Storylines, MLB Draft prospects to watch in 2022 college baseball
By Jordan Shusterman
FOX Sports MLB Writer
Happy Opening Day!
Sadly, the MLB lockout rolls on unresolved, but college baseball is very much back, with Division I action beginning this weekend all across the country, and Division II, Division III, NAIA and junior-college ball already well underway.
The first chunk of the season is an amazing opportunity to become familiar with teams competing in nonconference action as they figure out who their key contributors will be on the road to Omaha and the College World Series.
Here are the biggest storylines to watch entering the 2022 Division I baseball season:
Transfer-palooza + super-old players
College baseball is still feeling the impact of the canceled 2020 season. Most notably, all players received an extra year of eligibility, which means upperclassmen in particular have been able to stick around and play longer than normal.
This, combined with the shortened MLB Draft, has resulted in a college baseball landscape overflowing with talent. While it’s a bummer to see the MLB Draft greatly reduced — from the usual 40 rounds down to five in 2020 and then back up to 20 in 2021, where it is expected to stay — the result is an undeniably bolstered talent pool in college.
The ripple effect is that players have been transferring all over the place, as playing time in certain programs has become harder and harder to come by with so many 22-, 23- and even 24-year-old players still eligible to compete collegiately this spring.
Now, it’s easy to get excited about squads loaded with intriguing underclass prospects, but in college baseball, experienced teams tend to win more often. That’s a huge reason why Texas, which has a ton of fourth- and fifth-year players on its roster, is No. 1 in multiple preseason polls.
Jay Johnson’s LSU Tigers
The unprecedented amount of movement across the college baseball landscape wasn’t limited to players, as the coaching carousel was also very much in motion last summer. The biggest of these moves was LSU’s hiring of former Arizona head coach Jay Johnson to replace the legendary Paul Mainieri, who retired after 15 years in Baton Rouge.
Johnson arrives at LSU after six years in Tucson that included two trips to the College World Series. And Johnson didn’t just bring his experience and coaching mettle from Arizona; he also brought his best player, infielder Jacob Berry, via the transfer portal.
The switch-hitting Berry is coming off an enormous freshman campaign in which he hit .352 with 17 home runs for the Wildcats. He’s old for his class, so he’s eligible for the 2022 Draft and is very likely to be one of the first players selected.
Berry headlines a ridiculously loaded offense that also includes the possible No. 1 pick in the 2023 Draft, center fielder Dylan Crews. The Tigers’ pitching depth is questionable at best, but they might score so many runs that it doesn’t matter.
The next Dylan Crews
Speaking of Crews, he was one of several outstanding freshmen who immediately made a huge difference. Players such as Crews, Vanderbilt outfielder Enrique Bradfield Jr., Wake Forest third baseman Brock Wilken and Ole Miss shortstop Jacob Gonzalez showed zero signs that they were often the youngest players on the field in 2021.
This season, there are some really exciting candidates to have a similar impact. If you want a pure hitter, check out Arkansas infielder Peyton Stovall.
If you want an all-around stud, Duke shortstop Alex Mooney is the guy for you.
If you want tape-measure dingers, keep an eye on Miami outfielder Lorenzo Carrier and NC State first baseman Tommy White.
Will a bona fide ace please stand up?
Last season, Division I baseball was littered with famous frontline arms, led by Vanderbilt’s dynamic duo of Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter, who garnered national attention all spring before both were selected in the first round of the draft.
Now, it’s unfair to expect any pitchers to replicate the Vandy boys’ level of fame and success, but the crop of potential ace candidates is looking tremendously thin at the start of the season.
Injuries have already limited the field. Alabama left-hander Connor Prielipp, UConn left-hander Reggie Crawford, Duke right-hander Henry Williams and Arkansas right-hander Peyton Pallette are highly touted, draft-eligible pitchers who had Tommy John surgery at some point over the past year, while Tennessee ace Blade Tidwell was recently shut down due to shoulder soreness and won’t be ready for the start of the season.
Perhaps nothing exemplifies this shallow crop better than Mississippi State’s Landon Sims being ranked the preseason No. 1 starting pitcher by D1baseball.com. Don’t get me wrong: Sims was spectacular in 2021, but he hasn’t yet started a single college game! I’m sure he has the talent to move into the Bulldogs’ rotation, but it’s wild that there aren’t other more experienced arms worthy of the top spot.
Beyond Sims, I think the best candidates to emerge as top-tier starters are, oddly enough, all left-handers: East Carolina’s Carson Whisenhunt, Oregon State’s Cooper Hjerpe, Florida’s Hunter Barco and Florida State’s Parker Messick and Bryce Hubbart. I’m quite high on Central Michigan’s Andrew Taylor as well.
Mid-major mashers
The most recent player from a non-Power 5 conference to be the first college hitter selected in the MLB Draft was Kris Bryant, whom the Cubs made the second overall selection out of the University of San Diego in 2013. This year, there are two exceptionally strong candidates to achieve this feat, thanks in large part to huge performances against elite competition in last summer’s Cape Cod League.
The first is Brooks Lee, a switch-hitting shortstop who has been fairly well-known since high school but was dead-set on honoring his commitment to play at Cal Poly, where his dad, Larry, is the head coach.
Then there’s James Madison outfielder Chase DeLauter, who took a very different path. He was the ranked the ninth-best player in West Virginia coming out of high school before matriculating to JMU, where he had a monstrous sophomore campaign that put him firmly on the prospect radar in 2021.
Lee and DeLauter might have the mid-major inside track entering the season, but they’ll have to fend off the likes of Berry at LSU, infielder Jace Jung at Texas Tech, outfielder Brock Jones at Stanford and outfielder Gavin Cross at Virginia Tech to join Bryant’s elite company.
Will the SEC dominance continue?
All right, enough mid-major chatter. We all know it just means more down south, and just as in college football, the SEC has separated itself as the premier conference when it comes to hardball.
It’s not just that the SEC can claim the defending champs in Mississippi State. SEC teams have combined for 106 appearances in the College World Series, more than any other conference. Its dominance has especially elevated over the past few decades: Since 1990, the SEC has sent at least three teams to the eight-team field in Omaha each year. In 12 of the past 13 seasons, an SEC team has either won the championship or finished runner-up (or both).
You can expect more of the same in 2022: Both D1baseball.com and Baseball America have eight SEC teams in their respective preseason Top 25s: Arkansas, Vanderbilt, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, LSU, Florida, Georgia and Tennessee.
They’re preseason rankings for a reason, though. As loaded as these squads are, they’ll have to actually go out and prove they’re worth the hype over the next three months.
But no matter who is left standing at the end in Omaha, it’s guaranteed to be a fun ride all the way to the last out.
Buckle up!
Jordan Shusterman is half of @CespedesBBQ and a baseball analyst for FOX Sports. He lives in D.C. but is a huge Seattle Mariners fan and loves watching the KBO, which means he doesn't get a lot of sleep. You can follow him on Twitter @j_shusterman_.