Dickerson, Pettersen Honored

The National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association has named their Freshmen All-America Team. Two first-year Big Ten standouts have been selected. Indiana's Alex Dickerson was tabbed as the first-team designated hitter and Minnesota's AJ Pettersen garnered a first-team nod at shortstop.

OSU's Hale Is Stopper Award Finalist

The National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association has announced the five finalists for the Stopper of the Year Award. Jake Hale, of Ohio State, is one of the honorees. The other four are San Diego State's Addison Reed, Kyle Bellamy of Miami (FL), Matty Ott of Louisiana State and UC Irvine's Eric Pettis.

NU's Avila Wins Ashe Award

Northwestern's Kenneth Avila has won the 2009 Arthur Ashe, Jr. Sports Scholar Award. Avila beat out ten other male finalists, including Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford of Oklahoma. Avila reached the final ten candidates by triumphing over a field that originally included 600 athletes.

Avila captured the award not only based on his academic and athletic success, but his committment to the community. Here's a link highlighting some of Mr. Avila's off-the-field service.

The Wildcats double major will spend his summer working on Wall Street as an intern with JPMorgan. (Where we presume he will straighten out the economy before he has to return to Evanston for fall classes.) We congratulate Kenneth Avila on winning this prestigous award.

Award Talk

The Indiana duo of Eric Arnett and Josh Phegley along with Ohio State's Alex Wimmers have all been named as semifinalists for the Golden Spikes Award.

In addition, IU's Arnett is one of five finalists for the College Baseball Foundation's National Pitcher of the Year honor.

Arnett and teammate Matt Bashore were both selected to this week's National All-Star Lineup by the College Baseball Foundation.

All-Conference Questions

Over the years, I've been asked for my opinion about the selections for the All-Big Ten teams. Invariably, someone feels a player (or players) from their program has been overlooked and is seeking my two cents. These questions usually come from fans or parents. This year, I'm the one with the inquiries.

The longer I read yesterday's press release, the more my head began to tilt like a dog's. You know the look. Where the pooch gives you that strange, almost confused expression while leaning his/her head off to a side.

Nearly a day after the press release was issued, I'm still kind of lost as to the thinking behind some of the selections. Let me start by hitting the highlights (or lowlights, depending on your perspective).

• How is Minnesota's Derek McCallum not the Big Ten's Player of the Year?
• I know Ohio State is very well represented on the teams, but I'm not quite sure I can justify the absence of Drew Rucinski, Matt Streng and most notably, Zach Hurley.
• Just how important is batting average to the coaches? In some ways, it appears to me that the coaches simply honored players based solely on their batting average.
• Isn't it time to release the vote totals?
• How can Chauncy Handran, of Minnesota, get left off?
• And what of Michigan State's weekend starters -- Nolan Moody, A.J. Achter and Tony Bucciferro?
• I think it's cool the coaches opted for twin first-team catchers, as the numbers between Indiana's Josh Phegley and Ohio State's Dan Burkhart were nearly identical. However, instead of leaving Illinois' Aaron Johnson on the third team how about bumping him up to second team and lauding a player like MSU's Eric Roof or Minnesota's Kyle Knudson?

Like I said, I've got questions. And don't fool yourself. My questions don't stop there. I'll come clean and tell you that I feel the coaches didn't exactly get an "A" in the selection of the outfielders. On any team. (Oh, they may have some of the right names, but not in the right places.)

Now, there's a great possibility I'm alone on this island. Perhaps, I'm the only one that thinks this year's voting was a bit more suspect than usual. We all know that I'm wrong as often as I am right. Yet, I am curious if any of you found this year's all-conference selections interesting. Feel free to leave your comments (not that I generally have to encourage any of you to do that).

Big Ten Announces Awards

The Big Ten Conference announced their award winners today. Ohio State's Dan Burkhart captured the Player of the Year Award. Indiana's Eric Arnett and Ohio State's Alex Wimmers were co-Pitchers of the Year. Alex Dickerson, of Indiana, was named as the Big Ten's Freshman of the Year. Ohio State's Bob Todd was tabbed as Coach of the Year.

In addition, the Big Ten released their three all-conference teams and, for the first time, selected an all-freshman side.

