With the NFCA’s all-American nominations after the 2021 season, Greg Hunter and Luke Smailes analyzed their selections in the debut of Scout Angles.
Greg and Luke both picked snubs from the NFCA’s nominees and provided their final all-American first teams. They addressed each snub’s candidacy while also commenting on each other’s picks.
- Sammey Bunch (Northern Iowa) (Luke)
Luke:
Sami Williams had an all-American season in her own right, but Sammey Bunch was simply better. Bunch bested Williams in weighted on base average (wOBA) (58 points), weighted runs above average (wRAA) (6 runs), isolated power (ISO) (100 points) and K-BB% (10.4%). Her .689 wOBA was the second best in Division 1 softball (Jocelyn Alo).
Bunch wasn’t even nominated for NFCA’s second or third teams as the division’s second-best hitter by wOBA, one of the most comprehensive offensive metrics available. Bunch dominated the Missouri Valley Conference enough that her strength of schedule shouldn’t have been held against her like it was.
Greg:
My initial reaction to Sammy Bunch is “Missouri Valley Conference???” However, as you peel back layers, the injustice bestowed upon her emerges. Pitting her against Sami Williams is my starting point. Bunch’s numbers are better, but strength of schedule is a factor. Next layer: Northern Iowa and Iowa State played four times during the year; two times in the Columbia regional where they both lost and split the two games vs. one another. In those four games; Bunch was better (7 for 10 with 2 HR’s, a 3B, 7 RBI’s and no errors) Williams was 5 for 11 with three RBI, a 2B, a HR and two errors. Bunch won me over.
- Alex Storako (Michigan) (Greg)
Greg:
Alex Storako of Michigan appears to get snubbed from the first team all-American list at first glance. However, she only pitched one game in the regionals and her workload (144 IP) was on the lower end of the other considerations. Her K% was head-and-shoulders above the rest of the nation at 47% of batters faced, fourth in ERA at 1.05 and a 22-3 record with one save. She also outdueled AA first–teamer Gabbie Plain of the University of Washington in game one of the Regional at UW’s home stadium; Storako took the win, Plain the loss in the 2-1 Wolverine victory. Plain ends up grinding out innings through the regional and super regional after Storako shut it down for the season.
She was my initial top-pick pitcher, but in the end I felt like the workloads of Fouts, Rochard and Corrick were too impressive to leave off. Based on grit, I put other pitchers ahead of her, but Storako deserves to be recognized here for her incredibly dominant season.
Luke:
Storako was the best pitcher in D1 softball in 2021 in my opinion, and I think the numbers bear this out. A 47% K rate is absolutely absurd, and it was the best in D1 softball by more than three percent. Also, her 40% K-BB% was the best in D1 softball by more than four percent. No one was really even close to her in terms of her nation’s best 2.57 FIP, and she played in a Power-5 conference.
- Allie Cummins (Miami OH) (Luke)
Luke:
Cummins was one of seven girls in D1 softball with 40+ wRAA in 2021. She had the fourth highest OBP, the seventh highest wOBA and a top-20 K-BB% for a 46-win Redhawk team. She undoubtedly put up a first-team all-American offensive season, yet she wasn’t even nominated for the third team.
Greg:
Somewhat begrudgingly Cummins’ deserves the first team DP/Non-P nomination. There were a lot of good catchers in D1 softball last year and three of them ended up on the AA first team (should there be this many catchers?). Cummins played mostly as a DP (which is a new term for me), and split the rest between 1B and C. Miami of OH’s regular season competition was second tier, and they took two quick losses in the Lexington Regional. Cummins was the Redhawk’s DP in those two losses and was 2 for 5 at the plate. I like to see a first team all-American step up when it counts, but despite the watered down competition, the regular season numbers are undeniably eye catching. There just aren’t any other DP’s with comparable production.
- Georgina Corrick (USF) (Greg)
Greg:
Georgina Corrick was a definite first team snub. She was a workhorse with 228 IP, a 24-9 record and three saves. She led the nation with 15 complete game shutouts, and had four no-hitters with one of which in the postseason. Pairing her against first–teamer Keely Rochard of Virginia Tech (who also was a workhorse with 244 IP and 29 wins), Corrick had a higher K-rate, and a lower BB-rate,. BABIP is the most telling stat in this comparison – .248 for Corrick and .226 for Rochard (which paints the picture of Rochard having a better team around her.) Corrick’s three saves and 24 wins with 16 less IP essentially matches Rochard’s top-line production, though Corrick had the better underlying effectiveness. She also had an insane regional Saturday. It included a seven-inning no-hitter against Baylor at 4:30, followed by a seven-inning shutout at 7:00 against South Alabama that same evening. I like grinders who step up and carry the load; Corrick fits that bill.
