IU's Andrew Saalfrank Selected In Sixth Round Of MLB Draft By Arizona
Indiana's Sunday starter for the 2019 season is officially off the board.
The Arizona Diamondbacks Tuesday afternoon selected fourth-year junior and left-handed pitcher Andrew Saalfrank with the 182nd overall pick in the sixth round of this year's Major League Baseball (MLB) draft.
Saalfrank becomes the 96th all-time draft pick at IU, joining junior outfielder Matt Gorski, who was selected in the second round by the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday, as the Hoosiers' draft choices so far. He is the eighth IU pitcher to be drafted since 2013 and fifth in the last four years.
Since 2012, MLB has used a bonus pool system for each of the first 10 rounds with each pick assigned a value and each team a pool of money it can use to sign its selections. Arizona's sixth round pick used on Saalfrank is valued at $268,200, according to MLB.com, and it has a league-high $16,093,700 overall to work with for its total bonus pool.
Clubs can choose to not spend their full allotment and use the savings to sign prospects taken later in the draft, according to MLB.com. Regardless of whether or not they do so, they cannot offer major league contracts to draftees - only minor league ones - with the exception of multi-sport athletes such as former Oklahoma quarterback Kyler Murray. That rule has been in place since 2012.
A Collegiate Baseball Second Team All-American and First Team All-Big Ten selection, Saalfrank became IU's first All-American since Joey DeNato in 2014.
Saalfrank took over as Indiana's Sunday starter after Tommy Sommer's knee injury in early March and posted a 2.84 ERA, tops among Indiana's weekend rotation. He also posted an 8-1 record while starting in 12 of his 15 appearances. His 98 strikeouts ranked second on the team.
Rounds 3-10 of the MLB Draft take place today. The draft will conclude Wednesday with rounds 11-40.
Other Hoosiers who are draft-eligible but also have collegiate eligibility remaining:
Fourth-year juniors:
• Pitchers Tanner Gordon, Cal Krueger and Connor Manous.
• Infielders Jeremy Houston and Scotty Bradley.
Fourth-year sophomores:
• Pitcher Grant Sloan.
• Infielder Cole Barr.
• Outfielder Elijah Dunham.
Other Hoosiers who are draft eligible but have exhausted their collegiate eligibility:
• Pitcher Pauly Milto.
• Infielders Matt Lloyd and Cade Bunnell.
• Catcher Ryan Fineman.
----
• Talk about it inside The Hoops Forum or The Football Forum
• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Follow us on Twitter: @IndianaRivals
• Like us on Facebook.