NU's Avila Is Ashe Award Finalist

It's award season. It seems like everyday I'm either providing a link to an award watch list or voting for various post-season honors. However, one Big Ten baseball player has been nominated for a rather special honor that I overlooked.

Northwestern's Kenneth Avila is one of ten male finalists for the Arthur Ashe, Jr. Sports Scholar Award. I'll let the press release explain the award:

Established in 1992 by the publication Diverse: Issues In Higher Education, the Sports Scholars Awards honor undergraduate students of color who exemplify the standards set by tennis great Arthur Ashe Jr.

On-the-field, Avila paced the Wildcats in batting average this season while playing a super-utility role. In-the-classroom, Avila is a double major in economic and legal studies. Avila also had to meet the award's minimum requirements for things such as community service and GPA.

Last season, Avila was one of the ten college baseball players selected for the honor. This year, the Northwestern junior is the lone college baseball representative still eligible to claim the top award. Amongst those Avila will be competing against are Ohio State football star Brian Robiskie and Oklahoma's Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback, Sam Bradford.

I think I can go out on a limb here and speak for the entire Big Ten baseball community and congratulate Kenneth on this honor. Obviously, I'm pulling for him to bring home the top prize. (Hey, we all better be nice to him. The young man could be President someday.)

Burkhart, Phegley Bench Award Semi Finalists

The honors just keep rolling in today. Ohio State's Dan Burkhart and Indiana's Josh Phegley are both included amongst the thirteen semifinalists for the Johnny Bench Award. The Bench Award, presented annually the top catcher in college baseball, is presented by the Wichita Greater Sports Commission.

Arnett, McCallum & Wimmers Amongst Semi-Finalists

Three Big Ten stars remain in contention for major awards. Minnesota second baseman Derek McCallum is amongst the sixteen semifinalists for the Dick Howser Trophy. Presented annually by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association, The Howser Trophy is given to the best player in all of college baseball.

Indiana's Eric Arnett and Ohio State's Alex Wimmers are still vying for the Pitcher of the Year Award. Arnett and Wimmers are two of fifteen semifinalists as announced by the College Baseball Foundation.

Four Big 10 Hurlers On Watchlist

The College Baseball Foundation has released its initial watchlist (note: .pdf file) for their Pitcher of the Year honor. Four Big Ten pitchers have been included -- Michigan's Chris Fetter, Indiana's Eric Arnett and the Ohio State duo of Alex Wimmers and Jake Hale.

While I suspect everyone on the list is vying for second place behind San Diego State's Stephen Strasburg, it's still good to see four Big Ten players getting nominated for post-season recognition. Hopefully, this means all four are in the running for All-America status.

Vote For Nohelty

Minnesota's Matt Nohelty is one of ten players on the ballot for the Lowe's Senior Class Award. While the public's combined vote will only total one-third of the overall vote, let me encourage you to head over to the site and cast your vote for Mr. Nohelty.

The Gophers' DH has been a fine player throughout his career at The U and is currently sitting in fourth place. I'm confident that if all the readers here would vote at least once, we could have an influence on the award. We all know the Big Ten, and northern programs, in general, get snubbed by the national media. This is an opportunity, small as it might be, to get a Big Ten guy some love.

MSU's Moody Claims Awards

As a result of his no-hitter, Michigan State's Nolan Moody has garnered more than his fair share of weekly honors.

The College Baseball Blog named the MSU senior the National Pitcher of the Week.

Moody was amongst those named by the College Baseball Foundation as a member of their National All-Star Lineup.

MSU's starter was also named to the Louisville Slugger's National Player of the Week list. (Scroll under the poll.)

Of course, Moody was selected as the Big Ten's Pitcher of the Week.

Not a bad haul for a guy who spent his previous three seasons in East Lansing as a reliever.

Burkhart, Phegley On Bench List

Two Big Ten catchers are on the initial watchlist for the 2009 Johnny Bench Award. Ohio State's Dan Burkhart and Indiana's Josh Phegley are both on the current list, which will continue to be revised until early May. Not surprisingly, the Bench Award is given to the best catcher in the country.

I have to come clean. I have no idea if this is old news or not. The list I've seen doesn't indicate the date on which it was released. The most notable absence from the Big Ten would be Illinois' Aaron Johnson. He merits consideration as one of the best backstops in the country.

