Five Red Storm baseball players were selected in the 2008 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft. Senior pitcher George Brown and junior pitchers Scott Barnes, Justin Gutsie, Colin Lynch and Jared Yecker were drafted by five different teams.
Barnes was the first St. John’s player to get selected this year. The lefty was picked in the 8th round (237 overall) by the San Francisco Giants. A back-to-back first team All-Big East selection, Barnes was 7-3 with a 3.69 ERA in 15 starts this season. The lefty had 90 strikeouts in 90.1 innings and allowed opponents just a .216 batting average. The junior’s 90 strikeouts rank seventh all-time in a single season and the 90.1 innings rank tied for seventh.
In three years with the Red Storm, Barnes ranks third all-time with 263 strikeouts. The lefty had 99 strikeouts in 95.1 innings pitched in 2007, both of which are also ranked in the all-time single season top ten (sixth and third, respectively).
Gutsie was then drafted by the Texas Rangers in the 14th round (423 overall). The right-handed reliever was 4-3 with a 4.50 ERA in a career-high 19 appearances for St. John’s this season. Gutsie also had one save and tallied 35 strikeouts in 28.0 innings. The reliever allowed just a .241 batting average.
The Florida Marlins took Yecker in the 22nd round (658 overall) and Brown was selected by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 27th round (815 overall). A Louisville Slugger second team All-American and the NCBWA District II Player of the Year, Brown was also named the Big East Pitcher of the Year and was an All-Big East first-team selection. The lefty finished the season with a 9-1 record and was a perfect 9-0 in the regular season.
The San Diego Padres drafted Lynch in the 40th round (1215 overall) to round out the Red Storm’s 2008 draft class. Lynch was 4-1 with a 3.58 ERA and 13 saves. An All-Big East second team selection, the reliever made a team-high 24 appearances and had 23 strikeouts in 27.2 innings.
A closer, Lynch ranks second in school history with 24 career saves and is only the second St. John’s pitcher to reach the 20 career save plateau (Craig Hansen, 26). Lynch also ranks second and third in single season saves with 13 (2008) and 11 (2007). In 72 appearances, Lynch is 8-5 with 92 strikeouts in 103.2 innings.
SJU signs English big man. St. John’s head men’s basketball coach Norm Roberts announced the signing of English big man Phil Wait to a national letter of intent to join the Red Storm for the 2008-09 season Monday. Wait, a 7-foot-1, 245-pound center originally from Manchester, England, is the third spring signee for Roberts’ squad, in addition to guards TyShwan Edmondson and Quincy Roberts, who both signed in late April.
“Phil is a great kid with great size and an unbelievable basketball I.Q.,” said Roberts, entering his fifth year at the helm of the Red Storm. “He will certainly add size to our program and the kind of skill level in the low post that can make an impact for us next season.”
A long and talented true big man, Wait can score over both shoulders, is an adept passer out of the post and owns a solid jumper to 15-feet. The skilled center spent the 2007-08 season at the Gran Canaria Basketball Academy off the coast of Spain, following two years in prep school at Proctor Academy in Andover, N.H.
Lewis, McClancy stars headed for QC baseball. Andres Marrero, a left-handed pitcher and outfielder at Francis Lewis, and Kyle Contino, and outfielder and right-handed pitcher at Monsignor McClancy, have both received baseball scholarships to Queens College for next year.
