FROM CBB NEWS SOURCE
BEIJING, — Starting pitcher Jake Arrieta (Farmington, Mo.) threw six scoreless innings and Nate Schierholtz (Danville, Calif.) went 2-for-3 with three RBIs as the U.S. Olympic baseball team defeated China, 9-1, on Monday evening at the Wukesong Main Field. Read the rest of this entry »

David Price, the No. 1 overall draft pick in the the 2007 MLB Draft by the Tampa Bay Rays, is profiled in this week’s Sports Illustrated. You can read the article here.

Price left Vanderbilt as the most decorated pitcher in school history, winning numerous honors including the Dick Howser Trophy and Golden Spikes Award, and has shown no signs of letting up in his first professional season. Price was 4-0 with a 1.62 ERA and 37 strikeouts in 34.2 innings Class A Vero Beach before being called up to Double A Montgomery, where he is 5-0 with a 2.20 ERA and 38 strikeouts in 45 innings. Read the rest of this entry »

First up, a video of former Rice players Lance Berkman and Tim Byrdak reflecting on the Super Regionals.

A Miami Herald reporter attempted a live blog last night. (Miami Herald)

How exactly did Fresno State get to the Super Regional round? (East Valley Tribune)

The Seminoles are used to elimination games. (Nole Sports)

About those Georgia fans that hang out in right field. (AJC)

Get to know Gary Gilmore, head coach of the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers. (Franklin News Post)

Your Wichita State bandwagon jumping cheatsheet. (Wichita Eagle)

Stanford is one win away from Omaha after missing the tournament last year. (SF Chronicle)

Texas A & M looks to continue the rebound from their 8-game losing streak. (Dallas News)

I recently ran across an article on Yahoo about professional baseball players running into shoulder and elbow problems. The researchers of the study found a MLB franchise had 44 players that had severe enough injuries to their shoulders or elbows to cause them to have surgery. The study found that only 18 percent of the players returned to their previous level of production. Read the rest of this entry »

Why does the NCAA allow these MLB Exhibition games against College teams? We are heading into the time period where these games are coming up with FSU playing the Philadelphia Phillies on Tuesday. Should we actually care about these games? Why should we? Read the rest of this entry »

FROM PRESS RELEASE
TAMPA, Fla. – Be a part of the University of South Florida’s baseball game against the New York Yankees on Feb. 29 by winning an All-Access Pass to spend the day with the Bulls at Legends Field.

The highest bidder in an online auction for the All-Access Pass will be a special guest of the USF baseball team from the time the Bulls arrive at the park, through batting practice and warm ups, until the end of the game. Read the rest of this entry »

Ryan Braun of the Milwaukee Brewers and Dustin Pedroia of the Boston Red Sox were named Rookie of the Year in their respective leagues today. Braun was a standout player for the Miami Hurricanes from 2003-2005 while Pedroia starred for the Arizona State Sun Devils from 2002-2004.

Arizona State Press Release
Miami Press Release

-Valley Baseball League Press Release-

For the second year in a row, the Most Valuable Player of the Major League Baseball World Series is a Valley Baseball League alum as third baseman Mike Lowell led the Boston Red Sox to the title in 2007.

Lowell played for the Waynesboro Generals in the Valley League in 1993. Two VBL alumni were also on the Boston roster as relief pitchers for the postseason. Javier Lopez played for the New Market Rebels in 1996 and Kyle Snyder competed for the Winchester Royals in 1997.

The 2007 series marks the second straight year that a former VBL player has been named World Series MVP. In 2006, former Harrisonburg Turks infielder David Eckstein led the St. Louis Cardinals to the title.

Lowell hit .400 in 15 at bats in the series with three doubles, one home run, and four RBIs as the Red Sox swept the Colorado Rockies 4-0. For the postseason, he hit .353 with 18 hits, seven doubles, two home runs, and 15 RBIs. In the regular season, he hit .324 in 154 games with 37 doubles, 21 home runs, and 120 RBIs. It was the second World Series championship for the Puerto Rican native, who also helped the Florida Marlins to a title in 2003.

Lopez appeared in five games for the Red Sox in the postseason and pitched 2 1/3 innings, allowing five hits and four runs. He appeared in one game during the World Series with two hits allowed. For the season, Lopez went 2-1 with a 3.10 ERA and ranked second for the Red Sox with 61 appearances.

Snyder did not make an appearance in the postseason for the Red Sox. During the regular season, he was 2-3 in 46 appearances with a 3.81 ERA in 54 1/3 innings.

Jeff Francis is set to start for the Colorado Rockies on Wednesday Night in Game 1 of the World Series. He has pitched in two games in the playoff run where he has a 2-0 record with a 2.13 ERA. Hitters are only hitting a paltry .213 against the lanky lefty. Francis was a standout player with the University of British Columbia where he was drafted out of in the first round. Tbirdbaseball.net sent us a video of an interview done with the CBC about Francis which can be watched by clicking here.

Former University of British Columbia All-American pitcher Jeff Francis has led the Colorado Rockies to the NLCS in the MLB playoffs against the Arizona Diamondbacks. He has had a solid season with a 17-9 record with a 4.22 ERA in the most hitter friendly ballpark in MLB. Francis picked up a victory in the NLDS as he led the Rockies to a 4-2 victory in Game 1 over the Philadelphia Phillies The full article from the NAIA is available here.

Thanks to Bob Broughton of T-Bird Baseball (UBC Fan Page) for the link.

The New York Yankees will be visiting Virginia Tech next spring on March 18th. The game will probably be a fundraiser for the Virginia Tech shootings that took place this past spring. We don’t have many details about this event at this time but will keep the loyal readers aware of any more news coming out of the Yankees or Virginia Tech Media Relations departments.

Mo Patton of the Tennessean is reporting that David Price will receive a record $11.25 Million package over six years, surpassing the “Prior” record of $10.4 Million over six years between Mark Prior and the Cubs. The son of two Vanderbilt alums, Prior also pitched in Nashville as a Freshman before transferring to USC for the remainder of his NCAA career.

I want to be a Sports Agent website checks in with an article about the most successful baseball programs based on MLB players drafted and making it to the Majors. Using their calculations, They have USC in the top spot with 275 players drafted and 94 players making it to the Majors. Texas holds down the second spot followed by Arizona State, Stanford, and UCLA to round out the Top 5. The full article is available here.

Conference USA has put out a press release about the amount of Conference USA alumni that are on MLB opening day rosters. They include many great players including Lance Berkman of Rice and Dan Uggla of Memphis. The full article is available here.

Andrew Miller has been called up by the Detroit Tigers after pitching a total of five innings in professional baseball. In those five innings, Miller struck out nine batters. It was debatable if Miller was going to be a September call-up for the Tigers but he is now on the roster before the September. This is a huge accomplishment for College Baseball and should give the College Baseball World some more notoriety.

Full article from the AP can be seen here.