BB: Candidates for All-American Teams

[Pauperboy]

Not to add fuel to the fire but.........a guy makes Honorable Mention All-American you would think they were at least a 1st team All-Conference performer in their league and at worst maybe in a good league a 2nd Teamer. But to be Honorable Mention in the North Eastern Athletic Conference and that somehow translates into
Honorable Mention All American, not sure I see it.

[Ralph Turner]

Not to add fuel to the fire but.........a guy makes Honorable Mention All-American you would think they were at least a 1st team All-Conference performer in their league and at worst maybe in a good league a 2nd Teamer. But to be Honorable Mention in the North Eastern Athletic Conference and that somehow translates into
Honorable Mention All American, not sure I see it.

Hmmm,

do you know of any local politics inside the NEAC that would have kept Chad Salls of Cazenovia off the all-NEAC team?   

[fouriscosmic]

Here is some fuel for though regarding all conference teams.  Brian Youchak was second team Centennial (a weak conference with no one other than Hopkins getting any national recognition) but listed as first team All-American for D3 and First Team All Region for ABCA.  He has the #3 BA in the country and is the offensive leader for a Hopkins team headed to Wisconsin.

Clearly politics came into the decisions on the conference team, but it should be performance alone that determines these honors.

[baseballislife6]

I have stayed away from posting on these message boards all season, but at this point I have had enough of the absolute rediculous antics going on here... And seeing the All-American team is the final straw.  I have seen the D3 Baseball top 25 throuought the year, and having seen many of these teams play there have been a case of severe over-rating.  When you look only at a team's record and do not take into account opponents you get severly over-rated teams(For example:Salisbury who was 40-4 but could not win thier regional)  Now to get onto the All-American team. Whoever is in charge of that has made some grave mistakes.

I have to disagree with you on this.  First of all, you mention that Salisbury could not win their regional.  They were beat by another highly ranked team (higher in the d3 baseball poll ALL YEAR than the ABCA poll, I might add) in the championship game of the regional. 

Also, how can you argue with the d3baseball rankings when 5 of the top 6 teams in the ranking BEFORE THE REGIONAL made it to the World Series (Chapman, Trinity, Kean, Johns Hopkins, and Cortland).  Salisbury was the only team in the top 6 that did not make the WS.  Not sure you can say that these teams are over-rated.

[BaseballFan]

I was really excited to see the all american teams come out but was extremely disappointed. I thought the 1st team was very strong and would agree with the players there but after that I thought there were noticeable mistakes.

As a follower of the midwest region, its a tough pill to swallow that only 4 guys out of 59 on the all american teams were from the midwest (0 from UWW and 0 from CSS the final two teams). Central I believe only got 4 players also. Maybe its due to the lack of games but thats just sad those boys dont get the recognition. I really do think slug% and ob% need to be looked at and might as well leave fielding% off  because someone had an .866.

Obviously some players are going to get left off, but really think some guys were just completely missed. Dropped the ball on this one.

[Pat Coleman]

Here is some fuel for though regarding all conference teams.  Brian Youchak was second team Centennial (a weak conference with no one other than Hopkins getting any national recognition) but listed as first team All-American for D3 and First Team All Region for ABCA.  He has the #3 BA in the country and is the offensive leader for a Hopkins team headed to Wisconsin.

Clearly politics came into the decisions on the conference team, but it should be performance alone that determines these honors.

Something else to consider about All-Conference teams that some of them, perhaps many of them are based solely on conference games. All-American teams are based on the entire season.

[Ralph Turner]

I was really excited to see the all american teams come out but was extremely disappointed. I thought the 1st team was very strong and would agree with the players there but after that I thought there were noticeable mistakes.

As a follower of the midwest region, its a tough pill to swallow that only 4 guys out of 59 on the all american teams were from the midwest (0 from UWW and 0 from CSS the final two teams). Central I believe only got 4 players also. Maybe its due to the lack of games but thats just sad those boys dont get the recognition. I really do think slug% and ob% need to be looked at and might as well leave fielding% off  because someone had an .866.

Obviously some players are going to get left off, but really think some guys were just completely missed. Dropped the ball on this one.

Jim Dixon is only going 4 deep.  That means that only half of the regions will not be represented at the various positions.

When you start combing thru the stats, the trade-off that you make is a great BA (JHU's Todd Emr) for a great Fielding percentage in Justin Armiger of Salisbury or Dan Leslie of St Thomas.

[Ralph Turner]

Jim Dixon has an entire blog dedicated to this topic.  Let's move the feedback over there.

Feedback blog for the All-American team

[Billy 40]

Everyone alwyas could have done a better job - it's so easy to do so siting behind a computer screen. Every year there are players left off, and people complain about it. Looking at the numbers these kids put up, replacing any of them with other players would end up with "fans" from teh replaced players complaining that their faroite was left off, and stating reasons why.

GReat job putting the list together, and congrats to all those who made D3's AA list.

