With all eyes on Luol Deng and his draft status, only the most astute fans of Duke athletics noticed that two of their own were drafted into the world of professional baseball Monday.
Junior Tim Layden, a left-handed pitcher from Deer Park, N.Y., was selected in the sixth round by the Chicago Cubs with the 189th pick overall. Ten rounds later, the Atlanta Braves chose senior pitcher Zach Schreiber, a native of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, with the 491st pick. Schreiber has graduated and will inevitably sign, and although Layden has not yet made a final decision, he appears ready to forego his final year of eligibility.
"I haven't signed yet, but I am looking at some of the details, and right now there is a pretty strong likelihood [that I will sign]," Layden said.
Layden has always put up big numbers during his collegiate career, regardless of whether big is good or bad. In 2004, the southpaw posted a record of 6-5 and recorded 83 strikeouts in only 74 innings, but also accumulated an earned run average of 6.57 and threw 15 wild pitches.
Statistics aside, Major League Baseball's scouts have long considered Layden as having professional potential, as exhibited by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays when they selected him in the 16th round out of high school. When asked about his decision to attend Duke instead of sign with Tampa Bay, Layden had little doubt about his answer.
"Yeah, it was definitely worthwhile to come to school," Layden said. "I got a lot out of my three years, and hopefully I will finish. I hope to have a degree, not by next year but by the following year."
The most successful pitcher to come out of Duke in the last decade is Chicago White Sox starter Scott Schoeneweis from the class of 1996, and although Layden is also a tall, left-hander from Duke, he dismissed any comparison to the major leaguer. Schoeneweis is a sinkerball pitcher, and according to Chicago Cubs scout Billy Swoope, Layden uses different strengths to retire hitters.
"Layden's a fastball-slider pitcher," Swoope said. "Actually has a decent changeup, should be a setup-bullpen guy. We really like him, [he] has a lot of upside."
Although scouts talk a lot about potential, Layden feels that the only thing that matters now, and the only thing that will enable him to join Schoeneweis as a big leaguer in Chicago, is not his potential or his age or where he starts out, but simply how he pitches from here on out.
"I'll probably be with [Class] A in either Daytona or Boise," Layden said. "Once you get to that level [you have to] set age aside. It's a matter of how good you are and how well you perform."
The odds of making the major league are not good for any minor leaguer, let alone a sixth-round pick like Layden and even further a 16th-round pick such as Schreiber. But after watching 22nd-round pick John Smoltz and 62nd-round pick Mike Piazza star for over a decade, Layden and Schreiber will continue to set their sights on making the show.
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