The Southeastern Conference might have the 2014 College World Series Champions, but there is far more than just Vanderbilt in college baseball’s premiere conference. Perennial power houses like Louisiana State, South Carolina and Florida are as strong as ever, with Florida recently receiving Baseball America’s ranking as having the nation’s best recruiting class. SEC baseball players had big summers, dotting Cape Cod League rosters, winning league MVP awards and being high first round draft picks. Fall practices have just gotten underway, and the season is a long way off, but here are some of the story lines and players to watch out for in the coming season:
2015 SEC Baseball Primer – Fall Practices
Breakout Player of the Year: Prior to Tommy John surgery in the spring of 2013, Jordan Sheffield looked like a lock for an early round pick. Rated by most major scouting outlets as a top 10 high school pitcher, Sheffield’s stock dropped considerably due to the surgery and his desire to pursue an education. Sheffield fell to the 13th round, where he was eventually drafted by the Boston Red Sox, though he elected to stay in his home state and pitch for Vanderbilt. Sheffield sat out his freshman year, though Commodores coach Tim Corbin seems to be champing at the bit to get him on the mound this year. Corbin stated that, “His arm strength and pitching tools are not common for a young man”. Sheffield uses a four pitch mix, with his premiere pitches being a mid 90s fastball and a curveball with a ton of movement. A wide receiver in high school, he has tremendous athleticism, which should translate on the mound. Will he be the next Tyler Beede? No one knows, though he has the tools to be an anchor in the Commodores rotation for the next several years. Florida’s Pete Alonso will make himself more well known if he can pick up where he left off this summer in the Northwoods League. Second in the league in home runs (18), fifth in RBI (53) and fourth in batting average (.354), the freshman corner infielder was named Northwoods League MVP. Alonso hit four round-trippers in his first season in Gainesville and was named a Second Team Freshman All American. As evidenced early in his collegiate career, Alonso can hit a ball a long way and should me a major contributor for the Gators in a tough SEC.
Best Team That Isn’t Vandy: Six top 100 recruits committed to Florida in 2013, with four of them holding firm and choosing school over Minor League Baseball. AJ Puk, a pitcher out of Cedar rapids, Iowa, is considered by many to have the highest ceiling of any pitcher in the 2016 class. His summer with the Waterloo Bucks (Northwoods League) was short, as he only made several starts before departing the team due to arm soreness. When he pitched, though, scouts showed up in droves, radar guns at the ready. His upper 90s heater, followed by a very tight slider, was untouchable at times. Third baseman John Sternagel has showed promise both at Florida during his freshman year and at Waterloo, flashing the leather and making consistently solid contact. Brett Morales, the second rated pitcher in the Gators 2013 class (#22 overall prospect according to Max Preps) struggled during his inaugural season in The Swamp, allowing 17 earned runs over 23 innings. No one is giving up on the righty form Tampa, though a bounce back 2015 would be welcomed. Aaron Rhodes was expected to join his Florida teammates in Waterloo, but his coaches decided to shut him down and avoid a dead arm. Rhodes has excelled in his first two years as a Gator, most notably as a sophomore, when he posted a 2.48 ERA in 20 appearances. Rhodes finished second on the team with 51 strikeouts and won SEC Pitcher of the Week in April. These players, along with Alonso, profile as sizable difference makers during the upcoming season for a team hungry to make up for an embarrassing first round out of the College World Series in 2014.
In For a Rough Year: Wildcat baseball was fun to watch in 2014, with AJ Reed and Austin Cousino bursting onto the scene and dominating opposing pitching. Reed, in fact, was among the country’s elite both on the mound and at the plate. He lead college baseball in home runs (23) and was third nationally in RBI (73). On the mound, he allowed 29 earned runs over 112 innings, while striking out 71. That fantastic season was enough to make him the second round pick of the Houston Astros as a first baseman. Reed being in MiLB means he can no longer contribute to Big Blue, and it is fair to assume that his production will be sorely missed. The 2013 Wildcats appeared to have one of the better recruiting classes in recent memory, but they lost most of their big name recruits to the draft. Shortstop Connor Heady seems likely to be the face of the team in the upcoming season, though the losses of Reed and Cousino seem like to much for Kentucky to overcome in a short time. Kyle Cody can anchor the pitching staff if he can work on improving his command and develop secondary pitches to go along with his plus fastball.
