2010 Draft Eligibles: Anchorage Glacier Pilots

With every passing day we're hurtling headlong toward the biggest day of the year for prospect watchers: the MLB Rule 4 draft. We're going through the ABL team by team, seeing which former players are eligible to be drafted this year, and today we're going to have a peek at the Anchorage Glacier Pilots. The Pilots have one of the most exciting draft classes in the league this year, so let's see who they've got.

The biggest names on the list have to be a pair of Pilot pitchers out of the University of Kentucky: James Paxton and Logan Darnell. Paxton is a big, hard-throwing southpaw with a fastball that he can run up to about 98 mph, settling in at about 95. He compliments this with a power slider and a changeup. We mentioned this the other day when we updated the Pro Prospects list, but Paxton somehow rubbed the NCAA the wrong way and instead of butting heads with them all year long, he opted out of his senior season at UK and went to work in the independent leagues (this does not nullify him for the MLB draft).

His teammate Darnell took over the role of staff ace for the Wildcats after he proved he could make the move from the pen with a stellar Glacier Pilots season last year. Baseball America named him the sixth-best prospect in the ABL for his efforts. Darnell is also a lefty; he doesn't throw as hard (topping out at 91-92) but he has a three-quarters delivery that helps him generate some interesting movement. 
And what about Drew Heid? He's not your prototypical outfielder by any means; if you looked at the guy you'd think he'd be a light-hitting middle infielder with no power. You'd be wrong. Everywhere he's gone, the guy has hit the cover off everything. I don't know how far he'll go in baseball but a guy who hits .400 every season in any league, whether it's in college or in the wood-bat leagues, is going to get drafted.

Luke Yoder could be an interesting draft choice; he's got age to both his advantage and disadvantage. Disadvantage because he's not got a lot of projectability left in him; as far as raw talent goes it's pretty much what you see is what you get. The advantage is that he could probably climb through the minors pretty fast and possibly be battling for a roster spot in the bigs before you know it.

Finally, I have to be pulling for Bryn Calhoun. The kid's from Sitka, I'm from Wrangell, we have that Southeast AK bond. I don't know that he's day 1 material but I'm going to be rooting for him to get the chance to go pro.

So those are the "headliners" who I've identified, but that's by no means the end of the list. Following is a complete list of all draft-eligible Glacier Pilots alumni I've been able to identify. As always, please let me know if I've made any omissions or errors.

Last	First	Pos	College	Team	Year
Alonso	Carlos	3B	Delaware	Pilots	2009
Brown	David	RHP	Long Beach State	Pilots	2008
Brunelle	Parker	C	Florida State	Pilots	2008
Calhoun	Bryn	RHP	Chico State	Pilots	2009
Campbell	Darrin	RHP	San Diego	Pilots	2008
Darnell	Logan	LHP	Kentucky	Pilots	2009
Dellasega	Daniel	C	Kansas State	Pilots	2009
Emmons	Dustin	RHP	UC Riverside	Pilots	2008
Everett	Tyler	RHP	Florida State	Pilots	2008
Glad	Gunner	UTIL	Kentucky	Pilots	2009
Hairgrove	Trevor	IF	UC Riverside	Pilots	2009
Heid	Drew	OF	Gonzaga	Pilots	2009
Hubbell	Taylor	LHP	LA Lafayette	Pilots	2009
Jones	Jonathan	OF	Long Beach State	Pilots	2008
Kemp	Justin	RHP	Wichita State	Pilots	2009
Larkins	Matt	RHP	UC Riverside	Pilots	2009
Lechuga	Sheldon	LHP	Chico State	Pilots	2009
Mauldin	DJ	RHP	Cal Poly	Pilots	2009
Mitchell	Jason	RHP	UT Arlington	Pilots	2009
Paxton	James	LHP	Kentucky	Pilots	2008
Sandbrink	Danny	RHP	Stanford	Pilots	2008
Siddons	Joe	IF	CS Fullerton	Pilots	2009
Whitney	Tyler	LHP	Mississippi State	Pilots	2008
Yoder	Luke	OF	Cal Poly	Pilots	2007, 08