Pair of Gators Named To Baseball America's Preseason All-America Team
Saturday, January 20, 2007 | Baseball
Senior first baseman Matt LaPorta (Port Charlotte, Fla.) and junior right-hander Bryan Augenstein (Sebastian, Fla.) of the Gator baseball team were named to Baseball America's Preseason All-America team released on Friday. LaPorta made the second team while Augenstein was a third-team pick. UF is set to begin team practice in preparation for its 2007 campaign next Wednesday, Jan. 24, and will kick off its season against VMI on Friday, Feb. 9, at McKethan Stadium.
The 2005 Southeastern Conference Player of the Year, LaPorta was a consensus first-team All-American as a sophomore, when he led Division I with 26 homers and drove in 79 runs. Last season, he missed 13 games with an oblique muscle strain and hit .259 over 43 games. The slugger led the Gators with 14 homers and a .410 on-base percentage and rated third with 38 RBI. Over his three-year collegiate career, LaPorta boasts a .298 average, is one homer shy of matching Brad Wilkerson's school standard of 55 homers and is sixth on UF's career list with 154 RBI.
A second-team All-SEC recipient in '06, Augenstein anchored UF's pitching staff with a 9-6 record and a 3.07 earned run average and limited opponents to a .241 batting average. The 6'5" right-hander notched 98 strikeouts and issued 24 walks over 111.1 innings and fired three complete games. He worked at least seven innings in 13 of his 15 starts and collected four wins in SEC action, highlighted by a 6-4 triumph over Eastern Division titlist and league co-champion Kentucky and a 4-3 decision over Western Division winner and league co-champion Alabama. Augenstein blazed out of the gates with a 5-0 ledger and three of his setbacks were by a single run.
Baseball America annually polls scouting directors to vote on the team and make their selections based on performance, talent and major league potential. In the past, the preseason All-America team has been a predictor both of the first round of the draft and of team success. For example, of the 13 draft-eligible pitchers selected on BA's three preseason teams last year, nine became first-round picks last June.
Three infielders - South Carolina first baseman Justin Smoak, Miami (Fla.) second baseman Jemile Weeks and Vanderbilt third baseman Pedro Alvarez - aren't draft-eligible this year, yet made the first team. All three are on the short list to be first-round picks in 2008, and Smoak ranked as the top prospect last summer in the Cape Cod League.
Rice's Joe Savery and Vanderbilt's David Price are repeat members of the first team, with Price being a unanimous choice of scouting directors. Catcher Matt Wieters (Georgia Tech) and right-hander Andrew Brackman (N.C. State) also were repeat members. Second-teamers J.P. Arencibia (catcher from Tennessee) and LaPorta were preseason first-teamers a year ago. Second-teamer Texas sophomore outfielder Jordan Danks was a preseason third-teamer a year ago.
As is often the case, major conferences dominate the first team, with the SEC boasting six members of the preseason first team, edging the Atlantic Coast (four). However, James Madison's Kellen Kulbacki (Colonial Athletic) and TCU's Jake Arrieta (Mountain West) also made the first team. Because BA's preseason All-America team is voted on by scouting directors, it's not necessarily limited to Division I players. Hence, the third-team first baseman is Beau Mills of NAIA national champion Lewis-Clark State (Idaho), who spent his first two seasons at Fresno State.
2007 Baseball America Preseason All-America Teams
(As selected by major league scouting directors)
First Team
C: Matt Wieters, Jr., Georgia Tech; 1B: Justin Smoak, So., South Carolina; 2B: Jemile Weeks, So., Miami (Fla.); 3B: Pedro Alvarez, So., Vanderbilt; SS: Zack Cozart, Jr., Ole Miss; OF: Julio Borbon, Jr., Tennessee; Brad Chalk, Jr., Clemson; Kellen Kulbacki, Jr., James Madison; UT: Joe Savery, Jr., Rice; P: Jake Arrieta, Jr., TCU; Andrew Brackman, Jr., North Carolina State; Josh Fields, Jr., Georgia; David Price, Jr., Vanderbilt; Wes Roemer, Jr., Cal State Fullerton
Second Team
C: J.P. Arencibia, Jr., Tennessee; 1B: Matt LaPorta, Sr., Florida; 2B: Taylor Harbin, Jr., Clemson; 3B: Matt Mangini, Jr., Oklahoma State; SS: Josh Horton, Jr., North Carolina; OF: Corey Brown, Jr., Oklahoma State; Jordan Danks, So., Texas; Warren McFadden, So., Tulane; UT: Sean Doolittle, Jr., Virginia; P: Brett Cecil, Jr., Maryland; Ross Detwiler, Jr., Missouri State; Eddie Kunz, Jr., Oregon State; Daniel Moskos, Jr., Clemson; Nick Schmidt, Jr., Arkansas
Third Team
C: Mitch Canham, Jr., Oregon State; 1B: Beau Mills, Jr., Lewis-Clark State (Idaho); 2B: Brad Emaus, Jr., Tulane; 3B: Bradley Suttle, So., Texas; SS: Todd Frazier, Jr., Rutgers; OF: Roger Kieschnick, So., Texas Tech; Danny Payne, Jr., Georgia Tech; Michael Taylor, Jr., Stanford; UT: Damon Sublett, Jr., Wichita State; P: Bryan Augenstein, Jr., Florida; Charlie Furbush, Jr., LSU; Brian Matusz, So., San Diego; James Simmons, Jr., UC Riverside; Cole St.Clair, Jr., Rice
--UF--
