2016 Year in Review: Draft | PG Events | High School
2016 Grab Bag
Here are a handful of quick-hitters that impacted college baseball in the year that we will soon say goodbye to:
• Jay Johnson takes Arizona to Game 3 of the CWS Finals in his very first year as the skipper in Tucson.
• Boston College, the northern-most program in the ACC, makes its first trip to a Super Regional and produces a first round pick for the second year in a row.
• Change at the top for two of college baseball's iconic programs: David Pierce takes over for the legendary Augie Garrido at Texas and Hall of Famer Mark Marquess announces that 2017 will be his final season.
• Musical chairs for SEC coaches: There was significant movement in the SEC and the only pattern was that no one left the league. Here are the roster changes: Nick Mingione (from recruiting coordinator at Mississippi State to head coach at Kentucky); Wes Johnson (to pitching coach at Arkansas from same position at Mississippi State); Gary Henderson (to pitching coach at Mississippi State from head coach at Kentucky); John Cohen (to Athletic Director at Mississippi State from head coach); Andy Cannizaro (from recruiting coordinator at LSU to head coach at Mississippi State)
• Banner Year for John Olerud clones; 2016 was a terrific year for two-way players and it was led by Louisville sophomore Brendan McKay who has ironically won the John Olerud award two years in a row. The list of semifinalists was equally impressive: Will Craig (Wake Forest), Adam Haseley (Virginia), Corbin Olmstead (North Florida), Matt Fiedler (Minnesota), Sheldon Neuse (Oklahoma), Darick Hall (Dallas Baptist), Andrew Hinckley (Central Connecticut State) and Bobby Dalbec (Arizona).
Player Development Bonanza
In 2016, an astounding five college players who were selected in the 2015 draft made their MLB debuts: Dansby Swanson and Carson Fulmer of Vanderbilt, Alex Bregman of LSU, Andrew Benintendi of Arkansas and Koda Glover of Oklahoma State. Swanson, Bregman and Benintendi didn't just debut either, as each of them have showed star-upside already. While Glover – who was the Nationals' eighth-round pick – may be the surprise name on this list, his rookie season was arguably the most impressive.
Home Field Disadvantage
Going into the 2016 NCAA Tournament, home teams had won their Super Regionals 72.8 percent of the time. Well, apparently this year's tournament didn't get the memo. Four teams (Oklahoma State, Coastal Carolina, Arizona and UCSB) all reached Omaha without even playing one home game. Here is interesting perspective on this accomplishment: in the five previous NCAA Tournaments (2011-2015) combined, just four teams total had accomplished this feat.
Regionals not so Regional
The regular season was dominated by the ACC and SEC and the Selection Committee did not place one Regional West of Lubbock, Texas. The ACC tied a record with 10 Regional teams and the SEC set a record with seven schools who hosted a Regional. The West Coast did make noise in the tournament however, with Arizona and UCSB both winning a road Regional and Super Regional to get to Omaha.
Utah goes worst to first to win the Pac-12 title
In just their fourth year in the Pac-12, Bill Kinneberg and his club pulled off the impossible: the Utes went worst to first to win their first-ever Pac-12 championship. Utah jumped from seven conference wins in 2015 to an incredible 22 wins in 2016. In fact, Utah had just 17 conference wins total in the three seasons from 2013 to 2015. To top it all off, the Utes started the year just 4-12 in non-conference play. This will go down as one of the most miraculous turnarounds in power conference history.
Power/Suspense Outage at TD Ameritrade
In 2015, we had a new baseball and weather uncharacteristic of Omaha in June, and it led to 15 home runs in the College World Series. This was a record for TD Ameritrade Park. Unfortunately, the typical Southerly winds were back this June and we spent another CWS with the wind blowing into the face of hitters.
The real shame here is that 2016 gave us arguably the most exciting rounds of Regionals and Super Regionals we have ever had in the NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament. In Omaha however, we had 17 games and only two of them were what I would consider suspenseful. Those would be TCU versus Texas Tech (the Luken Baker two home run game) and Game 3 of the Finals.
For comparison, 208 home runs were hit in the 121 games played during Regionals and Super Regionals. That's 1.72 home runs per game. In Omaha, 10 home runs were hit for an average of 0.59 home runs per game. That is nearly a 300 percent difference. Houston, we have a problem.
The loss of Donny Everett
Regional weekend began with tragedy as Vanderbilt freshman pitcher Donny Everett died in a drowning accident the night before the Commodores took on Xavier in their first round game. Everett, who was a 2014 PG All-American, earned the 2015 Mr. Baseball award in the state of Tennessee and reportedly turned down overtures in the range of $2 million during the June draft. While Vanderbilt understandably struggled in their Regional, the school and head coach Tim Corbin handled this unthinkable loss with incredible grace. In a heartwarming footnote that all of College Baseball can be proud of, Donny's father Teddy attended virtually every one of Vandy's fall training sessions and he has become an active presence in the program.
Big 12 with 3 teams in Omaha, AGAIN!
For the second time in three years, the Big 12 placed three teams in the College World Series. TCU has earned three consecutive trips to Omaha whereas Texas Tech has been to the CWS in both 2014 and 2016. This year's trifecta included Oklahoma State, replacing Texas who appeared in the 2014 CWS. The Big 12 is a baseball league rich in history but it seems always in a battle for national respect. If Omaha is the ultimate barometer of strength, then the results speak for themselves.
Three straight for the Big West
It's hard to call the Big West a "mid-major" baseball conference when you begin to examine the proud traditions of Cal State Fullerton and Long Beach State. Be that as it may, none of these schools, minus Hawaii, have FBS football and it is not a "power" conference in any way, shape or form. Regardless of that disadvantage, 2016 marked the third year in a row that the Big West sent a team to the College World Series (UCI in 2014, Cal State Fullerton in 2015, UCSB in 2016).
Here are two interesting factoids there:
• All three of these teams won a road Super Regional to advance.
• There are only three other conferences (out of 31) who have also been represented in these three consecutive College World Series: the SEC, ACC and Big 12.
Coastal wins it all
On their miraculous run to a national title this June, many accurately rebuked the "Cinderella" label for the Chanticleers as Gary Gilmore's program had been to a Regional in 14 of the last 16 years. Having said that, the Chants had only ever advanced to a Super Regional twice and they had never been to Omaha. And then after winning a hotly contested game seven of the Raleigh Regional, they were headed to the very unfriendly confines of Alex Box Stadium in Baton Rouge.
And even though Coastal Carolina passed their test in the Bayou, certainly their hyper-aggressive offensive approach was no match for TD Ameritrade Park. Finally, and arguably most damning, they were heaped into Omaha's version of the "bracket of death," having to contend with College World Series veterans Florida, TCU and Texas Tech.
At the end of the day, this was a special group of upperclassmen that Gilmore had assembled and they were not to be denied. The heroes were Andrew Beckwith, Mike Morrison and Anthony Marks with Beckwith being named Most Outstanding Player of the CWS.
This is editorial at best, but nobody does redemption like college baseball. In 2010, Gilmore's Chants won an unbelievable 55 games and earned a Top 8 National Seed, only to have their hearts broken by eventual National Champion South Carolina in a Super Regional that was decided by two one-run games. At the time Gilmore commented that Omaha "never felt further away."
Fast forward six years, and Gilmore's dream of bringing his alma mater to the College World Series had come true. Only in this dream, Cinderella doesn't just make an appearance. The Chanticleers left this ball as National Champions.