Vince Conde checks in at No. 75 on the VandySports 100.
Honors and awards: 2014 third-team All-American (Perfect Game)
2014 ABCA/Rawlings Gold Glove at shortstop
2014 first-team All-Southeastern Conference
2014 All-Nashville Regional team
SEC and National Player of the Week (March 17, 2014)
In the VU record book: Conde does not own or share any significant records.
Before VU: Was a three-time all-district pick at Orangewood Christian (Fla.) High School, where he also served as captain.
Freshman (2012): Started 55 games and served as VU's primary third baseman, where he fielded .899. for a 35-28 (16-14 SEC) team that finished second in the Raleigh Regional. Started 29 league regular-season games, hitting .202/.248/.269 in those, with 16 RBIs and 12 runs. Drove in two runs vs. Stanford in his collegiate debut.
Sophomore (2013): Moved from third to short early in the season. Played in all 66 games, starting 65, for a 54-12 (26-3) squad that lost to Louisville in the Nashville Super Regional. Fielded .963 for the season with 152 assists. Hit .324/.415/.448 in conference regular-season play, fielding .972. Had three hits in the SEC tournament title-game loss to LSU. Had a homer and four RBIs in a mid-week win at Louisville. Had three hits and three RBIs in a win at Ole Miss. Homered in three straight days early in the season, kicking off a stretch during which he went 14-for-25 over seven games.
Junior (2014): Started every game at short for a 51-21 (17-13) team that won Vanderbilt's first national title. Fielded .978 with 178 assists and just six errors. Hit .343/.418/.448 in SEC regular-season play, leading the team in average and on-base percentage in those games. Fielded .984 with just two errors in those contests. Was 7-for-11 with four RBIs in VU's series win over LSU. Hit a first-inning grand slam in the Battle of the Barrel, leading the Commodores to a win over Louisville. Had a homer and three RBIs in a 16-2 rout of Florida. Had three hits as VU beat Stanford in the Nashville Super Regional and advanced to its second College World Series.
Post-VU: The Yankees drafted Conde in the ninth round of the 2014 MLB Draft. He made it to AAA, but never the Majors, and hasn't played professionally since 2018.
Final thoughts, and why I ranked him where I did: Conde's career took off literally from the minute coach Tim Corbin moved him from third to short. It made little sense that Conde struggled at third but was elite at short, since the latter is the more demanding defensive positions, but that's how it happened. It seemed to relax Conde because his bat took off at precisely the same moment.
Conde's raw offensive numbers weren't great, but, his career also spanned the three lowest run-scoring seasons across college baseball in Corbin's VU career. (See the adjustment for that below in the "ARC" column of the table.)
On balance, Conde hit reasonably well even with a poor freshman year and was an elite defensive shortstop for two years. Between that, being a regular on the best regular-season SEC team ever (2013) and also one on VU's first national title team, and Conde easily deserves a spot on the list.
* "RC/ARC-27" are how many runs a player "created" per 27 outs, according to a Bill James formula. The first is a player's raw total for that season, and the second is the same number adjusted to an average run-scoring environment from 2003-19.
