VANCOUVER — Four former Port Angeles Lefties pitchers, three from the 2021 squad and one from 2022, were selected in the Major League Baseball draft held this week.
All of the pitchers — Luke Jewett, Steven Brooks, Preston Howey and Liam Paddack — have one thing in common besides playing a summer in Port Angeles. They all have great strikeout rates.
The top Lefties’ draft pick was Luke Jewett of UCLA. He was picked in the eighth round by the Colorado Rockies.
Jewett didn’t have a great year for the Lefties back in 2021 when he was just a college freshman. He had an ERA of 7.28 but did strike out 22 batters in 21 innings.
At UCLA this spring, Jewett was vastly improved in his junior season. He had a 4.35 ERA with 72 strikeouts in 82⅔ innings.
Brooks, out of Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, was taken in the 11th round by the Boston Red Sox. In 2021 with the Lefties, he went 2-3 with a 4.92 ERA. He struck out 36 batters in 45⅔ innings. Brooks, now a junior, had a 5.17 ERA for the Mustangs with a 5-7 record and struck out 72 in 82⅓ innings.
Howey, who is a senior at Saint Mary’s College of California, was selected by the Detroit Tigers in the 14th round. He pitched five games for the Lefties in 2021 with a 2.75 ERA, striking out 21 in 16⅓ innings. With Saint Mary’s this season, he had an ERA of 4.26 with a 4-2 record, striking out 51 in 38 innings.
Paddack, a Gonzaga player, was selected in the 18th round by the Chicago White Sox.
Paddack was attending Spokane Falls Community College when he pitched for the Lefties in 2022. He went 2-1 with a 2.50 ERA, striking out 50 in 36 innings. For Gonzaga this year, he had a 5.76 ERA with 65 strikeouts in 54⅔ innings.
The top draft pick out of the West Coast League was Travis Bazzana, an Australian who was the No. 1 overall pick by the Cleveland Guardians. The Oregon State star played for Corvallis in 2021, hitting .429 for the season, which remains a WCL record. He won the WCL MVP with 81 hits, 18 doubles and five triples. He played three games at Civic Field in Port Angeles against the Lefties, going 4-for-14 with two doubles and an RBI.
At Oregon State, Bazzana hit 45 home runs in three years. He is the second WCL alum to be taken first overall. Adley Rutschman, now a star for the Baltimore Orioles, was taken No. 1 in 2019.
Malcolm Moore of Stanford was another WCL alum taken in the first round, the 30th pick overall. Moore played for Bellingham. He hit .400 in 13 games for the Bells in 2022.
The Seattle Mariners only had one selection out of the WCL, Charlie Beilenson of Duke in the fifth round. He played for Bellingham.
Bellingham led the league with the most draft selections with nine. Corvallis had eight.
NOTE: Major League Baseball All-Star Game MVP Jarren Duran of the Boston Red Sox played in the West Coast League in 2016 as a member of the Walla Walla Sweets. Duran, who hit a go-ahead home run in the All-Star Game, is on pace this season for 45 doubles, 18 triples, 18 home runs, 40 steals and 105 runs. He played college ball at Cal State, Long Beach.
WCL 2024 MLB draft picks
1st round — Travis Bazzana, Oregon State, Corvallis, Cleveland Guardians; Malcolm Moore, Stanford, Bellingham, Texas Rangers.
3rd round — Nick McLain, Arizona State, Bellingham, Chicago White Sox; Thatcher Hurd, LSU, Bellingham, New York Yankees; Jaron DeBerry, Dallas Baptist, Cowlitz, Milwaukee Brewers.
4th round — Jakob Wright, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, Corvallis, Los Angeles Dodgers.
5th round — Sam Stuhr, Univ. of Portland, Corvallis, Oakland A’s; Charlie Beilenson, Duke, Bellingham, Seattle Mariners; Jacob Kmatz, Oregon State, Bend, Tampa Bay Rays; Ryan Stafford, Cal Poly, Corvallis, Baltimore Orioles.
6th round — Matt Ager, UC-Santa Barbara, Corvallis, Pittsburgh Pirates; Aaron Parker, UC-Santa Barbara, Cowlitz, Toronto Blue Jays.
7th round — Bridger Holmes, Oregon State, Springfield, Los Angeles Angels; Ivan Brethowr, UC-Santa Barbara, Edmonton, Chicago Cubs; Nick Brink, Univ. of Portland, Portland, Miami Marlins; Elijah Hainline, Oregon State, Bellingham, Los Angeles Dodgers.
8th round — Luke Jewett, UCLA, Port Angeles, Colorado Rockies.
9th round — Cade McGee, Texas Tech, Cowlitz, St. Louis Cardinals; Zach Swanson, Oregon State, Cowlitz, Detroit Tigers; Jason Doktorczyk, Nevada, Portland, Minnesota Twins; Keith Jones II, New Mexico State, Portland, Texas Rangers.
10th round — Matt Halbach, UC-San Diego, Wenatchee, Chicago Cubs.
11th round — Steven Brooks, Cal Poly, Port Angeles, Boston Red Sox.
12th round — Sean Heppner, Univ. of British Columbia, Kamloops/Victoria, Cleveland Guardians; Zander Darby, UC-Santa Barbara, Corvallis, San Francisco Giants; Connor Caskenette, Purdue, Nanaimo, Miami Marlins.
13th round — R.J. Goron, Oregon, Bend, Los Angeles Angels; Bennett Thompson, Oregon, Bend, Cleveland Guardians; Drake George, Lewis-Clark State, Walla Walla, San Francisco Giants; Cody Schrier, UCLA, Bellingham, Miami Marlins; Mike Villani, Long Beach State, Bellingham, Los Angeles Dodgers; Bryce Boettcher, Oregon, Springfield/Bend, Houston Astros.
14th round — Ryan Magdic, Missouri, Edmonton/Victoria, Oakland A’s; Preston Howey, Saint Mary’s (Cal.), Port Angeles, Detroit Tigers; Cam Clayton, Washington, Portland, Miami Marlins; J.R. Freethy, Nevada, Bellingham, Toronto Blue Jays; Mason Guerra, Oregon State, Bend, Atlanta Braves.
15th round — Joey Gartrell, Univ. of Portland, Corvallis, Boston Red Sox.
16th round — Titus Dumitru, New Mexico State, Corvallis, Atlanta Braves.
17th round — Lucas Ramirez, Tennessee, Victoria, Los Angeles Angels; Hunter Dyrden, Whitworth, Springfield, San Francisco Giants; Micah McDowell, Oregon State, Ridgefield, Miami Marlins; Gavin Smith, Pepperdine, Edmonton, Toronto Blue Jays; Jackson Nicklaus, Oklahoma, Ridgefield, Los Angeles Dodgers.
18th round — Liam Paddack, Gonzaga, Port Angeles, Chicago White Sox; Teo Banks, Tulane, Bellingham, Washington Nationals; Jace Hampson, Everett CC, Wenatchee, New York Mets; Izaak Martinez, UC-San Diego, Cowlitz/Edmonton, Cleveland Guardians; Jake Steels, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, Kelowna, Atlanta Braves; Vicarte Domingo, Univ. of British Columbia, Edmonton/Kamloops, San Diego Padres.
20th round — Carter Frederick, Oklahoma, Portland, Kansas City Royals; Hunter Omlid, Arizona State, Victoria, Colorado Rockies; Bryce Martin Grudzielanek, UC-San Diego, Yakima Valley, Toronto Blue Jays; Merit Jones, Utah, Corvallis, Minnesota Twins.
