Former Spartan Player Updates
9/13/2002 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Oct. 7, 2002
EAST LANSING, Mich. - The Michigan State baseball program was well represented this season at both the major league and minor league levels. The Spartans also had a school-record five players taken in this year's amateur baseball draft.
Former Spartan and 1998 All-American Mark Mulder had another spectacular season on the mound for the AL West Champion Oakland Athletics. Mulder, who finished the season with a 19-7 record including 159 strikeouts and a 3.47 ERA, has won 49 games in just three seasons in the major leagues.
In the minors, two-time All-American Bob Malek had 23 hits with 10 RBI for the Brooklyn Cyclones in the Class A short-season New York-Penn League. Malek, the 2001 co-Big Ten Player of the Year, was drafted by the New York Mets in the fourth round. The Canton, Mich., native also posted seven runs and three doubles while hitting .207 for the Cyclones.
Jared Koutnik (Milwaukee, Wis.), who was drafted in the 16th round by the New York Yankees, posted solid numbers for the Yankees' rookie level Gulf Coast League club, hitting .311 with seven doubles and 15 RBI in 28 games. Koutnik got promoted at the end of August to the Staten Island Yankees of the New York-Penn League, and notched six hits, two runs and three RBI in his short stint at Class A.
Dylan Putnam, a three-year letterwinner at MSU, played for the Washington Wildthings of the Independent Frontier League. Putnam was a dominant force on the mound as he struck out 16 batters in just 17.1 innings of work, posting a 2-0 record with 1.04 ERA.
Josh Axelson, a fifth-round draft pick by the St. Louis Cardinals in 2000, won six games and threw 136.1 innings for the Class A Potomac Cannons of the Carolina League.