Baseball Beat/WTNYFebruary 05, 2006
College Baseball Preview: A-A Squad
By Rich Lederer & Bryan Smith

In the past week during our College Baseball Preview, we have mentioned hundreds of names that will affect the outcome of the 2006 baseball season. Today, it's time to find the best of the best and honor those players with selections among the Baseball Analysts All-American team.

Unlike most All-American squads, our polling was not extensive to get names, as we just used the five people that contributed to the preview this week. While this means we won't have second and third teams like Baseball America or Collegiate Baseball, it's unlikely you'll find our list to be much different than the norm.

Without further ado, here's a look at the 2006 Baseball Analysts All-American squad:

C - Chad Tracy - Pepperdine
1B - Matt LaPorta - Florida
2B - Jim Negrych - Pittsburgh
SS - Evan Longoria - Long Beach State
3B - Wes Hodges - Georgia Tech
OF - Shane Robinson - Florida State
OF - Drew Stubbs - Texas
OF - Brennan Boesch - California
DH - Mark Hamilton - Tulane

And a look at the pitching staff:

SP - Andrew Miller - North Carolina
SP - Max Scherzer - Missouri
SP - Ian Kennedy - Southern California
RP - Blair Erickson - UC Irvine

And a look at the honorable mention squad, which includes players who received votes but were not in the majority:

C - J.P. Arencibia - Tennessee
1B - Joe Savery - Rice
2B - Taylor Harbin - Clemson
2B - Adam Davis - Florida
SS - Jason Donald - Arizona
OF - Colin Curtis - Arizona State
OF - Nathan Southard - Tulane
SP - Kyle McCulloch - Texas
RP - Derrik Lutz - George Washington
RP - Brett Jensen - Nebraska

And finally, we asked all our participants to pick the outcome of the College World Series. Unsurprisingly, each person polled selected Texas as the team to become repeat winners of the National Championship. However, opinions varied on the team that Texas would close it out against.

However, majority rules, and in this polling, Baseball Analysts will select North Carolina as the team that falls short to the Texas Longhorns in the CWS finals. However, don't be surprised if a traditionally great program like Cal State Fullerton, or a darkhorse like the Pepperdine Waves make a splash and reach the finals.

Formally, the College Baseball Preview will end on Tuesday as we finish our preview of the ACC. If you disagree with any of our choices for the All-American squad, please, drop a comment below.