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14 CCBL Players Picked In 1st Round of Draft

06/06/2008 9:35 AM

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Y-D Catcher Posey, Taken by Giants at No. 5,
Is Among 14 Cape Cod League Players Picked
In 1st Round of Baseball’s Annual Amateur Draftt

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Fourteen former Cape Cod Baseball League players were selected Thursday, June 5, in the first round of Major League Baseball’s annual amateur entry draft, dramatically illustrating the Cape League’s status as the No. 1 summer collegiate league in the country. 


Buster Posey was selected #5 in the first round of the 2008 MLB draft.
CCBL / swilson 2007

     The Cape Cod League accounted for a whopping 47 percent of all first-round draftees and an astounding 67 percent of the American college players taken. Seven high school players and one Canadian national also were chosen.

     Included among the 14 were four members of the championship Yarmouth - Dennis Red Sox teams of 2006 and 2007. Last season’s runners-up, the Falmouth Commodores, saw three players selected in the first round and two more chosen early in the compensation round, which was sandwiched between the first and second rounds. Falmouth wound up providing five of the first 37 players drafted.

     Last year, seven players from the Cape League were selected in the draft’s first round. 

     The 30 Major League teams drafted a total of 202 players and completed six rounds on the first day of the draft, which was held in the Milk House on the campus of Disney’s Wide World of Sports at Walt Disney World. The draft continued on Friday, June 6. 

     Two players each from the Cotuit Kettleers and the Brewster Whitecaps also went in the first round, and the Orleans Cardinals, Wareham Gatemen and Chatham A’s each saw one player selected. 

     First to go from Yarmouth-Dennis was catcher Gerald “Buster” Posey (Florida State). Many experts felt Posey, a converted shortstop who had a eye-popping season for the Seminoles, would be snapped up by the Tampa Bay Rays, drafting first. But four other players were chosen before he heard his name called by the San Francisco Giants at No. 5.

     Tampa Bay used its No. 1 pick to take high school star Tim Beckham, a “can’t miss” shortstop from Griffin, Ga.

     Tim is not related to Y-D shortstop Gordon Beckham (Georgia), who was selected at No. 8 by the Chicago White Sox. Others from Y-D joining the Soon-to-Be-Millionaires Club were Jason Castro (10th) and Joshua Fields (20th). Castro (Stanford), a catcher-infielder, was picked by the Houston Astros and the Seattle Mariners took right-handed pitcher Fields (Georgia), Beckham’s college teammate who played alongside Posey at Yarmouth-Dennis in 2006.

     Two players who shared first-base duties last summer at Brewster went in the first round. Yonder Alonzo (Miami) was the second Cape League player to be chosen, going to the Cincinnati Reds, who picked seventh, and David Cooper (California-Berkeley) was selected by the Toronto Blue Jays with the 17th pick. Next at No. 18 was Wareham first baseman-outfielder Ike Davis (Arizona State), chosen by the New York Mets with a pick acquired from Atlanta as part of the deal that sent pitcher Tom Glavine back to the Braves.

     Right-hander Aaron Crow (Missouri), the first pitcher chosen in the draft, went to the Washington Nationals, who picked ninth. Crow led Falmouth into the championship finals and was named the league’s Outstanding Pro Prospect in 2007. Falmouth’s two other first-rounders were third baseman Brett Wallace (Arizona State), No. 13, by the St. Louis Cardinals, and southpaw hurler Christian Friedrich (Eastern Kentucky), the Colorado Rockies’ first pick at No. 25. 

     Cotuit and South Carolina teammates Justin Smoak and Reese Havens both went in the first round. Smoak, a first baseman, was selected at No. 11 by the Texas Rangers, while shortstop Havens was the New York Mets’ pick at No. 22. 

     Selections 20 through 23 all had Cape League pedigrees. At No. 20, Y-D ‘s Fields started the run and was followed in order by Orleans right-hander Ryan Perry (Arizona), selected by the Detroit Tigers; the aforementioned Havens, taken by the Mets, and Chatham first baseman Allan Dykstra (Wake Forest), selected by the San Diego Padres.

     Right-hander Steven “Shooter” Hunt (Tulane), who pitched for Falmouth in both 2006 and 2007, was the first player to go in the supplemental round. He went to the Minnesota Twins with pick No. 31. Following at No. 37 was Hunt’s 2007 Falmouth teammate. Conor Gillaspie (Wichita State), the Cape League’s batting champion and Most Valuable Player award winner, who was taken by the San Francisco Giants. 

     Also selected in the compensation round were 2006 Hyannis Mets infielder Ryan Flaherty (Vanderbilt), No. 41, by the Chicago Cubs, and two Wareham left-handed pitchers – Wade Miley (Southeastern Louisiana), No. 43, by the Arizona Diamondbacks and Jeremy Bleich (Stanford), No. 44, by the New York Yankees. 
 

  Joe Sherman, CCBL Public Relations Staff ([email protected])
 

John Garner, Jr.
Director of Public Relations & Broadcasting
(508) 790-0394
[email protected] 

Joe Sherman
Web Editor
(508) 775-4364
[email protected]