USA College National Team Announced



USA Baseball announced its 22-player roster for the college national team, with Cal State Fullerton shortstop Christian Colon highlighting the team as the lone returnee from last year’s club.

Coach Rick Jones (Tulane) kept a bit of an unusual roster in that there is no true third baseman or second baseman on the team. Colon is one of three regular shortstops on the roster, joined by Rice’s Rick Hague—a fellow sophomore—and Clemson freshman Brad Miller. With a 22-player roster, though, flexibility is always at a premium for Team USA, and this team has several flexible players on the roster.

Hawaii freshman Kolten Wong, for example, can catch, play all three outfield positions and give second base a try. Two of the team’s outfielders, Middle Tennessee State’s Bryce Brentz and Arizona State’s Matt Newman, are both pitchers and hitters.

The team’s strength, however, is on the mound. Want hard throwers? Try UCLA’s freshman tandem of Trevor Bauer and Gerrit Cole, or Vanderbilt freshman Sonny Gray, or Texas Tech’s Chad Bettis. Want college performance? Lefthander Drew Pomeranz, a top candidate to be top-10 pick in 2010, had a stellar postseason for Mississippi, nearly getting the Rebels to Omaha on his own. He had 124 strikeouts in 95 innings while going 8-4, 3.40. And the team has several emerging pitchers, such as Coastal Carolina’s Cody Wheeler and Kansas’ T.J. Walz.

USA Baseball also announced Utah’s Bill Kinneberg—a two-time Team USA assistant—as the head coach for 2010. Kinneberg’s pitching coach will be Cal State Fullerton head coach Dave Serrano, in his first stint with Team USA.

Here is the roster for this summer’s Team USA College National Team.

PITCHERS Yr. B-T Ht. Wt. School
Trevor Bauer Fr. R-R 6-1 175 UCLA
Chad Bettis So. R-R 6-0 193 Texas Tech
Gerrit Cole Fr. R-R 6-4 215 UCLA
Sonny Gray Fr. R-R 5-11 180 Vanderbilt
Nick Pepitone So. R-R 6-6 230 Tulane
Drew Pomeranz So. L-L 6-5 231 Mississippi
T.J. Walz So. R-R 6-0 175 Kansas
Cody Wheeler So. L-L 5-11 160 Coastal Caro.
Asher Wojciechowski So. R-R 6-4 205 The Citadel
Tony Zych Fr. R-R 6-3 180 Louisville
CATCHERS Yr. B-T Ht. Wt. School
Blake Forsythe So. R-R 6-2 220 Tennessee
Yasmani Grandal So. B-R 6-2 210 Miami
Kolten Wong Fr. L-R 5-9 180 Hawaii
INFIELDERS Yr. B-T Ht. Wt. School
Christian Colon So. R-R 6-0 185 CS Fullerton
Rick Hague So. R-R 6-0 190 Rice
Brad Miller Fr. R-R 6-0 175 Clemson
Andy Wilkins So. L-R 6-2 225 Arkansas
OUTFIELDERS Yr. B-T Ht. Wt. School
Bryce Brentz (RHP) So. R-R 6-0 180 Middle Tenn.
Michael Choice So. R-R 6-0 180 UT Arlington
Tyler Holt So. R-R 6-0 190 Florida State
Casey McGrew Jr. L-R 6-0 175 Wright State
Matt Newman (LHP) So. L-L 5-10 170 Arizona State
Alternates: Jeremy Schaffer, c, Tulane; Rob Segedin, 3b/rhp, Tulane

 



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A bit unusual that there are no players on the national team from the two best teams in the country this season.


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  • Aaron Fitt is the lead college writer for Baseball America. If you have questions or comments about college baseball you can e-mail him at collegeblog@baseballamerica.com.

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