The boys at the big programs are certainly going to get all the love, but the Big Ten representatives would appear to have a solid chance at winning this award in 2009.

Award Season

I take a break from NCAA Regional coverage to talk a little award selection. Michigan's Nate Recknagel is the only Big Ten representative among the final fifty candidates for the Golden Spikes Award.

The Golden Spikes Award, presented by USA Baseball, also has a new website. One of the features is that you can vote for your favorite amongst the candidates. I don't believe it's has bearing on anything, but Michigan fans can go stuff the ballot box nonetheless.

One player that got left off the Golden Spikes Award is Indiana's Josh Phegley. Phegley paced the Big Ten in both batting average and RBI. The good news for the Hoosiers' backstop is that he is amongst the semi-finalists for the Johnny Bench Award.

Three On Wallace Award List

The 2008 Brooks Wallace Award Watchlist has been trimmed down to 100 players. Three of the nominees are from the Big Ten Conference. Indiana's Josh Phegley and Michigan's Nate Recknagel and Zach Putnam remain in the running to claim one of the many national player of the year honors.

Recknagel Grabs National Honor

Michigan's Nate Recknagel was named the Louisville Slugger National Player of the Week by Collegiate Baseball.

Recknagel is currently second in the nation in home runs with 16, ninth in slugging percentage at .823 and 35th in RBI with 47. (Although the RBI list is crammed full of ties.)

Michigan Award Ceremony Pictures

It's a bit like Christmas. Here are all the championship rings still unwrapped. One Michigan player was kind enough to let me take some photos of his ring, but, alas, they didn't turn out very well. Apparently, a setting needs to be adjusted for taking that kind of photo. Who knew? I'm a blogger not a photographer. My apologies to all. (Trust me, the rings are nice.)

Michigan Award Ceremony Pictures

The 2007 Big Ten Championship Trophy and, I believe, the Coach of the Year Award won by Coach Maloney.

Michigan Award Ceremony Pictures

The University of Michigan's awards for Player of the Year (foreground) and Pitcher of the Year (background). Both honors were given to All-American Zach Putnam.

Wolverines Award Ceremony

In my previous post, I mentioned that I received quite a bit of email this week. One of the things that arrived in my inbox was a notice about the University of Michigan's baseball award ceremony scheduled for today.

Presented with spending a Saturday afternoon either doing those mundane, but necessary household tasks -- painting, replacing washers in a faucet, yardwork -- or fighting the 100,000 plus Michigan football fans invading Ann Arbor at the same time I needed to be there, I opted for the logistics nightmare that included college baseball over the boring work around the house. Proving, once and for all, that my priorities are completely out of whack.

I know, I know. Stop whining and get to the baseball stuff. Coach Rich Maloney addressed the gathering and spoke about last year's team and about the expectations for the 2008 squad. Not surprisingly, the expectations for the new year are high. Real high. Rosenblatt high.

Coach Maloney also mentioned that the university was going to market the team more this coming season and that a season ticket package is going to be available -- both interesting concepts. We will see if either has an effect on attendance. Of course, winning frequently tends to create interest and Michigan should be in a position to do that in '08.

The schedule was still not available, and no one in an official capacity spoke about it, but it's rumored that the season will begin in Florida, once again. Some of the teams that I heard might comprise the non-conference schedule include Villanova, Coastal Carolina and East Carolina. Yes, the Arizona State field trip is on the docket, too. Oakland University (yes, "my" Golden Grizzlies) will open the Wolverines home slate at renovated Ray Fisher Stadium.

Somewhere between Coach Maloney's opening comments and the post-event chatter was the purpose of the gathering -- to distribute the 2007 awards. Individual awards were presented and each member of last year's team got their Big Ten Championship rings.

I had a very pleasant afternoon and have even have some pictures to share. I'll get to those in a moment. First, I have to thank some people. I'll start with the Michigan baseball community for their kindness. Like so many around the conference and really throughout college baseball, the Wolverine baseball family has been very good to me. I sincerely appreciate their support of this endeavor.

And since I'm talking about support, I have to thank Mrs. BTH. She drove your blogger into Ann Arbor, headed off to meet some friends in a neighboring community, and returned to pick me up. I appreciate that as well.