One way to grab major league scouts' attention is to reach the College World Series. It's not that the teams have tons of big league talent, but a team may be more willing to take a flier on a college star if he was able to help propel them to college baseball's biggest stage. Indeed, six players were drafted in last year's MLB Draft, and only one of them (redshirt sophomore Michael Clark) did not sign with a team.
Naturally, the gold standard for Kent State baseball is Thurman Munson, who played 11 seasons for the Yankees, playing in seven All-Star games until his tragic death. They've also produced All-Stars Rich Rollins and Steve Stone and a couple serviceable pitchers, Dustin Hermanson and Andy Sonnanstine. There were some who weren't as successful, such as Dirk Hayhurst, who still managed to publish three interesting books.
Kent State Golden Flashes draft history at Baseball-Reference | |||||
Last MLB Player: Matt Guerrier, present | |||||
P | Name | Drafted | 2012 Team | 2013 Team | Comments |
2B | Emmannuel Burriss | 2006, 1st rd | San Francisco Giants | Reds Triple-A Cincinnati Reds | Burriss was designated for assignment by the Giants last summer and demoted to AAA, so he didn't get a chance to play for the World Series team. Now at 28 years old, he needs to show some more offensive production to get back into the big leagues. It's gonna be tough with the Reds, given their infield. |
RHP | Chris Carpenter | 2008, 3rd rd | Boston Red Sox | Red Sox Triple-A Pawtucket Red Sox | It must be fun being traded for a front office executive. Carpenter will begin in Triple-A but I don't see why he won't make it back to the Red Sox, even if only for a little while. He's useful enough. |
RHP | Matt Guerrier | 1999, 10th rd | Los Angeles Dodgers | Same | Until an injury last year, Guerrier has been a very active reliever for many years, getting in at least 70 games from 2007-11. |
LHP | Andrew Chafin | 2011, 1st rd | D'backs High-A Visalia Rawhide | Same | Chafin is certainly one of Arizona's top prospects, and he struck out a ton of batters last year. Minor League Ball has him as the Diamondbacks' sixth best prospect. |
LHP | Kyle Hallock | 2011, 10th rd | Astros Class A Lexington Legends | Astros Triple-A Oklahoma City RedHawks | Hallock began the season in Class A but suddenly got the jump to Triple-A, out of nowhere. His numbers weren't very good last year but he also missed a lot of time due to injury. |
C | David Lyon | 2012, 34th rd | Rangers Arizona League | Rangers Class A Hickory Crawdads | |
1B | Travis Shaw | 2011, 9th rd | Red Sox Double-A Portland Sea Dogs | Same | Shaw might be the best first base prospect Boston has, but it's the toughest position of them all to come up as a first baseman, because you need to hit right away. He's starting to show power, but he'll have to show more. |
RHP | Ryan Bores | 2012, 27th rd | Rangers Arizona League | ? | Bores hasn't been assigned to a team yet, but he did well in the Arizona league, giving up just two runs in 14 2/3 innings and allowing 12 walks plus hits. |
SS/3B | Andrew Davis | 2007, 11th rd | Ind. League Lake Erie Crushers | Same | To his credit, Davis is one of the top Frontier League players, being named to three All-Star games and being named MVP runner-up once. It doesn't get more MAC than that. |
INF | Nick Hamilton | 2012, 35th rd | Indians Arizona League | ? | |
RHP | Ben Klafczynski | 2011, 20th rd | Ind. League Lake Erie Crushers | Red Sox minor leagues | Klafczynski was drafted by the Cubs as an outfielder, then was released, and converted to a relief pitcher, impressing Red Sox scouts enough to sign them into their organization. |
2B/SS | Jimmy Rider | 2012, 26th rd | Pirates Short Season-A State College Spikes | Pirates Short Season-A Jamestown Jammers | His B-R page says his full name is "James Bottles Rider." Seriously? |
1B/3B | Greg Rohan | 2009, 21st rd | Cubs Triple-A Iowa Cubs | Same | Rohan will start the season on the disabled list and once he gets healthy, he might crack the big league team at some point. |
LHP | David Starn | 2012, 7th rd | Braves Class A Rome Braves | Same | Starn is also starting the season on the disabled list. |