Colleges Interested in "Two-Way" Players?

Baseball America had a nice article on two-way players a couple months back. Here is the link to the BA article.

Baseball America Two Way Players

Thanks, Montanadad...that was very interesting!

ULL Ragin Cajun Sr. SS/RHP Micah Cockrell is hitting .330 in 103 AB's, hitting the winning HR last night. He's also 3-2 in 32 innings pitched with a 2.53 ERA. That's as 2-way as it gets.

Micah Cockrell

Brown has a pretty good 2-way player. Ivy player of the week

I was watching a game last weekend and I think it was Georgia Tech that has a player (he might even be Freshman) who was hitting over .500, was catching in the game I was watching and had been the closing pitcher in their win the night before.

Thanks for the BA article. It was very encouraging for my son who is a 2 way player at a Calif. JC. Currently has a .342 BA and a 2.85 ERA as the third starter. He still doesn't want to give up the every game player, but loves to pitch

While you do see a few two way players at major D-I schools they are not that common. Many “pitchers only” at division one schools have great hitting stats coming out of high school but are not given the chance to bat. I think the reason for this is the depth of the rosters. Colleges other than the major D-1’s normally don’t have the depth so it would seem to me that a two way player would stand a better chance of doing both at a smaller division.

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2) Any particular thoughts on this practice...things to "look-out" for, etc.?

My son was a two way player for his first two years of college. A catcher/closer his freshman year and a catcher/DH/Weekend starter his sophomore year. He's a junior now and he decided to give up pitching so he could concentrate on catching and hitting. I believe practice improves performance, so it makes sense to me that a player's performance will suffer when trying to do both.
Fungo

I'd second every word of Fungo's comments and offer the amplification that, if you think about it, virtually every position player at a major D1 program has been concentrating on playing that position for quite some time and, therefore, is better prepared than the large majority of pitchers who have played a position, as well.

Then, once they get to school, many find that it's all they can do to devote sufficient time to one role or the other. After all, the batting coach is going to expect every bit as many reps from the 2-way player as he is from the position-only player, and the pitching coach is going to expect every bit of his regimen to be fulfilled. And, oh yeah, they're students, too. It's very easy to run out of hours in the day.

Add to that the dynamic that 2-way players help under-funded programs stretch their scholarship dollars, and you begin to better understand why you see proportionally more 2-way players at levels other than major D1's.

Thanks for the feedback, guys...but does anybody know of specific D-2 or NAIA programs that are noted as actively "targeting" (or, showing a specific preference for) 2-way players?

I sort of suspected that most 2-way playing goes on at levels below D-1, which is why I was surprised to hear the announcers' acknowledgement that one of the teams in the Tulane/LSU game was known for specifically targeting 2-way players. I had always supposed that there may be the occasional freakishly-talented D-1 or D-2 kid who pitches and starts as a position player when he doesn't pitch, but was sort of encouraged to hear that SOME programs may specifically target those players.

I thought such a situation might suit my son well, who is a VERY GOOD all-around player/pitcher, but who has not yet really proved DOMINANT at any one thing.

Both starting pitchers for Tulane in the CWS thus far are "2-way" players so it was probably Tulane they were refering to in the game you were watching.

Several schools in the SAC, a D II conference in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee, had two way players this past season. Presbyterian College had 3-4 guys that pitched and played a position.