Division 1 College Player Ranking #7 — Week Ending 4/17/25
I rated and ranked over 3,000 D1 baseball players and here are the results...
Document : College Player Ranking Weekly Report #7— Amateur
Level : Division 1
Source : https://www.fangraphs.com/
Offensive Date Data pulled : Wednesday, April 16, 2025 11:15 AM ET
Pitchers Date Data pulled: Wednesday, April 16, 2025 11:13 PM ET
Overview : From an offensive perspective, I rated and ranked 3,115 Division 1 players from Start of Season — April 16, 2025, with 60 minimum Plate appearance requirement. Players were assessed using a neutralized Run Value system to measure their overall offensive production, broken down into two core components:
“The Run Tool”— Captures the value generated from non-hit plate appearances (walks, stolen bases, etc.)
“The Hit Tool”— Measures a player’s offensive impact via hitting
“Overall” — A sum of Run Tool and Hit Tool, representing overall offensive contribution
Each player is ranked in these three categories: Run Tool, Hit Tool , and Overall . This week I’m releasing a list of all the baseball players which includes a schedule for the top 20 players and I will be breaking down the top 10 in this blog. The link to the full list of 3,115 players.
*New Addition to this weeks rankings* I have also added a new tab in the spreadsheet to breakdown college players ranks by age. I am always trying to give the people practical answers and looking to improve. That said, I always struggle trying to balance too much or too little because I want to meet the audience where they are at. I don’t want to talk over people’s heads, that’s not the goal of this blog. So for the blog I will continue to use the position player ranks without an age breakdown. Just understand, behind the scenes I am breaking things down by age and other ways. It’s important to factor age in the amateur/professional player equation. The players on this sheet are ranked by overall run value then grouped by age.
Top 10 Position Players by Run Value
Cardell Thibodeaux (+2) is a 5'8" / 186 Junior Outfielder out of Southern University (SWAC). Cardell’s Overall Rank moves up 2 spots this week to #1. His Run Tool Rank moves up 408 spots to #183 and his Hit Tool Rank remains unchanged at #1. The junior’s bat is helping carry his rank (23.77% XBH rate, +0.56% from last week, & 11.48% HR rate, +0.02% from last week, 8.92% SO rate, -1.15% from last week) and his legs are helping/hurting his rank (15.83% BB rate , +2.64% from last week, with 11 net stolen bases in 18 attempts). His Stolen base success rate is 72% , right around the break even point. We tip our caps for this weeks #1 overall rank Mr. Cardell Thibodeaux!
Gavin Kilen (-1) is a 5'11" / 185 junior infielder out of U Tenn. Gavin moves down one spot this week to #2 Overall. He is dealing with a hamstring injury that sidelined him.
https://x.com/benmckee14/status/1910848703851589756
His Runt Tool Rank moves -187 spots to #411 and his Hit Tool Rank remains unchanged at #2. The Junior’s bat is helping carry his rank (21.84% XBH rate, -1.45% from last week & 13.70% HR rate, -1.06% from last week) and his legs (18.75% BB rate, -1.87% from last week & only a 5.36% SO rate, -0.83% from last week!). We tip our caps for this weeks #2 overall rank Mr. Gavin Kilen!
3. Anthony DePino (-1) is a 5'10" / 225 Senior Infielder out of URI. Anthony’s Overall Rank moves -1 to #3. His Run Tool rank moves up 42 spots to #52 and his hit Tool Rank moves -5 spots to #10. The senior’s bat is helping carry his rank (21.05% XBH rate, -1.56% from last week & 10.53% HR rate, -0.77% from last week) and his legs (20.67% BB rate, +1.06% from last week, with 11 net stolen bases, +2 from last week). We tip our caps for this weeks #2 overall rank Mr. Anthony DePino! Looking ahead at his schedule I might try to kill two birds with one stone seeing him and Mr. James Quinn-Irons play later this season. It’s on my radar.
Bear Harrison (+11) is a 6-3, 230lb Sophomore Infielder out of Texas A&M. What a great name for a catcher, Bear. The 20 year old’s Overall Rank moves +11 places this week to #4. His Run Tool rank moves +358 spots to #84 and his hit Tool Rank moves +2 spots to #11. The senior’s bat is helping carry his rank (21.88% XBH rate, +.45% from last week & 12.50% HR rate, +/-0.0% from last week) and his legs (18.48% BB rate, +2.04% from last week). We tip our caps for this weeks #4 overall rank Mr. Bear Harrison!