Luke:
Corrick had the nation’s fourth-lowest FIP with the second most innings pitched in the country. I strongly considered her for my first team, but felt that she should have been a strong second team nominee in the end. C’mon Greg, too much discussion of the pitcher win statistic!
- Hayley Lee (Texas A&M) (Luke)
Luke:
The catching position, like shortstop, was loaded. All of Kayla Kowalik (Kentucky), Kinzie Hansen (Oklahoma), Dejah Mulipola (Arizona) and Lee deserved consideration for that first-team slot. In the end, Lee led all four in SLG, OPS, HRs, ISO, wOBA, BB% and BB-K%. She had the seventh highest wRAA in D1 softball (41.4) and while Kowalik was one spot higher with 42.2, she also had 39 more plate appearances.
Greg:
The catching position was definitely loaded this year. One problem I have with all of this is that I don’t have a feel for the defensive side of things, and I take defense seriously in the middle of the field. Reluctantly, I am going to base this solely on offensive production, and this is going to be as straightforward as they come. Lee, Kowalik, Hemphill and Mulipola are all Power-5ers and only Mulipola is outside the SEC. I am sure Luke knows what wRAA means, but I had to look it up and think it comes into play on this one. Kowalik’s 23 SBs also need to be factored in. Looking at conference-only numbers (thanks to 643 Charts Interactive Web Application, this process was easy). Here are the OPS and wRAA numbers for each player in their respective conferences: Mulipola 1.265/21.0, Hemphill 1.561/34.1, Kowalik 1.279/23.9, Lee 1.176/16.8. Based on this, I make Hemphill the first teamer, Mulipola gets bounced, Kowalik sticks in an at-large slot, which means Lee is also still on the outside looking in for me.
- Valerie Cagle (Clemson) (Greg)
Greg:
Valarie Cagle of Clemson is another definite first team snub. Rachel Garcia from UCLA won the first team honors from the NFCA and no doubt had a great year on a very strong Bruin team. Garcia should end up on first team but not at the expense of Valarie Cagle and the first UT/P designation. Cagle had 28 wins paired with five saves and pitched just under 100 more IP than Garcia. Garcia’s underlying stats are very similar and may be a bit better, but bottom line is Cagle carried the workload on the pitching side, and that is just the start of it. On the offensive side, Cagle was more productive with a 200-point OPS advantage, four more HRs, 13 more RBIs in 34 more PAs. Clemson lost to Alabama in the regionals, and UCLA went to the World Series, which seemed to sway the NFCA’s decision. A deeper dive indicates Cagle should have gotten the nod as the first team UT/P nominee and Garcia should have ended up on the first team list in an at-large capacity.
Luke:
For me, it could have been a coin flip between Cagle and UCLA’s Rachel Garcia for the first team UT/P slot. I gave Garcia the slight edge in the end due to the 20-point FIP advantage (3.34 vs. 3.54) and better K-BB%. However, Cagle bested Garcia in wRAA and wOBA on the offensive side. Like I said, a coin flip. Still, Cagle winds up as an at-large first team nominee for me. Like Paige Rauch, being a massive contributor on both sides of the ball is a uniquely valuable trait.
- Hope Trautwein (North Texas) (Luke)
Luke:
While Trautwein didn’t have the innings workload that someone like Gabbie Plain, the 130 innings she did throw were impressive enough to warrant a first team nomination. For starters, she had the nation’s second best FIP (2.78) – better than Fouts, Plain and Faraimo. She also had D1 softball’s second-best K% (43.7%) and K-BB% (36.3%).
