Stanford's Malcolm Moore and Matt Scott Ranked Among The Top Sophomores In Baseball

Author:
Kevin Borba
Publish date:
Jan 11, 2024 8:42 PM EST

The Stanford Cardinal are one of the perennial baseball programs across college baseball having made the College World Series four out of the last five years, and five out of the last six.

Head coach David Esquer has built a juggernaut on the West coast, but following last season, they will need a handful of younger players to step up as leaders. As all great programs have to deal with, Stanford lost a handful of players to the MLB with studs like Drew Bowser, Eddie Park, Drew Dowd, Carter Graham, Ryan Bruno, Tommy Troy, Quinn Mathews, and Alberto Rios all off to the bigs.

It also hurt to lose two-way star Braden Montgomery, who ended up transferring to Texas A&M. However, they do have two sophomores that Perfect Game USA views as some of the best players in the country, as both catcher Malcolm Moore and pitcher Matt Scott were included in the top-100 college sophomores.

Moore came in as the No. 5 player in the rankings after being named to just about every freshman All-America team possible. His first season in Palo Alto saw him hit .311 with 15 home runs, 63 RBIs, and a slugging percentage of %.564. He is the most powerful bat that the Cardinal return, and will likely be the centerpiece of the lineup following the departures of other heavy hitters,

As for Scott, the 6-foot-7 right-handed pitcher was ranked as the No. 10 player. He went 5-5 last season in 12 starts with 62 strikeouts to 37 walks through 67 innings pitched. Similar to Moore, Scott will have an opportunity to step up as a leader of the team, as the Cardinal have struggled on the bump over the past couple of seasons to get consistency out of their non-ace pitchers.

Stanford opens their season on February 16 against Cal State Fullerton, which is the first of a three-game series and eight-game home stretch. The Cardinal and Titans faced off four times last season, three to open the season which Stanford ended up winning two out of three, and once in the Stanford regional when the Cardinal won again.