D3 question...

I'd say look at the rankings for the top D3 teams, the tendency is for these teams to obviously have the most talnt, and likewise, the most drafted. In our area, Cortland State and Ithaca College have impressive draft and program histories.

This is a good question. With only about 20 D3 kids drafted each year out of 300 schools or so, it is hard to specify one school over another. That said, look at the teams that are in the top 25 rankings.

University Wisconsin Whitewater has an excellent record for drafted players and championships. My son has a teammate who was drafted last June from UW Whitewater. Marietta here in Ohio has had success on the field and in the draft. Trinity in Texas has seen kids drafted the last few years. It seems to me that D3 players who are drafted dominate that level and are all-americans. Hitters hitting near .500 or better and dominant pitchers who typically lead their teams in the playoffs.

Here is partial list from last year:

Avery, Cortland
Birdwell, Whitworth
Blanco, Cortland
Bronson, Trinity (TX)
Dott, Whitewater
Giovenco, North Park
Grant, Lynchburg
Helms, UT-Tyler
Holland, UT-Tyler
Johnson, Concordia (TX)
Laganosky, Haverford
Nolan, Kean
O'Hara, Rowan
Shelton, LaGrange
Tone, Cortland
Toth, TCNJ
Whiteman, Muskingum
Whitenack, Old Westbury

Better advice is to find a program that your son loves, the coach loves him, and the team has a chance to thrive and possibly compete for championships. If your son and his team dominate, someone will notice. The whole key to the puzzle is having fun and playing with passion. Without those things, the name on the uniform (or the division he plays at) is meanignless.

bothsportsdad,
CD has provided you a nice list of schools. Let me add schools like Emory, Chapman in CA., Texas Tyler, Texas Lutheran, Montclair State and other school in the NJAC.
Let me also suggest in support of CD's last post, that I, personally, would not be including the MLB draft as factor in a college choice, at any level, but especially the DIII level.
I don't know if that might sound odd coming from the parent of a DIII player who was lucky and got drafted, but I really believe it to be true.
So much can happen from the times our son's are 18-21.
Amongst other factors, I believe college should include an experience where they learn, they enjoy, they are challenged, they fail, they come back from failure, and they become independent in their thinking, their ability to live and love life, and their ability to make choices about their future. None of this has anything to do with baseball. Baseball is an additional college component where our son's decide how much sacrifice they are willing to make for baseball.
There are roughly 8-9 position players drafted from DIII each year.
Getting drafted by a MLB team is nothing the player, the family or the college coach can control.
It is related to the skills, work ethic and sacrifice of the player, how much he improves, and especially at the DIII level for position players, the ability of his coach to place him in top Summer leagues and his performing at a very, very high level against top competition. On top of all of that, the player still needs to show he is continuing to improve and has projectable upside even when he is dominating at the DIII level.
I can tell you that there is not one baseball person who considered our son a possible MLB draftee when he graduated high school. The school he attended had not had anyone drafted as a DIII school. Our son was the first, but there have been several since then.
The DIII he chose/that chose him offered the best of academics, baseball, and potential options for Summer leagues. In that environment was a coach/coaching staff and environment where he got really hungry and competitive in baseball, became a very fine player, but also got a fabulous education.
In contrast, his roommate also got a fabulous education, found he was not quite as passionate about baseball, was still good enough to be 3rd Team All-American his senior year, and is now in the FBI.
We recently sat with the parents of our son's roommate with whom we continue to be great friends.
As we reminisced, it was clear no one thought our son would get drafted by MLB when everyone showed up on campus as freshman. None of us thought Michael would be in the FBI and passionate for his chosen career.
We are families who are very fortunate with how things turned out. How things turned out, however, was not a factor in the choice of the school.

