Post Tagged with: "MLB draft"

AU BASEBALL: Record 9 Tigers drafted

Trent Mummey and Hunter Morris were both taken aback Tuesday afternoon as they waited to see where they would respectively land on the second day of the Major League Baseball Draft.

Mummey was expecting to see his name scroll across the computer screen in the fourth round, and it did. Only it was the Baltimore Orioles with the 118th overall pick — a team he hadn’t made contact with in the days leading up to the draft.

“I haven’t really talked to them much,” Mummey said, “but it was exciting they took me.”

Morris, meanwhile, had his “eyebrows raised” as he waited, and waited, and waited.

Finally, Morris, the SEC’s Player of the Year, was selected 11 picks after Mummey, 129th overall, by the Milwaukee Brewers.

AU BASEBALL: Tigers try to stay focused as MLB Draft approaches

John Pawlowski has been in this position before, but it doesn’t make the task any easier.

As the pitching coach at Clemson, Pawlowski had the unenviable task of trying to maintain the focus of both ace starter Kris Benson and closer
Billy Koch mere hours after they were selected first and fourth, respectively, in the 1996 Major League Baseball Draft. It worked out just fine that day, as Clemson eliminated Alabama, 14-13, in an elimination game at the College World Series in Omaha, Neb.

That positive experience, Pawlowski said, won’t make things any easier at this weekend’s NCAA Regional. As many as seven of his players will be just days away from hearing their name called at the 2010 MLB Draft, which kicks off with the first round Monday.