Trey Rutledge (+/-0) is a 5'11" / 175 RS-Junior outfielder out of AAMU (SWAC). Grant’s Overall Rank remains unchanged at #5. His Run Tool Rank remains unchanged at #3, and his Hit Tool Rank remains unchanged at #166. The RS-junior’s legs are helping carry his rank (20.53% BB rate, -0.33% from last week with 29 net stolen bases in 31 attempts). 93% success rate, -3% from last week. His Hit Tool ratios (7.28% SO Rate +.09%, 8.65% XBH% -0.82% from last week & 1.05% HR% down 0.09%) . We tip our caps for this weeks #5 overall rank Mr. Trey Rutledge.
Robbie Burnett (+/-0) is a 5–10 / 178lb senior Infielder out of UGA. Robbie’s Overall Rank remains unchanged at #6. His Run Tool Rank moves -6 spots to #25 and his Hit Tool Rank moves -2 spots to #36. The Senior is doing it with his bat (20.33% XBH rate,-0.21% from last week & 13.01% HR rate, -0.38% from last week) and his legs (18.13% BB rate, -0.22% from last week & 10 net stolen bases, +1 from last week). SO rate is up 1.62% from last week, to 18.71%. His SO% is up 3.9% in the last 2 weeks. Probably a good idea to see the types of pitchers/pitches he was facing this past 2 weeks. Other than the strikeout %, we are starting to see a plateau across his other numbers. We tip our caps for this weeks #6 overall rank Mr. Robbie Burnett! Go Dawgs!
Ryland Zaborowski (-3) is a 6'6" / 225 GRAD Infielder out of UGA (SEC). Ryland moves down 3 spot this week to #7 Overall. His Run Tool Rank moves -161 spots to #514 and his Hit Tool Rank remains unchanged at #3. The Junior’s bat is helping carry his rank (21.62% XBH rate, -2.80% from last week & 14.41% HR rate, -1.87% from last week -3% in the past 2 weeks) and his legs (16.78% BB rate, -1.68% from last week). Do we buy the dip? We tip our caps for this weeks #4 overall rank Mr. Ryland Zaborowski. Go Dawgs!
8. Kaleb Freeman (-1) is a 6–0, 202lb senior utility out of Georgia State University. Kaleb’s Overall Rank moves -1 spot to #8. His Run Tool Rank moves -9 spots to #58 and his Hit Tool Rank moves +7 spots to #28. The senior’s bat is helping carry his rank (23.91% XBH rate, -.20% & 7.97% HR rate, -.03% from last week) and his legs are also contributing (24.19% BB rate, -1.54% from last week with 11 net stolen bases,+1 from last week. We tip our caps for this weeks #8 overall rank Mr. Kaleb Freeman.
9. John Bay (+14) is a 6'0" / 222 RS-SR outfielder from Austin Peay. John’s Overall Rank moves +14 spots to #9. His Run Tool Rank moves -94 spots to #334 and his Hit Tool Rank moves +29 spots to #12. The senior’s bat is helping carry his rank (21.53% XBH rate & 11.11% HR rate) and his legs are also contributing (17.11% BB rate). We tip our caps for this weeks #9 overall rank Mr. John Bay
Kyle Lodise (+3) is a 5'11" / 180 junior infielder from Georgia Tech. Kyle’s Overall Rank moves +3 spots to #10. His Run Tool Rank moves -3 spots to #645 and his Hit Tool Rank moves +2 spots to #5. The senior’s bat is helping carry his rank (24.81% XBH rate & 10.08% HR rate) and his legs are also contributing (15.00% BB rate). We tip our caps for this weeks #10 overall rank Mr. Kyle Lodise
Top 20 Schedule for the next 2 weeks
I have also included a schedule for the top 20 players on the 2nd tab of the spreadsheet so everyone/anyone can follow along throughout the week. I include the hyperlinks to watch if they are provided on the teams website.
Pitching : There is limited data on pitchers in college. It’s almost not even worth doing a ranking, but I felt I needed to put my hat in the ring if this is what everyone else is doing. From the pitching perspective, I rated & ranked 3,371 Division 1 pitchers for the dates of 2/14/25–4/17/25 with a minimum requirement of 10 IP. The pitchers are rated the same way in terms of run value but instead of PA innings, but in the inverse manner. There’s no Batted Ball data, so I had to use MLB probabilities on the outcomes of hits. Like I said it’s not great, I’m not going to dive too deep into it.
Top Pitchers by RV/TBF :
That’s all this week for the College Baseball Report, come back next Thursday for Report #8. Let me know your thoughts, what you liked and didn’t like in the comments. As my man Clint Hurdle would say, ‘give me 3 ups and 3 downs’. For every one bad thing you hated, give me one good thing you liked.
Schedule :
-Chris James
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