Nearly every kid that goes in to play college baseball has aspirations of being drafted and moving on to play professionally. Nearly every kid that does play college baseball does not get the opportunity to play professionally. That is not a Debbie-downer statement, that's just the way it is. I agree with CD...find a school that your son falls in love with, get a good education and work hard on the field. The exposure will come with the talent, regardless of where it is.

quote:

Originally posted by J H:
Nearly every kid that goes in to play college baseball has aspirations of being drafted and moving on to play professionally. Nearly every kid that does play college baseball does not get the opportunity to play professionally. That is not a Debbie-downer statement, that's just the way it is. I agree with CD...find a school that your son falls in love with, get a good education and work hard on the field. The exposure will come with the talent, regardless of where it is.

agree so much..........make sure "the fit" is there....

also as a father of a son who played 4 years of NCAA D3 baseball, they have to realize what a committment that playing college baseball is........It can be a full time job.......practice/conditioning/playing.....

Infield Dad- that is a great post that really applies to all levels of college baseball, regardless of the division. You hit the nail on the head and I hope parents with kids in D1, D2, NAIA read your post.

quote:

Let me also suggest in support of CD's last post, that I, personally, would not be including the MLB draft as factor in a college choice, at any level, but especially the DIII level.

I agree.

Let me add this however. There is nothing wrong with young men dreaming about playing at the next level beyond college. Tommy Lasorda talks about before you can realize something, you have to be able to visualize and dream it in your mind.

Find the right college, get the right education, find the right coaches, find the right teammates, and play/practice with passion. Never let go of the dream. Imagine it and it can come true. It won't come true because you picked the college most likely to get someone drafted, it will come true because you dreamed it and then let your passion make it come true.

thank you all very much for all the great responses..

According to www.d3baseball.com 19x D3 players were drafted in 2007 + 2008 (see 2008 list below).
Factor that against a minimum of 25-30x players across 359x teams, and the odds are obvious.
Having said that, we always see MLB scouts at top-level D3 games in the NE corridor.

Overall Player, School Position Team (round)
245 Ryan Kulik, Rowan LHP St Louis (8)
257 Kurt Yacko, Chapman RHP Colorado (8)
506 Frank Pfister, Emory 3B Cincinnati (17)
627 Mike Eifel, Dominican LHP San Francisco (21)
643 Adam Frost, St, Norbert SS Detroit (21)
738 Nelson Gomez, Keystone 3B Arizona (24)
782 Shane Wolf, Ithaca LHP Houston (26)
829 Tim Kiely, Trinity (Conn.) RHP Arizona (27)
1019 Bryan Gardner, Ithaca LHP Cincinnati (34)
1058 Mike Vass, Chapman OF Milwaukee (35)
1088 Evan Bronson, Trinity (Texas) LHP Milwaukee (36)
1132 Thomas DeBenedetto, Trinity (Conn.) SS Boston (37)
1136 Thomas Phelps, Whittier RHP Baltimore (38)
1141 Ronnie Labrie, Lynchburg 3B Washington (38)
1209 Nate Nelson, Worcester State 1B Toronto (40)
1368 Dean Laganosky, Haverford OF Cleveland (45)
1392 Dan Kauffman, Juniata 1B Arizona (46)
1435 Brett Holland, Texas-Tyler RHP Oakland (48)
1452 Zachary Foster, Pitt-Bradford RHP Pittsburgh (49)

In addition to drafted players Chez Angeloni (08 D3WS MVP) from Hopkins, and Sean Killeen (09 NESCAC Player of the Year) from Trinity were signed by the Red Sox last June. I'll bet there were others.

The school doesn't get the player drafted. The player gets the player drafted.

For a different perpective on D3, read the post about Illinois Wesleyan winning the D3 championship. Don't know if any will be drafted, but they have memories for a lifetime.

NJAC schools in NJ have a fine track record. Kean has most recently won the D3 WS, but Rowan, TCNJ, Montclair State, and William Paterson are always in the mix. There are always a few kids drafted every year or two.

Keystone College in PA had 4 players taken in this years draft. We saw them play in Florida and they're legit.