Even on a 38-win North Texas team, Trautwein only amassed 13 wins which is partly due to the Mean Green also having GiGi Wall and her impressive 17 starts as an option, as she also snagged 13 wins. This shouldn’t take away from the dominance Trautwein showed. Another factor that played against Trautwein was that her .321 BABIP was the highest of any pitcher in the top-90 of FIP. The nice part about FIP is that it normalizes the outcomes of those ball-in-play events (i.e., outcomes that Trautwein couldn’t control) to get a descriptive metric that is a better measure of what Trautwein, herself, did. Compared to the other top pitchers in consideration for all-American nominations, the defense behind Trautwein converted less of her balls-in-play to outs. Contrast Trautwein’s .321 BABIP with Faraimo’s .204 and we see a big potential contributing factor to a first team all-American nomination vs. a clear snub.
Trautwein also tossed a perfect game against Arkansas Pine-Bluff on April 11th, striking out all 21 hitters! That’s the first and only time that’s happened in Division 1 softball history.
Greg:
I guess I don’t have a full understanding of FIP yet. It seems to me, if you have two dominant pitchers on your staff, each will pick up some innings against second-tier competition as well as being well rested between starts. If you are the only dominant pitcher on your team, you get less rest, match up against the toughest competition and pitch more of the higher-leveraged games and innings. I think Trautwein/Wall and Garcia/Faraimo (UCLA) both benefited from this. Obviously North Texas is facing a lower level of competition, so the numbers are going to be inflated. North Texas lost their last two games of the year in the Conference USA Championships. Wall pitched the last five innings in their penultimate game, and Trautwein took the loss in their last one going seven innings and giving up four runs (three earned) in a loss against Western Kentucky. Trautwein’s regular season numbers are gaudy, but she needed to step up in that game for me to give her all-American first team consideration.
- Linda Rush (Drexel) & Dayna Denner (Toledo) (Greg)
Greg:
Linda Rush, SS at Drexel and Dayna Denner, 3B at Toledo got some snub consideration from me. Both rank high on the OPS board, and Linda Rush’s 1.549 posting is jaw-dropping for a shortstop. Rush also had a decent fielding percentage at .939 along with 57 RBIs. Rush’s numbers put her in the first team at-large discussion. Dayna Denner’s offensive numbers are impressive, however looking at her .905 fielding %, I don’t think she deserves first team honors. That brings us back to Rush; Drexel had a decent regular season but lost in their conference’s playoff and didn’t make a regional Rush ended up producing those offensive numbers against mostly second-tier pitching. The relevant comparison here is to Braxton Burnside of Arkansas, who lost in the super regional and competed against SEC pitching throughout the regular season. She hit 25 bombs and her 1.399 OPS was impressive. The chink in Burnsides AA first team at-large designation is the .919 fielding%. At the end of the day, I give more credit to Burnside, though even she couldn’t crack my first team. The infield crop of Jennings, Bunch, Echols and Williams was too tough to top, but Rush and Denner’s stellar seasons don’t deserve to go unnoticed.
Luke:
These are great picks. I have Denner as a pretty big snub myself. I thought she deserved to be the first team third base nominee, but she didn’t even crack a third team spot. Give some respect to her dominance in the Mid-American Conference! Denner bested Florida’s Charla Echols (NFCA’s first team third base nominee) in wRAA (7 more), wOBA (63 points more), BA (46 points more), SLG, OPS and ISO. Don’t get me wrong, Echols’ season was very impressive. Three strikeouts in 201 plate appearances is crazy, and her 4 errors vs. Denner’s 14, as Greg alluded to, also played a role. In my opinion, Echols’s defensive advantages shouldn’t have kept her over Denner.
Rush had the highest OBP in D1 softball (.592) in 2021 and wasn’t nominated at all. Are you kidding me? She was on base almost 60% of per PAs and could even crack the third team? If Bunch and Williams weren’t such strong candidates at shortstop, Rush would have been a very strong first team candidate for me at the position.
- Paige Rauch (Villanova) (Luke)
Luke:
Rauch posted the division’s 22nd highest wRAA with the second-best K-BB% as hitter (Bailey Hemphill). This was paired with a 4.36 FIP (2.21 ERA) on the mound which was in the 82nd percentile. She was the top hitter and ace pitcher on a 37-win Villanova team and there must be some extra consideration given to a player who excelled on both sides of the ball. Rauch was one of the most valuable players in D1 softball in 2021.
Greg:
82nd percentile? Rauch was 53rd in FIP as a pitcher and 37th in OPS as a hitter (Okay, maybe I am getting FIP.) UT/P is already crowded on the first team with Garcia and Cagle. Rauch fits where listed for me on the 3rd team.
