Quote Originally Posted by dawgs View Post
sure seemed like kendall played a pretty huge role when he hit a walk off HR in the CWS. and look at his stat line. it's pretty awesome.

looking at virginia...
their top 2 regular hitters by average were sophs. but their 3rd was a freshmen, pavin smith, that slashed .309/.374/.463. they also start another freshmen that wasn't as strong of a hitter. virginia only had 3 guys play in all 65 games, 2 of them were freshmen.

look at florida...
jj schwarz slashed .332/.398/.632 with 18 HRs and 73 RBIs and played the most demanding position on the field. dalton guthrie slashed .287/.363/.365. mike rivera slashed .271/.337/.369. and they started 70, 69, and 65 games respectively.

both virginia and florida have several core players from each class. a couple of freshmen, sophs, juniors, and a senior or 2. that's what you need to be consistent and never go through a lull.

so tell me some more about how vandy is the anomaly when it comes to getting value out of freshmen?
Kendall having ONE big moment doesn't make him any more of an impact player on the entire season than anyone else. That would be like me saying a freshman pinch hitter was an impact player for having hitting a walk-off home run. Who had more of an impact on their team over the course of the entire year? Kendall or Dansby Swanson, Carson Fulmer, etc.

So, you've cross referenced the TOP teams in the country and on every single team- you have managed to find TWO freshman that is even hitting over .300. In other words TWO players who hit better than Gavin Collins did as a freshman for us.

Basically you're touting guys that had seasons comparable to Wes Rea- you know the guy everyone bitches about- and claiming that's now all of a sudden "impact". All the while ignoring the fact that it's still the upperclassmen that are carrying the load for the most part while the freshmen are patching holes. Guthrie and Rivera had the 8th and 9th highest averages on their team among regulars- making them essentially some of the worst hitters in their lineup. Kendall had the eighth best average on Vanderbilt's team.

"Impact" to me means that you are hitting over .300 with at least 10 home run if you are a freshman power hitter or .300 with at least 20 SB if you are a speed guy. All you're doing is listing guys that started games as a freshman and calling that "impact"- when in reality you've found one-two players that fits the criteria and neither one is on the same team. Based on what you're doing, I could argue that Ryan Gridley was an impact player for us this past season.