© 2004 Society for American Baseball Research (SABR)
Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the position or official policy of SABR or its Collegiate Baseball Committee
| Co-Chairmen | Address | City | State | Zip | Home | Office | Cell | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rick Benner | rickb@titlelaw.com | 3426 Highland Pine Way | Atlanta | GA | 30096-3817 | (678)406-8915 | (770)366-1242 | |
| Jeremy Mills | jwmills@alumni.rice.edu | 909 Texas St, Unit 1419 | Houston | TX | 77002 | (713)830-8741 | (713)557-6643 | |
| Vice Chairman | ||||||||
| Jay Langhammer | jay@totalshow.com | 7209 Laurelhill Court South | Fort Worth | TX | 76133-8124 | (817)346-7183 | (800)334-9102, ext. 619 | |
Cincinnati Convention
On a beautiful Saturday evening in Cincinnati, around a dozen SABR members got together to discuss college baseball. In addition to the 3 committee leaders, the meeting was attended by: Bruce Brown, Steven Glassman, John Gottko, Greg Ingle, Bill Lee, William Madden, Rod Nelson, Marc Okkonen, Tom Ruane, Ralph Spelbring and Paul Wendt. We welcome all the new members to the committee and thank everyone for their continuing support.
As you can see from the top of this page, there has been a slight change in the leadership of the committee. Jeremy Mills has been named co-chairman, while Jay Langhammer has assumed the position of vice chairman. See the box to the right for more information on Jeremy's responsibilities and interests.
Rick Benner and William Madden talked about their upcoming book projects. Further information on those publications, as well as some other recently released books, can be found on the second page of this newsletter.
There was a short discussion of the purpose of the Collegiate Committee. Bruce Brown suggested that a mission statement should be drafted. No further action was taken at this point, but expect to see more information in the near future. A project that could be of interest is tracking historical All-Americans -- how far back they go and who published "official" lists. Finally, the committee continues work on the Collegiate Database. The online information ( http://www.ncaa-baseball.com/sabr/database) will be updated later this year, and this information will be a focal point of Rick's upcoming book project.
Meet the New Co-Chair
Jeremy has been a member of the Collegiate Committee since it was resurrected in 2002. He has served as webmaster as well as contributing to the committee newsletters with articles on the amateur draft and providing data for the MLB newcomers charts.
In addition to continuing his role as webmaster, Jeremy will be responsible for the newsletters and serving as liaison between the committee and SABR -- this will allow Rick more time to focus on the database and his upcoming book.
Jeremy's current areas of focus are the MLB amateur draft and statistical analysis of the collegiate game.
Collegiate Committee E-List
The committee has created a new E-List to discuss research requests and other collegiate issues. To sign up for the discussion group, please visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SABRcollegiate/ or send an e-mail to SABRcollegiate-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
You will need a free Yahoo! ID to access the content and update your settings. We look forward to seeing you there!!
Notre Dame Baseball Greats: Anson to Yaz
Cappy Gagnon
From Cappy (former Chairman of the Collegiate Baseball Committee):
For 39 years I have had a side hobby of researching Notre Dame baseball history. Over the past four decades I have done varying amounts of work on this until finally I had accumulated hundreds of photos, mounds of statistics, a file cabinet full of material, and thousands of words.
This past year I was contacted by Arcadia Publishing who had heard of my efforts through Steve Krah, baseball guru of the Elkhart Truth. Arcadia produces niche-type works by local authors, focusing on (among other things) baseball in America. They have an "Images of America" series. All their books are of a similar format -- 128 pages, soft cover, with lots of photos. My book is 50,000 words.
Notre Dame Baseball Greats: Anson to Yaz has been available since the end of June. If you would like to get an idea what it looks like, you can check with the publisher's website ( http://www.arcadiapublishing.com). If you're a BIG Notre Dame fan or a baseball fan, the book is available on Amazon.com.
Editor's Note:
This book is one of four books that Arcadia has recently published about college baseball in the upper midwest. The following books, all available through Amazon.com, are also part of the series:
Check out the Arcadia Publishing website for additional baseball titles, at http://www.arcadiapublishing.com.
