Baseball players plan for future

While the season ended in Omaha for Tech's baseball team, many players on the team are continuing to play baseball throughout the summer.

For the seniors, their playing days in college have come to an end, but their pro careers may have just begun.

While neither Steven Blackwood nor Mike Trapani were drafted in the Major League Baseball Draft, both will try out with major league teams in the minors.

Trapani was signed as a free agent by the Detroit Tigers and will most likely report to Single-A baseball with the Lakeland Tigers, where he will meet up with a former Tech teammate, pitcher Andrew Kown.

While Blackwood has not yet signed with a team, he will most likely be signed in the near future. If he does not end up signing with a team, then he will continue his academic career at the Medical College of Georgia in pursuit of a career as a doctor.

The seniors are not the only ones moving on though. Many prominent players on the team were chosen in this year's major league draft and will be leaving school early to try their hands at professional baseball.

While junior third baseman Wes Hodges had an injury hampered season, he was the highest drafted player on the entire team. The Cleveland Indians were able to overlook Hodges performance this season and used their 69th pick in the draft to select one of the most highly touted third basemen in the entire talent pool.

Among other selections were starting pitcher Blake Wood, starting pitcher Lee Hyde, first/third baseman Whit Robbins, starting pitcher Tim Gustafson, and relief pitcher John Goodman.

Wood is the only one out of these to officially sign with a major league team. He was selected in the third round by the Kansas City Royals, and was designated for assignment to the Class A Burlington Bees as soon as Tech's run in the College World Series had concluded.

Hyde was selected in the fourth round by the Atlanta Braves, and was assigned to Danville. With the departure of Wood and Hyde, the Jackets' starting rotation will be significantly less experienced.

Robbins, Gustafson and Goodman have not signed pro contracts at this point, but all of them will be making their decisions some time in the near future.

It is possible that both Gustafson and Robbins will leave, while Goodman will be returning for his senior season to help the team either as a starter or as a closer.

While there are many players leaving Tech forever, there are many others that are leaving for the summer to tune up their skills.

There are many notable Tech starters headed to summer leagues including standout catcher/closer Matt Wieters, Ryan Turner, Luke Murton, Michael Fisher, Brad Rulon and John Goodman to name a few.

Notably absent from the list of players joining summer league teams is Danny Payne. He is most likely using this time to recover from his season-ending injury that was suffered on April 29th.

Competition in the Cape Cod league started this past Monday, with Michael Fisher, John Goodman and Brad Rulon participating.

Freshmen Chris House, Eddie Burns and Jason Haniger are playing in the Northwoods League.

Brad Feltes is spending his summer playing in the Coastal Plain League.