NCBWA releases 2011 Preseason All-Americans

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FROM NCBWA RELEASE
IRVINE, Calif. – Loaded with several standouts from the 2010 NCAA World Series, the 11th annual Pro-Line Athletic National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association preseason All-America team is one of the most impressive groups in the two decades of selections.

Returning Dick Howser Trophy winner 3B Anthony Rendon of Rice leads a team of collegiate standouts along with World Series returnees from the last stand at historic Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Neb: champion South Carolina’s CWS Most Outstanding Player OF Jackie Bradley, Jr., and relief ace Matt Price, pitchers Matt Purke, Steven Maxwell, Kyle Winkler and OF Jason Coats of TCU, Florida State’s all-purpose utility standout Mike McGee, SP Gerrit Cole of UCLA, Florida’s Austin Maddox and Preston Tucker, Clemson OF Jeff Schaus, and Oklahoma 3B Garrett Buechele.

As Division I baseball looks toward the new 2011 venue in downtown Omaha – TD Ameritrade Stadium – and some innovations in playing rules (a 30-second timer kept between pitches by a digital clock or a base umpire, subject to the NCAA Baseball Rules Committee’s final recommendation) and all the returning talent, the upcoming season promises to be one of the most interesting campaigns in recent history.

Rendon, the 2010 consensus college player of the year as well as Howser Trophy recipient, helped Rice advance to Super Regionals in 2009 as NCBWA Freshman of the Year and to the NCAA Austin Regional last spring. His statistics virtually speak for themselves with a Conference USA-leading .394 batting average, 26 home runs, 85 RBI, stolen bases, and two-time conference player of the year laurels (first freshman ever to garner C-USA top honors in this regard) for coach Wayne Graham’s Owls.

The makeup of the 11th annual preseason All-America squad again includes the heartbeat of American with 17 different conferences and 37 schools represented from every corner of the country.

And if great pitching can get a team deeply into the postseason, defending NCAA third-place finisher TCU is represented well by its trio of returning All-America moundmen.

Purke (first team) was 2010 NCBWA Freshman of the Year with a DI-best 16-0 record, 3.02 earned run average, 116 1/3 innings pitched, and Mountain West Conference-high 142 strikeouts. The sophomore lefty also started and won the Horned Frogs’ first-ever NCAA World Series contest against Florida State. Maxwell and Winkler combined for a 23-5 record on the hill for 2010 NCBWA National Coach of the Year Jim Schlossnagle’s squad.

Bradley, who had two homers and nine RBI during the 2010 CWS as its top player, and Price (5-1, 2.26 ERA, 10 saves for coach Ray Tanner’s Gamecocks) add zest to three teams of current and potential superstars.

FSU’s McGee, another first team member of the Pro-Line Athletic NCBWA post-2010 squad, pitched and batted coach Mike Martin’s Seminoles to yet another trek to Omaha. His .328 average, 17 home runs and 73 RBI were a perfect compliment to 4-1 pitching, 13 saves, 20 appearances, and 33 strikeouts in 27 innings as the bullpen ace for Florida State.

Cole garnered first unit honors on the basis of a 11-4 record, 19 starts, and a nation-returning-best 153 strikeouts in 123 innings last year. He was a key cog in the Bruins’ first appearance in the NCAA DI diamond championship round under coach John Savage.

By point of comparison, the pre-2010 first team starting pitching staff was a composite 67-12 while its pre-2011 counterpart is a combined 74-11 with one of the top strikeouts-to-walks’ ratios since the NCBWA began selecting preseason All-America units in 2000. Over a dozen of the standouts on all three ’11 teams were either Player/Hitters of the Year or Pitchers of the Year in their conferences last spring.

Most of these preseason standouts will be nominated for the historic 25th annual Dick Howser Trophy, presented by Easton Foundations and the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Area Chamber of Commerce and voted upon by the NCBWA membership. The Howser Trophy will be awarded at a national media setting in 2011 at a date and site to be determined.

