Jewish Baseball News

JEWISH BASEBALL NEWS — A total of 10 Jewish ballplayers were selected in the 2011 amateur draft, one more than we last reported. So where are they playing, and how well?

Here, in draft order, are the 10 players, their minor-league assignments, and their performance at this early date:

1. Lenny Linsky, P (Tampa Bay Rays: 2nd round, 89th pick overall). Playing for the “A-short season” Hudson Valley Renegades, where, in his only appearance, he recorded two strikeouts and two walks over one inning.
2. Adam Ehrlich, C (St. Louis Cardinals: 6th round, 200th pick overall). Playing for the rookie-league GCL Cardinals, where he is hitting .250/.400/.458 (batting average/on-base percentage/slugging percentage) with 1 HR and 4 RBIS in 24 at-bats.
3. Nick Rickles, C (Oakland A’s: 14th round, 436th overall). After playing three games for the rookie-league AZL Athletics, Rickles was sent to the “A-short season” Vermont Lake Monsters. Overall, he is hitting .303/.425/.485 with 2 doubles, 2 triples, and 4 RBIs in 33 at-bats.
4. Jack Marder, C (Seattle Mariners: 16th round, 483rd overall). Unsigned.
5. Zach Borenstein, OF/3B (Los Angeles Angels: 23rd round, 705th overall). Playing for the rookie-league AZL Athletics, where he is hitting .270/.372/.459 with 2 triples, 1 HR, and 5 RBIs in 37 at-bats.
6. David Colvin, P (Seattle Mariners: 27th round, 813rd overall). Playing for the rookie-league Pulaski Mariners, where he is 0-1 but has a 0.00 ERA, 9 strikeouts, and 3 walks over 9 innings.
7. Max Perlman, P (Oakland A’s: 35th round, 1,066th overall). Playing for the AZL Athletics with fellow Jewish draftee Nick Rickles, Perlman is 1-2 with a 4.76 ERA, 19 strikeouts, and 4 walks over 17 innings.
8. Corey Baker, P (St. Louis Cardinals: 49th round, 1,490th overall). Playing for the “A-short season” Batavia Muckdogs, where he is 1-1 with a 3.65 ERA, 6 strikeouts, and 1 walk over 12-and-one-third innings.
9. Jadd Schmeltzer, P (Boston Red Sox: 49th round, 1,492nd overall). Playing for the rookie-league GCL Red Sox, where he is 0-2 with a 3.24 ERA, 4 strikeouts, and 4 walks over 8-and-one-third innings.
10. Benny Sosnick, 2B (San Francisco Giants: 49th round, 1,497th overall). Unsigned.

Nine of the 10 draftees were identified in prior Jewish Baseball News articles (one, two, three). The latest addition, thanks to Jewish Sports Review, is Adam Ehrlich.

Adam Ehrlich

The second-highest Jewish draft pick last month, Ehrlich was one of just two Jews drafted out of high school. He is a 2011 graduate of Campbell Hall H.S., an Episcopal school in North Hollywood, Calif., where he hit .566 with 5 HRs and 49 RBIs as a senior. Ehrlich had signed a letter-of-intent to play at Loyola Marymount University.

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JEWISH BASEBALL NEWS — Names of Jewish players selected in last month’s MLB draft continue to trickle in, and the latest is a University of Pittsburgh hurler named Corey Baker.

The St. Louis Cardinals selected Baker in the 49th round of the amateur draft, or 1,490th overall. A 21-year-old native of New City, N.Y., he recently graduated from Pitts and is the Panther’s all-time career wins leader with 24. Baker is the ninth 2011 draftee identified so far by Jewish Baseball News — the eight others are described here and here — and came our way courtesy of a tip from MLB.com columnist Jonathan Mayo.

Mayo recently profiled Baker for the Jewish Chronicle. In it, the right-hander touched on his Bar Mitzvah at a Reform synagogue, his participation years ago in the Maccabi games, and the relative scarcity of Jews playing at the highest levels of sport.

“It’s something I’m proud of, my background, my heritage,” Baker told Mayo. “In sports, it’s different than being, say, African-American, because being on the field, people can’t really tell. It’s not something completely obvious, it’s not written across my chest. It doesn’t make me any different than any ballplayer, but I know there’s such a small amount of (Jewish) athletes in this country, it’s something I’m proud of. Hopefully, I go on to play pro baseball, become part of an even smaller percentage.”

Baker was drafted in spite of an unspectacular senior season in which he went 5-4 with a 5.04 ERA and an opposing-team batting average of .305. His finest season came junior year, when he went 11-3 with a 5.37 ERA and struck out 73 batters while walking just 32.

According to his team bio, Baker attended Clarkson South High School, where he was a member of the Foreign Language National Honors Society and received Outstanding Achievement Awards in history and English. He is the son of Mark and Leah Baker.

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