Sitka Star Drafted Into the Big Leagues

Wed, June 10, 2009
Posted in Alaska News

A former Sitka baseball standout has been drafted into the majors.

Robert Woolsey, KCAW – Sitka

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buddhakwee

Why not movie ? or Screenshot ?

Stop Dreaming Start Action

Charles Bingham

Matt Way's fifth-round pick by Philadelphia (167th overall) on Wednesday, June 10, makes the former Sitka High/Washington State LHP the second-highest draft pick to come out of Alaska. The top Alaska pick was RHP Brian Montalbo of Dimond High, who was drafted in the fourth round by Atlanta in 2000 (130th overall). Brian didn't sign with the Braves and went to Cal-Berkeley. He later was picked in the seventh round by Milwaukee in 2003, where he made it to the high A level during his three-year minor league career.

The only other two Alaskans I can remember being picked in the first 10 rounds are SS/3B Trajan Langdon (East Anchorage, selected in the sixth round by San Diego in 1994, with the Padres buying out Langdon's basketball scholarship to Duke so he could play baseball in the summer) and LHP Chad Bentz (Juneau-Douglas/Long Beach State, seventh round by Montreal in 2001).

The only three players to reach the majors who spent the bulk of their youth/high school baseball careers in Alaska are RHP Marshall Boze of Kenai Central/Southwestern Community College (1996 Milwaukee Brewers), LHP Chad Bentz of Juneau-Douglas/Long-Beach State (2004 Montreal Expos and briefly with 2005 Florida Marlins, not playing independent baseball with the American Defenders of New Hampshire) and LHP Chris Mabeus of Soldotna/Lewis-Clark State University (2006 Milwaukee Brewers).

There are several players who were born in Alaska to make the majors (Curt Schilling, Shawn Chacon, David Williams, Josh Phelps, Randy Kutcher, Tom Sullivan, Scott Loucks, Aaron Cunningham, etc.), but most of them left the state when they were very young and didn't develop their skills in the state.

By the way, the top Pacific Northwest scout for the Phillies is Tim Kissner, who went to Juneau-Douglas High School and also played for Oregon State and the Anchorage Glacier Pilots in the Alaska League. Here's an article I wrote about Tim in 2004, http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/041304/spo_....

Also, Matt was selected in the 36th round last year by San Francisco, not the 37th round (which is what was reported in this story).

Charles Bingham
Sitka, Alaska (longtime former sports editor/reporter for several Alaska newspapers and former Alaska baseball correspondent for Baseball America)