Major League Baseball first year player’s draft announces picks from Bruin lineup
This article is part of the Daily Bruin's Graduation Issue 2012 coverage. To view more multimedia, galleries, and columns, visit http://dailybruin.com/gradissue2012
By Daily Bruin Staff
June 10, 2012 9:31 p.m.
Although UCLA baseball is still in the midst of postseason action, some Bruins got a peek at the future with last Monday’s Major League Baseball first-year player’s draft.
Seven Bruin baseball juniors heard their names called over the course of the three-day draft.
The first to go was right fielder Jeff Gelalich, who jumped up the draft board after a monster weekend in the Los Angeles Regionals. He was taken by the Cincinnati Reds on the first day, in the compensation round, with the 57th overall pick.
Gelalich leads the Bruins with 11 out of the team’s total of 23 home runs this season.
The Bruins had to wait nearly 200 more picks to hear one of their own selected. Center fielder Beau Amaral, who led the team with 61 runs this season, was also snagged by the Reds, at pick 232.
The eighth round brought with it two more selections.
Catcher Tyler Heineman, who was a surprise everyday performer for the UCLA team this season after mainly occupying the bench for his first two years on the team, was selected at pick 249 by the Houston Astros. Heineman has batted .345 in his breakout 2012.
Closer Scott Griggs was taken by the Los Angeles Dodgers, at pick 266. Griggs holds UCLA’s single season saves record.
The San Francisco Giants picked Trevor Brown in the 10th round. Brown has mainly been an infield utility for UCLA this season but is expected to move into the everyday catcher position when he plays professionally.
Brown occupied all three base positions as well as occasionally starting behind the plate in 2012.
The picks kept coming for UCLA, with left fielder Cody Keefer going to the Marlins in the 15th round and Eric Jaffe to the Chicago White Sox in the 11th.
Keefer’s batting average ranks third on the team, at .339. Jaffe is 1-0 with a 0.00 ERA as a reliever, appearing in 8 games.
Cody Regis, an infielder, went undrafted.
Regis is batting .253 this season with 25 RBIs and just one homerun, a downturn from his 2011 performance in which he batted .284 with 45 RBIs and 6 home runs.
He was also a key player in the Bruins’ 2010 run at Omaha, in his freshman year.
The signing deadline is July 13.
Compiled by Emma Coghlan, Bruin Sports senior staff.
