Origins of Four-Year College Pitchers

Four Year College Origins, 2008 Pitchers

For the sake of simplicity, I'm listing the conference in which the school currently plays. Some of them might have changed conference since the player in question was drafted. I admit I haven't checked for each school.

Auburn (SEC): Hudson (6)
Arkansas (SEC):  Lee (4)
Bellarmine (NCAA Div II): Wellemeyer (4)
Florida Tech: (NCAA Div II): Wakefield (8)
Fresno State (WAC): Garza (1)
Kent State (Mid-American): Sonnanstine (13)
Kentucky (SEC): Webb (8);  Downs (3)
Long Beach State (Big West): Weaver (1)
Louisiana-Monroe (Sun Belt): Sheets (1)
Louisiana State (SEC): Smith (6)
Mississippi State (SEC): Maholm (1); Papelbon (4)
Nebraska (Big 12): Chamberlain (1)
Nevada (WAC): Qualls (2)+
Notre Dame (Big East): Lidge (1)
Oklahoma State (Big 12): Baker (2)
Pepperdine (WCC):  Haren (2)
Southern Cal (Pac 10): Johnson (2)
Southwest Missouri State (Missouri Valley): Marcum (3); Ziegler (20)
Stanford (Pac 10): Mussina (1); Guthrie (1)
St. Joseph's (Atlantic-10): Moyer (6)
Stony Brook (America East): Nathan (6)
Texas (Big 12): Howell (1)
Virginia Tech (ACC): Saunders (1)
Washington (Pac 10):  Lincecum (1)
Wichita State (Missouri Valley): Pelfrey (1); Looper (1)
Winthrop (Big South): Slowey (2)

With just 31 pitchers here, I think it would be dangerous to draw any broad conclusions. However, here are some things I noticed:

**The SEC produced 7 pitchers, however only ONE of them (Paul Maholm) was a first round pick.

**The Missouri Valley Conference produced 4 pitchers, 2 each from Wichita State and Southwest Missouri (now known as Missouri State University). This is the same number of pitchers as the Pac-10. Further, two of the Pac-10 arms (Mussina and Johnson) were drafted in the 1980s, leaving only Lincecum and Guthrie as recent products of the conference.

**Question: are Pac-10 and SEC pitchers perhaps turning out to be disappointing as pros? To study this we would need to look at ALL picks from those conferences, then compare success and failure rates.