Left-handed pitcher Jeremy Sowers is one of the biggest stars in Vanderbilt baseball history. He's 15th in our countdown of the 100-greatest players we've covered.
Honors and awards: 2002 Freshman All-American (Collegiate Baseball)
2002 Southeastern Conference Pitcher of the Week (Feb. 25)
2003 second-team All-SEC
2003 Southeastern Conference Pitcher of the Week (April 8)
2004 second-team All-SEC
2004 SEC All-Tournament
2004 SEC Pitcher of the Week (March 1, May 24)
2004 third-team All-American (Baseball America)
2004 All-Charlottesville Regional
2013 Vanderbilt Athletics Hall of Fame
In the VU record book: Single-season innings pitches: fourth, seventh (122.2 in 2004, 115 in 2003)
Single-season strikeouts: eighth and ninth (123 in 2003, 119 in 2004)
Career wins: tied-seventh (23)
Career innings: second (338.2)
Career strikeouts: third (327)
Before VU: Starred at Ballard High in Louisville, Ky., where he was Kentucky's Gatorade Player of the Year as a senior. Was 10-2 with 158 strikeouts and an 0.75 ERA in 89 innings that season, with 13 complete games. Had four career no-hitters. Was drafted in the first round by the Reds, but came to Vanderbilt.
Freshman (2002): Made 15 appearances, with 13 starts, while leading the team in ERA, wins and innings. Set the single-season record for innings pitched by a freshman at the time, and had the third-most strikeouts as a freshman to that point. Had a 5.52 ERA, with a 4-5 record, over 10 SEC starts and 75 innings; he struck out 50 and walked 26 in those. Picked off 12 runners. Pitched seven or more innings in 12 of 13 starts. Struck out 10, allowing two walks and an earned run against Louisville in his collegiate debut, earning SEC Pitcher of the Week honors. Struck out 12 in eight innings against Iowa. Fanned 10 in a nine-inning, two-earned-run outing against Central Florida. Struck out eight in a complete-game shutout win over Mississippi St.
Sophomore (2003): Appeared 18 times, with 16 starts. Had a 2.15 ERA in 11 SEC appearances--all starts--with 75 1/3 innings, 78 strikeouts, 18 walks, a 6-2 record and a 2.15 ERA in those appearances. Ended the regular season as the SEC's strikeout leader with 116. Beat Florida, allowing an earned run with 11 strikeouts, five hits and a walk over seven innings. Struck out 12 vs. Kansas. Struck out 11 in seven innings at Mississippi St. Struck out 12 in eight innings, allowing two runs against Auburn. Beat Tennessee, striking out 10 over seven innings.
Junior (2004): Starred as the Friday-night starter on a 45-19 (16-14 SEC) team that fell in the Austin Super Regional. Had a 2.83 ERA and a 5-2 record, with 67 strikeouts and 18 walks in 76 1/3 SEC innings, in SEC regular-season play. Became the first VU pitcher ever with multiple 100-strikeout seasons. Held opponents scoreless in four of 17 outings. Allowed two runs or fewer in 11 or 17 starts. Made it into the seventh inning 13 times, including six of his last season. Broke what was then the school record for innings pitched in a season. Struck out 11, allowing four hits in eight innings, to beat George Mason in the Charlottesville Regional.
Post-VU: The Indians took Sowers sixth overall in the 2004 MLB Draft. Sowers pitched between 2006 and 2009, all with the Indians, going 18-30 with a 5.18 ERA.
Final thoughts, and why I ranked him where I did: There have been some preemptive "I'm surprised you ranked Sowers this high," comments as folks have done some deductive reasoning about who was coming next in the countdown. So let's look at how he compares to his 23 pitching peers within the VandySports 100 (some of whom are still to come on the list):
- Innings pitched: first
- ERA: 16th
- ERA, indexed for run-scoring environment: tied for eighth
- Base runners per inning pitched: eighth
- Free pass rate: seventh
- Strikeout rate: 10th
- Home run rate: 18th
The combination of the innings pitched and the ERA, adjusted for run-scoring context, is loud. Sowers's 338 2/3 innings are significantly more than David Price (313), who has the second-most innings on this list. Patrick Raby (308) and Mike Minor (304) are the only others on the list with over 300 innings.
And it wasn't just that; Sowers was always throwing his on weekends, and so he didn't get to pad his stats with mid-week starts. In his last two innings of SEC regular-season baseball, Sowers had a 2.49 ERA over 151 2/3 innings.
One of the few blemishes of significance on Sowers's record is where he ranked in home run rate, but it wasn't awful in that regard, either.
There's a legitimate argument that Sowers belongs in the top 10 of the whole list. I didn't put him there, because there are a lot of other elite players still to go and many of those guys played in circumstances of greater significance, and I don't think there's a good argument to keep him out of the top 20.
