Eduardo Almaguer/ Asst. Sports Director
After the dust settled, juniors Jabari Henry, Mason McVay and Rudy Flores as well as senior Mike Martinez were all selected between the 18th and 36th round on Wednesday in the 2012 MLB First-Year Player Draft.
The Seattle Mariners were the first to dig their hands into the Panthers as they drafted Henry in the 18th round of the draft.
The power-hitting outfielder was one of the most productive players in the Sun Belt Conference in 2012, ranking fourth in slugging percentage with a .563 mark and third in home runs with 12. Henry is a career .283 hitter at FIU and ranks fourth all time in home runs with 34. He was named to the 2012 First-Team All-SBC team and is a former freshman All-American.
The Arizona Diamondbacks were the second MLB team to draft a Panther, this time taking first baseman Rudy Flores in the 21st round, who appeared in only three games in 2012. Flores was reported to have broken his jaw in batting practice early in the season, but it was revealed several months later that he broke a team rule and was released.
Flores hit .291 with eight home runs and 52 RBI in the 2011 campaign with a .368 on-base percentage.
The San Francisco Giants then drafted McVay, a 6-foot-7 inch left-hander, in the 26th round. McVay had a 3.36 ERA on the year and struck out 72 batters in 64 1/3 innings while walking 41 batters. The recently converted starter has a 3-6 record and a 4.31 ERA in 66 appearances for FIU.
The team with the first overall pick in the draft, the Houston Astros, drafted Martinez in the 36th round. The slugging third baseman (who is listed as a first baseman in the draft), was a catalyst in almost every game in 2012 and leaves FIU as the all-time leader in several categories.
He leads in hits (302), RBI (198), total bases (479) and at bats (874) and is the first Panther ever to be named All-Conference four times. Martinez led the SBC in average (.383) and on-base percentage (.488). He was third in slugging with a .577 mark.
Outfielder Alexis Rivera (10th round/Kansas City Royals), catcher Phildrick Llewellyn (13th round/ Arizona Diamondbacks), right-hander Reid Scoggins (1th round/ Los Angeles Angels) and catcher Chucky Vazquez (40th round/Milwaukee Brewers) are all high school players that had verbally committed to FIU at the time of the draft, but ultimately signed with their respective teams.
One notable omission from the draft is senior Pablo Bermudez, the 2011 SBC player of the year and the pick to repeat for the same award in 2012. While he was not drafted, he can still sign as an undrafted free agent, which is the route former Panther Garret Wittels took with the St. Louis Cardinals.
Each FIU player drafted signed with his respective teams and has already begun playing for the rookie affiliate of their organization.
“Every team has problems,” Thomas said. “We probably didn’t field as well as we could have. That was probably the Achilles heel.”
FIU led the league in errors by a wide margin with 106, finishing 271 out of 291 schools in Division I. Freshman shortstop Julius Gaines had 26 errors, most by any individual in the conference.
Unfortunately for the Panthers, errors were not the only flaw for the team in the SBC tournament. It was a mix of errors, bullpen blows ups and shoddy starting pitching that led to FIU being swept out of the tournament in three straight games and ending the 2012 season with a 31-26 record.
FIU, the No.3 seed, played the No. 6 seed, Troy, on May 24 and was downed 6-1 after the Panthers’ bullpen imploded in the eighth inning, wasting a stellar outing by right-hander Michael Ellis.
FIU played an even lower ranked opponent the next day, Middle Tennessee, the No.7 seed, but the results were worse. The Blue Raiders tore through FIU’s starting pitching and capitalized on four Panthers errors to win 12-6.
Mathematically out of the tournament already, FIU ran into the eventual runner up, Arkansas State, the No.2 seed. The Red Wolves tore through R.J Fondon and won the game 12-4 en route to the championship game against ULM.
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