Texas first baseman Ivan Melendez was named Big 12 Player of the Year and Texas Tech starter Brandon Birdsell was selected Big 12 Pitcher of the Year as the Conference unveiled its 2022 All-Big 12 Awards. The honorees were selected in a vote of the league’s head coaches, who could not vote for their own players.
TCU’s Kirk Saarloos, who led the Horned Frogs to the Big 12 regular season title in his first year as head coach, earned Coach of the Year honors. Texas Tech catcher/first baseman Hudson White was named Freshman of the Year and Oklahoma first baseman Blake Robertson was Newcomer of the Year.
Melendez is a front-runner for National Player of the Year honors, and leads the Big 12 in batting average (.421), home runs (28), runs batted in (85), on-base percentage (.531), slugging percentage (.941) and OPS (1.472). He is the Division I leader in home runs, and ranks second in batting average and runs batted in while setting a Big 12 record with five Player of the Week selections in 2022. He is the first Longhorn to win Big 12 Player of the Year since Kody Clemens in 2018.
Birdsell posted an 8-3 record while maintaining a 2.55 earned run average over 72.0 innings pitched in 2022, striking out 12.00 batters per nine innings. He held batters to a league-best .204 batting average, while ranking second in strikeouts (96), ERA and wins. He went 5-2 in Big 12 play. He becomes the second Red Raider hurler to win the award, joining Steven Gingery in 2017.
Saarloos led TCU to its second consecutive regular season title, the only coach to have won the Conference in their first season in the role. Among those who are in their first season as a college head coach, he is tied for the Division I lead in wins (35) and ranks second in winning percentage (.660). Saarloos was on staff at TCU in 2015 when the school last won the award.
White hit .337 in Big 12 games, hitting four home runs and driving in 22 runs in Conference games. He had a .435 on-base percentage and a .528 slugging percentage for a .963 OPS in league games. He becomes the sixth Texas Tech freshman to earn the honor and the third since 2017.
Robertson hit .338 with a .498 on-base percentage and led the Big 12 with 22 doubles and 61 walks. He stepped up his numbers to a .360 batting average in Conference games, and his 35-game on-base streak was the longest for a Big 12 player this season. He is the third Newcomer of the Year from Oklahoma, and the first since Brylie Ware in 2017.
Texas starting pitcher Pete Hansen and Melendez were unanimous All-Big 12 selections. Oklahoma State led all schools with five first-team honorees.
Oklahoma and Texas Tech each had three honorees on the Big 12 All-Freshman team. Unanimous selections included OU’s Wallace Clark, OU’s Jackson Nicklaus, OSU’s Zach Ehrhard, TCU’s David Bishop, TTU’s Owen Washburn, TTU’s White, and WVU’s JJ Wetherholt.
All-Big 12 Baseball Awards
Player of the Year: Ivan Melendez, Texas
Pitcher of the Year: Brandon Birdsell, Texas Tech
Freshman of the Year: Hudson White, Texas Tech
Newcomer of the Year: Blake Robertson, Oklahoma
Coach of the Year: Kirk Saarloos, TCU
First Team All-Big 12
C: Silas Ardoin, Texas
IF: Maui Ahuna, Kansas
IF: Peyton Graham, Oklahoma
IF: Tommy Sacco, TCU
IF: Ivan Melendez, Texas*
IF: Jace Jung, Texas Tech
OF: Jake Thompson, Oklahoma State
OF: Murphy Stehly, Texas
OF: Austin Davis, West Virginia
DH: Griffin Doersching, Oklahoma State
UT: Nolan McLean, Oklahoma State
SP: Jake Bennett, Oklahoma
SP: Justin Campbell, Oklahoma State
SP: Pete Hansen, Texas*
SP: Brandon Birdsell, Texas Tech
RP: Roman Phansalkar, Oklahoma State
RP: Luke Savage, TCU
RP: Trey Braithwaite, West Virginia
*- Unanimous selection
Second Team All-Big 12
C: Hudson White, Texas Tech
IF: Blake Robertson, Oklahoma
IF: Brayden Taylor, TCU
IF: Trey Faltine, Texas
IF: Skyler Messinger, Texas
IF: Cole Stilwell, Texas Tech
IF: Kurt Wilson, Texas Tech
OF: Jared McKenzie, Baylor
OF: Tanner Tredaway, Oklahoma
OF: Easton Murrell, Texas Tech
DH: McGwire Holbrook, West Virginia
UT: Dylan Phillips, Kansas State
SP: Riley Cornelio, TCU
SP: Marcelo Perez, TCU
SP: Lucas Gordon, Texas
SP: Andrew Morris, Texas Tech
RP: Trevin Michael, Oklahoma
RP: Nolan McLean, Oklahoma State
All-Big 12 Honorable Mention
Baylor: Cam Caley, Kyle Nevin, Jack Pineda, Tre Richardson, Tyler Thomas
Kansas: Daniel Hegarty, Tavian Josenberger, Nolan Metcalf, Caleb Upshaw
Kansas State: Kaelen Culpepper, Nick Goodwin, Dominic Johnson
Oklahoma: Jimmy Crooks
Oklahoma State: Marcus Brown, Trevor Martin, Nolan McLean (IF), David Mendham, Hueston Morrill, Bryce Osmond
TCU: Luke Boyers, Kurtis Byrne, Elijah Nunez, River Ridings, Garrett Wright
Texas: Douglas Hodo III, Austin Todd
Texas Tech: Derek Bridges, Ty Coleman, Parker Kelly, Owen Washburn
West Virginia: Ben Hampton, Noah Short, Jacob Watters, JJ Wetherholt
Big 12 All-Freshman Team
Kaelen Culpepper, Kansas State
Wallace Clark, Oklahoma*
Cade Horton, Oklahoma
Jackson Nicklaus, Oklahoma*
Roc Riggio, Oklahoma State
Zach Ehrhard, Oklahoma State*
David Bishop, TCU*
Mason Molina, Texas Tech
Owen Washburn, Texas Tech*
Hudson White, Texas Tech*
Chris Sleeper, West Virginia
JJ Wetherholt, West Virginia*
*- Unanimous selection
