Since the NCAA restructured baseball at the small-college level in the late-60s, leading to the formation of Division II in 1968—and Division III in 1976—two Florida schools, Florida Southern and Tampa, have been the NCAA’s flagship programs.
Between them, the schools have won 13 national championships—Florida Southern eight, most recently as 2005; Tampa five, most recently as 2007. Moreover, the two schools have been loyal to their D-II roots while more and more D-II programs have sought membership in the more prestigious Division I ranks.
With the exception of Florida Southern, Tampa, Chapman (1968), Cal Poly Pomona (1976, 1980 and 1983) and Valdosta State (1979), every team that won a Division II World Series from 1968-93 has since upgraded to Division I status. That includes the likes UC Irvine, UC Riverside, Cal Poly, Cal State Northridge, Illinois State, Jacksonville State and Troy. Chapman, meanwhile, is currently a Division III program.
Florida Southern’s and Tampa’s influence on Division II is expected to be more profound than ever this year as PG Crosschecker, in its continuing preview coverage of college baseball at the non-Division I level, has installed the two Florida schools as the teams to beat in Division II in 2009. In the accompanying charts, we have Tampa at No. 1 and Florida Southern at No. 2 in our ranking of the top 10 teams. A number of D-II schools begin their 2009 seasons this weekend, but Florida Southern and Tampa open on Tuesday.
The lofty rankings of the two schools are due, in large measure, to the talent—both high-end and depth—found on both rosters. In fact, it’s safe to say that the two schools would be on at least an equal footing with a majority of the schools that will comprise PG Crosschecker’s pre-season ranking of the nation’s top 100 Division I programs that we’ll unveil in the days leading up to the Feb. 20 start date.
Florida Southern not only features the top D-II prospect for the 2009 draft in shortstop Robbie Shields, a potential first-rounder, but also boasts the top two small-college prospects for the 2010 draft in sophomore lefthander Max Russell, the team’s No. 1 starter, and sophomore righthander Daniel Tillman, who is scheduled to close for the Moccasins this season. We’ve highlighted the Top 10 Division II prospects for the 2009 draft in one of the accompanying charts.
Tampa doesn’t have quite the same degree of impact talent that Florida Southern does, but the Spartans went a long way to securing its spot as the nation’s No. 1 team by bringing aboard a couple of significant D-I castoffs in lefthander Carmine Giardina from Central Florida and righthander Alex Koronis from Miami.
With the new NCAA rule that restricts players from transferring from one Division I school to another without sitting out a year, the biggest beneficiary has been D-II schools. Not only did Tampa add two prime transfers to its 2009 roster, but the competitive Sunshine State Conference, which includes Florida Southern and Tampa in its membership, added several more significant D-I transfers. Former Clemson lefthander Matt Zoltak is now at Florida Southern, while Barry University added two former Tennessee regulars in catcher Yan Gomes and shortstop Danny Lima.
As part of our ongoing non-Division I preview coverage over the past few days, we looked at the top teams and top prospects in junior college and NAIA. Today, our focus is on Division II and Division III.
Small-college baseball, at any level, doesn’t normally impact the early rounds of the draft, yet there were 117 players from non-Division I four-year programs selected in 2008. Among 55 players drafted in the first 25 rounds, 32 came from NCAA Division II, 17 from NAIA and six from NCAA Division III.
Though big-league teams don’t scout and draft college players on the basis of the level of competition they play, the New York Mets were the most active team scouring the non-traditional college market a year ago, selecting 11 players from small-college programs. Every big-league team drafted at least two players.
The first small-college draft pick a year ago was righthander Bobby Lanigan from D-II Adelphi (N.Y.), a third-round pick of the Minnesota Twins. The initial NAIA player selected, by contrast, was Azusa Pacific (Calif.) outfielder Kirk Niewenhuis, also in the third round by the Mets, while the initial D-III players to come off the board were in the eighth round.
Shields, an athletic shortstop with solid actions and instincts in all phases of his game, should bring undue recognition to the D-II ranks in June—particularly if he is drafted in the first round, as projected. PG Crosschecker will unveil a revised ranking of the Top 500 prospects for the 2009 draft next week, and Shields will rank No. 23 on that list. He hit .348-9-36 as a Florida Southern sophomore, then cut a wide swath in the Cape Cod League—though his summer season was cut short by a wrist injury. No other D-II player is expected to be selected in the top 3-4 rounds.
Meanwhile, the top-ranked D-III prospect, according to PG Crosschecker, is lefthander Matt Tone of New York’s Cortland State, which also gets our nod as the top-ranked team in D-III. Scouts say Tone, who has a fastball in the 90-94 mph range and a slider that can reach 86, is targeted in the fourth- to sixth-round range. He went 8-0, 2.39 with 88 strikeouts in 68 innings in 2008 for Cortland State, which finished seventh at the D-III World Series.
The 2009 Division III World Series returns to Appleton, Wis., from May 22-26, and it may be difficult to top the drama that unfolded in the 2008 event when Connecticut’s Trinity College took a 44-0 record into the championship game, only to lose 4-3 to Maryland’s Johns Hopkins. Fortunately, Trinity had a loss to spare in the eight-team, double-elimination tournament and came back the next day to beat Johns Hopkins 5-4 in a rematch, pushing across the tying and winning runs on bases-loaded walks in the bottom of the ninth inning to capture its first national title.
The 2008 Division II World Series, played in Sauget, Ill., had another first-time winner as North Carolina’s Mt. Olive College ran the table, winning the eight-team tournament in four straight games. An unexpected reward came several months later when Mt. Olive was selected to be the host school for the 2009 and 2010 Division II World Series, marking the event’s third host site in three years. The tournament will be played at the USA Baseball complex in Cary, N.C., with this year’s event slated for May 23-30.
