Since they are, unfortunately, not going to the college postseason, Rick Oropesa and the USC Trojans have completed their 2010 baseball season. Although the team had it's good games, they were way too inconsistent to contend in a tough conference like the PAC 10. Ricky had an extraordinary year, though. In his sophomore season he significantly improved his line across the board despite not having a lot of protection in the lineup. Ricky hit a HR in the season finale vs Washington to bring his season totals to: .353/.434/.711 with 20 HR's and 7 SB's. Ricky placed in USC's historical top 10 in several categories: 20 HR's= 6'th place all time. 22 doubles= 5'th place all time. 167 Total Bases= 6'th place all time. His 33 career HR's so far place him tied for 7'th all time with the promise of more to come next season.
Given USC's storied baseball history, this is truly rarified air. I fully expect Ricky to be on BA's preseason All-America team next year and to be a high MLB draft choice in 2011. Here's a shout out to my man Ricky Oropesa on a great sophomore season for the USC Trojans!
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Mark McGwire is also from USC and undoubtedly among that same rarified air as Ricky Oropesa.
ReplyDeleteI mention him because of the USC connection and because the Giants passed on drafting him in order to draft Alan Cockerell, who washed out with the Giants, I don't even think he ever made the majors, yet he was recently fired as the hitting coach for an MLB team (Seattle?).
If we had gotten McGwire, we could have had this infield (perhaps one of the worse defense on the left side but what an offense!): Will Clark at 1B, Robby Thompson at 2B, Matt Williams at SS (he was drafted as a SS and played there for a while in the majors, but 3B was the position many thought he would end up at), and Mark McGwire at 3B (this ranks up there with Willie McCovey playing 3B, but the A's actually had McGwire starting at 3B his first MLB season because they wanted to start Rob Nelson at 1B). Throw in Barry Bonds, who we drafted but didn't sign out of high school, and that could have been quite an offense between 1989 and 1993. And I didn't include Kevin Mitchell.
Ricky is just 21 HR's shy of Mark McGwire's USC career HR record. Given that he hit 20 this year, it's certainly doable for Ricky to finish his USC career as their all time career HR leader.
ReplyDeleteI think Alan Cockrell is why I have a visceral dislike for drafting baseball players who also play football. I'm talking about Kyle Parker of Clemson who might be my "throw myself down the stairs" pick were the Giants to take him in round 1.