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General  | Top Ten | 1/27/2009

The Junior College Factor

Allan Simpson
While much of the nation is covered in snow and most ardent baseball fans are heavily engaged in Hot Stove League conversation while counting down the days until pitchers and catchers report, one of the nation’s best yet least appreciated talent sources is almost ready to launch the 2009 baseball season.

Amidst little or no fanfare, junior colleges in California will open their seasons on Tuesday; Florida JCs will begin play the following weekend, and most other states will follow suit in early February—or as weather permits.

Outside of scouts, who will flock to early-season junior college games in large numbers while awaiting the universal start of the NCAA Division I schedule on Friday, Feb. 20, most conventional baseball fans won’t even know that the 2009 season will have gotten underway. In fact, a vast majority are unaware of the impact on the player-development side of the game that junior colleges have traditionally played.

PG Crosschecker will attempt to do its part to bring light to one of the more neglected areas of the game with our coverage of junior college baseball in 2009. We’ll provide periodic notebooks of some of the more interesting developments, regular updates on the top prospects and a national Top 25 ranking of the top teams every two weeks.

We’re kicking off our junior-college coverage today with Part I of our ranking of the nation’s Top 250 Prospects (players ranked 101-250). Part II (players ranked 1-100) will be unveiled Friday, and we’ll also provide state-by-state rankings/lists of more than 1,000 junior-college prospects. On Monday and Tuesday, we’ll feature our pre-season ranking of the nation’s Top 50 teams.

The abolishment of the old draft-and-follow rule prior to the 2007 draft has taken some of the sizzle away from the junior-college ranks in the last couple of years. The rule profoundly impacted junior-college players and some of the lucrative signing bonuses they were receiving. Led by Chipola (Fla.) Junior College lefthander Adam Loewen’s record $4.02 million deal in 2003, many of the top draft-and-follows were, in the eyes of Major League Baseball, unfairly capitalizing on their improved prospect worth over the course of a season in junior college and signing lucrative bonuses on the eve of the draft.

Since that practice ended, the number of junior-college players drafted has dropped significantly. In 2008, 229 players were selected—roughly 60 percent of the previous total.

But a change in the draft rules which was aimed at junior-college players hasn’t diminished the impact on the game that those players are making. Of approximately 1,300 major leaguers each year, about 150 (or 11-12 percent) were signed directly out of junior colleges. The tally of big leaguers with junior-college experience is actually higher than that as a number of the players who sign out of college each year played in junior college first before transferring to a four-year school.

On the accompanying list, we’ve identified the 10 most noteworthy 2008 major leaguers with a junior-college background on their resumes—and it’s readily apparent that it’s no run-of-the-mill group.

The list includes none other than the reigning National League Most Valuable Player (Albert Pujols), American League Cy Young Award winner (Cliff Lee), A.L. Rookie of the Year (Evan Longoria) and all-time saves leader (Trevor Hoffman). Though Hoffman (Arizona), Lee (Arkansas) and Longoria (Long Beach State) were ultimately drafted and signed out of four-year schools, all three previously attended junior college.

As impressive as the JC alumni priority list of 10 is, it doesn’t include the likes of lefthander Mark Buehrle (Jefferson, Mo.), outfielder Andre Ethier (Chandler-Gilbert, Ariz.), lefthander Brian Fuentes (Merced, Calif.), first baseman Travis Hafner (Cowley County, Kan.), righthander Rich Harden (Central Arizona), righthander John Lackey (Grayson County, Texas), first baseman Adam LaRoche (Seminole State, Okla.), lefthander Ted Lilly (Fresno, Calif.), catcher Russell Martin (Chipola), outfielder Gary Matthews (Los Angeles Mission), lefthander Andy Pettitte (San Jacinto, Texas), second baseman Placido Polanco (Miami-Dade), catcher Jorge Posada (Calhoun, Ala.), DH Jim Thome (Illinois Central) and lefthander Barry Zito (Los Angeles Pierce). Almost all have been all-stars at some point in their careers.

The list also doesn’t include three potential Hall of Famers, righthander Roger Clemens (San Jacinto), catcher Mike Piazza (Miami-Dade) and righthander Curt Schilling (Yavapai, Ariz.), who didn’t play in 2008 for a variety of reasons.

