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The Wisconsin Rapids Rafters send eight current and former players to Major League teams in draft
Wisconsin Rapids, Wis. – The Wisconsin Rapids Rafters are excited to announce eighth Rafter players, past and present, were selected in the 2019 Major League First-Year Player Draft.
2017 Rafter alum Bryson Stott became the highest-drafted Rafter in the team’s 10-year history when he was picked 14thoverall by the Philadelphia Phillies. Stott, a UNLV product and shortstop, holds the Rafters record for at-bats, games played, hits, stolen bases, and runs scored.
TCU junior and member of the 2017 Rafter team Jake Guenther was drafted in the seventh round by the Tampa Bay Rays. Guenther was teammates in the infield with Stott on the 2017 team that broke a Northwoods League record for regular-season wins.
Right-handed pitcher Cole Waites, who played in Rapids in 2018 and signed with the Rafters again for 2019, was selected in the 18thround by the San Francisco Giants. Waites is a junior at West Alabama. 2017 Rafter and catcher Tyler Krabbe went in the 19thround to the Houston Astros.
The Oakland A’s selected a pair of Rafters in rounds 24 and 25, picking up 2018 Rafters Trayson Kubo and Ty Duvall. Kubo, a right-handed pitcher, appeared in one game as a returner in 2019 for the Cranberry and Gold and was honored with a standing ovation at Witter Field on Wednesday night.
Pitcher Nick Avila, a 2017 Rafters alum, was drafted in the 26thround by the San Francisco Giants, joining Cole Waites in the Giants organization. The Pittsburgh Pirates selected pitcher Daniel Ross from the 2018 Rafter team in the 39thround.
The 2019 MLB Draft raised the Rafters all-time total to 60 draft picks in the team’s 10thAnniversary Season. The Northwoods League saw 166 current and former players selected in this year’s draft.
Want to attend a Rafters game this season? Single-game tickets are on sale now. For more information on all Rafters ticket offerings visit Raftersbaseball.com, call the Rafthouse at 715-424-5400, or come visit us over at historic Witter Field. The Rafters ticket office is open from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, Monday through Friday at Witter Field, 521 Lincoln Street in Wisconsin Rapids.
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The Wisconsin Rapids Rafters are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. The Northwoods League is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 22 teams, drawing significantly more fans, in a friendly ballpark experience, than any league of its kind. A valuable training ground for coaches, umpires and front office staff, over 200 former Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including three-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (WAS), two-time World Series Champions Ben Zobrist (CHC) and Brandon Crawford (SFG) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (BOS), Jordan Zimmermann (DET) and Curtis Granderson (TOR). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League portal. For more information, visit www.raftersbaseball.com or download the new Northwoods League Mobile App on the Apple App Store or on Google Play and set the Rafters as your favorite team.