Florida Baseball: Wyatt Langford snubbed for Golden Spikes
![Florida's utility Wyatt Langford (36) with his second home run on the night against the Miami Hurricanes, Friday, March 3, 2023, at Condron Family Baseball Park in Gainesville, Florida. The Gators beat the Hurricanes 10-4 in Game 1. [Cyndi Chambers/ Gainesville Sun] 2023Gator Baseball March 3 2023 Condron Family Ballpark Miami Hurricanes](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fill,w_1080,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/shape%2Fcover%2Fsport%2F48a4cdc39cb4241729c4db26b9ff8885c0ea4ae2363724bf354a316030314816.jpg "Florida's utility Wyatt Langford (36) with his second home run on the night against the Miami Hurricanes, Friday, March 3, 2023, at Condron Family Baseball Park in Gainesville, Florida. The Gators beat the Hurricanes 10-4 in Game 1. [Cyndi Chambers/ Gainesville Sun] 2023Gator Baseball March 3 2023 Condron Family Ballpark Miami Hurricanes")
As Florida baseball gets ready for its Super Regional matchup with South Carolina, the Gators learned they had a finalist for the Golden Spikes award, the college baseball version of the Heisman.
Yet as it has been the case all season, there was a member of the Gators that was left out of the national conversation even though he should probably be the one to win the award.
Florida Baseball: If we lose, we Wyatt
On the surface, no one is going to complain about the three finalist for the award. Dylan Crews from LSU is the potential first overall draft pick this July.
Paul Skenes, also from LSU, is the top rated pitcher in the country and obviously everyone loves Jac Caglianone.
Introducing the 2023 #GoldenSpikes Award 𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐒 🏆
— Golden Spikes Award (@USAGoldenSpikes) June 7, 2023
🔗: https://t.co/Ujr90kezku pic.twitter.com/ZbmD7hVpB3
Not on the list is Wyatt Langford and in order to include Langford, one of the three players would need to be taken off.
But when you actually explore his numbers and not just everyone’s pre built judgment everyone decided on in February, Wyatt Langford is the best player in the country.
”But Ben, Dylan Crews has an on base percentage of .573. Langford only has .511.”
Right, but Crews doesn’t have the slugging percentage and power numbers of Langford. So that’s why OPS (on base percentage plus slugging percentage) has gained popularity because it’s a more holistic view of a hitter.
And guess what, heading into Super Regionals both Crews and Langford have the same OPS of 1.310.
Mind you anything over .800 OPS is considered good.
And, have you seen some of the web gems Langford has been producing lately?
WYATT LANGFORD LITERALLY DOES IT ALL 🤯#SCTop10 // @SportsCenter#GoGators // 📺 https://t.co/Wb8gZgDArK pic.twitter.com/G34BB56Kux
— Florida Gators Baseball (@GatorsBB) June 3, 2023
Truthfully if we were to make the list of the three Golden Spikes finalists, we probably would swap Langford with Caglianone. Even with 31 home runs, Caglianone’s OPS is a bit lower and he has been up and down on the mound.
But we are putting Langford on the list because we think he should be the winner.
There is a reason scouts are starting to wonder aloud if the Pittsburgh Pirates will opt for Langford with the first overall pick in July.