By Willie Nicklaus

Thought this would be a good time to do a follow up on some of the freshmen who have been contributing to their respective teams, as the regular portion of the season has concluded and conference tourneys are ready to begin.

I like to use OPS percentage as a gauge as the equation includes power factors as well as on-base frequency. I have also included the HR and Extra-base hits frequencies to show a player propensity for delivering a big hit. With the conferences getting ready to do battle this week, we included the overall batting averages and also batting averages in conference play only.

Player	SCHOOL	OAVG	CAVG	AB	HR	SLG%	OB%	OPS%	HRFQ	XBHFQ
GYORKO	WVU	0.411	0.372	219	7	0.607	0.453	1.060	31.3	8.4
RUTLEDGE	ALABAMA	0.379	0.406	240	0	0.425	0.431	0.856	0.0	26.7
WOODWARD	COASTAL CAR	0.352	0.415	196	7	0.536	0.513	1.049	28.0	9.3
MORRIS	AUBURN	0.351	0.393	211	11	0.597	0.433	1.030	19.2	7.5
KLAFCZYNSKI	KENT STATE	0.346	0.378	156	10	0.622	0.394	1.016	15.6	7.1
ADAMS	FLORIDA	0.343	0.354	198	8	0.561	0.438	0.999	24.8	7.6
HAGUE	RICE	0.340	NA	197	8	0.558	0.403	0.961	24.6	7.6
LEMAHIEU	LSU	0.335	0.336	209	5	0.445	0.383	0.828	41.8	16.1
BRENTZ	MID TENN	0.333	NA	201	18	0.692	0.409	1.101	11.2	5.9
DIETRICH	GEORGIA TECH	0.333	0.297	207	14	0.623	0.418	1.041	14.8	6.9
COLON	CSFULLERTON	0.332	0.326	202	2	0.436	0.410	0.846	101.0	13.5
DAVIS	TENNESSEE	0.330	0.304	206	13	0.583	0.435	1.018	15.8	9.0
RUPP	TEXAS	0.312	0.280	157	4	0.516	0.391	0.907	39.3	7.1
EIBNER	ARKANSAS	0.306	0.262	180	8	0.517	0.408	0.925	22.5	9.0
SANCHEZ	SAN DIEGO	0.276	0.240	196	11	0.510	0.352	0.862	17.8	8.5
****DATA SORTED BY BATTING AVG AS OF 5/18/08

The group above includes a mixture of hitters. Scott Woodward from Coastal and Jedd Gyorko from WVU are hit machines and catalysts for their respective offenses. Woodward has been described as a throwback type player and is one of the leaders at getting HBP in the country. Both also have some pop in their bats. These two are classic leadoff type early in the order hitters.

Bryce Brentz from Middle Tennessee has numbers that describe them as classic power hitters. Derek Dietrich from Georgia Tech started out red hot and settled in nicely in the 4-hole for Danny Hall and the Jackets, but has cooled a little recently in conference play, as has Kentrail Davis of the Volunteers.

Hunter Morris of Auburn and Ben Klafczynski of Kent State have numbers that reveal a little more balance combining solid batting averages, good power numbers and similar frequency in the production categories. Insiders say both of these players show a good approach at the plate as far as quality at bats. Josh Adams of Florida, DJ Lemahieu of LSU and Rick Hague of Rice are solid and are making a huge impact for their programs.

One would have to believe that many of these names will appear on various post-season All-American lists as well a conference Freshman POY lists. Morris, Davis and Colon already accepted invitations to the USA National Team trials in June, and it wouldn’t surprise me if a few more from the players above were also invited.

Looks like that solid Class of 2007 are performing according to book so far.

Other players to watch:

Kyle Parker, Clemson
Tom Belza, Ok State
Billy Barber, Richmond
Curt Casali, Vanderbilt
Ross Wilson, Alabama
Ryan Lockwood, South Florida

Tags: 2010 Top Players, ACC, Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Big 12, Big East, Big South, Big West, Cal State Fullerton, CBB Column, Coastal Carolina, Conference USA, Florida, GT, Kent State, LSU, MAC, Middle Tennessee, Rice, SEC, Tennessee, Texas, University of San Diego, West Coast Conference, West Virginia

This entry was posted on Monday, May 19th, 2008 at 9:59 pm and is filed under 2008 Top Players, 2010 Top Players, ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big South, Big West, CBB Column, Conference USA, MAC, SEC, West Coast Conference. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.