Cardinals draft 19 players through first 15 rounds;
on day 2 Cardinals draft 5 pitchers, 7 infielders, 1 outfielder & 1 catcher
ST. LOUIS, Mo., June 5, 2012 – The St. Louis Cardinals selected six pitchers, two outfielders, nine infielders and two catchers after two days of the 2012 First-Year Player Draft. The breakdown of the first 19 picks has the Cardinals drafting 15 college and four high school players overall. Four of the players are still playing in the Super Regional round of the College World Series and seven of the players reside in California.
The Cardinals led off the 2nd round by drafting third baseman Carson Kelly out of Westview High School in Beaverton, Ore. Kelly, the Gatorade 2012 Oregon High School Player of the Year, was a member of the 2011 Team USA Gold Medal winning club in the Pan American Games, led the Westview High School team to their first 6A State Championship in 2011 and became the highest Oregon high school senior drafted since Steve Bechler was drafted in the third round by the Orioles in 1998. Kelly batted .398 with 5 HR and 26 RBI during his senior season, while posting a 1.261 OPS and was 6-3 with a 1.09 ERA as a pitcher.
Left-handed pitcher Tim Cooney, the Cardinals 3rd round pick, was the Friday night starting pitcher for Wake Forest University in 2012 posting a 6-7 record with a 3.82 ERA and 90 strikeouts in 99.0 innings. He ranked 8th in his college career in both strikeouts (235) and innings pitched (278.0) for the Demon Deacons.
Alex Mejia, the 4th round pick out of the University of Arizona, was both the PAC-12 Player of the Year and PAC-12 Defensive Player of the Year as well as a Louisville Slugger First Team All-American. He became the sixth Wildcat to earn the PAC-12 Player-of-the-Year honor with the previous five all making the Major League’s including former Red Sox manager Terry Francona. Mejia, who started all 172 games of his career at Arizona at shortstop, is currently batting .367 with 3 HR and 51 RBI, for the Arizona team who will be hosting a Super Regional vs. St. John’s this upcoming weekend. Mejia’s father Carlo was an All-American third baseman at Pepperdine and his cousin Marco Estrada is a pitcher for the Milwaukee Brewers.
Cory Jones, the 5th round pick, is a 6-foot-5, 220 lb., right-handed pitcher from the College of the Canyons (Calif.). Jones posted a 7-0 record with a 2.64 ERA and 89 strikeouts in 61.1 innings for 13.1 strikeouts/9 IP. He recorded four double-digit strikeout games including 11 strikeouts in 4.1-inning performance to end his 2012 season against Division 1 opponent UC-Santa Barbara.
Kurt Heyer, the 6th round pick and the Cardinals second pick out of the University of Arizona, is a Golden Spikes semifinalist and three-time All-PAC 12 pitcher. The right-handed pitcher is leading the nation in innings pitched (128.2), tied for the NCAA lead with 12 victories and T22nd in ERA (2.03) with seven complete games (T4th in NCAA). His 341 career strikeouts rank fourth in Arizona team history and he has struck out over 100 batters his first two seasons with 98 so far this year. His father Robert was a football player on the 1979 Delaware National Championship team.
Others chosen during this day’s selections include Kyle Barraclough in the 7th round. Barraclough, a right-handed pitcher, became the Cardinals second pick from St. Mary’s College. He was a 40th round pick by the Twins in 2011 and struck out the second most batters in school history, passing former MLB pitcher and Gael alum Tom Candiotti earlier in his senior season. Rowan Wick, the 9th round selection, is a catcher and member of the 2010 Canadian Junior National Team. He was a former 19th round pick of the Brewers in 2010 and signed his National Letter of Intent to North Carolina State, being recruited by assistant coach Tom Holliday, father of Cardinals’ left-fielder Matt Holliday.
Jacob Wilson, the Cardinals 10th round selection and a second baseman at the University of Memphis, was the 2012 Conference USA Player of the Year, leading the conference with 17 HR (T10th in NCAA) and slugging .615 while finishing second with 64 RBI.
Shortstop Trey Williams, an 11th round selection out of Valencia (Calif.) High School, is the son of former Major Leaguer Eddie Williams, who spent parts of 10 seasons with six different organizations. Brett Wiley, the 13th round selection, is a shortstop out of Jefferson College in Hillsboro, Mo. Wiley was named to the 2012 JUCO World Series All-Tournament team.
The 2012 draft continues Wednesday and will go through 40 rounds. All remaining rounds can be heard on www.mlb.com.
2012 FIRST-YEAR PLAYER DRAFT - RECAP
Rd., Player (overall pick) Pos. B-T Ht. Wt. School Hometown
1. Michael Wacha (19) RHP R-R 6-6 195 Texas A&M University Texarkana, Texas
1. James Ramsey (23) CF L-R 6-0 180 Florida State University Alpharetta, Ga.
1A. Stephen Piscotty (36) 3B R-R 6-3 185 Stanford University Pleasanton, Calif.
1A. Patrick Wisdom (52) 3B R-R 6-2 210 St. Mary’s (Calif.) College Murrieta, Calif.
1A. Steve Bean (59) C L-R 6-2 190 Rockwall (Texas) High School Rockwall, Texas
2. Carson Kelly (86) 3B R-R 6-2 210 Westview (Ore.) High School Portland, Ore.
3. Tim Cooney (117) LHP L-L 6-3 195 Wake Forest University Collegeville, Pa.
4. Alex Mejia (150) SS R-R 6-1 200 University of Arizona Sylmar, Calif.
5. Cory Jones (180) RHP R-R 6-5 220 College of the Canyons (Calif.) Simi Valley, Calif.
6. Kurt Heyer (210) RHP R-R 6-2 211 University of Arizona Huntington Beach, Calif.
7. Kyle Barraclough (240) RHP R-R 6-3 218 St. Mary’s (Calif.) College Santa Clara, Calif.
8. Yoenny Gonzalez (270) OF R-R 5-11 180 College of Central Florida Miami, Fla.
9. Rowan Wick (300) C L-R 6-3 220 Cypress College (Calif.) North Vancouver, B.C.
10. Jacob Wilson (330) INF R-R 6-0 195 University of Memphis Arlington, Tenn.
11. Trey Williams (360) INF R-R 6-1 210 Valencia (Calif.) High School Saugus, Calif.
12. Max Foody (390) LHP L-L 6-3 220 IMG Academy/Pendleton School (Fla.) Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.
13. Brett Wiley (420) INF L-R 5-10 175 Jefferson College (Mo.) Huntington, Ind.
14. Anthony Melchionda (450) INF R-R 6-0 195 Boston College Braintree, Mass.
15. Bruce Caldwell (480) INF L-R 5-11 180 Spartanburg-Methodist Coll. (S.C.) Sumter, S.C.