During his freshman campaign, he was used as the closer for the San Diego State Aztecs. He saw action in 25 games with 16 of them being one inning stints. He ended up finishing the season with a 1-3 record with seven saves and an ERA of 2.43 with 47 strikeouts in 37 innings. After the season, he earned second-team all-MWC honors, while picking up honors as a member of the Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American and a Ping Freshman All-American teams. He played summer ball with the Torrington Twisters of the NECBL. He finished the summer season with a 1-0 record with seven saves and an ERA of 1.29 as he saw action out of the bullpen.
Last season, Strasburg became a national name with his outstanding performances on the mound. He finished the 2008 season with a 8-3 record with four complete games and an ERA of 1.57. He struck out an ridiculous 133 batters
in 97.1 innings. He struck out 23 batters on April 11th against Utah which broke conference and school records for most strikeouts in a game. He was a consensus All-American with every major organization putting him on their respective All-American team.
He spent the summer with the USA Collegiate National Team where he led the team to a 24-0 record. He personally went 3-0 with a 1.06 ERA in five starts. He had 48 strikeouts in only 34 innings pitched. After his starts with the Collegiate National Team, Davey Johnson who was coaching the USA Olympic Team decided to bring Strasburg to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. He started in two games with a 1-1 record and a 2.45 ERA in 11 innings of work facing off against some of the best players in the world.
Strasburg showed all summer that he is the best collegiate player in the country after having an outstanding sophomore season.
Driveline Mechanics has an article about some of the issues with Strasburg’s arm action on the mound which is poor according to writer Kyle Boddy. You can check out the article and some video of Strasburg pitching by clicking here.
You can check out all the players in our Top 50 by clicking here.
6 comments
Great job on your top 50 CBB. Just a little curious how very few, if anyone, who did not play in the CCBL or Team USA last summer missed your Top 50. There are several players that made Pre-Season All Americans that are probably worthy of your Top 50….Jedd Gyrko, Ryan Lockwood, Sam Dyson, Tommy Mendonca just to name a few. Was your criteria that you personally saw them play? If so, I understand…it is your site. If not…what was the criteria?
Thanks.
Tampaball,
The players I highlighted are my projected Top 50 players. I have seen personally about 35 of them play while one of my writers has at least seen the rest of the Top 50 pitch.
The problem with Ryan Lockwood is how the South Florida program doesn’t like their kids taking part in the summer leagues. I think this is disappointing as I have never been able to get a good read on him. He dominates in the Big East but how good is he.
Gyorko I am not high on at all. He is not better then Grant Green or D.J. Lethamenieu. We even think Christian Colon is a better all around player then Gyorko. Could I be wrong? Absolutely.
I will be doing a post over the weekend of players that just missed my cut like Rick Hague of Rice and Nate Lape of Marshall.
I know this is not directly on a specific player or on the top 50, but a lot has been mentioned about the Big East and their players this year. How do you guys think the Big East will compare against the other conferences?
Mendonca was #44 on the list, tampaball. All in all, the list is a great way for people to get a daily dose of the top players to look out for this season. Like any preseason list, there’s probably guys that got overlooked and guys that may be regarded too highly, but that’s with any preseason list. I mean, UCLA was the Baseball America preseason #1 last year, and look how that worked out for them. Fresno State was #18 on the same list and Georgia wasn’t even in the top 25. As the year goes on, we’ll probably be proven right on these picks and on some we’ll be off, but regardless it’s a great way to get the conversation going about the start of the ’09 season and the Road to Omaha.
Mark,
You are absolutely right on the Top 50 in general. Any pre-season predictor is subject to critisism. The boys that you have highlighted are all very deserving. My mistake on Mendonca being #44.
Keep up the great work…we all appreciate this site very much.
I’m a 9th grade freshman.I’ve made it to two All Star games,one in Reading PA and the other in Philadelphia,my home town.I am 14 years of age,I am 5’10 and 150 pounds.Strasburg has done things that I have dreamed of,this guy is the real deal.He will be wanted by every team.The numbers he puts forth are crazy. I’ll be watching this guy and hopefully get to play with him.
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