Mat-Su Miners: NCAA postseason plays role in ABL recruiting

PALMER - Recruiting in the Alaska Baseball League can be sort of a Catch-22 sometimes.

General managers, such as Mat-Su Miner's boss Pete Christopher, want to lure the top talent from the top college programs to the 49th state for the summer. But the ABL squads do not want to wait half of the summer for those players to get here.

Each year, as the NCAA announces its selections for the College World Series regional tournaments, the general managers of the ABL sit anxiously, while clinching a copy of their team's roster, and hope that the bulk of their squad won't be catching a plane to

Alaska two weeks into the season.

This spring, most of the players on the Miners' 2006 roster, and Mat-Su's head coach, were on teams with the potential of earning a bid to the CWS regionals. Eleven of the players currently on the Mat-Su roster saw their college seasons extended by at least a week, and will participate in the regionals that stretch from June 2 to June 5. Survival of the regional round ensures teams a spot in the College World Series, which is slated to being on June 16.

That is when the delay really kicks in.

Christopher said he has a few criteria when he is scouring the nation for potential players to add to his roster. He wants to get players from the top programs. If he scores someone from a top-10 team, there's a good chance that player won't be seeing the Mat-Su Valley until sometime in late June. But if he concentrates on talent from teams ranging from about 10 to 50, there's a good chance that athlete will make it to Hermon Brothers Field by opening day. Christopher said it can be good to find players on teams that qualify for the regionals, but that could potentially lose in the first round.

Christopher also has to take a calculated risk. There are programs - such as Notre Dame, Stanford and Oregon State - that feed the Miners with players every year. These programs always seem to earn spots in the big tournament. But the teams also have a history of sending quality players to Mat-Su. In recent years, Oregon State has built a tradition of traveling deep into the tourney. But the assistant head coach of the Beavers program is a good friend of Christopher's. Every year, Christopher knows he'll get quality from OSU.

&#8220Oregon State, Stanford, Notre Dame - I know the guys coming up are usually good kids. I don't have to worry about them,” Christopher said.

This year players on the Mat-Su roster from Oregon State, Notre Dame, Stanford, San Diego, College of Charleston, Pepperdine, Lehigh and Hawaii will be participating in the regional round.

Mat-Su also has a pair of players on the roster with the potential of being selected in the Major League Baseball Amateur Draft, which is slated for June 6-7. College of Charleston pitcher Josh McLaughlin and Washington State hurler Wayne Daman could sign a professional contract if selected, and would not play for the Miners.

Taking draft-eligible talent is also another factor general mangers take into consideration when recruiting.

&#8220I kind of shy away from juniors and junior college players,” Christopher said.

Players in their first or second year of junior college, or in their third year at a four-year school are eligible to be selected. Christopher will take juniors, but only if their coach assures him that player will most likely not be selected. Last year Notre Dame sent junior infielder Matt Bransfield to Mat-Su. He wasn't drafted, but he was named All-ABL.

Players like Bransfield are more likely to be signed by a professional team following their senior year of college.

Another major consideration for Christopher is a school's academic schedule.

&#8220A school on semesters is a lot better than a school on quarters,” Christopher said. &#8220On semesters, a kid gets out of school in the middle of May. On quarters, it's the second week of June.”

Daman is one of three Washington State players on the 2006 Mat-Su roster, coming from a school that is on quarters.. He and infielders Paul Gran and Travis Coulter could miss the first games of the season while they finish the final quarter of the year.

First-year Mat-Su head coach Matt Dorey is an assistant at WSU. If the Cougars had made regionals, as they were expected, the Miners could have been without their head coach and three players for the first part of the season. If that had happened, Christopher said, Mat-Su assistant coach Ron Omori would have taken the team until Dorey arrived in the

Valley.

Players not on postseason teams begin arriving in the Valley, the week of June 5.

Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com