2011 Preseason NCBWA All-America Team (2010 Stats)

First Team

Player School Class Avg. G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB-SBA

C Peter O’Brien, Bethune-Cookman, Jr. .384 57 203 51 78 13 0 20 56 18 40 0/3

1B Jordan Ribera, Fresno State, Sr. .343 63 251 65 86 20 2 27 69 24 35 1/1

2B *Zack MacPhee, Arizona State, Jr. .389 57 229 67 89 8 14 9 64 41 39 20/24

3B *Anthony Rendon, Rice, So. .394 63 226 83 89 12 1 26 85 65 22 14/18

SS Adam Bryant, Troy, Sr. .356 61 250 70 89 16 6 23 65 26 38 4/4

OF *Alex Dickerson, Indiana, So. .419 55 236 62 99 19 0 24 75 20 35 3/5

OF Jeremy Baltz, St. John’s, So. .396 63 240 64 95 16 1 24 85 28 44 6/6

OF Jackie Bradley, Jr. South Carolina Jr. .368 67 242 56 89 12 1 13 60 41 37 7/10

DH *C.J. Cron, Utah, Jr. .431 49 197 55 85 16 0 20 81 17 23 0/0

UT Mike McGee, Florida State, Sr. .328 68 250 61 82 15 1 17 73 44 53 5/8

Pitching: 4-1, 2.96 ERA, 20pp, 1GS, 0CG, 13SV, 27IP, 13h, 10R, 9ER, 18BB, 33K

Pitchers

ERA W-L APP GS CG SV IP BB SO

SP ^Anthony Meo, Coastal Carolina, Jr. 2.61 13-3 18 16 0 0 96 34 94

SP ^Danny Hultzen, Virginia, So. 2.78 11-1 16 16 1 0 106.2 24 122

SP ^Cole Green, Texas, Jr. 2.74 11-2 17 16 4 0 111.2 27 75

SP Matt Purke, TCU So. 3.02 16-0 20 18 1 0 116.1 42 142

SP Gerrit Cole, UCLA Jr. 3.37 11-4 19 19 0 0 123 92 52 153

SP Noe Ramirez Cal State Fullerton, Jr. 2.54 12-1 16 14 1 0 106 19 119

RP John Stilson, Texas A&M, So. 0.80 9-1 33 0 0 10 79 23 114

RP Collin Cargill, Southern Miss, Sr. 1.75 4-2 27 0 0 9 46 11 36

RP Chris Dennis, Portland, Jr. 1.88 5-1 30 0 0 14 43 11 51

Second Team

Player School Class Avg. G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB-SBA

