Former Miners selected in MLB draft

June 10, 2005

JEREMIAH BARTZ/Frontiersman sports editor

A dozen former members of the Mat-Su Miners were selected in the Major League Baseball first-year player draft earlier this week.

Nine members of the 2004 Alaska Baseball League championship squad were selected in the 50-round draft.

Leading the list of former Miners is Stanford second baseman Jed Lowrie. After spending the summer of 2004 in the Valley, Lowrie returned to Stanford and earned Pac-10 player of the year honors following his junior season. Tuesday, Lowrie was chosen 45th overall by the Boston Red Sox in the "sandwich" round. The sandwich round is a series of compensatory picks between the first and second rounds.

Chris Mason, an All-ABL selection last season, was selected by Tampa Bay in the second round - 56th overall.

"I knew he'd go high," Mat-Su Miners general manager Pete Christopher said. "Make-up is a big part of pitching, and his is off the charts. There is nobody I'd rather give the ball to if the game was on the line."

When the ABL title was on the line, the Miners gave Mason the ball. He responded by throwing a complete game four-hitter, and led Mat-Su to a 6-2 title-clinching win over the Alaska Goldpanners.

Mason led the Miners last season with a 7-1 record, and 56 strikeouts.

In his junior season with the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, Mason posted a 6-7 record, with a league-leading 2.80 earned run average. He set single-season school records in strikeouts (135), complete games (8) and innings pitched (118.2). Following the season, Mason was named the Southern Conference pitcher of the year.

"It is an unbelievable feeling that cannot be described in words," Mason said in a press release issued by North Carolina-Greensboro athletics. "It is something that I have been working towards the last 16 years. I had a solid high school career and thought that after my freshman year at UNCG that I was heading in the right direction, but getting drafted this high was certainly a little bit of a shock."

Mason was one of four Miner starting pitchers from the 2004 season to be drafted. Cleveland chose Ryan Edell, a College of Charleston product, in the eighth round. The New York Mets took Kevin Tomasiewicz, from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, in the 26th round. Seattle nabbed Stanford ace Jeff Gilmore in the 31st round.

A fifth starter from last season, Chris Malone, was signed by the Los Angeles Dodgers soon after the 2004 National Baseball Congress World Series. He is now pitching for the Dodgers' affiliate in the Gulf Coast League.

Of the pitchers, Christopher hoped to see Gilmore drafted higher.

"He just doesn't throw 90 mph, and that turns some scouts off," said Christopher, a former associate scout with the Kansas City Royals. "The smart scouts know that speed is not everything. He gets guys out, spots his pitches. That's a plus in my opinion."

Also selected were Matt Edwards (16th round by Philadelphia), Zeke Parraz (25th round by Oakland), Jase Turner (27th round by Kansas City), Joey Hooft (28th round by Texas) and John Hester (33rd round by Boston).

Edwards (Notre Dame), Parraz, (Nevada-Las Vegas), and Hester (Stanford) played for Mat-Su last season.

Turner (Pomona-Pitzer) and Hooft (Arizona State) were part of the 2003 squad.

A pair of players picked up by the Miners after the end of the regular season last year were also drafted. Mat-Su added Goldpanners infielder Cameron Blair and Anchorage Glacier Pilots outfielder Mike Paulk to the roster prior to traveling to the NBC World Series in Wichita, Kan. Pittsburgh selected Blair in the sixth round, and Paulk was taken by Colorado in the 13th round.