Here’s our four-barrel take on the top 10 teams and top 10 prospects in the NCAA Division II and NCAA Division III ranks in 2009. We’ve identified the top prospects for this year’s draft, and the projected round.
NCAA DIVISION II
TOP 10 TEAMS, 2009
| Rank |
Team |
’08 Record |
Top Prospect ’09 (Projected Round) |
| 1. |
*Tampa |
42-11 |
Carmine Giardina, lhp (6th-10th) |
| 2. |
Florida Southern |
29-21 |
Robbie Shields, ss (1st-2nd) |
| 3. |
*Mt. Olive (N.C.) |
58-6 |
Kyle Jones, rhp (8th-12th) |
| 4. |
Cal State Chico |
42-17 |
Eric Stephens, 1b (15th-20th) |
| 5. |
*Central Missouri |
47-17 |
Danny Potje, lhp (15th-25th |
| 6. |
UC San Diego |
43-18 |
Vance Albitz, ss (late) |
| 7. |
Abilene Christian (Texas) |
44-17 |
Bret Bochsler, 1b (15th-20th) |
| 8. |
Delta State (Miss.) |
48-11 |
Kellen Bozeman, 3b/1b (11th-20th) |
| 9. |
Emporia State (Kan.) |
50-10 |
Conner Crumbliss, of (late) |
| 10. |
*Franklin Pierce (N.H.) |
43-15 |
Kevin Rivers, of (15th-25th) |
| *Participated in 2008 NCAA Division II World Series |
TOP 10 PROSPECTS
| Rank |
Player |
Pos. |
College |
Previously Drafted |
Projected Round |
| 1. |
Robbie Shields |
SS |
Florida Southern |
Never drafted |
1st-2nd |
| 2. |
Darin Gorski |
LHP |
Kutztown (Pa.) |
Never drafted |
5th-8th |
| 3. |
Yan Gomes |
C/1B |
Barry (Fla.) |
Red Sox ’08 (39) |
6th-10th |
| 4. |
Steve Grife |
RHP |
Mercyhurst (Pa.) |
Never drafted |
6th-10th |
| 5. |
Danny Richard |
RHP |
Grand Valley State (Mich.) |
Never drafted |
6th-10th |
| 6. |
Carmine Giardina |
LHP |
Tampa |
Red Sox ’06 (28) |
6th-10th |
| 7. |
Matt Adams |
C/1B |
Slippery Rock (Pa.) |
Never drafted |
6th-10th |
| 8. |
Cory White |
RHP |
Indianapolis |
Indians ’08 (30) |
6th-10th |
| 9. |
J.D. Martinez |
OF |
Nova Southeastern (Fla.) |
Twins ’06 (36) |
8th-12th |
| 10. |
Ryan Schmidt |
LHP |
Northern Kentucky |
Never drafted |
8th-12th |
NCAA DIVISION III
TOP 10 TEAMS, 2009
| Rank |
Team |
’08 Record |
Top Prospect ’09 (Projected Round) |
| 1. |
#Cortland State (N.Y.) |
42-5 |
Matt Tone, lhp (4th-6th) |
| 2. |
#Trinity (Conn.) |
45-1 |
James Woods, of (11th-15th) |
| 3. |
#Chapman (Calif.) |
40-5 |
Wayde Kitchens, rhp (20th-30th) |
| 4. |
#Kean (N.J.) |
39-11 |
Joe Bartlinski, rhp (11th-15th) |
| 5. |
Southern Maine |
36-14 |
Anthony D’Alfonso, of (late) |
| 6. |
Texas-Tyler |
36-9 |
Blake Booher, rhp (20th-25th) |
| 7. |
#Wisconsin-Whitewater |
42-10 |
Aaron Dott, lhp (11th-15th) |
| 8. |
#Johns Hopkins (Md.) |
42-8 |
Chez Angeloni, rhp (late) |
| 9. |
Salisbury (Md.) |
41-4 |
Mike Celenza, 3b/1b (15th-20th) |
| 10. |
#Adrian (Mich.) |
36-13 |
Alex Webster, rhp (late) |
| #Participated in 2008 NCAA Division III World Series |
TOP 10 PROSPECTS
| Rank |
Player |
Pos. |
College |
Previously Drafted |
Projected Round |
| 1. |
Matt Tone |
LHP |
Cortland State (N.Y.) |
Never drafted |
4th-6th |
| 2. |
Robert Whitenack |
RHP |
SUNY Old Westbury |
Never drafted |
8th-12th |
| 3. |
Aaron Dott |
LHP |
Wisconsin-Whitewater |
Never drafted |
11th-15th |
| 4. |
Kevin O’Hara |
RHP |
Rowan (N.J.) |
Never drafted |
11th-15th |
| 5. |
Brock Whiteman |
C |
Muskingum (Ohio) |
Never drafted |
11th-15th |
| 6. |
James Woods |
OF |
Trinity (Conn.) |
Never drafted |
11th-15th |
| 7. |
Joe Bartlinski |
RHP |
Kean (N.J.) |
Never drafted |
11th-15th |
| 8. |
Mike Avery |
OF |
Cortland State (N.Y.) |
Never drafted |
15th-20th |
| 9. |
Chase Tigert |
RHP |
California Lutheran |
Never drafted |
15th-20th |
| 10. |
Evan Bronson |
LHP |
Trinity (Texas) |
Brewers ’08 (36) |
15th-20th |
|