College Baseball Daily continues our countdown to the start of the 2012 College Baseball season by checking in on the Top 100 Players in the country. We will be providing one player per day until we reach number one.
We continue the countdown today at number 42 with Texas senior LHP Sam Stafford. The 6’4 190 pounder is from Spring, Texas and attended Klein Collins High School. He was a three-year letterwinner as a pitcher for Coach Kent Meador. As a senior, he was named second-team All-District 16-5A , a preseason Louisville Slugger All-American, and ranked as the No. 6 recruit in the state on Inside Prep Baseball’s Texas Top 25 list. The Boston Red Sox selected him in the 40th round of the 2008 MLB First-Year Player Draft but he decided to head to college to play at Texas.
He saw limited action as a freshman in 2009 appearing in only three games without recording a decision with an ERA of 10.12 and one strikeout in 2.2 innings. In 2010, he made eight appearances, including seven starts, where he didn’t record a decision with a 2.61 ERA and 29 strikeouts (13 walks) in 20.2 innings of work.
He spent the summer of 2010 in the California Collegiate League with the Santa Barbara Foresters. Stafford pitched in seven games (six starts) going 3-0 with a 0.51 ERA and 60 strikeouts (20 walks) in 35.0 innings and holding opponents to a .126 batting average. He picked up several awards including the Eric Pintard Pitcher of the Year Award, the CCL Top MLB Pitcher Prospect, and first-team All-CCL by the California Collegiate League.
Stafford served as the Texas number two starter in 2011 behind Taylor Jungmann. He went a solid 6-2 with an ERA of 1.77 in 81.1 innings pitched. He struck out 91 batters while walking 42 and holding opponents to a batting average of .189. He was selected in the 2nd round by the New York Yankees but decided to return to Texas for his senior season.
You can check out the rest of our Top 100 Countdown by clicking here.
