SEC Baseball Player of the Year Award Power Rankings
It is one month into the SEC baseball season. With players like Charlie Condon and Jac Caglianone taking center stage, we explore the player power rankings so far this season.
With three weekends of non-conference play in the books (and one to go), I decided to give you the first glimpse at my SEC Player of the Year Award Power Rankings. I will try to update these each week moving forward. Expect to see a lot of movement as players heat up or cool off (especially with SEC play right around the corner).
I'll start off with some Honorable Mentions (*note that the Honorable Mentions are in alphabetical order*), and then jump into my top 10.
Honorable Mentions: RJ Austin (Vanderbilt), Drew Beam (Tennessee), Dylan Brewer (South Carolina), Fernando Gonzalez (Georgia), Ben Hess (Alabama), Hagen Smith (Arkansas), Kavares Tears (Tennessee), Tommy White (LSU)
Potentially the biggest (and most controversial) name you'll see on the Honorable Mention list (and thus not in the top 10) is LSU star Tommy "Tanks" White. Look, I don't think there's any doubt that White is a top 10 talent in the SEC, and he'll likely quickly work his way into the top 10, but up to this point he hasn't quite been the player that he was a year ago (still a strong slash-line on the year of .327/.404/.490 though).
This list also includes three elite starting pitchers (Beam, Hess, and Smith) who are all in the running for SEC Pitcher of the Year, two of the conference's best contact hitters (Brewer and Austin), a standout hitter from Tennessee who is on a tear in Tears (pun intended), and a strong hitting catcher who could work his way into the top 10 if he begins playing every day (Gonzalez).
With that out of the way, here's my top 10: