Baseball Factory recently presented awards to the Baseball America College Player of the Year and the BCA Rookie of the Year

Baseball America College Player of the Year

Back in March of 2006, Baseball Factory became an official scouting partner for Baseball America, the leading baseball publication covering the majors, minors, college and high school.  As part of this partnership, Baseball Factory was recently given the opportunity to attend the Baseball America Awards Gala, held annually at the Winter Meetings.  At the event, Steve Sclafani, CEO and Founder of Baseball Factory, presented the College Player of the Year Award to current Detroit Tigers’ pitcher and former standout at the University of North Carolina, Andrew Miller.

First, let me give you some background on the Baseball America Awards Gala.  This was the Sixth Annual Baseball America Awards Gala and the 25th Anniversary for Baseball America.  As such, Baseball America pulled out all of the stops, honoring their five, 10, 15 and 20 year employees.  The list of employees that have been the backbone of this publication includes writers Peter Gammons, Jayson Stark and Alan Schwarz. 

In addition, earlier this year, Baseball America named their 25 for 25 and 10 for 10.  The 25 for 25 are the top 25 Stars in the BA Universe; basically the 25 most influential players, coaches, executives and agents during the 25 years of Baseball America.  This list honored players including Cal Ripken, Jr., Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Alex Rodriguez.  Agent Scott Boras and executives Pat Gillick (Philadelphia Phillies general manager), John Schuerholz (Atlanta Braves general manager) and Bud Selig (MLB commissioner) also made the list for their contributions to the game.

The 10 for 10 are the 10 to Watch for the future of the game.  This list of 10 included former Baseball Factory and Team One players David Wright, B.J. Upton and Justin Upton.  It also honored executives Omar Minaya (New York Mets general manager and the first Hispanic general manager), Kim Ng (Los Angeles Dodgers assistant general manager) and Bob Bowman (Major League Baseball Advanced Media president and CEO). 

Many of these industry leaders made their way to Orlando for this year’s Winter Meetings and the Baseball America Awards Gala, and Baseball Factory was proud to join such an esteemed group.  Baseball America presented over 15 awards at the event including:

• Major League Player of the Year – Johan Santana
• Major League Rookie of the Year – Justin Verlander (former Team One player)
• College Player of the Year – Andrew Miller (presented by Baseball Factory)
• High School Player of the Year – Adrian Cardenas (former Baseball Express Cape Cod High School Classic player)
• Major League Manager of the Year – Jim Leyland
• Youth Player of the Year – Blake Beavan (Baseball Factory and Team One player)

In addition, Ken Griffey, Jr. and the aforementioned Peter Gammons were presented with Lifetime Achievement Awards.  Griffey accepted graciously with his family by his side, while Gammons gave the highlighted speech from the awards ceremony, discussing his love for the game, numerous stories from his Hall of Fame career and battle with health concerns in 2006.

So here, amongst these industry giants, Baseball Factory was welcomed with open arms as the leader in player development and college placement.  Steve Sclafani gave an impressive speech, honoring Andrew Miller for his 2006 accomplishments while leading the University of North Carolina to its first College World Series birth since 1989.  Some of the highlights of Steve’s speech, and more importantly, Miller’s season at UNC:

• The 6’6” Miller dominated opposing batters with a mid-90’s four-seam fastball, 88-90 mph two-seam fastball and a power slider.
• This pitching repertoire helped Miller go 13-2, with a 2.11 ERA.
• He posted a 119-36 strikeout-walk ratio and allowed on seven extra base hits (and only one home run) in 111 innings pitched; staggering numbers.
• The junior Tar Heel was the only player on both Baseball America’s pre-season and post-season first-team All-American list.
• After being drafted sixth overall by the Detroit Tigers in the 2006 amateur draft, Miller was the quickest of his draft class to make it to the big leagues.  After making his minor league debut on August 20, Miller was called up by the Tigers and pitched one scoreless inning against the New York Yankees on August 30.

These statistics helped Andrew Miller stand out amongst an impressive crop of college stars.  Everyone at Baseball Factory was honored by the opportunity to present this award to an outstanding young man at the Baseball America Awards Gala. 

For more information on Andrew Miller, please review the Baseball America article written by Will Kimmey: http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/college/features/261705.html

For more information on the Baseball America Awards Gala, visit Baseball America’s web site: www.baseballamerica.com/gala.

Check out the BCA Rookie of the Year presented by the Baseball Factory: Click Here