STANFORD, Calif. - Junior outfielder Brock Jones added a pair of preseason All-America honors on Monday, claiming first-team honors according to D1Baseball and a second-team selection from Baseball America.
Jones had previously been named a first-team All-American according to Collegiate Baseball and Perfect Game.
D1Baseball's editors and national writers select the preseason All-America teams with one guiding principle in mind: to identify the best and most valuable college baseball players for the 2022 season. Past performance and future potential factor into the deliberations, but the goal is neither to identify the best future major leaguers nor to reward the players who have put up the gaudiest numbers in past seasons. The objective is to select the players who would provide the most value for a team that wanted to win the College World Series in 2022 — the players who are best equipped to perform against elite college competition this spring.
Baseball America annually polls major league teams to vote for its Preseason All-America team, asking that they make their selections based on performance, talent and professional potential. In the past, the Baseball America Preseason All-America team has been a predictor both of the first round of the draft and of team success.
Jones, who competed last summer with USA Baseball's Collegiate National Team, was a second-team All-American according to Baseball America, Perfect Game and D1Baseball a year ago.
The native of Fresno, Calif. reached safely in all but five games last year while hitting .311 with 18 home runs to rank first in the Pac-12 and 16th nationally. Jones compiled a team-high 62 RBIs, 56 runs scored and a .453 on-base percentage while amassing 32 extra-base hits, including 13 doubles and a triple, while finishing with a .646 slugging percentage to rank third in the Pac-12. Showing patience at the plate, Jones walked a team-best 49 times to rank third in the Pac-12 and 11th nationally.
In postseason play last year, Jones hit .361 with 13 runs scored, five doubles, five home runs and 18 RBIs - the most RBIs of any player in the tournament. Upon reaching the College World Series, he managed a pair of three-hit games, batting .429 overall with three runs scored, two doubles, two homers and eight RBIs in Omaha.
The Cardinal, which will open the season carrying a No. 5 ranking according to Collegiate Baseball, will begin the 2022 season at home versus Cal State Fullerton on February 18.
