Sweeneys look forward to MLB draft ... again

CEDAR RAPIDS - According to something called High School Baseball Web, one in every 114,159 prep baseball players ends up getting drafted by a major league team. Those are long odds, folks.

But if you're a son of Gary and Lori Sweeney of Cedar Rapids, that getting drafted thing is an absolute lock.

Ryan Sweeney is hitting over .300 as a starting outfielder for the Oakland Athletics. He's on the ballot for this year's Major League Baseball All-Star Game.

Vote now, vote often.

Little brother Kellen is a cinch to go in the MLB first-year player draft, which begins tonight with the first round and continues Tuesday and Wednesday. The Cedar Rapids Jefferson senior shortstop could very well be a top five-round guy.

“It is pretty cool,” Gary Sweeney said. “It has been a lot of hard work by the boys. A lot of time and money on our part. I don't think they really realize that, yet.”

Gary Sweeney laughed when he said that. The whirlwind the family has been under the past month or so maybe isn't quite as funny.

Kellen was in Los Angeles and Houston last week to work out privately for the Angels and Astros, respectively. On the family's dime, by the way, in order to preserve Kellen's amateur player status.

The phone in the Sweeneys' northwest-side home has been ringing constantly, with scouts, farm directors and other baseball muckety-mucks on the other line. This has been a different deal than 2003, when Ryan was drafted out of Cedar Rapids Xavier High School in the second round by the Chicago White Sox.

“It has been difficult,” Gary said. “Things have changed a little bit since Ryan went through this. There's more private workouts, a lot more phone calls. Different teams have been calling every single day.

“It's been crazy.”

Sweeney said it has helped that the family has prior experience with the draft. They work with “adviser” Larry Reynolds, Ryan's agent and the brother of former big leaguer Harold Reynolds.

Every scout wants to know the same thing, Gary Sweeney said. How much money will it take for Kellen to pass up his scholarship to the University of San Diego and turn pro?

They don't give concrete answers to that question. Ryan Sweeney's signing bonus in 2003 was $785,000.

“Kellen is so laid back with this whole thing,” Gary Sweeney said. “We had a scout here last week for an in-home visit and he told him ‘Well, good luck next week.' Kellen's response was ‘What's next week?' It's the draft!”

“I just want to wish him good luck,” Ryan told the Athletics' official Web site. “I know that we're all just hoping for a team to select him that will give him the best opportunity.”

Look for Xavier pitcher Jon Keller to be selected this week as well. His stock has risen considerably of late, according to Perfect Game USA scouting service.

Others with local ties who could get drafted this week include former Xavier first baseman Nate Woods (a junior at Belmont University), former Marion prep Patrick Lala (a sophomore pitcher at Kirkwood Community College), former Cedar Rapids Kennedy prep Adam Rice (a senior first baseman at Coastal Carolina) and former Cedar Rapids Prairie prep Scott Schebler (a freshman outfielder at DMACC).

The Iowa Hawkeyes also should have players drafted. Northern Iowa's Lucas O'Rear is expected to be taken as a pitcher despite the Panthers not having a baseball program.

High school seniors, junior college freshmen and sophomores and juniors and seniors from four-year colleges are draft eligible.