- Rylee Jensen (BYU) (Luke)
Luke:
UCLA’s Maya Brady was the third first team outfield nominee, but Jensen bested her by 6 HRs, 64 points BA, 33 points OBP, 114 points SLG, 147 points OPS and 66 points wOBA all while having more than a 10% K-BB% advantage. Jensen’s 32.4 wRAA was the second most among D1 outfielders in 2021 (Jocelyn Alo) and her .564 wOBA was the 6th highest. She narrowly beat out her teammate at BYU, Violet Zavodnik, for this final first-team outfield slot.
Greg:
Maya Brady doesn’t fit on the first team, but finding the third first team outfielder is a tough call. Jensen along with her teammate, Violet Zavodnik, deserve some consideration. They both had solid performances at the ASU Regional, and when BYU lost in the final game to Keely Rochard and Virginia Tech, both Zavodnik and Jensen held their own. I agree with Luke and the high wRAA is what separates Jensen. The fact that she isn’t listed on any of the All-American teams is a definite oversight.
Luke’s Full First Team
- P – Alex Storako (Michigan)
- P – Montana Fouts (Alabama)
- P – Hope Trautwein (North Texas)
- C – Hayley Lee (Texas A&M)
- 1B – Alysen Febrey (Oklahoma St.)
- 2B – Tiare Jennings (Oklahoma)
- 3B – Dayna Denner (Toledo)
- SS – Sammey Bunch (Northern Iowa)
- OF – Jocelyn Alo (Oklahoma)
- OF – Jayda Coleman (Oaklahoma)
- OF – Rylee Jensen (BYU)
- UT/P – Rachel Garcia (UCLA)
- DP/Non-P – Bailey Hemphill (Alabama)
- At-Large-SS – Sami Williams (Iowa St.)
- At-Large-UT/P – Valerie Cagle (Clemson)
- At-Large-UT – Allie Cummins (Miami OH)
- At-Large-UT/P – Paige Rauch (Villanova)
- At-Large-C – Kayla Kowalik (Kentucky)
Honorable Mentions / Just Missed List
- P – Gabbie Plain (Washington)
- P – Georgina Corrick (USF)
- P – Courtney Coppersmith (UMBC)
- P – Megan Faraimo (UCLA)
- P – Meghan Beaubein (Michigan)
- SS – Braxton Burnside (Arkansas)
- C – Kinzie Hansen (Oklahoma)
- SS – Linda Rush (Drexel)
- 2B – Baylee Klingler (Washington)
- SS – Kayla Wedl (Illinois-Chicago)
- 3B – Jenna Cone (George Washington)
- OF – Violet Zavodnik (BYU)
Greg’s Full First Team
- P – Montana Fouts (Alabama)
- P – Keely Rochard (Virginia Tech)
- P – Georgina Corrick (USF)
- C – Bailey Hemphill (Alabama)
- 1B – Alysen Febrey (Oklahoma St.)
- 2B – Tiare Jennings (Oklahoma)
- 3B – Charla Echols (Florida)
- SS – Sammey Bunch (Northern Iowa)
- OF – Jocelyn Alo (Oklahoma)
- OF – Jayda Coleman (Oklahoma)
- OF – Rylee Jensen (BYU)
- UT/P – Valerie Cagle (Clemson)
- DP/Non-P – Allie Cummins (Miami OH)
- At-Large-SS – Sami Williams (Iowa St.)
- At-Large-P – Megan Faraimo (UCLA)
- At-Large-UT/P – Rachel Garcia (UCLA)
- At-Large-P – Gabbie Plain (Washington)
- At-Large-C – Kayla Kowalik (Kentucky)
Honorable Mentions / Just Missed List
- P – Alex Storako (Michigan)
- P – Hope Trautwein (North Texas)
- P – Courtney Coppersmith (UMBC)
- 3B – Dayna Denner (Toledo)
- SS – Braxton Burnside (Arkansas)
- C – Dejah Mulipola (Arizona)
- SS – Linda Rush (Drexel)
- SS – Kayla Wedl (Illinois-Chicago)
- OF – Violet Zavodnik (BYU)
Both recently joining the 6-4-3 Charts team, Greg worked in scouting and player development for the Seattle Mariners for more than 20 years while Luke has worked with Pitcher List, SB Nation and the Coe College baseball team as a data analyst and writer for the past four years.