Cal High Alums Slaats, Bartolone Drafted in Major League Baseball Draft

A pair of former California High baseball players are headed to professional baseball.

Josh Slaats and Nick Bartolone, teammates at Cal in 2007, were both drafted in today's Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft.

Slaats, who just finished his junior season at the University of Hawaii, was selected by the Colorado Rockies in the fifth round and Bartolone, a sophomore at Hayward's Chabot College, went to the Cleveland Indians in the sixth.

"I had the draft on my computer and I heard Slaats' name get called," Bartolone said. "I was really excited, shot him a text, told him I was proud of him. Then after my name came up he shot me a text saying the same thing. It was really cool."

Both players have the option to stay in school — Slaats for his senior year at Hawaii and Bartolone to Cal State Bakersfield — but both said they expect to sign professional contracts in the coming week.

"I really have no idea when that'll happen. (A Rockies representative) will call in the next few days go over that," Slaats said. "I just want to play."

Slaats, a 6-foot 5-inch, 230-pound right-handed pitcher, went 5-4 for Hawaii this year with a 3.77 era. He struck out 75 batters in 74 innings, threw two complete-game shutouts and was a second-team all-Western Athletic Conference selection.

"Hawaii was a great experience," he said. "I think what I'll take away most is what I learned about the culture. The baseball program was great, it's going to continue to get better and I learned a lot about baseball from the coaches."

Slaats received some interest from professional scouts in his senior year at Cal in 2007, but was set on playing in college. He went to Hawaii with the intention of playing three years then getting drafted, which is how it turned out.

After a strong start to this year, Slaats said he was hoping to go a little higher in the draft, but after struggling a little during the final stretch of the season, he is happy to stay in the top-five.

He will begin his career with either the short-season Tri-City (Wash.) Dust Devils or the rookie-level Casper (Wyo.) Ghosts.

"Josh was a good kid to coach," former Cal baseball coach Brian Coburn said. "He wanted to go out and compete every game and never once asked to come out of game game. He was a real pleasure to coach."

Bartolone, a 5-foot 11-inch, 170-pound shortstop, hit .369 (58 for 157) with five homers and 35 RBI's in 36 games for Chabot this year.

While watching the draft online, he said he received a text message from an Indians scout, who asked him if he'd be happy going to the Indians in the seventh round.

"I said yeah, that'd be cool and he told me he was going to push for the sixth and it happend pretty soon after that," Bartolone said. "Then like 20 minutes later I got a call from them. They asked me for my hat size, shoe size and all that and told me they'd be in touch on Monday."

Bartolone will likely be sent to Niles, Ohio to play for the short-season Mahoning Valley Scrappers. He's never been to Ohio, but said he has an aunt and uncle who live there.

Coburn remembers him as a player who was in love with the game.

"Nick was one of those kids who was all about baseball," he said. "He worked so hard and always put ini extra time. He did everything he could to make himself better."

There wasn't much Division I recruiting interest for Bartolone in high school — likely due to his size — but his continued production at Chabot turned him into a professional prospect.

Both players grew up playing in San Ramon Little League and in Tri-Valley Babe Ruth.

"I started out playing down the street from my house at Athan Downs in San Ramon Little League," Bartolone said. "I made the nine-year-old tournament team and that was the first time I started traveling playing baseball. I think I realized then I wanted to play as long as I could."

When Slaats was drafted, it marked the sixth-straight year a Cal High graduate was drafted by a major league baseball team.

No other East Bay Athletic League schools had a player get drafted in the first 30 rounds. The final 20 rounds will be completed on Wednesday.

2010

Josh Slaats — 5th round, Colorado Rockies

Nick Bartolone — 6th round, Cleveland Indians

2009 

Adam Buschini — 4th round, Philadelphia Phillies

Dylan Tonneson — 36th round, San Diego Padres

2008 

Rob Waite — 17th round, Detroit Tigers

Dan McDaniel — 14th round, Chicago Cubs

2007 

Shane Buschini — 11th round, San Diego Padres

Dan McDaniel — 28th round, San Francisco Giants (did not sign)

2006 

Spike McDougall — 39th round, Florida Marlins

2005

Nash Robertson — 27th round, Pittsburgh Pirates

2003

Shane Buschini — 42nd round, Houston Astros (out of high school, did not sign)

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Danville Patch: SRV's Bobby Geren drafted by Oakland A's

Pleasanton Patch: Foothill's Will Anderson drafted by Tampa Bay Rays

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