Above Average in Austin
May 13, 2010
As you may be aware, the Texas Longhorns are an awfully good baseball team. They are ranked No. 1 in the nation. They sport a 41-8 record, and they've lost only one game since March.
The UT pitching staff has limited opponents to a .210 batting average, and boasts a 2.14 ERA. Perhaps more impressive, though, is the balance on the offensive side. Just about everybody is good, and not only that, almost everybody is good at almost everything.
This is a nice opportunity to show off our newest toy: overall run values for college players. Inspired by Sean Smith's WAR database, we're measuring just about everything that can be measured in the college game.
For each Longhorn regular, here are their batting runs, fielding runs, baserunning runs, and a positional adjustment, relative to the average Division One player:
Player Off Def Bsr Pos+ Total Cameron Rupp 13.5 1.4 -0.1 3.8 18.6 Kevin Keyes 17.4 3.7 -0.1 -2.7 18.3 Kevin Lusson 22.4 -5.7 0.0 0.8 17.5 Tant Shepherd 18.5 -0.2 1.5 -4.1 15.6 Russell Moldenhauer 18.7 0.0 -0.5 -4.3 13.9 Brandon Loy 5.8 3.2 1.9 2.5 13.3 Jordan Etier 6.5 4.7 0.8 0.8 12.8 Cohl Walla 9.4 0.3 0.0 -1.2 8.5 Connor Rowe -3.4 1.8 0.4 0.6 -0.6
A big weekend from Connor Rowe, and all nine regulars will be better than average.
As you might imagine, these numbers will come in mighty handy for pre-draft analysis. Stay tuned as we roll them out for more players between now and June 7.