2023 college baseball preseason All-American picks from D1Baseball

(Editor's note: The following was first published on d1baseball.com. Use code Save23 for a discounted subscription.)

D1Baseball’s editors and national writers select the preseason All-America teams with one guiding principle in mind: to identify the best and most valuable college baseball players for the 2023 season. Past performance and future potential factor into the deliberations, but the goal is neither to identify the best future major leaguers nor to reward the players who have put up the gaudiest numbers in past seasons (particularly since the level of competition varies significantly from one conference to another). The objective is to select the players who would provide the most value for a team that wanted to win the College World Series in 2023 — the players who are best equipped to perform against elite college competition this spring.

For the second year in a row, top-ranked LSU leads all programs with three players on the All-America first team. The only two repeat members of the first team are both part of the LSU contingent: outfielder Dylan Crews and two-way talent Paul Skenes (a transfer from Air Force). Another transfer, Tommy White from NC State, is LSU’s third member of the first-team, at the DH spot.

Second-ranked Tennessee and No. 3 Stanford placed two players apiece on the first team, as did No. 6 Wake Forest and No. 7 Florida. The Cardinal leads all programs with five All-Americans overall, as first-team second baseman Tommy Troy and first-team closer Ryan Bruno are joined by second-team first baseman Carter Graham, third-team pitcher Quinn Matthews, and third-team two-way player Braden Montgomery.

The Volunteers are next with four All-Americans in all, as first-team pitchers Chase Burns and Chase Dollander are joined by third-team pitcher Drew Beam and third-team shortstop Maui Ahuna (a transfer from Kansas).

RANKINGS: Check out the full preseason top 25 poll

Wake Forest has three All-Americans total: first-team pitcher Rhett Lowder, first-team first baseman Nick Kurtz, and third-team closer Camden Minacci. Other programs with three All-Americans include Maryland (Luke Shliger, Matt Shaw and Jason Savacool), Miami (Andrew Walters, CJ Kayfus and Yohandy Morales) and Oklahoma State (Nolan McLean, Juaron Watts-Brown and Roc Riggio).

The SEC leads all conferences with seven players on the first team and 16 All-Americans overall. The ACC is second in both categories, with four members of the first team and 12 overall. The Pac-12 is third with two players on the first team and seven overall. The Big 12 and Big Ten each placed one player on the first team and four overall. The WAC and Sun Belt each have two All-Americans, while the A-10, Big South, CAA and Conference USA are represented with one All-American apiece.

First team