John Clay's Sidelines

Thanks to WKYT and WVLK’s Drew Deener whose e-mail Sunday reminded me of an oversight. In my Sunday column on how as a state Kentucky has turned out more first-round draft choices in baseball than in football and basketball combined over the last 10 years, I left off the name of Oakland A’s pitcher Joe Blanton, the former UK star who was born in Nashville, but who played his high school baseball at Franklin-Simpson.

Only two Kentuckians (Tim Couch in 1999 and Shaun Alexander in 2000) have been taken in the first round of the NFL draft over the past 10 years. Only two Kentuckians (Scott Padgett in 1998 and Rajon Rondo last year) have been taken in the first round of the NBA draft.

Here are the Kentuckians taken in the first round of the MLB draft over the past 10 years:

• Player                  Hometown             Year           Team             Overall
• Austin Kearns       Lexington               1998          Cincinnati         7
• Matt Ginter          Winchester             1999          White Sox        22
• Chris Burke           Louisville               2001          Houston           10
• Jeremy Sowers      Louisville               2001          Cincinnati         20
• Joe Blanton           Franklin                 2002           Oakland           24
• Chaz Roe              Lexington              2005           Colorado          32
• Ben Revere           Lexington               2007          Minnesota        28