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Juco  | Rankings  | 4/21/2015

JUCO Top 25 Teams: April 21

Allan Simpson     
Photo: Perfect Game




Junior College Top 25: April 7 | Junior College Top 200 Prospects

With California’s San Joaquin Delta College (31-1), and two Florida schools, St. Johns River (42-8) and Chipola (36-9), holding down the top three spots in Perfect Game’s bi-weekly ranking of the nation’s Top 25 junior colleges for the fourth consecutive poll, little has changed on the junior-college front this spring.

The only thing of note to happen since PG’s last ranking two weeks ago is that San Joaquin Delta finally lost a game after 28 straight wins to open the 2015 season. The Mustangs succumbed to Sacramento City College, 7-5 on April 11, but promptly reeled off three more victories to retain their near-ironclad grip on the No. 1 spot. St. Johns River and Chipola have also continued to win at a steady clip since the outset, all of which has prevented one of the nation’s hottest clubs, Kansas’ Cowley County College (40-3), from making inroads on the top three. The Tigers remain No. 4.

If status quo is the order of the day among the nation’s top teams, little has changed, as well, among the elite-level junior-college prospects in this year’s draft.

Righthander Phil Bickford of 10th-ranked Southern Nevada has maintained his stranglehold as the No. 1 talent. He grabbed the top spot on the very day late last summer that he made himself eligible by announcing he would transfer from Cal State Fullerton to a junior college, and continues to occupy that position with the 2015 draft little more than a month away.

Bickford, an unsigned first-round pick of the Toronto Blue Jays in 2013 out of a California high school, has been used cautiously this spring at CSN, working just 62 innings in 12 starts, but has struck out a national-high 117 batters—a nine-inning average of 16.98—while engineering a 7-1, 1.60 record. He has pumped his fastball at a steady 93-94 mph clip, peaking occasionally at 97, but scouts say an inconsistent breaking ball may ultimately cost him a shot of being taken in the first round again.

Nonetheless, his chances of becoming the first drafted player from the junior-college ranks seems secure as no other player has emerged as a potential first-rounder.

Chipola lefthander Mac Marshall appeared to have the best shot of upstaging Bickford at the outset of the 2015 season, after he became eligible by transferring from Louisiana State last fall, but Marshall has been plagued by minor injuries this spring that curtailed his workload to just 27 innings entering the last week of April. When healthy early in the season, Marshall showed the ability to command three pitches, including a fastball up to 93 mph.

For most of the spring, Marshall has been upstaged by another freshman on the Indians pitching staff, Junior Harding, an undersized 5-foot-11 righthander with an explosive arm. An unheralded Missouri high-school product, Harding has improved his stock by leaps and bounds with a fastball that has been consistently 93-97 mph, complemented by a hard slider. He is 5-0, 1.49 with 68 strikeouts in 60 innings.

It’s unclear whether Marshall or Harding will be the first Chipola player selected, but both are candidates to go as early as the second or third rounds, and that school’s overall impact on the draft could be profound.

A third Chipola freshman, 6-foot-3, 215-pound Isiah Gilliam, is also a prime candidate to be taken in the first five or six rounds. The switch-hitting outfielder has an impressive combination of athletic ability and raw power from both sides of the plate, and leads the Indians in homers (5) and RBIs (47). A fourth Chipola freshman, outfielder Reese Cooley, was also expected to crack the top 10 rounds initially, but has not performed consistently to the level that scouts expected this spring.

Not unexpectedly, a number of top prospects for this year’s draft are concentrated on the nation’s top three teams—though no team comes close to matching Chipola’s impact talent.

Sophomore catcher Collin Theroux, an Oklahoma State recruit with excellent defensive skills and above-average raw power, is San Joaquin Delta’s most-draftable talent and one of the best prospects in California. He is a candidate for the first 10 rounds, or slightly ahead of where the Mustangs two undefeated freshmen pitchers, lefthander Cameron Avila-Leeper (11-0, 1.59) and righthander Dean Kremer (9-0, 1.82), are expected to be taken. Avila-Leeper leads California junior colleges with 91 strikeouts in 79 innings, mostly on the strength of a dominant breaking ball which compensates for a fastball that registers from 86-90 mph. The Nevada-Las Vegas-bound Kremer typically runs the same pitch between 88-93 mph.