Watch Out For: Missouri has been something of an oddity in recent years; the team has faltered on the field since joining the SEC, finishing with 18 and 21 wins and getting blown apart by elite SEC competition. Still, though, the Tigers seem to recruit fairly well. The Chicago White Sox drafted 6’8″ pitcher Bryce Montes de Oca in the fourteenth round of the 2014 MLB Draft, though the Lawrence, Kansas native decided to attend school and increase his stock. Had it not been for UCL damage leading to Tommy John Surgery, the flame thrower likely would have gone in the first several rounds of the draft. De Oca will join a stable of other high ceiling arms in Columbia, one of whom is Alec Rash. Rash was very highly touted out of high school, and was drafted in the second round by the Philadelphia Phillies, before choosing to sign with Missouri. Rash struggled with his command in 2013, walking far too many hitters and not striking out enough. 2014 was a nice rebound, though, as he posted a 2.04 ERA in 17.2 innings. Rash was particularly impressive against right-handed hitters, allowing just eight hits in 37 at bats. Another very highly regarded pitcher out of high school, Peter Fairbanks has yet to put it all together at Mizzou, though scouts have seen enough for him to merit Cape Cod appearances in each of the last two seasons. The offense will be what holds Missouri back from being a threat to SEC counterparts. The Tigers have been offensively anemic in recent years (relatively speaking), and losing their premiere hitters is going to make things worse. Eric Anderson, Shane Segovia and Dylan Kelly are gone, and that means that Ryan Howard and Jake Ring will need to carry the weight. Howard, like Fairbanks, spent last summer playing on Cape Cod. Former player Hunter Mense was hired as the new hitting coach over the summer, and there is excitement about what he can bring to the table.
In Need of a Bounce Back: Was 2014 an aberration for Wes Rea, or is that the type of hitter he is? That is certainly the question that Mississippi State coach John Cohen has to be asking. Rea looked like an emerging slugger during his sophomore season, hitting .290 with seven home runs and slugging .459. In his junior season, though, the first baseman regressed back to the numbers that he posted during his freshman year, with his average and SLG % falling off considerably. Rea profiles as a DH if a team takes a flier on him, as he does not run particularly well. One factor working in his favor is his plate discipline; Rea has a knack for working counts and taking walks, which is not very common for a hitter that relies mostly on power.
Top SEC PLayer Drafted in 2015: A year ago, LSU middle infielder Alex Bregman looked like a safe bet to be a top three pick. The hard hitting shortstop struggled out of the gate in 2014 and never quite got it going during his sophomore campaign. After hitting .369 as a freshman, Bregman finished his sophomore season at .316, which is still well above average. The fact that six home runs and a .455 slugging percentage from a middle infielder classifies as a bad year should say a lot. A return to form in 2015 could re-establish Bregman as the SECs premiere player. If Vanderbilt’s Walker Buehler takes another step forward, though, it might not matter how well Bregman does in this race. Buehler was named co-MVP of the Cape Cod Baseball League Post Season after allowing just five hits over 13 innings. He has a hard fastball, which sits in the mid-to-high 90s, and a deadly changeup/curveball combo to throw hitters off. He resembles CJ Edwards to a degree, in that he is a hard thrower that makes scouts nervous due to his extremely lanky body. Durability will be the biggest knock on Buehler going into the draft. Carson Fullmer, another Vanderbilt pitcher (go figure) projects as a mid-first round pick, though he showed quite a bit during the Commodores championship run last season, pitching well on short rest.
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Main Photo Credit: Steven Branscombe, USA TODAY Sports
