Boyd's World-> Breadcrumbs Back to Omaha-> Record Watch -- The Offense About the author, Boyd Nation

Record Watch -- The Offense

Publication Date: October 5, 2004

Well, That Wasn't Pleasant

Boy, you try to do things sometimes, and it just doesn't turn out to be worth it. I figured I'd put together a list of career leaders among the various statistical categories and compare it to the NCAA record book to see if there were any likely candidates to go down next year. It turns out, though, that the system doesn't really work that way too well. The reason is that, while it's easy enough, given the Hitting Stats Database, to generate a list of the leaders for the last three years, identifying who from that leader's list is returning is a royal pain because of the tendency for the best players to leave after three years. At any rate, I put in the sweat and tears to create this, so, by golly, y'all can eat it and smile. Sorry, wrong rant. Anyway, here's the table; I apologize in advance if I missed someone or if any of these guys aren't actually coming back:

Stat  #      Leader               Team             Record

GP    189    Michael Griffin      Baylor           295
AB    782    Michael Griffin      Baylor           1114
R     157    Jeff Larish          Arizona State    420
H     243    Michael Griffin      Baylor           418
2B    51     Brad Willcutt        Southern Miss    95
      51     Brad Locke           Boston College
3B    19     Jaime Landin         Texas A&M-CC     32
HR    41     Darryl Lawhorn       East Carolina    100
RBI   168    Jeff Larish          Arizona State    346
TB    405    Darryl Lawhorn       East Carolina    730
BB    142    Jeff Larish          Arizona State    300
HBP   56     Daniel Bruce         Nebraska         92
SB    105    Dennis Diaz          Florida Int.     206

In a word, no, none of these are likely to go down this year. On the other hand, that's not for the reason that I would have thought. I tend to think of the career records that are out of reach as having been set in a time (the early '80's, mostly) when a few teams played far more games than teams do now. That's not so much the case, though, at least at the top end. Phil Stephenson's records for runs, hits, total bases, walks, and stolen bases were all set in 288 games. South Carolina has played 281 games in the last four years. All it really takes is a lot of talent willing to stay for four years to have a shot at a record; after all, the doubles record was set by Khalil Greene from 1999 to 2002. Rickie Weeks would have broken the triples record easily, I think, had he stayed for a fourth year.

One thing that does hurt the chances, though, is the current lowered offensive context. Pete Incaviglia's record of 100 home runs, for example, is going to be hard to reach in an age where the national leader frequently comes in under 25 every year. It'll probably take a very good player playing somewhere like New Mexico to take that one out.

As far as the rate stats go, those are harder to project, and it's hard to declare a two-year-old record unbreakable, but no one around currently has a shot at Rickie Weeks' records for batting average (.465) or slugging average (.927).

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Boyd's World-> Breadcrumbs Back to Omaha-> Record Watch -- The Offense About the author, Boyd Nation