2023 Preseason College All-American Teams

Image credit: Jacob Gonzalez (Courtesy Mississippi)

Baseball America presents its 2023 Preseason All-America college teams, as voted on by the scouting departments of major league organizations.

This year’s team includes six players who were selected as All-Americans in 2022, including returning first-team outfielder Dylan Crews, who this year is one of three unanimous first-team selections. Joining Crews as unanimous first-team members are fellow Louisiana State product Paul Skenes and Tennessee righthander Chase Dollander.

Baseball America annually polls major league teams to vote for its Preseason All-America teams, asking only that they make their selections based on performance, talent and professional potential. The BA Preseason All-America teams have been a predictor of both first round draft talent and team success in previous years.

Seven of the 14 2022 first-team members were drafted in first round and and 27 of the 42 total Preseason All-Americans were selected among the top 100 picks of the draft.

Six players on our 2023 Preseason All-America teams are repeat nominees, including 2022 first-team member Dylan Crews (LSU), 2022 second-team members Tre’ Morgan (LSU) and Enrique Bradfield (Vanderbilt) and 2022 third-team members Brock Wilken (Wake Forest), Jacob Gonzalez (Mississippi) and Paul Skenes (LSU).

Baseball America received votes from 15 organizations.

Bold indicates unanimous first-team member

First Team

Pos	Player	School
C	Kyle Teel	Virginia
1B	Nolan Schanuel	Florida Atlantic
2B	Tommy Troy	Stanford
3B	Brayden Taylor	Texas Christian
SS	Jacob Gonzalez	Mississippi
OF	Dylan Crews	Louisiana State
OF	Wyatt Langford	Florida
OF	Enrique Bradfield Jr.	Vanderbilt
SP	Chase Dollander	Tennessee
SP	Hurston Waldrep	Florida
SP	Rhett Lowder	Wake Forest
SP	Chase Burns	Tennessee
RP	Andrew Walters	Miami
UTL	Paul Skenes	Louisiana State

Kyle Teel, C, Virginia

Out of high school in 2020, Teel stood out for his athleticism and played all over the diamond. A catcher now, Teel served as the primary backstop for Team USA and features a plus throwing arm but is still refining his defensive actions. Teel’s lefthanded swing has lots of moving parts, but he controls the zone well and has been an on-base machine for Virginia, with a .305/.409/.481 slash line in two seasons.

Nolan Schanuel, 1B, Florida Atlantic

Schanuel had a reputation as a pure hitter in high school and has only solidified and enhanced that reputation in college. He is a pure hitter first with huge power layered on top of it. Schanuel has slashed .357/.462/.619 with 27 home runs and more walks than strikeouts in his two seasons. A strong approach plus loud exit velocities (94.2 mph average in 2022) should allow him to profile at first.

Tommy Troy, 2B, Stanford

Troy is a steady type of player who won’t blow you away with tools but with consistent performance. He had a terrific 2022 starting with Stanford, where he hit .339/.364/.479 with seven home runs and then was one of the best hitters in the Cape Cod League, where he slashed .310/.386/.531. Mostly a second baseman, Troy has played both middle infield positions and can hang in the outfield as well.

Brayden Taylor, 3B, Texas Christian

Taylor’s excellent vision, zone control and pitch recognition make him one of the best pure hitters in the class. He has walked at a 19% rate compared to a near 16% strikeout rate with TCU, and his 13% chase rate is excellent. Taylor’s elite vision pairs nicely with his solid lefthanded swing and power, which has produced 25 homers and 25 doubles, as well as solid defensive work at third.

Jacob Gonzalez, SS, Mississippi

Gonzalez is perhaps the best college shortstop prospect since the 2015 class that featured both Dansby Swanson and Alex Bregman. Team USA’s shortstop in back-to-back summers, Gonzalez is a physical lefthanded hitter with an excellent combination of pure hitting ability, on-base ability and power. He has hit .316/.424/.560 in two seasons with Ole Miss and led the team to a College World Series championship in 2022. Who doesn’t like a college shortstop with tools and championship pedigree?

Dylan Crews, OF, Louisiana State

The presumptive 1-1 favorite entering this season, Crews was a highly-regarded amateur slugger who pulled himself out of the 2020 draft and made it to campus at LSU. Since then, he’s been arguably the best college baseball player in the country, setting a program freshman record 18 home runs in 2021 and adding 22 more in 2022. His power is exceptional. He destroys fastballs and has hit a combined .356/.458/.677 in his college career.

