America East Baseball Three names called at the MLB draft

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Last week was not just all-star week in Major League Baseball, it was also draft week for college baseball. The process began last Sunday night and lasted until early Tuesday afternoon. Twenty rounds in all were completed. The America East Conference had three players selected in the draft, two from Bryant College and one from the Maine Black Bears. Let’s take a look at whose names were called.

Quinn McDaniels was taken with the 153rd pick in the fifth round by the San Francisco Giants. The second baseman of the regular season and postseason champions Maine Black Bears played 143 games in his career at Maine. He finished his career with a slash line of .319/.434/..577. Quinn hit 32 home runs, 34 doubles, and five triples. As a number two hitter in the Black Bears lineup, McDaniels was 56 for 68 in stolen base attempts. This past spring, he posted a slash line of .352/.435/. 579 with 16 HR and 14 doubles. He set an America East record for walks with 60 which was also tied for 10th in the nation. His on-base percentage of .513 was 12th in the country. Quinn’s 1.13 walks per game was the third-highest in Division I. He was a constant for the Black Bears starting all 53 games this spring for Maine.

Bryant College had a pair of pitchers taken in the draft. First, there was RHP Coleman Picard who was taken by the Kansas City Royals with the 169th pick in the sixth round. Picard becomes the 9th member of the program to be taken in the first ten rounds and the 11th junior to be selected. After transferring from Hartford where he was a member of the Hawks bullpen, Picard made the transition to starting with some success. He went 2-2 with a 3.43 ERA IN 42 IP. He walked 12 while striking out 59 (12.64/9 IP). He had double digits strikeout games vs #14 Virginia Tech (12 over 5 innings of one-run ball), and in a six-inning win over Davidson where he punched out 10 hitters. Picard did miss five starts in the middle of the season due to injury but came back strong allowing only one unearned run in 15.1 Ip spanning a four-game starting stretch from the end of April until the middle of May.

Brent Wichrowski was taken in the 13th round with the 392 pick by the Milwaukee Brewers. He made 32 appearances over three years at Bryant with 15 of those being starts. He leaves with a career record of 7-5 with 109 strikeouts in 92.2 IP. This spring, he went 5-3 with a save in 14 appearances with seven of them being starts. His ERA was 4.50. He allowed 49 hits in 50 innings pitched with 64 strikeouts in those 50 innings. Brett allowed three earned runs or less in 11 of his 14 appearances. His lone save came against the Virginia Tech Hokies when he fanned three over two scoreless innings.

Not everyone waited until the draft to sign a pro baseball contract. Tony Krueger of the University of Maryland Baltimore Country decided not to wait for the draft and instead signed a contract with Neptunus, a pro team out of Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Krueger had a career year for the Retertivers in which he finished second in the batting race with a .367 average, led the league in doubles with 19, and had 43 RBI. Behind the plate, he was equally as good throwing out 14 base stealers and racking up 16 assists. Tony was named first-team All-Conference as well as ABCA Rawlings second-team and NCAA East All-Region Second Team. The contract with Neptunus was signed on June 27.