Jensen Lewis starred as a starter and as a reliever on Vanderbilt's baseball teams the early part of the millennium. Track our countdown to No. 1 here.
Honors and awards: 2003 first-team Freshman All-American (Collegiate Baseball)
2005 second-team All-Southeastern Conference
2005 SEC Pitcher of the Week
In the VU record book: Single-season saves: tied-eighth (eight, 2003)
Career saves: tied-ninth (11)
Before VU: Pitched at Cincinnati's Anderson High, where he had a 7-3 record, 100 strikeouts and a 1.71 ERA in 60 innings and was the Gatorade Player of the Year and team captain as a senior. Lewis passed up pro ball (he was drafted in Round 33 by Cleveland) to come to VU. Was second-team all-conference and second-team all-city as a junior.
Freshman (2003): Tied for the team lead with 26 appearances, making four starts for a 27-28 (14-16 SEC) team that made the SEC Tournament. Allowed two or fewer runs in 25 of 26 appearances. In SEC games, had a 4.67 ERA, a 1-4 record, six saves, 28 strikeouts and 14 walks in 27 innings. Pitched five innings and had six strikeouts in part of the team's perfect game vs. Western Kentucky. Pitched three shutout innings with five strikeouts to earn his first career win vs. The Citadel. Struck out six in a start against Belmont. Picked up his first collegiate save vs. Jacksonville.
Sophomore (2004): Ranked second in the team with 23 appearances, making 10 starts, for a 45-19 (16-14) team that fell in the Austin Super Regional. In SEC games, Lewis threw 46 1/3 innings over 12 appearances (six starts), had a 2-4 record with one save, struck out 34 and walked 18. Pitched four scoreless innings with six strikeouts to beat Florida in the SEC Tournament. Threw 3 2/3 relief innings in the Tennessee series and didn't allow a run. Pitched four innings, giving up just one hit, to earn a win vs. Mississippi St. Allowed four runs in eight innings, but picked up a win in a start vs. Georgia. Threw seven scoreless innings in VU's 1-0 win over Baylor. Threw seven scoreless innings to earn a win vs. Arkansas St. Struck out 11 against Cincinnati.
Junior (2005): Appeared 15 times, starting 14 times, for a 34-21 (13-17) team that missed the NCAA Tournament. Opponents hit just .218 against him, which ranked fifth in the league. In SEC regular-season games, Lewis threw 66 1/3 innings, had a 5-3 record with a 3.26 ERA and 63 strikeouts to 18 walks. Had a complete-game shutout with 13 strikeouts at Kentucky.
Post-VU: Cleveland took Lewis in Round 3 of the 2005 MLB Draft. Two years later, he was on the Indians roster, where he'd spend all or part of four seasons. Lewis is now part of the Indians' broadcasting team.
Final thoughts, and why I ranked him where I did: Lewis doesn't jump off the page as a top-40 pick, but the body of work over three years was consistently good. Indexing his ERA for run-scoring environment, there are just two pitchers on the list behind him who performed better (and both had fewer innings). There are nine pitchers ahead of Lewis to come, and Lewis outperformed eight of them by the same measure (seven of the nine threw more innings).
Lewis was also fundamentally solid, striking out three hitters for every one he walked and allowing 1.29 runners per innings in his career.
Lewis's innings were also held down by pitching most of his freshman season, and part of his sophomore campaign, in relief. In that time, he pitched well, earning 11 saves.
The problem with Lewis is that through no fault of his own, his career didn't have a great impact. Just one of the three teams on which he pitched made the NCAA Tournament, and he wasn't much of a factor in the 2004 Charlottesville Regional (1 2/3 innings, one run).
Lewis wasn't flashy and the competition he faced probably wasn't as tough due to his teams failing to make deep runs into the postseason. It's easy to be underrated when you're consistently good more so than you are great, and also when you pitch in the shadow of others (as he did with Jeremy Sowers, and to some extent, Ryan Mullins). I expect some push-back on this one and I understand why, but I think he has a surprisingly good argument to slot where I've put him.