Wyatt Langford, OF, Florida

Langford was an under-the-radar prep prospect who pinch-hit in just four games during his freshman season at Florida. He erupted in the 2022 season, when he tied the Gators’ single season home run record with 18, led the club in most offensive categories and established himself as one of the best hit/power combos in the 2023 draft class. With improved run times during the fall, Langford is not-so-quietly building an excellent all-around profile.

Enrique Bradfield Jr., OF, Vanderbilt

Bradfield’s electric speed and throwback style of play makes him one of the most exciting players in college baseball. An 80-grade runner, he has stolen a staggering 93 bags in his 129 games with Vanderbilt, and he has been remarkably efficient while doing so, with a 94% success rate. The lefthanded-hitting table-setter isn’t a big power threat, but after hitting one homer as a freshman, he pushed that total to eight as a sophomore.

Chase Dollander, SP, Tennessee

Dollander is the best pitching prospect to come out of the college game in at least five years. After starting his career at Georgia Southern, Dollander led a fearsome 2022 Tennessee team as its fire-breathing Friday night starter and posted a 2.39 ERA over 79 innings. He’s got pinpoint precision of a mid-90s fastball with plus carry, a mid-80s plus slider and two additional quality secondaries in a curveball and changeup.

Hurston Waldrep, SP, Florida

Waldrep is taking his electric right arm from Southern Mississippi to Florida this season. After successfully transitioning from reliever to starter, he will now transition to the rugged Southeastern Conference, where he will attack hitters with a mid-90s fastball that gets into the upper 90s and a pair of devastating, high-spin breaking balls that are both among the best in the country. His strikeout rate of 14.0 per nine innings was the third-best among Division I pitchers in 2022.

Rhett Lowder, SP, Wake Forest

Lowder is the most recent top arm to come out of Wake Forest’s vaunted pitching factory. He was the No. 1 starter for USA Baseball’s Collegiate National Team and posted a 3.08 ERA over 99.1 innings with Wake Forest in the spring. Lowder has solid size, stuff and pitchability, with a three-pitch mix that includes a hard-running fastball and two high-usage, polished secondaries in a mid-80s changeup and low-90s slider.

Chase Burns, SP, Tennessee

Burns is unfortunate enough to find himself in the only rotation in college baseball where he’s not only the second-best pitcher, but also the second-best Chase. He will have to settle for being the most impressive freshman pitcher in the country in 2022, when he posted a 2.91 ERA in 80.1 innings, with a fastball that touches 100 mph and an 84-89 mph slider that generated whiffs at just under a 50% rate.

Andrew Walters, RP, Miami

Walters was draft-eligible in 2022 and was selected by the Orioles in the 18th round, but he didn’t sign and now brings his plus-plus fastball back to the ACC to terrorize hitters out of Miami’s bullpen. He threw the pitch 90% of the time in 2022, when he posted a 1.65 ERA in 32.2 innings, while striking out 62 and walking just six. His heater sits 95-96 mph and touches 100, with 19 inches of induced vertical break.

Paul Skenes, UTL, Louisiana State

One of many prominent players to transfer to Baton Rouge for the 2023 season, Skenes is perhaps the best two-way college player since Brendan McKay. With Air Force over two seasons, Skenes posted a 2.72 ERA in 112.1 innings and hit .367/.453/.669 with 24 home runs and 31 doubles. His physical size—6-foot-6, 235 pounds—jumps out as easily as his gaudy numbers, massive raw power or mid-90s arm strength.

Second Team

Pos	Player	School
C	Michael Carico	Davidson
1B	Tre’ Morgan	Louisiana State
2B	Peyton Stovall	Arkansas
3B	Tommy White	Louisiana State
SS	Jacob Wilson	Grand Canyon
OF	Jack Hurley	Virginia Tech
OF	Vance Honeycutt	North Carolina
OF	Travis Honeyman	Boston College
SP	Cade Kuehler	Campbell
SP	Juaron Watts-Brown	Oklahoma State
SP	Will Sanders	South Carolina
SP	Tanner Witt	Texas
RP	Ryan Bruno	Stanford
UTL	Braden Montgomery	Stanford

Third Team

Pos	Player	School
C	Jack Payton	Louisville
1B	Nick Kurtz	Wake Forest
2B	Roc Riggio	Oklahoma State
3B	Brock Wilken	Wake Forest
SS	Matt Shaw	Maryland
OF	Chase Davis	Arizona
OF	Ryan Lasko	Rutgers
OF	Jared Dickey	Tennessee
SP	Carter Holton	Vanderbilt
SP	Tanner Hall	Southern Mississippi
SP	Brandon Sproat	Florida
SP	Grayson Hitt	Alabama
RP	Brody Brecht	Iowa
UTL	Nolan McLean	Oklahoma State