2011 Draft Eligibles: Goldpanners of Fairbanks

Cabral, Meaux and Newman lead a class of likely Goldpanner draft picks.

Ryan Cabral could be a nice pick-up for a pro team
in the 2011 MLB draft.

The Goldpanners have an interesting list of draft eligible players this year. I think that 2010 was a stronger year in the top-prospect department than 2009; however, most of the more recent season's big name Goldpanners seem to be juniors. The result is a lot of players who will probably get drafted in 2011, and definitely beyond, but it's difficult for me to find an upper tier of players who I can predict will be drafted in, say, the first ten rounds or so in the upcoming spring. Regardless, I'll go out on a limb and suggest a few possibilities:

Ryan Cabral: Cabral is one guy who not only stood out to me, but as a senior won't be pushed down to the middle of the pack due to a lack of signability. Cabral moved from the pen to the starting rotation when he came up to Alaska and really took advantage of his lively fastball with pro-caliber velocity to pick apart the ABL's batters. He went 5-0 with a 2.47 ERA overall, and was the Panners' workhorse as he pitched consistently well over a team-best 54.2 IP. His efforts landed him a first-team All-ABL selection.

Jesse Meaux: Meaux was selected by the Philadelphia Phillies in the 44th round as a junior last year. Obviously he made what should turn out to be a smart choice and went back to school instead of signing, as I imagine that re-entering the draft as a senior will only increase his draft stock. The rightie Meaux is a bit of a soft thrower, but he's got great control and does a good job of locating his pitches. His hard work paid off this last spring as he moved from the mid-week starter job into the weekend mix.

Matt Newman: When I did this piece for last year's draft, I'd mentioned that Newman might be a long shot draft prospect as he's probably one of the top 100 college baseball players. But as a junior he was passed over. I still have faith that Matt will find his way into pro ball, if that's his goal anyway, and as a senior there should be nothing stopping a MLB club from at least taking a late-round flier on the guy.

Others to watch: Kyle Brule, Derrick Chung, DJ Crumlich

Complete list of draft-eligible Goldpanners: 

Last	First	Pos	College	ABL Team	ABL Yr	Class
Arneson	Zach	RHP	CS Bakersfield	Panners	2010	Sr
Berggren	Jarod	OF	N. Colorado	Panners	2010	Jr
Brule	Kyle	RHP	Oklahoma Baptist	Panners	2010	Sr
Burnett	Stuart	1B	Sacramento State	Panners	2009	Sr
Cabral	Ryan	RHP	USC	Panners	2010	Sr
Chung	Derrick	SS	Sacramento State	Panners	2009, 10	Sr
Clauson	Andrew	RHP	Stanford	Panners	2008	Jr
Colvin	David	RHP	Pomona-Pitzer	Panners	2009	Sr
Crumlich	DJ	SS	UC Irvine	Panners	2010	Jr
Darrah	Jesse	RHP	Sacramento State	Panners	2009	Jr
Davis	Greg	RHP	UC Santa Barbara	Panners	2009	Sr
Davis	Steve	C	SW Missour Baptist	Panners	2008	Sr
Diedrich	Trent	C	Pepperdine	Panners	2008	Sr
Duran	Tyler	RHP	Oklahoma Baptist	Panners	2008	Jr
Firebaugh	Drew	LHP	Missouri Baptist	Panners	2010	Sr
Gillingham	Alex	RHP	Loyola Marymount	Panners	2009	Jr
Gowens	Brennan	OF	Fresno State	Panners	2009	Jr
Greene	Scott	RHP	Chico State	Panners	2009	Sr
Ishida	Jeeter	RHP	Cornell	Panners	2009	Jr
Kudernatsch	Simon	IF	Hartford	Panners	2010	Sr
LeGros	Jordan	RHP	McNeese State	Panners	2009	Sr
Mardesich	Matt	IF	Portland	Panners	2010	Sr
McCarthy	Mike	RHP	CS Bakersfield	Panners	2009	Sr
McIntyre	Ryan	OF	CS Bakersfield	Panners	2009	Jr
Meaux	Jesse	RHP	UC Santa Barbara	Panners	2009	Sr
Medina	Martin	3B	CS Bakersfield	Panners	2010	Jr
Morton	Nigel	2B	Southwest Baptist	Panners	2008-10	Sr
Nelson	Brian	RHP	Chabot College	Panners	2010	So
Newman	Matt	OF	Arizona State	Panners	2008	Sr
Peek	Zach	3B	Yuba College	Panners	2009	Jr
Rodriguez	Jeremy	C/3B	CS Bakersfield	Panners	2009	Jr
Roundtree	Kevin	C	USC	Panners	2010	Jr
Sikorski	Jesse	OF/1B	Johns Hopkins	Panners	2010	Jr
Simonitsch	Evan	OF	Loyola Marymount	Panners	2010	Jr
Van Gaver	Elliot	LHP	Nevada Reno	Panners	2010	Jr
Vawter-Scoggins	Zach	LHP	Yuba College	Panners	2009	Jr
Vedo	Matt	RHP	Yuba College	Panners	2010	Jr
Wilson	Derek	2B	Scottsdale CC	Panners	2009, 10	Jr
Wooldridge	Austin	C	UT Permian Basin	Panners	2010	Sr