College Baseball Register
Rick Benner
As mentioned in the last newsletter, co-chairman Rick Benner is working frantically to create the first college baseball register. The tome will include major league alumni for each college, as well as a coaching register, records by year and other goodies.
This is likely to be a multi-volume project. The first volume will focus on at least the Division I schools. It is possible that this version will also include the lower NCAA divisions, or those could be handled in a second edition. Expect to hear a more firm publication date in the near future, but the current plan is for fall 2005 availability.
Rick is looking for any help that can be provided. If you are able to research any schools or individual players, please let Rick know via e-mail at SABRCollege@aol.com. Rick also plans to use the new Committee E-List to place requests for information as well as updates on the project and other interesting findings.
The College World Series: A Baseball History, 1947-2003
W.C. Madden
William Madden's upcoming book about the history of the College World Series is scheduled to be released by McFarland & Company in early October. The book can be pre-ordered at Amazon.com, and has a list price of $45.
Bill also mentioned several other projects that he was working on. The first was a history of college baseball -- he expected it to be a more narrative complement to Rick's work. He has also been contacted by Arcadia to work on pictoral baseball histories by conference. If you have any pictures that could help with this project, they would be greatly appreciated.
For more information about any of these projects, contact Bill at maddenmddg@aol.com.
2004 Amateur Draft -- Collegiate Analysis
The 2004 draft saw a continuation of the recent trend toward drafting players with collegiate experience. Of the 1,498 players selected in June, 699 (47%) were taken from a 4-year school and an additional 299 (20%) were taken from junior colleges. By comparison, the 2003 draft breakdown was 42% 4-year and 21% 2-year.
Not surprisingly, a large number of collegiate draftees come from the traditional power conferences. The five conferences with the most players selected were the SEC (59 players from 12 schools), the Pac 10 (51 from 9), the Big 12 (48 from 10), the ACC (43 from 9) and Conference USA (33 from 12). Every Division I conference had at least two players selected, and 120 (17%) of the draftees from 4-year schools came from the lower NCAA Divisions or the NAIA.
With the 2004 draft taking place during the first week of June, lots of collegians had even more to worry about -- the NCAA Regionals began on June 4th. Ninety-five draftees saw their collegiate experience continue until at least the Super Regionals, while 46 headed to Omaha for the College World Series. A high number of draft picks was not a clear indication of success -- in the eight Super Regionals, the team with more draftees won three times and lost three times (two Supers had teams with the same number of picks). The two teams with 10 draftees were knocked out before Omaha, while Arizona made the College World Series with only three draftees.
With the recent Moneyball-driven focus on historical statistics, it's interesting to look at which teams focus on collegians and which don't. Six teams (St. Louis, Toronto, Oakland, Arizona, San Francisco and Texas) took at least 80% college players. Atlanta continued to buck the trend, joining Milwaukee in drafting less than 50%.
2004 Amateur Draft -- Top Colleges by Number Selected
Four Year Universities
| Georgia Tech | 10 | Louisiana-Monroe | 6 |
| Stanford | 10 | Miami | 6 |
| Clemson | 9 | Mississippi | 6 |
| Texas | 9 | Mississippi State | 6 |
| UCLA | 9 | Nebraska | 6 |
| South Carolina | 8 | Oklahoma City | 6 |
| East Carolina | 7 | Oregon State | 6 |
| Lamar | 7 | Rice | 6 |
| Long Beach State | 7 | San Diego State | 6 |
| Nevada-Las Vegas | 7 | Wichita State | 6 |
| Oklahoma | 7 | Boston College | 5 |
| Southern | 7 | Florida State | 5 |
| Texas Tech | 7 | North Carolina | 5 |
| Vanderbilt | 7 | Notre Dame | 5 |
| Arizona State | 6 | Oral Roberts | 5 |
| Cal State Fullerton | 6 | Princeton | 5 |
| California | 6 | San Diego | 5 |
| Florida | 6 | South Florida | 5 |
| Fresno State | 6 | Southern Mississippi | 5 |
| Georgia | 6 | Tennessee | 5 |
| Houston | 6 | Washington | 5 |
Junior Colleges
| Fresno (CA) | 7 | Cypress (CA) | 4 |
| Broward (FL) | 6 | Indian Hills (IA) | 4 |
| Southern Nevada | 6 | Lewis-Clark State (ID) | 4 |
| Navarro (TX) | 6 | Meridian (MS) | 4 |
| Okaloosa-Walton (FL) | 6 | Miami-Dade (FL) | 4 |
| Sacramento (CA) | 6 | Middle Georgia | 4 |
| San Jacinto (TX) | 6 | Pearl River (MS) | 4 |
| Santa Ana (CA) | 5 | Spartanburg Meth. (SC) | 4 |
| Bakersfield (CA) | 4 | St. Petersburg (FL) | 4 |
| Central Arizona | 4 | Wabash Valley (IL) | 4 |
| Chandler-Gilbert (AZ) | 4 | Yavapai (AZ) | 4 |
| Chipola (FL) | 4 |
2003 Draft Follow-up
Just over one year after the 2003 MLB Amateur Draft, 5 players -- all collegians-- have already made their major league debuts. These players rewrote their college record books, and now they're poised to make their mark in the major leagues.
