Two months ago, the St. John's baseball program witnessed five players get drafted a year after two other stars of the team, Joe Panik and Paul Karmas were drafted in 2011 as well.
Kyle Hansen, Jeremy Baltz, Matthew Carasiti, Matt Wessinger and Sean Hagan were all taken by Major League Baseball clubs after strong 40-23 season for Red Storm baseball which included a surprise Super Regional run. The baseball team was ranked 15th in Baseball America's final poll of the 2012 season.
St. John's baseball has enjoyed success in college, and the team's standouts are working hard to get to The Show and don the major league jersey.
Hit the jump to check out how these former Red Storm standouts are adjusting to professional ball, where a few of them look to be major pieces of the future for their MLB franchises.
2011 Draftees:
Joe Panik (San Francisco Giants)
Panik is currently part of the Giants Class A Advanced California League. When Panik was first drafted in 2011, 29th overall, he played on the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes (Class A short-season Northwest League) posting a .341 batting average to go with six home runs, 54 RBI's and 13 stolen bases in 69 games. He led the Northwest League in batting average, runs (49), RBI's, hits (82) and on-base percentage (.401) which earned him the Most Valuable Player award in the league.
This season, Panik is batting .293 with seven home runs and 69 RBI's through 111 games. He saw his 15 game hit streak come to an end two nights ago. Panik is ranked 5th on the Giants prospect list.
Paul Karmas (Quebec Capitales)
Karmas was drafted by the San Diego Padres in 2011 in the 25th round, 773 overall, and was assigned to AZL Padres in the Rookie Arizona League where he batted .276 with two home runs and 17 RBI's in 37 games.
Karmas is currently playing in Canada with the Capitales in the American Association League. He is batting .200 with two home runs and 8 RBI's in 185 at-bats in 23 games with the club.
2012 Draftees:
Kyle Hansen (Chicago White Sox)
Hansen, currently pitching for the Bristol White Sox in the Rookie Appalachian League, was drafted in the 6th round, 201st overall - which was a bit surprising seeing as he was ranked by MLB.com as a Top 100 player in the draft.
The 6'8" Kyle Hansen has only appeared in 3 games so far posting a 3.38 ERA with five strikeouts in 2.2 innings pitched. At St. John's, he was 5-5 in 16 starts with a 3.62 ERA and led the team with 109 strikeouts in 99 innings.
Jeremy Baltz (San Diego Padres)
Outfielder Jeremy Baltz was the first to be drafted in June. He was selected in the 2nd round, 68th overall by the Padres and is currently with Eugene Emeralds in the Class A Short-Season Northwest League.
Batlz is currently batting .269 with three home runs and nine stolen bases. Baltz was only featured in nine games after being drafted in June where he batted .325 with eight RBI's. In his first full month of play in July, he batted .266 and collected his three home run season total as well as 15 RBI's. Baltz is hitting an average of .314 when there are runners on base/ in scoring position. He has 27 RBI's on the season.
Matt Wessinger (Colorado Rockies)
The shortstop Wessinger was originally drafted by the Kansas City Royals in 2011 but felt he could have a stronger season returning to St. John's and getting drafted higher the following year; he was right.
Wessinger was drafted in the 5th round in 2012 by the Rockies, much higher than the 37th round draft selection by the Royals in 2011. He is currently with the Grand Junction Rockies in the Rookie Pioneer League and has moved to second base in the Rockies' system.
Wessinger is batting .294 with four home runs and 23 RBI's as well as 14 stolen bases. In his last 10 games, he is batting .357 with two home runs and six RBI's.
Matthew Carasiti (Colorado Rockies)
Matt Carasiti, who went 7-5 with St. John's in 14 starts with a 3.98 ERA, was drafted a round after Wessinger by the Rockies - 6th round, 194 overall. He had been drafted out of high school in the 36th round by the Rangers, but chose to attend St. John's to improve his stock. He too is on the Grand Junction Rockies roster.
In nine appearances, Carasiti is 2-2 with a 4.12 ERA and 16 strikeouts in 43.2 innings pitched. His best performance to date was on July 19th when he pitched 7 innings, giving up no runs, three hits and striking out three.
Sean Hagan (Minnesota Twins)
Hagan was taken on the third day of the draft by the Twins in the 29th round but decided to return to St. John's. He is currently in the Cape Cod League, where most St. John's players go during the off season, with a 4-0 record and a 3.52 ERA for the Falmouth Commodores.
Amir Garrett (Cincinnati Reds)
Even though he isn't leaving the basketball program, Amir Garrett has been pitching with the Cincinnati Reds minor league affiliate. Garrett was drafted by the Reds in 2011 and signed on to pitch when the college basketball season was over.
Garrett began the season in the Rookie Arizona League with the AZL Reds making 7 appearances, 5 of which were starts. He was 0-2 with a 5.79 ERA and 13 strikeouts in 14 innings pitched. Even though his numbers weren't that terrific, Garrett was given a call up to the Billings Mustangs in the Rookie Pioneer League. He started his first game on the 11th going three innings and striking out two with no runs given up.
Head coach Steve Lavin announced the call up via Twitter and said that Amir Garrett would make two starts with the Mustangs before returning to school. Garrett confirmed on Twitter he'd be returning to campus on the 20th of August. 8 days before the fall semester begins at St. John's.
Garrett is rated #14 on the Reds' prospect list on the teams official site.
Follow the Rumble on Facebook | Follow on Twitter: Rumble In The Garden | Tim | Quinn | Pico | Follow on Tumblr