St. Johns River has its own crop of players commanding significant attention from scouts—notably hard-throwing righthander Dustin Hersey (8-0, 2.17), power-hitting first baseman Nate Lowe and athletic outfielder Myles Straw. All could slip into the back end of the first 10 rounds.

For all of Chipola’s potential impact on this year’s draft, another fast-rising arm from the traditionally-strong Florida junior-college ranks, 6-foot-4 Hillsborough righthander Chase Ingram, could end up trumping everyone in that state. He is 10-1, 1.75, leads the nation in wins and ranks second in strikeouts only to Bickford, with 102 in 77 innings. He has dominated on the strength of a solid three-pitch mix, including a fastball at 90-93 mph.

Several more prospects from the Florida junior-college ranks, notably Gulf Coast State third baseman Christian Williams and State College of Florida-Manatee righthander Taylor Cockrell, are also candidates in the top 5-6 rounds, as are several of the nation’s most-productive offensive players this spring—most of whom have made great strides in improving their draft status.

Yavapai (Ariz.) third baseman/outfielder Willie Calhoun, a transfer from the University of Arizona at the Christmas break, has had a breakout season by leading the nation with 25 home runs, while also hitting .446. A 13th-round draft pick out of high school in 2013, Calhoun should improve markedly on that position—and in the process upstage righthander Chandler Eden, a highly-touted transfer from the University of Oregon who ranked No. 3 nationally among junior-college prospects at the beginning of the season. The 6-foot-4, 175-pound Eden has struggled most of the spring with command issues.

Two relative-unknown Kansas junior-college products have had breakthrough seasons at the plate, both enhancing their draft standing and their team’s position in the national rankings.

No. 4-ranked Cowley County has unexpectedly surged this spring behind the contributions of unheralded freshman third baseman Garrett Benge, who leads the nation in batting with an improbable .577 average. First baseman Anthony Miller has also sparked Johnson County to a No. 9 ranking in PG’s Top 25 by leading the JC ranks in RBIs, with 76 (one more than Benge), and also is second to Calhoun in homers with 24.

Scouts have taken a liking to the all-around offensive skills of the lefthanded-hitting Benge, who has piled up 39 extra-base hits in 43 games for Cowley County while assembling a 37-8 walk-to-strikeouts ratio. The 6-foot-4, 240-pound Miller has drawn his share of cross-checkers this spring on the strength of his impressive raw lefthanded power.

Overall, this year’s junior-college crop is expected to impact the draft much the same as it has in recent years, though not to the degree it did in 2010—the last time Southern Nevada produced not just the first junior-college pick in the draft, but the No. 1 selection overall in Bryce Harper.


Records through games of April 19

Rk. Prev. Team ST Record Conf.
1 1 San Joaquin Delta CA 31-1 17-1
2 2 St. Johns River FL 42-8 17-4
3 3 Chipola FL 36-9 13-4
4 4 Cowley County KS 40-3 27-3
5 7 Palomar CA 28-5 19-2
6 10 Iowa Western IA 27-5 10-2
7 5 Walters State TN 40-9 19-5
8 11 Cochise AZ 40-12 25-7
9 16 Johnson County KS 41-8 26-6
10 17 Southern Nevada NV 35-13 17-7
11 12 Palm Beach State FL 37-14 16-10
12 14 Grayson TX 30-13 18-6
13 6 Weatherford TX 30-9 17-7
14 8 Hinds MS 31-4 18-4
15 9 Fresno CA 26-7 18-3
16 NR Howard TX 36-11 22-6
17 19 Northwest Florida State FL 29-11 10-6
18 20 Chattahoochee Valley AL 31-9 17-3
19 21 LSU-Eunice LA 32-8 0-0
20 25 Polk State FL 32-13 14-6
21 NR Paradise Valley AZ 35-12 27-9
22 13 San Jacinto TX 28-15 22-5
23 15 Connors State OK 32-8 7-3
24 NR Alvin TX 36-9 23-9
25 NR Harford MD 33-7 20-2

Dropped out: No. 18 Oxnard, Calif. (24-8); No. 22 Santa Fe, Fla. (28-9); No. 23 Orange Coast, Calif. (20-14); No. 24 New Mexico (31-16).
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