Hammond Taken by Tigers on Second Day of MLB Draft
6/7/2006 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Fifth-year senior LHP and co-captain Paul Hammond (Mason, Ohio/Mason) was the lone member of the University of Michigan's Big Ten championship team taken in the 2006 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft when he was picked Wednesday (June 7) in the 35th round (1,042nd overall pick) by the Detroit Tigers.
Hammond, named winner of the Geoff Zahn Award as Michigan's Most Valuable Pitcher for 2006 by the vote of his teammates, earned All-Big Ten first team honors as a starting pitcher as he led the Wolverines with an 8-4 record and ranked second in the conference with his 2.36 earned run average. Hammond was 6-1 in conference action with a Big Ten-leading 1.32 ERA. In regional action Hammond pitched his team-leading sixth complete game in beating Stetson for his second career regional win and his 17th career win as a Wolverine.
It was the second All-Big Ten first team Wolverine that drew the attention of the Tigers as they signed fifth-year senior catcher Jeff Kunkel (Oak Forest, Ill,/Oak Forest) on Monday evening (June 5) prior to the draft. Kunkel, a two-time U-M MVP, had been a late-round pick of the Tigers (37th round, 1,110th pick) in 2005 and he would have re-entered the draft had he not signed with Detroit.
N O T E S
Michigan head baseball coach Rich Maloney has had 31 players drafted a total of 37 times during his 11 seasons as a college head coach. Maloney has had at least one pitcher drafted in each of his 11 seasons as a head coach.
Michigan finished the 2006 season with a 43-21 overall record, marking the most wins since the 1989 U-M team won 49 games. Michigan set a school record with 23 Big Ten wins in 2006 and the Wolverines reached the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year. It marked the first back-to-back NCAA regional appearances for the Wolverines since playing in regional action seven consecutive seasons from 1983 to 1989.
Contact: Jim Schneider (734) 763-4423