C Jett Bandy, Arizona, Jr. .367 55 210 52 77 22 0 6 42 20 19 4/4

1B *Paul Hoilman, East Tenn. State, Jr. .421 60 235 79 99 24 2 25 84 51 41 1/1

2B Ryan Wright, Louisville, Jr. .366 57 238 57 87 17 2 15 77 19 23 9/10

3B Garrett Buechele, Oklahoma, Jr. .359 65 262 55 94 16 2 17 65 20 51 3/4

SS B.A. Vollmuth, Southern Miss, So. .386 60 236 72 91 17 2 20 76 43 51 4/6

OF Brian Barnett, Nevada Sr. .348 58 224 52 78 21 2 18 71 18 64 9/10

OF Brandon Meredith, San Diego St., Jr. .383 51 201 53 77 11 0 7 54 28 40 10/12

OF Jeff Schaus, Clemson, Sr. .320 70 284 69 91 14 2 15 87 32 26 9/13

DH Austin Maddox, Florida, So. .333 61 255 48 85 16 0 17 71 7 41 0/1

UT Andy Mee, Florida Atlantic, Jr. .378 61 262 58 99 17 5 8 55 20 35 4/5

Pitching: 1-2, 2.96ERA, 21App, 0GS, 0CG, 11SV, 24.1IP, 26h, 9R, 8ER, 12BB, 22K

Pitchers ERA W-L APP GS CG SV IP BB SO

SP Taylor Jungmann, Texas, Jr. 2.02 8-3 17 17 1 0 120 41 129

SP ^Seth Maness, East Carolina, Sr. 4.17 10-3 17 5 1 1 101.1 16 90

SP ^Steven Maxwell, TCU, Sr. 2.70 11-2 18 18 0 0 103.1 34 93

SP Sonny Gray, Vanderbilt, Jr. 3.48 10-5 19 16 1 1 108.2 48 113

SP Tyler Anderson, Oregon, Jr. 2.98 7-5 17 16 1 0 102.2 33 105

RP Trever Vermeulen, So. Dakota St, Sr. 1.45 9-1 35 0 0 10 68.1 19 62

RP Matt Price, South Carolina, So. 2.26 5-1 31 0 0 10 55.2 19 83

RP Kevin McKague, Army, Sr. 1.33 0-0 17 0 0 13 20.1 7 26

Third Team (Ties in Voting)

Player School Class Avg. G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB-SBA

C Mac Doyle, Wofford Jr. .377 54 220 46 83 23 6 16 75 16 54 8/8

1B Mike Nemeth, Connecticut, Sr. 386 64 254 63 98 20 1 15 84 38 24 1/2

1B Preston Tucker, Florida, Jr. .331 64 245 50 81 17 2 11 49 43 29 8/8

2B Kevin Tokarski, Illinois State, Jr. .412 53 204 70 84 25 3 8 53 53 40 32/37

3B Jason Esposito, Vanderbilt, Jr. .359 66 262 65 94 25 1 12 64 34 35 31/35

3B Jacob Tanis, Mercer, Jr. .388 62 268 69 104 25 1 22 88 22 50 7/10

SS *Garrett Wittels, FIU, Jr. .413 56 242 47 100 21 2 2 60 22 19 4/5

OF *Nick Martini Kansas State, Jr. .416 59 231 49 96 17 4 4 59 41 21 19/24

OF Jason Coats, TCU, Jr. .361 67 274 68 99 23 4 13 69 20 57 8/10

OF Taylor Dugas, Alabama, Jr. .395 67 243 70 96 15 5 2 37 59 21 18/21

OF George Springer, Connecticut, Jr. .337 64 243 84 82 16 4 18 62 60 70 33/35

UT Nick Ramirez, Cal State Fullerton, So. .346 64 260 62 90 28 1 16 75 19 50 6/6

Pitching: 1-3, 3.50ERA, 27App, 1GS, 0CG, 11SV, 43.2IP, 41h, 17R, 17ER, 8BB, 38K

DH Victor Gomez, Marshall, Sr. .364 58 220 39 80 15 0 17 63 12 36 7/7

DH Chad Oberacker, Tennessee Tech, Sr. .452 56 239 67 108 29 5 6 70 34 23 14/18

Pitchers

ERA W-L APP GS CG SV IP BB SO

SP Kyle Winkler, TCU, So. 3.39 12-3 19 19 2 0 116.2 36 92

SP Drew Smyly, Arkansas, Jr. 2.80 9-1 18 14 2 0 103 36 114

SP Tim Kelley, Wichita State, Sr. 3.94 11-2 16 15 2 0 96 26 80

SP Todd McInnis, Southern Miss, Sr. 3.30 6-5 16 16 0 0 95.1 34 87

SP Nick Trapeano, Stony Brook, Jr. 2.44 8-4 14 14 7 0 99.2 29 106

SP Alex Panteliodis Florida, Jr. 3.51 11-3 18 16 0 0 100 23 82

RP James Allen, Kansas State, Jr. 2.28 5-1 28 0 0 9 47.1 14 42

RP Brian Hamilton, Charlotte, Sr. 2.07 4-0 24 0 0 2 31.1 5 40

RP Lex Rutledge, Samford, So. 1.71 5-1 33 0 0 11 47.1 19 65

* Conference Player of the Year; ^ Conference Pitcher of the Year