Today and tomorrow are two of my favorite days of the year, at least as Northwoods League activities go. Today the 2008 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft begins (1:00 PM Central on ESPN2). When it comes to the players in the Northwoods League, one of the League’s main objectives is to get these guys the experience in a minor league atmosphere to improve their draft status and accelerate their ability to succeed at the professional level. Today we’ll begin to see some of the success stories. It seems that year after year, more and more NWL alumni get selected in the early rounds. The NWL anticipates a very good first five rounds for it’s alumni.
Watch for these names in the early parts of the draft today and tomorrow. They played in the NWL for at least one season from 2005-2007. Each of them was listed in “Baseball America’s” Top 200.
Roger Kieschnick, OF, Texas Tech, St. Cloud River Bats
Brett Hunter, RHP, Pepperdine, Alexandria Beetles
Tim Murphy, LHP, UCLA, Duluth Huskies
Aaron Pribanic, RHP, Nebraska, Brainerd Blue Thunder
Eric Thames, OF, Pepperdine, La Crosse Loggers
Brad Holt, RHP, UNC Wilmington, La Crosse Loggers
Jason Christian, SS, Michigan, Mankato MoonDogs
Jake Jeffries, C, UC Davis, Eau Claire Express
Brandon Crawford, SS, UCLA, Mankato MoonDogs
Steven Hensley, RHP, Elon, Duluth Huskies
Justin Fitzgerald, RHP, UC Davis, Wisconsin Woodchucks
Xavier Scruggs, 1B, UNLV, Brainerd Blue Thunder
Bryan Evans, RHP, UC Davis, Brainerd Blue Thunder
Stay up to date with this year’s draft and the Northwoods League alumni getting picked right here on “The Hot Corner”.
Curt Carstensen
Director of Operations
Northwoods League