[Bob Maxwell]

Billy,

Well put... but I don't know if I would say "better"...  As you say in your post, there are others that are also deserving who if put on over the ones who were, would create another stir about that.

Looking at the numbers of those on the teams and those who were not recognnized... it is an impossible task, as how do you weigh someone who has a decent BA & great Slug pct, with 10+ HR's and 40+ RBI against someone who has a great Great BA, with 0 HR's and 25 RBI's BUT has 25-30 SB's.  It is all in the eye of the individual who is comparing the stats... and yes, we each do have our own team, conference or regional bias...

I say congratualtiosn for Jim and his staff for getting more boys some type of recognition...


As for Yacko, I'm a NY region guy and was surprised he ened up third team too behind the two boys from NY.   But that is what happened... they are both deserving of recognition too, so don't diminish there accomplishments in a point to boost someone else.  Also, Yacko is recognized as a utility player, which he is, but perhaps he could have been first team as a relief pitcher, who knows...  and he will most likely be recognized again when the ABCA teams come out.  Its an unexact exercise....   I feel safe in saying that he would trade all of those recognitions if he and his Chapman team mates can win the WS.

So lets celebrate the recognitions for those who did receive them and not squable over who shouldn't be on it to let someone else on.  Just being considered for these recognitions is an honor to anyone who was considered.  Wonder what that list looks like.  most likely a few hundred players... all of whom are worthy of receiving the recogntions.

Now, down off the soap box, more work to do here....

[gatekeper43]

i would like to know why yacko is the 3rd team utility. He has better numbers than the 1st and 2nd team utility all americans. I am just dumbfounded 

Oldcat I must agree!!!!
Personally Yacko is the best relieve pitcher in the league hands down, there isn't another pitcher that can come  into a game and totally shut down the other team on a regular basis. Yacko has proven himself time after time and to be left off the first team all american team shows that he didn't get looked at very seriously. I know that when ever he is brought into a game you can watch the other teams shoulders go down knowing that they have to face him. Anybody that was the player of the year the previous year and played lights out the whole season wasn't being looked at very seriously, there is something wrong here.
Kitchens and Yacko are the best 1-2 punch in College basball and they both deserve to be 1st team all american, Kitchens should be pitcher of the year with a .31 ERA and have the best hit to nine innings in baseball. And Yacko having the 2nd best ERA at .79.
  With the # of strikeouts and number of innings pitched, and the list of accomplishments go on and on and should be both locks for pitcher and player of the year hands down

[whos in charge here]

I have to disagree with you on this.  First of all, you mention that Salisbury could not win their regional.  They were beat by another highly ranked team (higher in the d3 baseball poll ALL YEAR than the ABCA poll, I might add) in the championship game of the regional. 

Also, how can you argue with the d3baseball rankings when 5 of the top 6 teams in the ranking BEFORE THE REGIONAL made it to the World Series (Chapman, Trinity, Kean, Johns Hopkins, and Cortland).  Salisbury was the only team in the top 6 that did not make the WS.  Not sure you can say that these teams are over-rated.



Well having seen salisbury first hand.  They should have lost to RMC if not for a baserunning blunder in the 9th.  They then did lose to Piedmont.  They played a week schedule.  And that was never taking into account.  on the other hand they did have a good year.  the fact remains that it was look out merely from a record stand point.  Salsibury is considered a south team and outside of there conference (18 games) they played 5 true south region games. (va. weslyan twice, CNU, LaGrange, and Rhodes which was added at the end)  Salisbury played a mid-atlantic schedule with a week opponent winning %.  that might be the reason the werent in the first abca poll.  Now with that said they were 40-4 but continue to dodge true south opponents and this isnt the first year they have done so.  The week schedule gave them an inflated record.

[BigPoppa]

Rankings mean nothing when the games are settled on the field. The teams that should have been invited were and those who were left out, were left out through their own ineptitudes on the field. Ranking are the only way we fans can compete with other fans as none of us are on the field anymore.

[Bob Maxwell]

Well said... no wonder you're plus so much...

[Jim Dixon]

i would like to know why yacko is the 3rd team utility. He has better numbers than the 1st and 2nd team utility all americans. I am just dumbfounded 

Oldcat I must agree!!!!
Personally Yacko is the best relieve pitcher in the league hands down, there isn't another pitcher that can.....

The back story is that Yacko was nominated as a SS not UTL.  This may seem minor but all of a sudden Yacko's name does not appear with the other utility players. 

Yacko is a great shortstop but not an all-american shortstop this year.  He is a great asset as both a player and pitcher and is recognized as such.

I dont like making the distinction between the teams as there is often just a small subjective difference from from one team to the next. 

I looked at who would make a fifth, sixth and seventh team and all players had great years - not good but great and it is a shame to leave anyone off the list.

FYI - the stats used to compare the players are those from the regular season.  The stats reported on the release include the playoffs.