| Player | College | Notable Collegiate Statistics |
|---|---|---|
| Ryan Wagner (CIN) | Houston | 15 saves in 2003, 16 career saves in 2 seasons |
| Chad Cordero (MON) | CS Fullerton | 34 career saves, 3 of top 10 CSF save seasons |
| Rickie Weeks (MIL) | Southern | .490 BA / .593 OBP / .975 SLG -- 37 HR / 41 SB |
| David Aardsma (SF) | Rice | 12 saves in 2003, 17 career saves in 2 seasons |
| Abe Alvarez (BOS) | Long Beach | 23-6, 2.52 ERA over last 2 seasons (191 K/58 BB) |
Request for Research Assistance
Scott Dean
Assistant Media Relations Director
University of Kentucky
859.257.3838, ext. 337
859.257.4310 - fax
sdean@uky.edu
http://www.UKathletics.com
My name is Scott Dean and I am the new media relations contact for baseball at the University of Kentucky. In the past, our baseball records have not been kept up very well. In fact, we only have game-by-game results dating back to 1979.
Last year, when I worked at Auburn University, the baseball contact there hired someone from SABR to research old game results. He was successful in finding results back to 1896 (up to 1949). I am not sure if this person was just a SABR member or an actual employee of SABR.
I would appreciate any help you could give me on finding a way to hire someone to research Kentucky baseball history. Any help would be appreciated, even if it is just a list of potential researchers in the Kentucky/Southern Ohio area. Thanks and I look forward to hearing from you.
2004 College Box Scores Available
Jeremy Mills
jwmills@alumni.rice.edu
During the 2004 season, I was able to collect box scores for over 98% of Division I games. Just over 80% of these games include play-by-play data.
If anyone is interested in doing statistical analysis using this information, please let me know and I can provide you with this data.
Some older box scores can still be accessed on the individual school sites -- these sites can be found on at http://www.ncaa-baseball.com by following links from the "Information for Division x Schools" pages on the site.
Collegiate Committee Website Update
After the original rush to get the first version of the SABR Collegiate Database posted online, there has been a lull in activity. This is all about to change, with the following updates planned later this year:
The reorganization has already been completed -- the rest of the updates will begin around Labor Day, and should be completed by the end of the year. Visit the SABR Collegiate Homepage at http://www.ncaa-baseball.com/sabr to view these enhancements as well as past committee newsletters.
Website Review: Boyd's World
http://www.boydsworld.com
As a new feature, I plan to spotlight some of the better college baseball websites. There's a lot of good information out there, if you know where to look, and I'd like to share some of the gems that I've uncovered.
Boyd's World is best known for providing estimates of the RPI (Ratings Percentage Index) for Division I schools during the season. While not perfect, this number gives a good approximation of what the selection committee uses when selecting teams for the NCAA Tournament.
One of the best features of the site is "The Filing Cabinet". This section of the website has lots of statistical data from the last few seasons, including individual pitcher and hitter stats (since 2002) and scores for all Division I games (since 1997). There are also some statistical reports -- two of the more interesting are college park factors and defense independent ERA numbers for pitchers.
Current Membership Directory (Through 20 August 2004)
This portion of the newsletter has been removed from the online version for privacy issues. For a copy of the directory, please contact Jeremy Mills at jwmills@alumni.rice.edu.