JUNIOR COLLEGE NOTEBOOK
Feb. 20, 2008

COMPILED BY ALLAN SIMPSON

St. Pete’s Dalles Off To Blazing Start

St. Petersburg JC sophomore Justin Dalles enjoyed a solid freshman season in 2007, hitting .314-6-33. But it wasn’t up to the standard scouts expected from the 6-foot-2, 205-pound catcher and it was reflected in the draft. He tumbled from a 15^th round pick of the New York Mets in 2006 out of a Florida high school to a 47^th-rounder of the St. Louis Cardinals a year ago.

That draft snub appears to have lit a fire under Dalles. In St. Pete’s first 18 games this season, Dalles was hitting .559-6-39. He had already equaled his home run output from 2007, and topped his season-long RBI total.

In his team’s 10-0 win over the College of Southern Nevada, the nation’s No. 1-ranked junior college team, at the Rahal-Miller Juco National Classic in Marianna, Fla., earlier this month, Dalles went 4-for-4 with a double and home run against freshman righthander Taylor Cole, one of the nation’s top juco pitchers. He also threw out two base runners for added measure.

Dalles’ hot start has not gone unnoticed.

“He is the premier catcher in the state of Florida,” St. Pete coach Dave Pano said. “We have played an extremely difficult schedule, so his numbers are even more phenomenal considering the quality of teams we’ve played.

“His offensive approach is the big difference this year. He is using the other side of the field and he has great command of the strike zone. He could always throw, but the question the scouts have always had is how he receives the ball. This has been a big improvement area and scouts have taken notice.”

Top JUCO Teams Fight to Standoff

The Rahal-Miller National Classic, hosted by defending national champion Chipola JC, matched four of the nation’s top five teams—as ranked by PG Crosschecker in its pre-season top 50 ranking. Participating were No. 1 Southern Nevada, No. 2 Chipola, No. 3 Walters State (Tenn.) and No. 5 St. Petersburg.

No team gained an early-season edge as the tournament ended in a stalemate with everyone going 2-2. It was a golden opportunity for scouts, however, to see some of the nation’s best junior college talent, which included 10 of the top 21 players (and 24 of the top 200) in PG Crosschecker’s ranking of the nation’s top 200 prospects. A total of 74 scouts saw the first day of the event.

The best individual performance was turned in by Southern Nevada sophomore righthander Colby Shreve, an eighth-round pick of the Atlanta Braves in last year’s draft. The 6-foot-5, 190-pound Shreve tossed a complete game in a 5-1 win against Walters State, striking out eight while allowing three hits and three walks. His fastball was clocked at 95 mph, and he showed a good feel for a slider and changeup.

Shreve outdueled Walters State sophomore righthander Nick Fuller, who also went the distance, striking out eight while allowing seven hits. Fuller’s fastball topped at 92, though was more consistently in the 87-89 mph range. His best pitch was his breaking ball which has the makings of becoming an above-average pitch. Fuller, an unsigned third-round draft pick of the Tampa Bay Rays in 2006, spent the early part of the 2007 season at South Carolina before being kicked off the team amidst charges of grand theft.

Southern Nevada Clings to No. 1 Rank

Southern Nevada (11-4) retained its No. 1 spot in PG Crosschecker’s first in-season ranking of the top 25 junior college teams. No. 2 Chipola (11-4) and No. 3 Walters State (10-2) also maintained the status quo. All are recent Junior College World Series champions—Southern Nevada in 2003, Walters State in 2006 and Chipola in 2007—and have played a rugged early-season schedule befitting their national prominence.

“We’ve played an incredibly tough schedule, the toughest I’ve ever put together” said Southern Nevada coach Tim Chambers, whose team has also faced (and beaten) No. 4 Santa Ana (Calif.) JC. “I thought I’d be happy to be a couple of games over .500 at this point, especially with some of our kids that have gotten hurt. We’ve had three players so far that have had shoulder separations.”

As members of the Scenic West Conference, Southern Nevada typically plays a wood-bat schedule. But the Coyotes switched to aluminum at the Rahal-Miller National Classic to be on more of an equal footing with the top teams from Florida and Tennessee. After hitting no home runs in their first eight games using wood, the Coyotes hit six in four games on their cross-country trip to Florida.

“It’s a tough transition bouncing back and forth,” Chambers said, “especially going from wood to aluminum. All of a sudden, the bats are a little quicker and the swings a little longer.”

JUCO Notebook

--Southern Nevada outfielder Devin Shepherd, the nation’s No. 1-ranked junior college prospect, got mixed reviews from scouts at the Rahal-Miller National Classic. He is an impressive specimen in his 6-foot-3, 225-pound frame and got down the line in 4.3 seconds from the right side, but he didn’t show the bat speed that scouts were looking for. Shepherd, a fifth-round draft pick of the Minnesota Twins in 2006, spent his freshman season at Oklahoma.

--Tyler Ladendorf, the nation’s top-rated junior college shortstop, got off to a red-hot start, sparking Howard (Texas) JC to 10 straight wins to open the season. Ladendorf, who stole 65 bases in 65 attempts a year ago, was hitting .667-7-18 and had scored 22 runs. He has committed to Oklahoma.

--Miami-Dade JC righthander Marcus Salmon who went a quiet 5-2, 3.21 with 36 strikeouts in 34 innings as a freshman after being a 10^th-round draft pick of the Washington Nationals out of a Florida high school in 2006, has burst out of the gates this season, leading his team to a 12-0 start. The 6-foot-1, 210-pound Salmon was 2-0, 0.00 with 17 strikeouts in 17 innings in his first three starts.

--Pensacola (Fla.) JC lefthander Blaine Howell, a North Carolina high school product who spent his freshman year at Brigham Young, going 2-2, 4.56 with 42 strikeouts in 51 innings, got off to a fast start for his new school, striking out 18 in his first 10 innings while not allowing an earned run. Howell ended up at Pensacola when he had a change of heart and elected not to go on a Mormon mission with a number of his BYU teammates following his freshman year. By the time he reconsidered, his scholarship money at BYU had been re-allocated and he chose to transfer. He is scheduled to return to BYU for his junior year.

--Fresno CC swept Sacramento CC in three straight games in an early-season showdown of northern California junior college powers. Lefthander Ben Whitmore, ranked the No. 2 junior college player in the nation, worked the final game of the series for Fresno but wasn’t overly impressive with a fastball that touched 89 mph but dropped off early. Whitmore, however, had been sick all week leading up to the series.