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Sports Watch
IF college baseball recruiters or pro scouts thought there wasn't any talent in Hawaii, yesterday's major-league amateur free agent draft made them sit up and take notice. Hawaii’s baseball
talent pool deepTwo players from Hawaii -- pitcher Justin Wayne and catcher Dane Sardinha -- were drafted in the first two rounds.
The Montreal Expos made Wayne, a 6-foot-3 right-hander from Stanford, the highest draft pick from Hawaii, selecting him No. 5.
Sardinha, a Kamehameha graduate who's a junior at Pepperdine, was chosen in the second round by Cincinnati.
Three others also were drafted yesterday -- high school pitcher Kahi Kaanoi from Kamehameha, UH-Hilo shortstop Brandon Chaves and Arizona shortstop Keoni DeRenne, who prepped at Iolani.
Kansas City took Kaanoi in the seventh round, Pittsburgh chose Chaves in the 10th round and Atlanta made DeRenne its 12th-round pick.
It used to be that college recruiters only came here to sniff out the local prep football talent. Now, Hawaii's a baseball hotbed as well.
University of Hawaii baseball coach Les Murakami isn't surprised.
"There's always been talent here," Murakami said. "Ever since Derek Tatsuno came to the forefront, it opened a lot of the people's eyes."
Benny Agbayani, Sid Fernandez, Mike Fetters, Lenn Sakata, Mike Lum and Onan Masuoka are other local products who come to mind. But the talent pool is growing and Murakami has a theory why.
"Now, there are more high schools. Before, there were only so many schools and a lot of guys couldn't make the team. They had no chance if they were late bloomers," he said.
"Now, if you're a late bloomer, you've got more of a chance to play because you at least had a chance to make the team because there are more schools. Maybe you were nothing as a freshman, but by the time you're a senior, you had a chance to develop."
A good case in point is Hilo's Chaves, according to Murakami.
"When we saw him in high school, he was only 5-9. At UH-Hilo, (Coach) Joey Estrella had to red-shirt him in his first year because he wasn't strong enough.
"Look at him now. He's 6-3. I think they (the Pirates) got a steal for a 10th-round pick."
It's of note, too, that the starting pitchers in Game 2 of the NCAA Super Regional between Stanford and Nebraska were from the islands -- Wayne and Shane Komine.
Both were named to the All-American baseball team, making one wonder why the Rainbows, who were hurting for pitchers, couldn't have landed one of them.
"We tried to recruit Komine. It was us and Nebraska and his mother wanted him to go away for school," Murakami said.
As for Wayne, a Punahou graduate, Murakami added, "We knew from the start he was going away for school." Besides, it's a no-brainer, deciding between a scholarship offer from Stanford and Hawaii.
Murakami admits it's sometimes tough to recruit players from Honolulu's private schools.
"The parents already spent a lot of money to send their kids to private school. What's spending more for college on the mainland?"
Murakami thought the class of 2000 was somewhat thin in talent, although he made a recruiting pitch to Kaanoi. But he believes next year's class will definitely be better.
He particularly likes Brandon League of St. Louis, Kamehameha's Bronson Sardinha and Punahou's Reid Matsushima. However, so will all of the other baseball talent scouts.