National baseball website lists former Miners as top pro prospects

PALMER — It’s been nearly two months since the Mat-Su Miners won the 2016 Alaska Baseball League title, but the Miners still continue draw headlines in national baseball publications.

Weeks after dominating Baseball America’s top prospects list, the Miners posted another strong showing on Perfect Game’s list of top prospects in the Alaska Baseball League. The top 3 players on Perfect Game’s list of the 20 best prospects with potential for success at the professional level pitched for the Miners in 2016. Six of the top 10, and seven of the top 16 played for the Miners.

Leading the list is Arizona sophomore Cody Deason, a 6-foot-4, 210-pound, hard-throwing right-hander.

“The first thing is the eye test. You’ve got to look the part,” Mat-Su Miners head coach Ben Taylor said recently. “A right-handed arm with size is prime to attract some attention.”

Deason made four starts with the Miners in 2016, finishing 1-1 with a 1.89 earned run average, and 19 strikeouts in 19 innings pitched.

Texas A&M sophomore right-hander Stephen Kolek, who was named the ABL’s top prospect by Baseball America, is ranked second on Perfect Game’s list

“He’s got first-round stuff,” Taylor said of Kolek’s potential in a future MLB First-Year Player Draft. “It would not shock me, two years from now to see him as one of the first 30 names called.”

Like Deason, Kolek also has the build scouts like, standing at 6-3 and 210 pounds. Kolek made a half-dozen regular-season starts for the Miners, finishing 4-0 with a 2.43 ERA. Kolek, who made the start in the 9-3 victory over the Peninsula Oilers that clinched the ABL title for the Miners, struck out 32 hitters in 37 innings, while walking only 10.

Another big pitcher, Arizona State sophomore Connor Higgens, a 6-5 and 230-pound lefty, landed third on the list.

Perfect Game’s list also included four other members of Mat-Su’s 2016 squad: Grand Canyon junior outfielder Garrison Schwartz (sixth), Kansas State senior closer Jordan Floyd (eighth), Lewis-Clark State right-handed pitcher Gage Burland (10th) and Long Beach State sophomore pitcher and outfielder Jacob Hughey (16th).