In the 2008 draft, 32 junior-college players were selected in the first 10 rounds, led by shortstops Lonnie Chisenhall (Pitt, N.C.) in the first round and Tyler Ladendorf (Howard, Texas) in the second. The Atlanta Braves topped all teams by drafting 21 juco players, including 10 in the first 15 rounds. The San Diego Padres saw fit to draft only one.

For the 2009 draft, there should be a similar talent pool as we have identified five junior-college players that are projected to be drafted in the top three rounds—including a potential first-rounder in Northwest Florida State JC righthander Daniel Webb, an unsigned 12th-round pick of the Arizona Diamondbacks a year ago.

Interestingly, our top two-ranked players, Webb and Ryan Weber, not only have similar names but have similar profiles. Both are freshmen righthanders who initially committed to Southeastern Conference schools (Webb to Kentucky, Weber to Florida) before ending up at rival schools in the rich Florida junior-college ranks. Weber is at St. Petersburg JC. The 6-foot-3, 210-pound Webb is the more physical of the two and his fastball has been clocked up to 96 mph, while Weber relies more on pristine command of his stuff.

Though the top two 2009 prospects come from Florida, there is plenty of debate which state has the strongest junior college programs, but California, Florida and Texas have the strongest arguments. California junior colleges (54) had more players drafted in 2008 than Florida (45) or Texas (30), but the California juco ranks number 85 schools strong. Florida has just 23 junior colleges that sponsor baseball.

In our national ranking of the top 250 junior-college prospects, Florida leads the way with 47 selections, while California has 41 and Texas 40. But Texas, with 17, is top dog in terms of national championships won over the 51-year history of the Junior College World Series, including a victory by Grayson County CC in the 2008 tournament.

California junior colleges, however, have chosen not to participate in the 10-team event, which is played in Grand Junction, Colo., and annually attracts upwards of 100,000 fans. Nor are Oregon and Washington schools part of the National Junior College Athletic Association. Several other states, chiefly Kentucky, Massachusetts and Virginia, don’t even have junior colleges—let alone junior-college teams.

While the Junior College World Series, scheduled this year for May 23-30, is a showpiece for junior-college baseball, the in-season showcase for scouts will occur Feb. 6-8 in Marianna, Fla., when five of the nation’s elite junior-college teams—St. Petersburg, San Jacinto, Southern Nevada, Walters State (Tenn.) and host Chipola—will meet in the Chipola/Rahal-Miller JUCO National Classic.

Amongst them, the five schools have 27 players on PG Crosschecker’s list of the nation’s top 250 prospects for this year’s draft. An estimated 75-80 scouts saw the same teams in last year’s tournament, and a like number is expected this year.

For perspective on the kind of talent that our nation’s junior-college baseball programs have been developing in recent years, here’s our take on 10 former junior-college players who enjoyed the best big league seasons in 2008.
Rank Player Pos. 2008 Club Junior College Year Drafted (Round) ’08 Stats
1. Albert Pujols 1B St. Louis Maple Woods (Mo.) Cardinals ’99 (13) .357-37-116
2. #Cliff Lee LHP Cleveland Meridian (Miss.) Expos “00 (4) 22-3, 2.54
3. Jermaine Dye OF Chicago (A) Cosumnes River (Calif.) Braves ’93 (17) .292-34-96
4. #Aubrey Huff 1B/OF Baltimore Vernon (Texas) Rays ’98 (5) .304-32-108
5. *Roy Oswalt RHP Houston Holmes (Miss.) Astros ’96 (23) 17-10, 3.54
6. Nick Markakis OF Baltimore Young Harris (Ga.) Orioles ’03 (1) .306-20-87
7. Raul Ibanez OF Seattle Miami-Dade Mariners ’92 (36) .293-23-110
8. #Evan Longoria 3B Tampa Bay Rio Hondo (Calif.) Rays ’06 (1) .272-27-85
9. Bengie Molina C San Francisco Arizona Western Angels FA ’93 .292-16-95
10. #Trevor Hoffman RHP San Diego Cypress (Calif.) Reds ’89 (11) 3-6, 3.77, 30 SV
 
# Subsequently transferred; drafted/signed out of four-year college
*Signed as draft-and-follow
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