Among those in attendance for the start of the ACC baseball tournament in Durham today will be a number of scouts from major league teams.
This year’s MLB draft, which will be held June 6-8, is likely to include several ACC players again. The league has emerged as a primary professional pipeline in baseball.
Virginia pitcher Danny Hultzen is a candidate to be picked first overall by the Pittsburgh Pirates. Georgia Tech pitcher Jed Bradley, North Carolina infielder Levi Michael and N.C. State catcher Pratt Maynard are projected as first-round contenders.
Some day, perhaps, a player in this week’s tournament will crack the team listed below — my all-time ACC performers in the majors.
Not listed, among many others, are Duke’s Dick Groat, “Crash” Davis and “Dirty Al” Spangler; UNC’s Clyde King and George “Snuffy” Stirnweiss and Florida State’s Deion Sanders and Paul Sorrento. None of those guys ever actually played in the ACC.
Otherwise, here’s my team with the player’s final season at the school listed in parenthesis.
1B – Mark Teixeira, Georgia Tech (’01)
2B – Brian Roberts, UNC (’98)
SS – Nomar Garciaparra, Georgia Tech (’94)
3B – Ryan Zimmerman, Virginia (’05)
OF – J.D. Drew, Florida State (’97)
OF – Ron Swoboda, Maryland (’63)
OF – B.J. Surhoff, UNC (’85)
C – Jason Varitek, Georgia Tech (’94)
RHP – Kevin Brown, Georgia Tech (’86)
LHP – Mike Caldwell, N.C. State (’71)
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Comments
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Wed, 05/25/2011 - 16:12 — melvinfurd1. I'm surprised we couldn't do better than Ron Swoboda (.242. career b.a., 73 homers) in the outfield.
2. I recognize B.J. was primarily an outfielder for most of his career but he was primarily a catcher for his 1st six ML seasons, then played primarily LF after that although he also played a lot at 1B & 3B. Pretty versatile (in addition to 1 game at 2B and one game at SS)!
How 'bout Tim Stoddard as
Wed, 05/25/2011 - 15:16 — ProwlingWoofieHow 'bout Tim Stoddard as the Relief Pitcher ?
Short stop
Wed, 05/25/2011 - 10:44 — gvillegatrHpmer alert ... maybe, but I'd place Walt Weiss at SS instead of Nomar. He played the position better and was a good hitter. He just didn't have the "power" Nomar did.
And Mike Caldwell from 1971 ? This sounds more like a pity pick (PC) than anything, Toots.
All Time lists ....
Wed, 05/25/2011 - 12:31 — AgentPierceAny "All Time" list is as fraught with landmines as a barbecue debate. That even this exercise can somehow be traced back to the Great N&O Conspiracy For/Against (fill in name of your team) is a hoot.
Toots' is a fine list and easily as credible as any other. Nomar tops Weiss but Weiss was a very fine MLBer. That Nomar married Mia Hamm should satisfy UNCers.
No question
Wed, 05/25/2011 - 18:17 — gvillegatr"All-Time" lists will most definitely be debated. That's what makes it so much fun.
As well as
Wed, 05/25/2011 - 10:39 — gvillegatrFootball. We dominate or at worse finish 2nd every year in the NFL Draft.