There are quite a few HCBU baseball alums playing this summer in the Major League Baseball Draft League.
The MLB Draft League is a six-team baseball league featuring a split-season amateur-professional format. The first half of the MLB Draft League season featured draft-eligible players aiming to improve their stock ahead of the annual MLB Draft in July. The league switched to a professional format in the second half, with paid players comprising the six rosters.
Presently, the league is into the second half of its season, for professional players who have exhausted their amateur eligibility. Players receive housing, meal money, travel and weekly compensation with hopes of being scouted and their contracts being purchased by a Major League organization. The second half is comprised of 45 games per team, with a championship game on Thursday, Sept. 5.
The six MLB Draft League teams – the Mahoning Valley Scrappers, the State College Spikes, the West Virginia Black Bears, the Williamsport Crosscutters, the Trenton Thunder and the Frederick Keys – are former Minor League affiliates geographically based in New Jersey, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. All games are played in former Minor League stadiums
In a recent game this past July 31, playing for the State College Spikes, two former HBCU alumni players, Grambling State’s Cameron Bufford and Norfolk State’s Manny Jackson each homered as the State College Spikes outslugged the Frederick Keys, 17-11 Wednesday afternoon at Nymeo Field at Harry Grove Stadium.
The homers were part of a 14-hit attack for State College that included seven extra-base hits. In that game, Bufford went 2-for-4, belting a home run and recording four runs batted in. Besides hitting the long ball, Bufford scored four runs.
Manny Jackson
Manny Jackson had four at-bats, recorded a hit, scored a run, and hit a two-run home run in his team’s win.
Tyeler Hawkins
In the same game, on the losing side, former Southern University player Tyeler Hawkins hit a fourth-inning homer, going 1-for-4, with 2 runs batted in.
Cameron Bufford
Since joining State College, Bufford is batting .266 with 2 homeruns, and 18 runs batted in. Jackson has impressive stats as well, with 3 homeruns and 15 RBI. Hawkins who plays for Frederick Keys, in six games since signing, has a homer and 6 runs batted in.
Dreylin Holmes
Former Mississippi Valley State, Dreylin Holmes, signed with the Mahoning Valley Scrappers. In 12 games, Holmes is batting .383 with 18 hits, 10 runs scored, 4 doubles, and has homered 4 times with 9 runs driven in. This past August 1, in the Scrapper’s come-from-behind 7-6 win, Holmes hit a monstrous tape-measured 461-foot first-inning solo shot off the new videoboard in left field. His blast is the longest ever measured by the Trackman System at Medlar Field, besting Major Leaguer Brendan McKay’s 443-foot homer in 2016, and is the longest in the MLB Draft League this season.
Christian Davis
On the mound, former HBCU players include Southern University’s Christian Davis of the Frederick Keys. In his first appearance, he did no give up an earned run and completed 2.0 innings of work while striking out 2 batters.
Luis Rodriguez
Luis Rodriguez, formerly of Alabama State, in his most recent outing, threw 18 pitches with 9 strikes as he struck out a batter in one inning. In 2 games and 2.1 innings pitched for the Frederick Keys, he has allowed 2 hits, 1 run, and 4 strikeouts.
Phillip Bryant
Grambling State’s Phillip Bryant, of the State College Spikes, in 5 games, has thrown 21.1 innings with 16 strikeouts.
Harold Baez
Bethune-Cookman’s Harold Baez signed to play for Frederick Keys and has thrown 13.2 innings while striking out 10 batters.
Christian Womble
Christian Womble, formerly of Jackson State and pitching for the West Virginia Black Bears, has started 7 games while pitching 47.0 innings and striking out 40 batters.